So the "no BRD" shouts have begun, thanks Yoshi P

[Lecreuset]

someone pass the popcorn

[KV-1]

I always lol when people think Bard is a support class because it has a healing LB.

On topic though, I don't know why people are acting like this is some kind of horrific tragedy. The SS/BL change was debunked as a tooltip error, and while BfB/IR was indeed nerfed, it's like a less than 4% dps decrease. The sky isn't falling, Yes you might not see groups stacking Bards any more but they are still going to take at least one and you are still going to do excellent on heavy movement fights and fights with downtime and/or lots of add switching.

The Rain of Death change is what everyone should be complaining about, since it made the ability totally useless outside of combo procs.

[DeadRiser]

One. More than one bard is bad. Stacking reduces limit break bar.

Two. Bard's are still useful for mp regen, especially if something goes wrong and healer's need help.

Three. People are stupid, and those groups that don't want specific classes for stupid reasons are usually the groups that do the worse.

[Zedine]

Did it ever occur to them how it feels like a complete waste of time to look at a job and see its abilities and traits and decide to choose it only to have them change the reasons you picked it in the first place

I think this is what they are trying to fix. when i see bard I see a support role, like in every other final fantasy game or any other game that has had a bard class or job. Sure they can deal damage and do other things but over all its a support role. I think having these many cross ability stat boosts pigeon holed it into becoming a strict DPS. I lost count of how many times people playing bard said they would not play a song because it cuts down their DPS, forgetting it boosts up 7 other people.


They are trying to fix bard for the people who picked bard and saw .. well.. a bard. someone that sings and supports while providing damage. They have stated the game will have hybrid roles, I beleive Bard is the 1st step to hybrid roles and as the game progresses it will be less and less a DPS and more and more a support or Hybrid.

That was my point, I would have started with a different job and not wasted my myths/time trying to buff up a job they wanted to be a support class, why not split the class and give 2 job choices like they did arcanist, 1 for support, and maybe ranger for dps...oh wait, that would make too much sense

Maybe Ranger will be added as a Job later and it will be a True DPS but for now Bard should be looked as a support that can deal Damage. I'm sure if you wanted you could Nuke hard on a white mage or deal big Damage on a Warrior or Paladin but their underlying roles are Healer and Tanks. The only Reason bard is not listed as a Support yet is because they have yet to release more hybrid roles. When they do Bard will be changed to it. This has already been stated in several interviews. and Honestly if the only role for support is Bard it would be hard to queue always waiting on bards.

TL;DR DPS less, Sing more.

[AnaviAnael]

I've yet to see a "no bard" shout.

[Synthesis]

Bard and SMN in party... good damage we bated it ! :-)

[Black91CRX]

I've yet to see a "no bard" shout.

I saw "no BRD" shouts way before the patch. Now it's worse.

[Taban]

I'm dropping Bard to level BLM because my coil group asked me to, I'd rather stick with my main, but currently we don't need me on BRD. I'm more a fan of the "bring whoever you want regardless of class" instead of "you need a person on every job" for raid comps, but that latter seems to be the direction ffxiv is taking.

[KV-1]

TL;DR DPS less, Sing more.

It's not a support class. If it was a support class then it would be labeled a support class. It has some support abilities, yes, but most of them are pretty underwhelming and/or cannot be maintained for very long. Bard still spends a vast majority of the time DPSing. Yoshi never said Bard was a support class in this game, nor did he say the purpose this nerf was to make Bards more "support". In fact, iirc he explicitly said it's a DPS before anything else. You guys are living in FF11/1.0 days and making all these assumptions about what Bard is supposed to be, but currently there are NO support classes in ARR, and there probably won't ever be because they are extremely hard to keep balanced in all facets of the game (Red Mages in FFXI anyone?).

The intention of the nerf was to address the issue of Bard being able to DPS totally unfettered while moving and having basically 100% uptime on bosses. Whether or not the nerf was justified is up for debate, but it has nothing to do with making Bards more of a support class.

EDIT: Apparently SE did say they would be adding pure support classes in the future, but as of now there aren't any.

[silentwindfr]

i love how people want absolutly justify the fact that bard isn't a support role, indeed actually we don't have a role support in the duty finder.
why that? because bard is the only support class, means the party will have been like this:
-1 tank: warrior/paladin
-1 healer: scholar/white mage
-1 damage dealer: Monk/dragoon/summoner/black mage
-1 support: bard.

means a group will be forced to have a bard more important play bard will be like have a free ticket for join a group since you are actually the only support class. however, be sure that if they add more support class, they will add the role.

but that don't change the fact that bard is a support class!