Bards, Poke' Hunting, Provoke

[Kat Asherstone]

I've been mulling this over for a while and I guess I can't grasp why it was provocation was changed as drastically as it was.

SO what was the point really? I mean sure we can't have bards soloing anything in the game by just clicking provoke and then telling it to kill something...

oh wait, Poke' Hunting is still something many people do, and that's a creature they can just be like "all kill" they don't even have to use a skill, just a simple command a click and when it kills something, does it immediately turn to its owner and try and eat them? Nope cause it's a pet, not a wild animal who was just provoked for a moment to attack something else...

even when I had the highest provoke on the server I was only able to provoke big things with a very small success rate

It's at the point now where the skill provoke is secondary to veterinary for a bard because the way in which Poke' Hunting works compared to the way that provoke now works, and I'm sorry but from an RP stance, that makes NO sense, not one iota, unless I'm missing something...

[Zaradon]

Provo was fixed for like 2-5 times during our current administration.

You were able to provocate all mobs.
You were able to provocate trough walls. <- Your pet doesn't kill trough walls.

Ugh, so i dont know really.
Provo is not very good nowadays indeed, compared to how hard it is to gain.

Gain =/= Income on this fact.


Maybe after they've fixed it for a couple of times they haven't really thought on the very same "Take & Give" factor. Maybe it's time to make the skill easier to train?

Plus, it's not that there's THAT many Bards around anyway, i always like to have a bard in a teamhunt if you dare me.

[Kat Asherstone]

I was never able to provoke all mobs originally, even at gm provoke some mobs it would just say "you cannot provoke that" and that was good, some shit should be so beast mode it's like "I know who I want to kill, don't try and tell me otherwise"
The provoke through walls was stupid, I was glad to see the change to the LoS where the mob is required to have LoS too, cause you can't really provoke something onto something it can't see, makes no sense rp wise.

Bard have always been a great tool for group hunting it was a great niche for them, so if we are being relinquished to the position of a support class then some of the abilities of a bard should be boosted to bring them in line with the new notion of what a bard does..

Perhaps song of Shielding should also give small increases to elemental resistances?
Maybe provoke could increase the damage of Sounds of Demolition/Damage/Injury/Decay/Stunning
Maybe Peacemaking could increase the effects/range of Recovery/Shielding/Boosting/Feedback

I mean I'm all for having a very "supporty" class in the game, but if we're going to have a class like that, we should at least give them the tools so they can do their job and do it well.

[Cruxis Bane]

Play your bard a little, they are quite good as they are. Excellent in solo hunts aswell, especially with gm provo.

[Kat Asherstone]

"play your bard a little"

Online time for account: 15 weeks + and that's including not playing for 3 years almost...

I was THE original Bard.
I helped Reppy to change the structure of the bard song list because it was originally WAY OP

Did you know that originally the song of recovery and shielding were flipped? Why did that matter? Oh because a bard starting with 50 music could simply spam recovery and never die to any small things while training fighting skills allowing them to basically power lvl faster than any other class.

I was the first to get anything over 65 provoke, and found the gap.

Did you know that there was originally a gap in provocation that made it so that the amount of creatures that could actually gain provoke beyond 60 was a total of 3. Only one of which was possible to solo tank as a bard, that being the flaming skeletons in Moonglow Gy.

First to provoke giants to fight each other.

Did you know that when you provoke a giant to fight a giant that there used to be a chance that on it's stun/knockback it could disengage causing them to turn and both fight you?
Or that when a bard provokes if the creature runs from the other then it loses the provoke and must either be re-provoked or simply killed by the bard.

Question is, What about priests? I mean priests can still solo things right? When I quit the server it was because while I could force two giants to fight each other, I still had to get lucky that one would die or that I could finish him first... Priests just went in and solo'd them one at a time. I mean lets see if people are willing to list the classes that can solo a giant, I would love to see that list at this juncture in Pang's history cause I think if people are honest theres a few classes that need a goof nerf bat hit too.

[Cruxis Bane]

I know who you are Kat, I have played with you before, just saying I see bards that are able to still solo dungeons currently. Add a druid to your hunt and you can do pretty much anything.

[Kat Asherstone]

I know who you are Kat, I have played with you before, just saying I see bards that are able to still solo dungeons currently. Add a druid to your hunt and you can do pretty much anything.

Kat 10:25 PM
Ok so this whole bard provoke nerf, you got gm provoke right? What can you actually solo with provoke now?

XXXXX 10:50 PM
Not really

XXXXX 10:51 PM
Waaaay to risky and hard to proke large mobs



This is someone who is still using their bard to "solo"

Add a druid to your hunting party? Why because a druid can solo the shit anyways? no point in me being there as a bard then, might as well just change classes.

When you say you see bards soloing things, How far do they solo? do they solo dragons like some other classes? Ever see any go solo giants after the nerf?

[Cruxis Bane]

Druid is only there as a druid blesser and healer while you cast songs. Kolya does that alot. I have seen Biggs go through alot of dungeons on his own. Also besides using a Pet druids can't really solo all that much... Im not saying it wasnt nerfed, i am just saying all the bards I have hunted with and seen do hunts are not there as a support class and most of the time are able to do everything without the rest of the group.

[Kat Asherstone]

Its interesting

Kat 10:57 PM
I'm still not sure exactly why they made the change they did? Were bards soloing like everything? I mean druids do the poke hunting thing, necros have kill, priests have tomes and shit... were bards really that OP?

XXXXXXX 11:00 PM
no they wasnt

there was some hard mobs being provoked though

easly

but thats was gms fault


XXXXXX 11:01 PM
they didnt set a provo level

Kat 11:01 PM
So basically the nerf happened because bards were soloing things that no one should be able to solo, because the gm's forgot to input a provoke skill requirement?




Is this legitimately the reason it was changed and if so, why not simply reduce the chance to provoke said big mobs by raising the required provoke skill instead of changing the core way that provoke worked?

Now I'm confused, was raising the skill required something that wasn't brought up? or was there a reason this wouldn't solve the problem?

[Kat Asherstone]

Also besides using a Pet druids can't really solo all that much...

But the point is, with a pet they can... so simply change class from bard to druid and you get a HUGE boost to your ability to solo larger things, so what does a bard actually bring to the table that another class couldn't? What is their niche' now?