Bard qq

[fanservice]

I don't feel like changing the nature of jobs with the expansion was a good idea. Expand on them, sure. But change the way their core gameplay goes? Nah.

Then go back to dealing mediocre damage without minuet.

Balancing ranged weapons classes with instant abilities in mmos isn't simple.

In WoW, people complain about hunters because as long as they're within 40y of you, you're getting shot. Any tactic used to stop any other class' damage was rendered invalid, worthless, and did nothing to ever stop their damage (kiting, interrupting, and silencing spellcasts, displacement by threatening their well being). There was 0 counterplay to their damage besides CC, or hiding behind a pillar, which all classes are effected by.

I bring this up because BRDs, and MCHs with no cast times are effectively melee with a 30y range. Where every other damage dealing job loses out to hokey pokey movement mechanics, etc. If anything, BRD poor scaling in the latter half of ARR actually kept them balanced. If they had damage comparable to the likes of MNK, DRG, or BLM without any of the downsides each role has (close range/adversely effected by the need to move) that would be broken, and would lead to alot more BRD stacking like in 2.0 days.

In short, I hope there aren't many bards around crying for a free damage bonus without the cast times. There's no nice way of saying it, but that's like asking to faceroll.