Bard skills in 5.0?

I know BRD is "perfect" but we are likely to see 1-2 new skills and some new traits. That said, what are some things you'd like to see?

Here's my list:


Enhanced Sidewinder
Level 72
Trait
Increases the duration of the damage over time inflicted by the caster's own Caustic Bite and Stombite on the target by 50%.


Rudra's Storm
Level 74
Ability (Shares Recast with Sidewinder)
Spreads a target's Caustic Bite and Stormbite effects to nearby enemies.
Damage and Duration are reduced by 20% for the second enemy, 40% for the third, 60% for the fourth, and 80% for all remaining enemies.


Enhanced Repertoire
Level 76
Trait
Under Army's Paeon, allows execution of Velocity Shot under 4 stacks of Repertoire.
Velocity Shot (replaces Bloodletter during AP): Delivers an attack with a potency of 120 to all enemies in a line. Recast: 5 seconds.

Nightingale
Level 80
Ability
Recast: 180 seconds:
Resets Mage's Ballad, Army's Paeon, and Wanderer's Minuet recast timers.

I'd like to see a cooldown that guarantees a Refulgent Arrow proc to remove a bit of RNG from the openers. Place it on a CD that allows for easy alignment with Minuet+Raging Strikes windows. If said windows were increased to 90 seconds (i.e., allowing a 30-30-30 song rotation), I think that would also be nice in terms of raid buff alignment.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I'd like to see a cooldown that guarantees a Refulgent Arrow proc to remove a bit of RNG from the openers. Place it on a CD that allows for easy alignment with Minuet+Raging Strikes windows. If said windows were increased to 90 seconds (i.e., allowing a 30-30-30 song rotation), I think that would also be nice in terms of raid buff alignment.

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I pondered having a trait for Sidewinder to guarantee a Straighter Arrow proc.

Since, that would sort of fit with general rotations.

The only minor thing is that SW is 60s CD while Raging Strikes and Barrage are both 80s...

Though if RS and Barrage where brought down to 60s... *Wink* *Wink* SE ;)

Anyway, as far as new skills instead of merely QoL adjustments for existing skills (Refulgent Arrow replacing Straight Shot while under Straighter Shot and providing the same crit buff when used, Pitch Perfect replacing TWM while singing it, Cast time on Foe's Requiem going away (Though, what the henk is going to happen with that skill... Who knows...))

Something to AoE spread DoTs. Even if there was some limitation on their ability to proc songs so you didn't end up casting about 50000 Rain of Death's per second during MB...

A replacement or upgrade for Army's Paeon. Since it's so lacklustre and actually feels bad to use because you waste so many procs while at 4 stacks of Repertoire (Even more so when you consider that the song's main benefit is lowering the CD on Empyreal which means more guaranteed procs for your song...)

An AoE that doesn't require me to be essentially in melee range. Quick Nock is so dumb...

We're. Not. Getting. Bane. If they haven't done it by now they aren't going to. There's no reason why they should, Bard AoE is pretty engaging and well-received so far as I know. People despise boring AoE (see Red Mage) so let's just be glad for what we have.

I think any update to Army's would probably want to retain its relative lax-ness. Personally I'd be content if they simply changed the stacks from 4% to 6%, but for a more tangible change, something like a solo or party buff that's on a 60s cooldown and only usable with 4 stacks would be cool too. We should absolutely not get an oGCD damage button for AP, we get plenty enough of that from WM and MB.

Saw someone hypothesize that they could deal with the Barrage-Refulgent issue by simply deleting Barrage. That stings, but they're not wrong, and I guess it's not really all that critical to job identity. Or they could change Barrage to do something else, i.e. maybe that becomes a buff that guarantees Straighter Shot procs on your next 3 Heavy Shots or something.

Agree on Nightingale being a neat idea, might need a super long 5m cooldown though, and it should obviously be named Encore :)

Would like to see Sidewinder apply a brief Rep-proc'ing DoT rather than an extend, or alternately give us some other oGCD DoT to sort of add to burst in a Bard-unique way. Maybe an AoE one. Maybe ground targeted. Maybe warm. Just sayin.

Big picture wise, I think (assuming TP is just deleted and we don't get MP-spending Heavy Shots) that it'd be doable to give Bard a have-empty-MP line, like an oGCD that gets stronger if your MP is low, maybe we finally get a regen song so you have two ways to drain MP (if SE is looking for useless skills to add), that sort of thing.

The new BRD AF gear has a bird print on the leg armor. Additionally, Nightingale was a high level ability that Bards had in FFXI, hence why I think Nightingale as a name is possible.

Time to make bard what it was meant to be. No new abilities until 80. At 80, you gain the ability to use perform in duties, and must flawlessly play the music of the current duty to grant the entire party a substantial damage buff, and mp/tp regeneration.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

The new BRD AF gear has a bird print on the leg armor. Additionally, Nightingale was a high level ability that Bards had in FFXI, hence why I think Nightingale as a name is possible.

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Ah, didn't know the FFXI bit. Nightingale is a cool name too.

Another idea for RA procs - they could add an Enhanced Raging Strikes trait that increases your proc odds under Raging Strikes to 50% or some such.

Really, as much as there's a general feeling of "don't touch Bard", there's plenty of ways to enhance or add wrinkles to the kit without messing with the core system.

Sidewinder and Army's Paeon are two of the blandest skills in our set, especially the former. Sidewinder doesn't really do much other than being free damage with a bland DoT conditional (because as a BRD, DoTs should ALWAYS be on). M

How about a trait that under Army's Paeon, crit procs for either Caustic Bite or Stormbite have a 5-20% chance (depending on Repertoire) to proc Enhanced Caustic Bite or Enhanced Stormbite respectively. These do their entire DoT damage upfront and refresh the DoT. Basically acting like a BLM's Thundercloud during the 30s duration of AP.

Sidewinder extending the DoT duration like oldschool Contagion would be awesome for openers too. Could buff duration by 50%, so would make them last 45 seconds or so during the opener, which would be awesome while under all the snapshotted buffs.

How about:

Sentinel's Scherzo:
Places a barrier on your target that prevents HP from falling below 1. Effect ends after taking any damage.
Duration: 6s
Recast: 180 seconds

Since SMN and RDM have raises, and BRD is also a ranged DPS (albeit, physical) this is a way of giving BRD a "raise" so to speak in that it's a mini holmgang on the target, except the difference being the effect is dispelled after taking ANY damage (including autos) as opposed to lasting a full 6 seconds. MCH and DNC could get similar effects, perhaps, owing to the support-nature of ranged physical jobs.

I don't see any reason to copy other job's skills? That just seems lazy, and homogenizing and etc.

Sidewinder could definitely use some spice, but it doesn't need to be a copy of some existing skill. It could consume current DoTs to deal half their remaining damage maybe? Or apply a DoT itself. Or put a debuff on the enemy, i.e. imagine if it did like a baby Chain Strat (though now it's like a copy of Trick). My favorite pet idea was to just make Sidewinder an automatic crit, or now an auto-crit+DH, just to make it sexy and play off the crit theme of the job.

For Army's, really I don't think it's bad to have a "relax for 20s" song, and I appreciate that SE didn't just want to make a third version of Bloodletter. There's nothing wrong with having a "worse" song if the job is good overall, or a song that interacts with crit a bit differently. So while I agree that it could use -something-, I don't think it needs anything all that big. It doesn't need to be better than MB, it doesn't need to find use for procs 5+, it can just be what it is but mostly I'd like to just see something that makes you care more about whether you got those procs / when you get them. A skill you use once at four stacks, or making the stacks themselves more impactful, that sort of thing.

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Originally Posted by Cetonis

Sidewinder could definitely use some spice, but it doesn't need to be a copy of some existing skill. It could consume current DoTs to deal half their remaining damage maybe?

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As it stands, Sidewinder and Fester are practically the same skill. They're both "Deal X damage with one DoT on your target and deal Y damage if you have both DoTs on your target"

The only major difference (Other than CD vs Aetherflow cost) is that Sidewinder deals damage even without any DoTs active while Fester doesn't...

As far as that suggestion goes... That's creating anti-synergy.

Since, consuming the DoTs means that Iron Jaws no longer works, you now have to manually reapply both DoTs and in the meantime that means lost ticks that could have proc'd your songs.

If you did that "Deal your DoTs damage" effect without the consumption of the DoT... Well, then you're creating a Thundercloud copy.

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Originally Posted by Cetonis

For Army's, really I don't think it's bad to have a "relax for 20s" song

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Having a "Relax for 20s" song doesn't necessarily mean "Having a song that barely does anything and literally causes you to waste procs for the duration so you want to get out of it ASAP and cut it short the first chance you get"

There are ways to make an entirely passive song that actually utilizes procs from your DoTs/Empyreal. Such as having a Sword Oath style additional hit on your next auto-attack or weaponskill - Something that provides you with a tangible benefit without needing you to utilize an extra new skill.

Sure, the song doesn't have to be better than MB or TWM... But having it feel good to use other than "Well... Other people get some crit while I have it active I guess" would be nice. Even if the song stays entirely passive.