You know, at this point in my Bardic career I'm starting to get a little annoyed by the fact that I'm required to train Strings up to a music minimum requirement. My Percussions, Winds, Vocals and Musical Theory skills are all skyrocketed far above my middle, and in some cases even my top lore requirements.

I just don't like playing String instruments, and I don't feel that it's fair that every single music skill should be forced upon all Bards. In my case, I don't feel that it's fair that Strings is forced upon me when I have dilligently mastered all of the other music skills, and have enjoyed it.

Further more, having every single Bard be a master of every single instrument skill from circle 1 all the way up to circle 150 seems kind of cookie cutter to me.

That is why I would like to suggest that our minimum in the five music skills change at circle 101 to become a minimum of our top four instrument skills. That way, up until circle 100 when we have a general mastery of all instrument skills(300 ranks), we can then decide if we truely want to continue training all of the instrument skills, or if we want to drop one.

I see that Rangers are going to have changes done to their guild requirements, so I'm going out on a limb to say that not all guild requirements are necessarily set in stone.

While our current reqs are definitelly playable as is, it just seems really aggrivating(not from a tedious standpoint) that I am practically a master of all instruments, and will continue my general mastery for the rest of my career. Because of this, my uniqueness to other Bards in terms of my instrument playing preference is stifled.

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~Leilond, the Crazy Anime Ninja 1000-Macro Non-Artificial Bard
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/leicollagefinal.jpg
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Leilond
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Leilond, While I agree with you on principle and even before 100th circle, I think you missed the wagon. Seems unlikely to me they'll make another fuss in bard reqs just so it will be possible to reduce the number of required music skills.

<<That's the problem, and that means that EVERY bard will have at least 500 ranks in Strings, Percussions, and Winds by that circle, which seems very much cookie cutter to me.>>

By that logic then any requirement required by any guild for any circle is cookie-cutter because every person of guild X must have skill(s) at rank Y in order to be circle Z. Taken to that extent every guild is cookie-cutter simply by virtue of there being circle requirements.

Every guild has hard rank requirements in the skillsets that define them as a guild. Every 150 Cleric will have at least 850 harness, every 150 Empath will have 910 empathy, 655 teaching and 410 scholarship, every 150 Thief 420 steal, hiding, stalk, and lockpick, etc. Magic Primes have an overall magic requirement, which is essentially what our music skill requirement is. The difference between us comes in if we choose to train those skills beyond that minimum or focus on other skills.

I don't disagree that minimum ranks are cookie-cutter but it is status quo for the game, and for any level-based game (which DR is as much as it is a skill based game) and is consistent with current design philosophy.

<<Having a mastery in every school subject and being exceptionally good in one doesn't place you as much different than the guy who also has a mastery in every school subject, even if he specializes in a different subject than the one you have chosen to specialize in. In both cases, there is no character flaw or lacking of a skillset.>>

Except that if I need a brain-surgeon I'm going to choose the doctor that specializes in that and not the one that specializes in orthapedics. The orthapedist may be pretty good at brain-surgery but I'd really prefer the guy that's really really good at it. If I want a symphony written I'm going to hire the person that specializes in that and not the person that specializes in top-40 hits.

I think the larger problem is that there isn't enough differentiation between levels of ability in the musical skills, which is due to a lack of development in that area. There's really no reason to train instruments up to that minimum currently because once you can cap the mana in an enchante with X ranks there's really not much impetus to progress beyond that. Even that benefit is suspect due to the fact that most of the useful enchantes are able to be sung, further minimalizing the value of instruments.

No they don't. My Thief prefers his strings.

Er... well, heh.


---
"Close your eyes -
For your eyes will only tell the truth..
And the truth isn't what you want to see.
In the dark, it is easy to pretend
That the truth is what it ought to be." - Erik Claudin

"Your music skills are all so much higher than mine will ever be!"

Ditto that, Daerlynn.

Or, if you prefer, "I second that emotion"...

(Winds have always been my bane, but that's b/c we didn't have a wind enchante for such a loooooooooong time.)

At this time, we're not looking at changing reqs - we are, though, trying to implement things that make those skills worth having.

-V.

"Reject me not, sweet sounds! oh, let me live,
Till doom espy my towers and scatter them.
A city spell-bound under the aging sun,
Music my rampart, and my only one."
-Edna St. Vincent-Millay

"At this time, we're not looking at changing reqs - we are, though, trying to implement things that make those skills worth having.

-V."

How about allowing us to play percussion enchantes on zills, and other worn instruments, while wearing them?




Thanks,
Kleis

I think it would be fun to have Drums of the Snake going in combat. The agility would be fun for slower RT weapons, and help skinning. I support combat + instruments.

I think our lore and instrument reqs are ridiculously easy. I'll never need lore to circle.

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Sandstorm Olyandir, Olvi Bard
Fighting dirty since 2005.

>>At that rate I'd just keep useing my skinning macro. It stows my spoons gets my knife and skins/search the critter then stows the knife and gets my spoons back out. It works but I'd much rather be able to just play an enchante on an instrument I can already play while worn.

Ohh totally, wasn't knocking your idea.

I just meant in addition to that, being able to use the PLAY verb on instruments in combat, with the exact same limintations as the HUM verb. This would only be able to be done by Bards of sufficient skill, because we specialize in instruments and are weapons secondary.

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~Leilond - Working up to Galren and Mazrian
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/ss1shadow/leicollagefinal.jpg
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Leilond
http://soundsoftime.bravehost.com/bard_planner_v2.xls