Bard Changes I Would Like to See

OK, so I'll start by saying I think Shadowbringers Bard is mostly solid and I do enjoy it, but I feel one thing about it is flawed and should be altered, and I also feel something needs to be added to make this Job feel complete.

To start, the flaw; Apex Arrow in its current form is not that great, it's honestly rather clunky. The big reason for this is because the 500 potency is the damage when the Soul Gauge is maxed, not the baseline damage. Now a 500 Potency Line AoE is nice, but the fact it's the max power and not the baseline means there are not many good reasons to fire off the Arrow before the Gauge caps, and you're definitely gonna want to try and fit into Raging Strikes meaning you have, at most, 80 seconds to get the Gauge maxed to fire off Apex Arrow in Raging Strikes. This also leads to the issue where it's not entirely guaranteed; yes, odds are with you that you will get the Gauge maxed, but not always and it doesn't feel good to just have a Weaponskill kind of sitting there waiting to be fired during a damage window. In terms of how this could be fixed, I have 2 solutions in mind, and I do think one is better, but they both would be fixes. The lesser way would be increased the potency; it wouldn't fix the Weaponskills issues entirely, but it would make it more worthwhile. The better option however if you ask me would be to make Apex Arrow more static; I think it would be fine with a static potency that didn't change with Soul Gauge and had a set Gauge cost of 20, 25, or 50 with Potency to match. This would make the Attack very interesting and add a risk vs reward mechanic.

Now for what I want added to Bard. To put it simply, Bard doesn't feel like the Bard you built it up to be in Final Fantasy 14. You made Bard's Job Fantasy be they are great Archers, but they are more because they empower themselves and their allies with music to turn the tides. Now however, Bard feels more like a Ranger than a Bard because it has too much focus on the Archery and the Music Magic feels more like an afterthought and just a simple aesthetic when it's supposed to be much more than that. In terms of how you could approach this, I would suggest adding 2 things to Bard right now. First would be bringing back the passive stat increase for allies during the main songs of Mage's Ballad, Army's Paeon, and Wanderer's Minuet. It could simply be the 2% Critical Hit from Stormblood, but them doing something to the party would be a great start and make Bards feel like Bards once they get Mage's Ballad. The second would be a reworked Foe's Requiem; I feel it should be the Bard's Technical Step, where every 2 minutes it increases overall party damage by 5% for 15-20 seconds. That too would go a long way in making Bard feel like a Bard again. I think both would be good for restoring the Fantasy, which is part of why I have fun playing the Jobs and why this is a big deal to me and a number of other Bards. I also think both are balance in terms of support so Bard wouldn't outdo Dancer at Support, especially since Dancer can buff one Party member by a lot and Dancer can buff the party more frequently and in more synchronized damage windows than Bard can, but Bard still has its damage to keep things even, and if you do feel this would make Bard unbalanced, I would say slight tweaks would be fine, but I do think this would restore Bard's Job Fantasy while still being a balanced Job in game.

Those are my opinions on Bard, take them as you will, but I would love to see these made to make the Job overall better. Thanks for reading.