I used to love to play my troub but lately I get more and more the feeling, he is not worth the time anymore. He used to be real good but now he lives from 2 spells, a few buffs and klickies because all other spells are not worth the time anymore. And I am not alone saying that bards need a bit more to be interessting again
yet I see I greatly feel the difference if a troub is present or not. I believe disinterest is global. Apart from enjoying seeing big numbers when you play dps, the other classes are less existent to play. Cause of impoverished gameplay, boiling down to 3 stats. Support won't 'feel' their involvement in a group as much as a dps toon.
I think a lot depends on your playstyle. Groups really need you and you make raids so much better! I've been playing mainly on pvp server Tarinax for a while & TLE servers- omg bards are awesome fun there! Here's a recent good vid a pvp bard posted of his fights.
The disinterest in bards goes back a long way. When they nerfed scouts by reducing all AC, they put bards in the same bag as the rest of dps. If we already did little, now we do even less. To top it off, being a mixed class (with AC/spells) we are affected by the mitigation problems that spells have. It is solved in mages, increasing their damage, as in the last update, but it is ignored in our class. You can check it by looking at a CA and a spell that, on paper, do the same damage. One will do 1/3 as much dps as the other. Trying to fix it by giving us a demolisher area (melody) just makes you spend a minute between casts thinking how boring your life as a bard is now. Unfortunately we have been hit with the worst of all the updates and it doesn't look like it will be fixed anytime soon. But hey, it could always be worse. You could be an Inquisitor or a Guardian.
in my opinion the GamePlay /balance/Usefulness of the classes started to twist after level 90. I don't know what happened having returned 2 years ago after 10 years of absence, but it's obvious. This change in stats for everyone totally ruins the interest of some classes. Especially when those did not shine by their dps but by providing significant and much more notable support.
I may not be able to express myself that good but yes, thats exactly what I mean. And to top that, most others dont see it. As long as they get to do their damage its fine to them.
Not more than an additional DPS gives. Hell, some of the dps buffs are more useful. because of statflation, the bard songs/abilities have once again fallen behind. I'll continue to say this forever, but fervor should never have been added to gear and it should have remained only in AA and buffs. then you wouldn't have the situation now where support classes buffs have not kept up with the statflation.
Ruby makes some valid points here also, but I think you indirectly hit the core of the problem here AND with much of the "this class is broken" talk on the forums; there's a sizable portion of the community that isn't going to be happy unless their chosen toon is total godmode, can't take damage and kills everything in one hit. There used to be a real art to being a good support character, and they were invaluable for group content. The thing is, I've seen the end game of the stat-inflation godmode character stuff in other games. The "Incarnate" system totally ruined City of Heroes. Characters got so powerful that teams completely fell by the wayside and player egos got even further out of control as their characters became able to solo anything in the game. The current situation is kind of sad really. Bards USED TO be as invaluable to a raid group as a Templar or Inquisitor.
i love these kind of posts.. what do you want as a bard.. i mean troubs that raid parse 300 billionish in raid, can top mana feeding, helping keep people alive, JC 2 peeps. Dirges can stay alive as they run away from the group to do other portions of scripts with little to no help from anyone, also parse 300 billionish, CF 3 members in raid, rez those that may die, even hold aggro if specced right if you are doing two tank fights with one tank lol.. i mean.. what are you looking for....
Well, I didn't see many on Halls of Fate, and I'm still seeing few on Antonia Bayle now that I've moved over there. Then again, I'm below level 100, so I'm not saying I've gotten the full picture either. As Sunlei sort of pointed out though, it also depends what kind of server you're playing on. The regular servers play easiest, The RP server is a little tougher surprisingly, and by all reports, the Time Locked servers are harder yet. No idea about the PVP one(s). The more challenge, the more demand I imagine there is for bards.
What we bards want is to keep our dps level relative to the rest of the classes. Yes, we can do a lot of things, but rotating CF casting is not fun.It is clear that this is not just my opinion because there are fewer and fewer bards. An example, Luda's Nefarious Wail was for many years my most powerful spell, now it's a secondary attack. I cast it against trash and see almost no effect. Meanwhile the rest of the scouts/mages and some tanks ravage the area. Once upon a time, a good bard could embarrass a bad dps, not anymore. btw, I love these kind of posts: people who don't play bards and complain about bards complaining.
I spend most raids hitting tap essence continuously. If I try to cast other things, most of the time I loose all my mana and can't cast anything.
Having played both troub and a dirge in past raids, I'd urge you to find/search for a well known troub and look at his/her AAspec. I call your attention to Bagpipe Solo for a troub and Exuberant Encore for a dirge for starters. Bards are still sought and recruited for; however you really have to know how to play the toon and do a deep dive into your AA spec. There's a number of spells that DPS raid members will thank you for. Know your role and what spells make you valuable and you'll never be hurting for a group or raid. And always pack manastones and pots that restore your power. They are handy for those moments when you're waiting for Bagpipe or Exuberant to refresh.
Lets see, easiest encounter in the game, poppet.. what do you parse? We'll start there. Just for curiosity.
That data is of little use. Melody of affliction is a very powerful area. If the combat is very short or there is a lot of trash, it seems that the Dirge parses a lot. The problem is that its recast is over a minute and, in the meantime, there is nothing to make a worthy dps. Besides, nobody cares about parse in the easiest matchup. Except you, of course. In a raid, our parse is pitiful. Let them take away our area and upgrade our ca and spells.
I’ll say it this way then. What is your average DPS that we are upset about. Everyone is saying we parse low and I would like to see what you consider low/high/med for a bard. You can even break them apart between dirge and troub. How’s that for a correct question. We can say it’s low all we want but define low. You parsing an average of 20 billion, 100 billion, 300 billion….what is low….everyone’s, not just bards spells/CA are semi to fully borked across the board. MOA for trash is very OP as you stated, but that’s the same for most classes with that particular AA. I just used poppet as it’s a straight burn. If you want to use mayong then use mayong, idc, but I do want to know what bards are considering low. Say the numbers, not just that we’re low.
I consider it low when dps do between 10 and 20 times more dps than I do. When the tanks in my raid do 3 times more dps than me. As I said, what matters to me is the dps relative to other classes.
Lord Mayong Mistmoore: 11.35T DPS | 2.26T DPS | 2.06T DPS | 1.74T DPS | 1.45T DPS | 890.14B DPS | 588.74B Chanter cuz Mimic | 293.98B DPS | 277.26B DPS | 252.45B MT | 232.60B Scrap (Me as Troub) | 187.88B Just outside top 10... as asked before, what more are people expecting of a bard? lol Mind you, that's also while keeping jcaps rolling, av's, maestro's harmony etc.. you know, doing my job as a bard
