Vanguard Bard Info

[FloridaGamer]

Got this from www.vanbard.com before it was removed from their forums. Probably leaked and classified info, but since I'm not in the Beta might as well pass it around. Sounds like an interesting class..

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Song composition
Bards can only sing one song at a time. Songs are composed using several different component types. As you level you will gain access to new types of components and will be able to create more powerful songs.

Component types:
Melody - There is always a melody in a song. A song must have a melody to be played. The Melody is the backbone of the song and provides the theme. There is only ever 1 melody slot. Example Melody:

Mellarien's Anthem of War
This melody inspires you and allies in battle.

- Component type: Melody
- Instrument type: Wind
- Increases strength
- Increases armor class
- Adds damage to all attacks and spells

Embellishment - Embellishments are minor additions. Small resistance buffs, debuffs and other minor buffs. There are potentially 5 embellishment slots. Example Embellishment:

Illestine's Harmony of Warmth
This embellishment protects your and your allies from the ravages of the cold.

- Component type: Embellishment
- Instrument type: Wind
- Increases cold resistance
- 2 pt damage shield

Lyric - Lyrics provide many different things for all occasions. Low power effects. Slow, runspeed, weapon procs, levitation. There are up to 4 lyric slots. Example Lyric:

Gamael's Blades of Flame
This lyric adds additional fire damage to the attacks of you and your allies.

- Component type: Lyric
- Instrument type: Brass
- Instrument modifiers alter proc chance

Chorus - Higher powered lyric-like components. Misc effects. There are up to 3 chorus slots. Example chorus:

Irion's Chorus of Shields
This chorus causes a curtain of sound to protect you and your allies.

- Component Type: Chorus
- Instrument Type: String
- Increases armor class
- Increases block skill
- Small amount of damage is absorbed each pulse

Verse - Higher powered components. DoTs, regens, snares. There are 3 potential verse slots. Example verse:

Cirel's Phrase of Renewal
This verse rejuvenates the bodies all nearby allies

- Component Type: Verse
- Instrument Type: String
- Increased health regeneration

Bridge - Very powerful components. Misc effects. There are up to 2 bridge slots. Example bridge:

Naman's Ruinous Revolution
This bridge strips your opponent of arcane and elemental resistance.

- Component Type: Bridge
- Instrument Type: Brass
- Reduces fire, cold and arcane resistances

Coda - Very powerful components. Misc effects. There are up to 2 coda slots. Example coda

Mellarien's Victorious Finale
This coda adds a small amount of damage to all attacks made by you or your allies.

- Component Type: Coda
- Instrument Type: Wind
- Increased damage

There is one more component type, but it doesn't add any power to the song. Each of the above components has an energy cost associated with them. Eventually they will be in the descriptions. A melody costs 2 energy per second - A coda costs 8 - two codas costs 16. A song composed using nothing but musical components would play for around 12 seconds at level 50 with decent gear. No good. Enter rests -

Rests - Rests don't add anything to the song. Instead they negate some amount of energy consumption. Rests exist to allow you to create perpetual songs (ones that never stop due to energy levels). Using the above example (melody costs 2 energy per sec) a two point rest would negate the cost of a melody. This rest would cancel out 2 points of cost per second. There are various sizes of rests, from 2 to 12.

As you would assume, a lyric will only go in a lyric slot - components will only go in the slot they belong to. Rests can go in any slot, excepting the melody slot, of course. At 50 you may opt to use one of your lyric slots up with the 12point rest and put a 10 point rest where a coda went.

Because they are not show anywhere yet, here is the basic cost info:

Melody - 2
Embellishment - 2
Lyric - 3
Chorus - 5
Verse - 6
Bridge - 6
Coda - 8

Song Creation Funness
So you have created the best song around...it is perfect in its efficiency and power...what now?

You need to name the song. You put in your own name. it will appear in everyones buff bar as YourName's Bard Song: . You will also have to put in a description. yes, everyone will see it. Yes, that is potentially problematic. Yes, people will make the poopy pants song and the song called "Talisker can rot in hell".

We trust you to make good decisions.

You can then save the song. It will be saved on the server, so where ever you play Vanguard from, you'll have your songs. You can save something like 30 songs...Jerrith said no more, sorry. I begged

You can also edits songs on the fly and press play again to get the new component. The interface is clumsy right now, but in the future using hotkeys to swap components is the goal. When (not if) you get your cursor stuck in the title or descriptions text fields, instead of smashing your keyboard and throwing something (not that I did that...) just hit escape a few times and all will be well.

OK, you also get attack chains...but I am finding that I don't like the way they are working, so I won't waste my time on explaining something that will likely change. This is plenty long anyway.

Oh and you need more non-song components. I need to make em...well I need to design em, then make em. I looked at the list of 110 song components and thought that I was done...silly me, you actually need more stuff to do while your song is playing. So that'll come.

Oh crap - I didn't cover instruments and mods and stacking components. Bah

Instrument Mods
So you can get instruments...they have a mod on them. Base instruments (store bought) instruments magnify the effects of your components. Have an embellishment that gives a 2 point damage shield? Sounds pretty crappy doesn't it? Add 5 of them in all your slots for a whopping 10 points...still kinda crappy. Oh wait, equip an instrument or get an item that has an instrument mod of the correct type - whammo! With max mod that 10 becomes a 30 and you haven't even used a powerful component yet...

So Instruments mod stuff. Store instruments are an 80% increase (1.8 mod...sound familiar to anyone? Why fix it if it ain't broken?) Magical ones move up from there.

You can stack components. Most all of them stack. That is why they are small..because you can make the cumulative effects BIG. Take Mellarian's Victorious Finale (above) for example. It adds like 8 damage to your group. Puny by itself. Do some math magic (8+8*3.0) and viola! you just added 48 damage to everyone in your group!

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[Adrain]

I didn't see the words 'twist' or 'juggle' anywhere in there. This sort of bard seems fun.

1 song at a time is the best thing I've heard about Vanguard yet. Shit that might even be enough to convince me to try it.

[Shutup]

gay ass bards

[Jooka]

sounds promising. Would like to fiddle around with this. not as intense as the EQ bard but the variety is there for sure.

[Tuco]

That does look like a pretty impressive amount of custimization.

What would be really cool is if they had a techno-song studio built in, with different features for each slot having a unique sound and having a unique buff. Naturally it would probably go into a cookie cutter type of customization, but it'd still be cool to be able to identify the stats of a song simply by the sound.

the system is down! the system is down!

[Kuro]

Well, hopefully their active-combat options are as interesting, otherwise "buffbot fo lyfe yoz!"

[Flinch]

Sounds like the FFXI Bard, ver 2.0.

I like.

[mek]

Originally Posted by Kuro

Well, hopefully their active-combat options are as interesting, otherwise "buffbot fo lyfe yoz!"

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. This sounds interesting except the whole part where your actual in-combat work appears to be "press play." This could be way more fun/challenging if you actually had to use timing to bridge melodies successfully, introduce embellishments in an appropriate order, etc etc. Instead you'll probably be autoattacking while your buffs autoplay.

[Merauk]

Can't wait for the "Bards are broken" posts, the whole WoW Pallie/Shaman thing is wearing thin so this will give us a great new horse to beat.

[Adrain]

Originally Posted by FloridaGamer

You need to name the song. You put in your own name. it will appear in everyones buff bar as YourName's Bard Song: . You will also have to put in a description. yes, everyone will see it. Yes, that is potentially problematic. Yes, people will make the poopy pants song and the song called "Talisker can rot in hell".

We trust you to make good decisions.

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Hmm I could finally name manasong: "Stay the fuck in range and don't bother me."

[Adrain]

Originally Posted by mek

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. This sounds interesting except the whole part where your actual in-combat work appears to be "press play." This could be way more fun/challenging if you actually had to use timing to bridge melodies successfully, introduce embellishments in an appropriate order, etc etc. Instead you'll probably be autoattacking while your buffs autoplay.

No way. Having to twist shit for hours is not fun. Either make bards a true caster class or song autoplay is the way to go.

[Kuro]

"They changed 'A Muffin' to just 'Muffin' and broke bard songs again!"

[Wodin]

I wish I had context as to how big those buffs that were described actually are. Until he got to the bit where it was "damagemod song of pwnage" where he'd stacked 5 of the same +2 damage enhancement and then multiplied it by 300% due to an epic instrument, it seemed like the buffs given out were fairly marginal at best.

Though being able to level up and have your songs do more because you're able to add in additional buffs, rather than rest periods required to keep it sustained, does sound cool. Having access to all the goodies from the get-go and simply being forced to choose which you use is a neat idea.

[Heavens_Myst]

Originally Posted by Merauk

Can't wait for the "Bards are broken" posts, the whole WoW Pallie/Shaman thing is wearing thin so this will give us a great new horse to beat.

hahaha

[forge]

That actually sounds really awsome. Did Nino have anything to do with this? Now if we just had something other than those gumby models we'd be good to go.