Possible alternative to Bard Melody

[Allielyn]

This is just an idea of an alternative to having Melody for the bard, and gives them a little more versatility:

Have songs increase in effectiveness the longer you play them for.

So, instead of twisting three songs, if you sing one song for the length of time it would take to twist three songs, it becomes (for example) twice or three time as effective.

example:
1st pulse: song operates as normal.
2nd pulse: song does 1.5 x damage as normal
3rd pulse and continuing: song does 2 x normal damage

Technically, this shouldn't unbalance the class, or really change the technique of playing, but it gives an alternative to carpal tunnel and certainly would make multiple bards more desirable in raid situations.

 

[Thinkmeats]

Speaking from a D&D perspective (and in this case, that's very similair to EQ), this won't work because, put simply, +2 is more than twice as good as +1. +1 to three different areas from three different songs is far weaker than +3 to one area. By way of example: A song that normally grants +40 MR vs a mob with an attack you need 150 MR to reliably resist.

 

[Allielyn]

Well, I considered that and thought that it might be best to cap it out at x2 instead of x3. Considering that a good bard can reliably sing 3-4 songs constantly, I didn't think it was overpowering to let them have just 1 song x 2.

And, of course, certain songs would have to be tweaked at less to prevent them from being too powerful. the x 2 is just an example, a possibility for some.

 

[Puella]

The only problem I would have with this would be if it still limits bards in the scope of how many different songs they can play. Basically meaning that I would rather be able to twist a regen/haste/dot/ds than be limited to only two of the above and have them work a little better, or be limited to one of the above and have it work a lot better.

This would be a good idea if a bard could still choose to sing four different songs. Then it would not have an effect on normal bard play, and would add to effectiveness in downtime (when only regen is going), and would add options to bard playing, allowing a bard to choose to play less numerous songs if the situation calls for it.

 

[Allielyn]

That what I meant, Puella. This idea was meant to be completely separate from Melody . . if you want to twist four songs, then you can. But if you don't want to, (for example, if you wanted to 'bot' a bard and you just wanted her around for Mana Regen) then singing only one song could approach the effectiveness of singing two or three songs.

It was meant mostly as an alternative to Melody. I am not sure what Wiz is trying to accomplish with the new melody, but if it is merely to make Bard's job a little easier, and to make them more desirable in raids, then I felt this idea would accomplish the same without being too unbalancing or changing the way the class is played.

You could also make it level specific. . . the songs further beneath your level gain a greater effect then the songs closer to your level. That way a Bard who gets his first chant isn't as effective (if you go x 2) as a bard that has both chant of frost and chant of flame, for example.