> How bout just giving us an instrument slot.
> Not one where you could USE a weapon and
> instrument at the same time, just some so
> that we didn't have to> physically equip
> and unequip constantly - just trade off in
> some type of button arrangement - like archers
> do between their bow and other weapons.

What I've always wished for, and don't believe would take away from the "We
want you to actually be doing something during a battle" belief's that I
think Verant has is..

Configurable Item Setups

Let me explain briefly.. Currently we have 6 hot-key banks that we can setup
with things that we want to be able to do with a single push of a button.
Why can't we add 6 more banks for three different "weapon setups" that we
use? Let's say I setup my hot-configurations like so:

M1=Meelee1, M2=Meelee2,
R=RangedWeaponSlot,
I1=InvSlot1, I2=InvSlot2, I3=InvSlot3

1 - M1=CombineLS, M2=DragoonDirk, R=Empty, I1=Lute, I2=Drum
2 - M1=CLS, M2=Shield, R=DD, I1=Lute, I2=Drum
3 - M1=Empty, M2=Drum, R=DD, I1=CLS, I2=Shield, I3=Lute
4 - M1=Empty, M2=Lute, R=DD, I1=CLS, I2=Shield, I3=Drum

Then we could take the buttons for the 6 banks,and make them hot-keys in one
of our 6 hot-key banks. So I press 1 to load up my dual-wield, press 3 to
load up my drum config, and 4 to load up my lute config, etc.. A delay could
be put in (say 1 attack round) so that it's not an instantaneous swap (which
would be nice, but unfair).

I for one don't see the realism of having to manually make these changes.
They're annoying at best having to click around so much, and at worst
they're dangerous because you lose weapons/instruments/etc if you mis-click.
It's also something that's not useful for only a Bard. This is something
that EVERY class in EQ could make use of. (Except perhaps the Monks since
they have no weapons to swap around)

What do you all think? I realize this likely isn't going to happen due to
the amount of coding that would be required, but it's definitely on my wish
list.