I promise not to beat the temporary effects horse again :)
>This is true. But unlike spells, which can be cast and forgotten about for
>long periods of time, Bard songs must be continuously sung to work
>effectively. A song that could be sung and have a permanent effect would be
>contrarian to the way the class works. Forgetting game balance and all other
>issues, a binding song just makes no sense in the world of Norrath.
Actually, in Norrath the singing of a song by a Bard causes a spell to be cast.
That spell has a duration past the time when the Bard stops singing. This is
the mechanism that allows us to twist. It's not the singing that generates the
effect, the singing creates the magic, the magic creates the effect. The magic
has a life of it's own, just like a caster's spell, only much shorter. This is
not the same as the 'Listener's emotions stay swayed for a few seconds, hence
the delay" argument. Levitate has no emotions, when you stop singing, you don't
plummet because the spell you cast by singing has not ended yet.
We truly are no different than a caster. Our songs do not have a continuous
effect, we must continuously sing so that the 'spell' can be recast every few
seconds. In addition, the act of binding is like moving a rock. You don't have
to apply energy to the rock to make it stay, only for the move. If a Caster's
Bind were a continuous output of energy, then it would use Mana forever, but it
doesn't.
Teleport is a good example. When you teleport your party, they don't snap back
into place once you stop singing. You have made a permanent change with a
temporary application of magic.
>Indeed we are a breed apart. As another poster has written we are "no-class."
>I would almost say that there are four types of player classes in EQ:
>casters, melee, hybrids, and bards. True, we don't have the combat skills
>that the 3 hybrids do. But we can do some pretty amazing things to
>compensate. We don't use mana like the other hybrids (Dirge excepted). We
>can reduce downtime like no other class in the game. We can fill wildcard
>spots in just about any group: from crowd control to tanking. To give us
>these combat skills would unbalance us wildly, and the next thing you know all
>the kewl d00dz would be playing bards.
Actually, just parry would be enough to move us from Caster to Hybrid in my
mind. I would think that this would not overpower us and attract the d00dz :)
I would say that the wildcard aspect of the Bard is what started me on this
whole thing. Our songs duplicate the effects of spells from each of the casting
classes. They each get bind. But the guys who do it 'all', don't do something
that every one of the others do. Why? Only because of our classification, which
is unjustified. Giving Bards bind would no doubt bring an uproar from the melee
classes. Happens everytime anyone changes any class. But what would be the
basis for each complaint? Bards are melee! We are melee! No fair!
That premise is wrong. We're no more melee than Shamans and Clerics. Nobody
complains that Rangers should get Bind because Clerics get it.
Lastly (I know-Thank God :P), the fact that we don't use mana is offset by the
weakness and short duration of our songs. This is balanced, tho I think we
still come up short, as 'infinite' casting really only means fight time. While
not in combat, ANY caster can keep 3 effects up forever while medding between,
or do more damage than us via DD during the same time while medding. It only
counts in combat, where we can go longer, but to usually less effect until we or
the mob dies. Sure a mage can only Ice comet 4 times. But our 'infinite'
effect will never equal that damage before combat is over.
That said, I don't think the mana usage issue should 'add' power to our class
for balancing purposes. It has a built in balance in relation to casters.
Whew! Sorry, I just wanted to be clear.
Golias formally swears never to beat the temporary effect horse again...
Golias, Sol Ro