Shattered Kingdoms

Priests get shield block which is totally useless considering we use maces in the second row 90% of the time. Priests don't get dodge, which is stupid.

I would gladly give up shield block in exchange for dodge.

ETA: self-edit since the filters don't seem to be working!

Then make a new topic with a poll on it

That would be a terrible exchange for any priest involved in PvP with ranged weapons.

Songs of war and songs of protection are both extremely helpful in a wide variety of situations, especially at GM. Whilst playing Tyna, I found multiple situations where singing songs of protection with a little dancing actually made me better at preserving my party's health levels than SoH. It also draws a TON less mana than SoH...leaving me free to use SoH during rest breaks to fix the mana levels.

Songs of war with two GM bards in the party can get scary to anyone not in that party. Three is...Wow.

Songs of sleep is uber, but is well balanced by the cost in ME, concentration, and PE, as well as the affect lag that happens when you get dragged into another room. No one can sing that song for long, even with a couple different bard regen items on-hand.

Songs of dancing DOES need a look. By far too easy to resist, making its intended purpose lost in the lag before it hits.

Bards could use shield block in exchange for parry OR e-parry. Either one would make them a little more effective in terms of secondary tanks, without unbalancing them. Ardith, yes, tumble is extremely effective and probably the best defensive skill in the game, but its use becomes pointless if your main tank is already down and all of a sudden you've got a bard in front row trying to tank for a healer.

Successfull persuade attempts should not be considered crimes. Trying and failing? Maybe still should. There are greater issues with persuade than its law aggression, though. Namely, the cost and the lag associated with it.

Bards should have trance but not meditation. Meditation is always active, and that would unbalance them. Trance is active only when resting, and that would be more in synch with the class.

The only other thing that should maybe be examined when it comes to bards is the AoE chords. Either the lag should come off, or they should not affect your group. As it stands right now, the chords become next to useless in anything but solo swarm leveling due to the lag and the squish factor of bards. Perhaps replacing parry with shield block, or adding e-parry would make an effective solution.

How would mood defensive apply with singing and dancing if bards got shield block? If it has no affect, shield block would be a huge defensive buff IMO. One that they don't really need. They're obviously very useful in groups already.

OA, there's an old adage about he who runs away lives to fight another day.

Wimpy 100 for life, west side, or whatever [REDACTED] gang signs you like.

I don't get why everybody wants to be a hero. My scout had shield block and I never once tried to play the tank in PvP, and both classes have the same hp base. If you can't use tumble, then I'm sure you can use flee, or quaff recall.

I think you guys are just thinking about how to play the class like another class. You want to play a bard like a mercenary. What then is the point of the mercenary class? The bard is like a screwdriver, and the mercenary is like a chainsaw. You cannot screw the screw in with the chainsaw, but you can with the screwdriver. What you're trying to do is make one tool have the function of another. And yes, I will admit that my first thought was to use a shotgun, but I think the hillbilly population of SK is already too high to suggest filling a screw with some 00 buck.

I guess another analogy is that you guys are trying to have your cake and eat it too.