[dev1135] New Special Job Abilities

"Malinconico Greatly reduces target's magic defense, magic evasion, INT and MND."

As a lifetime Bard, I am disappointed by this new job ability. Although it is true that many bards sub mage jobs and would benefit from this, it does not actually benefit Bards directly, especially those who are in a party with few mages.

Magic Evasion may be useful for offensive songs, threnodies, elegies and requiems, but it is our offensive mages that truely benefit. With Troubadour especially, we do not need this.

If you are going to add a new special job ability to Bard, I believe that it is best to add one that benefits bards directly, without requiring a specific party composition, or specific circumstances unrelated to the Bard themself.

I personally would love to see this ability slot taken by an ability such as "You can sustain one additional song effect." A change like this would directly benefit the Bard role itself, while continuing to spread its effect to the parties we support. It would free us to support any type of party, in far more situations, by expanding the abilities that define us, rather than tacking on the ill-fitting ability to support other specific jobs in a limited way.

This is not a new song. It is a new defining feature, and it should be made to support and enhance the essential nature of Bards, not to alter it by adding on something foreign to our nature.

I've tested the revised new brd SP on the test server with daurdabla 99 and does allow for 5 songs.

It doesn't directly allow you to add an extra song without the use of Daurdabla if you have 3 or more already up

E.g.
use new SP and cast 3 songs with g.horn and 2 with Daurdabla = gets 5
use Daurdabla to put up 4 songs and use SP and try and cast 5th with g.horn = still 4
use Daurdabla to put up 4 songs and use SP and try and cast 5th with a Daurdabla = gets 5th

As for the concept I'm a little torn, a 5th song would be useful pretty much all the time but I think I'd prefer something that prevented my songs being dispelled/stolen, but that would only be situationally useful.