Coming back after a long break, only to find out that one of my favorite classes was hit with a nerf hammer ultra hard, so hard in fact that the class is but a shell of its former self. Bards can't ae/dd swarm kite anymore?...I'm sorry, I think I misheard what you said...say again please? That was always one of THE bard things, and something that made the class a challenge to learn and play well. It was something that was used in group play to kite a bad pull around a group while still keeping a little damage on it during the kite until they could get it under control, and it was their primary means of soloing. Disappointing news to me...now the mobs don't take damage unless they're standing still. This relegates the class to almost song bot status, or worse almost merc status, aside from pulling...IF the group has the bard pulling. Now days there are many pull classes. Also, I think I speak for every bard in saying that I don't always want to group, sometimes I like the challenge of soloing. More than that, often times I don't have time to invest in a group, knowing in advance that I'm going to have to go afk every so often or randomly on a spur of the moment to handle IRL stuff. The other times when the group is okay with it I feel like I'm sponging xp if I go afk with a melody running. The playstyle for bards, in it's current iteration, needs some change desperately. Maybe make it like druid spells and limit the number of mobs songs can hit, or add resist potential for each mob beyond the first by a certain percentage to the point that it just will not work on a 7-10 mob swarm. Give bards a much needed change back to the way the class used to be, at least partially. Do something for us...just something, please.
Not sure how long you just came back from but ToV just made bards gods in the game again. I didn't play during release of EoK or RoS but came back during TBL and was sad at how our class was going. I am hitting top 10 dps on almost all raids now (even hit top 5 in some last clear of ToV raids). This was a change from being in 20s during TBL during alot of raids. We still are good pullers and have always been. We CC and can slow mobs. We now don't really play songs for others with the release of ToV we just play dot songs and couple of group buff songs. It is great though. We have not been a charm / swarm / ae kiting in many many years so you must not have played in over 19-15 years. Most bards are extremely happy with our class this expansion. The current soloing in ToV is soloing in kael. We are by far without any question the most powerful soloer in kael. We are a good puller of mobs to the guards and we are probably the highest solo dps that doesn't need other classes for pulling or staying alive (during pulls u can get a dot that is DT if you can't cure it).
Bards are fantastic at a ton of other things. If you thought that kiting 100 mobs around and singing them to death was not out of balance for risk versus reward then I'm afraid you're pretty out of touch.
Bards make their own fun by training zones/grps/raids, singing bad songs, irritating dps with bad adps, and annoying witchers. I know, i used to main a bard.
I mean... grats on the forthcoming nerf? haha What will bards be great at when they can't exploit factions anymore?
Kiting 40-50 mobs at a time was never good for gameplay and still is not. This was nerfed for a reason
No one is even talking about the REAL nerf... and that's the fact that ae damage songs were changed so that even when standing still the max number of mobs they can hit is 8. That's a bunch of bs because it fundamentally changes a really great way to PL without needing to use a bunch of high cost dd potions that mobs resist 100 times a cast.
The only major request I'd make for bards is a longer mezz duration (add 5 ticks or more to mezz songs). Some people have the misguided notion that bards are almost as good as enchanters for crowd control.
Maedhros, suggesting I'm out of touch with reality is just asinine and you'd know that if you actually read my post. In fact, it seems that most of the replies came from the peanut gallery of TL;DR laziness. I didn't say that swarm kiting 50 mobs wasn't out of balance...it is...which is why I suggested the limitation the number of mobs it will hit, but remove the standing still part of it. For that matter, leave all their songs at an 8 mob limitation...snare, dot, what have you. Drop it to four and remove the stand still for damage for all I care. The point is that if quad kiting was taken from druids and wizards, holy hell, there would be people who quit the game, quite literally. What exactly is so wrong with having a quad kite limitation for bards as well? Druids and wizards have been quading since the beginning and still are. And and in Kunark bards could kite TOO well, completely understandable but that did NOT get nerfed, it got TAKEN AWAY, then on top of that a limitation was placed on standing in the middle of a group of mobs, which is not at all someplace a bard wants to be, and then not all of the mobs getting hit. For me personally, I'd prefer to quad kite than charm kite, because I just don't like charm kiting, just because I don't. I can, but it is MUCH slower than the quading that a druid could do...and their snare or root and shoot singles ability is still there in addition to quading. Pet kiting done by mages and necros is still around, and they also have access to fear kiting for necros and mages pet kite with the best damage shields in the game. Part of the problem I have with the current state of things is that bards were never meant to be a melee required class to solo because they are not built for it in stats...the phrase is jack of all trades and master of none...except fighting the smart fight and out thinking the situation at hand. Versatility is what they were built for and now it's a spell bar that rarely changes. Yeah, I've been gone more than a decade and things change, but the original fundamentals of no other class has significantly changed to the extent that bards have.
Something like that...like I said, I've been gone a long time. Came back a few times for short durations, but never dusted off my bard.
I’m confused by your thread. You want a class changed that you don’t play and haven’t played in 18 years, and barely played any other part of the game. Spend more time in game and with the class, before making suggestions.
Making bards fun again would imply that they have lost their fun and the fun in my bard has never left.
If you relegate Bards' usefulness to "AE/DD swarm kiting" (whatever that means), then you fail to understand Bards' role. Bards are probably THE class most lusted after for any group that has any clue about how to play. Raid guilds certainly need them (most don't have enough). I hope you find EverQuest to your liking. Welcome back.
AE DoT kiting has been gone so long that most only vaguely recall it and all active bards have plenty of other things to do
I miss AE DoT kiting a little. But bards are more fun to play now than ever before. ToV was a huge buff to bards.
They need to have a new line at mid expansion lvl (so 113 for ToV) that is just a single target version of the AE mez. Unless they want to reduce the cooldown of the AA mez. Other than that, bards are the best they've been in years.
lol @ all these replies. shame on most of you. Did you know that it's a crime to make a class fun for someone by making a change that literally has 0 impact on your current playstyle. The playstyle that you deem "fun"?! In fact, if most people are having fun and you aren't: just leave. We'll all have fun without you! Not like having a larger community is a good thing or anything! In fact, let's all get together and bully people that have opinions that differ from our own, referencing their lack of play time, their intelligence, their senility, their incoherent way of thinking, etc. Consider the OP's comments, leave a logical reason why the OP's changes should be considered or ignored. Or be a jerk. I see nothing wrong with adding "quad kiting" to bards. It would have 0 impact on my playstyle, and could fill a nice niche for players that enjoy that playstyle. It should be available, but not meta imo.
