BARD 2.1 change [requesting letter from the producer explanation]

[Viridiana]

Why should bards have good damage anyways? Why should your dmg be above a blackmage a or a monks? I don't understand why your freaking out over nothing.
You don't need to compete in dmg...quite be such a noob

He didn't say we need to be above them. But we're already below them, and we're getting dropped even further.

[Devaking55]

He didn't say we need to be above them. But we're already below them, and we're getting dropped even further.

*sigh* I'm tired of all these QQ threads about bard dmg, its fine and will continue to be fine get over it.

[Viridiana]

*sigh* I'm tired of all these QQ threads about bard dmg, its fine and will continue to be fine get over it.

Lowest damage class gets their damage lowered further. I'm not saying it's the end of the world or anything, but I fail to see the logic.

[Aricori]

If we're below, why do we need the nerf? While I am confident we will be fine and viable (I'm not that out there) I see very little good reasoning from devs about why it is needed. What is their optimal dps range for an I90 bard? It seems like an impulse reaction to people's cries on the forums rather than a well thought out and reasoned damage decrease. In Coil, especially in Turn 2, we are held back because we are needed to silence high voltage.

In Turn 1, my black mage and monk parse above our bards (we're close) but they are above us in overall damage on the first boss. So a reasonable person would then ask why the reduction? I hope to see the reasoning behind this perhaps in the upcoming live letter, but "a bit too high" is so incredibly vague that it leaves nothing but questions that the community deserves some of the thought process behind this.

[Aricori]

Lowest damage class gets their damage lowered further. I'm not saying it's the end of the world or anything, but I fail to see the logic.

That's the inconsistent logic here. When it comes down to it, our songs really add to others while hindering our own abilities (exception is Foe of course).

[ChaozK]

The vibe that i am getting from the dev responses, is that the damage nerf will be mainly affecting bards burst damage, rather than their sustained damage. Sustained damage wise, they are dead bottom right now but when it comes to burst they are definitely up there due to having 5 damage buff CDs.

While all DDs are labeled as DPS, each one has its own niche. MNK is a melee sustained dps, SMN a ranged sustained dps, DRG a melee burst dps, BLM a ranged burst dps and BRD a ranged support dps. They are not labeled that way but thats clearly their intended strength and from what i get from the devs, bards are somewhat too close in some of that areas for their intended niche. I might be wrong on that but thats what it sounds like to me.

[BlueMage]

Bard may be the lowest damage on test dummies, or some theoretical boss where there's no movement or dodging required at all (There's a lot of those, right?), but in actual gameplay Bard performs very well because they can deal their full damage constantly, non-stop, while moving, from any range, with no positional requirement, and without any interruptions. That's not even taking into account the utilities Bard brings, and Bard has no competition in the roles it fills. Bard is in a much better position than most DPS classes, both in ease of play and in how desired they are for content.

[Phai]

If Brd is top dps on a dummie, then the other class is doing something realy wrong.. If u time it for 30 sec, yes, but if u run a 5 min parser then u see how wrong u are!

[Houston009]

The "nerf" for Bard will most likely push for Bard becoming more of a support job than a damage dealing job. Perhaps buffing/changing their songs. The ridding of damage buffing skills from either LNC/PUG will be the damage reduction people are crying about, which isn't that much tbh.

1. I foresee BRD gaining addition skills from "PUG/ACN" rather than PUG/CNJ.
With Arcanist skills they'll have access to:
-Virus, to mitigate incoming damage (Reduce target's STR/DEX by 15%)
-Eye for an Eye, for maximum up time of the buff
-Physick, to assist in curing
~They could lower useless stats for BRD such as STR and INT to give a reason to increase their MND, kind of like WAR's low magical attributes.

These skills are more supportive then what they'd get from CNJ.

2. If they were to buff/change songs they could make it so the damage penalty from Ballad/Paeon is slightly less when cast'd and/or increase the regen of them so they dont have to be up as long. SE could make it so songs buffed with Battle Voice effect the caster aswell. <.<
- This is mainly for those QQ'ing about not having invigorate anymore as they'll be able to restore their TP quickly.
~Also, Bards aren't the only DDs that have issues with TP, even with invigorate on my Monk I continue to be TP starved(i.e. why skill speed is useless) so that song would also benefit the other physical damage dealers(especially WAR, considering they don't even have invigorate)

3. Foe's requiem could also get buffed so that the damage increase from it can equal the value of having another high dps in the party.

However, #2 and #3 ,unfortunately, are unlikely to happen. ; ;

[Bardo]

They're not going to push Bard into more of a support role after explicitly telling people at release that Bard is a DD.
I wouldn't be opposed to it, but it's just not going to happen.