Typically I have stayed out of these sorts of issues and kept myself a
passive observer - I did vote on the last petition and I do think our class
could use a little fixing up on a few issues though. For the most part I
find the Bard a tremendously enjoyable and challenging character to play
with few complaints.
The problem is, I keep noticing subtle changes in the game where it appears
that our class is actually being NERFED instead of having some of the long
standing problems fixed, and this is why I am speaking up. I have played a
Bard solidly for 4 months happily, and I wonder why at level 22 I suddenly
miss notes regularly on low level songs I have had for a long time, and I am
a "Master" at all my instrument skills.
Apparently the Bard was too powerful in beta and had to be nerfed somewhat,
but it seems to be continuing. Is this innocent mistakes that get
introduced into the code with patches or is this secret nerfing that Verant
does not want us bards to know about since we would pitch a major fit if we
did know?
My invisibility song has always worked against undead, but last night in
Unrest it seemed that all the mobs I ran past saw right through it and
proceeded to attack me none the less - this has NEVER happened to me before
in Unrest, unless of course I blinked visible for a moment, which I did not
do last night when these things happened.
Here are my class change rants:
1. Do not cap our skills so low, like forage (40), and sneak (70) - absurd.
Raise the caps.
2. Fix our broken songs - there are some that do not appear to do anything
(Disenchanting Melody) and others that are silly (random short distance
teleport that tends to put you in a basement of a zone or at the bottom of
the ocean - I waited 21 levels to get that?)
3. Do something about the Z-axis bug - I don't care how well sound travels,
it does not travel through several feet of earth and stone into a basement,
thereby drawing out uber-mobs who are hell-bent on destroying the bard, and
generally do so before he knows what hit him (often then don't even need to
leave the basement to do it!).
These I see are the main issues, but I also wanted to add that we have
chosen to play the Verant Bard class, which I think is designed for
grouping. It is very very hard to solo with a bard and we do our best work
in a group. You have to like that, and you have to play your character and
understand it to get the most benefit from it. It is hard sometimes to be
satisfied with some of our abilities because we get a little taste of so
many different kinds that so many other specialized classes do so much
better than us at them. The mobs are always greener on the other side of
the zone.
If anyone cares, my other opinions are interspersed below.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Judson Sapp [mailto:JudsonSapp@...]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 11:33 AM
> To: eqbards@onelist.com
> Subject: [eqbards] Bard Petition
>
>
> From: "Judson Sapp" <JudsonSapp@...>
>
> I read a post about starting back up the bard petition. I
> for one do not
> like petitions but for some strange reason that seems to be
> the way to get
> things fixed with this game. So I wrote the original writer
> of the Bard
> petition and he wrote me back saying "If you rally some
> people to make new
> comments, I will overhaul it and submit it to Brad". The
> ball is in our
> court so I was hoping to see a bunch of new comments on
> things we would like
> to have fixed or changed with the class.
>
> On a personal note my Bard character is my favorite to play,
> and believe it
> or not on the Magician mailing list everyone there complained
> a lot more
> about there class. I have to say though that my Mage
> character was a lot
> more balanced than my bard. And yet they keep helping the
> Mages out by
> fixing their complaints. Maybe the squeaky wheel does get oil.
>
> Suggestions: As my bard is still new I can offer only a few
> ideas to get
> the ball rolling.
>
> 1. Some of our songs seem to do just about the same thing.
> My idea is
> change the higher level song to do more. Ex. Chant seems to
> me (Stats
> might be the factor) to be the better song to use over
> Warsong and Anthem.
> I have seen a lot of debate over this but here is my point,
> there should be
> no debate. The higher song should be better.
I agree, but I also think these are trivial compared to some of the other
issues we should be focusing on getting fixed. At least Chant and Anthem DO
something useful, never mind the fact that they are somewhat similar in
nature - that is a whole different thread.
> 2. I love the idea of a harmony skill.
I think since it is possible with low lag to successfully weave 3 songs
(some people say 4) but that when lag is introduced it drops to 2 due to
factors out of the players control, and also the fact that constantly
weaving is difficult on the hands, we should get the ability to have some
kind of automatic weaving mechanism. Still, there are other things about
the character that are bugged worse than this - which is not really a
bug-fix request when it comes right down to it.
> 3. I think we should get a message if we succeed in hiding
> like the rouges
> do.
I absolutely agree, why should we not?
> 4. As far as binding goes, I am indifferent. From a
> role-playing stand
> point it seems logical, but I can see why we do not have it
> also, so flip a
> coin.
Binding sure would be nice, but standing firm on that issue makes me uneasy
as I feel like I am whining for Verant to help me come to terms with my own
laziness or impatience to deal with the 5 minutes or so it takes to run back
to my corpse.
> 5. Have you ever played a Role Playing Game where a bard was
> not using a
> crossbow or bow?
Bards would use a crossbow if this game had them, at least in the historical
role-playing sense. I'm not sure a bow is appropriate, though. We can
either equip our instruments and stand back (in which case we cannot use the
bow unless we unequip and stand back) or we can jump in the melee (in which
case we would not use the bow) so I think it is kind of moot to press this
one. We already get a nice variety of skills from all the different classes
as it is - I say make the skills we have reach higher caps.
> 6. I love the idea about having a couple of Bard only
> weapons that can be
> used as an instrument also. (Singing Sword to increase the affect of
> singing songs, Or a whistling sword for wind) Who knows, a
> lot of ideas
> here would help.
Interesting idea, paladins get swords like Ghoulbane and we get instruments
like the Battle Drum. As far as melee goes, we get such a variety of
choices in our weapons that I don't really care about a class-specific
weapon. We can use weapons that only mage types can use (like the Staff of
Writhing) so I'm not so concerned about this.
>
>
> I hope this gets the ball rolling and as viewed as a
> constructive way to
> help solve some bard issues.
>
> Fair thee well friends!
>
>
> --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor
> ----------------------------
>
> You can WIN $100 to Amazon.com!
> If you join ONElist's FRIENDS & FAMILY program. For details, go to
> http://www.onelist.com/info/onereachsplash3.html
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
>