Lets Discuss "Bard"

With there now being the possibility of "Bard" coming to WoW forever from the surveys,

I wanted to take this moment to share with you - what my concept is and see what your guy's feedback is on it. I just wanted to ADD, this is a thread for IDEAS/CONCEPTS for what we want to see for a bard class in WoW forever, not a wishlist - tell me how shit my ideas are and post your own - lets give the devs this thread as a FEEDBACK thread to help get a class we all want to see/play.

(NO AI HAS BEEN USED THIS IS FROM MY OWN DOCUMENTS THAT I HAVE ON MY GOOGLE DRIVE)

So lets start with - the Lore. How do they fit into the World of Azeroth and why are they suddenly now taking up Arms?

My concept is born from the character of "Thom" from the Wheel of Time, for those of you that don't know - Thom is known as a "Gleeman," who is a wandering bard, storyteller, juggler, and musician who travels from town to town in a patchwork cloak (which is admired by the kids at the start of the first book, who have NEVER seen a Gleeman before).

Lore wise - every race in WoW has "music". Weather it be war drums, singing, bannermen with trumptets to bolster armies etc. They have always been a core aspect of the "WAR" side of Warcraft. However, with there being a new Era in the world of azeroth after the end of WC3, bards are no longer in the armies anymore, and have taken to traveling the world telling the tales of the battles they have experienced and adventuring across the eastern kingdoms and kalimdor to tell tales to adventurers and inspire them to go out into the world and have their own.

This is where the Class concept started for me. I also looked at how the "bard" class is conceptualized in other Games too - DND, Elder scrolls and FFXIV even League of Legends (Sona/Seraphine).

so where does this leave the class and its resource tree and its specs?

Well bards are able to manipulate a battle field through Charisma/Charm and Deception. With a mix of Rogue elements using Daggers/Swords, singing songs, inspiring and putting down enemies.

This gave me these 3 Tree's

MINSTREL - Your Healer/Support Spec - Your DND Bard Archetype FOOL - Your Melee DPS/Support Spec - Think Court Jester Assassing VIRTUOSO - A Ranged DPS/Support Spec - Pop Singer/Big Stage Performer.

The Resource will be Energy for the class. With a "combo point" style system which is only on the bard - after each "Chord" is played - it stacks up a "point" which allows the bard to play a "Crescendo" Spell/Song/Attack that works like a finisher. The general idea being that you can build up to these during fights to change what buffs/debuffs the raid or party needs during the flow of a fight.

The hardest part was trying to establish a distinction from the other franchises of a "Bard" Class. Make it too archery focussed and you have the FFXIV bard. Its fun, but its more a ranger class with some song buttons (from my experience in ARR 1.0) but trying to make it more "WARCRAFT". Without it becoming a bastardisation of a warriors Shouts and Paladin Auras/blessings. Donning them in Leather and Mail for a bit more Flavor.

So I'm going to go Spec by Spec here. Starting with the

**Minstrel.**

Main Weapons for this spec is Wands/Bows/Staffs/Daggers/Swords/Thrown It scales with Spirit and Spell power Support wise - its all about buffing allies in short windows - think seal twisting with songs. You can crescendo an AOE Heal, or Damage reduction, amplify healing on allies etc. So the idea is that your individual "Chords" can be used on single targets, with crescendo's being AOE.

Main Spec skill is "Duet" where you can select another member of the party who will radiate the same Crescendo as you for a short period of time.

To prevent stacking the buffs - a similar debuff to weakened soul will be part of the core mechanic to prevent a group of 40 bards just smashing through raids by buffing each other, and repeating crescendo's will diminish their effectiveness, as no one likes repeat performances of the same song over and over.

**FOOL/JESTER**

This is a melee DPS class that like rogue will you deception and guile to debuff enemies/bosses. Through calling people names, charming them with their humour and also making loads of mobs groan with Terrible Jokes.

The cleverness of this spec is that you have the Chords - the same as Minstrel, but this enhances what they do when used on enemies - by amplifying the debuff aspect - so for example reducing a targets attack power by calling them a name. They will also have CC in the form of causing Fits of Laughter (like sleep) and dealing damage. They can use stealth too (in short bursts) and whisper in the ears of mobs or allies. Slowing cast times. Just being a general menace.

A key ability for them would be along the lines of a mass taunt that holds people in place for 3 seconds called "look at me". And would be very PVP orientated.

The Final Spec - Virtuoso is all about a grand perforamance for a crowd.

Amplifying the Raid with Attack Speed, Mana regen, cast times, basically Bloodlust with Legs, with Ranged Damage thrown in using Bows/Chords/Guns/Thrown weapons etc. Working in a similar way to a disc priest where instead of healing the chords/crescendos will apply these buffs from the rotation. For example, casting a chord that debuffs a boss, when hit with the crescendo of that spell/attack will unleash and attack speed buff or a movement speed buff to avoid a mechanic. OR will Amplify the bards damage and the casters around its damage/casting speed for a burn phase. Pure PVE focussed with the intention of buffing itself and others up while maintaining reasonable damage like a healer doing DPS.

Its core will work around a talent passive that buffs the "Song points" from 3 to 5 which will inherantly buff the cresendos to higher levels than the other specs. just pure RAMP.

Anyways,

Thanks for reading and hopefully Aggrend see's this and hires me /s