Bards need a buff

[Akesis]

That is all very true, but you are arguing quantity while I am arguing quality. When is the last time a party reserved a space for BLM because they had Apocatastasis? Or Virus, or Eye for an Eye? They are all have support utility, but are severely limited due to range, cooldown, stack debuff (prevents reuse), or a combination of these.

Mantra will not make or break a fight. Foe's Requim or Mage's Ballad can make or break a fight.

Ahh, Quality of buffs: Peaon-Junk. if your BRD sings it outside of someone dying, he/she is a fool. It is a loss of raid-wide dps. Lets throw that one away. (Down to 3 support abilities). Ballad - if your healers know what they are doing, you never need to sing it. Sure, I sing it from time to time during progression. That's about it though. lets throw that one in the "Meh" category. (Down to 2.5 support abilities). Foe - yep. its a good one, lets keep it on the list. (2.5 support abilities). You say mantra is junk. Lets take it off the list. (1.5 support abilities). This isn't a make or break number that should suffer from such an extreme gap in numbers.

I can tell you as fact... several raid groups sit BLM's for SMN's, not for their ability to do more damage on movement intensive fights. Rather, for their ability to raise people when they die. So with your "quality of abilities" theory. A BRD should pull numbers just behind a SMN who should also be at the bottom of the list, not the top.

Should I change this thread to SMN's need a nerf?