So im one of these people who backed and will be in the alpha. I kind of keep an eye on it a bit but not a lot as i dont see a point in anticipating something that i have no idea when it might happen. So I came here wondering if anyone who is following closer than I am if they plan on having bard or necro in the game "on release" or in the alpha or whatever at this point. I know long ago they "confirmed" that bard is going to make it in but yeah i think at that time we were supposed to see alpha in like december of 2018... So with this all taking extra long and with the team sort of waiting on systems to be updated was the team at least using the extra time to make necro and bard be an on launch feature? Anyone heard anything on this?
You are wise not to "sweat the details" ahead of time since the history of Pantheon development is delay and change. We can hope we are now on a better, straight-line path to alpha and beta and release, and maybe we are. But we cannot *know* this.
Personally I am not even looking at the classes yet. When alpha is announced I will decide what classes I like most. But I already know what class I will play in alpha. All of them. All races too at least briefly though huge races block too much of the view for me and tiny races in other games often have a camera angle that bothers me.
The Bard and the Necromancer have been combined into a single class to save resources. It's called "The Died Piper".
Obviously, I'm joking. I don't know the status of them and expect their inclusion at launch to depend upon which development resources are the main bottleneck. For example, if Icreating zones takes the longest and the people doing that aren't also responsible for class development, class art, and ability animations, then I think we'll see them. But if the people needed for these classes are also working on the assets that are the furthest behind, then I expect we won't see them.
Counterfleche said:The Bard and the Necromancer have been combined into a single class to save resources. It's called "The Died Piper".
Obviously, I'm joking. I don't know the status of them and expect their inclusion at launch to depend upon which development resources are the main bottleneck. For example, if Icreating zones takes the longest and the people doing that aren't also responsible for class development, class art, and ability animations, then I think we'll see them. But if the people needed for these classes are also working on the assets that are the furthest behind, then I expect we won't see them.
Ok that said then does anyone have a clue what the bottleneck really is?
"Druid...etc" - as I understand it, Druid's "pet" isn't a true pet in the normal sense. It's probably better to think of it as a visual buff/spell effect. Meaning it doesn't really need AI and stuff governing it, per se.
Agreed on Summoner, Ranger, and Necro. Not Bard, though. BRD doesn't really need pet mechanics in the game to work or be used at launch or Alpha/Pre-Alpha. While it will probably have a charm added at some point, it's not strictly neecessary to the class to be entered into the game (remember, Pre-Alpha) for testing since other things like song buffs can be tested from without needing it.
This is my personal guess on why Bards and Necromancers are still not committed to for launch.
Bard:
They want to make sure the music mechanic is actually unique and not just a copy of other classes ability systems with different names. We know they want Bards to be a Control class like the Enchanter, but they need their Abilities to work in a distinct way. EQ Bards were cool, but ultimately were just a Buff and Debuff class. We know that VR wants to improve on this and make Pantheon Bards even more cool and unique.
I'm pretty sure that Joppa knows exactly how he wants this to work and is only waiting until the Tech to make it work is fully developed before he can make promises that the Bard is for sure going to happen at launch. If the tech needs more time, he'll leave us with his vague 'I feel confident it will be ready for launch.'
Necro:
Since they already have Summoners, they need to make sure Necromancers actually play distinctly different and are not just a Summoner with an Undead theme instead of an Elemental theme. In EQ Mages and Necro's were only distinct because Mages damage was all DD's (Direct Damage) and Nerco's damage was all DoTs (Damage over Time). VR likely wants there to be a much more active difference than just DD or DoT and pets being Undead vs Elemental.
It's quite possible that Necromancers in Pantheon may not even have a traditional Pet. Similarly to how Druids pet will be more of a Mechanic than an actual pet, we may see Necromancer just having some sort of Mechanic that relates to the 'once living' than just summoning a Skeleton or some similar undead fiend.
I'm guessing that they already have the Lore and Story in place for both Bards and Necro's. So once they lock down how the actual systems for these 2 classes will work and be unique, I'm pretty sure it will not take them long to actually implement and balance them and fit them into the world.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:EQ Bards were cool, but ultimately were just a Buff and Debuff class. We know that VR wants to improve on this and make Pantheon Bards even more cool and unique.
It varied from expansion to expansion and idk how they play on live, but pre-Luclin this would only be sorta kinda accurate in terms of raid content where they mostly buff and have a few debuffs. Even then the class generally kites raid trash around. Outside of that, they function as a puller that can CC and (off)tank, with utility taking up a large portion of their spell book. Invis/seeinvis, bind sight, night vision, lev, eb, identify, locate faction boost, lull, da. Room for improvement? 100% but difficult to get more unique. Not impossible. A few other MMOs did a good job. But without the ability to weapon/instrument swap, it's hard to see the class offering as much versatility with the need to multitask for additional oomph.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:Necro:
In EQ Mages and Necro's were only distinct because Mages damage was all DD's (Direct Damage) and Nerco's damage was all DoTs (Damage over Time). VR likely wants there to be a much more active difference than just DD or DoT and pets being Undead vs Elemental.
Magicians actually have a few DoTs in the original trilogy and necros a couple of DD spells that turn the target into a skeleton. These necro spells are seen as either annoying and problematic to a raid force or extremely beneficial depending on the zone/target. In some raid zones, a lot of targets are massive and high up, making them difficult to see, so the skeleton is considered better than the alternative. Some mobs are also wisp-like, having no distinct front or back, making it difficult to backstab and avoid enrage, so again it's beneficial. The two classes are almost a night and day difference, quite literally since certain necro spells can only be cast at night. One has an impressive amount of CC, the other has none whatsoever.