Originally Posted by
Phia
This line here is why I am a former Bard main. What attracted me to Bard in the first place was the support offered, and the dynamic gameplay (procs and dots as you say). Stormblood Bard understood and leaned into this. Shadowbringers and Endwalker Bard smoothed off all the edges, which you're likely correct about making the class more approachable, but also took away what had me playing it in the first place.
I also think the theory that the devs buffed Bard specifically to try and boost the number of people playing it is a good one. After all, if the DPS numbers were fine before the buff, and the percentage of people playing Bards are low, it's a fairly easy conclusion to reach. What I'm interested in is, if the representation doesn't go up, maybe that means that many of these former Bards are like me, and dropped the class because of gameplay, not numbers. It might even be the sign that gets the devs to take notice and bring back some of the complexity that once defined the job.