Early Look: Bard Changes

[Ultramaetche1]

This would make it much harder to use. Remember, there is only one Song now, and Sustaining Song is part of it. It's no longer a short heal over time, it's a part of your singular ability Bardic Inspiration. We want to give them less buttons, not more.

You want to give us less buttons that we have to use more.

Currently:
1) Courage
2) Excellence
3) Spellsong Trance (currently AoE, will be changed with this though...)
4) Sustaining Song (currently AoE, will also be changed)
5) Spellsong Vigor (currently single target, however you don't need to put it on people like the barbarian, so typically 3-4 peeps in a raid, 2-3 in party, and that's ONLY if you have T5 SS)

7-8 songs in a raid | 6-7 songs in a party (Typically as Spellsinger Bard) | 4 songs as warchanter

Proposed:
1) Inspiration (for however many people in group)

12 songs in a raid | 6 songs in a party (both SS and WC)

To me, that looks pretty bad. You may be giving us less DIFFERENT buttons to hit, however we will be using them more than we currently do.

[Lynnabel]

To me, that looks pretty bad. You may be giving us less DIFFERENT buttons to hit, however we will be using them more than we currently do.

I think an important thing to consider is that the reason so few different Songs were used is their effects being pretty uniquely bad. Approaching this from the angle from which we're trying to maneuver to, which is to say that each song is worth singing on each person, it works out.

[Aelonwy]

Completely unrelated, when you use Bardic Inspiration it now randomly picks one of the available bardic music sound loops to play, so expect a little bit more musical variety when you're passing out buffs

Now that sounds like fun.

[Zhijie]

Hello! We're here today to give you a first look at plans for significant changes to Bard coming up soon! This is pretty early in the process, so things are still subject to change; we'd love to know what you think!

BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Bard Songs of the modern era have been eroded in their usefulness as other buff and item effects have infringed upon their channels. They were meant to be a small, ever present bonus, and to instill the feeling that no matter what character you are playing, a Bard will help them excel at what they do best. In practice, however, they fall short - both on their effects and in how they actually feel to the player. It also takes a long time for a Bard to sing all of their songs, and most of them provide minimal - if any - bonuses for a very short period of time. Bards right now need a drastic change to bring them closer to pen and paper and to appropriate power levels, and we hope this accomplishes that goal in the most elegant way possible.

GOALS:

• Recapture the feeling of a classical pen and paper Bard
• Reduce the time it takes for a Bard to buff the party
• Provide a meaningful reason as to why a party would want a Bard with them
• Remove some of the not-quite-so-fun mechanics from the buff playstyle as a Bard
• Help reduce strain on game performance by cleaning up the auras to play a lot nicer in a group
• Clean up text inconsistencies and clear out bugs behind the scenes to make it easier to have future items/abilities affect Bard songs

THE PLAN:
Bards will no longer sing their songs individually, one at a time. Instead, their Single-Target Bard Songs will be collapsed into one "song" - known as their Bardic Inspiration - and their Area of Effect Bard Songs will simply be constantly pulsing from their location to all players. For example, the single target Bard Song “Inspire Heroics” is now automatically played (meaning its effects are added) when the Bard plays their Inspiration for their target - as long as the Bard meets the song’s Perform and level requirements.

For reference:

• Aria: these are the passive Chants and Inspire Courage/Greatness
• Bardic Inspiration: these are the single target Bard songs

Bardic Aria will become active at Bard level 1, and contain Inspire Courage at first. Bards will gain access to Bardic Inspiration at Bard level 3, which will initially contain Inspire Competence. The active Bard songs that would be granted are instead changed to passive feats that display their effects are and how they are applied.

THE SONGS:
This is how the basic Bard Songs are changing by their effect:

Inspire Courage now grants a Music bonuses to Attack, Damage, saves versus Fear, and Universal Spell Power. These start at a base of +1 Attack, Damage, Saves vs Fear, and 3 Universal Spell Power. (Max values: Damage +8 (4 from Bard levels, 3 from Warchanter, 1 from Fatesinger), Attack +8 (4 from Bard Levels, 3 from Warchanter, 1 from Fatesinger), Saves vs Fear +8 (4 from Bard Levels, 3 from Warchanter, 1 from Fatesinger), Universal Spell Power 30 (4 from Bard Levels, 3 from Warchanter, 3 from Fatesinger - x3 per increment))

Inspire Competence now grants +4 Music bonuses to all Skills.

Inspire Greatness now grants Music bonuses to PRR and healing amplification, as well as 20 temporary HP. These can be increased from their base of +3 PRR, +10 healing amp, and base 20 temp HP. Healing Amp will stay at 10 no matter what, but Music of the Dead will add 10 Negative Amp, and Music of the Makers will add 10 repair amp. Temp HP will start at 20, but the 12th level core (Fighting Spirit) in Warchanter will change it to your Charisma bonus (double in Epics). (Max Values: PRR +12 (3 base, 6 from Warchanter, 3 from Fatesinger))

Inspire Heroics will give a +4 Music bonus to all Saves, +4 Music bonus to Armor Class, and +4% Music bonus to dodge.

THE ARIA:
This is the constantly playing music that follows the Bard from place to place. The Aria of a Bard is constantly active and requires no additional input from the player. This Aria is a large Area of Effect that matches the distance of the current Warchanter passive auras. The Aria is only active if the character has at least something that would be applied.

At Bard level 1, and with 3 ranks in perform, all players in the Aria receive the benefits of Inspire Courage.

At Bard level 9 and with 12 ranks in perform, all players in the Aria receive the benefits of Inspire Greatness.

Arcane Shield Chant is now part of the Aria, providing 2/4/6 to elemental resistance.

Ironskin Chant is now part of the Aria, providing DR 2/4/6 and adds 2/4/6 to the PRR granted from Inspire Greatness.

Reckless Chant is now part of the Aria, providing 2/4/6 Doublestrike, Doubleshot, and adds 2/4/6 to the Universal Spell power of Inspire Courage.

Expeditious Chant is now part of the Aria, providing 5/10/15% Action Boost bonus to Movement Speed.

Chant of Power is now part of the Aria, providing 2/4/6% melee and ranged damage and spell critical chance for all spells.

Inspire Excellence is now part of the Aria, providing a +2 Music bonus to each ability score.

Also, Aria from Fatesinger is getting a name change into "Ballad" so we can use Aria as the name for this game feature.

BARDIC INSPIRATION:
This is, essentially, one button for every single target bard song in the game. After a brief animation and some music - just like the old Bard Songs - this single Song will apply all of the previously available single target songs - and the short lasting Spellsinger songs - to one ally (or yourself) at the same time. This activation will cost one Bard Song, just like the old Bard Songs did.

These are separate than the always-on songs because of their relative power level, with one exception that I will explain further below. Elyd Edge’s Inspiring Echoes will now cause this single-target Bard Song to always also apply to you as well, regardless of who you have selected, instead of its original effect.

These all last for the same amount of time - which is now 1m plus 30s per Bard level. If you have an ability that "rides along" with a Bard Song - such as Frolic from the Song of Freedom - it's duration will be changed to match your Bard Songs and it will ride along with Bardic Inspiration instead. Effects and abilities that increase your Bard Song duration will increase both the base Bard Song effects in your Bardic Inspiration, as well as anything else that comes along with the ride.

At Bard level 3, and with 6 ranks of Perform, this will include Inspire Competence.

At Bard level 15 and with 18 ranks in perform, this will include Inspire Heroics.

Spell Song Vigor is now part of this song, restoring spell points over time.

Sustaining Song is now part of this song, restoring health. Music of the Dead will add to this, applying a negative energy heal to Undead characters (aka Pale Master Wizards). Music of the Makers will add to this as well, applying a repair heal to Constructs and Living Constructs (aka Warforged/Bladeforged and the Iron Defender Artificer pet). These all scale with Positive/Negative/Repair spell power, respectively. This was AoE, but now it is single target due to the technical complication of dynamically filtering undead-specific heal over time effects, as we need to be able to tell if you're a Pale Master at the time of application to avoid putting the wrong heal on you.

Spell Song Trance is now part of this song, granting +1 Music bonus to all DCs and 10% Music bonus spell discount.

Song of Arcane Might is now part of this song, granting +1 Music bonus to caster levels.

The Song Fragments from Fatesinger now apply to you when you use your Bardic Inspiration. They are otherwise unchanged in effect. The same is true for anything that used to trigger on any Bard Song - it now works on Bardic Inspiration instead. This includes single-shot effects such as Prodigy and Words of Encouragement.

THE FEATS:
There is now a new general feat, available to Bards level 12 and above (must have 15 trained ranks in Perform):

Improved Bardic Music: Inspire Greatness now grants an additional +1 to all Skills, and Inspire Heroics now grants an additional +1 to Armor Class, Dodge, and all Saves.

Lasting Inspiration (the Bard epic feat) will remain unchanged.

FATESINGER:
Fatesinger will continue to ONLY provide the old activated Song version of Inspire Courage (although it will be the new version of Inspire Courage's effect that lives entirely on the Music channels) - no Aria or Bardic Inspiration. Fatesinger's ride along buffs will trigger on both your Bardic Inspiration AND the Fatesinger Inspire Courage, so you'll still be able to make use of it if you are not a Bard.


A lot of Fatesinger's Abilities will scale your Bard Songs in new ways:
O Fortuna: +1/2/3 PRR from Inspire Greatness, +1/2/3 personal fort and reflex saves
Allure: +3/6/9 Universal Spell Power from Inspire Courage, +2/4/6 Perform, Haggle, and Bluff, and 1 Song
Tailwind: +0/0/1 Damage from Inspire Courage, +1/2/3 competence to damage for missile weapons
Lucidity: +0/0/1 Attack from Inspire Courage, +2/4/6 Concentration/Diplomacy, +1/2/3 UMD, +1 Song.

WARCHANTER:
Warchanter's 12th level Core (Fighting Spirit) now reads: +10 HP, +1 Damage from Inspire Courage. Your Inspire Greatness now uses your Charisma score for its Temporary HP, double in epics.

Warchanter's 18th level Core (Victory Song) now reads: The range of your Bardic Aria is doubled. You have +20 HP, and Base Attack Bonus equal to your character level.

The Warchanter Capstone now reads: You have +25 HP, +2 Strength, and +2 Con. You can expend a Bard Song to scream the songs of your frozen ancestors, forcing enemies in an area to make a fortitude save versus Freeze or be slowed significantly. Either way, they take significant cold damage over time. This was changed due to the Warchanter capstone no longer making mechanical sense in the new Bard Song flow - there's no need to give Music bonuses when everything's already a Music bonus!

CONCLUSION:
We hope very much that these changes preserve the spirit of a Bard without any of the old, less interactive parts. Drastically reduced buff time and increased buff effectiveness will go a long way to making Bards more team players, and new character options open up build diversity for players to explore. Please let us know what you think!

Hello, advice about the Bard.

I have two accounts, the second account is Bard, I only use the Bard's song buffs, because Artificer is too weak, even if I buy two accounts, they still can't exceed one Warlock.

I hope to lengthen the Bard's buffs. If you help people like me, they will definitely buy double copies of DLC and VIP, even more, Intel Optane SSD is coming.

Thank you.

[SpartanKiller13]

It's a really hacky copy and paste of the back end of Sustaining Song, so whatever Sustaining Song used to cost, this will cost :P

Thanks!

43 AP Swashbuckler
31 AP Spellsinger
6 AP Dragonborn

Sigh .......

Y'all heard of Racial AP? Should help you out a bit for builds where you're maxed.

Currently: 7-8 songs in a raid | 6-7 songs in a party
Proposed: 12 songs in a raid | 6 songs in a party

To me, that looks pretty bad. You may be giving us less DIFFERENT buttons to hit, however we will be using them more than we currently do.

Less hotbar waste, longer durations on everything, and random music each time? Sign me up.

Also it's far superior every time you're less than a full party. Oh, and most raids have a few minutes up front while you wait for someone, so that's a perfect time for the extra songs. Aaaand it's 12 songs once, vs re-buffing every time they wear off (which you didn't account for).

[Zhijie]

Hello! We're here today to give you a first look at plans for significant changes to Bard coming up soon! This is pretty early in the process, so things are still subject to change; we'd love to know what you think!

BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Bard Songs of the modern era have been eroded in their usefulness as other buff and item effects have infringed upon their channels. They were meant to be a small, ever present bonus, and to instill the feeling that no matter what character you are playing, a Bard will help them excel at what they do best. In practice, however, they fall short - both on their effects and in how they a +2 Music bonus to each ability score.

......

CONCLUSION:
We hope very much that these changes preserve the spirit of a Bard without any of the old, less interactive parts. Drastically reduced buff time and increased buff effectiveness will go a long way to making Bards more team players, and new character options open up build diversity for players to explore. Please let us know what you think!

Hello, advice about the Bard.

I have two accounts, the second account is Bard, I only use the Bard's song buffs, because Artificer is too weak, even if I buy two accounts, they still can't exceed one Warlock.

I hope to lengthen the Bard's buffs. If you help people like me, they will definitely buy double copies of DLC and VIP, even more, Intel Optane SSD is coming.

Thank you.

[Hipparan]

Hey guys! We've heard you loud and clear about the loss of Sustaining Song as a directional heal, and are just going to give you the best of both worlds. Boast, the not so memorable temp HP single shot song from Warchanter has been revamped into the following:

Soothing Song: Sing a brief song to apply a small positive heal to your target and nearby party members.

This will play exactly like the old Sustaining Song did, but with no lingering heal over time. It's also only T2 in Warchanter, so not completely out of reach in the earliest portions of the game. If you'd still like that tasty tasty super long heal over time, it's right where Sustaining Song used to be, and if you want the same utility in a pinch Sustaining Song used to have you can sing this song instead

Behind the scenes, I'm swiping the actual effect and scaling 1:1, as well as its directional targeting and range, so your numbers and gameplay feel should be exactly the same before and after this shuffle. It's in Warchanter because there isn't room in Spellsinger and Boast is kinda dumb so we're just gonna bend some rules so you guys can get the best of both worlds.

I appreciate bringing back the old Sustaining Song in the form of Soothing Song, but once again Warchanter gets something awesome while Spellsinger gets ignored. The only decent thing is that since Soothing Song is at tier 2, Spellsingers should be able to access it without too many issues. Personally my build tends to put a lot in racial trees and a lot in Harper, but I don't expect changes to be made to specifically benefit me.

I understand that the Spellsinger tree is packed with a lot of stuff, but surely there's some things here and there that could be boosted such as Enthrallment or Song of Capering. Reverberate could really use some work too.

To make an analogy, the new and improved Warchanter feels like a War domain Cleric, while Spellsingers are stuck as Paladins.

Do people just love Warchanters so much they don't care about Spellsingers?

[HastyPudding]

It's a really hacky copy and paste of the back end of Sustaining Song, so whatever Sustaining Song used to cost, this will cost :P

Seems a bit strange to have a minor aoe heal cost a song. It would probably do well to increase its effectiveness by maybe 30%: reasoning being that sustaining song was an AoE heal plus an AoE HoT and the AoE heal was never that strong. This would be a pretty weak heal in exchange for a song, which, especially in lower levels, is a fairly limited resource.

[Erofen]

Hello, advice about the Bard.

I have two accounts, the second account is Bard, I only use the Bard's song buffs, because Artificer is too weak, even if I buy two accounts, they still can't exceed one Warlock.

I hope to lengthen the Bard's buffs. If you help people like me, they will definitely buy double copies of DLC and VIP, even more, Intel Optane SSD is coming.

Thank you.

I also have not only a bard on my main account (currently a swashchanter), but a dualbox bard as well. Sure these changes are great for the warchanter, but they honestly suck for the spellsinger buff bot. Since it is a dualbox, I will no longer be able to give my party +2 to stats that lasts for any longer than a minute (if like current chant durations). Also making the sustaining song and trance single target (like the main 2 things I'd make sure to always cast) is definitely not a QoL improvement and is just rediculous.

Seems a bit strange to have a minor aoe heal cost a song. It would probably do well to increase its effectiveness by maybe 30%: reasoning being that sustaining song was an AoE heal plus an AoE HoT and the AoE heal was never that strong. This would be a pretty weak heal in exchange for a song, which, especially in lower levels, is a fairly limited resource.

This is exactly what i was thinking. So their version of a compromise is making what took one song before into 13 after in a raid group? We get it yall love warchanters, but seriously spellsinger needs serious work not nerfs.

[zehnvhex]

I love how SSG being questionable at making buff spells/abilities in DDO is such a meme at this point that even when they make a change that should be a no-brainer upgrade, it's still largely a wash at most.

Like, every other MMO/MP game out there buffs are either automatic or last forever and take like...3 seconds to do.

I'd love to sit in on one of their dev meetings some day.

Dev 1: "So hey, we're gonna give Renegade Mastermaker a targetable shield spell for the 1 person out there that doesn't have access to magic missile blocking."

Dev 2: "That's awesome! Situational, but great!"

Dev 1: "Yeah and we're going to make it last 2 minutes and be a short range AE."

Dev 2: "...why?"

Dev 1: "Because people love casting buffs! It's fun! The best part about dungeons is gathering up for buffs, right guys?"

Dev 2: "..."

Dev 1: "Also, we're going to make all the bard songs take only one button and make them worth using finally!"

Dev 2: "Okay that's much bett..."

Dev 1: "Also it'll be single target because people love spending 30+ seconds buffing!"

Dev 2: "...what the hell man?"

Dev 1: "Also we're going to make almost every caster mob in the late game spam dispels with insanely high DC's because PEOPLE LOVE RECASTING BUFFFFSSSSS WOOOOOOOO!"

[Lynnabel]

Seems a bit strange to have a minor aoe heal cost a song. It would probably do well to increase its effectiveness by maybe 30%: reasoning being that sustaining song was an AoE heal plus an AoE HoT and the AoE heal was never that strong. This would be a pretty weak heal in exchange for a song, which, especially in lower levels, is a fairly limited resource.

It's the exact same ability that Sustaining Song was before, just in a lower enhancement tier and a different Bard tree. Same icon. Same hold time, same animation, same range. The only difference is that the heal over time portion is now a Bardic Inspiration thing and therefore lasts significantly longer.

[Requiro]

It's the exact same ability that Sustaining Song was before, just in a lower enhancement tier and a different Bard tree. Same icon. Same hold time, same animation, same range. The only difference is that the heal over time portion is now a Bardic Inspiration thing and therefore lasts significantly longer.

Why not leave this ability in old place, just add passive version?

[Lynnabel]

Why not leave this ability in old place, just add passive version?

Frankly, because no one uses Boast :P

We'd like to keep Spellsinger being linked thematically with Bardic Inspiration, and Warchanter being linked thematically with your Bardic Aria. Making the heal over time last so long is a balance tradeoff, and we're willing to give people the best of both worlds, but not as just one enhancement.

[Rydlic]

"Also we're going to make almost every caster mob in the late game spam dispels with insanely high DC's because PEOPLE LOVE RECASTING BUFFFFSSSSS WOOOOOOOO!"

Not to derail the thread here, but this is by far my highest gripe. Any an all casters that have a dispel like spell cast it constantly. Wraith/Spectre/Mummy are by far the worst of these. Hate this, as most of the time I just have to deal with no buffs.

[Aelonwy]

Do people just love Warchanters so much they don't care about Spellsingers?

I have one of each, they play very differently. Yes, Spellsinger could use some tweaks. For instance Enthrallment hardly seems worth the AP since its only advantage above Fascinate is a Weaken Will effect, useful but other Bard Spells and even Fascinate itself can also have this effect if you spend points on Haunting Melody. So why ever use Enthrall when Fascinate affects more targets?

No one ever has given me a satisfactory answer as to what is the point of Raucous Refrain/Reviving Verse when things like Energy Drain and Waves of Exhaustion have no save so why would you pay AP to get a bonus to a save throw that doesn't exist? Why worry about Paralysis on a class and Prestige that get FoM and Frolic? Its a new player trap.

[Requiro]

Frankly, because no one uses Boast :P

We'd like to keep Spellsinger being linked thematically with Bardic Inspiration, and Warchanter being linked thematically with your Bardic Aria. Making the heal over time last so long is a balance tradeoff, and we're willing to give people the best of both worlds, but not as just one enhancement.

Made Boast part of Aria (your charisma modifier temp HP) and everyone will use it

[scipiojedi]

Frankly, because no one uses Boast :P

I beg to differ

[Ralmeth]

I have one of each, they play very differently. Yes, Spellsinger could use some tweaks. For instance Enthrallment hardly seems worth the AP since its only advantage above Fascinate is a Weaken Will effect, useful but other Bard Spells and even Fascinate itself can also have this effect if you spend points on Haunting Melody. So why ever use Enthrall when Fascinate affects more targets?

No one ever has given me a satisfactory answer as to what is the point of Raucous Refrain/Reviving Verse when things like Energy Drain and Waves of Exhaustion have no save so why would you pay AP to get a bonus to a save throw that doesn't exist? Why worry about Paralysis on a class and Prestige that get FoM and Frolic? Its a new player trap.

Enthrallment is a good ability, and very under-rated IMO. If I had a couple of spare APs I would take it, and have in the past. The biggest advantages are that:
1) The fascinate effect actives half-way through the song, instead of at the end. So you can get fascinates off a lot faster, which can be helpful if everything is going to heck and you want to lock mobs down quick.
2) If an enthralled enemy is hit, there's a chance that they remain fascinated. This is helpful in a PUG where some people aren't so careful about what they hit.

The downside, which never made any sense to me, is that the Spellsinger cores do not effect Enthrallment (ex. you can't fascinate undead with enthrallment). This should really be changed to make Spellsingers better.

[cacyreus]

Sustaining Song is now part of this song, restoring health. Music of the Dead will add to this, applying a negative energy heal to Undead characters (aka Pale Master Wizards). Music of the Makers will add to this as well, applying a repair heal to Constructs and Living Constructs (aka Warforged/Bladeforged and the Iron Defender Artificer pet). These all scale with Positive/Negative/Repair spell power, respectively. This was AoE, but now it is single target due to the technical complication of dynamically filtering undead-specific heal over time effects, as we need to be able to tell if you're a Pale Master at the time of application to avoid putting the wrong heal on you.

THE SONGS

Inspire courage: Adding a little spellpower was a great idea, I like it a lot. Changing the Warchanter and Fatesinger cores to directly boost all the components of the song is also very interesting and gives consistency to the game, so good job. What I strongly dislike is the fact the Warchanter 18th level core and capstone, were left aside. Even though inspire courage now grants more attack, saves vs. fear and universal spell power, the max damage is being decreased by 2. Warchanter is supposed to have some extra damage in there, and it rewards pure bards, that will otherwise cross class in 6 or 12 bard level splits.
Don’t be cheap! Put the damage back in these cores!
Inspire competence: the extra +2 to the skills is a good idea, will help during leveling as it comes earlier than song of heroism and it will stack with it, which means it will be helpful with scaling dc’s in reaper (e.g. traps). Good job!
Inspire greatness: the song is now worthy of its name. The competence bonus that it provided would not stack with accuracy items, which means the song was pretty much awarding players with +1 to fortitude saves and 20 temporary hit points. The new version and its interaction with Music of the Dead and Music of the Makers is quite interesting. I was never a fan of the temporary hit point bonus, still don’t like it much, but at least now it will grant an amount that is palpable.
Inspire heroics: adding 4 AC is nice, as it will still boost defense even if dodge is capped, or will this increase max dodge too? More importantly, changing the bonus to the saves to music bonus is quite good as it will stack with the bonus of Song of Heroism. If this is intended, this will be a good improvement to the song; if its not, please consider it, because otherwise the song will remain of little relevance.


THE ARIA

The aura is described as having a large area of effect that matches Warchanter passive auras. I would hardly consider those as large AOEs, but since Victory song will double the range of the aura I can live with this.

It’s a significant change in the mechanics. On one hand, its nice that these buffs are now passive and don’t require time to be cast. On the other hand, parties often split and putting more and more effects in an aura makes it so that party members miss these effects even though they are seeing an increase in their numeric values. The increase in the range of the aura, tied to Warchanter 18th core partly combats this. However, to better tackle this issue, Aria should work like the current Warchanter auras, meaning that effects have a small duration even if the party members are away from the bard. This duration could be of one minute, like the current Warchanter auras, and would it be too much if the 18th core doubled this duration too? Don’t think so, it would reward pure bards for committing to the class.

The last changes in barbarian enhancements and class features made me question some of the effects in the bard songs. DR was changed from a flat value to a % to scale better, as these flat values helped little to nothing in epic levels and reaper. Since some bard enhancements are being transferred to Aria, why not look at them too? Specifically, I am referring to Arcane Shield Chant and Ironskin Chant, which could see their values changed to % as well to a max of 6% of elemental resistance and 6% DR.

Also, there is no reference to what will happen to Song of Heroism. It’s not included in the Aria description and it is not mentioned in Bardic Inspiration either. Being that it is an AOE song, it makes sense to add it to Aria.


BARDIC INSPIRATION

These changes are quite significant – all the Spellsinger AOE songs are being turned into single targets. The positive side of this is that one song will grant several effects and with a longer duration than previously. However, a 4.7 seconds animation (the same duration as the songs with the longest casting time in live?) makes it so that the time it takes to buff other players in quests remains unchanged and doubles in raids. Yes, players will get more benefits, but consider that Spell Song Vigor, Spell Song Trance and Arcane Might are only useful to casters, which weakens the argument that it takes long but they get more buffs. As such, these changes fail to provide bards with the desperately needed reduction in the time they lose with buffs, further aggravating this issue. I would suggest making this an AOE song with a shorter duration, or at the very least a reduction in the duration of the animation! For the love of god, nobody wants to lose more time casting songs!

The big loser here is without doubt Sustaining Song, because the song has two effects - healing on cast and healing over time. Changing this song to a single target requires casting one Bardic Inspiration multiple times to have the effects on several targets, which has pros and cons as I mention above. However, the great losses here are the healing on cast that being a single target is much less useful, as it eliminates the burst healing effect on multiple targets that could be used to provide some extra heals the party in combat or when the bard has no spell points. This is a great loss, but there is hope. Steelstar says that the change to a single target is motivated by technical issues with repair and negative energy. What if the healing effects of repair and negative energy were cast separately? Would this work? The Spellsinger core enhancements Music of the Dead and music of the Makers could be converted to active enhancements and cast separately, if the bards needs to heal undead of warforged players.


THE FEATS

Improved bardic music: while I see the flavor in this, bards are feat starved. Even though the numeric values in the feat might be somewhat in pair with what other feats grant, I have a hard time believing that bards will want it.


FATESINGER

O Fortuna: adding a little PRR is nice. What about the bonus to the saves? What is the descriptor here, will they stack with other bonuses? I am talking about Song of Heroism and Inspire heroics.
Allure: extra spell power is nice. Currently it provides 3 extra songs, and in the new description it seems that it will provide only 1 extra song, if I get it right. Acceptable loss, Fatesinger gives a lot of extra songs and I don’t think they will be needed as much from now on.
Tailwind: the bonus 3 to attack are turned into 1 damage bonus. Seems a loss, but because inspire courage will grant more attack than before, makes up for it. Will the damage to missile weapons remain personal?
Lucidity: adds attack bonus to Inspire Courage, which is good. Again, like in allure there is a reduction in the number of the extra songs. Should be fine…

WARCHANTER

Warchanter capstone: please specify how is calculated the DC freeze effect (like Frozen Fury?), what means significantly slowed (%) and what would be significant cold damage over time. I like the mechanic and the flavor of the ability, but without values it is hard to say whether it is interesting or not.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I have a good feeling about the changes. There are a few things that should be tweaked:
1) The removal of the damage from warchanter cores, should continue as before
2) Bardic inspiration should either be a mass target or see its animation time decreased to 3-4 seconds, no more.
3) Finding a way to make sustaining song a multi target
4) Increase the numerical values of the feat to be competitive.


OTHER BARD SONGS

Some of these could use small changes too!
Songs of Suggestion and Mass Suggestion require the target to be fascinated first, which honestly is a very heavy requirement. Secondly, having them benefit from the Spellsinger cores would open new options for gameplay. Bards would be able to suggestion on more monster types: oozes, undead and constructs. Consider this!
Song of freedom: with the time it takes to cast this song the only thing left to free is the soul of the party member, because if they depend on it to live they will die. Make this an instant cast!

PS: follow Gina's twicth channel (https://www.twitch.tv/ddo_deepreap) and come play with us Steelstar, Lynnabel, Cordovan! Gina is planning a streaming event in November! Join us in Sarlona and I will be happy to show you why you should include a Bard in the party!

Long post, hope it will be helpful. Thanks for the good work!

/Mettalina

[btolson]

Are some AP costs going to be revisited? Swashbuckler and especially Warchanter are pretty expensive for what they do, relative to more recent trees (especially kensei). Too many 3-rank abilities, even some that cost 2 AP each. Seems like several things should be condensed into 1 rank for 2 AP, including the entire line of freezes. Pretty sure Swashbuckler is the only tree left in the game whose action boost costs 2 AP per tier.

Also it would be really nice if Warchanter could support THF in some way. Maybe that's out of scope for this current pass, but something to think about.