Bard - they broke my job

[RiceisNice]

Our relative DPS stand compared to other jobs is even worse than before. I used to have ~6% lower DPS compared to the top melee (630 DPS against 590 DPS). Now, I'm at ~20% lower (1300 DPS against 1000 DPS). What's the point of a skill that takes off part of our mobility to keep us at a worse position we were before?

That, and all the other complaints about change of play style, clunkiness, wasted procs. We still have competitive DPS (even more if we can AoE or multi-dot) and groups want us for our songs, but we're not in the same spot we used to be. That's my main concern.

Not to nitpick, but on dummy/faust, you should be hitting around at least 1100~ effective damage. Doesn't change the fact that WM doesn't actually increase our damage though; it only brings us to relatively the same gap in 3.0 as it was in 2.0.

[Kumori_Kumo]

Which makes me think: we had a diminishing of mobility, what did we get in exchange?

I would seriously like to see an answer to this.
I don't play Bard, but I like to play with Bards, and I prefer them to be of the having-fun variety, like all my teammates.

[aabe]

I see a lot of complaints about Bard which made me want to level it and see what the fuss is about. Also the whole "mobility" thing is really the most perplexing thing for a class that can poke the boss from the back of the room to me. Are there are any guides to playing post HW Bard?

http://pastebin.com/uKxBsrCd

I wrote this up a second ago, though note the opener at the end I (mostly) use because I find it to be a lot smoother than pushing back my GCD for the first like 3 globals of the opener. I just listed the advantages it has over the opener I see most people using near the end. Purpose is less what you should do, and more what you should do and why you should do it because I feel the latter way of writing up a guide promotes better personal improvement, because players can take what they read here and apply it to situations themselves, allowing per-fight optimization to come better into play when you realize "wait, if this is happening, or it's THIS SPECIFIC FIGHT, this thing I read in this guide isn't actually a good idea"
if you google "krietor heavensward bard guide" he has a pretty good one lying around as well.

[Ilyanat]

http://pastebin.com/uKxBsrCd

Thank you so much!

[dielray]

I would seriously like to see an answer to this.
I don't play Bard, but I like to play with Bards, and I prefer them to be of the having-fun variety, like all my teammates.

The answer is most likely balance, which is weird because BLM and SMN probably had the most back and forth out of ARR and yet the differences seem to have been doubled down on in HW. Yet, bard pretty much stayed where it was in desirability after the first nerf.

There are bards who like this current stance. Honestly, it's kind of like a veggie burger. Toppings are still the same... but some things are off. Some people like veggie burgers, many get used to them, and some hold a fiery passion over their loss of meat.

If balance was the reason there were other ways about going about it without removing the "physical" from bard's identity. Stacking buff has been suggested, though I think this would likely be too punishing with how much small movements are needed. Something similar to leylines could have done the trick. They also could have done something new entirely. Maybe borrow from their PvP balance and have WM create a ring 9 to 12 yalms from target that increases damage by 10% inside and halves damage outside of it.

But that's neither here nor there. This is what we got, and at this point I think most bards that are unhappy now are just wishing for some QoL changes.

[Kumori_Kumo]

The answer is most likely balance, which is weird...

See that's what I keep thinking! I never noticed Bard as the big "This job is super powerful" thing. It was always the "This job is simple but versatile" one. Which was fine, because a lot of people like simple, and that's not wrong. Different people have fun different ways and the sheer number of elitist posters on here failing to realize this just makes me roll my eyes.

[dannymayhem]

Archer is my first class, and went Bard, lvl 38 now. i love being mobile and it kind of worries me about losing some mobility but during dungeon runs i am not moving around nearly as much as I do soloing so in group events i dont see why it would be a big deal losing mobility to benefit the group. during boss fights i like sitting back and firing and moving when i need to but otherwise i try to stay in one spot

idk maybe i am doing something wrong by not moving around as much or maybe fights are just a lot hard and require more movement 50+

[Dante_V]

I've seen bard put out competitive dps on par with the melee in our group, who are not slackers. Also see people complaining about low numbers and they didn't bother to get their ESO weapon... which is kind of like, okay then.

[StrejdaTom]

I've seen bard put out competitive dps on par with the melee in our group, who are not slackers. Also see people complaining about low numbers and they didn't bother to get their ESO weapon... which is kind of like, okay then.

Yeah, I believe that DPS wise BRD is now in better position than in ARR.
First, I was strongly against the new changes and I still miss the mobility, but there is no way to get rid of Minuet without losing a lot of DPS, which would make raiding much harder for every static I guess. And changing the gameplay of BRD later would be the same hell as the change we got in 3.0.

At this moment I just hope for some change in Wanderer's Paen and maybe more support skills later, that's all.

[aabe]

I've seen bard put out competitive dps on par with the melee in our group, who are not slackers. Also see people complaining about low numbers and they didn't bother to get their ESO weapon... which is kind of like, okay then.

That's due to some reddit propaganda that buying the eso chest for accuracy is better, even though you're already at a good spot in accuracy going into patch... and almost every gordian drop you can get from A1+A2 has accuracy. lol.

But yeah, I know personally that BRD is in a better place than before, even in A3 savage where it's not really too "favored", it's pretty competitive. A1 is kind of pushed in their favor because multidotting, and A4 I seem to be a bit behind the melee.