Buff Bards or Riot

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Originally Posted by zcrash970

You are testing the abilities of a class before the level cap? I hope not. That would be silly.

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I was testing the output of MY CURRENT level with Vanilla Bard. Against the Wanderer's Minuet version of MY CURRENT level Bard. I am comparing myself against myself with WM. Not myself against other people. And MY vanilla bard rivals MY Wanderer's Minuet bard's dmg regardless of movement as I was testing on a training dummy. I have every intention of testing myself again when I hit 60 to see if anything has changed. But from what I have been seeing and reading from others, the dmg from WM does not appear to ever rival that of vanilla bard. Calling into question the usefulness of WM.

WM burst is amazing (All the CDs + EA + SW). At the moment, WM is useful during opening and phase change, it increases our DPS. After that i just turn it off. I dont think WM is meant to be on 100% of the time, at least for the current level.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zcrash970

You are testing the abilities of a class before the level cap? I hope not. That would be silly.

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This is another stupid introduction on SEs part to mechanic changing situations. WM is terrible while you level. It only gets to be maybe on-par at 56, and even then, you're sacrificing your mobility to be a turret with significantly higher chances of dropping your DPS. They apparently like the idea to introduce a new game-changing ability that will initially make you feel weaker as you level to unlock the intended abilities that require it. It's like how they introduced songs to the game. Your very first song you get? Requiem. What did most of us do after learning it? Cast it, aggro a ton of nearby mobs, then die/wipe the group. Essentially, it initially scares you off from the idea of using songs in dungeons/combat. BRILLIANT way to get people to learn... add an ability that unnecessarily aggros everything around it as their very first introduction to party utility.

The need to balance 5 cooldowns, possibly dance between long cast time stances (casting WM > turning it off > repeat), and manage song necessity while simultaneously losing your DPS output (since you need to stop your DPS to cast these songs AND take the damage reduction from it), makes the job somewhat overwhelming with substandard payoff. Remove the only attractive aspect of the job that differentiated it from others (mobility), while not only keeping damage reduction effects, but adding more means for harm to performance for wanting to play in a way that they've had you do for years. It's like they're trying to introduce the idea of the support role, while also claiming the support role does not exist in this game.

While I personally don't mind the idea of being a turret, I do mind the poor direction they've given the job. The idea that BRD will almost never outperform other equally skilled/geared DPS isn't a new one, but still having the job be among the lowest (alongside MCH) while introducing more variables that can reduce your performance for your role (DPS... there are no support jobs, according to Yoshi-P) is just stupid planning. BRD being lower potential DPS is fine, but it's starting to get out of hand. It really would be funny though if they decide to nerf Sidewinder because it can bring out a big number for once, as it's something BRD has never had before.

If BRD or MCH don't get fixed before Alexander, I have no interest in doing Alexander.

I wish they lower the Cooldown all buff and "Empyreal Arrow" & make the "Wanderer's Minuet" Casting time bit lower. Haven't reach full lvl yet so not sure about the "Sidewinder"

One thing/fix WM needs, IMO, is to let us cast the next spell shot after the other. As anyone whose played them knows, casters have always been able to sort of queue the next spell before the first cast finished, getting a head start in the next. Bards cant do that with WM I noticed. They cast, it ends, plays the entire shot animation, THEN you can begin the cast again.

..... not sure if that boost will buff them up to acceptable levels, but its a start. Not sure if anyones mentioned it yet. Plus its annoying to not have a constant cast bar rolling.:mad:

Bards want top DPS, mobility, and support skills.

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Originally Posted by Zephyranthes

Bards want top DPS, mobility, and support skills.

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...nice troll bait *ignores* Anyway, the whole casting thing just ruin the class, but I am sticking with it. Even if I get hate as I have been getting. You can blame SE.

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Originally Posted by Wavaryen

...nice troll bait *ignores* Anyway, the whole casting thing just ruin the class, but I am sticking with it. Even if I get hate as I have been getting. You can blame SE.

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But it's true.

Your argument about the casting thing not fitting the role is fine. The TC wanted buffs which isn't.

I'm just sick of seeing countless buff bard threads since pre-HW.

"3.0 Hotfixes" tonight. Let's get a GM response here or something.