Bard 3.0 Despooned

Since 3.0 pre-launch to launch bard has been a very hot topic over the changes. However it seems that we lack a mega-thread regarding why those changes are made they maybe incorporated into other threads but, no single thread dedicated to the mechanics. Though I'll probably put my two cents in bout why I dislike the update such as (a busted analog stick so I auto walk a lot and casts get interrupted all the time)

The changes.
Rain of Death is now oGCD & is linked to BL.
WM increases damage by 20% while trading out instant cast for cast timers & canceling AA.
Barrage is now a buff that increases the amount of times the next weapon skill hits for & that skill cannot crit.
WP is a song that acts like a pre esuna(best skill ever said no one ever)
EA a skill and has high potency acts like an oGCD in terms of its recast timer but, is a GCD skill
Sidewinder new damage oGCD high potency when wind and venom bite are up.
Iron Jaw a GCD meh potency but, refreshes wind & venom bite.

Possible intent of the skills mechanics(I say possible since I'm not a dev and have no proof of these claims aside from my own observation)
Lets start with WM: Cast times are a barrier for low latency players that can squeeze off 2 oGCD's inbetween GCD's. The cast timers last just a bit over the wheel affect when press our GCD's is half full it is just shy of the animation lock we experience when have WM off but, enough to ensure only 1 oGCD can be weaved in. My guess it was an implementation to stop the advantage low latency users had over other users in terms of damage.(honestly they should have just increased the animation lock time instead of adding cast times cause busted analog stick player here, I'm the super the minority that wants to be catered to.)

TLDR; of the cast times equalize dps across all users.

Continuing WM is the AA lock. From my observation I really have no idea why this was done outside of FORCING users to use barrage differently now. But, if someone else has idea by all mean please go ahead and educate us (er well at least me since I made this thread)

Final mechanic of WM the 20% damage increase. Its a dps loss for heavy shot spamming. For example heavy shot hits for 600 you add the crit multiplier(based on the assumption that its 1.5% multiplier for crits) and that damage becomes 1000, AA hits for 200 and with the crit multiplier hits for 333 for a total of 1333.(if both crit) now that 600 heavy shot under of the effect of WM is 720 and with a crit goes up to 1200 yes less then heavy and AA crit however base damage higher and AA damage can be all over the place so this example should be taken with a grain of salt.Now on parses ppl I'm sure have seen that ppl keeping WM up is a dps boost and that is true the statement above mainly pertains to heavy shot spam of old bard playstyle. Now if we take in the other skills EA into consideration that should make up the dps loss of missing AA. AA depending on the bow usually goes off every 3.18s(some bows more or less) or something in 14s that would be bout 4 AA's so bout 800 damage(if the all hit for 200) or 1332 if they crit. EA usually hits in between those numbers but, wait how is that a dps increase. It isn't. My guess is that for those parses we've seen of WM vs noWM has to do entirely on dot damage having a a consistant 20% boost to our dots is what makes the difference.

TLDR; WM was made for dots EA was made to cull AA damage since very few payed attention to the AA speed outside of pvp(I see what they did indirect nerf to bards in pvp -_-)

Lets talk about AA:
Why was the removal of AA considered as central point from lvl 52+? From what I have experienced so far aside from making the new barrage changes meaningful. Is that it is to simplify the job. Yes simplify, any seasoned bard can tell how finicky AA's can be if your character looks away from the boss your AA is canceled if you are past 11-13 yalms away from target(I total forget the position length) they are canceled. Therefore I can only conclude that the removal of AA was done to simplify the class and make the dps parses for bards around closer to each other.

TLDR; AA made the job too complex (ya a bit snide but, I can't help but feel thats the reason)