The slow phasing out of instruments has saddened me greatly as they were a cool and unique thing to the bard class that set them apart a bit and added interesting gameplay decisions. I think at least I understand why it happened as Bards found the ability to duel wield more interesting than holding a focus. So why not start being back instruments but instead using them in the range slot. It was an idea the devs seemed to have back in the day as if you look at the SoL instruments they went in the range slot. Possibly they didn't continue with this because bards like to have a throwing option but my response to that is to code them as a archery weapon. Basically the Instrument would act as a bow so you could shoot from and it would have an effect to summon notes (or whatever you want to call the ammo), which would be coded as arrows and each instrument could only shoot notes of its type (ex. a horn cannot shoot drum notes). Then just add the archery skills to bards. This would open up a huge amount of design space as you could give the notes interesting effects and the instruments themselves could have really cool effects. Like maybe holding a certain instrument gives a massive casting level bonus (50+ levels) to that song type. Notes could have their own special effects they could proc on use like: Drum Notes: applies a short term debuff that increases spell damage significantly String notes: applies a moderate version of a cleric mark that heals party members that strike it Wind notes: grants yourself a short term buff that increases your CC songs duration Horn notes: have no effect but do decent damage to give bard in interesting option for ranged combat when they want to avoid ramp or short ranged AEs This way instruments could have meaningful and interesting gameplay that in very unique to the class. In addition these effects would make them useful in the group and raid scenarios.
