Guild Wars 2

I would love to see a bard class added to GW2. It could work in a similar way to how engineers and eles work, but instead of kits/auras, you would have instruments with skill sets for each. I think having a class that could mez, interrupt and stun would be interesting in WvW. Perhaps a berserk song , where the target would attack whoever is nearest, friend or foe. A short duration charm for ambient creatures could be cool. Thoughts?

I need a new class to level up anyway, I’ve maxed out and geared up the current ones :-)

—Ash

Morgus.1680:

I would love to see a bard class added to GW2. It could work in a similar way to how engineers and eles work, but instead of kits/auras, you would have instruments with skill sets for each. I think having a class that could mez, interrupt and stun would be interesting in WvW. Perhaps a berserk song , where the target would attack whoever is nearest, friend or foe. A short duration charm for ambient creatures could be cool. Thoughts?

I need a new class to level up anyway, I’ve maxed out and geared up the current ones :-)

—Ash

We have this unofficially on IoJ, at least some of the time. Depends on the commander

Sample skills (some funny ones)

Guitar:
Bash- Hit an enemy with your mighty “Axe”
Mosh Pit- Grant swiftness while you play to nearby allies (swiftness continues while you play the instrument with this skill, ends when you use a different skill)
Stairway- Launch a nearby foe up a very long range (900 ish)
Sweet Child – Gain regeneration. For 3 seconds you block attacks and daze attackers that you blocked. Lasts for 6 seconds while autotuned.

Flute:
Bash: attack an enemy with your flute.
Rat-storm: Play a tune that draws rats to attack enemy players. Under Autotune the rats cause cripple, poison, and bleeding.
Aqualung: Create a water field on your location and grant regeneration to allies in it, lasts 5 seconds
Quick panning: a musical bolt bounces between enemies causing bleeding when it hits.

Drums (1 hand weapon)
marching beat (auto attack): each beat grants 2 seconds of swiftness to nearby allies, refreshing up to 4 seconds.
Bass Drum: knock an opponent down
Stick poke: poke an enemy’s eye to cause blindness and damage.

Vocals (1 hand weapon)
Shriek like Myley: Screech into your microphone off key to cause damage and bleeding to nearby foes (auto attack). Causes regeneration and heals for a small amount on each cast on allies instead while under the effects of autotune.
Scream like Axyl: A loud Yeah! in to the mic grants vigor and swiftness to nearby allies while causing weakness and fear on nearby enemies.

Bass:
Bash: smash an enemy with your bass. Slower and stronger than the guitar bash.
Thundering drive: Knockback nearby enemies with a powerful bass riff.
Another one bites the dust: Play a driving riff that rapidly shoots bolts at an enemy.
Spirit of Radio: Clear a condition on nearby allies. Autotuned: shows nearby enemies on the map while autotune is up.
Drop the bass: Hit a powerful deep note dealing strong damage and stunning nearby foes. Autotuned: Inflicts immobilize as well.

Utilities
Autotune- Gain might and fury for 20 seconds. Your instruments and vocals are automatically tuned for 20 seconds changing the effects of certain skills.
Groupies- Call angry fans to rough up the enemy.
Microphone cord- Snag an enemy and pull him to you with the cord off your mic.

Elites:
Epic solo- Gain stability for 20 seconds. Shred on your currently equipped instrument to cause an aoe effect near you based on instrument:
Guitar- damage and bleed nearby foes each second
Flute- Damage and chill nearby foes
Bass- Cripple nearby foes and damage them
Drums- knock back nearby foes each second
Vocals- damage and blind nearby foes

(edit) forgot to drop the bass

First thing that popped to my mind..

Considering the OP talked about wanting a class that could “mez, interrupt and stun” I’m wondering if this is a deliberate reference to when the Mesmer was announced or coincidental.

(For those who don’t know each profession was announced by adding them in to a picture of them all standing together. The Mesmer was one of the first to be predicted and the last to be announced so they decided to troll people a little bit. They added a picture of a Minstrel, looking exactly like Marcello DiGiacomo, and claimed that was their new profession. When you clicked on it the image shattered to show the real Mesmer image underneath.)

1) those weapons ould be esclusive, so thats a nogo
2) People will complain it functions just like a tactics-mesmer

what about if it actually had only 1 weapon your lute
and u cast spells by using different combinations of notes and thats the classes special mechanic different cominations of notes = different spells

They have this in Lord of the Rings Online.

Ridiculously ridiculous. From an MMO stand point. It might sound cool, but it is really not.

Eight O Eight.8257:

They have this in Lord of the Rings Online.

Ridiculously ridiculous. From an MMO stand point. It might sound cool, but it is really not.

I disagree. It is an extremely entertaining class in Rift, for what it’s worth, as it was in FFXI and is in FFXIV.
I find it to be a charming concept for a class that is less used than it should be lately, aside from it being one of the oldest/basic classes of old. I greatly miss the functionality and style of my Ragnarok Online minstrel, and given Guild Wars 2 array of classes, setup and strange predilection to keep releasing unnecessary amount of musical instruments for people to torture Tequatl waiting times with, it would fit just fine.
Heck, Mesmer’s autoattack is already what any bard’s autoattack could be, and that thing be pretty as kitten.

Danikat.8537:

Considering the OP talked about wanting a class that could “mez, interrupt and stun” I’m wondering if this is a deliberate reference to when the Mesmer was announced or coincidental.

(For those who don’t know each profession was announced by adding them in to a picture of them all standing together. The Mesmer was one of the first to be predicted and the last to be announced so they decided to troll people a little bit. They added a picture of a Minstrel, looking exactly like Marcello DiGiacomo, and claimed that was their new profession. When you clicked on it the image shattered to show the real Mesmer image underneath.)

You mean this April Fool’s Day joke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TczkHagUW3k

I think a bard could be a fun class. However like other classes they’d need to be able to access the standard weapon pool in some away (probably similar to Mesmer, accessing something like sword,focus, maybe shield, shortbow).

For the class mechanic you could have a song book that lists simple melodies (think Ocarina of Time type stuff), and actually trigger songs manually by playing your F1-F4, depending on what intrument kit you have swapped in (with just a weapon you maybe you could whistle).

If you look carefully you will find Mesmer is the Bard of GW2. Some of the skills have musical icons, effect floaties, etc. I believe it was an intentional way of the devs saying “Hey, here is your bard!”.

I am a big fan of playing a Bard in MMOs. I played one for the first 3 years of EQ, then the first 6 months of DAoC. I do not expect it to ever exist in GW2. I just can’t see the devs going down that road.

I loved my dirge in EQ2, the dark side, not the silly “hi lo a derry dol” Frolicksome doofs of Qeynos.

The bard goes back to pen and paper DnD. We won’t see them here.

Bards… are meh. They tend to be good in the games they are in for the most part, but they for some reason the title of Bard is just… I dunno, awkward. Certain games do it right. The Bard in FF14 is a juggernaut but its also not very bard like compared to other games.

There was a bard class, “Minstrel”, but it was abandoned in favor of Mesmer

Do you know what will happen if ANET ever implement Bard class into game? A lot of people will quit and some of them will start making private server for the game. This would be major impact on the game and developer themselves. They won’t do it if they know what they are doing.

Not sure if trolling.

Bardocalipse. It shall bring upon Guild Wars 2’s requiem!