1) Party Bind: This song would rock. Being able to bind, even if it were
self only would be very welcome by this bard.
2) Upgrade to Clouding: I don't see a high need for this, particularly given
that invis to undead potions are available and not that expensive. I'd
rather have a more useful song.
3) Upgrade to Charm: Two words: HELL YEAH
5) Damage Reflection Shield: This is a great idea. I'd like to see more
songs along this line of thinking (eg. party buff that still affects the
mobs.) to that end, how about something like...
Shaurii's Song of Solidarity
Party Buff, Wind
Effect: Party is immune to bash/slam line of attacks.
6) AE DoT w/ STA debuff: Again, this is another great idea. (Provided mobs
have a sta bar like players do)
7) Upgrade to Selo's: This seems like a lemon. If we are hitting the hard
speed cap with what we have now, I think that any upgrade would still be
limited by the hard speed cap. I'd rather have a more useful song.
8) Upgrade to Clartiy: This would depend on how the clarity we have now
scales in comparison to the new enchanter's clarity2
9) Upgrade to MR debuff: I like this idea.
>Denon's Fog of War. AE snare. AE slow attack speed. AE Dot. AE magic
>debuff (30 pts at least). effect of fog?
Can you say AE resist? Let's tone this down a little. With all these
components, this song will never stick. Offhand, I'd say, make it AE snare,
AE MR debuff and AE attack speed debuff. The DoT doesn't seem to be in
keeping with the intent of the song, and will only cause tons of resists.
11) Mem blur song: I could get used to something like this.
Along the same lines, perhaps a hate list debuff song.
a) It would target a mob and only affect the bard's standing on the hate
list. (similar to evade)
b) it would target a player and reduce that player's standing on the hate
list of all mobs in range.
12. Upgraded Atk Song: how about +attack speed, +invigor and +to some stats?
13. A proc song: very interesting. First, I'm assuming level 39 is intended
(do we really want to replace Vilia's Verses of Celerity?) second though,
would this song make it into a song line up at level 39? ( I don't know, I'm
only 33
14. A bard additive song: I like this idea a lot, but I think in practical
use, it falls short. The question is twofold. a) how often do we find
ourselves in parties that contain more than one bard. b) when we are in that
situation, would a slight increase in effectiveness for a song or two that
don't stack be better than the second (or third or whatever) bard playing a
different song? I group fairly regularly with another bard, and I find that
having the effects of 6 songs going on is awesome. The only time I envision
this new song being used would be after a battle for reducing down time.
(eg. healing) Let's refine this idea, because I think there is something to
it.
15. Song of Silence: good idea, but I could see Verant vetoing it
immediately. With a quick MR debuff from an enchanter, this song would make
casting mobs chumps. (a wiz with no songs, is easy prey, even if he is dual
wielding FS spears)
16. Serious upgrade to healing: again, HELL YEAH
17. Melanie’s Call to Arms: I'm not sure what I think about this yet.
18. Group damage dispersion/distribution: very interesting, I like the fact
that it is a double edged sword. It will help spread the damage out, however
if someone is close to dying, then this could concievably kill them. serious
invsetigation would need to take place regarding PvP aviodance. (bard gets
pissed at wiz, fires this song up and jumps off the ramp to HHP in EK.)
20. Upgraded mez capabilities: I'm not sure we need an upgrade, just fix
what we got.
Draelon
-----Original Message-----
From: Tork [mailto:
tdomeii@...]
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 7:28 PM
To:
eqbards@onelist.com
Subject: [eqbards] UPDATE 2 - we're getting there!
From: Tork <
tdomeii@...>
On to a compendium of ideas. I am not making any judgements on them, but
I did take the liberty of combining similar ideas and/or taking the most
well written version of an idea and posting that. I will attribute all
song ideas to
eqbards@onelist.com unless you explicitly email me
(privately if you want,
gww6e@...) to say otherwise.
My comments are marked with a *.
1. Party Bind
We did not want a bind song if it was identical to casters, however if the
song allowed you to bind anyone anyplace (melees included) then with spell
reagent costs and mana tolls, we would certainly welcome it, especially at
higher (51+) levels since expansion zones are rumored to be mammoth in
scale.
2. Upgrade to Clouding (was: Party invis vs undead)
An upgrade to Clouding that combined invis, invis vs undead and sneak
(meaning no spell graphic) since this would give us an ability no single
caster can provide (both invis types) and the no spell graphic would be a
boon to +PvP servers.
3. Upgraded charm. Everyone and his brother (over 35 responses) wanted
this and hey, I do too. :)
4. Upgrade to clouding. Nuff said, and I think I summed it up that we'd
like a song that can provide both types of invis.
*duplicated and deprecated by 2, I’m going to remove it. -Tork
5. An improved damage shield. This appears to be drawing interest:
Denon's Sonic Reflection
Brass
Gives all party members a damage reflection shield. Causing a portion of
the damage done to them in combat (melee & non-melee) to be reflected back
at the attacker).
6. An improved AE DoT with added effect (stamina drain being a common
thread, the other was a lifetap affect). Question at large: do mobs have
stamina and if so, does it impact their ability to fight?
*More work is needed here. -Tork
7. Upgrade to selo's OR remove hard speed cap.
*I personally want the cap removed vice burning another spell slot on an
upgrade. -Tork
8. Upgrade to clarity.
Cassandra's Clarified Elegy
Provides clarity2 (whatever that might be) + (limited?) elegy effect.
*Is this warranted? -Tork
9. Upgrade to MR debuffing abilities.
Denon's Fog of War. AE snare. AE slow attack speed. AE Dot. AE magic
debuff (30 pts at least). effect of fog?
*I like where this is going, anyone want to help fill in the blanks? -Tork
10. One-way teleport (self only? to bard guild?).
*superseded by Call to Arms, number 17. I will remove this unless there
is debate otherwise. –Tork
11. Mem blur song.
Fitful's Forgetful Improv
Voice
Causes the target to become so fixated on the improv that it forgets
whatever else it was dong. Drawback: Bard possibly left on hate list.
*No further discussion on this? Given how powerful mobs are going to be,
perhaps make it AE and not break mez? -Tork
12. Upgraded Atk Song
Since we are out speed buffed by enchanters, a straight addition to Atk
with an added component. Most commonly heard suggestion: rune type
shielding. Other suggestions: massive ac bonus, massive regeneration
effect, massive MR buff.
*Definitely more ideas needed here. We all know we need and deserve a
song like this and we all know we’re gonna get some VoV upgrade. Let’s
help steer GZ and company in the right direction. -Tork
13. A proc song
The Chromatic Scale
Level: 36th
Skill: Singing
Description: A chromatic scale is all the notes an instrument is capable
of producing, generally played starting from the lowest to the highest and
then back down; slurred up (ligato), tongued down (staccato). The
Chromatic Scale when song by the bard would act much as the Vampiric
Embrace necro spell in that it imparts a proc to melee attacks however the
twist is that there would be 5 different types which randomly kick off:
magic, fire, cold, disease and poison based attacks. These would be DD's -
there by filling in our missing DD ability, but in a uniquely bard fashion
(group based, becomes more powerful as you add members and err... randomly
good -- maybe. hehe). Verant of course would come up with some cute
little chromatic sparkles to surround us and multi colored blasts as the
proc goes off. :)
14. A bard additive song
Cinda's Companion Cantata
Level: 49th+
Skill: Variable (see below)
Description: A cantata is a composition scored for many parts at once,
incorporating both voice and instrumental accompaniment, hence this song
would allow bards in the same group to ally their voices in song to
intensify the effects of a common song – to "stack" the same song, perhaps
with at 100*(2-((6-n)^(1/6)))% effectiveness, where n is the number of
bards playing cantata. Yes, this could be exceptionally powerful, what
with twisting and all, but this could easily be limited to only effect the
"top" bard song in the spell list of the lead singer, whilst the
"recovery" period of stopping the song would be such that twisting
wouldn't be possible if you were a cantata player.
Example: A group composed of 1 warrior and 2 bards stops to rest. Bard 1
begins to sing Hymn, only to be joined in song by bard 2 with Cinda's
Cantata - boosting regeneration by their now intensity music (by the SWAG
formula above that would be a +69%).
Full stacking numbers would be:
n +%
--------
1 69
2 74
3 80
4 88
5 100
*Anyone got any better ideas? -Tork
15. Song of Silence
Solon's Song of Silence
Effect: NON-PARTY: Silence.
PBAE, fixed radius, 2 tick negate casting. NPC has one chance to resist
intial and to break free
each tick there after. Lute for enhanced effects. Save versus Magic.
*I love this idea personally, anyone care to add more? I want to flesh it
out and will take action if no one objects. -Tork
16. Serious upgrade to healing. (NB: of all the issues brough up, this
needs the most serious analysis btw.)
*Hopefully I’m on the right path with that I have now, but please correct
me if I’m wrong. -Tork
Currently at 50th with a store bought lute:
Niv’s=15 hp/tick
Hymn=17 hp/tick
Total=roughly 30hp/tick
Typical mobs encountered at that level hit in low 100’s, double hit 100%
of the time and have an approximate delay of 25. As a damage per second
figure, that approaches 80 damage/second, 3 seconds/tick, 240 damage/tick.
Regeneration factor: 12.5%.
Scaling to 60th,
Niv’s=22 hp/tick
Hymn=22 hp/tick
Total=roughly 44 hp/tick
To maintain this balance, a typical L60 encounter mob can have a damage
per second output of 352, 117 damage/sec, or assuming a similar delay of
25 and double hitting 100% of the time, a per blow damage of 146.
We know this not to be the case as plane of sky “yard trash” easily
eclipses this figure. Therefore, we are in need of an upgrade to healing.
17. Melanie’s Call to Arms
*I removed the nix hate list bit as per some very valid points brought up.
-Tork
Trying to come up with a song that is
1) extremely powerful
2) no other class has
3) makes bards extremely wanted on raids (a la enchanters)
4) and has coding already built into the game
I came up with a song that is the opposite of Melanie's Mellifluous
Motion. A song that teleports all party members in the zone to the bards
location.
Name: Melanie's Call to Arms
This song would be extremely useful in conjunction with a binding group
leader. Imagine doing an Efreeti Raid in SolB and wanting to bring in
other members since some need to leave. Instead of breaking through again
the group leader would be bound at zoneline, group up the bard and gate
back to his bindpoint. The group leader would then group up the 4 new
members and the song would be sung and would teleport everyone back to the
bard. There are a few problems with this that may make it too powerful.
Such as Plane of Sky (never been myself) where this song could not be used
to bypass the teleporters etc This song combined with Selo's would make
the bard extremely wanted in any group, but especially raids. The song may
need to use up mana, although I really don't want all our songs using up
mana.
18. Group damage dispersion/distribution
Name: Song of Solidarity *New name suggestions anyone? -Tork
Function: Whenever a member of the party takes damage, that damage it
distributed among the party members.
For example, a 5 person party: The warrior gets hit for 75 (make this
simple *Smiles*) points of damage. The warrior actually gets hit for 15
points, and all other party members get hit for 15 points of non-melee
damage. Very hard to code (probably a lot of logic changes,) but something
different which would augment the Bard's ability to lessen party downtime.
(Maybe.)
19. On mana regeneration and putting “no mana” into perspective, by John
H. Kim ;)
Just to clarify what it means to "buff without exceeding your mana regen
rate..."
Say each buff costs you one bubble. Say each buff lasts 60 minutes. Say
you meditate back one bubble a minute. That means you can keep a maximum
of 60 buffs up.
How many buffs you can cast going from FM to OOM is pretty irrelevant
since buffing is almost always done during downtime. What matters is how
many buffs your mana regeneration rate allows you to maintain.
This is the type of analysis Verant failed to do (and is failing to do)
every time they go off on one of their "but bards use no mana!" tangents.
No we don't use mana, but because of the short lifespan of our songs and
the (relatively) long "casting time" for our songs, it's pretty much the
same thing as using mana. In fact, you can think of our songs as spells
that last 12 seconds, require 5 bubbles of mana to cast, and our mana
regen rate gives us back 5 bubbles every 3 seconds.
20. Upgraded mez capabilities.
*I’m at a loss here, given that our existing mez song is hopelessly broken
how can I hope for an upgraded one? At any rate, ideas and suggestions or
just some one logically and polietly stating the facts surrounding Lullaby
would be very helpful.
21. What’d I forget? :)
*Okay, this format looks like crap, but comments none the less. I will
reformat tonight and get it in a revision 0 status for release tomorrow to
the list. Man, this is been a lot of work, but I mean that in the best
possible way! Hopefully by Thursday morning we can have it polished up.
Thanks,
-Tork@Nameless
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DON'T HATE YOUR RATE!
Get a NextCard Visa, in 30 seconds! Get rates as low as
0.0% Intro or 9.9% Fixed APR and no hidden fees.
Apply NOW!
http://click.egroups.com/1/2120/7/_/451022/_/953684855/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please send submissions for the eqbards newsletter to
lol@...
with the subject submissions.