BRD idea: Songs with MP usage

[Connor]

If they did something like this, I think reclassifying Songs as ‘spells’ and removing the cool-down could potentially alleviate a lot of Bard’s issues with the strictness of song timing/rotation. At the same time, if there was a risk of ‘bottoming out’ on MP with improper usage, it would still give the job a ‘fail state’ (should it be deemed necessary). Plus as you mentioned they could use MP drain/restoration if they really wanted to enforce a specific song order.

For Paeon they could make it a ‘MP restoration’ phase where hitting weapon skills or Heartbreak Shot restores a certain amount of MP. Like, if Minuet and Ballad cost 5000 MP (2500 each) total, then you restore 5000 MP over the course of Paeon, which also gives you an additional 5000.
Alternatively, it could be cool if Paeon was a ‘support stance song’ that added effects to certain skills like Minne/Paean/Troubadour(maybe), though more flexibility with song order would be needed for that to work. I mean, we do already have 2 pure dps songs, so maybe having one go in a different direction could be fun.

And in this scenario honestly I’d go all-in and make Nature’s Minne and the Warden’s Paean spells, with a 1000MP cost. Maybe update Paean to give a HP shield if no debuff is removed, add a regen to Nature’s Minne and lower duration if necessary. They could add Foe’s Requiem at the same cost but with like a 2-3% vulnerability up effect to counter high uptime and a fairly short duration (10 seconds). It’d ultimately be used for 2-min obviously, but with the extra MP you’d also have flexibility to apply it in-between if Minne/Paean aren’t needed.

Additionally for DoTs I feel like in this scenario they could act as the ‘MP management’ aspect of the job? Like having DoT ticks after ‘X’ time has elapsed to proc MP recovery, or certain abilities that restore MP having that restoration scale with whether they have 1 or 2 DoTs (Foe Requiem could count for three?)

Those are my thoughts, naturally I’d love this personally. Though note I’m putting aside balancing / community perceptions/ etc, just my theory of what would be ‘fun’ lol

[Xieldras]

If they did something like this, I think reclassifying Songs as ‘spells’ and removing the cool-down could potentially alleviate a lot of Bard’s issues with the strictness of song timing/rotation. At the same time, if there was a risk of ‘bottoming out’ on MP with improper usage, it would still give the job a ‘fail state’ (should it be deemed necessary). Plus as you mentioned they could use MP drain/restoration if they really wanted to enforce a specific song order.

For Paeon they could make it a ‘MP restoration’ phase where hitting weapon skills or Heartbreak Shot restores a certain amount of MP. Like, if Minuet and Ballad cost 5000 MP (2500 each) total, then you restore 5000 MP over the course of Paeon, which also gives you an additional 5000.
Alternatively, it could be cool if Paeon was a ‘support stance song’ that added effects to certain skills like Minne/Paean/Troubadour(maybe), though more flexibility with song order would be needed for that to work. I mean, we do already have 2 pure dps songs, so maybe having one go in a different direction could be fun.

And in this scenario honestly I’d go all-in and make Nature’s Minne and the Warden’s Paean spells, with a 1000MP cost. Maybe update Paean to give a HP shield if no debuff is removed, add a regen to Nature’s Minne and lower duration if necessary. They could add Foe’s Requiem at the same cost but with like a 2-3% vulnerability up effect to counter high uptime and a fairly short duration (10 seconds). It’d ultimately be used for 2-min obviously, but with the extra MP you’d also have flexibility to apply it in-between if Minne/Paean aren’t needed.

Additionally for DoTs I feel like in this scenario they could act as the ‘MP management’ aspect of the job? Like having DoT ticks after ‘X’ time has elapsed to proc MP recovery, or certain abilities that restore MP having that restoration scale with whether they have 1 or 2 DoTs (Foe Requiem could count for three?)

Those are my thoughts, naturally I’d love this personally. Though note I’m putting aside balancing / community perceptions/ etc, just my theory of what would be ‘fun’ lol

Initially I did think about removing the cooldowns on the songs, but I decided against it when writing this because I did not have any ideas about issues that could arise. And great idea about the support options for Minne and Paean! I do love those two skills, even if they aren't as useful currently.
With this idea, the songs would probably be weaved as so: Minuet -> Ballad -> Paean -> Ballad and restart the chain. However players would have options and not be locked into a specific rotation, especially with no cooldown as your said.

Naturally I'm also in favor of bringing back Foe's Requiem. I know it's a huge debuff which means Bard will be picked more often, but I just miss it so. All in all, I agree with your suggestions!

As for 'fun', it is indeed subjective to everyone. But I think it is what I feel is missing from general gameplay: everyone focuses so much on damage, and optimisation, that they forget the fun aspect. Is it fun to play? To me a Bard integrating its MP management into its spells would be a resounding "YES".