Balance - Remove Bard's Root & Amnesia Unified CD
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2023 5:06 pm
I think a small but meaningful adjustment that should be made is removing the root spell from the bard and combining the amnesia spells onto the same shared group timer and/or having longer recast timers (maybe 5-10 secs more on each). I do not think bards need to be nerfed into the ground but I do feel they could use these small tweeks to level things out.
The bard simply has too much utility on one character and by eliminating the root spell from bard you are able to increase the desirability of other classes in group comps up to allow for all the cc types to be covered.
For example: In small man fights, a bard can duo with a caster, a common one being a mentalist, and between the two of them they have mez (both casted and instant), mez cure, heals, stun, two insta amnesia, nearsight, cure nearsight, melee side and rear snares and root. That is literally every cc in the game besides a ranged snare (which some get by having certain useable items). Take away the mentalist and what is changed about that list? No more stun and nearsight. That's it.
That list isn't even comprehensive of everything a bard takes into battle like resist chants but I wanted to focus on CC and heals. That is just an incredible amount of utility on a single class that has speed 6 and from the realm, with casters that have baseline stun it basically means any group combo on Hibernia gets all the cc in the game (besides a range castable snare but those can be found on some items as well). Midgard's healer is the most similar class but has zero offense, slower speed, and is on a realm without a strong baseline cc so they are balanced better by being more team dependent and the team depending on their role to succeed.
I think taking the root away would be a great way to bring a bit of balance because root is a cc that should stay with Druid to make them more valued as non-DPS in group comps. It also allows for there to be more ability to get away from cc with purge. The big cc to purge are stun and mezz so a bard being able to lock people down again with a root is a bit much.
Lastly, there being two amnesias that are both instant and on very short cooldowns means for casters that they are chronically shut down by a good bard. I think they should share the same shared timer group even if their recast timers are still different. Making them choose between a longer CD aoe amnesia vs a shorter CD single target will allow caster-focused groups a chance to play. Again, that is after the caster has to try and get through being mezzed, rooted or insta dd by the bard. This change also would change how bards work on engage as often bards drop the amnesia to break speed on targets they are chasing at 2300 range. Now on engage they can still break speed but they can't also single target insta the other sides class going to mezz, they need to use a dd or win the mezz. This at least helps limit a little more the ability for a single character to lock down a group on their own and requires teammates to do a little more.
These are not dramatic changes but they are meaningful and I think would help bring some much-needed balance.
The bard simply has too much utility on one character and by eliminating the root spell from bard you are able to increase the desirability of other classes in group comps up to allow for all the cc types to be covered.
For example: In small man fights, a bard can duo with a caster, a common one being a mentalist, and between the two of them they have mez (both casted and instant), mez cure, heals, stun, two insta amnesia, nearsight, cure nearsight, melee side and rear snares and root. That is literally every cc in the game besides a ranged snare (which some get by having certain useable items). Take away the mentalist and what is changed about that list? No more stun and nearsight. That's it.
That list isn't even comprehensive of everything a bard takes into battle like resist chants but I wanted to focus on CC and heals. That is just an incredible amount of utility on a single class that has speed 6 and from the realm, with casters that have baseline stun it basically means any group combo on Hibernia gets all the cc in the game (besides a range castable snare but those can be found on some items as well). Midgard's healer is the most similar class but has zero offense, slower speed, and is on a realm without a strong baseline cc so they are balanced better by being more team dependent and the team depending on their role to succeed.
I think taking the root away would be a great way to bring a bit of balance because root is a cc that should stay with Druid to make them more valued as non-DPS in group comps. It also allows for there to be more ability to get away from cc with purge. The big cc to purge are stun and mezz so a bard being able to lock people down again with a root is a bit much.
Lastly, there being two amnesias that are both instant and on very short cooldowns means for casters that they are chronically shut down by a good bard. I think they should share the same shared timer group even if their recast timers are still different. Making them choose between a longer CD aoe amnesia vs a shorter CD single target will allow caster-focused groups a chance to play. Again, that is after the caster has to try and get through being mezzed, rooted or insta dd by the bard. This change also would change how bards work on engage as often bards drop the amnesia to break speed on targets they are chasing at 2300 range. Now on engage they can still break speed but they can't also single target insta the other sides class going to mezz, they need to use a dd or win the mezz. This at least helps limit a little more the ability for a single character to lock down a group on their own and requires teammates to do a little more.
These are not dramatic changes but they are meaningful and I think would help bring some much-needed balance.