I'm writing this as an open letter to the administration:
It's no surprise that we have a new archetype. Rumors have been drifting on the wind for the past few weeks about a Monk or Assassin archetype.

It is, however, a tremendous disappointment. Ever since the release of the Bardic archetype, the four bard guilds have been in a heated competition for smallest guild, easily displacing the reigning champions (or should I say losers), the Blacktalon. Many times the four bard guilds have been in the bottom four for topguilds, the best analysis of player activity widely available.

Numerous problems exist with the Bard archetype. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the design itself is deeply flawed. There is no question that Bards posssess the most passive primary skillset that any IRE game has ever seen: Combat as a bard consists of watching a timer run down to refrain, and spamming a novice level skill (in the form of blanknote). Our combat is nearly entirely reliant on tertiary skillsets. In fact, if we want something to do besides use Novice-level skills, we are forced to look at our tertiary skillsets.

While I've come to accept that too much work has gone into the Music skillset(and the concept of Composition as a whole) to get a true revamp, we must examine other options. We must be forced to accept that we are meant to be a passive class: it seems, in the Lusternian dictionary, "a varied support class capable of numerous roles" is synonymous with "press butan, watch timer, play blanknote". I will not comment on the rightness or wrongness of a such a standard, but I will offer it up as an undeniable truth of the Bardic archetype.

Let us set that aside. Let's agree that Bards will be the passive class, the team that relies on tertiary guildskills and secondary fluff abilities (jumpkick jumpkick lol). Let's focus on the issue at hand:

Why are the Monks receiving a long, detailed committee process, when the Bardic archetype is an abortion of the highest calibre. No other class concept in any IRE, ever, has missed the mark as thoroughly as Lusternia's bards have.

I apologise for the harshness, but it is an undeniable truth. Bards are boring. Bards are flawed. There's a few time-consuming options available, ones that I would be happy to go into detail about, with the right people. Unfortunately I too have accepted the state of things, even as I fight for in cremental changes.

In the thread about Monks, Fain said that the Envoys bear the burden of fighting for the Bards. This is true. But as the most active and involved Envoy since the release of Bards, I have black news: the Envoys cannot fix the Bard archetype. Incremental, creeping changes are unable to cure the ailment that rots the very core of the Music skillset. I speak, of course, of the passive, boring combat, the inflexible fighting style, and the complete lack of player skill and finesse needed to be a Bard.

Thus I ask the administration for one thing:
If you must proceed with the Monk committee, when the Monk guilds are released, close the Bards. Such a closure such should last until such time as a complete reassessment of the Bardic archetype can be performed. If such a revamp is out of the question, then there's no point in maintaining the facade of four Bardic guilds. It's a waste of resources in every sense of the word.

I have asked every Bard fighter who is active, save Daedalion who's been MIA. Alianna, myself, Estwald, Kaervas. We're all leaving our guilds the moment the Monks come out.

We're all getting ready to abandon the sinking ship. Instead of plugging the leaks, the Administration is building a new ship. I find this deeply troubling.

Oh, wow, we all are. That's kinda sad.

I'm sure the Spiritsingers will do great as they usually are as a guild, despite having no niche in the Wilde yet, so I'm not on any disgruntled ground just yet.

What's the point of making requests that will never be actually granted instead of actual constructive suggestions?

Ugh. Kind of felt like you could have sugar-coated it or something, but you make good points.

The point is to illustrate just how completely frustrated a lot of us are with the Archetype, and to cover, very briefly, the issues that we have. It's a plea for attention.



Have I ever sugar-coated anything, ever? I call it like I see it.

I just wanted to make one other point that really hurts the most out of all of this:

By creating a committee to design monks, you're essentially admitting that such is the right way to design new classes. You're admitting that by not doing that with Bards, you may have made a mistake.

But instead of going back and fixing that mistake, you're just making a new class.

Frankly, that sucks.

Edit: Comedy option instead of letting the Seren design Monks, since all the Bard envoys(i'm sure Lysandus will quit when the time comes) are planning on leaving, just let us do it!

Nope. The admins work hard for us though, and I find it rude to not at least thank them for the effort. Your thread though.

I do appreciate the work they do, but I'm not going to play nice-nice when they're giving us an archetype we don't need, four guilds the population can't support, and are completely ignoring the already-crippled class that needs a serious reassessment.

I think the bard skills are really fun, esp. music and the specializations. However, I agree that I feel like I don't have a lot to work with at times, since there are only so many ways you can rearrange the stanzas in your song. One of the major roles of bards was probably to be the cultural and RP icons, but I don't know how to encourage that in others ... or to get them to stay longer. *shrug* Oh and there are also acrobatics which is also pretty fun, though keeping in mind that most new players invest most lessons into music so I'm assuming they won't have much left for secondary skills? I'm continuously thinking about how we as a guild can make things for exciting for our members, but there aren't that many to begin with =S A lot of ideas have been posted in these forums about bards though, and plenty of new skill ideas too, I wonder if those are being considered, maybe??

It's rather encouraging that they're trying to learn from that mistake and come up with a better process this time around, though. That deserves a lot of credit. (Even if it does seem too soon to release a new archetype.)

I dissagree, Dexterity needs to mean something.

For constructive suggestions, we have our envoys. They are allowed to suggest tweaks each month, although there is no guarantee these tweaks will be implemented.



Problem is, bards need more than just tweaks. There have been a few fixes, but when I look at a serious bug that has been around for more than a month now, and see that it still hasn't been fixed, I'm a little disappointed. It almost seems like bards were released unfinished.



I'm not.

Edit: There's also the issue of how empty bard guilds are. People say monks won't be around for a while, and by then bards will be fine, but at the rate things are being fixed, and with the severity of the problems, I doubt it. Even if monks were released a year from now, what will magically fill up bard guilds?

Yes, they are learning from their mistakes, but without demonstrating a willingness to go back and correct that mistake.

While you may have some valid points, Visaeris, if you recall, we asked for a special bardic report to address all of bard concerns some time ago which I believe you were nominally in charge of. If I recall, we ended up getting a rather weak report.

In any event, we may or may not try another special bard report out with the envoys again but high handed rhetoric isn't exactly making me want to rush out and do it.

From IRC:
Translated from divine speak "All your fault. Because of you, bards stay the same way."
we might give you another attempt, but it's still your fault

Perhaps just making composition less.. terrible. Ignore stanza levels, just give things like Threnody a pre-requisite. Not to mention the ability to ignore deafness, as suggested by Verithrax.


756h, 1161m, 1329e, 10p, 4600en, 5230w ex-
You jump aside, narrowly avoiding the attack.
756h, 1161m, 1329e, 10p, 4600en, 5230w ex-

Not to mention a hint on what the attack was and who it was from.

if you ignore deafness then they came out with earwort for no reason.

And then what about Perfectfifth?

Syntax: PLAY PERFECTFIFTH
Power: 3 (any)
This interval creates a beautiful sound such that the person it is directed to
literally cannot move away from the musician who played it.

Syntax: CAPTIVATE AUDIENCE
This will effect all allies and enemies in the room who can hear and are not
already captivated by a bard. Those who are captivated will only pay attention
to your songs and thus will only be effected (either negatively or positively)
by your song effects. Blanknote or Blankchord will break the captivation.

As for the population not increasing... look at BW... it is getting longer and longer each month... it still has short periods, but during peak hours, it rivals what Imperian had at its third year mark, which given Lusternia's early stunted growth, is a massive catch up.

Plus, all in all, I have seen less and less griefing going on, and events that are more and more interesting. I am seeing players having more stuff to do, and I am starting to like Lusternia more and more.

Yes, I agree the bards are a joke... they are the only class I can actually kill right now... (stupid low strength)... but the primary concern is increasing the playerbase, and this MASSIVE area, which I was able to go from 67-68 with out ever leaving it, is a great step. Even prime, and plane bashing areas are opening up more, allowing easier access to levels. Two very interesting races with beautiful RP, and racial conflict quests, which quite frankly are very very cool. (You can bet I will be keeping that Queen of Queens up to keep my bonus's form it.) This racial conflict also has completely twisted the political arrangement of the Basin, causing tension between Glomdoring and Celest, easing of tensions with Celest and Serenwilde. No idea what is going on with magnagora, but it seems the opposite over there.

As the player base increases, so will resources, and Bards will be able to get the love they are in need of. Until then, keep envoying, and keep trying. I will be honest, the biggest things hurting Bards is there lack of RP, except in the Spiritsingers... (which is the most successful Bard guild...) Spiritsingers are successful because they perform, they encourage writing, poetry, and all of that. They are more then just musical fighters. While I wont argue, the music fighting side needs work, I will argue that most of the guilds have missed the point of the Bards and need to find themselves again before they can organize to form a chance of change.

The very fact every champion wants to bail should point to the problem. They are not dedicated to the success of the guild, but their own success. Patience, and hard work matter. Find ways to make your guild fun, and you will get members. Most players never engage in combat. Bard guilds can be a haven for them giving them a lot to do without combat. Encourage that, and your guild will grow, and the combat side will improve out of nessecity. Don't bail for seemingly greener pastures, leaving your fields brown from lack of care.

Yeah. A major thing hurting bards, almost as much as sucky skills, is that bard guilds (With the possible notable exception of the Spiritsingers) massively suck in their culture, roleplay and governance. Both city bard guilds were founded by novices, one of which faded away if I recall correctly and the other who was an immature brat with no leadership or administration skills whatsoever, and that left a lasting scar on both of them.