Bard Vs. BLM - My head hurts...

[Razla]

Where are you getting this ridiculous idea? Your BLM dies on turn 4 or 5, the raid is wiped. Quit making excuses for your EZ boat of a class, trying to claim you're not the easiest, hilarious...

Er.... if you are playing your Bard right and trying to maximize your damage output while offering any and all support that you can, Bard is NOT "EZ boat." I have to keep an eye on aggro bar, base rotation and executing it without wasting a debuff tick, personal buffs, off-rotation skills, healer's MP, my own MP, my TP, and depending on who is in my party, melee/BLM support songs... along with the regular participation/dodging other DPS contend with.

Perhaps I am not a high enough level on my other classes yet, but I have I have to pay a much higher amount of attention with my Bard. I can't focus solely on my own damage since I'm always multitasking and keeping an eye on my party members.

[Imoye]

Anything can sound difficult if you tell it to yourself enough times.

Simple fact for me is that bard is too eezmode so I rolled a BLM instead.

[Sterob]

Where are you getting this ridiculous idea? Your BLM dies on turn 4 or 5, the raid is wiped. Quit making excuses for your EZ boat of a class, trying to claim you're not the easiest, hilarious...

If anyone die on turn 4 the group will wipe due to not enough dps anyway, not just BLM.

Also, i believe that if you die (alone) on turn 4, it isdue to you or your group being bad not because it is hard.

[MomoOG]

Guys guys its okay. You are both EZ mode.

[Marcusow86]

Guys guys its okay. You are both EZ mode.

LOL fixed.

[nathanuc1988]

Here's my two cents..

I've leveled both to 50 and (for my personal goals) have almost finished gearing my Bard and just started gearing my BLM. I've run all instances with both (minus coil and I didn't do titan on BLM yet). I know you were curious regarding their roles in coil and I can't help there, but these are my OPINIONS on the two classes.

Black Mages are fairly simple and great fun at 50. The rotation is easy to manage and I find it pretty exciting. The ice/fire system allows for some pretty cool tricks of double casting and buff usage. To me, this is a lot more fun and offers a more compelling dps class. Not being able to cast and move can be exciting if you're a risk taker and once you're used to your rotation, it's not a problem like many would think. Overall damage FEELS very high and the defensive buffs BLM gets are nice in a pinch. It doesn't get much from cross class abilities, but I feel it doesn't need anything. Early job abilities are disappointing at first, but pay off in the long run (minus Freeze). Sleep ability is nice, but I feel it's a bit slightly under utilized in this game so far.

Bards on the other hand play a bit differently. The first main difference in complexity is buff/DoT management. Keeping your buffs up while maintaining DoTs gives you a bit more that you need to pay attention to, otherwise most people macro the class to spam one button. Damage is good, but might FEEL a bit slower since it's more about fast, frequent hits rather than slow nukes. Bard's benefit hugely from cross class abilities that consists of various buffs. This just means you'd 'need' to level Lancer to 34 and Pugilist to at 'least' 15 (42 if you want your last but slightly optional Mantra buff). Support abilities are really nice as you'll be able to keep other classes going (either TP or MP), boost some damage, and also provide excellent utility with your silence. It might be easier to get into endgame groups as a Bard, but you might also have more Need competition.

PERSONALLY, I slightly wish I hadn't spent all my phil/myth tomes on my Bard. Black Mage is more fun, easier, and less stressful from my experiences. It doesn't have as many group utilities as a Bard, but the skill rotations, ability to sleep, and buff situations make this class appeal more to me. Being easier doesn't make the class any worse or better so don't worry about what others say. There will always be a Bard VS Black Mage EASY MODE fight going on here. It simply doesn't matter unless that's what you are looking for specifically.

My recommendations: If possible, get full sets of AK gear on each class, run AK and the Primals (get your relics if possible) a few times with each and see which you like better. Spend your tomes on the one you like more.

[LeviathanElite]

go for blm for easy mode.

Because bard is much harder than blm.

[Trystan]

I dont know since neither class is my main... but difficulty is different for anybody. Maybe some people have more difficulty with the cast times and need to stand still vs. move in time to avoid damage... others have more difficulty with multitasking buffs/dots... so each class has its own flair and own easy stuff and own harder stuff. Personally, I find healing easier then dps, but thats just me. ;-)

For me, keeping others alive and doing some debuffs/dots is less stressfull and more rewarding then worrying about doing best dps and getting the boss down in time. Others find healing more difficult, again others tanking and so on... so who is right and who is wrong? Nobody can tell 100% for everybody.

[nathanuc1988]

I dont know since neither class is my main... but difficulty is different for anybody. Maybe some people have more difficulty with the cast times and need to stand still vs. move in time to avoid damage... others have more difficulty with multitasking buffs/dots... so each class has its own flair and own easy stuff and own harder stuff. Personally, I find healing easier then dps, but thats just me. ;-)

/snip/

Exactly. You have the right idea. I find tanking the easiest personally. I don't understand why difficulty is really brought into these arguments since rarely do people ask "which is easier". It's subjective and doesn't matter.

[Velev]

Here's my two cents...

Such a pleasure to see a post like this.
Someone comes in, takes their time to post his/her honest opinion, no drama and not only a reply but in depths too.
If only more people interacting with this forum were as humble and straight up like that... If only..
thank you for the nice post, was a good read.