bards fix "WALL OF TEXT"

[Sapphic]

lol Hmm I am guessing if the people you are running with are asking for ballads to be kept up before 5-7 mins into you shouldn't be running with them. Even with our 2 bard set up we can do turn 4 till the last minute with out needing a ballad and never EVER need a ballad on titan or any primal fights anymore. So yea if I were you Jim I would ditch that crew. Because bards are not supports.

Or theres no fights in game that really need the BRDs support abilities? That the support of a BRD makes or breaks the encounter?

[Darkricko]

Or theres no fights in game that really need the BRDs support abilities? That the support of a BRD makes or breaks the encounter?

The only fight I feel like bard as support is even a worthy mention is final boss ... Turn 5 Twintania but even then the more gear you get and the faster the fight goes there will be no need for bard songs. I mean I say no need for them but I do ballad every now and then for like 30secs for battle voice. The game is not designed around any of the content needing any certain job other then ya need a tank and healer all DD jobs can be used in every fight and be successful. With that being said the answer is no there is no content that a support brd can make or break the encounter.

[KV-1]

They aren't going to make Bard, or any class, a true support class. The reason is most likely that they don't want certain classes to feel mandatory in groups like they did in FFXI. When you have a support class that brings unique buffs or abilities, everyone wants it. Bards and Red Mages were constantly in demand for groups and extremely hard to balance because of their nature, they don't want that to happen again. Bard is not a support class anymore, and won't be any time in the near future. That's why the songs are somewhat underwhelming compared to what people expected, if you make them too good they become mandatory. Right now they are basically just group-wide utility abilities like Mantra, they are not intended to be left activated indefinitely and they are not supposed to be beneficial to the point that people won't form a group without the presence of a Bard.

Yoshi said there would be small nerf to Bards because their DPS is a bit too high (most likely because they are the only class totally unaffected by movement). It will likely be a reduced chance for Bloodletter procs or maybe an ICD on the proc. There are not going to be drastic changes or huge nerfs. Even if they wanted to completely change Bard into a support class, it's too late now. You have loads of people who play Bard to be a pure DD, who spent time gearing the class and what not. They won't completely change it's role now, not without adding another job to branch from Archer, which they have no plans for doing any time soon.