The problem I have with this supposition that "BRD should do less damage because it has songs for support" is that it's a mechanic that's literally already built into the class.
Printable View
The problem I have with this supposition that "BRD should do less damage because it has songs for support" is that it's a mechanic that's literally already built into the class.
Its speculated that the ninja bard nerf's were just tool tips that were corrected and not an actual nerf. There is no real change in brd dps. If you see a slight loss of dps it was because of the cross class changes but I have a full DL Zenith Brd and I don't notice a difference in dps honestly.
One thing I noticed and mentioned to my FC when I was on my BRD last night before logging (meaning I didn't get a chance to test it) was that the level-38 skill "Barrage" seemed to have changed. If I am not mistaken, pre-2.1 it read "Increases the strikes per auto-attack to 3". Now it reads "2" instead of "3".
The dps nerf is noticeable, but it doesn't make the job useless. However, I feel I'm gonna skip using my Bard for 4 man content. It seems much more appropriate for 8 man support now.
I laughed. In 4 man content, almost NEVER should a Bard be using Mage's Ballad unless the WHM is under 50% MP in a boss fight or Holy spamming...the DPS drop isn't worth it otherwise. PLD doesn't need MP if the DPS is killing the mobs fast enough. Plus they have a combo that gets back MP, albeit by the time it reaches the point they need to use it, you're probably down to 1 mob anyway. SCH...if they run out of MP they're not doing it right.
Again, in 8 man, the same rule applies. Hell, due to the way they set up stacking of classes now, the only place Mage's Ballad will really be required is during boss fights, and again only for the WHM.
At this point Mage's Ballad is reserved for WHMs, just like how Foe's Requiem is reserved for BLM. Every mage class (and PLD) can restore their MP effortlessly except for WHM, which is why I say this.
From what I can tell there is no potency changes at all. Blood Letter still does 150 potency like heavy shot (Identical damage variance) and Straight shot is still within the tolerance range when checked against known formulas. My guess is they just messed up the tool-tip for it. Only thing I can see they did change, which was more of a fix, was correcting Flame Arrow so it doesn't 100% crit - similar to what someone else said earlier.