From the Concert Hall Message Board

Going out on a limb here...
by Csarja Aria posted 10/6/99 1:49:11 PM

I have read over these posts and many of them seem to be traditional
arguments in an age old discussion. There are many many good points on both
sides of the isle. I suppose what is needed is to look at this from Verants
perspective.

As always DISCLAIMER: *grins* this is just one possible explanation. Its
mine so it probably isn't correct :)

The role of the Bard is to streamline a groups effectiveness. Roleplay aside
for a moment. It has been said that we are the jack of all trades and the
master of none. That isn't exactly true. We are the masters of one trade,
group effectiveness. No one else can do it as good as we can. Alas, its a
heavy burden :) Everyone who has played a Bard knows the fundamentals of
this and in the higher levels 35+ it is even more evident. That being true,
an adjustement to our class directly effects the performance of as many as 5
other individuals at any given time (ie the group). So when they nerf/twink
a Bard they are actually twinking the overall game dynamic.

We have seen many posts regarding a particular song and why it renders us
stronger or weaker relative to the other classes abilities (ie bellow
damage, charm, etc.) I believe the reason Verant is hesitant to tweak us
much at all is because of our relationship with the other classes. They do
this for everyone. But, since a DoT from a Shaman is more or less a solo
act, they can nerf/twink it with more variety. By solo I don't mean in a non
group sense but in that even grouped it is an act that is done by one person
to one npc (AoE asside) in either a group or solo environment. By twinking
our Antehem, for an example, they don't just increase our ability to melee
they increase up to 6 peoples and that can have a drastic impact on game
mechanics. I think they are afraid that by screwing up in making us more
effective they will make the rest of the classes too effective. Its hard to
judge the interaction of these changes in detail without a great deal of
testing. I am not sure they are testing outside the game as much as
observing and trying to correct exisiting game dynamics to match some
unpublished, ephemeral ideal.

Programmer: It didn't crash the testserver Brad, it *should* do what you
want.
Brad: Good, lets update next Monday...

Tuesday rolls around and we all get to read the latest hate/love posts :) In
a very real sense, if the above is true, we are the most influential class
in the game. Not in a sense that we can take on the World but in a sense
that we could (under the right conditions) allow a group of 6 to take on the
world.

Just a thought.

Csarja Aria, 38th
Mithaniel Marr
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Rokenn Swiftsong - Karana server
Master Craftsmen of Societus Argenti