Hard time choosing my DPSer.

[kukurumei]

BRD is necessary? Interesting. The only reason we bring a BRD to 1-4 is for Silences on ADS since we have PLD/WAR and no MNK (and our "main" BRD is actually a meh-geared alt of one of our DRG, only used for ADS; he doesn't even BRD Caddie), OR we're down a DPS for the week and since BRD gear is the only gear we don't need, we grab a BRD (MNK gear is claimed by someone).

We've downed T4 many times without a BRD (in fact, our best ones have been DRG, DRG, MNK, SMN, don't even have to worry which Dread eats the bugs in P6 with that set-up), and probably will only need one when we actually start trying to down T5...until we know the fight, which then the BRD will be useless again.

And yes...we have a SMN in our Static...and he's more than able to be the only magic DPS in T4.

We have done it without a bard in T4, it was like pulling teeth

Healer: pulling teeth in p5 mp is critically low, living on spell to spell.
Melee : fcking peon where's my peon
Tanks: OMFG I ran out of TP for the first time
blm: sorry was just short due to bad grouping, anyone have a foe requiem.

Having a bard makes everything better!

Tanks and melees have their TP through the fight. No one looses enmity, no one runs out of TP from aoe spam
Blms have no problem downing phase 2-4 with foe
healers have no problem with P5 with soul voice ballad

Enrage, what enrage?
and bard puts up impressive dps even without those stuff (the brd can also spam AoE with peon, adding a full aoe team).

Smn excuse 1: dps!
When you talk about dps, SMN aren't impressive, they burst badly, and it takes time

Smn excuse 2: Parsers are wrong
Yes it's a fight club thing when it comes to parsers, but mnks do just fine parsing and a 3rd of their damage is now on dot too.

Smn excuse 3: versatility
Huh what? combat raise? Brds better support, blms are better aoe, and they can both burst faster, and aoe harder and more consistant

Smn exuse 4: You jut haven't seen good smn
So you need an uber smn to beat the advance of a mediocre brd or blm or mnk?

Smn are very good at enmity in 2.0, but 2.1 made a lot of that irrelevant and mobile. Their super virus was a great thing, but now with anti-bodies, that's all shot up. Smn are very mobile, but with the way fights go, it isn't even much an issue anymore.

There is a place for everyone, but there's no denying Bard is still high high high up in the totem poll.