Three Game Balance notes

[Ash]

The first of which is a known issue already:

Bertoxxulous is a bit overpowered in codecay (Ruins of Lxanvom Basement) ; the problem is his AE spell given the server damage scaling.

Spell ID# 3012 is Rot of the Plaguebringer

everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=3012

The issue is that it can take 30,000 mana from a player in about 18 seconds (that is a full Qvic/GoD geared Wizard or Cleric) for which there is no way for players to counter, other than the 3-day Veteran AA ability "Staunch Recovery" Given where this MOB is in progression, substituting this one spell for a slightly different one would preserve some level of difficulty with Bert, so that he doesn't simply become a tank 'n' spank. This spell might be an interesting substitute, it calls for an illusion, but it is an older spell so it should not be a problem for any of the newer clients:

lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=2964&source=Live

...

The Junk Beast in the Plane of Innovation is imbalanced and can stun lock even the best geared and highest developed players. It is as if his stun is not on a cool down, and he can simply spam it repeatedly so that it never wears off. Oh, yeah, and he has an unresistable BLIND spell which apparently is intended to annoy rather change the outcome of this encounter; because radiant cure does not clear it, players cannot avoid it, and unless you have the ONE class that cure blindness with you (Shaman) this otherwise insignificant encounter becomes a meaningless death for most players.

everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=10122

The main offending spell is "Tetanic Blades" - Spell ID# 1085

everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=1085

And Junk Beast's AE unresistable blind is "Blinding Smog" - Spell ID# 1086

everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=1086

...

Last thing on my list at this time is "Bard DPS"...

Is there any?

LOL

Seriously, at level 35 my Bard's top AE damaging spell is dealing >>>> 12 <<<< points of magic-resist-check resistible damage, with tribute harmony level 1 going (the best mod available until level  >> 45 << which is a long time to wait for song mod upgrades; longer than real casters have to wait). I suspected that singing any song which would improve his strength would theoretically improve his damage output of his melee and his songs, but since this is an AE - I think these type of songs may have been excluded from the local spell/song changes.

IF this evens out at top levels I can understand "paying one's dues," and I really don't mind waiting or the slower leveling, I'm a patient guy.

Are Bards viable at the top level, or are they pretty much professional sidekicks who need to grab either a healer or a tank for progression?

I'm sure they're hard to balance, comparatively, but I've played Bards a long time, and kited every which way; they should theoretically be the lowest melee output of all dual wield/melee classes given their utility and survivability, and when they eschew weapons for instruments, their damage output (single target and AE) should be the lowest of all casters, but not THAT far behind - that they can cast on the run is no longer a strong argument for balance because they still have to pass harder channeling checks, higher resist rates, and all but one of their AE spells are PBAE, meaning they have to stand still and get beat on, same as Druids and Mages and Clerics and Wizards.

I don't have data and tend not to use software that parses my characters development; I mainly play to have fun, and leave the numbers to developers and server ops.

This is a unique server and my gal and I are grateful for all your time and effort.

Thanks for reading

[Osiris]

some stuff has already been changed on the testbox - bertoxx, the behemoth event, some wizard spell changes...ill look into seeing what can be done about the junk beast as well.

as far as Bards...that's another issue. But ill take another look at it. (ive made numerous attempts to get bards up to par)

[Ash]

Hello, I recall well my conversations with Osiris ingame on this topic, and with due respect, posting this for future reference to those playing bards here and for players drifting in wondering about Bard DPS overall.

Been playing my Bard extensively over the past few days, and gotten him up to a couple hundred AA's and up to defeating Agnarr in BoT. His gear is pretty good though he is just short of 4k armor due to hybrid defense cap and irregular AC per itemization. (IMHO even Velious and Luclin items shouldn't have more HP and ridiculously more AC than the top PoP/GoD/OoW armor if RVR is to be preserved)

Bard melee is about where it should be, in terms of relative power to my Monk and Ranger; they need scads of accuracy to be viable dual weilders, and never get triple attack.

Bard songs though are weak; off (imho, again) on this server by at least double. I doubt strongly that itemization can fix this, and it would be too large and daunting a task to undertake to even try to change all the relative items and tribute effects, but there needs to be much more power applied from the secondary source towards improving bard songs, especially DoTs. I realize this may make healing songs and/or mana regen songs overpowering, but are they?

Top characters that can get over 4k AC and maybe +150 to +200 regen only have to rely on potions to get through any encounter that I've seen so far; they don't get hit much in the first place and don't have to stop attacking to click the radiant cure charm; Bards do. Bards even have to stop all singing to pop a health potion. In that light, +healing/mana songs are irrelevant any way.

My bard is pretty well decked out and he needed three health pots just to get through the boss before Agnarr because his spell DPS was so weak.

That's my evaluation so far of Bard DPS here; melee is okay but spell damage is off by about half/double however one looks at it.

His top Gates of Discord ancient song is only ticking for about 150 hp (every SIX seconds) with an instrument modifier of +6 to percussion (via tribute) and 3/3 of instrument mastery and 5/5 of Ayonae's tutelage AND 2/3 in Affliction (though 0/3 in Jam Fest which will yield only about 6 more points when maxxed). I got roughly that on live servers with slightly better gear, so I don't believe that there is much modification at all to Bard songs; it appears to be a stock compile with the usual melee and ac modifications.

everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=4971

So again, Bard Song DPS is off by at least double; perhaps even triple OR MORE if (for whatever reason) bards find themselves unable to use melee weapons and be relying solely on instruments for DPS.

In closing it is interesting to note that the added percentage of the Rizlona's/Muse lines are being applied for all other nuker/dotter spell casting classes, so it very nice for the casters to have a bard friend/box/follow. Too bad, heh, that the reverse is true too- Bards are traditionally a very weak class on solo servers that don't significantly reduce NPC health/resists, but here, you really have to know what you're doing with your Bard and playing within the present severe spell/song limitations.

Bards do play better here than many other so-called Solo servers, so prop's to Osiris for getting the melee half working well enough.

Thanks for reading