Bard Feedback

Today was my first time trying out the new bard skills. I'm aware that it's still being worked on and will probably get changed a lot, but I wanted to leave some feedback anyway.

First thing is minor, but I thought it was kind of weird that the tree itself is named Bard. It's not really consistent with the other trees and combat system. Ranged isn't Archer, Death isn't Necromancer, etc. It would make more sense if it was named Music or something synonymous with combat music.

I don't like that the bard skills aren't actually tied to instruments in any way. As far as I can tell, anyone could just throw any of these skills into any deck and use them as effectively as anyone else. Someone in full plate with a shield can just pop in a +50 regen song without penalty or significant investment.

Melody of Mending is the only active skill that works in a way that makes sense to me. When you use it, the healing radius follows you around so that you can move around while healing as well as move to others to heal them when they need it. That makes sense, not only because the music is coming from you, but also because it's practical in combat.

Atonal Aria, Anthem of Alacrity, and Psalm of Stagnation all work in a different way that doesn't make a while lot of sense. Instead of the effect moving with you, it's stationary, like a ring of fire, only you can't even see it, which is super annoying. That might be okay for psalm and atonal if they had a graphic, but it's horrible for Anthem of Alacrity either way. What is the point of a stationary run speed buff with a super small radius and super short duration once outside of that radius? Being able to actually run would be much better. Maybe this is just a temporary bug, but if not, I don't get it.

Savage Sonata I didn't get to try because you can't even activate it without a tamed pet or party member. It looks like a useful skill, but I don't really see any reason why you shouldn't be able to activate it solo.

Concusive Canticle is an interesting skill that I gather was recently adjusted because it was originally too powerful. I like the concept of damage scaling with focus, but why does it not also improve with skill level? Maybe it's just an error in the tool tip, but as far as I can tell, skill level doesn't do anything other than unlock additional glyphs.

Bottom line for me is that even though some of these skills are obviously useful, I don't really like the way that most of this stuff works. I'd much rather have some kind of system where people wield instruments that have their own properties and bonuses and that also have some sort of significant negative impact on magic use. Then you could have lower execution times and bard type players could be a little more defined instead of anyone just being able to toss in any of this stuff that they want.

 

Good feedback....

 

Great feedback and thank you for getting this topic rolling. I was looking to start a post specific to Atonal Aria but found your post so thought I would add in.

I believe @Chris mentioned there is something planned where eventually if you have an instrument equipped you will get what we have now and if you don't the skills will be reduced in capability.

I have been very confused about Atonal Aria and have been trying very hard to figure out its targeting mechanism. You mention that it is fixed once you start casting which explains some of what I have been seeing. I was thinking more along the lines of when you start to sing it gathers who is in range and that is who it affects when it finishes "casting". I have been trying to use it against dragons to different degrees of success. It seems there is some kind of sweet spot where if you start singing at the right spot around the dragon it will affect them. If not, no dice. I have yet to figure it out.

@Chris it would be great to get some clarification on how the targeting of these skills work so we can better utilize the new tree and if Atonal Aria has a fixed targeting of where you sing it, how that works with dragons needs reviewed.

Thank you!

 

@Lazlo I dont think Savage Sonata works properly. When i use it on party member or pet the icon appears under my name, but no stat changes. So no loss for you

 

It currently does not work https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/savage-sonata-effect-not-working.162830/

That and other bard skill don’t work.

 

I feel that the bard skills take to long to cast, and they lack a cancel mechanism.

It would be nice if you could use other skills while singing. Maybe only lower level skills.