Is bard dps the weakest?

[LunarEmerald]

I don't like using rain of death when I feel it's redundant and not needed. I feel it's more important to focus on dps to kill things faster. I tend to use rain of death when the tank is in a tight spot.

I also never play Requiem unless there's a Black Mage in the party. Rather save the MP for Ballad if I see the healer's running low.

[pandabearcat]

Not only is Rain of Death a only 110 potency attack, it also costs 200 tp >.>

Frankly if it was cheaper (60 or 70), I would actually contemplate putting it up.

But 200 TP means that after 40 seconds (two applications), our Invigorate would just about cover it...then we're boned.

We already have to use invigorate on CD just to keep rougly tp stable (on multidotting instances and lots of target switching, we still lose TP about 150 a minute).

[Powercow]

Not only is Rain of Death a only 110 potency attack, it also costs 200 tp >.>

Frankly if it was cheaper (60 or 70), I would actually contemplate putting it up.

But 200 TP means that after 40 seconds (two applications), our Invigorate would just about cover it...then we're boned.

We already have to use invigorate on CD just to keep rougly tp stable (on multidotting instances and lots of target switching, we still lose TP about 150 a minute).

For basic content, yeah, RoD isn't necessary. Heck it's not even noticeable for a long time. But if your FC is having trouble on Garuda or Titan, it's a big help. When you get to Coil, it's really about half the reason you even bring a Bard.

[pandabearcat]

For basic content, yeah, RoD isn't necessary. Heck it's not even noticeable for a long time. But if your FC is having trouble on Garuda or Titan, it's a big help. When you get to Coil, it's really about half the reason you even bring a Bard.

I can see it being used perhaps right before a big attack (200 tp every 2 minutes or so is not so noticeable), but keeping it up is a pain.

Perhaps right at the 6 stomp of Titan would be nice.

However, both for both garuda and titan DPS seems to be a much bigger issue than healing power, and therefore my biggest job is to either requiem the BLMs or manasong for the healers if they really need it.

Will have to see if the dps loss from singing is better or worse than the tp loss from keeping up rain.

EDIT: I saw a video of coil and the tank damage is severe enough that I can see rain being useful there.

However my FC is nowhere close to it so I've put it out of my mind for now.

[CHunterX]

In a perfect, unrealistic setting (target does not move, target does not spawn adds, target rarely AoEs): Monk is king.
In a favorable setting (target can move, target only spawns one-two adds, target AoEs rarely): Summoner is king.
In a common, realistic setting (target moves frequently, target spawns adds, target AoEs frequently): Bard is king.
In a setting where adds are required to be controlled constantly (either via status effects or outright killing them): Black Mage is king.

I've not played much of Dragoon, so I don't know where they fit (probably one step behind Monk in a perfect setting). Realistically, Bard will always be top DPS because of how fights/enemy AoEs are currently implemented and the problems other classes suffer. The simple ability to attack while on the move will always put Bard one step ahead of the rest unless enemy AoEs and adds are radically changed.

Damn the 1000char cap.

[GuyWithFace]

For basic content, yeah, RoD isn't necessary. Heck it's not even noticeable for a long time. But if your FC is having trouble on Garuda or Titan, it's a big help. When you get to Coil, it's really about half the reason you even bring a Bard.

The only time we've even thought about using RoD was during Turn 4. The first two bosses don't do enough damage for the 10% to be needed. But I suppose it all depends on the tanks/healers gear.

[Lecreuset]

I'm pretty sure everyone has high crit (though we have about 10% more from straight shot buff) but crit only gives 50% bonus damage so it isn't that great.

I feel like bard damage is honestly lacking even after all the math is done. Heck even the summoner pets hit harder with their normal attacks than our normal attack (170+ damage compared to 120)

i'm talking about river of blood.. not the damage of crit itself.. spam more blood letter

[savant07]

i'm talking about river of blood.. not the damage of crit itself.. spam more blood letter

The only problem is, I don't see it proccing that often or often enough to make bard dps competitive.

Say you have maybe 25% crit with straight shot buff that's about 12.5% proc change for each DoT tick? Except each DoT tick is only every 3 sec and they are not even on a separate timer, they are on a universal server timer of some sort. At 25% crit, I think the proc rate chance is just too low.

[Lancerz]

The best AK run I had was with 2 Bards, in and out in 13 minutes flat. I have Mischievous Mogbow and other had the Relic bow. On Demon wall the wall was dead by the time the 2 bees popped, which is crazy! But BRD is at the top of the charts for DPS.

[DannyPhantom]

See, I can't seem to see them doing high damage compared to summoners, black mages or monks. Black mages and summoners have about way more weapon damage which translate to their potency being twice as better which then results them in doing 500 hits or DoTs ticking for 200-300. It's insane. So I'm wondering, how can bards compete if they hit for 200 on heavy shots and blood letters and those take 2.5 sec GCD (other than blood letter of course) but 200 for every 2.5 sec isn't really...strong. It's half of a black mages hit and equal to one DoT tick.

Bards have many skills that aren't attached to the GCD not just Bloodletter