Okay so first off, on the poll, I don’t really know if it’s necessary/helpful to do that, as honestly even if 80% of the community hated the way a class plays, if 10% love it, that might be totally fine. We are trying to push the boundaries on what’s possible on some of the new classes, and that might not be everyone’s cup of tea for sure, and that’s okay.
The other comments in this thread though are much more helpful in terms of pointing out actual issues with the class that people are seeing and providing some constructive feedback.
Generally speaking, I am happy right now with the Bard’s actual abilities and their role in the group from what I’ve seen when people play it. I think there are still a few instruments I’d like to add if I can, and obviously it doesn’t have talents or a super yet (like any of the new classes), so keep in mind there is still a lot of work to be done.
However, I too am not happy yet with the way the actual class interacts with the abilities. We actually tried a baton first before we did the current marimba setup, involving keeping the beat and then tapping on the instruments to use them, but I found it to be really repetitive and straining (more than I thought). But the current marimba setup is not great either, and especially right now there is not enough of a link between what you do on the marimba and the music that plays in general, that’s basically just a placeholder at this point.
In terms of what people can expect roadmap-wise, this next Beta we will have the 4th class in, and you will also see the start of some of the tweaks to existing classes. After I get the first version of the 4th class in, we will go back and keep working on the other classes to polish them up, add talents and supers, etc. And I would say of the new classes, the Bard is definitely the one that is the least finished in my opinion.