Bard DOT and AS

[Hailin]

Last night I got my bard to 17, yay me I know I am slow shush.

But I recieved my first absorb shield and my second DOT. So i decided to build a song around this.

Umm are they broken.

The AS is suppose to give 10ac and yet I was watching the character sheet in and out of fight and it does nothing.

Also my two DOTS don't do a single lick of damage not even the 2 damage it is said too. Unless I missed it in the combat notes which is not surprising cause they scroll by so fast. But i don't see an effect or nothing and nothing on screen, with the scrolling combat text. Again maybe I missed it.

I will have to play with it some more but again I ask are these broken?
Spells are:

Irion’s Chorus of Shields Causes a curtain of sound to protect you and your allies that increases armor class, block skill and absorbs damage each pulse. Type: Chorus Instrument: String Cost: 5/sec energy.

Illestine’s Harmony of Warmth Increases the cold resistance you and your allies and grants them a 2 point damage shield. Type: Embellishment Instrument: Wind Cost: 2/sec energy.

Ariezel’s Assonance of Pain Deals arcane damage over time to all opponents near you. Type: Chorus. Instrument: Brass. Cost: 2/sec energy.

I will look again tonight maybe I just missed it cause it is such a small amount. lol Now that i think about it This IHoW is useless as a DS. Why even have the 2 damage shield just make it a resistance shield straight out.

[Tyronee]

The Chorus of shields was working before yesterdays patch. The damage shield on it is only like 8 points though. Nice for groups cause the tanks gets the increase block chance.

Harmony of Warmth is pretty much only going to be used when fighting things with cold spells. Not enough of a damage shield to be worth putting in for that. Not sure how much cold protection this actually offers. Gotta find some casters and try it out.

Assonance of Pain is bugged in that if you use any ability at all it "resets" the Assonance causing it to do nothing and show a Target has partially resisted Assonance of Pain message in the combat tag. I think if you just sit there it will tick its damage. So for now leave it out and use something else.

[Azathul]

The Chorus of shields was working before yesterdays patch. The damage shield on it is only like 8 points though. Nice for groups cause the tanks gets the increase block chance.


The block chance was taken off during the global evasion adjustement. Now Chorus of Shields provides only AC and the Rune. Also worth noting the Rune does not stack with itself when you get multiple chorus slots.


Harmony of Warmth is pretty much only going to be used when fighting things with cold spells. Not enough of a damage shield to be worth putting in for that. Not sure how much cold protection this actually offers. Gotta find some casters and try it out.


Each Harmony of Warmth component adds 8 points of resistance. The damage shield is pretty weak (4 points fire), even when stacked three times.


Assonance of Pain is bugged in that if you use any ability at all it "resets" the Assonance causing it to do nothing and show a Target has partially resisted Assonance of Pain message in the combat tag. I think if you just sit there it will tick its damage. So for now leave it out and use something else.

This is the same for all of the Bard damage songs. Any time you use any ability while they are working the clock resets on the damage component and you get the message about a partial resist.

[Hailin]

So CoS is working? Is it just not showing the ac adjustment in the character sheet while it is active?

I still think it is ridiculous that they even gave us these dots. But maybe that is a personal opinion. They are so painfully low that they are not worth sheet!
I would rather they just make them straight resists and dump the DoT's But up them as resists even if only 5 points. Or make them stackable. Are they stackable? Cause then I could see there use. You could have resist song for certain dungeons.

[Azathul]

So CoS is working? Is it just not showing the ac adjustment in the character sheet while it is active?

I still think it is ridiculous that they even gave us these dots. But maybe that is a personal opinion. They are so painfully low that they are not worth sheet!
I would rather they just make them straight resists and dump the DoT's But up them as resists even if only 5 points. Or make them stackable. Are they stackable? Cause then I could see there use. You could have resist song for certain dungeons.

Just to clarify. There is your resist/damage shield (Harmony of Warmth) and there is your Song Damage (DoT?) (Ariezel’s Assonance of Pain). The points on the damage shield have nothing to do with the song. Eight points of resist and a little damage is meh, I agree, but it has its uses. Both of these components are stackable. If you have multiple enhancements of Harmony of Warmth in you get their combined effects (24 resistance boost at 3 of them). Likewise the damage from Ariezel's stacks with itself if you have the slots to put in multiple.

Ariezel's does go up in damage and with a brass instrument can have a fair bit of impact. The timer reset on it is a problem, but the general hope is that it is a bug and will be fixed.

[Sufren]

Forgive the hijack.

In the case that these were working properly, I don't understand the point of making it any Instrument type other than voice. I thought Sigil stated that Bards weren't going to be sitting in the back with their instrument during the fight as they did in EQ? To make these useable, you'ld have to use an instrument (again, assuming they worked as desired).

Did I just missunderstand something?

[Hailin]

Suffren you are right. IMO they may have to go the Instrument slot route in the long run like FF11 did.

I know there are ppl that hate that game. But they just got bards almost right in my mind you know.

I am interested to see what sigil has in mind for us bards as far as instruments cause at this point outside a heal song and a run song I don't see how instrument switching will be useful for damage. Outside of having a ton of macros. /shrug.

And if it goes that route I may have to rethink my main I am not exactly macro quick lol.

[Lasslan]

Suffren you are right. IMO they may have to go the Instrument slot route in the long run like FF11 did.That draws to mind an image of a one man band. In the left hand is a sword, in the right hand a dagger, and attached to a harness in front is a horn, drums on the feet...

Which is to say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Then again, neither does actively using an instrument while shooting a bow. So if they have one, it doesn't make sense not to have the other.

[Sufren]

That draws to mind an image of a one man band. In the left hand is a sword, in the right hand a dagger, and attached to a harness in front is a horn, drums on the feet...

Which is to say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Then again, neither does actively using an instrument while shooting a bow. So if they have one, it doesn't make sense not to have the other.

I can see all of this working if/when armor w/ instrument mods become more prevalent. Right now, they exist but they are few and far between.

Its cool, at least I wasn't missing anything.

[Azathul]

Suffren you are right. IMO they may have to go the Instrument slot route in the long run like FF11 did.

I know there are ppl that hate that game. But they just got bards almost right in my mind you know.

I am interested to see what sigil has in mind for us bards as far as instruments cause at this point outside a heal song and a run song I don't see how instrument switching will be useful for damage. Outside of having a ton of macros. /shrug.

And if it goes that route I may have to rethink my main I am not exactly macro quick lol.

As of the last dev comment I am aware of, the instrument or weapon choice is here to stay. It is an inherent part of how they see the class. You will in general be forced to decide between equipping an intrument for maximum modifier or using your weapons. Combat songs, the things that modify your combat abilities, are modified by voice so as to support the idea of Bards as dual-wielding melee DPS.

The Bardic Direct Damage songs are in general modified by Brass. They seem to be a 'utility' option though to date I have not found any scenario where they really provide me with much utility. Then again with everything resetting their timer I almost never find any reason to use them outside of when I test their values.

[Scorbane]

You will in general be forced to decide between equipping an intrument for maximum modifier or using your weapons. Combat songs, the things that modify your combat abilities, are modified by voice so as to support the idea of Bards as dual-wielding melee DPS.



After I've learned just how pathetic our dps is against a pvp opponent, I'm really not at all bothered with using an instrument. I can give a protective tank everything I got (max dex/strength/rest in con for attribution), at level 20 using level 27 blue weapons shortsword/dagger, with level 18-20 armor blue basic stat armor (no yellows). Gear is mostly focused on dex. The hardest part is even logging the class in. I have some very basic utility that any buffer class/protective tank could easily out perform.

I honestly believe my main benefit to my group is my run speed. I have some parlor tricks like group levitate, underwater breathing, yada yada, but as you peer deeper in the the development of class in VG, while they may start out quite differently, the eventual cross over of same abilities under a different name is astounding.

I can barely get a paladin my level or a few lower down to 70% health...best I can do is mezz and run. Between those crazy shield blocks, and even post patch #1 mitigation I haveno doubt a pally could kill me 3 times over with little hassle. DKs, warriors, will be even worse probably. Casters will nuke me dead in secs flat - and all that silly utility means squat when it benefits bob the ranger with the dps out the wazoo, but does literally nothing for me.

Soloing 2 dot level 18 mobs at 20, I lose 50 % of my health on average...IF I crit, which is not very often or very low damage, then I can at times 3 shot them. Seventy-five percent of the time it's my health bar at 50%.

Will this class ever get better...if my dps is going to be that bad, or that avoidable due to so many classes with ways to out mitigate, spell buff etc my damage the give me heals and real buffs and I can be a DAoC bard.

[Charnas]

Right now the only songs that are worth using are the move speed songs, and the songs that add either haste or direct damage. The runes are a piddly amount compared to the damage that mobs deal at the levels you get them, not to mention the fact that they don't stack on top of each other. The damage shields at 8 points per hit against mobs with hps close to 10k? Worthless. The dot damage is a joke unless you're using a horn with it, and even then it doesn't make up for the lack of using your swords to hit things. The regen songs are weak, and I can barely see a change in regen outside of combat, maybe cutting off 5-10 seconds from my rests...

[Sufren]

My intention in my hijack post was not to start complaining about bards. I love mine. Yeah, he's buggy and has isses like every other class but I don't think I could bring myself to play anything else.

And, to be honest, if every song comp worked as we believe it should, choosing the best comps for each circumstance would be nigh impossible since there are so many.

[Nostalgix]

After I've learned just how pathetic our dps is against a pvp opponent, I'm really not at all bothered with using an instrument. I can give a protective tank everything I got (max dex/strength/rest in con for attribution), at level 20 using level 27 blue weapons shortsword/dagger, with level 18-20 armor blue basic stat armor (no yellows). Gear is mostly focused on dex. The hardest part is even logging the class in. I have some very basic utility that any buffer class/protective tank could easily out perform.

I honestly believe my main benefit to my group is my run speed. I have some parlor tricks like group levitate, underwater breathing, yada yada, but as you peer deeper in the the development of class in VG, while they may start out quite differently, the eventual cross over of same abilities under a different name is astounding.

I can barely get a paladin my level or a few lower down to 70% health...best I can do is mezz and run. Between those crazy shield blocks, and even post patch #1 mitigation I haveno doubt a pally could kill me 3 times over with little hassle. DKs, warriors, will be even worse probably. Casters will nuke me dead in secs flat - and all that silly utility means squat when it benefits bob the ranger with the dps out the wazoo, but does literally nothing for me.

Soloing 2 dot level 18 mobs at 20, I lose 50 % of my health on average...IF I crit, which is not very often or very low damage, then I can at times 3 shot them. Seventy-five percent of the time it's my health bar at 50%.

Will this class ever get better...if my dps is going to be that bad, or that avoidable due to so many classes with ways to out mitigate, spell buff etc my damage the give me heals and real buffs and I can be a DAoC bard.

Tru using a snare and stacked DOT components in a song while holding a brass instrument and stay 40m away from that pally/DK. He might not kill you that easily ;)

Right now the only songs that are worth using are the move speed songs, and the songs that add either haste or direct damage. The runes are a piddly amount compared to the damage that mobs deal at the levels you get them, not to mention the fact that they don't stack on top of each other. The damage shields at 8 points per hit against mobs with hps close to 10k? Worthless. The dot damage is a joke unless you're using a horn with it, and even then it doesn't make up for the lack of using your swords to hit things. The regen songs are weak, and I can barely see a change in regen outside of combat, maybe cutting off 5-10 seconds from my rests...

Stack several regens in a song and use a wind instrument. Your HP or energy bar will fill up much more quickly (HP or energy as I'm used to play a song that regens one or the other for max effect).

[Muggi]

And, to be honest, if every song comp worked as we believe it should, choosing the best comps for each circumstance would be nigh impossible since there are so many.

Exactly..and that's how it should be.

There should not be a definitive "group song", as there is..since we cannot use half our songparts without lagging our group out to no end (anything that places an effect on a mob, even snare..take it out, and watch your FPS skyrocket if you're in a group) or having little to no effect (AC/ward songs). Our best AC song at lvl 50 has roughly the effect of a sub-20 Cleric's single AC buff. How pathetic is that?

If our songparts all worked, there would be at least a modicum of debate and personal decision-making on what songparts to run.

I am legally required to mention how much the nerf to invis sucks. SUCKS! Ruined a fun/challenging game mechanic, thx!