Class Changes: Bard
Bard Core Changes
Bards faced several challenges that we aimed to address. First and foremost, we are moving Bards to the discipline system from the stance system. Unlike other classes that made this move, Bards stances already had a robust set of abilities, making the primary task to convert their existing stances into disciplines.
Bard Discipline Changes
The following abilities have been converted to disciplines:
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Focused Blade is now a discipline, with its damage and accuracy bonuses increased to 20%, compensating for the loss of the aggressive stance.
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Focused Mind has been converted to a discipline, with no changes to functionality.
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Maestro’s Will has been converted to a discipline, with no changes to functionality.
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Nimble Dance has been converted to a discipline, mirroring the Rogue version.
Bard DPS Changes
A significant focus has been placed on enhancing Bard personal DPS, particularly at higher tiers. Previously, Bards were overly dependent on Song of the Blademaster to contribute meaningfully to DPS, a requirement that permanently limited their versatility. This problem also bled into the lower tiers; when other classes would start investing AAS in their special class AAs, bards were most often playing Psalm of the Four and Relic: Fiery Warcry of Tarhyl so AA: Blademaster’s Rhythm was not particularly useful. Additionally, many of the Bard’s chant lines, especially those available before level 65, were underpowered and lacked progression. To address these issues, the following changes have been implemented:
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AA: Blademaster’s Rhythm has been replaced by NEW AA: Echoing Blade, which grants a 9% chance per rank for any main hand attack to trigger an additional unresistable spell attack. This AA scales with all spell damage modifiers, including Crescendo.
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AA: Crescendo has been adjusted to scale inversely with mob HP rather than activating at a static threshold of 15%.
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Runic: Denon’s Dissonant Duet damage increased from 150 to 200.
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New Runic: Rousing Anthem, a new self-only haste song, provides 75% haste, 40 attack, and 40 strength, catering to situations with multiple Bards or solo/duo content.
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New Runic: Brusco’s Baneful Bellow, a new poison-based bellow, deals 285 base damage with a 10-second cooldown and a -25 poison resist adjustment.
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Tuyen’s Chant of Plague and Tuyen’s Chant of Venom damage increased to 120.
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New Oliawen’s Burning Trill and Oliawen’s Chilling Trill, new low-level chants at level 6 and 22 respectively.
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Oliawen’s Burning Trill starts at 6 damage and scales up to 21 at level 65. It reduces the enemies fire resistance by 2 scaling up to 11 at 65.
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Oliawen’s Chilling Trill starts at 14 damage and scales up to 25 at level 65. It reduces an enemies cold resistance by 4 scaling up to 11 at 65.
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Fufil’s Curtailing Chant damage now scales from 20 to a maximum of 37 at level 65.
Bard Utility Song Changes
To diversify Bard utility in groups and raids, several beneficial songs have been reworked or added. The goal was to make sure each Bard has multiple utility options when multiple Bards are present. We also wanted to ensure better align song power with their intended primary focus, particularly those which had some of their power tied up in unrelated bonuses.
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Song of the Blademaster no longer provides a bonus to damage shield. Base attack bonus increased from 18 to 30.
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Song of the Murk no longer provides a damage shield. The spells proc rate has tripled.
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New Mystic Overture is a level 64 group song that provides a high chance to proc a 150-point direct damage spell on cast and grants a significant charisma boost.
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New Harmonic Aegis is a level 62 raid-wide song that provides 25 damage shield and 36 AC before instrument modifiers.
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New Runic: Warcry of the Resistance is a spell focus/overhaste song, offering 27% overhaste and 18% spell focus.
Bard Crowd Control Adjustments
The last thing we wanted to do was make sure bards ability to crowd control was a little less weak. Bards are not supposed to be able to crowd control as well as an enchanter, but previously bards ability to do so was weak enough that trying to mesmerize even two mobs was often incredibly difficult, and of the three classes who could mesmerize, they were often the worst.
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Dreams of Marlow now has a -25 resist adjustment, improving its reliability.
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New Runic: Lullaby of Ikild is a mesmerize spell with a max level of 64 and a -75 resist adjustment.
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Anthem of Command has been downgraded from its runic status, has been made available at level 65, and its mana cost reduced.
Bug Fixes
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Fixed an issue where Bard songs incorrectly received a 1% bonus per rank from elemental mastery tomes instead of the intended 2%.
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Quiet Reflection was literally useless. It has been reworked and renamed to Controlled Resonance, now reducing the mana cost of songs that cost mana by 2% per rank.
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