Bard Class Concept 2025

[Teriz]

A World of Warcraft Class Concept

Part 1: Introduction
The Bard is a concept that has been sought after in WoW for many years. While rarely shown in the game world, the concept appears on many most wanted lists in various forums around the internet. Despite the vary lacking presence of Bards in the game, Blizzard nurtured a unique Bardic concept over the last few decades which has the hallmarks of WoW's previous expansion classes. This unique class utilizes the more Horde-centered Bard concept of the Elite Tauren Chieftain, a homage to a garage band of Blizzard employees that over the years has evolved into a unique and completely warcraft bard concept. With various iterations stretching throughout the Warcraft franchise, I believe that if Blizzard creates a Bard class, it'll be based on these characters. Characters who take the generally milquetoast Bard concept and turn it on its head with heavy metal music, and even heavier metal weaponry! Here is a brief history of the ETC-style bard's history in the Warcraft franchise:

ETC band's first appearance in WoW (2005), Children's week establishes the band as canon (2007). WotLk introduces the ETC band's weapons over the course of multiple expansions (2008, 2010, 2012), Mordresh is redesigned to be an ETC-style bard in WoD (2013), The ETC legendary promotion for HS (2014), the ETC in HotS (2015), The Blight Boars in WoW (2016), ETC in HS Battlegrounds (2019), ETC band showing up in WC3:R (2020), ETC legendary in HS again in Madness at the Darkmoon Fair (2020), ETC in HS Mercenaries (2021), The and finally the ETC and Blight Boars being the basis for the Festival of Legends expansion (2023)

After the recent poll that found Bard as a close second to the Tinker class, I decided that this concept deserved a write up. Hopefully readers will enjoy this as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Also a small disclaimer, almost all of the art from this comes from Hearthstone, which did a fantastic job of expanding the Bardic concept of the ETC via their Festival of Legends expansion. That expansion which greatly extended the reach and potential of the ETC style bard was simply too impressive to ignore.

Part 2: The Basics

Races: All
Weapon: 2H Swords, Axes, Staffs, Maces, Polearms, Instruments (exclusive)
Armor: Cloth (or Leather)
Role: Tank, DPS, Healer
Specialization: Soloist, Rockstar, Minstrel

Spec breakdown:

The Bard is a melee-based class that combines the power of music and 2-handed weaponry. For the sake of creative freedom, I will say that the resource is completely up to Blizzard. I would personally be interested in seeing mana or a similar type of resource based on the usual builder/spender system. The Bard should be lightly armored, either Cloth or Leather, and can be of any race. Bards can wield two handed axes, maces, swords, and polearms and use them as both weapons and instruments.

Weaponry

The weapons of the bard double as their instruments. Not only can Bards make any 2H weapon into an instrument, but they have a unique set of weapons only they can equip that resemble guitars, but are actually deadly weapons of destruction.



Mechanics

Bards utilize two modes that are activated by abilities: Performance mode and Battle Mode.

Whenever activating songs or certain abilities, the bard enters performance mode and plays their guitar weapon for a brief time before switching back into battle mode. In battle mode, Bards perform powerful melee attacks with their weapon. Soloist perform the majority of their abilities in battle mode. Minstrels perform the majority of their abilities in songs. Rockstars have a healthy mix of melee and song abilities.

Songs

Songs are magical abilities that grant the bard a variety of offensive and defensive options while in combat. The duration and power of songs are determined by the "Riff" mechanic that operates similarly to the Evoker and Earthen empower ability. Different levels of Riff can not only make the song more powerful and longer, but occasionally they can also change the effects. Riff's standard max level is 3, but talents can extend that number to four, and various talents and abilities can allow the Riff bar to charge more quickly.

While the class has universal songs that every spec can use, there are some songs that are unique to their respective specs.

Picks

Bards utilize Picks to empower their weapons with magical energy. Players get to choose what pick they want to use, and each pick should ideally have an effect that benefits all specializations. You can read more about picks in the ability sections.

Part 3: Sample Abilities and Specializations

Core Abilities

Arpeggio
Strikes a target with your weapon for X% weapon damage. Can be used during Riff.

Six String Samurai
Skillfully swing your weapon, slashing up to two targets in front of you, causing them to bleed for X seconds. If target dies from Six String Samurai, the cooldown is instantly reset.
+ Bat Eater: (passive)(talent) Dealing damage to bleeding targets heals you for a % of the damage done.


Radiant Shield
(passive) Shields target with radiant magic, healing the target over time, and reduces damage taken. Melee enemies take damage when attacking shielded target.

Riff (Empower)
Charge up your guitar, unleashing a song of varying degrees of duration and power (up to level 3)

Electric Pick:
Increases the speed at which your riffs charge up. Your melee abilities have a chance to cause Electric Slash.

+Electric Slash: Deals nature damage and slows the target for X seconds.

Radiant Pick:
Your songs are imbued with radiant energy, healing you for the duration of your song, damaging all targets within 8 yards. Your melee abilities have a chance to cause Radiant Slash.

+Radiant Slash: Slashes target with radiant energy, healing the attacker for a percent of the damage done.

Ghost Metal Pick:
Your songs have a chance to summon a Shadow version of yourself that will play Ghost Chords. Your melee abilities have a chance to cause Ghost Slash.

+Ghost Chords: Your songs are infused with shadow magic, increasing their damage or healing by X%.
+Ghost Slash: Slash your target with shadow damage, decreasing their armor for X seconds.

Guitar Solo
(Song) (HoT) Quickly strum your guitar, healing yourself for a small amount over time. Riff levels determine strength of heal.

Powerslide:
Slide forward to a location. Can Powerslide during Riff.

Stage Dive:
Leap to target location, landing after 2.75 seconds, dealing 330 damage to enemies in the area.

Coda:
Activate to cause an explosive AoE effect at the end of your attack or healing songs. (3 min CD)

Phaser:
Strum your guitar in a confusing manner, dazing up to 3 nearby targets. (10 yd range)

Grand Finale:
(Channeled) Replay your last three songs in rapid succession, increasing their effects by X%. Also sends out three powerful radiant reverberation waves that heal allies and deal damage.

Sax Solo: Briefly plays your saxophone, increasing the healing of all party members by X% for 1 hour.

Drum Solo: Chief Thunderskins magically appears and performs a drum solo. Increasing haste by 30% for all party and raid members for 40 sec. Allies receiving this effect will become Exhausted and unable to benefit from Drum Solo or similar effects again for 10 min.

Soloist (Tank)

Soloists are mighty front men who use their musical power to overpower enemies and protect their fellow band members.

Sample Abilities

Rush the Stage:
Pulls enemies within 15 yards into melee range of the caster.

Rockmaster:
(Passive) Your basic attacks increase your armor and stamina by a small amount. Your special abilities increase your armor and stamina by a larger amount. Effect increased under the effects of Rocksteady up to X%.

Rocknado!
The soloist spins rapidly, dealing nature damage to all targets within an 8 yard range.

Live Wire
(Song) The Soloist overloads their guitar with electricity, sending bolts of lightning in all directions damaging and shocking all targets within 10 yards. Targets shocked by the bolts have their speed reduced. Riff level determines damage level.

Hollow Body:
(Passive) Your songs and attacks have a chance to double their effects or damage.

Headbanger:
Smash your head into a target dealing damage. If done during a song, Headbanger deals critical damage.

Rocksteady:
(Song) Play a strong tune on your guitar, increasing the effect of Rockmaster on yourself and spreading the armor effect to your allies at a reduced amount.

Hammer-On: (Passive)
Your attacks increase the duration and power of Guitar Solo up to X%.

Mosh Pit:
(passive) As you play your guitar, you force nearby enemies to attack and smash into each other, dealing damage to themselves and reducing their armor for X seconds.

Echo Pedal:
(Passive) When Apreggio is used during a Riff, it sends out a wave in a 10 yd radius, dealing physical damage to all targets.

Rockstar (DPS)

Musical masters of both battle and performance, these lords of metal music use their power to shred enemies both musically and physically, and always want to make a great show out of it!

Sample Abilities

Instrument Smasher:
Violently smash your instrument into shards, causing bleed damage to targets in an 8 yd radius.
+ Bat Eater: (passive)(talent) Dealing damage to bleeding targets heals you for a % of the damage done.

Dead Strum:
Slashes a target with your weapon, dealing shadow damage, weakening them and reducing their attack damage for X seconds.

Born of Fire
(Song) The Rockstar plays their guitar with so much power that the earth cracks open, summoning a Blazing Servitor to fight for them for up to 1 minute. While Blazing Servitors are active, the Rockstar's weapon is imbued with fire and deals fire damage. Riff level determines the number of servitors summoned.

+Blazing Servitor: Elemental that can use Fiery Link and Inferno.

Facemelter:
Deals physical damage to enemies within 8 yards, knocking them back.

Remix:
Absorbs the magic of a nearby enemy and empowers your next facemelter with that school of magic:

+Fire: Fire Damage over time effect
+Frost:Freezes target in place
+Nature: Increased damage as nature damage
+Holy: Facemelter Heals caster.
+Shadow: Shadow Damage over time effect
+Arcane: Increased damage as arcane damage

Upstroke:
Deliver a powerful upward slash at a target, increasing the range of your next Facemelter by 4 yds.

Amp: Places an amp at your location. For 25 seconds, Your Facemelter and melee special ability will cast twice during its duration.

Speedmetal
(Song) Increases your movement and attack speed by X% for X seconds. Increases the movement speed of nearby allies by X%. Riff Level determines duration.

Minstrel (Healing)

A healer who channels the song of Azeroth through their guitar to soothe and heal allies and grant them positive vibes.

Sample Abilities

Guitar Hero
(Replaces Guitar Solo) (Song) (HoT) Guitar Hero heals you and 2 nearby allies for a longer duration. Each level increases the duration of the heal over time and number of nearby allies healed.

+I: Heals Bard and up to two nearby allies.
+II: Heals Bard and up to four nearby allies.
+III: Heals Bard and up to six nearby allies.
+IV: Heals Bard and up to eight nearby allies.

Midnight Serenade
(song) You play a soft tune towards a nearby ally, healing them at the beginning of the song, and for a higher amount at the end of the song. Riff determines strength of healing.

Natural Harmonics:
(Song) Play a soothing tune on your guitar, healing all allies within 30 yards. If you have a Jam Session partner, they will also play Natural Harmonics instead of a random song at lesser strength, but not less than level 1.

Superstar:
(Song) Play an uplifting tune on your guitar, sending bolts of radiant energy in all directions. Enemies hit by the bolts are dealt radiant damage. Allies hit by the radiant bolts are granted Radiant Shield for X seconds. Allies with radiant shield are healed over time, and melee attackers take damage when they attack a shielded ally. Riff level determines duration of the shield.

Ambience:
Reduces your threat level, and the threat level of a nearby ally.

Radiant Arc:
Swing your weapon in an arc, healing allies and damaging targets in its path. Allies hit by Radiant Arc have a chance to generate a Radiant Shield for X seconds.

Radiant Slide:
(Passive) When your Power Slide goes through allies, you heal them for a moderate amount.

Spotlight:
Absorb a Radiant Shield over a target, summoning a Radiant Elemental that heals the target and deals damage to enemies and heal nearby allies for X seconds. Only one radiant elemental can be active at a time.


Jam Session:
Choose a nearby ally. When you play your next three songs, your ally will play a random Bard song of lesser strength (but not less than level 1).

Inzah's Radiant Flute: Playing Inzah's flute calms your nerves, increasing the radius of your song's effects and the speed of your Riff guage by 10%. (3 minute CD).

Woodwinds: (Talent) Sax Solo now also increases the duration of your songs for an additional 3 seconds. Reduces the cooldown of Inzah's Radiant Flute by 30 seconds.

Hero Talents



Band Manager (Tank/Healing)


Your special abilities have a chance to summon band members from the ETC or the Blight Boars to assist you in battle.

Coda (Passive)
Your melee abilities have a chance to summon Samuro. While Samuro is active, your next Six String Samurai/Radiant Slash is critical and doesn't incur its cooldown.

Grave Tempo (Passive)
Your special melee attacks has a chance to summon Jon Graves who generates a Power Chord. Targets hit by a Power Chord have their
minds blown, increasing damage taken by 10% for X seconds.

Backbeat (Passive)
When performing a Riff, Fiddlesticks and Chief Thunderskins have a chance to appear and increase the speed of your Riff gauge by 25% and reduces the cooldown of that
Riff ability by 25%.

Crowd Surfer (Tank/DPS)


Greatly enhances your Powerslide and Stage Dive abilities, improving their power, mobility, and utility.

Crowd Pleaser: (Passive)
Stage Dive gets a second charge, and its area of effect damage is increased by X%.

Pinball Wizard: (Passive)
Your Facemelter and Rocknado abilities deal Critical damage to targets you've Powerslided through. If more than two targets are critically hit, reset cooldown on Powerslide.

Showstopper: (Passive)
Powerslide's duration is increased, and you can now control its direction.

Radiant Amplifier (Healing/DPS)

Amplifies the power of Facemelter and Radiant Slash, allowing them to send radiant sound waves throughout the field, greatly enhancing their range and power.

Radiant Waves: (Active) (25 yds)
Strum your instrument, sending out a sonic wave of radiant healing/damage in a cone in front of you. When it hits an ally/enemy, the ally/enemy will be healed/damaged and the wave will bounce 10 yards before dissipating. If another ally/enemy is hit by the wave, they will be healed/damaged for a lesser amount, and the wave will bounce another 5 yards before dissipating.

Burn-In (Passive)
Damage from Radiant Waves, Facemelter, and Radiant Slash deal additional radiant damage/healing over 6 seconds.

Amplification: (Passive)
Every target hit by your Radiant Wave increases the power and range of your next Facemelter and Radiant Slash by 10%.


Part 4: Possible Hint?

Recently there was a rumor of a class survey that discussed potential future classes. Below is what this survey said about Bards;

Supporter, Healer and Tanks, that utilize the Song of Azeroth to cast mighty spells, support their allies and weaken their enemies. Bards shine in a group, empowering and improving the spells of others and at the same time bringing numerous songs and auras to help their group reach new heights.

Of all Bard concepts, the ETC-style Bard offers the clearest example of a Bard that can tank. In Heroes of the Storm, the ETC was a tank with tank abilities. In Hearthstone and WoW, we had ETC-style bards utilizing fire and holy based abilities that resulted in elementals that in all fairness looked quite like radiant magic;



Interesting to say the least.


Part 5: Conclusion and Final thoughts

Special thanks to Blizzard and all the art from Hearthstone and thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

1. Obviously class, ability, and specialization names are subject to change.
2. I'm not a huge fan of "Minstrel" for the healing spec, but I could really think of another term.
3. Yes I do believe that if Blizzard does Bards, this is how they would do it.
4. I don't believe we'll be seeing Bards in the WSS in any form.
5. Suggestions to improve this concept are welcome.
6. I'll potentially add hero talents in the future.

[Mecheon]

Meh. Too specific a class, wouldn't function at all. Flavour's too focused on rock and metal that makes it actively useless for being a bard as you are just hyper-focused on guitars to the point of ignoring the wide range of instruments out there. In addition, your choice of healing spec name doesn't match your ability flavour at all. Seriously, Prog Rock and Minstrel? Would you call Pink Floyd minstrels? There is so much dichotomy in that one choice that it really tanks your entire thing.

To really break stuff down

1: Guitar weapon is too specific. If you want a serious class, just remove this. You're not getting another 2 hander weapon that's specific to this situation with how many transmog rolls I win on every crossbow and agi dagger
2: Your abilities really have no source. You're just playing music which somehow draws on a grab-bag of powers just, somehow. That might work for Hearthstone, but we're not talking about Hearthstone, we're talking about WoW where classes have pretty clearly defined power sources
3: Mosh pit literately cannot function as written
4: Is Jam Session purpose delivered to just screw over other players? Just disrupt their rotations with stuff they didn't ask for?
5: Frankly Grand Finale seems annoyingly complex in repeating your last 3 actions, forcing you to remember what you did. You're basically dooming this class to needing an addon just for it. This isn't going to work on any complex mythic raid situation where you instead need to focus on incoming and just auto-pilot your rotation. Hell, this could get you killed
6: Soloist is a terrible name for a spec
7: Rush the Stage is literately the most overpowered ability like holy fuck. "Hey, y'know Ursol's Vortex? What if we just made it stronger". I've had first hand experience with this sort of ability in PVP thanks to FFXIV and it makes Dark Knights into one of the most powerful PVP classes. I've been both on the providing end and receiving end of the ol' DRK/DRG suck n' skyshatter combo with this. You did not think through the implications of this ability
8: Your taunt should not be tied to a stun that will not function on most bosses. There's a reason every other tank has a regular taunt
9: Your entire Rockstar idea is just an Enhancement shaman with a slight AoE bleed that has, frankly, no synergy with any other ability. Amp is just a totem. This is a boring spec.
10: Refer my above notes about 'why the fuck do you have a spec called Minstrel who's first ability is literately "I'm gonna be Pink Floyd"
11: On said horrific mis-use of the term Prog Rock, this seems awful. You have to charge up to heal more people around you? Hey, I have a way around this. Its called I don't bring this class and I just bring a Restro druid instead who doesn't have to stand still for 4 seconds to heal the raid.

You've just spat out concepts with no thought as to how they'd function ingame or as part of the larger raiding or pvp ecospheres, and your concept is so hyper-specific to 'guitar' that it will piss off people who, y'know, hear of 'bard' as a class and go 'ah, yes, I know what a bard is from games like Dungeons and Dragons where they are sneaky rogue-like sorts who occasionally play music'

[Rootsbum]

Neat concept. Im sure it would be something like this, but powered by voice of Azeroths song or something lol.

Hoping for lutes and flutes tough

And wow, the guy over here really needed something to trash today.

[Triceron]

It's a bit late for April Fools.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It's a bit late for April Fools.

16 year to late.

[Teriz]

Meh. Too specific a class, wouldn't function at all. Flavour's too focused on rock and metal that makes it actively useless for being a bard as you are just hyper-focused on guitars to the point of ignoring the wide range of instruments out there.

Mainly because the instrument is tied to the weapons. It'd be kind of difficult to make a flute into a 1h weapon.

In addition, your choice of healing spec name doesn't match your ability flavour at all. Seriously, Prog Rock and Minstrel? Would you call Pink Floyd minstrels? There is so much dichotomy in that one choice that it really tanks your entire thing.

Refer to #1 in part 4.

To really break stuff down

1: Guitar weapon is too specific. If you want a serious class, just remove this. You're not getting another 2 hander weapon that's specific to this situation with how many transmog rolls I win on every crossbow and agi dagger

Except I didn't create the guitar weapon concept, Blizzard did.

2: Your abilities really have no source. You're just playing music which somehow draws on a grab-bag of powers just, somehow. That might work for Hearthstone, but we're not talking about Hearthstone, we're talking about WoW where classes have pretty clearly defined power sources

If you look at musical abilities in WoW, they tend to come from a variety of schools of magic.

3: Mosh pit literately cannot function as written

It's merely a variation of Dizzying Haze MoP's effects.

4: Is Jam Session purpose delivered to just screw over other players? Just disrupt their rotations with stuff they didn't ask for?

The ability doesn't disrupt their actions, it simply casts at their location.

5: Frankly Grand Finale seems annoyingly complex in repeating your last 3 actions, forcing you to remember what you did. You're basically dooming this class to needing an addon just for it. This isn't going to work on any complex mythic raid situation where you instead need to focus on incoming and just auto-pilot your rotation. Hell, this could get you killed

You mean like Stasis with Preservation Evokers?

6: Soloist is a terrible name for a spec

Refer to #1 in part 4.

7: Rush the Stage is literately the most overpowered ability like holy fuck. "Hey, y'know Ursol's Vortex? What if we just made it stronger". I've had first hand experience with this sort of ability in PVP thanks to FFXIV and it makes Dark Knights into one of the most powerful PVP classes. I've been both on the providing end and receiving end of the ol' DRK/DRG suck n' skyshatter combo with this. You did not think through the implications of this ability

It's simply a mass version of Strangulation. Just a bit slower.

8: Your taunt should not be tied to a stun that will not function on most bosses. There's a reason every other tank has a regular taunt

Where did I say Headbanger was a taunt.

9: Your entire Rockstar idea is just an Enhancement shaman with a slight AoE bleed that has, frankly, no synergy with any other ability. Amp is just a totem. This is a boring spec.

I disagree.

10: Refer my above notes about 'why the fuck do you have a spec called Minstrel who's first ability is literately "I'm gonna be Pink Floyd"

And again, refer to #1 in Part 4.

11: On said horrific mis-use of the term Prog Rock, this seems awful. You have to charge up to heal more people around you? Hey, I have a way around this. It's called I don't bring this class and I just bring a Restro druid instead who doesn't have to stand still for 4 seconds to heal the raid.

Well it heals 2 nearby targets without the charge. There's also Radiant Arc, Radiant Slide, Spotlight, and Radiant Pick.

You've just spat out concepts with no thought as to how they'd function ingame or as part of the larger raiding or pvp ecospheres, and your concept is so hyper-specific to 'guitar' that it will piss off people who, y'know, hear of 'bard' as a class and go 'ah, yes, I know what a bard is from games like Dungeons and Dragons where they are sneaky rogue-like sorts who occasionally play music'

Well if you hadn't noticed we're not talking about Dungeons and Dragons, we're talking about World of Warcraft.

- - - Updated - - -

Neat concept. Im sure it would be something like this, but powered by voice of Azeroths song or something lol.

Thank you.

The healing aspect of the class is largely based on the Radiant Song which was introduced in TWW. Hence the use of Radiant magic for many of its abilities.

[Relapses]

16 year to late.

Has it really been 16 ye... holy ^{fuck I'm old.}

[Mecheon]

Mainly because the instrument is tied to the weapons. It'd be kind of difficult to make a flute into a 1h weapon.

Orrrr because its World of Warcraft you'll use regular weapons and the flutes and whatever will be spell effects. Much like how monks don't need to equip harpoons and hunters don't need to equip traps, they just happen/

Refer to #1 in part 4.

You're going to be spamming this every chance you get, Teriz. If you couldn't think of a name, you should have left it in the metaphorical oven for longer

Except I didn't create the guitar weapon concept, Blizzard did.

Blizzard added the guitar weapons as silly little joke things. You're the one applying it to an entire class. Those are a little different concepts, so we have to analyse it under that now

If you look at musical abilities in WoW, they tend to come from a variety of schools of magic.

Player classes have clear sources of power. There's plenty of mage NPCs doing stuff we can't do but we understand that root 'arcane magic'. Same with druids who can turn into forms we can't.

You have an unfocused set of damage types and abilities were the only rough focus is 'music, probably' and no mention of how or why these happen. There's no synergy

It's merely a variation of Dizzying Haze MoP's effects.

That's 'hitting themselves with their own weapon' and not 'bumping into other enemies'. Little different. Literately cannot function on a solo target enemy, for example.

You could avoid this with "Give your opponent tinnitus' like a certain Liberation of Undermine raid boss, but I get the feeling you haven't even fought him in LFR

The ability doesn't disrupt their actions, it simply casts at their location.

Cool, so its a DPS loss if you have a group of casters standing away from the boss and therefore is useless or requires specific classes to be in the group. Terrible ability, I think I'd just pick classes that don't require me to stack melee

You mean like Stasis with Preservation Evokers?

Stasis caused a whole lot of grief and is specific to healing abilities. Switching that over to damage is asking for a world of 'oops I retbombed'

Refer to #1 in part 4.

You posted this like that. If you don't want criticism, you could have just not posted it.

It's simply a mass version of Strangulation. Just a bit slower.

Did you not think there was a reason Asphyxiate (Not strangulate, that's DK's interrupt) was a single target? You have given no thought at all how this will impact the game because this would get PVPers salivating at the chaos you can do

Where did I say Headbanger was a taunt.

Then why else does it have a threat increase tied to a stun, an ability that, frankly, isn't used for generating aggro and is instead used for emergencies?

I disagree.

What's different to it? You're a melee focused character who pops magical items (amps/totems) down and builds abilities up to a culmination that lets you cause more damage. That is literately Enhancement. You've just re-invented enhancement

Well it heals 2 nearby targets without the charge. There's also Radiant Arc, Radiant Slide, Spotlight, and Radiant Pick.

You're not in a vacuum. You're competing that healing slot against priests, druids, paladins and monks.

Well if you hadn't noticed we're not talking about Dungeons and Dragons, we're talking about World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft doesn't have established bards so we need to consider pop culture bards. If I hear 'bard', I'm going to think of the established stuff

[Teriz]

Orrrr because its World of Warcraft you'll use regular weapons and the flutes and whatever will be spell effects. Much like how monks don't need to equip harpoons and hunters don't need to equip traps, they just happen/

Which would be another way of doing a Bard concept. There's no need for what you describe to be the only way.

And once again, I didn't create the guitar/weapon concept, Blizzard did, which gives it credence as a potential mechanic for a Bardic class created by blizzard.

You're going to be spamming this every chance you get, Teriz. If you couldn't think of a name, you should have left it in the metaphorical oven for longer.

No, I thought of a name, I'm simply well aware that others can potentially come up with better names. That said, I'm not going to mull over names for weeks when that really isn't the important point of putting out this concept.

Blizzard added the guitar weapons as silly little joke things.

In your opinion. They clearly view it as a potential mechanic since its been reiterated in multiple formats within the franchise.

Player classes have clear sources of power. There's plenty of mage NPCs doing stuff we can't do but we understand that root 'arcane magic'. Same with druids who can turn into forms we can't.

You have an unfocused set of damage types and abilities were the only rough focus is 'music, probably' and no mention of how or why these happen. There's no synergy

And once again, if you look at musical abilities, they tend to come from multiple schools of magic. For example, everyone's favorite Bard Russell Brewer had Holy, Fire, Frost, Shadow, and Nature magical abilities.

That's 'hitting themselves with their own weapon' and not 'bumping into other enemies'. Little different. Literately cannot function on a solo target enemy, for example.

If you're using Mosh Pit on a single target, they'd simply self damage.

Again like what happened with Dizzying Haze back in MoP.

Cool, so its a DPS loss if you have a group of casters standing away from the boss and therefore is useless or requires specific classes to be in the group. Terrible ability, I think I'd just pick classes that don't require me to stack melee

If used incorrectly, perhaps. Obviously the player would have to determine when the best time to use the ability would be. If the ability was always great all the time, it'd be a bit overpowered.

Stasis caused a whole lot of grief and is specific to healing abilities. Switching that over to damage is asking for a world of 'oops I retbombed'

Did it? Could you post a link where people were complaining about having to remember the spells they used before using Stasis?

You posted this like that. If you don't want criticism, you could have just not posted it.

Saying you don't like names isn't really valid criticism. Further, instead of complaining, you could offer some alternatives.

Did you not think there was a reason Asphyxiate (Not strangulate, that's DK's interrupt) was a single target?

Actually it's Death Grip, and yes. However, there's also Gorefiend's Grasp.

The point is that the mechanic in Rush the Stage isn't some alien mechanic that would break the game like you're making it out to be.

Then why else does it have a threat increase tied to a stun, an ability that, frankly, isn't used for generating aggro and is instead used for emergencies?

Because I figure if you're tanking you might want a threat multiplier. That said, if it's a huge issue, they can just remove the stun. In fact, I'll remove it and say it causes a ton of damage.

What's different to it? You're a melee focused character who pops magical items (amps/totems) down and builds abilities up to a culmination that lets you cause more damage. That is literately Enhancement. You've just re-invented enhancement

I'm unaware of a totem that repeats abilities for 25 seconds.

You're not in a vacuum. You're competing that healing slot against priests, druids, paladins and monks.

Which isn't the point. The point is that the concept grants the healing spec multiple healing abilities. You were insinuating that all they had was that one heal.

World of Warcraft doesn't have established bards so we need to consider pop culture bards. If I hear 'bard', I'm going to think of the established stuff

Well then you need to expand your horizons a bit. Blizzard has been pushing this for over 2 decades.

[Ielenia]

Well then you need to expand your horizons a bit. Blizzard has been pushing this for over 2 decades.

Like Hearthsinger Forresten, Russell Brower, Winslow Swan... You know, actual bards.

I'd even add Lorewalker Cho into the mix, too.

[Teriz]

Like Hearthsinger Forresten, Russell Brower, Winslow Swan... You know, actual bards.

I'd even add Lorewalker Cho into the mix, too.

Nothing stops you from making a Bard concept based on those "bards".

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I'm unaware of a totem that repeats abilities for 25 seconds.

That would be surging totem, though of course with a limited spell set.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=444995/surging-totem
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=445025/totemic-rebound

[Teriz]

That would be surging totem, though of course with a limited spell set.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=444995/surging-totem
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=445025/totemic-rebound

Yeah, not quite the same thing. In the case of the amp, it's allowing you to repeat your ability instantly. In the case of totemic rebound, its the spell hitting the totem and then jumping to more targets, and yeah it's just chain heal.

[Ielenia]

Nothing stops you from making a Bard concept based on those "bards".

No need to use quotation marks since they, unlike your examples, are actual bards in the lore.

The only ""bards" with quotation marks" here are the ones you have pushed in previous threads, and are trying to push here.

[Mecheon]

Which would be another way of doing a Bard concept. There's no need for what you describe to be the only way.

And once again, I didn't create the guitar/weapon concept, Blizzard did, which gives it credence as a potential mechanic for a Bardic class created by blizzard.

Right back at you, though I know you're going to be posting this for the next year in another thread.

Blizzard didn't invent the guitar/weapon concept. "Axe" referring to both guitar and an actual axe is an ancient thing.

No, I thought of a name, I'm simply well aware that others can potentially come up with better names. That said, I'm not going to mull over names for weeks when that really isn't the important point of putting out this concept.

Given how you, of all people, post though?

In your opinion. They clearly view it as a potential mechanic since its been reiterated in multiple formats within the franchise.

Please provide one serious example and not "the silly funny jokey card game" or "the silly AoS where players dance when they win"

And once again, if you look at musical abilities, they tend to come from multiple schools of magic. For example, everyone's favorite Bard Russell Brewer had Holy, Fire, Frost, Shadow, and Nature magical abilities.

No he doesn't? He mostly does frost damage. The other ones are puns based off the music names (Dark Song, Peaceful Song, Chilling Song), and frankly, isn't solid enough for a class just by itself

If you're using Mosh Pit on a single target, they'd simply self damage.

Again like what happened with Dizzying Haze back in MoP.

Doesn't work with how you've described it.

Dizzying Haze mentions the enemy smacks themself with the weapon, not other people smack them.

If used incorrectly, perhaps. Obviously the player would have to determine when the best time to use the ability would be. If the ability was always great all the time, it'd be a bit overpowered.

You know how people act in this game. If you can retbomb with it, people will retbomb and drop other classes if it is overpowered

Did it? Could you post a link where people were complaining about having to remember the spells they used before using Stasis?

People were complaining about how it works

See here and here, though most of this has to do with how quick you've got to set everything uip

Saying you don't like names isn't really valid criticism. Further, instead of complaining, you could offer some alternatives.

And you could support other people's class ideas in the other thread rather than shitting on everyone and getting yourself banned multiple times, but here we are.

Actually it's Death Grip, and yes. However, there's also Gorefiend's Grasp.

The point is that the mechanic in Rush the Stage isn't some alien mechanic that would break the game like you're making it out to be.

Gorefiend's Grasp doesn't function like that any more and you can very easily find people using it back in the day for that exact playstyle i mentioned

Because I figure if you're tanking you might want a threat multiplier. That said, if it's a huge issue, they can just remove the stun. In fact, I'll remove it and say it causes a ton of damage.

Do you play tanks, Teriz? Do you know what they want?

I'm just saying, the 'builds a ton of aggro button that I mash at every opportunity" is generally a different button to "This button does something else"

I'm unaware of a totem that repeats abilities for 25 seconds.

Surging Totem.

Which isn't the point. The point is that the concept grants the healing spec multiple healing abilities. You were insinuating that all they had was that one heal.

They need something that makes them a healer you want to pick. I know, for example, if I'm doing arena and I see a mistweaver in the queue I am going to grab that mistweaver ASAP because of how their stuff works.

Well then you need to expand your horizons a bit. Blizzard has been pushing this for over 2 decades.

No, they haven't Teriz. There are more cooking themed weapons in the game than there are musical themed ones. Using that argument? You're saying there's going to be a Chef class coming along based on Nomi

[Teriz]

Right back at you, though I know you're going to be posting this for the next year in another thread.

Blizzard didn't invent the guitar/weapon concept. "Axe" referring to both guitar and an actual axe is an ancient thing.

And there's 2 Maces in WoW that are also guitar/weapons, and of course we had it extended to swords in Hearthstone.

Please provide one serious example and not "the silly funny jokey card game" or "the silly AoS where players dance when they win"

Uh it's also in WoW. Also Blizzard has pulled a lot of elements from that "jokey card game" and "silly AoS".

No he doesn't? He mostly does frost damage. The other ones are puns based off the music names (Dark Song, Peaceful Song, Chilling Song), and frankly, isn't solid enough for a class just by itself

He has Wedding Song (Holy), Dark Song (Shadow), Peaceful Song (Arcane), etc.

In other words, he's an example of a musical character (Bard) using multiple schools of magic.

To reiterate: Their source of power is music, and in WoW "music" can be from pretty much any school of magic.

Doesn't work with how you've described it.

Dizzying Haze mentions the enemy smacks themself with the weapon, not other people smack them.

Clearly if the design of the ability is for the enemy to damage themselves (which it is), then that works whether there are multiple attacks or just one.

You know how people act in this game. If you can retbomb with it, people will retbomb and drop other classes if it is overpowered

And Blizzard will adjust balance accordingly.

People were complaining about how it works

See here and here, though most of this has to do with how quick you've got to set everything uip

Or that it didn't store the spells long enough. Nothing in there talks about how people hate it because they don't remember what spells they chambered as you were implying.

And you could support other people's class ideas in the other thread rather than shitting on everyone and getting yourself banned multiple times, but here we are.

Whose ideas have I "shitted on"?

Gorefiend's Grasp doesn't function like that any more and you can very easily find people using it back in the day for that exact playstyle I mentioned

Gorefiend's Grasp
Talent
30 yd range
Instant 2 min cooldown
Requires Death Knight
Shadowy tendrils coil around all enemies within 15 yards of a hostile or friendly target, pulling them to the target's location.

Rush the Stage:
Pulls enemies within 15 yards into melee range of the caster.

Why the dishonesty? In fact Gorefiend's Grasp is even more powerful because you can place the pull point on other targets instead of only yourself.

Do you play tanks, Teriz? Do you know what they want?

I'm just saying, the 'builds a ton of aggro button that I mash at every opportunity" is generally a different button to "This button does something else"

I'm assuming that someone tanking as a Rocker with a guitar would appreciate an ability called "Headbanger" where they slam their head into a target for big damage.

Surging Totem.

Which doesn't repeat your abilities.

They need something that makes them a healer you want to pick. I know, for example, if I'm doing arena and I see a mistweaver in the queue I am going to grab that mistweaver ASAP because of how their stuff works.

Oh? Like what exactly?

No, they haven't Teriz. There are more cooking themed weapons in the game than there are musical themed ones. Using that argument? You're saying there's going to be a Chef class coming along based on Nomi

Where's the heroes of the storm hero like ETC? Where's hearthstone expansion like Festival of Legends? Where's the multiple WoW characters like Beserist, Mai'kyl, Cagehead, and Jon Graves? I'm simply not seeing any of that for Warcraft chefs.

[Mecheon]

And there's 2 Maces in WoW that are also guitar/weapons, and of course we had it extended to swords in Hearthstone.

FFXIV has it on bows. Its just a silly 'what if instrument also a weapon'.

Uh it's also in WoW. Also Blizzard has pulled a lot of elements from that "jokey card game" and "silly AoS".

No, its not in WoW. ETC don't fight, and Hearthstone is the game that made Karazhan into a dance club, which, y'know, I doubt they're taking into WoW for some reason. Call it a hunch. Legion's update didn't include any of Hearthstone's stuff, just one silly reference to the expansion

He has Wedding Song (Holy), Dark Song (Shadow), Peaceful Song (Arcane), etc.

In other words, he's an example of a musical character (Bard) using multiple schools of magic.

To reiterate: Their source of power is music, and in WoW "music" can be from pretty much any school of magic.

Or they're just themed around the song names

Clearly if the design of the ability is for the enemy to damage themselves (which it is), then that works whether there are multiple attacks or just one.

The flavour fails, though

Literately, you could avoid this by looking at an actual music using boss in the game at the moment, but you decided to be obsessive to HotS instead.

And Blizzard will adjust balance accordingly.

Or they just. Won't do this idea.

Or that it didn't store the spells long enough. Nothing in there talks about how people hate it because they don't remember what spells they chambered as you were implying.

Healing spells are a bit of a different thing to DPS abilities. If you can't understand how I'd kind of want to know what I'm throwing out, I gotta wonder how much DPSing you do.

Whose ideas have I "shitted on"?

Necromancers and swordmages (Insisting fucking Spellblade Aluriel is an enhancement shaman?!) are the obvious recent ones. I don't have all day to go through your posts over here but I know there'll be more.

oh, but so help when anyone comments on your Explorer idea

Why the dishonesty? In fact Gorefiend's Grasp is even more powerful because you can place the pull point on other targets instead of only yourself.

Gorefiend's Grasp got nerfed to a maximum of 4 players over a decade ago for a reason. They're not going to give you a no player capped drag.

I'm assuming that someone tanking as a Rocker with a guitar would appreciate an ability called "Headbanger" where they slam their head into a target for big damage.

Someone tanking as such is going to care about the mit they press to not get splattered by a boss, and what button they press to tank swap

Which, in fact, you've posted nothing about. Where's the mit? I'm guessing its the ramping up stuff you've got which, while a gimmick, is having to compete with shield block and bristling fur

Which doesn't repeat your abilities.

Its functionally a totem. You could add that ability to shaman without a care.

Oh? Like what exactly?

Do you not pvp?

Okay so, mistweaver have their funny statue they can plonk down and throw mist on. As such? Mistweavers are hella good at sustain in arenas and can basically keep the team up non-stop with good play and placement. That's why I like mistweaver when I'm doing pvp, because they're dang good at what they do

Where's the heroes of the storm hero like ETC? Where's hearthstone expansion like Festival of Legends? Where's the multiple WoW characters like Beserist, Mai'kyl, Cagehead, and Jon Graves? I'm simply not seeing any of that for Warcraft chefs.

Plenty of chefs to look at in-game. Big Kinook is far more relevant than anyone from ETC, Nomi is infamous, there's Cookie the Murloc, and they have a whole faction tied to them with Halfhill and the various Masters.

[Teriz]

FFXIV has it on bows. Its just a silly 'what if instrument also a weapon'.

This isn't FFXIV and that's not the point. You implied that only a single axe weapon from WotLK was an example of a guitar weapon in WoW. You would be incorrect.

No, it's not in WoW. ETC don't fight, and Hearthstone is the game that made Karazhan into a dance club, which, y'know, I doubt they're taking into WoW for some reason. Call it a hunch. Legion's update didn't include any of Hearthstone's stuff, just one silly reference to the expansion

Yeah it's in WoW, because the Arcanite Ripper which is in WoW also showed up in Hearthstone. In addition, we got the Blight Boars in Legion, and they're essentially more ETC-style Bard characters. Not to mention the ETC characters showed up in WC3:R as well.

And with all that said, them popping up in HS and HotS is also valid since we do get content from those games in WoW.

Or they're just themed around the song names

I don't see how that changes the fact that Brower's abilities came from those spell schools, or musical abilities in WoW coming from various spell schools as well.

The flavour fails, though

Literately, you could avoid this by looking at an actual music using boss in the game at the moment, but you decided to be obsessive to HotS instead.

TBF, I didn't use HotS' ability, just the name. So I'm afraid you're wrong once again.

Or they just. Won't do this idea.

Why wouldn't they? Just because you think players don't coordinate in raids doesn't mean that Blizzard believes that.

Healing spells are a bit of a different thing to DPS abilities. If you can't understand how I'd kind of want to know what I'm throwing out, I gotta wonder how much DPSing you do.

So you're saying a DPS Bard player wouldn't be able to remember the last three empower-style abilities they did, but an Evoker Healer can easily remember the last three heals (any healing spell) they did while on the clock and perform accordingly for Stasis?

Necromancers and swordmages (Insisting fucking Spellblade Aluriel is an enhancement shaman?!) are the obvious recent ones. I don't have all day to go through your posts over here but I know there'll be more.

oh, but so help when anyone comments on your Explorer idea

Yeah, none of that is "shitting" on an idea. Sorry.

Gorefiend's Grasp got nerfed to a maximum of 4 players over a decade ago for a reason. They're not going to give you a no player capped drag.

That's a PvP consideration, and I have no issue with such a consideration for PvP. I do certainly hope you realize that this concept is coming from the angle of PvE.

Someone tanking as such is going to care about the mit they press to not get splattered by a boss, and what button they press to tank swap

Which, in fact, you've posted nothing about. Where's the mit? I'm guessing its the ramping up stuff you've got which, while a gimmick, is having to compete with shield block and bristling fur

Of course tanks care about mitigation, which is why there's Rockmaster and Rocksteady in the concept. What does that have to do with the point that Headbanger is neat little flavor ability that does a lot of damage and be a satisfying damager for tanks and fits the thematic like a glove?

Let me guess; Next argument: Rockmaster and Rocksteady are insufficient mitigation!

It's functionally a totem. You could add that ability to shaman without a care.

Which is like arguing that you could add Frost Elemental to Shaman "without a care".

Yet they never did.

Do you not pvp?

Okay so, mistweaver have their funny statue they can plonk down and throw mist on. As such? Mistweavers are hella good at sustain in arenas and can basically keep the team up non-stop with good play and placement. That's why I like mistweaver when I'm doing pvp, because they're dang good at what they do

So you're saying that there's nothing an ETC-style bard healer could possibly offer that would have you pick them for PvP?

That's a rather silly judgement call don't you think?

Plenty of chefs to look at in-game. Big Kinook is far more relevant than anyone from ETC

Based on Blizzard's track record, that's a pretty laughable statement to make.

[Z3ROR]

I am not convinced that Bard as a class for WoW would work. Bard is traditionally not only a musician. A Bard is an entertainer who also tells stories or perform an act. I think a Bard works much better as a profession focused on fun.

[DatToffer]

This is pretty much all that would be needed to make me happy about a Bard class.

I know this forum has seen a ton of these ETC Bard concepts (I made one) so it's nothing new to the readers, but for me it's still a very fresh and unique take on the class.

It has pros and cons. The pros being that it's super cool, the cons being that it doesn't do justice to the variety of cultures (and thus musics) of Azeroth. I would honestly love a Bard where each playable race gets proper instruments and accessories (wardrums, flutes, harps, lutes, etc), although that would require more animation and modeling work.

This is also why I enjoy a Bard concept where the weapons become instruments. It neatly solves the problem of racial aesthetic. Sure everyone ends up playing guitar, but we can chose from the tons of existing Axe/Mace/whatever for something that really fits our character.