I think its time BRD get some loving

[ChaozK]

I can understand the bards desire to parse higher and the ideas proposed in this thread arent too bad but at the end of the day SE only rebalances jobs once exclusion from endgame content starts happening (as has been the case for WAR/Melee/BLM/DRG) which atm is not the case for bard. Rather contrary, on shiva, bard seems to be the dps in most demand for FcoB. Its hard to justify buffing a job as long as this is the case.

Its partly due to bard not having any competition for their slot. So maybe when machinist comes out there are better chances for a bard buff (this would assume though that machinist would be superior).

Another thing i want to mention is that the actual WD gap doesnt seem to increase. The innitial WD difference of 4 or 5 is naturally going to rise over time to remain the same gap due to WD increasing overall.


Example
Allagan Bow WD 42
Allagan Spear WD 47

-> difference of 5 WD

future content Bow WD 420
future content Spear WD 470

-> difference of 50 WD

= Still the same gap.

If it remained a difference of 5 WD forever, the actual gap between bards and other classes would shrink. So its expected that the difference in WD would get higher over time without making bards weaker.

[EdgeFayth]

[...]

Its partly due to bard not having any competition for their slot.[...]

This is right for progression.
Once people are on farm and confident, brd spot is just removed, since the boost given to casters by foe is smaller than the difference in dps between a brd and an additionnal nin or mnk.

[Krr]

Once people are on farm and confident, brd spot is just removed, since the boost given to casters by foe is smaller than the difference in dps between a brd and an additionnal nin or mnk.

I haven't seen an actual static that does this since the dawn of 2.0. The group is just able to run without the BRD if the BRD doesn't want to or isn't able to show up, instead of having to wait an hour for a competent pug one to show up in PF. Even if there is a rational reason to kick your BRD out just because "well we have the entire Coil on farm" it's not worth the friction and trouble of finding a new one when they become mandatory again for an extra 10% DPS.

'On farm' also doesn't mean 'TP and MP deficits stop existing'. T4 groups in 2.0 were 'on farm' for weeks and that didn't stop them from needing Foe and Ballad to help the group keep up with DPS and healing sustain checks. Outdated content has this problem for sure, but that crap doesn't matter.

If it's actually happening in 'maximizer' groups, then they aren't maximizing correctly and are an outlier to game balance.