I understand what you’re saying, but you’re still running into some massive issues. For starters having a buff class like that runs counter to the Holy trinity system. We had buff classes in Vanilla and TBC and largely abandoned them because people were only taking 1-2 of those classes to raids because they needed their buffs but their DPS was awful. This same issue happens in every game where classes like that exist, and thankfully Blizzard moved away from that design and embraced the trinity instead.
Secondly Blizzard has never had a Bard class in Warcraft, even in their tabletop games. There has also never been a Bard hero in Warcraft ever. That’s an indication that Blizzard simply doesn’t view Bards as worthy of being heroes, and are instead just entertainers. I think the Bard is a fantastic candidate for a profession, but I’m not seeing a viable direction for a class.
Also the idea of a DPS Bard always runs into the same issue; They sound like a Rogue.
bard class has been done in other mmos very well. i would personally like to see something like a ragnarok online bard, lots of buffs/debuffs as area of effect spells, damage could be mostly dot based, stacking a little band together playing the same or different songs would alter their effects ie 1 song gives x haste, another x crit, combined they give a little less of each but also give x of main stat. or playing the same song of x haste turns into an attack speed boost like a mini lust. or different instruments could do different effects, guitar for a caster/healer spec, drums for a physical damage dps. I dunno im making it more complicated than it needs to be, point is its something totally different that would fit well in a game like wow.
I used to play a bard on Rubies of Eventide. The classes offensive spells were all sour notes and the healing spells were melodious. When you’d group up to slaughter trolls for xp everyone would yell at the bards to heal only because they couldn’t stand the sound.
One of the 3 most popular MMOs when WoW came out (2004) was DAOC. I played it from 2001 to 2004. It had a class called a Bard.
Everyone I knew had a 2d account with a Bard in it. It was the most popular “passive auto-follow” class. Why? Because the bard could cast a speed-spell making your entire (8-man) group run 20% faster. And PVP was mostly groups running around enemy PVP areas, looking for groups to fight or castles to attack.
It doesn’t work in WoW because our groups are only 5 instead of 8. So there’s no room for a speed-running Bard or a group-buffing Druid.
You guys use that Maldraxxi Bard during the assault? He’s crazy.
Bard class inc?
Ooh, maybe we can get a Bard and Tinker for 10.0.
I bet that would crash servers if we got two at once.
The last thing this game needs is a new class. Unless they delete their mistake of making Demon Hunters. I’d trade DH out of the game for anything else tbh.
I would love for a support role to exist in WoW. That is, after all, the premise that sold me on Shaman.
But there is no dedicated Support role in WoW. And there never will be. Ergo, there never should be playable Bards. They’d just be a mockery of the concept… just like Shamans are now.
