The Datacom Ad Network
Rokenn
Station Member
|
posted 12-21-1999 11:17 AM
I originally posted this to the Hybrids board, but it seems only this board gets checked so I am moving it here.
------------------------------------------------------------------
posted 12-03-99 12:57 PM
I've been playing EQ for over a year now, and I thoroughly enjoy it. My main character has been a bard for nearly all that time who is currently 41st level on the Karana server. Last month I launched the EQ Song Analysis web site (http://rgonzalez.net/EQSongs/) and have been getting lots of good information from my fellow bards. From their feedback and my own experience there are a few things I would like to ask.
I've noticed that since retail release the Bard seems to be often forgotten when it comes to testing out patches. Things like the accidental Selo's nerf (caused by the mem hacking), the Consonant Chain debacle (Sow'ed creatures could not be chained), and the most recent levitate bug are very obvious to someone who plays a bard. All of these unintended nerfs could have been avoided with less then 5 mins of play testing these changes on a bard. So the question here is beyond compiling the code what kind of play testing of changes to the magic system takes place?
Kelin's Lucid Lullaby, I recently tested this song out vs. a level one human warrior. My Bard was level 37 at the time, using the Lute of the Gypsy Princess and I have charisma of 141. Every round I got the 'so and so head nods' message and every nearly every round the test subject was able to attack me (about 1 in 10 rounds he would not).
Alenia's Disenchanting Melody, It does now work (9 months after release), but it strips good as well as bad spells from the party, making the song worse then useless. Is this the intended effect?
Angstlich's Appalling Screech, When used against very large creatures (Giants, Mammoths, Elephants, etc..) You have to be standing directly under or in some cases IN the NPC Avatar for the song to take effect. Otherwise the creature will glow, but no message or effect will be seen.
Solon's Song of the Sirens, Often times when using this in a group situation the newly charmed pet will agro on a party member. This could cause a nasty way to get around the PvP switch as the pet is immune to PC attack. The pet needs to ignore any player characters or pets on its hate list when charmed. Also sometimes player pets (party & non-party member pets) will attack the the Bard charming a NPC if the pet had been attacking the NPC.
Crission's Pixie Chase, This song seems to suffer from the same problem that Lullaby does, you get the message that the song has taken effect, but the target completely ignores the fact that it should be mesmerized (similar to the problem with Lucid Lullaby).
Fufil's Curtailing Chant and the other Chant songs, The percussion aspect of these songs is broken. Using a drum produces no additional effect (damage or resistance debuff).
Psalm of Cooling, The damage shield portion of this song does not seem to stack as logic would lead me to believe. I can understand that it would weaken fire based damage shields, but why would it weaken thistle based damage shields? I have not had a chance to see if it stacks with the necro damage shield (which I believe is cold based).
Denon's Dissension, The instrument portion of this song seems to be broken. In tests I have run using a horn made no difference in mana drain in PvP combat.
McVaxius Berserker Crescendo, I do not have this song yet, but other bards have informed me using a horn only increases the song's Strength effect, leaving the attack speed unchanged.
Verses of Victory, Many of the higher level bards I have spoken with are very upset by the recent downgrading of the attack speed component, is there any chance this can be restored to previous levels?
A while back GZ mentioned the meming time for bard songs would be decreased, but it still takes forever to mem songs (due to the lack of a mediate skill). Can this be looked into?
Can a switch be set up (similar to the Fast Destroy option) to give players the choice of 1-Always dropping items, 2-Confirm to drop, 3-No dropping of items. Bards I know have lost everything from Bladed Thulian Claws to Mistmoore Battledrums due to the "cracks" between hotkeys and swapping instruments/weapons.
Every time an answer is given on when the missing bard songs will be added the answer is very soon. Any chance of a better eta?
DoT change a while back lowered the damage of our Dot songs but didn't increase the duration, any chance that this could be balanced in some way?
One last thing, Brad has mentioned that he and members of the dev team monitor many boards and mailing lists, two excellent bard sites they should be reading are:
The Concert Hall message board (Backstage) http://www1.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?Action=Display&BoardID=105220
And the EQBards Onelist mailing list http://www.onelist.com Rokenn Swiftsong - Karana server
EQ Bard Song Analysis
http://rgonzalez.net/EQSongs/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted 12-08-99 12:13 PM
Well two of the questions have been answered via an email form another bard. Here is the scoop:
Is Lullaby bugged or has it had its effectiveness reduced? I cant seem to keep low, low greens asleep. I get the head nods message and they continue to attack. From my experience and the posts of other Bards seems like this
song has become almost useless. Is this just something we will have to live with?
REPSONSE - Nothing has changed - though it does lose some of its effectiveness against higher level creatures.
My comment: Hmmm maybe he did not read the question, since he did not say why deep greens can attack while there head is nodding.
2. Disenchanting Melody was implemented with the last patch. However, it removes all buffs (positive and negative) from the top down. This makes this song very unpopular as it effects the entire group. Was this an intentional design? If so would it be possible to make it a targeted song so as not to remove every buff on the whole team to assist one individual?
REPSONSE - This is the design of the song. It is made for when you really need bad magic stuff removed, and are not really picky about how it goes away
My comment: Well this song is going back to the page in my song book for completely useless songs. It is a shame to wait for this song to be fixed for 9 months to have it be completely useless.
Rokenn
---------------------------------------------------
posted 12-09-99 11:42 AM
I would like to hear a response to the questions as well, however, if I could get Brad to do only one thing, I would have him read the Concert Hall board. If you want to know what's going on with the bard class, go to the source.
When it comes down to it, bards are happy folks. We don't feel underpowered, we don't feel overpowered. But the unintentional side effects of "tuning" to other classes has got to stop. If one of the guys at Verant doesn't want to fully test the bard class, then at least listen to us poor minstrels out here please.
One last thing, I'd like to add to Rokenn's list..right clicking on songs in the spell book should show the instrument skill that song matches with. Bards have asked for this as long as I can remember, and I believe it still hasn't been implemented.
Druevan Valkyren - Karana
-----------------------------------------------------------------
posted 12-13-99 10:24 AM
An additional question, not that I ever expect an answer to this or the longer post above. After reading through the long list of nerfs/enhancements I noticed that high level bards are impacted by a hard speed cap when using Selo's Accelerando. A simple question, why?
Rokenn Swiftsong - Karana server
EQ Bard Song Analysis
http://rgonzalez.net/EQSongs/
|
Abashi
Station Member
|
posted 01-03-2000 11:51 PM
Bump.... er....I've forwarded the URL to GZ and will be speaking with him about it tomorrow to check into some of the questions that the original author posed. -Gordon
|
