The State of Bards
 

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.

What he said.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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