BARD 2.1 change [requesting letter from the producer explanation]

[Hysterior]

I personally would love to have healing spells back but I feel like SMR took that spot (DPS+Cure/Raise capabilities)
So it will probably just be some minor tweeks

[Leon_Stormrage]

Here's my Twintania past dive bombs (we have been shuffling out our slackers so we haven't been able to get a kill). Bards are good DPSers, you just need to know the optimal buff rotation to maximize your DPS. This isn't some 2 min DPS race, its a 9min fight.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...aniaBRDDPS.png

Once again, Zero allagan, all DL but crafted boots and 3 pieces of Myth...

Let's say that the parse is accurate thing that I don't believe. I like to know what is your party composition? You are having big problems with your other dps.. you dragoons should be doing at least the same damage as you and if you have a caster he should too.

[NeonC]

For ADS Turn 1 (turn 2 is very similar) I have some one silence first and I pick up the second.
My rotation is as follows:
.

Right on, we are going through turn two now just getting a feel for it. Interesting rotation, why not IR before windbite though?

[Drakkur]

Let's say that the parse is accurate thing that I don't believe. I like to know what is your party composition? You are having big problems with your other dps.. you dragoons should be doing at least the same damage as you and if you have a caster he should too.

I didn't get conflagged, they did. Honestly, I consider the DRG I roll with to be one of the best on the server and he typically is right below me in DPS (or above on completely stand still single target fights). The BLM is not that good and I agree with you there. Even if my DPS is inflated cause parsers blow, I still did 108k damage.

Twintania isn't some mechanically easy fight, there's a ton of movement and a lot of thought needs to go into min/maxing your play. Bards are just the easiest class to do consistently optimal DPS on mechanically challenging fights.

[Drakkur]

Right on, we are going through turn two now just getting a feel for it. Interesting rotation, why not IR before windbite though?

1) BL procs only delay your buff rotation and cause you to possibly miss a step not maximizing your DOT damage. 2) 20% damage is stronger than 20% crit when you're not concerned about BL Procs.

The BRD in our Group 1 who downs twintania does not use a buff before SS and instead does IR instead of either BfB or RS before the initial application of dots. Honestly between the two, It is very minimal in the difference of damage throughout an entire fight.

[Leon_Stormrage]

I didn't get conflagged, they did. Honestly, I consider the DRG I roll with to be one of the best on the server and he typically is right below me in DPS (or above on completely stand still single target fights). The BLM is not that good and I agree with you there. Even if my DPS is inflated cause parsers blow, I still did 108k damage.

Yes, I should agree with you I am not friend of parsers and also I didn't fight twintania yet. But today I was parsing around 240+/- on a dummy without BFB so it can be possible (also I still thinking that the parser is not accurate for a big margin) the fact that you was not trapped helped a lot too but I am surprised for the big difference of the other dps is so much.
Also I want to ask you too why you use IR after wimdbite and not before?
Edit: I see the answer

[Wolfhammer]

I don't mind losing Invigorate or B4B, but at least remove the 20% dmg penalty from Paeon to actually give some situational use to that song.

This idea is pure win... Far too an interesting and logical idea for implementation though

[xcifux]

Misconceptions:
Bard is not a support class it is a dps class period!

Bard is not the highest dps. It actually is the lowest and if anyone's parse shows differently then either your prase is broken or other dps classes don't know how to play.

Bards can dodge everything while dpsing. This is true but we take the hit of being not only the lowest dps class but a song bot which lowers our dps by 20%. The exception to this is foes. A good bard needs to judge the fight and know when it's a good idea to use this because it costs mana and it would suck to not have enough mana in order to play mana song in a bind.

- If bards are op then what is an acceptable nerf/fix while not going overboard?

I would say maybe put some kind of timer after a blood letter proc, say 5 seconds idk.
Or maybe put a cast timer on bloodletter.
Or maybe decrease damage across the board while playing songs to 30%

[xcifux]

Every single game I have played had classes that seem OP or underpowered untill they come in to their own at end game. I for one am under the oppinion that if you are not an endgame player then you should not cry nerf or buff untill you get the full picture.

This game is only a couple of months old. There will be a shit ton of content and changes coming. Don't cry nerf, cry buff if anything! I want to see classes like warriors fixed. I want to see dragoons and monks be able to dps and sustain dps even when dodging. Let's face it boss mechanics in this game are primarily holy shit there is a huge circle around the boss I have to dodge it. That's going to screw up dps / combos. This is not a bards fault this is the games mechanics no amount of nerfing or buffing will fix this.

[Mooshywooshy]

Well at least by design I think it was meant to be support...

But hey Ninja in XI was supposed to be DPS so have at it!