Template:Bard abilities
Bards are a tactical support class. They will have more significance based on their mobility and placement in the battle.[1]
Based on proximity, based on your mobility and placement within the battle you're going to have more significance. So it's going to be to a degree a tactical type scenario for those non-healing support classes to be cognizant of. You know, where on the battlefield they need to be positioned in connection with the group that they're trying to augment or support; and so that gives a little bit more tactical sense to these non-healing support classes that's more relevant to them than other classes per-se.[1] – Steven Sharif
- Bards are intended to not be purely support focussed. They will be a "jack of all trades", including offensive and defensive combat abilities in addition to support abilities and buffs.[2][3]
- Bards may offer proximity-based or proc-based healing to a much lesser degree than Clerics.[4]
- This may be outdated, as Bards have been more recently referred to as a non-healing support class.[1]
- Bards will have a wide range of abilities to choose from, such as wordsmithing, acting, and musical aspects.[5]
- Bards will not be the "downtime" class. This is the role of social spaces within nodes.[3]
- Bards will have utility outside of combat, like all other classes.[8]
In other games, Bards tend to be a relatively passive kind of way of playing and that's really not the direction that we want to go with it. We want every class to be fun to play. We want every class to be viable. We want you to feel like you are doing something: That your moment-to-moment gameplay is fun; so a lot of that kind of stuff is going to be based on combos, on reactive interactions between your party members and the mob that you're fighting, or the player character that you're fighting. There's going to be a lot of movement from the front lines to the back lines to kind of help out and make sure that everybody is supported in the way that they're doing it; and that you are also being active in what you're doing. You're not just sitting in the back passively playing a lute and not having any fun.[9] – Jeffrey Bard
Bards can choose to activate buffs that augment tanking, evasion, DPS and healing abilities in their proximity.[10]
- Some buffs are related to how the bard performs in combat: If a bard lands a skill shot against a target, allies within a certain range might be granted a temporary buff that relates to the skill that the bard used.[11]
Let's say the Bard is using a weapon, has a sword out and... does some gladiatorial looking performance attack and it looks so great. It inspires his friends around him to increase their multiplier on critical damage, and now they deal additional damage against targets for the next 10 seconds or 8 seconds. So, you're going to need to be active. You're going to worry about your position, the relation of the position of your party members to you in order to accentuate really what you offer the party.[11] – Steven Sharif
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Podcast, April 11, 2021 (13:30).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Interview, June 13, 2021 (8:33).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Livestream, May 17, 2017 (1:06:19).
- ↑ Livestream, July 25, 2020 (58:38).
- ↑ Livestream, June 28, 2019 (1:21:02).
- ↑ Livestream, July 28, 2017 (40:15).
- ↑ Livestream, 8 April 2018 (PM) (1:18:37).
- ↑ Livestream, May 19, 2017 (39:55).
- ↑ Livestream, June 1, 2017 (22:58).
- ↑ Interview, July 19, 2020 (1:00:04).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Livestream, 8 April 2018 (PM) (46:11).