BARD 2.1 change [requesting letter from the producer explanation]

[Allyrion]

I disagree on this, and you actually contradict yourself later. Both SMN and BLM get Raging Strikes and Quelling Strikes from BRD. Those are both DPS cooldowns. Heck, Swiftcast is also a DPS cooldown for SMN when they use it to Shadow Flare or to Swiftcast Summon if their egi somehow dies. SMN even gets an entire extra dot that they routinely add into their rotation unless they start hitting MP issues. When's the last time you saw a BRD routinely using Feint or Haymaker? Also, I'm pretty sure DRG uses Fracture, as I've seen people in the forums saying to use it occasionally to prevent dot clipping.

I agree with the rest of your point, that BRD is actually in a decent place right now and we don't need the nerf. I just don't want people thinking that we have an unfair advantage when it comes to cross class skills.

Quelling Strikes isn't really a dps cooldown. It's a cooldown that allows you to continue to do dps, but I'd still categorize that as utility.
Swiftcast is great, you're right. But It's not exactly an Invigorate. Fracture is decent and I could see them making changes to have Bards get something rotational from another class.

The fact of the matter is that Bards have Raging Strikes while taking IR and Blood for Blood. That's pretty heavy handed. Even if you counted Quelling Strikes as a cd, I think it still counts against the Bard who already has enough CDs that they don't need to steal from two other classes.

I don't think that's unfair when it's by design. I'm just not sure Fracture and Thunder are really equivalents to either of those cooldowns. Which is really what you should be comparing to, rather than a useless thing like Feint or Haymaker.

EDIT:
Ask any monk or dragoon if they'd give up Fracture for Raging Strikes. You won't get a hesitant answer.
I'm not sure about summoners, but I bet they'd give up Thunder for Internal Release.

Reason? Both trade resource efficiency for damage. Cooldowns are simply free damage increases.