Can we please stop giving melee bad stigma?

[Menae]

At the end of the day, Im not trying to attack Melee, if you really do out DPS good ranged players, that is truly awesome! I HOPE to come across some on my server that do someday, then maybe I'll play my MNK and DRG =p. I try to be open minded, so I dont disbelieve that what you say is true, I just find it hard, that after all these months, all these hundreds of dungeons and trials and coils, from friends to fc members to pugs to jumping in a spot with the "top world first everything" FCs and their "1337" players, Ive just somehow not encountered the many awesome melee dps, or that they just dont exist on my server ha. Crazy coincidence or cruel twist of fate, I dont know.

I hope to find them someday though! Their Drop rate seems to be the same as nightmare whistle for me though - 0 =(

What kind of DPS do you put out on a given fight? I'm just wondering, as everything I've heard (and seen) has been just the opposite for BRD - that they tend to have lower DPS than most classes, particularly if they are forced to sing for extended periods.

[xEscaflownex]

What kind of DPS do you put out on a given fight? I'm just wondering, as everything I've heard (and seen) has been just the opposite for BRD - that they tend to have lower DPS than most classes, particularly if they are forced to sing for extended periods.

Not at all, I've seen lots of BRDs do poor damage sometimes, I have no idea how they are playing their characters. Ive never found Ballad to be an issue (usually its damage reduction is mitigated by DPS CDs anyway", it's simply stops me from leading by a mile, but has never stopped me from topping DPS charts. For example Garuda EX, I just ballad during inner circle/plume phases, always have at least BFB and usually more CDS to pop, so doesn't hinder DPS at all. Same on Titan EX, usually just a little battlevoiced towards the end, and Ifrit EX just Ballad when he jumps until after rushes, and then battle voiced after final nails if necessary. T5 after adds till conflag phase, during divebombs, and then a battle voice towards end has needed during later dread knights or final phase. Even when people die and have to be rezzed, or healers die and I have to play ballad more, it has still never dropped my DPS below other classes.

I honestly dont know what hinders a lot of bards, I just know the way I play mine and quite a few others I know find ourselves to have Top DPS, quite effortlessly.

[Riichi]

Not at all, I've seen lots of BRDs do poor damage sometimes, I have no idea how they are playing their characters. Ive never found Ballad to be an issue (usually its damage reduction is mitigated by DPS CDs anyway", it's simply stops me from leading by a mile, but has never stopped me from topping DPS charts. For example Garuda EX, I just ballad during inner circle/plume phases, always have at least BFB and usually more CDS to pop, so doesn't hinder DPS at all. Same on Titan EX, usually just a little battlevoiced towards the end, and Ifrit EX just Ballad when he jumps until after rushes, and then battle voiced after final nails if necessary. T5 after adds till conflag phase, during divebombs, and then a battle voice towards end has needed during later dread knights or final phase. Even when people die and have to be rezzed, or healers die and I have to play ballad more, it has still never dropped my DPS below other classes.

I honestly dont know what hinders a lot of bards, I just know the way I play mine and quite a few others I know find ourselves to have Top DPS, quite effortlessly.

Saving dps cooldowns for phases during which you are singing a song that reduces your damage is a dps loss. And you don't out-dps any melee of fair skill. Just...you don't..no..

On topic: I'm not sure why people would ever want to exclude melee other than already having too many. Yes, it's true that a bad melee is more of a hindrance than a bad ranged, but at the same time, I noticed ranged don't seem to pay as much attention and get hit more often by lethal moves when they do get targeted. If you're seeing groups that exclude melee, you're probably better off finding a different group anyways. Those groups are led by the same people who stacked bards for turn 2 (though nowadays they do enrage strat [which I guess is okay if you don't have a static and are forced to pug]).

[xEscaflownex]

Saving dps cooldowns for phases during which you are singing a song that reduces your damage is a dps loss. And you don't out-dps any melee of fair skill. Just...you don't..no..

Lol, when did I ever say I save my DPS cooldown, I simply said they are general up, IE, coming OFF CD about the time Im singing songs, and yes, yes I do, all of them.

[xEscaflownex]

You guys want Advanced Combat Tracker or FFXIV App?

[NoctisUmbra]

You guys want Advanced Combat Tracker or FFXIV App?

ACT. I prefer accuracy. Besides, I'm sure you'll want to use the parser that actually counts Flaming Arrow.

[AldricBranchais]

ACT. I prefer accuracy. Besides, I'm sure you'll want to use the parser that actually counts Flaming Arrow.

Edit: Nevermind! Derped on reading it correctly. :P First time using it.

[Artemiz]

You guys want Advanced Combat Tracker or FFXIV App?

I can't help but think your parser results are screwed up in some way, not taking damage into account or something because my experience is the exact opposite of yours, I don't parse in FF14 but even so the results of patch 2.1 where obvious to me. Before 2.1 I would have agreed with you, for just about any mob I could easily out damage melee but not now. If melee don't have to play the hokey cokey then I'll struggle to out DPS them unless I out gear them by quite a bit. As a BLM I'm king of AoE, I'm happy with that and in terms of damage potential I think it's about right as it is, melee are the ST specialists and they're good at it.

[NoctisUmbra]

I can't help but think your parser results are screwed up in some way, not taking damage into account or something because my experience is the exact opposite of yours, I don't parse in FF14 but even so the results of patch 2.1 where obvious to me. Before 2.1 I would have agreed with you, for just about any mob I could easily out damage melee but not now. If melee don't have to play the hokey cokey then I'll struggle to out DPS them unless I out gear them by quite a bit. As a BLM I'm king of AoE, I'm happy with that and in terms of damage potential I think it's about right as it is, melee are the ST specialists and they're good at it.

It wasn't really any different in 2.0. A competent MNK could still far exceed any ranged in single target. Only difference then was DRG wasn't as good.

As far as DPS ceilings go, BRD had the lowest and still remains the lowest. The high mobility of the job, however, lends to them being able to perform more consistently and reliably in content. Where content that requires a lot of movement, like extreme primals, can seriously inhibit the performance of a BLM, a BRD will barely be affected.

[xEscaflownex]

This all seems so ridiculous, some how we all have different experiences on different servers lol? We are all speaking from what we've seen and know from our ingame time so I dont doubt what anyone says. Wish some of us with differing views were on the same server so we could put our performance where our post are and see whats what!