Alright SE, how about a trade.

[snugBubz]

Its not about how much Damage bards can put out.

Its about how much Damage the Bard can put out while moving.

Pretty much this.
Though, me and my guild were talking and at first we thought adding cast times might alleviate the problem, we realized that the only people who had cast times were, in fact, casters. Which a Bard is not. So instead, it makes so much more sense that SE reduce accuracy while Bard is moving. Instead of PEW PEW PEW HIT HIT HIT while moving --> PEW PEW PEW HIT MISS MISS while moving.

Though, I expect cast times and a damage nerf. Because SE.

[Johnist]

The best nerf would be to add a 1 second 'Aim' to the majority of their moves.

[Starfox71rt]

I know this won't happen so I'm only dreaming here but I'd actually like them to up the party sizes to 5 man and restructure the difficulty of content accordingly. The added 5th spot in parties would be a "flex position" role in that it could be either a dps or a support role. This would be complemented by adding truly support classes/jobs whose personal dps would be low but their effect on the party can be seen in a variety of areas. If you had a bard (or future support classes; corsair?), that person would get slotted for the flex position and you would pick up two normal dps. If you did not have a support class, an extra dps would be placed in that slot to meet the 5 man requirement.

I think this would actually provide SE some flexibility and more freedom in how to implement support classes. The current 4 man set up requires that the support class is decently competent in one of the three "trinity" roles (as of today Bard is more than competent at dps). Obviously, this change is not likely to happen and would be difficult from a balancing standpoint even if it were but it's food for thought.

[Djeserit]

The best nerf would be to add a 1 second 'Aim' to the majority of their moves.

This. Would make it so they still have good mobility, just not perfect mobility without affecting their dmg unless they need to move, which is the entire point.

[Sylve]

Pretty much this.
Though, me and my guild were talking and at first we thought adding cast times might alleviate the problem, we realized that the only people who had cast times were, in fact, casters. Which a Bard is not. So instead, it makes so much more sense that SE reduce accuracy while Bard is moving. Instead of PEW PEW PEW HIT HIT HIT while moving --> PEW PEW PEW HIT MISS MISS while moving.

Though, I expect cast times and a damage nerf. Because SE.

While i generally hate to make a Real Life analogy for a class in a Fantasy game, Archers have a fairly long set up time to get a proper shot at a target.
For a Mage, cast times make sense, they have to 'cast' the spell.
For an Archer/Bard, the 'cast' time would be the act of drawing the bow, sighting the shot and then finally releasing the arrow.
It would make sense from a logic perspective. But hey, its Fantasy lol, logic isn't supposed to impact things.

Additionally, the animations exist for the skills that would need a cast time, the only difference between then and the future is you standing still or not.

[Maxthunder]

Most bards do not use their support skills all they do is dps. The fact is bards need to be taken down a notch on dps so that player's will use them as intended and not as a pure dps class.

[mythicrose]

While i generally hate to make a Real Life analogy for a class in a Fantasy game, Archers have a fairly long set up time to get a proper shot at a target.
For a Mage, cast times make sense, they have to 'cast' the spell.
For an Archer/Bard, the 'cast' time would be the act of drawing the bow, sighting the shot and then finally releasing the arrow.
It would make sense from a logic perspective. But hey, its Fantasy lol, logic isn't supposed to impact things.

As much as I loathe using "real life" comparisons to a fantasy game, I agree with you. It would be extremly difficult to draw, nock, shoot (accurately) while running/jumping around with a bow nearly the size of your body. About the only change I expect to see is Heavy Shot getting a cast time.

[Arasiel]

There is no support class. You role in a party is either Tank, Healer, DPS.

[Engineer]

I think they gave bard the healer LB because they have plans in making bard a healer class with more songs when second jobs are Introduced.

So maybe they will give current bard users The Ranger Job(DPS) , then converting bard into a full support healer.

[RyujinUzikin]

In mmo's there's no such thing as a perma change. They'll tweak Bards and then say they're too weak. Then they'll tweak them again and they'll say they're too strong. And the tweaking will go on forever.

In the meantime...

We'll just sit by and see the screw over fest SE will have on everyone every time a job gets tweaked followed by people complaining.