Alright, we all get excited about a new class... How well does it match up? What can it do? All the lovely little bells and whistles... Here are my thoughts.

I chose faeling for my race, it seems to be what the average Glomdoring bard is these days. And with the confusion if the main attack is based on int or cha, I avoided Tae'dae until I knew for certain.

Note- Bards are new... Really new. Some of the skills are buggy, some other things don't work like they should. So, this is in relation to bards _at this moment_, nothing else.

Split between my three skills, I chose Music, Hunting, and Acrobatics, since we all know how well Illusions are for combat.

Music- A really interesting skill at first glance, then an irriating one in practicality. You basic attack makes for incredible bashing, kills nearly everything in Newton in a single blow, and drops oozes in four. However, the attack is entirely magic based... Which means if an Igasho goes your way he tanks you like nothing else. A few lessons in Magic makes you have to rely on afflictions... Which is ouch.

Your attacks rely on being heard, but stripping deafness isn't a horrible obstacle. Being able to calm mobs, promote more weevils, heal yourself or another slightly, and travel to the different milestones are quite decent. Utility, but decent. The Ego and Ego/Mana drain skills aren't too bad, and could be quite useful in the right situation, but... Once again, warriors laugh.

Your two biggest basic skills allow to increase the magic damage to a target and to cause health damage whenever they use mana... Both of which are nice, nice skills that don't use any power. Major Seventh is a very nice skill, I like it alot, and eats power appropriately. Finally, the final skill before moving on to your specialization rocks... Hard core.

Essentially, you boil down to this. You try and stack afflictions which passively cause harm whenever your target attempts to use something, if it be power or mana, and some other things. But, for PvP at least, your damage is laughable, but in groups bards can do quite well. I really like our abilities to help or hinder other bards, and to work together with them.

Hunting/Ecology- You all know what it does. Stack it with what I said above. Decent, but not near Tarot power.

Acrobatics- Sweet loves in a hand basket! While some... Alright, quite a bit of it is buggy, the idea behind it is really quite good. Although, some of the more utility skills in it don't exactly mesh perfectly with everything else, I'm sure that can be fixed once we actually get it work like it should. Dodge is wicked, especially against someone who isn't Omni-trans, and saved my little faeling butt quite a few times. A dex buff, damage prevention, a new turtle skill, _instant stand_, and more.. I loves it. But we need to fix it.

Summary- Bards hunting= Really good, Bards in single combat= Not so good, Bards in a Group= Sexy..

I wish I could comment.....but no one sent me the abfiles yet. *pout*

Care to eloborate? The instant stand sounds neat too, I've heard that Acrobats is mainly defs and that Bards are really good support characters.

What does the Damage Source: say for the bashing skill? If its magical, it will be based on Int I believe.

Damage Type: 100% Magic
Damage Source: Magical

But, it also uses 40 Mana and 40 Ego.

I'm pretty sure it's Brute Physical = strength, Magical = Int.

Does being a mugwump let you sing the fastest? Do any of your skills use balance instead of eq?

I don't like that bards use eq I was hoping they could make better use of illusions (which can be done off balance, right?)

Belive me, the attack takes 40 Mana and 40 Ego.

Yes, mugwumps can sing the fastest, but the Acrobatics buffs (that I've seen so far) use balance. Not that it's much of an improvement...And I still have yet to determine whether or not Dodging and Elasticity have anything to do with Dexterity. I would hope so, with the dex buff as an ability.

Not sure about the Illusions bit, though.

40 mana and 40 ego is ok. Other bashing skills like nature curse, cosmic fire or blast use 80 mana.

And if you have passive skill that o damage or whatever when someone use skill that use mana sounds nifty.
Just stack this smudge that makes bleeding, they will try to clot it a lot.

No idea about rest of skills, maybe in one on one combat they arent great, but bards arent warrios. And it seems that haev quite few skilsl helping them to run. Like instastand and this salto, is like tumble/roll ??

Somersault in Achaea is a faster version of Tumble.

Doesn't kinda neuter a few skills that require the tartget to be prone?

You should see this one skill they get in Acrobatics. Its insane. But its probably blocked by like everything. And that insta-stand skill costs a lot to use. Constant drain on Willpower.

There are many other versions of "prone" than on the ground. As a druid, one of my primary skills requires prone, but I have no way of getting someone into the sitting down position.

Entanglement, paralysis, shackles, etc are more often used than knockdown to make someone prone.

Ah, I was going off the definition of "prone"... Well, as long as they aren't immune to trample, stagstomp, and others, everything is just peachy.

Edit: Valley (assumng no levitation) and mountain smudges knock people down? I just noticed the other day that the monkey totem can shove and seize people... Gosh I'm slow.

Hi Typhus!

The Bards do sound very enticing... since I pretty much can't participate in any combat anymore a support class would be just perfect for me. I'm also curious what you meant about 'a new turtle skill'?

And no more teasers, give us some details!

wait a second, autostand?

Does that work through stun, or just as soon as they get balance?

if its just like having a trigger than ok, but otherwise bards just became immune to bone crushers.

Like a cat, you can balance yourself in such a manner that you will bounce back up if you are ever knocked down. This takes concentration and will drain willpower and mana to keep up.

By the looks of it, soon as balance/equilibrium comes up. But theres also a move to stand without balance so.. yeah.

Syntax: SPRINGUP
You no longer need balance in order to stand. Rather, you can spring upright at
any time.

I doubt it works through stun.. Someone try it out?

Edit: Unless there is an autostand skill that's like a trigger.. I dumbed all my lessons into music so no idea.

From what I seen from Bards in spars and such they seem very powerful in pvp and hunting, I don't like how some of bards abilities just nullify and make some other class abilities useless. Even if they have to strip deafness for some abilities the ability they use to strip it also stuns...

Every archetype has something that nullifies another class, except maybe druids...

Pureblades can cut off arms, which means symbols, staves, weapons, and even instruments can not be used.

Bonecrushers can smash arms to tiny little peices.. which means instrument can no longer be used, etc...

Bards just have new ways of disabling and people havn't figured out the best way out of it yet.