Beta 6 Bard Feedback

[Senpai]

Let’s talk about the real Bard problem. Getting into combat to make sure your passives are active. A healing Bard with no offenseive instruments active has three ways of getting into combat. Walking up to an enemy, throwing his baton which is basically the same as walking up to it because you need to be in melee range, or to heal someone in combat. Unfortunately the Bard’s smart heals are not always so smart out of combat. First if we don’t have any crescendo’s saved up we can’t heal with our passive healing until we’re already in combat. So small fights may already be over while we’re trying to charge up or First Heal to actually get into combat. As you can guess this is not very productive when trying to level up fighting mobs that five other people are fighting for. I think the bars passive abilities need to be more intuitive. Like only being active if you hit a note correctly the past 3 seconds, even out of combat

[Semz]

I agree that bard aggro is pretty messed up (talked about it in many previous posts), although I’m also guessing you weren’t around for the first beta. Let me give you a rundown:

Bard range was immense on healing and damage. This meant that everytime someone got in combat, you did as well. This was then fixed, but then it went a little too far over it’s mark and bard could aggro nothing. No running into something, baton throw wasn’t around then, so only way to even fight with your team was to have a damage crescendo.

Bard has definitely come a long way from that, but I also haven’t come up with a way to aggro things better than what we have, and to be honest, I’m fine with where the bard is right now in terms of aggro, just think it could still use some improvements in the future. For now I’m just happy it’s playable.

@Andrew_V

As you can guess this is not very productive when trying to level up fighting mobs that five other people are fighting for.

Baton throw works really well for this because of it’s short cooldown. For large groups you are just going to have to understand that you won’t get all of the mobs unless you have a crescendo ready and your damage orb on. Mage DoT spread was just nerfed so your groups should also be more single target oriented (one mob at a time) as well, which will help.

@Andrew_V

Unfortunately the Bard’s smart heals are not always so smart out of combat.

Smart heals are messed up right now and sometimes don’t work, been trying to find out what causes it, but nothing has been coming up.

@Andrew_V

I think the bars passive abilities need to be more intuitive. Like only being active if you hit a note correctly the past 3 seconds, even out of combat

Would write more on this, but there are some secrets that I don’t want to spoil. I’m going to just say that there is no issue here.

Also welcome!

[KatVet]

I noticed a couple of things while playing bard. I really, really enjoy the challenge of this class. However, I had issues with a couple things:

• Visual feedback is lacking for both passive damage and healing effects. I’m comparing the over time passive effects of the “instruments” to the over time effects of the Musketeer turret. Would some sort of visual effect (particle “explosion”, attack animation, etc.) to show when the bard has healed/attacked be possible? Even if it is only every few hits, that’s still better than nothing at all.

• I did realize there is a healing buff applied to those affected by the gentle healing, however it can be difficult to see (I only realized it was there after two weeks of playing the beta…)

• Please find a way to improve “combat entry” for the bard. Throwing the baton isn’t always feasible (though it is hilarious). What about the bard automatically entering combat any time a party member enters combat who is also within a certain distance? Or at least start passive healing for any party member who is in combat and in range?

[Semz]

@KatVet

What about the bard automatically entering combat any time a party member enters combat who is also within a certain distance? Or at least start passive healing for any party member who is in combat and in range?

First sentence wouldn’t be very good, because if a party member pulls (even though they aren’t in the game yet) for example an aberration on accident, since the bard would be healing them, it would instead attack the bard for their mistake (cause of healing aggro). Secondly, passive healing is always active soooo… no problem there I guess.

@KatVet

Visual feedback is lacking for both passive damage and healing effects. I’m comparing the over time passive effects of the “instruments” to the over time effects of the Musketeer turret. Would some sort of visual effect (particle “explosion”, attack animation, etc.) to show when the bard has healed/attacked be possible? Even if it is only every few hits, that’s still better than nothing at all.

I would agree with this buuut in a raid the bard could be healing 9 people. The particles would surely lag. I was going to say a damage visual effect would be fine, but again my point stands with large groups, the particles would cause unnecessary lag.

[Luvstosmooch]

@KatVet

Please find a way to improve “combat entry” for the bard. Throwing the baton isn’t always feasible (though it is hilarious). What about the bard automatically entering combat any time a party member enters combat who is also within a certain distance? Or at least start passive healing for any party member who is in combat and in range?

Played bard for the first time today and entering combat is terrible. Left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.