Has anyone ever thought… it doesn’t have to be a support class? It could be a dps and healer that works by stringing combos together for powerful spells… like a song.
I see what you mean
however, alchemy already can do that
alchemy could use some love
also buffing that we used to get from other classes could come back in a more useful way
If it’s “like a song” and not “a song”, then it’s not a Bard.
If it’s “a song”… I’m just not into the whole “POWER OF MUSIC” thing. It’s incredibly cheesy even if we assume they’re channeling magic through instruments as one would a staff. And that’s assuming they got their own dedicated weapon type, which I don’t want to see. DH shouldn’t have even gotten that – class Glaives as swords. They’re just 2 swords on a stick anyway.
I understand that last bit is very subjective, but I just feel like the actual combat mechanics of WoW are pretty grounded, and bards get kind of silly.
Oh yeah I mean I actually dislike Bards, think they’re rather lame and don’t see why they’re so popular. I’d rather not have them in the game at all to be honest, but people assuming they can only be a support class just seems a little silly. I feel like IF bard were to be added, they could be the most unique class WoW has. Still don’t like them, but I wont just dismiss them cause of it.
In fairness, people assume they can only be a support class because that’s… what bards are. It’s not like the idea of bard came from nothing. D&D made them out to be that way and that’s more or less the baseline every game that adds them as a combat class starts with. (Even the FFXIV example from earlier started out that way, at least for the Bard-specific stuff, its a bit muddled since the base class is Archer).
That said, yeah, sure, you could do anything with it. But then I feel like we’re just talking about Bard as a visual aesthetic more than as a well-defined class.
Yeah support is kind of a bard stereotype.
I dunno. Whenever I imagine bards in WoW I see them being a ranged spellcaster that has something kind of like reverse DK runes. They would generate different colored music notes like red green and blue by using different abilities, and different combinations would produce different abilities. Like 3 reds to produce a strong single target attack where you bust out a lil song. 2 reds and a blue might be a single target with an aoe pulse around their main target. Etc, etc.
I hate to keep jumping to FFXIV, but you’re describing the NIN mudra/ninjutsu mechanic with your example. (I think DNC and SAM have similar concepts, but I’m remembering NIN more)
Honestly I wouldn’t be opposed to it mechanically. If Blizzard didn’t put it in as the class’s gimmick and then… stop. That’s something that frustrates me about, say, Fire Mage. The gimmick of Heating Up! / Hot Streak! and the associated interaction between Fireball Travel Time is oGCD Fire Blast is fantastic! Nothing else like it in WoW. But… that’s it. That’s the spec. The entire thing. Makes it fall flat. I don’t want a repeat of that.
But again at this point we’re basically talking about a combo system that doesn’t currently exist in WoW. It could be used for bard if we wanted to force it in as a non-support class. But it could also be used for literally anything and it would be a unique spec/class in WoW. Idk.
While I acknowledge it doesn’t HAVE to be support, that’s really what Bard is known for, so if we’re adding completely new mechanics anyway, I don’t know if Bard is the best fit even if we could technically make it work.
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Huh, interesting. I didn’t know about that.
The rest of your points are pretty valid and I don’t really have much to say to them besides, I pretty much agree. And I’m sure someone else could flesh out the idea better than me but that’s neither here nor there.
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Fair enough.
Also-
Sorry, I really like this song and album.
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I don’t think Bard as a class works in WoW nor does it fit into the Warcraft setting as a class in general. No character identifies as a bard. Bards have never played a significant military or supporting role in the history of World of Warcraft or even in the RTS setting ever.
Of all the suggested classes on this forum, I don’t understand why Bard keeps popping up. It has no supporting basis unlike others such as Necromancer, Tinker, or even more niche ideas like Dragonsworn. At least that last one has some RPG support, non canon as it is. As well as a few mentions of mortals serving dragons in general.
The mechanics involving it being some kind of enhancement specialist don’t fit into the usual use of classes in wow in general, and don’t really feel that interesting otherwise.
If anything, Bard works as a profession. Crafting instruments and combining notes you learn from bard trainers, then use them to enhance your group or raid with customized buffs. That can work as a profession, but you can’t design a class around that.
As much as I don’t feel that a music-based combat class fits WoW and as much as I don’t want to see it in general, this isn’t that big of a hurdle.
WoW at this point has to enter into new territory. The big name villains, plot points, locations, from the past have all been exhausted. Pretty much everything from here on out is new territory.
All it takes to justify a class is “Hey we found these dudes on an island and their way of fighting makes a lot of sense for [current threat], so they’re teaching us”.
As long as it FEELS like something that fits with this Universe, it doesn’t really matter if it’s been utilized in the past or not.
(But again, I don’t feel that Bards fit – just saying that them not being there before isn’t an automatic ‘No’ for me)
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I don’t know how it would work but it would have to have 3 different specs. Who’s gonna come up with three different types of Bard specs?
Bard DPS Spec:
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This is certainly how monks were introduced into the IP. Chen Stormstout was supposed to be just an easter egg in WC3 by one of the devs because he liked pandas. Most WoW players didn’t know that and thought pandas were canon to the universe. This caused the rest of the team to retcon the lore to make it look like pandas were here all along, adding monks along the way.
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Tinker? Yes please.
Bard? No thanks.
If they do add a Bard, I hope it’s modeled on the LoL version of Bard.
Makes sense. Everyone hates it in M+ since it’s dead weight.
A bard class in WoW could look something like this:
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I’m all for a bard, you can really justify it with any in universe magic. For example the Naruu’s serenades that heal and amplify. Or you could make the bard’s messengers of the void that create eldritch melodies that make people regret existing.
What would their special ability be, blowing a skin flute?