Proposed Inspired Change(s) and Discussion

#1

Motivation
The Bard’s buff, Inspired, seems like it should be a desirable ability to improve group DPS by allowing players to hit targets that would otherwise be out of range. However, some weapons, like Sword of the Colossus and Spirit Staff, can actually suffer from reduced DPS when their user is under the effects of Inspired. This is because not only does the weapon range increase, but the entire weapon firing pattern changes as well. Since players can get frequently buffed/unbuffed, the net effect is that weapons can unexpectedly start to miss/hit targets many times during a battle, resulting in many groups discouraging the use of Bard’s ability or outright kicking “disruptive” Bards from a dungeon. This discouraged use can prevent other players from benefiting from the effects of Inspired, and can cause Bard players to feel unhelpful/useless.

Proposed Change
Instead of changing weapon firing patterns, continue normal weapon firing patterns beyond the normal range. Here is a crude example for the Spirit Staff:

proposed%20inspired%20change
proposed inspired change.png900x600 12.5 KB

A similar effect could be applied to Sword of the Colossus and other weapons. This change would prevent Bards from disrupting the group while sill allowing players to benefit from the effects of their buff. I could see an argument that the current behavior can allow players to hit further away consistently if the Inspired buff persists indefinitely, but in practice this requires a tightly coordinated group. Such a tightly coordinated group would likely already possess ample DPS, and could likely destroy enemies quicker and more safely without Inspired than a group that might benefit from this change.

#2

I like it!

By the way, I think this might be better in #ideas, but nonetheless I can see why it fits here.

#3

How would this work with more complex firing arks such as the candy katana?

#4

That’s a good point; I wasn’t thinking about the Candy Katana. It’s probably needed to revisit each weapon individually until Inspired isn’t seen as detrimental in a group setting. Candy Katana specifically is a new weapon, so I’d expect that it may have been balanced for Inspired already (?)

#5

The focus point moves further out

#6

I moved it, hope op doesn’t mind.

#7

From what I heard the reason why Inspired increases Projectile Speed (resulting in the current extended archs) rather than Projectile Lifetime (which would behave like the way you proposed) is because classes like Staff and Wand wouldn’t notice any difference due to their high range, so to make up for that, by increasing projectile speed, it takes less time for those ranged characters to hit the target and helps them deal damage more consistently too.

The only weapons that suffer from Inspired are ones like Sword of the Colossus, Esben Staff and the like which aren’t a lot. While the lower projectile speed affects the Wand/Staff/Bow classes as a whole (compared to the current inspired), no matter their weapon choice.

#8

The current version of inspired does affect all staffs. For example, on my necro every time the buff gets applied or removed, I have to go forward or back to make sure that both staff shots are hitting the target.

If there was a longer projectile lifetime, it would just increase the range without screwing up the shot pattern and forcing people to readjust

#9

I know and I suffer a bit from this too but this is usually only when the target stands still. I usually prefer more proj. speed than lifetime because its a lot easier to accurately hit moving targets.

#10

I agree that fast moving shots are generally easier to land than slow moving shots, but the inconsistency as a result of occasional bard buffs can really screw with your aim, even on standard weapons. You just manage to consistently hit the boss with your normal weapon when all of a sudden your projectile speed changes and you have to adjust, only for your aim to be thrown off again a few seconds later when the buff wears off.

As pointed out earlier, this is exasperated even further on weapons like colo, where the convergence of the shot pattern is crucial to dps and is affected seriously by a bard buff or sudden lack thereof.

If the buff altered projectile lifetime instead, this issue wouldn’t be a problem (though it could certainly cause other issues).

#11

One fix would be to increase the shot frequency at the same time as the shot speed. By frequency I mean the one given for staves as 2 cycles/shot, though it would be better off measured as cycles per second, or Hz for those with a maths/physics background

So at the same time as boosting the speed by 25%, boost the frequency by 25%. This would make shots move through their motion 25% faster. Keep the lifetime the same and they would go further.

I am assuming all wavy weapons work the same way (not counting things like Wand of the Bulwark), and I think they do as other things with wavy shots like other staves, Sword of the Colossus, also have frequency.

#12

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.