Bards, Checking In!

[UltimaOmni]

New BRD Here

[Ketayl]

New bard checking in.

[Pure-Taurus]

I hate being one to posit some arbitrary percentages, but I'd say Bard has become around 70% Damage and 30% support.
Damage dealing and stuff is fine, but I'd much rather see it as 50/50 between damage and support.
What does everyone else think? Should Bard become more support-oriented? Less? Or is it fine the way it is?

When, or IF they add a DPS/debuff Ranger, that's when Bard will become a real support/DPS i think. Until then, i'm afraid we are stuck with not really knowing what it wants to be...

I can't see the TP of my party members so I can't judge when to sing Paeon

I posted feedback for this after the Oβ, i hope the dev team noticed it...

[Isten]

Initially, I was with the changes from CNJ to PUG as the sub but as I was thinking about it, there are a lot of bonuses. PUG got huge boosts to healing abilities and mantra is essentially an instant song that gives the entire party a 10% healing buff. With WHM now able to do 1k heals, that's an extra 100hp PER PERSON that our buff is adding = pretty sexy.

With sch and whm they wanted to give brd a different flavor and I think I'm going to be ok with having less strain on my MP. Yes, mana for songs, but I won't be burning it to use with other skills now. That's nice.

A guy in the 1.0 forums did a lot of tests for bard in bphase 3 and the stats were PIE as the biggest mod up to 250 and then dex while attk power always seemed to trump dex. With the changes to PUG I still foresee PIE being #1 and then dex.

Question for those who've played brd. Sleep is affected by magic accuracy = mind. Does bind use MA for success rate as well or does it use PIE for the enfeebling score?

[Pooky]

To me, Bard is a pure DPS job right now. Specially if its true that we share PGL skills instead of CNJ now. Which is fine, cause the support functions don't seem all that useful. Mages seem to have ways to self sustain their MP, so MP regen songs don't seem that useful. Foe Requiem is pretty much there to add DPS and it doesn't even cause the 20% DPS penalty. TP regen I guess we have to see how hard it is to maintain TP at higher levels.

I hope they do an overhaul of Archer/Bard/Ranger whenever they do decide to add Ranger. Bard right now feels like Ranger trapped in a Bard's body. I would rather have Bards have more variety in songs, have more potent songs that actually are necessary for certain situations, maybe have Bard be MND focused instead of DEX and use CNJ skills so they can be a decent off healer too. Permanent 20% reduction in damage.

[Yuichi]

A guy in the 1.0 forums did a lot of tests for bard in bphase 3 and the stats were PIE as the biggest mod up to 250 and then dex while attk power always seemed to trump dex. With the changes to PUG I still foresee PIE being #1 and then dex.

Interesting I was still thinking Dex for 1 then PIE.

[cypherx]

Continue discussing what to do with attribute points

[Kyree]

A guy in the 1.0 forums did a lot of tests for bard in bphase 3 and the stats were PIE as the biggest mod up to 250 and then dex while attk power always seemed to trump dex. With the changes to PUG I still foresee PIE being #1 and then dex.

Care to link to this? All attribute points were re-worked for 2.0 and I find it hard to believe PIE is still present as damage modifier on BRD, especially since it's a stat that's not present on any DD gear, let alone BRDs.

[MudMonster]

New BRD here. I've always been a fan of both Archers and Bards in past games. Now, I get the best of both worlds though I think the bard side of the equation could use some work on feeling more like a bard.

[Rythless]

Played DRG and WAR exclusively in 1.0. Started an ARC in Beta and fell in love with the class. My buddy is a very geared 50 BRD and I am enthralled by how fun the class is. I plan to main it until RNG or NIN come out.