Bard Help

[Hazek]

Originally Posted by larper99 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

yes, but the problem becomes that you still need to have several hotbar slots setup for songs leaving little to no room for others, no matter which page you are on.

The problem is, other casters get to use their spell gems without resorting to macros, leaving the hotbar available for other things. Bards, having to double click to achieve twisting, resort to using the hotbar as a surrogate for their spell gems. Since we twist 5 or more songs while in combat, that leaves little room for instrument swapping, assist macros, melee hotkey, having Selo available at all times, etc. So, bards lose out on a whole "hot bar" (the spell gems) that other casters get to use as designed.

So, the question is, is /stopsong worth the loss of the hotbar, or does a bard have to become a maestro in the UI, constantly switching hotbars WHILE twisting. Or, does the bard resort to "outside the box" solutions such as scripting, regardless of whether it is "against the rules" or not.

The UI design, even with expanded 8 button hotbars, seems to indicate that twisting was never intended. Later solutions to bring the bard up to a more even playing field with things like "melody" are not classic and not supported on green or any p99 server if I am correct.

So the bard, as is currently expected to be played, is handicapped out of the box. But, I find that endearing and a challenge. Others may not. If you note, it was recently pointed out that during the beta (or early release) of EQ in 1999, it was noticed that bards and enchanters were the least populous class. Whether for lack of understanding their utility, or for difficulty of using the UI, it is unknown. But the way we expect bards to be used today, they are a challenge. But I find that a positive. I get to discover the solutions, and discuss the best ways and alternatives (while staying in the agreed upon rules) to deal with those challenges.

What I really miss out with the bard, is that since I am constantly typing during combat and even during recovery, I don't get to banter in /gs. Makes it a bit harder to socialize within the game. For that, I would make a recovery melody macro, to let me take a break while still twisting heals and regen. But, since everyone chain pulls now....

/sigh

Thank God there's someone with some sense. Its refreshing. And having to press the key twice doesn't make bards harder at all, it's just pointless and annoying. Its a mechanic that should have been fixed since 1999 and that stopsong macros are used to remedy. All it does is make you waste your action slots or deal with having to double tap. You might as well make every other class have to press their abilities twice too.

So I understand not wanting people to use scripts for farming or something; or not wanting to pass the threshold of allowance and judging them individually because its easier to just blanket ban (if you could even detect it). But in this case its not even an "unfair advantage" because all it does is fix a bad mechanic that players normally do anyway when they have enough slots. And its a problem because you only have 6 unless you change pages. So why not just let players use a normal UI, change the mechanic in the code so it automatically casts stopsong when you use a new gem like I originally suggested, or as a last resort, allow a specific script. Especially since you've already made changes like item linking. I'm done with the game though but for the bards that still play.