Bard and how to fix it.

[Nadirah]

In the short period of time I've had WM, the biggest problem I'm having with it, is the cast time vs recast time(GCD).

They don't line up and it's driving me nuts.

if I had a 2.5s GCD with a 2.5s cast time, great. Nope. 1.44 cast with 2.4 recast... feels absurdly annoying.

[Shurrikhan]

In the short period of time I've had WM, the biggest problem I'm having with it, is the cast time vs recast time(GCD).

They don't line up and it's driving me nuts.

if I had a 2.5s GCD with a 2.5s cast time, great. Nope. 1.44 cast with 2.4 recast... feels absurdly annoying.

...you'd never be able to touch an oGCD losslessly again if it weren't for that fact. Would that not feel annoying?

While yes, I somewhat agree that BRD is in an alright place in terms of stand still damage, it is clunky. Nothing about it feels right even in something like Faust. Before passing full judgment, I'd like to see how Skill Speed really affects the cooldown on EA, perhaps it will line up better with a round of shots rather then either waiting half a CD or pushing it back half a CD. It just doesn't work ATM with at the gear I am in (456 SS).

As for another major point you bring up however, that double melee comp. To have an ability that can be 100% or 200% better just by the group comp is mess up. Though not min-max, groups can essentially have 0 casters (aside from healers) There is no reason that an ability like foes can't be changed to just "lowers enemy resistance by 2%" (or even 1.5%) instead of just magic resistance by 10%. It then covers all group comps instead of benefiting one far more then another.

Iirc, it lines up as long as you average a single-weave with decent internet across the 15s duration. If you skip ahead via EA (by up to 1.5s, since you can cut instantly into the next GCD and the post-cast of the GCD before it), you can either wait the 1.0 to 1.5s and use another ability as EA comes up, or you can go ahead and double-weave once or twice to make it line back up. Both are viable options.

One idea I liked for Foe Requiem was for it to drain far less mana naturally but also sap mana every time a spell successfully hits a Foe-affected target (AoE blooms would not affect it, only the targeted hit causing the AoE), making your mana drain faster when it's doing more. It would be balanced for a 2-caster team, such that if you had only a single caster attacking, it would be far more sustainable, lasting at least twice as long, though it would also take a beating with two casters and both healers dpsing. The issues with the idea are pretty obvious though -- e.g. Ruin. When one considers having to balance that through proportioning the costs against adjusted potencies... well, that's then far too complicated.

On a sidenote the same idea was usable for Army's Paeon. And... it's also the fact of life every DRG faces, except that they at least buff themselves as well. No ranged, no real bonus, as they already need the debuff for themselves to do competitive dps.