Guild Wars 2

Elite Spec Name: Bard
Weapon: Short Bow
New Skill Type: Coda
Mechanics: F1-F5 skills are changed into what are called “Verses”. Traits that normally work with Shatters also trigger on Verses.

Mesmer Elite Spec becomes Bards.

Bards take their short bow into the field of war to inspire and heal their allies with their soothing voice whiling channeling their music.
Bard is a new Healer/Boon support Elite Spec. Bards sing loud Verses that shatters their illusions into wonderful sounds that apply boons and heals allies.
Codas are ranged channel skills that deal damage from afar to enemies. Codas apply Boons to allies within the Coda’s sound wave, and heals allies near the target’s location, making for great sustain healing verse the burst healing of a Druid.

whats your thoughts on this?

Goodness gracious, no ! Not another boonshare specialization !
Give us some damage already !

I don’t think it would be healthy for the game that the next mesmer elite specs use an f5. I personally feel like the next elite spec should give our f1-f4 new abilities.

Yeah, this idea has only been suggested in various forms about 80 times. Such a useful contribution.

Edit: Also, shortbow? On a bard? Seriously, this is awful.

Every single game I have played people have obssesed over being able to play a Bard. I have never understood the fetish surrounding bard classes. What makes them so desirable? Nothing against your idea personally, but I have never seen a bard class that sounds interesting and that wouldn’t work better as another class.

Bard always felt like ranger or thief imo I would even pick warrior as a bard before mesmer no thanks

I am also obsessed with a musically themed elite specialization and am completely inspired by the ideas you’ve shared. I’d be down with the elite specialization having support and boon options, but I’d really love it if it had sufficient build diversity for damage, control, and utility options as well.

I was so inspired by your ideas in fact that I spent the afternoon fleshing them out into a rough sketch of how I would go about doing it. There is some fun stuff there I hope you like.

Elite Specialization: Minstrel (apparently Bard can have a more “warrior-ish” association than the more delicate, artistic type I was interested in)

GLaDOS.5897:

Goodness gracious, no ! Not another boonshare specialization !
Give us some damage already !

Honestly weaving songs sounds far better than the garbage gameplay of sharing boons we have right now, which is even just a random result of devs not considering the interactions on abilities.

If anything, do that, and make Chronomancer something else, a pure debuffer for example.

mesmer bard would feel sexy also giving mesmer a ranged weapon that isnt great sword would feel interesting tho i would go with long bow. shoot arrows into the sky and rain a disco down on your team.

Fay.2357:

Edit: Also, shortbow? On a bard? Seriously, this is awful.

Yeah. Because it got to be a longbow. Used like a harp. Duh.

I have a similar idea:

Minstrel

• Weapon: Shortbow.
• Utilities: Orchestra.
• Mechanic: Violin/Cello kit.

The shortbow is played like a harp, and its magic illusory arrows chase targets and can hit them from multiple sides.

Orchestra are summoned floating instruments, that act kinda like AoE turrets. Once deployed, their slot skill unlocks a new control skill for additional effects (like spirit weapons).

The violin/cello kit provides extra skills, and also changes orchestra slot skills providing a shatter option, where they are destroyed. Said extra skills replace your weapon skills, and let you “play music”, giving different types of buffs.

Oh no, another boonshare!

The minstrel wouldn’t be exactly a buff giver. Instead, he would transform conditions applied to allies into boons, and also heal allies depending on the number of boons. So, he needs boons to work well, but he doesn’t actually provide said buffs in quantities high enough to make a difference.

So, it’s kinda of a healer if you think about it. If this is too bland, an alternative is to make it a damage-denier, as in, instead of healing, he blocks enemy attacks or reduces their strength.

Knighthonor.4061:

snip

whats your thoughts on this?

I actually really like this. The theme and mechanics sound like fun.

However I gotta agree with others that what mesmer really needs is a damage spec, not another support spec. What are we tied with rev for last place in dps? I know we are at or very near the bottom… Last I checked like 13k dps while elementalist is doing 30k+? Someone can correct me on the numbers…

I loved my Bow Bard in a game called Shadowbane. One of my favorite classes to play. Endorse.

I have seen many people suggest a bard before, but your suggestion is by far the coolest implemention I have seen.

i would be all for musical kits like engi kits, it would be fun to have dps for a change, who said the ministrel or bard need necessarily to be a support class? or it could be situational just like the kits on an engineer are, you can have instrument for power damage, instuments for condition damage and instruments for healing/support.
also i would love to beat enemies with my guitar on their face!

also as much as i like the idea of a musical specialization the one described above it is pretty much what the mesmer already is but with a music theme instead of illusion theme…

I’d prefer just about anything that isn’t support & doesn’t use shortbow or bow.

Just give mesmer a pure DPS spec & give them a mainhand dagger. (or axe)

Just the fact that Greatsword (traditionally a melee weapon) is a range weapon on mesmer, might it be fun to have a shortbow that could be a melee weapon instead?

Using the short bow (possibly) like a harp? but having a …
“mace like attack” (1h: smash your sb into the face of your opponent) (while sb is a 2H weapon, the art for the mace attack would show only 1h.)
“Greatsword like attack”, (2H: slashing attack)
“staff like block” (2H: blocking attack- possibly channeling?)
and
then maybe 2 other range ones? (more harp like, playing music)
>>>Plus since it’s a mesmer maybe the “art” has a pink like glowy mist around the sb making it more mace like or GS like or staff like during those attacks.

1. Mace like attack

chain.
Smash Your Foe upside the head with your sb
Damage: 400

chain.
Bash Your Foe in the face with your sb
Damage: 400

chain.
Cripple Your Foe
Cripple -50% speed
Damage: 1,000

2. Greatsword like attack

chain.
Slash your enemies with your sb using both hands
Damage: 3,000
Range: 130, hits 3 targets

chain.
Swing a second time dual hitting foes
Damage: (2x) 3,500
Range: 130, hits 3 targets

chain.
Final Devastating Strike
Damage: 9,000
Vulnerability (6s)
Range: 130, hits 3 targets

3. Staff like block

Channel a shield from your sb that blocks attacks.
If the shield is not destroyed, it explodes sending splinters into foes that bleed them and slows their attacks.
Bleed Damage 2,000
-50% speed of attacks (3s)

4. Range Attack

Bounce notes off your target between multiple foes
number of bounces: 3
Damage 400
range: 1,000

(this might have to be a more devastating attack with a longer cool down)

5. Range Attack

Sound Barrier: 0.5 sec cast, 12 sec cool down. Release a projectile of sound that damages and chills enemies it passes through. Shatter the projectile to teleport to it.
Damage: 403 (1.0)
Chill (3 sec)
Radius: 120
Range: 1200
Unblockable
3 (Sequence) – Speed of Sound: Shatter your sound barrier to teleport to its location and gain superspeed.
Superspeed (3 sec)
Range: 1200

if shortbow is inspired by music theme. then its attacks should pierce, preferably innately rather than via a trait. also some additional bleeding (cause enemies’ ears to bleed), but bleed is not main effect.

Fay.2357:

Yeah, this idea has only been suggested in various forms about 80 times. Such a useful contribution.

Edit: Also, shortbow? On a bard? Seriously, this is awful.

you are correct, makes me flashback to Grobnar Gnomehands?

This is almost exactly like the Final Fantasy 14 Bard class, which does use a bow and uses songs as a boon. It’s a lot of fun and I think Anet could make some improvements to make it fit the lore. However, I would rather have a dagger based spec for some serious does. I’m tired of being a boonbot with low tier damage.

I’d much prefer a DPS spec with dagger or mobility 2hander

actually it could be a DPS bow mesmer o.O with.. chants/echos, and it doesnt means that allies buffs need to be boons…. theres nother ways to give support….

Making everything boons was already a Anet mistake they need to bring back what gw1 had good.

You know what would be cool to tinker with in next elite spec: boon manipulation. The idea would be have an effect through active gameplay which would stack a variety of boons into one single boon equivalent to the number of boons that has been transformed. Let’s say an opponent is running around with 7 stacks of might, fury and regeneration. You could turn these three boons to 9 stacks of might. You could also apply this effect to yourself and use this effect for condies. Another concept I was thinking about is manipulation of aoes. The idea would be that now, all illusion are summoned with a little aoe at their feet. When you shatter, these aoes swoosh back to the caster and based on the F skill that has been used, they are shaped in different forms to give different benefits to the caster or the next to be summoned illusions