The Pub 66 New Bard Stuff (as posted)

[Poo]

Bard Mastery System – NPC’s can be found in the Music Conservatory in Fel and Tram

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Bard players will be able to select one of three areas of bard mastery, each pertaining to one of the main barding skills. The mastery abilities will be based on the players skill in the associated area, but will NOT affect the current way the skill is used nor how the players interact with that skill.

Choosing / Obtaining a mastery:

* Players will perform a quest obtainable from the quest givers in the Music Conservatory.
* Players will be rewarded upon quest completion with a Spellbook containing the mastery abilities.

Mastery ability initiation.

*
Once players have chosen a mastery, the abilities are freely usable at any time and only have as requirements the skill and mana costs.

Mastery abilities:

*
Party must remain within range of the Bard to remain under the spellsong effects.
*
Bards may be interrupted when they receive damage while using their abilities.
*
A bard may only have one ability in effect at a time.
*
Abilities do not stack with themselves.
*
All abilities require upkeep dependent on how many are being affected by the ability.
*
Abilities will not check for Criminal flagging, so beware of your Party members.

Provocation: Title Exhilirator

(These will be considered beneficial actions)

*
Inspire: Party Hit chance increase by up to 15%, Damage increase by up to 40%, SDI increased by up to 15% (PvP Cap 15)(Provocation Based)
*
Invigorate: Party Hit Points increased by up to 20, Party healed for 7-16 dmg every 4 seconds. (Provocation Based) . Party Strength, Dex, Int ,Increased by Up to 8.

Peacemaking: Title Galvanizer

(These will be considered beneficial actions)

*
Resilience: Poison resistance increase(not the stat), Mortal, Bleed, Curse effect Durations decreased, Hp regen bonus 2-8, mana regen bonus 2-8, stamina regen bonus 2-8.
*
Preservance: Party Defense Chance increased by up to 16%, Damage reduced by up to 16%. Casting focus bonus 1-4%

Discordance: Title Desponder

(These will be considered aggressive/negative actions)

*
Tribulation: Target Hit Chance reduced by up to 32%, Spell Damaged reduced by 32% , Damage Taken can trigger additional damage between 20-60% of the damage taken as physical once per second. (Discordance Based) (Chance to Trigger damage Musicianship Based)
*
Despair: Target Strength Reduced by up to 32, 20 – 60 Damage (Physical), every 2 seconds.

some of it looks good.
lots of questions coming up from the read of it.
im looking forward to trying them.

info on Stratics Barding section about the new stuff as well.... ohhh and pics!

http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=31482

 

[Pinco]

here is the book with spells:

Words of power:

tribulation: in jux hur rel
despair: kal des mani tym

resilience: kal mani tym
perseverance: uus jux sanct

inspire: uus por
invigorate: an zu

Quests:

discordance: discord 5 goats

provocation: provoke 5 rabbits againist 5 wandering healers (different rabbits and healers)

peacemaking: pacify 5 mongbats

Additional info:

- You can have only one mastery at time.
- The ukeep cost is the mana cost per second for keep the spell active
- Every spell is affected by Lower Mana Cost (even the upkeep cost)
- When the effect is ative, you will be revealed every second.
- The spells effect will end when you're mana is over.
- The spells affect party members and pets.
- Different spells casted by different party members will stack!

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

They don't end when you're damaged or when you damage something via melee.

They end when you cast any spell except for Chivalry. (Making the SDI & Casting Focus useless from Inspire & Perservance.)

They also end when you use Provocation but no other skill.

When casting they can be made uninterruptable with Protection.

The hp increase from Invigorate takes you over the hp cap but the stat increase doesn't.

The -32 Str from Despair is not resistable and stacks with Curse.

The 64 damage from Despair against 70 Phys on a player does 19.

 

[Logrus]

Provocation should only interrupt provocation mastery abilities.
Peacemaking should only interrupt peacemaking abilities.
Discord etc.

You can stop an ability at any time by recasting it. (0 Cast time, 0 Mana Cost)
I think the healing may be closer to 4-16 than 7-16.

Damage threshold for song interruption is higher in PvM than in PvP.

The spellsong will reveal the bard if he is hidden.

Upkeep increases based on how many party members/pets are under the effect.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Upkeep increases based on how many party members/pets are under the effect.

Does that include mounted pets? I mean are my upkeep costs going to increase just for riding a horse/swamp dragon? Or will it only apply to pets being used for combat?

 

[Logrus]

When mounted it should be ignoring your mounted pet in the upkeep calculation.
If you were along side your pet then it will factor that pet into the upkeep and apply the buff to them.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

When mounted it should be ignoring your mounted pet in the upkeep calculation.
If you were along side your pet then it will factor that pet into the upkeep and apply the buff to them.

Ok thanks.

 

[Storm]

so the bard can be in melee and it wont interrupt? (unless enough damage is taken)
but if the bard casts a spell it will?

if so whats the reasoning behind that one ?

 

[lycj]

Is that possible to have mana reduction for having more than two musical skills? Like Special Weapon Moves.

 

[Pinco]

if you been hit while casting you fizzle. I still dont know how much damage you need to break the spell... Surely is a damage greater than 10 and lesser than 60.

 

[Logrus]

I wouldnt see a problem with some bonuses like lower mana cost for having other bard skills.

 

[Pinco]

probably he said to do something like for the combat specials: for each combat skill you gain LMC.

Would be an interesting thing if its doable

 

[Luke Carjacker]

I wouldnt see a problem with some bonuses like lower mana cost for having other bard skills.

Hey, cool that would be kind of nice. Just a reminder, the mana reduction for special combat moves is taken before LMC available from armor & equipment, so hopefully any bard LMC can be the same way.

Also, regarding mana cost and how you balance it, I hope you can keep in mind the effect of competing skills and their mana cost. For example a 5 mana lightning strike gives a 50 HCI bonus plus increased chance at critical strike, resulting in 150-250 point hits every 1.5 seconds. Spells such as curse, corpse skin, sleep, paralyze, poison, strangle, etc do not require upkeep, they just last a specific time based on skill. How much mileage will bards get for their mana? Poor balancing in this regard will render most of the skills useless when compared with what's offered by competing skills (this is always the key, you can't think about a skill in a vacuum, you need to keep in mind what else is out there).

Which brings me to a new question. Will slayers have any usefulness regarding these bard song effects? If you pick up a slayer weapon or spellbook, you get extremely nice bonuses to damage (not to mention other effects). That was never the case for base bard skills, but now that these skills do damage, mod HCI, etc., will slayer effects be stacked on? I guess this could wind up becoming overpowered, but just trying to get some more info.

 

[AzSel]

Been testing the bard abilities on test center today, and after I added 40LMC to the char and some mana regen I quite liked it. Only problem I had was everytime I cast a spell it broke the bard mastery ability, but I could shoot with a bow fine without that breaking it...kinda unfair for mages tho.

 

[Luke Carjacker]

Been testing the bard abilities on test center today, and after I added 40LMC to the char and some mana regen I quite liked it. Only problem I had was everytime I cast a spell it broke the bard mastery ability, but I could shoot with a bow fine without that breaking it...kinda unfair for mages tho.

Yeah, I definitely saw that mages were being penalized at the expense of archers when the parameters were revealed. I think I said something like "yay, another reason for everyone in the game to become archers" or something like that.

I guess I'll say that since the developers want to force bards to take on other skills as well (the ability to only master one skill makes each additional bard skill less valuable), then at least make it so they can be used in conjunction with the bard mastery skills without penalty.

If you cast a curse/debuff or effect over time spell (bless, curse, poison, strangle, etc.) then cast another spell from a different school of magic (classic would be corpse skin/explosion/flamestrike/fireball in pvm or pvp), you get the effect of both spells. The way it's currently set up, if you buff yourself or debuff the enemy with a bard song, you can't cast spells - which really limits the usefulness of the bard skills.

Again, this is going to result in a limited number of useful templates, rather than flexibility or creativity when using the skills; it also limits the situations where bards will be most effective. If you always hunt peerless in a group, then you're in dandy shape; if you constantly face a variety of situations you'll always be penalized.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

The latest is all spells now stop the effects, including the previously exempt Chivalry, which makes the SDI and Casting Focus properties (which only apply to casted spells) useless for the bard themselves in anything other than a stand in the corner and buff a party capacity. They called this a 'fix' lol.

Its getting worse not better, I'm pretty close to just boycotting the entire system, they're taking no notice of anything we're saying, nor addressing the huge gaping holes in functionality. They'd rather listen to the people saying 'its fine as it is', 'everything you do is perfect', and 'people who care about it should stop whining' than people who are actually being affected by it and have bothered to test it.

 

[Logrus]

Bard slayers: currently don't affect damage on the bard abilities.
(I'm working on that)

 

[Pinco]

the bard mastery provide a great power for a mule character put in follow and party with the main character. Just good for a character in the corner with the hope to stay alive because if he heal himself the effect is gone

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

There are a few sort of gimpy applications you could conjure up with this... but it involves bending the rules slightly...

For example:
120 Music/120 Prov/120 Ninja,
150 Str, 25 HP increase, 18 HPR, Human (2 HPR)...
Bring up the Animal Form gump but don't select anything, start the Invigorate effect, click Dog/Cat form.
You now have 68 HP regen, 8 MR, 8 SR, 170 HP, are getting healed for additional 14-16 every 4s (as long as your not poisoned - can be solved with petals/pots), throw on Focus/Med & items to sustain the mana or a weapon to leech with.

Alternatively, as above but with Wolf form and you have 190 HP, 28 HPR, 8 MR, 8 SR, mounted speed and the healing.

Edit: err hang on nm! I'm mixing up two abilities the 8 regens are Peace, Invigorate is Prov that does 8 stats. Still sort of works!

 

[Logrus]

No doubt all the potentially "gimp" templates have yet to be discovered.
Running wolf form with resilience would also take care of the poison, and the stam loss while running in wolf form.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Hypothetical questions...

In PvP, if a bard has a buff effect on a party, I believe it was said somewhere they need to stay in range of the bard for the benefit. If they go out of range then come back in will the effect resume if the bard hasn't stopped or will the bard need to restart it for them to get the benefit again?

Could multiple bards stack the -32 Str attack to reduce a players Str so much all their armor falls off?

 

[Logrus]

For the party effects, they will automatically update as party members move in and out of range.

For the discord effects, they remain in effect until the target moves out of range, or the spell song stops. Once the spell song is in effect, the bard doesn't need to maintain line of sight, just range.

First come first served, so basically whoever gets their discord in first will be the one in effect.

 

[Pinco]

the ninja idea would be nce IF the barding spells work in animal form. But if you cast a bard spell while in animal form it says: "you cannot use this ability in that form"

so still useless now, like putting 100 Item Id and 100 Taste Id on a PVP character... (maybe item id and taste id will have a better use )

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

the ninja idea would be nce IF the barding spells work in animal form. But if you cast a bard spell while in animal form it says: "you cannot use this ability in that form"

Re read it. What I'm saying is you bring up the Animal Form menu before starting the effect, but don't select a form, then start the bard effect, then click a form and you can have both at the same time.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Is there any reason someone couldn't have 10 people in a party all doing the regen effect for 80 HPR, 80 MR, 80 SR?

Or the HP increase and healing effect for 200 HP increase and 160 damage healed? Combined with max HP and Wolf Form you could have... 370 HP. Or 350 HP and Reptalon Form make yourself into a fire breathing Archer perhaps.

If these effects are going to auto resume when you run back in range isn't that going to cause problems, especially in PvP, you could have a roving auto-follow group that everytime you run back to heal you for that much.

 

[Pinco]

I dont think so... only 1 effect per type could be active on each character, so you cant reach 80 hpr. Then we must face the mod caps who dont allow you to reach so high values...
precasting aimal form and then cast bard spell will not be considered as exploit?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

I dont think so... only 1 effect per type could be active on each character, so you cant reach 80 hpr. Then we must face the mod caps who dont allow you to reach so high values...
precasting aimal form and then cast bard spell will not be considered as exploit?

Yes but doesn't the effect work for the whole party and all pets controlled by that party? So each person would be buffing the other 9. So every person would have 10 buffs on them including their own. The mod caps only apply to items. So you could quite easily have 18 HPR on items, 2 from human, 40 from 120 Ninja cat/dog form, 80 from a party of bards. Obviously it would take some doing, but I don't see why certain groups wouldn't, if they bothered having extra accounts for ghost cams I'm sure they'd do it for being invincible.

As far as whats an exploit and what isn't, I don't see how a player can know what is/isn't intended, unless they are specifically told. Though I don't really see theres a need to be told either, if something is an exploit then code it so we can't do it. The rule is currently you can't cast spells with the effect active, and you haven't, you cast it before.

Not saying it wouldn't be, but its up to them to tell us, which I know is the problem - they don't know half the ways we can use things - but unless we're told its a grey area.

 

[Pinco]

if there are 10 bards with resilience you receive only 8 hpr, 8MR and 8 sr. Just 1 spell per type active on each character.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Oh ok, I thought I heard they could be stacked.

 

[Pinco]

you could stack different spells like resilience and perseverance not the same. If there are more equals effects only the best become active for all the party

 

[Logrus]

Stacking the same abilities, cause a whole lot of interesting effects during internal testing not to mention what happens when you had a party full of bards running something like invigorate, or preservance. (Resilience was less of an issue becauses of the lower caps on regens.)

 

[Pinco]

yes, but a party full of bards is like a party full of wandering healers, all roaming around and doing nothing :O

 

[Luke Carjacker]

yes, but a party full of bards is like a party full of wandering healers, all roaming around and doing nothing :O

LOL!!! For real LMAO!!

 

[sbom]

Provocation should only interrupt provocation mastery abilities.

Just came back from long week-end, so please excuse me if I'm not making sense

My bard is:
- 120 music
- 120 provo
- 110 magery
- 110 necro
- 110 spirit speak
- 110 medit

Her only ways to fight are by provoking or casting necro or magery spells. Now, are you telling me that as soon as I do any of those, the mastery ability will stop?
Does not seem to make a lot of sense to me...forcing bards to adopt a support-only role (minus the fact they can't even heal other with magery...).

Am I missing something or is the new ability only useful if your bard is also a tamer or a dexter?

 

[AzSel]

Yea its been our concern. altho Logrus said in another post that its under consideration that you can cast spells etc while having a bard mastery active. Lets hope devs listen to reason

 

[sbom]

Yea its been our concern. altho Logrus said in another post that its under consideration that you can cast spells etc while having a bard mastery active. Lets hope devs listen to reason

Do you have link to the "other post"?
I'd like to follow-up what get said there!

Thanx

 

[Pinco]

here it is: http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=210023

 

[Saint of Killers]

Ughh...just tested invigorate. It's based on real skill. Jewels/masks don't add anything.

110 music/92 provo will heal 6-9 pts of damage to one party member and that party member's stats only increase 4 points. With 120 music/120 disco (jeweled/masked up) same numbers.

I never saw any "you need real skill" posts out there (or I just missed the posts), so thought I'd let you know.

 

[Pinco]

well, another bad thing... why they waste times with this system if they dont want to make them usable by players?