User talk:Mediggo/Bard
I'd like to say that I "designed" the bard. I took a lot of elements from existing bard RPG class, as well as games where this class is present, but I tried to make it fitting and equal to other professions and GW2 world. Obviously, they focus on support, but only as far as warrior's role is damage or engineer's role is area control. So that role is fleeting, and the bard can indeed deal damage and control foes as all other professions. Because most of their utility skills would be filled by songs, I had to come up with somewhat flexible and general-purpose weapon skills. As with berserker, I also tried to create some unique mechanics/purposes for their skills, such as their downed skills and elite skills. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mediggo (talk • contribs).
Design...[edit]
Weapon skills[edit]
Because they wear light armor, I wanted most bard skills to be ranged attacks. I tried to give them lots of attacks with variable attack duration, area of effect or additional purpose (like Retreat, similiar to the thief. Almost like Cluster Shot, Hail of Arrows can be used in a sequence to create another barrage of arrows. Originally, I considered that the bard would simply launch the volley in the sky, then call it back down to rain on enemy, but I preferred two individual AoEs. If you look at the throwing dagger skills (bard version of ranger's throwing hatchets) and that sword chain Thrust-Kick-Enchanted Sword, you can see resemblance to the ranger. Like other professions, I wanted to give them proficiency in melee, too, and I broke the traditional concept of staff being ranged, magical weapon only (well, at least in Guild Wars series). Guardian has Smite, necromancer and elementalist have dagger weapon spells, so I thought it fitting to have one profession to use staves in melee. I did the same with trident, as it is classified as magical weapon, I wanted bard to use it in melee.
Charms[edit]
Some bard skills inflict random conditions. I wanted to call these skills charms, as the engineer profession has elixirs. While elixirs can also inflict random conditions, I felt it was required for the bard have some additional, unique level of unpredictability. It was somewhat a cheap and hastly thought answer, but I think it turned out okay. The bard cannot charm allies, of course, unlike the engineer's elixirs which can both buff and debuff.
Songs[edit]
Majority of other bard skills are songs. The few other skills that are not songs help them manage their songs or Overtime gauge, so it's important for a bard to have at least one or two songs most of time. If you were fighting against many enemies at once, you could set for more than two songs, or if there was another bard in the group, you could swap some songs for skills like Echo or Encore! to help maintain effects from those songs. I haven't truly balanced the songs when it comes to durations of conditions and boons, as that would require some real testing and this is not a real profession anyways. Almost every song I originally put in the list of bard skills was from Ragnarok Online, so I changed them a bit since to make more sense (can't play a musical instrument while hitting things with sword, eh) and fit in Guild Wars (Song, Anthem...).
Other skills[edit]
As said, most bard selectable skills are songs, so they are pretty much covered in above section. Those few that aren't improve their songs or are general utility skills, like Pang Voice which breaks stun (among other effects) and Harmonize which heals like a normal healing skill.
Profession mechanics[edit]
You can read in dept to bard unique abilities here.
Overtime and Finale. The two mechanics related but not dependant on each other. That means, a bard does not need to actually pay attention to their Finale skill's effect, other than it refills Overtime gauge to the maximum. On the other hand, the bard could take certain songs with mostly Finale effect in mind, so it can serve as a panic button of sorts for the bard.
- For self-defense, combining Slow Grace (heal yourself and chill foes), Down Tempo (KD or cripple) and Lullaby (weakness and blind) would make your Finale skill especially powerful effect to hinder enemies.
- For party support, combining Anthem of Swiftness (swiftness), Battle Theme (Might or Fury) and Poem of Envy (cause vulnerable on attack) would make for excellent offensive support.
- Using Infinite Humming, the elite song, will also make your Finale to break you out of stun and lose all conditions. This is a powerful effect, because as an elite skill, Infinite Humming will have lengthy recharge, so while it is recharging you can use Finale every 30 (Finale recharge time) seconds to break free of those effects.
Originally, Finale was supposed to become more powerful the more Overtime the bard had available, but I felt that was too complex for a profession unique ability. I might still change that, though, as then one would not feel as if they were wasting the Overtime if they weren't using it.
tl;dr[edit]
Generic blahblah on something I made up. Comments and feedback will be appreciated. Mediggo 06:56, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
Comments[edit]
Ohh, I like the style. I want to make my own now! :) --Xu Davella 13:20, 15 September 2011 (UTC)
- onoez! I mean thank you. Mediggo 13:27, 15 September 2011 (UTC)
