Bard
Can the bard just function as a mana paladin? By this I mean it provides an instant MP burst, gives energized (mana healing), and increases the max mana of the players it affects? Obviously as this is much more powerful than paladin’s HP healing it should still have its cooldown, but Inspire is just such a massive problem. If inspired applied only to the bard it would be totally fine too (with the above effects as well if you wish), but currently this ability is just way too powerful. No application radius or increase will really make it balanced unless it is so small that it benefits nobody, at which point it should just be removed in favor of something else (this something else being provided above). Looking at the weapons list under the current increase, we have:
Tiered swords -> Sword of the Colossus
Colossus sword is so powerful not just because of its damage, but because of its range. This mitigates the melees greatest weakness almost completely, but now it is not a rare lost halls item, but an ability which can be provided at every stage of the game with every item. This also makes swords like the Crystal and Ancient Stone swords even more useless.
Sword of the Colossus -> Tiered Dagger
Do I have to explain this…?
Tiered Dagger -> 7 Range , Bow of the Void / Deathless Crossbow -> 7 Range , Doom Bow - 8.8 range
While these are different weapon classes so this may appear confusing at first, it is because they have the same range (and therefore the same point). 5.6 was already a relatively comfortable range. You are still vulnerable to shots, but usually far fewer than the melee for example, and even much safer than the shorter range options such as the Dirk of Cronus (cronus already has 3 better daggers and t14 may be the fourth… can you please buff it? This is not a joke, it’s an event white) and the Etherite Dagger (which will now have an incredibly comfortable range of 4.8 under Inspire as well).
However, a range of 7? The point of shorter range swapouts is for more risk in exchange for damage, but this is just completely erased from the picture with the bard. A range of 7 (which is a doom bow for those who are unfamiliar) allows for you to be in a minuscule amount of danger at almost every point in all fights. For classes that already have the benefit of stealth (rogue), deception (trickster), incredibly safe damage through poison (assassin), crowd control to hinder and prevent enemies from reaching the group or themselves (archer/huntress), offering this range with no downside makes them creep on the definition of dungeon balance, and as anti range is a seldom implemented game mechanic safety will become a major problem in both game design and class composition over time. Allowing the heavies to become leathers and the leathers to approach staves is not acceptable. Doom bow is effectively a wand, meaning that this swapout will now allow for the bow classes to almost never be in any real form of danger.
Katanas 4.75 -> 6
This may not be quite as meaningful as the above boosts, but the katanas still follow the general theme outlined above.
Staves & Wands - As both of these reach over 10 tiles there is not that great of a difference between them, but need we forget that in the old Lair of Draconis the St. Abrahams wand (which has less range than both staff and wand under Inspire) could skip black entirely?
This kind of power, especially under the fullscreen of exalt depending on what class is being discussed (see the previous weapons) is completely unacceptable for any class to wield under any condition. While I understand this PT is more oriented around o3, I am very disappointed to see Inspire as anything besides a self buff or just outright removed from the game (I feel the previous may be more fair given that it is a robe class after all), I thought after PT 1 you would learn but here we are again. Bumping the range down, regardless of the extent it is done, will still be overpowered unless it is brought to a level that is insignificant, making the class useless in many cases. Please consider the suggestions I left at the start of this post as I feel they are the best direction to take this class in, but at the very least do NOT let a range buff to others make it into production.
Oryx 3
I enjoy the mini bosses greatly, nice work on them! I do feel Gemsbok could have more powerful attacking phases and less movement as I found the first half of the fight to not only miss almost all challenge but just generally feel annoying due to the quantity of teleports, luckily it picked up as the fight progresses but it takes too long for it to reach that point, possible damage but more difficult damage is the ideal scenario to come out of changing him (for me). No criticisms for the other two personally. I do have a small complaint about the enemies, I feel like you should have to kill them all to continue because currently the group (or a single person) could rush ahead and greatly complicate things by forcing you to take on enemies from the previous area as well as the current one or get locked out from the ability to complete the dungeon, and when the enemies stack up they start to get very overwhelming if from all directions. This could either be done through better placement of the enemies (why are so many just sitting at the end of the areas?) in addition to the requirement of killing them all or just one could be picked, both are fine by me as long as traveling through the gate as you are instructed does not result in being swarmed by lethal enemies.
Finally, NERF THE DESPERATION PHASE. It ruins the progression of the fight and it is just overall absurdly difficult. While this may take more work than you would want to do, if you could elevate the difficulty of the fight at all points and then nerf that one it would seem to address what me and the other players I have been seeing think should be done for the fight. This adds a greater overall feeling / experience for the battle and stops what is an honestly unfair phase in desperation.