This new bard play style blows.

[LambLich]

Actually, that's the perception of the community. That's also actually why Bard was put under the DPS role. They wanted to spread out the support abilities instead of having their own job role because hardly anyone wants to play a job with nothing but support abilities. From what I've seen, Support is a dirty word among communities. A good chunk of people rather to be doing damage because they get the pleasure of "BIG NUMBERS!" It isn't typically hard to balance in its own right. It IS hard to put support abilities in games where the community shuns it, even though support abilities can actually help maximize a party's effective power.

At the end of the day, that isn't a balance problem. It's a perception problem.

They wanted to spread them out? Really that's why ONE class up until 3.0 had these fabled support abilities that required them to be a bastardized battery with a bow.

[DreameR7g]

Snip

Actually, they were the only job to be a full 50/50 Support DPS Hybrid. That is part of their identity at the moment and the heart of their crises is Heavensward made their support side a bit less useful.

As far as support abilities being spread out: I give you these examples -

Monk - Mantra
Ninja - Goad
Dragoon - Battle Litany

The only difference is Bard is a bit more dedicated in the Support side of things.