Bard - they broke my job

[Ryaz]

The problem with WM and GB is that the 20% it gives doesn't really make up for the loss of auto-attacks. With increased action damage, we're looking at a 44% increase in damage with the two. The problem is, especially for MCH, that 44% increase averages out to be around 50 extra potency. Auto-attacks are around 70. Add in the extra abilities and it probably does about the same, if not a little less damage, than not using it. Which is the problem. You're basically rooting yourself in place for zero overall gain, which I don't believe was the abilities intention.

[LLamaPie]

The problem with WM and GB is that the 20% it gives doesn't really make up for the loss of auto-attacks. With increased action damage, we're looking at a 44% increase in damage with the two. The problem is, especially for MCH, that 44% increase averages out to be around 50 extra potency. Auto-attacks are around 70. Add in the extra abilities and it probably does about the same, if not a little less damage, than not using it. Which is the problem. You're basically rooting yourself in place for zero overall gain, which I don't believe was the abilities intention.

Yea pretty much, couple it with the fact that Bard is pretty much slower - we can't weave in 2 OGCDs any more and can barely put in 1 with WM up which makes microing buffs a lot more complicated. The root of the issue is giving Bard a cast time on ANYTHING. I'd rather SE just take WM out and give us the other skills.

[Ryaz]

Yea pretty much, couple it with the fact that Bard is pretty much slower - we can't weave in 2 OGCDs any more and can barely put in 1 with WM up which makes microing buffs a lot more complicated. The root of the issue is giving Bard a cast time on ANYTHING. I'd rather SE just take WM out and give us the other skills.

Agreed. WM is even worse than GB, imo. As a MCH, I can at least move on my procs, so the only real cast time I have to worry about is split shot or reapplying lead shot/hot shot, and we have other ways to circumvent it. It's like they took the idea from MCH and slapped it into Bard, but forgot they don't have the same tools to lower the impact.

[Waeksyn]

Yea pretty much, couple it with the fact that Bard is pretty much slower - we can't weave in 2 OGCDs any more and can barely put in 1 with WM up which makes microing buffs a lot more complicated. The root of the issue is giving Bard a cast time on ANYTHING. I'd rather SE just take WM out and give us the other skills.

This is a point that doesn't get made very often but is very important. The timing now makes it so that you can't really weave OGCD without delaying your next skill. So, we get even further behind.

The solution to all of this mess is simple.

First, just remove the mobility lock when WM is active. We've always been the lowest straight DPS but we made up for it by always being on the attack. Not only would this restore some lost DPS, but it would eliminate the forced dramatic change in play style forced upon you at 52. 2.0 brd and 3.0 brd are really 2 different jobs.

Second, adjust the casting time (keep the overall GCD the same) to allow weaving of 1 OGCD into the cycle without incurring delay.

Third, make WM instant. If you must have a "bard" theme for this, it can still be a "song" - call it a pitch pipe. You choose the key you will be singing in. Key of A for attack, key of C for casting.

With these changes, WM would still be situational. You would take it off when you need quick fire and can sacrifice the damage (think last boss of WoD where you need to be quickly changing targets on the clouds and worm things). If this truly is a stance, there needs to be real situational advantages in both stances, otherwise it's pointless.

[aabe]

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to be honest, I would have rathered they just made it to where you can hold down a skill's keybind to incur a cast time and damage boost on whatever you're doing
though, your second note is wrong because I can easily weave in any ogcd skills (even repelling shot without canceling my next) without clipping GCD, besides for empyreal arrow of course, it sounds like you have a latency issue
which doesn't make you entirely wrong, but SE probably playtests everything on a local server with 0 ping which is probably part of the reason why NIN mudras turned out so badly.

[LLamaPie]

snip.

The problem is 2.x Bards at the end of FCOB could put in two OGCD skills attacks or buffs without interrupting the GCD. So WM makes their attacking slow by forcing a cast time. So at best in 1 GCD you are getting out 2 hits at best as opposed to before when we could get out 3 as well as put in our buffs a much faster rate without losing a beat on the GCDs. SE didn't give it the proper thinking and it's one of the issues without any sort of public testing allowed for these changes.

[aabe]

The problem is 2.x Bards at the end of FCOB could put in two OGCD skills attacks or buffs without interrupting the GCD. So WM makes their attacking slow by forcing a cast time. So at best in 1 GCD you are getting out 2 hits at best as opposed to before when we could get out 3 as well as put in our buffs a much faster rate without losing a beat on the GCDs. SE didn't give it the proper thinking and it's one of the issues without any sort of public testing allowed for these changes.

I'm fully aware of that but the way they wrote their post was implying even one oGCD clips you now.

[LLamaPie]

I'm fully aware of that but the way they wrote their post was implying even one oGCD clips you now.

It almost does, but you can start casting the next GCD during the OGCD animation so you don't really lose any time. Again though, the problem is Bard is just SLOWER overall now. Less hits over time than before which obviously means less overall DPS.