new abilites on test center

[yars]

anyone using them?
whats the outcome?
usefulness?
problems,issues,concerns?

i myself think the quest to start is pretty easy, should it be harder?
how bout the spells? better dmg having all three barding skills would be cool.

 

[woody_cats]

what are the quests can not get on test till tomorrow

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

I think the quests are riddiculous and patronising. The minimum skill for the abilities is 90 and the quests include such amazing feats of 'mastery' as Discording Goats, Peacing Mongbats and Provoking Rabbits on Healers.

I also hear that if you take a mastery in one you can't use the others even with the skill points on your template and even though their all in the same book. Which is like saying you just Tamed a Cu so you can no longer use your Dragon.

 

[maroite]

I think the quests are riddiculous and patronising. The minimum skill for the abilities is 90 and the quests include such amazing feats of 'mastery' as Discording Goats, Peacing Mongbats and Provoking Rabbits on Healers.

I also hear that if you take a mastery in one you can't use the others even with the skill points on your template and even though their all in the same book. Which is like saying you just Tamed a Cu so you can no longer use your Dragon.

Not too bent up about the quests. You have to remember that Advanced Character Tokens give a starting player the ability to start at 85 Barding and starting normally you can boost your skill to 90.

I personally, wouldn't want some long and tedious quest line for spells that should just be given to me as I skill up anyway.

The other similar quests are similarly jokes. See Spellweaving quests as an example.

As for the masteries, I agree that its silly that you can only have the ability to use one and have to request to use the others. I think if you're a pure bard you should have access to any of the masteries as long as you finished the quest, BUT only one mastery should be usable at any time.

You should not be able to stack mastery spells. Once you start playing one song, another song will IMMIDIATELY cancel it.

And please don't bring tamers into this. Tamers don't need you to help the devs think of how to ruin them more. If anything, why don't you compare it to an archer or sampire? As last I checked I couldn't use a greater dragon AND a CU at the same time. I have to go back to the stables, stall one and get the other. rolleyes:

 

[Luke Carjacker]

Well, I have not tried these skills on test center but I do have quite a few thoughts so my comments are based on the descriptions given in UO Herald.

First is that I think it's great the the developers appear to have taken our comments seriously. We asked for songbooks & buff/debuff bard spells and that's exactly what we got. I've also seen other requests from players that have been added, such has removal of the runebook delay and changes to the throwing skill. I'd like to say thanks for listening, it's much appreciated. Now, onto the changes as they are currently proposed.

First, I really don't care much about the quest required to gain mastery. Truth be told, most of the bards I know are serious long-time vets who have spent countless hours fighting the toughest creatures around. Add in that bard skill are quite difficult to level up, and I really don't see any point in wasting too much time and effort to get mastery skills.

I think it is ridiculous that you can only choose one path of mastery. Please, please, please change this. Simply put, there are different times when each of the skills would be more useful, and it's just silly to have to go through the quest again each time you want to use a different mastery skill. For example, sometimes you hunt in a party, sometimes you hunt alone. Sometimes you hunt big dangerous creatures other times you hunt masses of small creatures. Based on the descriptions, I think the different skills can be useful in different situations. Just make it so only one can be active at any time. I'm gonna ask again. Please, please please please please please please change this. Please.

Again, I haven't tried myself but I'm glad the songbook doesn't need to be held to have an effect. I have armor suits & equipment designed around stuff I need to hold already. I play a bard/mage (slayer spellbooks), bard/archer (bows of course) and discord/tamer. So, based on the description, I'm glad you don't have to hold the book to activate mastery because it would force a bunch of changes.

I'm concerned about the "maintenance" that they talk about. Like, it's gonna require continuous mana use to maintain the skill? That's gonna make it a lot less useful for my bard/mage & bard/tamer because those templates can sometimes use considerable mana already. For bard archer, no problem because I leech mana. Need to test to make sure, but onerous mana requirements will make the skills near useless.

Despair debuff does 20-60 physical damage every 2 seconds. Is that before or after physical resist is calculated, because a high resist foe will only be taking like 15-20 points of damage max every 2 seconds. Not much when compared with 150-250 every 1.5 seconds from an archer. Which leads to the question...

Which of these skills can be used in PvP. Certainly, some of the party buffs seem like they would be quite useful in PvP. How about the despair debuffs. Guess we'll just have to test it out, see how it works.

All in all, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to trying it out, and certainly there will be balancing issues. But please please please please please please please, allow bards to train for any mastery they qualify for. Or maybe have something akin to stable slots where you can qualify for additional masteries when you have higher total skill, or something. Doesn't need to be overpowered - just one skill active at any time. But allow the bard to have a choice when different situations present themselves.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

As for the masteries, I agree that its silly that you can only have the ability to use one and have to request to use the others. I think if you're a pure bard you should have access to any of the masteries as long as you finished the quest, BUT only one mastery should be usable at any time.

I don't mind only being able to use them one at a time thats fine you can only cast one spell at a time, use one weapon at a time and use 5 slots at a time, what I DO mind is that if you have the skill points in it then you shouldn't lose previous entitlements.

And please don't bring tamers into this. Tamers don't need you to help the devs think of how to ruin them more. If anything, why don't you compare it to an archer or sampire? As last I checked I couldn't use a greater dragon AND a CU at the same time. I have to go back to the stables, stall one and get the other. rolleyes:

I've compared it to other things in the other thread (Spellweaving - & other people were comparing it to weapons) its really not about Tamers, yeah you can only have your GD or Cu because of slots but you don't have to take a quest before changing them.

 

[Pinco]

let's see.... now you can have a GD + inspire (40% DI & 15% SDI for GD) + a party member with invigorate (20 hp +8 all stat heal 16 hp every 4 sec for GD) + another party member with perseverance (damage reduced by 16%, DCI +16%, casting focus 4% for GD). GD will increase its power. Of course, you cant do everything alone, but the strength is in numbers

 

[Poo]

bard tamers FTW

your gonna see packs of bard tamers roaming the lands.
should be fun to see, hehe

 

[Storm]

I know thats what I am gonna do ;-)