Bard has been very much the problem child of Achaea classes for a very long time now. Some of this is player facing (overall poor design, many problematic mechanics, hard to use due to disjointed balances etc) and an equally large part has been on our end. Namely, Bard was just nightmarishly difficult to modify to any real degree.

As a result, over the last couple of months we've entirely torn up the bard class and started from scratch, and it is our hope that going forward the new version will be more balanced, less problematic, healthier on the group meta, and more Achaean in feel. Here is a quick breakdown of overarching aims/changes to give some context:

Swashbuckling has been replaced with bladedance:
Why: swashbuckling had no real cohesiveness to the mechanics. I think there's a place for something of this theme in the game, but it was very much all over the place.
What: Bladedance focusses upon rapier abilities and various acrobatic style moves.
General note: bladedance does not use venoms.
Artefact notes: rapiers impact damage and limb damage, not speed.

Composition replaces voicecraft:
Why: the disjointed balances of voicecraft have been a nightmare. Further, the high variability in rapier speed, the frontloaded nature of impatience along with the other things the class brought, the old Achaean design of basically having a skill full of single afflicting abilities: none of this was great.
What: composition is the new passive skill. There is a lot of finishers and inline afflictions in here as well, but at its core its a way to passively debuff or buff your enemies/allies.
Notes: instrument specialisation is gone. You can now use any instrument you wish.
Artefact notes: tuning forks increase song duration.

Harmonics has been replaced with Sagas:
Why: removing harmonics will significantly nerf fortress style play. We also just honestly believe it would represent Achaea better to highlight player-driven events and stories, and bard is perfect for this.
What: sagas will allow you to tell stories to the room at large of major events that have transpired in the past. Some of these are channels, most are not. As a general rule something significant happens when you finish the story, but see abfiles for relevant details on each.

Sagas for Cyrenians is replaced with Woe:
Why: we've wanted a martial style factional for each org. Originally it was planned these would all be warrior specs, but we decided as we were doing the bard rework now a bard factional just fit Cyrene the best.
What: same core mechanics as Sagas but fundamentally different effects, abilities, and entirely unique theming.
Note: Woe is entirely unique to Cyrene and will be gained upon joining Cyrene (for bards) and replaced with Sagas on leaving (again, for the pedants, for bards).

Enjoy! I'll be on the discord for the next few hours to answer any queries.


Penned by My hand on the 4th of Sarapin, in the year 949 AF.