Gathbard I hear you that the complete "no twisting" side could not really ever be totally happy, but the system I proposed just above your post would make most people happy including many from that crowd that aren't quite that hard-line about it.
In particular, one of the things that started a lot of the focus on Bard twisting was the crack down on automation that triggered PennyLoafer's video about not being able to play a Bard without it. And the big complaint she had wasn't that twisting sucked entirely, it's that doing it constantly, even during med breaks, was too much without some automation. Even back in classic EQ, hardcore Bard players would use workarounds like hardware that supported macros for twisting during downtime while still actively twisting manually at all other times.
In the system I proposed just above your post, someone who doesn't like twisting wouldn't really be "twisting" at all, in the traditional sense of pressing a sequence of buttons in a timed, constant rhythm. You'd toggle on 1-2 "core buffs", and then treat it like normal spell-casting where you cast your mez and your stun and your snare etc. Those abilities are often used just when you need them as the situation unfolds, not necessarily on a set, repeating timer. Once the fight ends or at least you don't need to CC any more you could toggle back on 1-2 more buffs and just not press anything until the next time you need to free up some slots to start doing offensive actions.
Meanwhile, people that like twisting could ignore all of the above and keep doing it, either EQ-style or M&M-style based on the setting I proposed including.
But yes, there is no redesign that would 100% remove the need to toggle songs on and off quickly while still supporting a twisting play style, but speaking again as someone who's anti-twisting, the above would make a HUGE difference to making the class actually physically playable for me as someone with wrist pain issues.
Now, at that point it doesn't even interest me all that much (I hate twisting), BUT after they lock down that vision, then for the sake of the remaining players there are two things that absolutely MUST happen, imho:
- It has to be easy to understand what you're doing and where you are in the Measure (UI issue)
- The system needs to be coherent (none of that "some skills auto-cancel and some not" silliness. Mechanic issue).
I feel the new proposal I made just above your post addresses both of those points - you don't need to worry about "where you are in the measure" with my proposal, and there's no longer "some auto-cancel and some not".
