If you want to roleplay as a bard fine. There are musical instruments and other emotes to play with, and hell, if you can sing, sing in area chat like a boss. We don't need to weaponise a bard.

I'd love a Bard skill line, and the opportunity for true hybrids. It would have to be carefully designed and implemented, but it would set the door ajar for some interesting options.

Eifleber wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

I'd LOVE a new class - at the same time, since bards are a guild and guilds are usually implemented with a skill line i think that would make more sense...

a bards guild skill line

+ a new class :-)

I'm not in favour of yet another generic skill line.

Classes and class identity need more love and emphasis. At a certain point classes only matter because of passive skills because 95% of your bars are filled with weapon/guild/world/armor skills. In most if not all meta builds class skills are already a minority, usually around 1 in 3. There's too may good generic skills that about every build uses.

To be honest I'd rather have class skills get a 3rd morph.
"Bard" may be a morph type added to warden skills, for instance.

Bard is more a profession or specialisation. Sorc Bards, Templar Bards, Necro Bards, etc, these should all be possible. It creates options for stam/mag morphs of skills available on the same spec rather than either all mag or stam. I think more than anything it would enrich class identity to have some bridge skill line for hybridisation.

Eifleber wrote: »

mairwen85 wrote: »

some bridge skill line for hybridisation.

That's a totally different discussion.

I don't think this game is ever going to see successful hybrid (meta) builds.
The game mechanisms just don't work that way.

Actually, what stops hybrids from being optimal (note, not 'viable') is how max resource counts toward the damage/heal calculation and by passively increasing your spell/weapon damage. Add to that certain abilities that have slot and cast passives that are also attuned to either mag/stam by way of buffs they grant. There is no reason why a hybrid class/skill line couldn't work just as well given the correct attention to detail on what those passives and buffs, and casts provide.

The issue is not the 'game mechanisms' but class and skill design.

@Sosderosii kinda reaching there — yeah I mean in previous TES games you did have command beast/humanoid/creature, but that was only a part of bard class. We still have a huge list of illusion spells that could potentially make its way to TESO game, definitely enough to fill a bard skill line.

@SpiderCultist lol, you need to go look up the illusion spells from TES games, pretty cool stuff we are missing out on. TES bard way cooler than the silly bards of D&D and other games.

khajiitNPC wrote: »

@SpiderCultist lol, you need to go look up the illusion spells from TES games, pretty cool stuff we are missing out on. TES bard way cooler than the silly bards of D&D and other games.

Isn't it strange that people can accept TES dwarves as being a concept completely different to most other fantasy, but cannot grasp that same conceit for anything else. Even after being told several times and having been shown several sources of infornation that explain it.

[snip]

[Edited to remove Baiting]

robertthebard wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

khajiitNPC wrote: »

Personally I wouldn’t mind a bard’s guild skill line — Class, no. Ideally I’d like it to be like the thieves guild and dark brotherhood, where you get passives that allow you to “charm” an NPC common merchant allowing you to buy stuff at 10 percent off. Or instead of pick pocketing you can talk a NPC out of their stuff.

eh id be really disappointed if it wasnt a universally / combat useful skill line tbh... outside of their respective quests i cant remember the last time i used dbh or tg skills.....

Really? Because I use the Blade of Woe all the time. A vast majority of NPCs are susceptible to it, and there are a lot of instances where you can reduce the number of mobs you have to fight, or take a mage all the way out of one, with just one click.

As to a class, I can't recall seeing a single magical/combat oriented bard in ESO. Now maybe they're more like spies than anything else, but since it's not in game right now, it would be sort of jarring to try to shoehorn it in.

I think you're overlooking it. The bard is the profession, the combat capability is what allows them to pursue that profession. Besides blades and combat spells, they use alteration and illusion, and enchantment, and stealth -- who's to say they don't enchant each tavern or charm the patrons with a touch of magic for better tips what goes on outside the tavern and between towns is, again, a different matter where being versatile and competent in various combat skills and measures of trickery are paramount, and to follow the adventure for inspiration and stories is an absolute requirement. That's what TES bards are (see previous posts), and have always been since the first empire according to lore. Just because the only bards currently are hard coded npcs at fixed locations doesn't mean that beyond that there isn't scope for a true TES bard to exist in game.

robertthebard wrote: »

mairwen85 wrote: »

robertthebard wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

khajiitNPC wrote: »

Personally I wouldn’t mind a bard’s guild skill line — Class, no. Ideally I’d like it to be like the thieves guild and dark brotherhood, where you get passives that allow you to “charm” an NPC common merchant allowing you to buy stuff at 10 percent off. Or instead of pick pocketing you can talk a NPC out of their stuff.

eh id be really disappointed if it wasnt a universally / combat useful skill line tbh... outside of their respective quests i cant remember the last time i used dbh or tg skills.....

Really? Because I use the Blade of Woe all the time. A vast majority of NPCs are susceptible to it, and there are a lot of instances where you can reduce the number of mobs you have to fight, or take a mage all the way out of one, with just one click.

As to a class, I can't recall seeing a single magical/combat oriented bard in ESO. Now maybe they're more like spies than anything else, but since it's not in game right now, it would be sort of jarring to try to shoehorn it in.

I think you're overlooking it. The bard is the profession, the combat capability is what allows them to pursue that profession. Besides blades and combat spells, they use alteration and illusion, and enchantment, and stealth -- who's to say they don't enchant each tavern or charm the patrons with a touch of magic for better tips what goes on outside the tavern and between towns is, again, a different matter where being versatile and competent in various combat skills and measures of trickery are paramount, and to follow the adventure for inspiration and stories is an absolute requirement. That's what TES bards are (see previous posts), and have always been since the first empire according to lore. Just because the only bards currently are hard coded npcs at fixed locations doesn't mean that beyond that there isn't scope for a true TES bard to exist in game.

Except that, as I said, there hasn't been a single example of one yet in game. Necromancers aplenty, and even what could pass as Wardens, but no Bards, at least as far as a class. As a bard IRL, I'm not overly against the idea, but as a class, I don't think it fits what we've been given. Versatility is key, and we can already do all of that within the existing framework of classes, so a guild situation, such as DB or TG would be the better way to go, in so far as I can see.

I agree with that. I said as much in an earlier post. It should be a guild line as that fits better into the make-up of the game. But the absence of bards outside of their fixed locations doesn't disqualify it. That was my point.