Wanderer's Minuet/Gauss Barrel ideas!

Wanderer's Minuet
HP is slowly drained while increasing damage dealt to archer and bard weaponskills by 20% and all single-target ranged skills now pierce the target and hit all targets in a straight line dealing 65% of the original damage. Adds cast time to all archer and bard weaponskills, however you can still move whilst casting at a reduced rate. (25% snare.)

Gauss Barrel
Range of all skills is decreased by half is while increasing all damage dealt by 15%. Animations are changed to resemble a Shotgun and all single-target abilities will deal 50% of the damage to all targets near the targets in a cone in-front of you.

Optional
You no longer need a target to activate any ability, it simply hits all targets in-front of you, however the closest target will receive most damage. However, Gauss Barrel shuts itself off in a town.

Erm... Why? GB for MCH is fine as is. Plus you would be nerfing the damage by 10% and 15% respectively. If any changes should be made it would be allowing bards to use oGCDs while casting and allowing 2 stacks of enhanced slug shot.

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Originally Posted by Typhoria

If any changes should be made it would be allowing bards to use oGCDs while casting and allowing 2 stacks of enhanced slug shot.

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I don't think they're going to allow the use of oGCD skills while casting.

If we're changing WM, I'll add my suggestion from one of the older BRD threads. It does involve a revamp of Heavensward BRD skills and assumes the 2.0 BRD gameplay would be left intact, though.

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Abilities

lv52 Invocation - Calls forth the effect of a song. 30 second cooldown.
--If used while Army Paeon is active => Cancels song effect of Paeon and turns it into a group buff with a 24 second duration. Places Army Paeon on a 2 minute cooldown.
--If used while Mage Ballad is active => Cancels song effect of Ballad and turns it into a group buff with a 24 second duration. Places Mage Ballad on a 2 minute cooldown.
--If used while Foe Requiem is active => Cancels song effect of Requiem and applies the Requiem debuff to target enemy for 24 second. Places Foe Requiem on a 2 minute cooldown.
--If used while Wanderer's Minuet is active => Calls forth a special effect depending on which verse of the minuet is active.
lv54 Wanderer's Minuet - Chant the Wanderer's Minuet. Progresses as weapon skills are used. (Note: WM starts with access to verses I and II). Cannot be used with other songs.
lv56 Wanderer's Minuet III & IV - Grants access to verses III and IV of the wanderer's minuet.
lv58 Sidewinder - Delivers an attack with a potency of 150. Additional effect: If the target is suffering from a Venomous Bite or Windbite effect inflicted by you, Sidewinder's potency is increased to 250 for one effect, or 350 for both.
lv60 Wanderer's Minuet V - Grants access to verse V of the wanderer's minuet.

Wanderer's Minuet I + Invocation = Careful Aim - Increases damage of the next weapon skill, but triples it's TP cost.
Wanderer's Minuet II + Invocation = Widened Links - Reduces target enemy's resistance to piercing attacks for 20 seconds.
Wanderer's Minuet III + Invocation = Iron Jaws - Refreshes the duration of Windbite and Venomous Bite on target.
Wanderer's Minuet IV + Invocation = Battle Dance - Increases target ally's parry rate for 20 seconds.
Wanderer's Minuet V + Invocation = Echoing Tune - Your next single-target shot places a DoT effect that deals damage equal to the damage of the shot over 30 seconds (ex: You hit WM V+Invocation, then use Heavy Shot on the mob, dealing 300 damage. The mob gets a DoT on it that deals 300 damage over 30 seconds)

Note: Yes, this means that instead of getting 5 new buttons added to your action bar, you get 3 in total (Invocation, Wanderer's Minuet, Sidewinder)

Mechanics

So, the deal with this version of WM is that it's a progressive buff of sorts. Unlike Wrath, however, you don't stack it to max then consume it. Instead, you pick what verse you want to trigger with Invocation and get a specific effect. For example, if you're looking to refresh your DoTs, you know you have to pop WM (starting you at verse I), perform two weapon skills to progress you to verse III, then hit Invocation. If you want to just get the Careful Aim buff, then you pop WM and hit Invocation.

To make things clear, when you first get WM at lv54, you can only progress into the second verse (so you pop it, hit a weapon skill to progress to verse II, and will go back to verse I if you use a weapon skill after that). At lv56 you'd get access to verses III and IV of the minuet instead of an ability with its own icon, and to access verse III and IV you'd need to pop WM then use the number of weapon skills needed to progress into those verses. At lv60 you wouldn't get a new skill with its own icon, but instead the ability for WM to progress into verse V.

On the "cancels song effect" stuff, by this I mean that in the case of the first three songs (requiem, ballad, paeon), you'd still activate those songs if you want the continuous effect that drains your MP. Invocation gives you the option of "consuming" Paeon/Ballad/Requiem into temporary buffs/debuffs for situations where you may not be needed to perpetually keep those effects up. I'm not sure if 24 seconds is long enough, but the idea is that by using Invocation you'd apply a shorter duration buff/debuff while allowing longer uptime doing full DPS; you'd still get more bang for your buck from paeon/ballad/requiem if you let them consume your entire MP pool.

Progression and Applications

Basic Buff Progression: This is a nooby rotation and how WM would interact with it.

Click on Wanderer's Minuet (you gain Wanderer's Minuet I) => Click Heavy Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet II) => Click Straight Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet III) => Click Venomous Bite (you gain Wanderer's Minuet IV) => Click Windbite (you gain Wanderer's Minuet V) => Click on Bloodletter (you gain Wanderer's Minuet I)

Application 1: You want to show off your DPS

Click on Wanderer's Minuet (you gain Wanderer's Minuet I) => Click Invocation (Invocation consumes Wanderer's Minuet I and grants you the Careful Aim buff)

Application 2: You want to give the DRK in your party +parry to help him get procs.

Click on Wanderer's Minuet (you gain Wanderer's Minuet I) => Click Heavy Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet II) => Click Straight Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet III) => Click Venomous Bite (you gain Wanderer's Minuet IV) => Click Invocation while targeting the DRK tank (Invocation consumes Wanderer's Minuet IV and your tank gains the +parry buff)

Application 3: You want to renew DoT durations without reusing them

Click on Wanderer's Minuet (you gain Wanderer's Minuet I) => Click Heavy Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet II) => Click Straight Shot (you gain Wanderer's Minuet III) => Click Invocation while targeting the mob affected by your DoTs (Invocation consumes Wanderer's Minuet III and refreshes the duration of your DoTs on the mob)

Application 4: You only have one caster DPS in the group and they still want Requiem.

Click on Foe Requiem => Click on Invocation (you lose the Foe Requiem song effect, target mob receives the Requiem debuff for 24 seconds, Foe Requiem is placed on a 2-minute cooldown)

I don't mind the new playstyle at all. Not one bit. But, if I had to improve it, I'd take a few abilities off the cast timer. Maybe iron jaws and straight shot. That way, you'd have a decent attack to use while running around.

...i just don't see what's so bad about turning off WM when you need to move. You barely need to move at all. Literally the only two fights I ever turn it off during is waukkeon vaccum phase after the tornadoes spawn, and ravana. If anything, it adds a new dimension to the playstyle.

Minuet itself is fine as is. While the Bard has that up, I would enhance certain other abilities and traits.

Barrage can now make a 'single target' weapon skill hit 4 times.

River of Blood now allows BL/RoD to increase in potency up to 2 times, if reset by either VB or WB and isn't on cooldown (potency increase resets upon use).

Sidewinder now has a third potency increase. If Minuet is active, Flaming Arrow can increase Sidewinder's potency a third time. If the target happens to be inflicted by both of your DoTs and is standing in your Flaming Arrow...Sidewinder will hit with a potency of 450 (I believe what it was when originally released).

Again....all that only available when Minuet is active.

Also, change the debuff on RoD to Piercing Resistance down...no need to leave that exclusive to Dragoons.