On Fri, 3 Dec 1999 silky@... wrote:

>
> Ok, Verant is at a loss as to how to fill in our slots - and the upcoming
> additions don't seem to hold much hope of anything 'new'. Lets look at what
> we do, and how we do it...hmmmm.
>
> Any competent bard twists/weaves (insert your favorite teminology for it
> here) songs. This results in constant button mashing (twitching) in a non
> twitch game. I love my bard, I love what we do - I don't like constantly
> mashing buttons. Same reason I don't like having to switch out
> weapons/instruments.

Probably too late for EQ, but at this point I'm of the opinion
that a better implementation of a bard class would've been
allowing only one song at a time, but having the higher level
songs confer multiple effects, perhaps switching instruments
to emphasize different effects. e.g. instead of having one
song for attack speedups and buffs, one for resists, and one
for healing; there'd be just one song that did all that. Use
it with a drum for extra resists, use it with a horn for extra
buffs, use it with a lute for extra healing. The lower level
songs would only confer one effect, while the higher level
ones would combine more and more effects.

You lose out on the flexibility of the current system, but the
constant button mashing (CBM?) is verging on ridiculous.

I think I'll dig up my copy of Bard's Tale...

--
John H. Kim
kim@...