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View Full Version : Spells: The State of Bards


astuce999
05-28-2010, 01:02 PM
Recently bards have received a lot of attention from the devs, namely Haynar, who did an awesome job. Bards went from barely playable and very frustrating to tons of fun in a matter of days.

Since Jete has not updated his summary of bard issues recently, I'm taking it upon myself to point out what is left to be fixed for bards. Unfortunately, I'm only lvl 36 on this server so if there are any issues for songs above that level that responsibility will fall on our elder brother and sister musicians.

Lvl 27 Charm song

Classic: This song is wind-based, lasts 3 ticks (up to 18 seconds), cannot be played over itself, cannot be left playing more than 1 tick. Instrument is not required to play.

p99: This song currently plays indefinitely, leaving a mob charmed as long as your charisma will let you.


Lvl 31 Lev Song

Classic: Wind Based, requiring an instrument, and if memory serves correctly, the rate at which you floated down with this song was smaller than normal levitate, meaning you didn't fall as quickly. Playing this song over itself actually let you climb in the air, giving access to some remote areas.

p99: Currently not requiring an instrument to play, and falls as fast as other levs, does not let you climb.

Lvl 32 Mana Song

Classic: Pulse based, no icon, a flat 5 mana per pulse, spamming this song could give 10 mana per tick, and multiple bards could play this for more mana. Singing based andwas modified with instruments (in classic only epic had a singing mod).

p99: nerfed version of song with 3 tick duration, clarity icon, and unstackability. Likely that will keep with the nerfed version and will not be modified by singing instruments.



Aggro (hate)

Classic: Section of the bard code that makes bards have a very difficult time gaining aggro. Pure hate procs (enraging blow), and damage, were the only things that helped bards gain hate. Stuns, slows, snares, mez, charm, poisons, debuffs, DID NOT create any aggro for bards other than the minimal amount (1 point of hate).

p99: bards are the kings of aggro. The bard code does not exist so any song or proc is treated as if coming from any other class. Slow/snare song is snap aggro at its best, mez is awesome aggro and the staff of writhing makes even SK's say "WTF ARE YOU DOING TO IT?". It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, but when kunark comes out with AE songs bards will have very short lifespans on raids unless this is fixed.

Line of Sight

Classic: since bards can cast songs while they move, there was always only one check for line of sight on songs, it is done at the beginning of the song (for songs that need line of sight in the first place). You could see a mob, start a song, jump down the building and as long as the song was still in range of the mob, it would land. It was a great pulling tool.

p99: songs check both at the beginning of cast, and also at the end for line of sight. This is very frustrating and limiting for pulls.

These are not super-important-must-fix-now-or-we-can't-play bugs. I and I'm sure all bards that play on here, are very very happy with bards right now and how far they've come along. I still can't get over the fix for "song fade as it lands bug", since it took YEARS on live before they fixed it. I just want to let the devs aware that there are some things left (and more I'm sure if other bards want to chime in) to fix for us to be the true maestros that we were in classic.

Savok
05-28-2010, 03:42 PM
What he said.

guineapig
05-28-2010, 04:15 PM
Hey I like using my bard as a tank when we can't find a real one!

Honestly though, using our snare/slow doesn't cause much aggro and I easily loose it unless I'm trying.

When I tank as a bard I'm using the high agro proc weapons (staff of writhing and forget the daggers name), wearing dex gear and spamming debuffs on purpose.

So when you say we are kings of aggro it's not without trying. If you're just twisting beneficial group stuff and using non-procing weapons mobs barely even notice that I'm there.

I agree with most of the other stuff.

Jete
05-28-2010, 05:53 PM
You can PM me and ill update things for you. However I will add this to the bard page. ( I think levitate is already up there )

*Edit*
I need resources to back up the charm not lasting over and over, if you could get that to me ill post it up. Thanks again!

Elendae
05-28-2010, 11:12 PM
Any other bards having trouble with their casting bars disappearing again? Happens every 5 or 6 casts give or take. I wanted to check before I made a post.

Xantarr
05-29-2010, 08:31 PM
Any other bards having trouble with their casting bars disappearing again? Happens every 5 or 6 casts give or take. I wanted to check before I made a post.

Yes, once in a while my song bars don't appear, although the icons go "grey" and it will cast as it's suppose to when it finishes. Not as big a problem as the others, but it's still there.

My biggest concern (besides those the OP mentioned) is the fact that heal/manasong constantly play their "sound" when they tick (I think it's a known issue, though?).

It gets annoying to other players when bards are around, and I, as a bard, get annoyed when I get a half dozen tells from people asking me to stop practicing string instruments near them.

I need to practice my pull-offs.

Elendae
05-29-2010, 10:22 PM
The heal sound was taken off with the latest eqchanges.zip. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's what got rid of them. I don't hear them anymore.

greenshag1979
05-29-2010, 11:20 PM
I noticed a graphics bug while playing my level 5 Half-elf bard:

I equipped a drum and the graphic looked like a flute.

Not a huge deal, but I figured this might be a good place to mention it.

Jify
05-30-2010, 02:17 AM
I noticed a graphics bug while playing my level 5 Half-elf bard:

I equipped a drum and the graphic looked like a flute.

Not a huge deal, but I figured this might be a good place to mention it.

Thats classic. ;D

eqdruid76
05-30-2010, 03:55 AM
Yes, once in a while my song bars don't appear, although the icons go "grey" and it will cast as it's suppose to when it finishes. Not as big a problem as the others, but it's still there.

My biggest concern (besides those the OP mentioned) is the fact that heal/manasong constantly play their "sound" when they tick (I think it's a known issue, though?).

It gets annoying to other players when bards are around, and I, as a bard, get annoyed when I get a half dozen tells from people asking me to stop practicing string instruments near them.

I need to practice my pull-offs.

You know what? They skill up their spell skills around other people all the time. They can stick it. You play away.

setver
05-30-2010, 02:20 PM
Chords of Dissonance Resist: Magic (-100)


Denon's Disruptive Discord Resist: Magic (0)

per alla

Omnimorph
05-30-2010, 02:48 PM
I do remember denon's disruptive discord getting resisted more than CoD, but that might just be me, i was a bard twink on live and was dotting red mobs anyway :p

Lazortag
05-30-2010, 04:52 PM
Chords of Dissonance Resist: Magic (-100)


Denon's Disruptive Discord Resist: Magic (0)

per alla

I'm actually not sure what you're saying in this post. What does -100 resist mean? Is that good or bad? Please explain more thoroughly.

Lazortag
05-31-2010, 03:47 PM
Uh, hello? A more thorough response to the issue I mentioned would be nice.

Thoughtseize
06-04-2010, 10:03 AM
Uh, hello? A more thorough response to the issue I mentioned would be nice.

Pro Tip: When you're asking for help you might want to be a bit more gracious.

But the spell data shows that Chords of Dissonance has a -100 magic resistance mod. So when you cast it, the npc then goes to make a resist check with its magic resist but that is modified by -100. Whereas DDD has 0 mod so you should be seeing far more resists.

Lazortag
06-04-2010, 11:36 AM
Sorry if I seemed rude.

Alright, I get it now, but I don't understand how that can possibly be the way it's supposed to be. How can a spell you get at a higher level have a higher resist rate? The only thing better about DDD is that it does 2 more damage per tick (4 if you wore a horn while you casted it), which seems so marginal compared to how often it gets resisted. Yesterday while fighting Choon (some cyclops in West Karana, level 30, while I'm level 27) CoD got resisted twice while DDD got resisted so often I lost count.

matahari
06-04-2010, 11:08 PM
My wife and I have been playing our bards lately.

Since the patch on the 30th. Both of us agree the songs are wayyyyy harder to twist. It was perfect before the patch. We have the updated spell files.

The songs get stuck like they did months ago. If you play haste songs.
The songs end constantly. Right when you start the song.
The missed notes were happening before the patch. I assume this is from them making dex and cha a part of the bards missed note rate. Which is awesome. But It seems like all the bard fixes that were amazing. Just got smashed in the last patch and tons of the bugs are back.

Just wanted to let people know.

Thanks Rock on P1999!

Bard powa!