I think EverQuest is balanced very very well. In my experience no stone has
been left unturned to provide a game with subtlety and imagination. There are
some unexpected things that have cropped up with 50,000 people playing the
game, however, but I think you have to expect that.
I fully expect that one of the subtleties of the Bard class is that as you
mature into the role of Bard that your songs will, over time, start to do more
damage than your weapons when instruments are equipped. So if you're "joe
bard" that plays 6 hours a week and doesn't read these messages or do as much
research into your class as we obviously do, you can still play the game as a
"bad tank with a healing song". However, if you're like us and divorce your
wife 'cause your family is keeping your from getting to level 50, you develop
your skills more fully.
Where is the crossover point that songs do more damage? I dunno, I'm only
level 20 and I would very seriously doubt that I've reached it yet. My guess
is that by around level 30 it should be noticable. I would think that by
level 50 it should be blatanly obvious to you that you should use songs and
instruments. Can any 50th bards confirm this and/or estimate where the
crossover point is from weapons to songs?
One of the greatest things about being a bard is the on-the-fly flexibility
that we have. Last night in Runnyeye my party members gave me a backhanded
compliment on the way that I reacted to the fight (yeah, I'm braggin' a bit -
deal with it). If we were fighting plain old goblins I'd be playing buffing
songs, but when a shaman or other caster type showed up, I'd switch hotkey
banks and start playing MR buffs. It really surprised my party members to see
their buff icons change from Anthem and Hymn (plus Bellows) to Guardian,
Elemental and Hymn during a fight. "What's with all these buff icons changing
around in battle?" <grin> Just the bard doing her job. Back to the subject
though - these sorts of reactions to battle flow are something that all
talented bards do, and their effectiveness is greatly enhanced by our
instruments.
Crier - 20th song Bard on Fennin Ro
Jason A. Farqu´┐¢
CDI at
http://www.pigging.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: <kim@...>
To: <eqbards@onelist.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Instruments vs. Melee quandry
> From: <kim@...>
>
> On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Elijah Meeker wrote:
> >
> > I am level 24, armed with a dragoon dirk and a Polished Granite tomahawk.
> > Recently a level 29 bard stopped by our group in SolA with a train
*laughs*
> > and ended up getting the kill with his horn on several goblins. I was
> > flabergasted (given that we have a level 28 warrior and level 26 cleric
and
> > wizard).
>
> That's because DDD is area effect - while you were busy
> killing one goblin, he was building up "kill credit" with the
> others.
>
> > So I have been playing the the horn and Dennons Dischord then
> > swapping to the lute for chains or lull, then back to the horn. It's
really
> > really hard to say, but I MAY be doing more damage now...do we have hard
> > figures on DDD? I am very very curious.
>
> I don't have any figures (though I may get some now that they
> fixed the disarm thing and my friends *want* to go to the
> arena). But I did play with it extensively around L24-26
> against tidal lords. DDD, CoD, and Hymn played with just a
> horn was slightly worse than with my weapons (dirk and barbed
> whip). Played with a horn and lute it was slightly better
> than my weapons. This was against a single opponent of
> course. If there were multiple opponents, DDD and CoD were
> far far better as long as Hymn could keep me alive long enough
> to kill them all.
>
> --
> John H. Kim
> kim@...
>
>
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