I'm looking at Bard magic for the 3.2 updates. Like a number of guilds, Magic 3.2 isn't a silver bullet to fix all the issues with their spellbooks - I'm desperately trying to keep the scope under control so I can launch the project reasonably soon but I still want to make little fixes here and there and earmark other issues for latter development. (This statement mostly applies to Bards, Paladins and Rangers - the three guilds slated for significant development focus that isn't related to magic because their guild skills aren't meaningfully developed.)

One thing that's standing out to me with Bard magic that I'm debating how to tackle for 3.2 is Desert's Maelstom. The current version is a vast departure from some of the previous incarnations. It's not cyclic anymore and with the new costing of debilitation spells we can possibly give it a little more oomph without breaking the slot bank.

Right now it's an AoE pulsing balance debuff and a discipline debuff. That last part, in particular, seems weird to me. Do Bards find it useful?

Would you prefer that portion of the spell changed to something else (Perhaps a ranged offense debuff)? Or we could slim it back to just the balance debuff and a 2 slot spell (It's slated to stay 3 slots currently since it's currently undercosted compared to similar spells... though not by much given the brief duration of the disc debuff.)

It could also go back to being a cyclic spell, though the old roster of effects is still way too much for a modern spell (-TM/ranged attacks to everything in the room, +evasion +balance to the caster's group, -evasion -balance to everything else. That'd be like 8 slots as well as being redundant with some existing spells.)

-Raesh

"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things

In answer t your question the disc debuff is less attractive me to me, though against stealthy or magic opponents, it wouldn't be. A lot of debuffs and buffs have perks I find less useful, cough cough drums and locksmithing.

Discipline debuff is definitely something that could be changed, I certainly don't tend to care much about it.

The duration makes the Discipline debuff unhelpful. In general, I don't find stat/skill debuffs to be useful in PvE. And I don't give a fart about PvP.

Maybe if the Discipline debuff was a Stealth debuff instead, so it had a more direct effect on anti-stealth? (I'd only suggest this if you think that a skill buff is even worth a spell slot for PvE).

Otherwise, I'd suggest making the duration longer and dropping the cost by removing the Discipline debuff.

GENT

Personally, I would like to keep it as a standard AOE, not cyclic. I love that we have lots of cyclics, but we just don't have a lot of standard spells and I'd like a few.

As for the Disc debuff, I find it attractive. I think one of our strengths is, and should be, area debilitating, and debuffing Disc is a great way to open enemies up for further debilitation. Four of our attack spells are vs. Will, so we can use this ourselves in addition to aiding other casters on our side. Of course, I can see how this might not appear that useful in PVE (except some invasions), but personally I'd like to have it as an option.

That said, the Disc debuff doesn't have to belong in Dema. If it were me, I would probably add it to Chorus of Madmen, where it makes more sense to me, and open up Dema to the ranged offense debuff.


- Navesi