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[Discordance] What the hell happened to the range on Bard Masteries?

  • Thread starter Luke Carjacker
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Luke Carjacker

Guest
So, right now I'm just talking about the discord masteries; I don't think range is as much of an issue with the other ones.

When the masteries were first introduced, the range on tribulation and despair was 10-12 tiles (I had 120 discord/music real). I just tested today, and the range has been reduced to 6 tiles (currently I have on 120 music/discord/provoke real)! I don't recall seeing any notes regarding a nerf on the range of these spells...was this intended?

I'm about to start a rant on how difficult it is to stay within 6 tiles if you're fighting a screen full of high-level spell-casting mobs especially if they also have area attacks. One of the potential uses I envisioned was for my pvm bard to be able to assist in pvp just a little bit, but range of 6 tiles makes that impossible (guess the gimp dexer/bard template is the only possibility). All I can do is mutter & cuss under my breath...

All other spells get a range of 10 tiles. Bard skills increase in range with skill, and that exceeds 10 tiles at 120 skill. Bard mastery is...6 tiles. *&^%&^*!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, I also tested mana use (again with 120 provoke/discord/music real), 40 LMC, 19 MR and 120 meditation. The upkeep issue seems to be fixed as promised. With this setup I was able to maintain tribulation indefinitely, and despair whittled away at the mana pool slowly. I think this is a reasonable real-life equipment setup (don't need both focus and med and 19MR is high but not totally outrageous) and at this mana usage rate I could see using these mastery skills in actual game situations.

But the 6-tile range...guess I can throw bard mastery back onto the useless pile (or go ahead and make that bard/dexer gimp). :(
 
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Luke Carjacker

Guest
Hate to be the first to reply to myself, but I thought of something else important to point out. Bards need to STAY within 6 tiles the entire time a spell song is in effect, which makes it that much more difficult. You get outside of 6 tiles, and the song is over (not like regular bard skills which allow you to invis or go out of range for a short time if you can get back within range). And of course, other spellcasters don't need to stay within range after their spells are cast.
 
D

Diggity

Guest
Tho I didn't play on TC1, I tried out the pub 67 changes very briefly today. Compared to before, the reduced mana usage, increased pvm damage with slayers, ability to cast/continue to use bard skills are more useful to me than the additional range we had previously. so while it would be nice to have the range (like the good ol days where you didn't even need line of sight), I see the pub 67 stuff as buffs to an ability we didn't even have before. Hard for me to complain about mastery and at least now I will probably use it on prodo.

I'm about to start a rant on how difficult it is to stay within 6 tiles if you're fighting a screen full of high-level spell-casting mobs especially if they also have area attacks. (
My mage bard has an all 70's suit and even with 120 magic resist, I would not think of taking on a screenfull of high level spell casters with a single target spell as my first option. Rather than charge/aggro them all at once, I'd consider provoke pairs in smaller groups. Once the number of aggressive mobs is reduced then the 6 tile range is not such a big issue.

I do agree there seems to be a lot of potential for gimped temps with the new changes. I'm also thinking drop necro and something else on a sampire template and go wraith disco bard.
 
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Luke Carjacker

Guest
You have to think the range being decreased was not intentional.
Well I guess that's one of the big questions at this point. If it was unintentional, then hopefully they'll get around to correcting it very soon. I guess it's a reflection in their quality control that people would automatically assume something like this is an error rather than intended.

If the change was intentional, however, then a big part of the reason why I'm so pissed is because that they just slipped it in totally unannounced. Was it necessary to put this in without telling us?
 
U

ultima77

Guest
Well I guess that's one of the big questions at this point. If it was unintentional, then hopefully they'll get around to correcting it very soon. I guess it's a reflection in their quality control that people would automatically assume something like this is an error rather than intended.

If the change was intentional, however, then a big part of the reason why I'm so pissed is because that they just slipped it in totally unannounced. Was it necessary to put this in without telling us?
Your rants have become old and tiresome. They have pretty much given you everything you ask for, yet you still bash them. This may be something that needs to be addressed, but there are better ways to approach it than to act whiny and ungrateful.
 
L

Luke Carjacker

Guest
Your rants have become old and tiresome. They have pretty much given you everything you ask for, yet you still bash them. This may be something that needs to be addressed, but there are better ways to approach it than to act whiny and ungrateful.
Actually, my rant had its intended effect. Mesanna responded in Uhall that they will be fixing it tomorrow and publishing with normal maintenance on Saturday morning.

Also, my prior rants about upkeep costs, mana reduction and spell-casting interruption of bards songs have been implemented as well. Certainly I was not the only one to complain about these issues, but the fact is most of the changes are exactly in-line with what I complained about.

What's really getting old is the repetitive commentary from you (and a few others) that bards should take whatever crap is shoveled at them and like it. And in fact, I think the uproar would be substantially greater if they had reduced (on purpose or by mistake) spell casting distances by 1/2 or archery distances by half.
 
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ultima77

Guest
Actually, my rant had its intended effect. Mesanna responded in Uhall that they will be fixing it tomorrow and publishing with normal maintenance on Saturday morning.

Also, my prior rants about upkeep costs, mana reduction and spell-casting interruption of bards songs have been implemented as well. Certainly I was not the only one to complain about these issues, but the fact is most of the changes are exactly in-line with what I complained about.

What's really getting old is the repetitive commentary from you (and a few others) that bards should take whatever crap is shoveled at them and like it. And in fact, I think the uproar would be substantially greater if they had reduced (on purpose or by mistake) spell casting distances by 1/2 or archery distances by half.
I just specified that there is a more mature and respectful way to approach requests - that is a far-cry from "taking whatever crap is shoveled."
 

Poo

The Grandest of the PooBah’s
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holy cow.

this is the first time i have to come into the bard forum and tell people to slow thier rolls.

so here it is.

slow your rolls.

the point was made.
all be it, it was done rather harsh, but a lot of us are very keyed up on our UO so we can let that go.

but no trolling or egging on in here people.
there are pvp forums for that kinda buisness.
this is a proff forum and as such we discuss the proff.

i think we are all good now, eh?

lets all consider this the first warning then and carry on.
 
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