Bard needs some love too.

[Rose-Wild]

Well the crafting gear is amazing for bards but i'm a poor scrub ;( I don't know what gear is that guy using tho.

[Felessan]

TBH that bard with 370 clearing DPS on IL130 weapon can do better.

I really don't know how old are this dps snapshot, so you shouldn't imply current equip of that bard for parse numbers.
Based on numbers I would assume that it's a typical HA stuff as numbers are quite typical for how IL115 weapon parses. Only thing that was stated for sure for this snapshot is that NIN is pre-fcob weapon (and now it also have IL130 weapon on lodestone).

[Kyri]

I used the extreme gap as an example, I know they are much closer, but all things being equal they should be pretty identical if the jobs are properly balanced.

No.

BRDs have utility that other DPS lack, so if all the DPS put out identical numbers then the favor would be heavily skewed in favor of BRDs that can put out just as much damage while also offering support that the other classes can't provide.

BRD needs to be behind the other DPS classes to keep things balanced.

[jars]

lets not go back to the days when 2/4 dps slots were for bards

[Fynlar]

BRD imo only needs a few changes.

1) Remove or loosen up on the damage penalty on Ballad/Paeon and forever silence the idiots who refuse to use these songs on account of them "losing too much deeps" for it. Never heard of a tank complaining they lose too much damage from Shield Oath, or a melee complaining that they lose too much damage dodging that critical enemy AoE, but holy crap it's almost the end of 2014 and I still keep seeing this problem.

2) Why in the name of all that is good and holy does Requiem aggro passive mobs? Seriously, take a page from geomancer bubbles in FFXI and make the song have no effect on things that aren't already on your hate list. (Remember that in trials/boss fights, everything in the battlefield generally spawns aggroed to the whole party anyway, so these fights would not be affected)

3) Seriously, it's a DPS. Why does it get a healer limit break?

3.5) Also, why does "Wide" Volley have a smaller AoE than Rain of Death does?

BRDs can already get a DMG buff from DRGs, so even the penalty from signing isn't too bad

Disembowel becomes a flat out damage INCREASE (instead of a "penalty reducer") if you're not using Ballad/Paeon though, so that point is kind of irrelevant. It's not like Disembowel only works if you're singing.

[Saigwa]

No.
Bard is fairly balanced with the exception that it has a freaking healer LB. Give it a DPS LB and we good. DMG increase to bard + it's already versatile mobility = OP. It's pretty obvious that's just flat out OP, so don't sugar coat - just say you want bard to be OP because it's your main, and who doesn't love playing an OP class?
I mained a bard when I first started out, and I think it is fine the way it is with the exception of the LB.

[Evangela]

BRDs can do high DPS.

they're also a ranged DPS, insta-attack DPS, no cast time, and can move around while attack.

seriously, this job has no right to ask for a buff.

[LunarEmerald]

With how strict final coil's dps checks are, a bard can't afford to be singing ballad for minutes. No matter what anyone says Bard is a dps first and support second. A bard that deals mediocre dps is worse than a bard that never sings. Not saying a bard should't sing but they and the party should try to minimize time spent singing. Foe excluded of course. A party that has a bad healer that can't manage their mp well means bard can't sing foe. 20% damage reduction and 10% lost.

[ChriZirhC]

we have 100% uptime. we're fine.

[Meier]

BRDs can do high DPS.

they're also a ranged DPS, insta-attack DPS, no cast time, and can move around while attack.

seriously, this job has no right to ask for a buff.

Yeah, that's the trade off. In other MMO, ranged jobs usually have to buy and spend a lot of money on their arrows, which is the compromise for them being able to deal a ton of damage from far away, etc. BUUUT for some reason they took out the arrows in this game...so we are left with what you described

I wish the devs would just add a support class and make bard that, and release a real ranged DD job.