Shattered Kingdoms

Tyna's player got a job where he works 14 hour days, six days a week keeping kids off drugs and out of gangs.

I don't really have time to comb through every detail posted here, but from what I've skimmed I will offer these insights:

Persuade should be made to be non-offensive. The costs, limitations, and lag are already enough of a penalty, it doesn't also have to be aggressive.

Defensive bonus for being in the dancing position should be slightly, very slightly, increased versus skills like dirt, bash, trip, etc, but versus normal attacks it's already good enough. (And unless Dulrik has already fixed a bug I emailed or possibly PM'd to him sometime ago that hadn't been fixed when I tested it again a month ago or so, it has a hidden benefit for the bard as well.)

Songs of sleep are fine. They are powerful, but hugely costly, and when a bard is singing they can't quaff, recite, yell, anything. The lag on stopping makes up for the power of the song, since the bard is not going to be able to gtfo of Dodge when the people/pet in front of them die.

Kin, you aren't playing your bard properly. The complaints about their style that you levy show only that you are not approaching the class from the support position they are supposed to fill. Unless you are vs. a caster, and have some room to use your power chords without completely ripping your own face off from drawn NPCs, a bard should be running for the hills at the first sign of serious opposition, and using some of those favors that just about everyone owes a competant bard to get friends to come back with you.

Bottom line: keep WoR potions on you, make friends, and play the class as it is intended, not as you want it to be. Bards are relatively competant solo, but against melee powerhouses you will die and die fast (this includes most animate-necros, since they are basically just a roving band of melee powerhouses all rolled up into one).

OA, I didn't even consider the lag. Valid arguments, each one.

B aug is fine it is actually quite useful when used in the right situations.

I agree that persuade should now be made non-aggro since it has been gimped to no end, and for good reason.

F minor, could use some work. Preferably it only targeting the whole room and any rows in front of you.

Songs of Sleep and Silence are just fine.

Songs of Dance = GM. One of the best leveling tools a bard has. A bard gets xp for each person affected on each song line. I would earn statuses just by being in certain rooms and dance them if there were about a dozen NPCs in the room.

I agree with OA on dancing, they need better defenses against bash/trip/etc, but no other bonuses.

Songs of Magic: You become every enchanter/brewer's best friend

Songs of Antimagic/war/protection are either virtually or nearly useless.

Songs of Death while better for leveling since it actually damages opponents, not as good since it draws aggro for good reason (if you can find a good tank friend, you will level a lot).

Bards get exp for songs of dance? I knew they got exp for songs and such but I wasn't aware of that.

Bard get xp for all songs, they get xp for each body (pc or npc) on each line. Usually, it is so small that you won't notice it to well since you level solo, most of the time. Now, there are some caveats, on the songs of healing, you don't get the xps if you are not actually healing the party member. When the server was empty, I would sit in a certain usually full inn and dance everyone to the next status.

Give them Shield block and Ill be happy with them

Bards are overpowering. I don't get why people think they are weak to begin with given the types and amount of skills that they have.

The problem with them is that they're literally glass cannons. Bards have no survivability other than tumble, parry and dodge. The majority of their songs are useless and songs of sleep are overpowered. I'm not asking for buffs so much as tweaks. Make them more survivable and nerf songs of sleep or so with a bit more of a resistance. Add shield block and tweak the other songs, such as dancing, to where they're more usable. Playing a bard is beyond boring. If it's not an RP concept, you practically sit in backrow and sing songs of sleep or silence and that's it. Theres not really much fun in that..

They've plenty of survivability. Although the last bard I played with was Sithara, I doubt much has changed. The only time I can recall her dying in my group was in the Iron Citadel when I walked in a room and a lone helrigh horror hit her with a cleave that was an auto kill.

You just aren't tough enough to play the class, I'm afraid.