Bard Instrament Fix

[Yeormom]

As of now, bard's really suck on almost all servers because of the instraments not taking place, from not being able to cast some songs at all to being level 65 and selo's being out ran by jboots. I would really love to see the bard instraments, even if just the epic, begin to work once more. Balance those classes!

[Monrezz]

I think there are more important things to fix before fixing individual class features :?

Such as LD issues, major gameplay bugs, crashes, stability etc.

[Yeormom]

Fix em then cause I don't seem to have those problems on the servers I play on...

[devn00b]

How about you fix em?

Major issues 1st...

Class issues whenver, there are no major issues

[RexChaos]

I won't say it's a major issue, but it's a pretty big issue. No bard instrument mods is like a warrior without taunt or a cleric with no healing. Sure they have other things they can all do, but they're pretty crippled without those skills.

Bard songs work, sure. But anyone who has ever played a bard knows that certain things (especially drum based songs) don't work so hot without an instrument. :)

I can't code so I'm not going to tell you to fix it...but in my opinion, this is more important than the AA's everyone cries about all the time.

[vzmule]

Wow, you have to have some balls to post on a forum making demands from people that give you free software.

[RangerDown]

It's not a bug it's Working As Intended(tm).

You see, Emu's supposed to be as close to live as possible. And, well, every time Sony puts out a major patch bards get broken for a week or 2... and Emu puts out releases pretty regularly so it only makes sense that they should break bards like live does. :D

[Yeormom]

Wow, you have to have some balls to post on a forum making demands from people that give you free software.

Wow...I sure am glad i posted this in the REQUESTS forum...the one with the description saying "Post detailed bug reports and what you would like to see next in the emu here."

[killspree]

No instrument mods isn't like no taunt or no heals because the mods are from item enhancements, taunt etc is from innate abilities.

In other words, if it had to do with actual class abilities it would be more important, but right now it's just a feature from items that enhances songs.

That's the same as people wanting the plane of time mods working - they're just added features to improve through items.

[RexChaos]

No instrument mods isn't like no taunt or no heals because the mods are from item enhancements, taunt etc is from innate abilities.

In other words, if it had to do with actual class abilities it would be more important, but right now it's just a feature from items that enhances songs.

That's the same as people wanting the plane of time mods working - they're just added features to improve through items.

I disagree. You're partly correct that it's not an innate ability, but bard instruments affect their performance just as much as +mana or +hp on gear affects other classes like melee and casters. So since all the other gear works properly, bard instruments should as well. There, that's a little better comparison I guess.

[l33tninja]

id say its alot more than +hp or +mana gear.
A store-bought instrument has a 2.0 modifier on song output, some magical ones substantially more.

Bards , especially old world, did more dps with instruments out even in the <30 levels , and had better stamina in a fight as well with an all instrument load

[Charmy]

I have never personally played a bard before, but correct me if i am wrong, are there not quite a few songs that not only are enhanced by an instrument, but actually require one? i remember being on CR's with bards and they say "damn i don't have a flute or whatever so i can't use invis song" or somthing like that, so although i admit i would much rather see LD/zone crash fixes first, this does make bards about as gimp as rangers (kidding) now i am certainly not an experienced programer so i won't begin to try and disagree with those who are making my EQ addiction Free and more fun. anyway, just my two cents as it were.

[kathgar]

1) There are only a handful of songs that require instruments
2) I started fixing bards and they are probably 80%-90% working 'as intended', I have not had the time to finish with bard mods yet but they are coming

[ndnet]

Off the top of my head:

Shauri's Sonorous Clouding (19, wind)
Cantata of Soothing (34, string)
Melody of Ervaj (50, brass)
Occlusion of Sound (55, percussion)
Composition of Ervaj (60, brass)
Harmony of Sound (65, percussion)

They'll only work if you either have
1.) a real instrument equipped,
2.) an armor item or weapon with the right type of modifier on it, or
3.) a tribute that grants you that modifier.

The AA Instrument Mastery and Improved Instrument Mastery may add 0.8 total to the instrument(s) modifier, but it doesn't allow one to sing the songs while naked.

These songs list the instrument as a reagent. Due to that fact, for a long time, live bards simply did not consume reagents -at all- to keep from eating their flutes. Recently, it's been reworked so that bards don't consume reagents on songs, though require them for other effects.

On modifiers:

Without AA, Bards have an instrument modifier cap of 3.6. Using Ayonae's Tutelage their modifier cap becomes 3.9. Using Echo of Taelosia their modifier cap becomes 4.2. There is talk that the latter skill will be changed soon to a 4.5 modifier cap, to reflect the fact that we're seeing 3.7 modifier instruments in Gates (3.7 + 0.8 from AA = 4.5, without a 4.5 cap gates instruments are pointless) so you may wish to use that in the changes you're doing.

Instrument Mastery, Singing Mastery, and improved versions of them, for each rank increase the modifier by 0.2, for a maximum of 0.8. The modifier stacks with any instrument mod, though does not act as if it were an instrument all by itself for the purpose of singing instrument-required songs. Without any instruments and these AA a bard's mod is basically 1.8.

Do you have a way to determine which effects on which songs are or are not modified by instruments? As a rule of thumb, Haste/slow, Mana regeneration (does not include mana drains), and focus % are not modified by instruments. Some songs (such as Denon's Desperate Dirge, 43, singing) are not modified by their instrument type at all, though they are certainly in the minority. (Edit: As an interesting quirk, the song I listed as an example, DDD, though not modified by an instrument, is modified by singing mastery.. a bug, surely, but a noteworthy one if adhering to live, hehe).

Anywho, looking forward to bards functioning smoothly in the emu =)