Bard - they broke my job

[AkashiXI]

You are right that BRD scaling is very similar to how it was in 2.0, other than the rate at which it will scale with better gear and River of Blood.

Straight Shot = +10% Crit - Base Crit multiplier is +45% - So Strait Shot adds an average of 4.5% extra damage, and the guaranteed crit of a Straighter Shot proc is not that strong.

Now imagine BRD hitting a 40% Crit Rate (with Straight Shot buff) at an effective 70% multiplier.

That means that Straight Shot is a 7% damage buff, with a 70% multiplier for straight shot procs + greater chance at Blood Letter procs.

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If SE is able to make adjustments so that BRD has more opportunity to weave oGCD skills, then I feel that it's damage output is going to be ridiculous with higher gear. The downside is that it starts out a bit weaker. (although some people are able to do great damage)

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Other than that issue with Straighter Shot procs being delayed. While stacking SPD if you get your cast time to 1.4s or less it really smooth's out the class and gives really tight dot reapplications

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IMO Foes and Ballad are irreplaceable, as far as party play and progression go. TP, not so much an issue now due to class changes.

River of Blood will always be gated with Wanderer's Minuet, and it's useless to metagame an idea that doesn't yet exist. There'll be plenty of scenarios when you can't hit your BL/RoD immediately, creating an overall DPS loss. Also having BL proc over and over and over again can cause issues for your OGCDs, which in turn messes up your necessary GCDs (EA, Iron Jaws, SS). River of Blood isn't as game breaking for Bard's meta as it was in 2.0. That being said, don't misconstrue my words: River of Blood is incredibly useful and pairs extremely well with multi-dotting Iron Jaws. We shine in AS1 for that reason.

Also your numbers are... off, or confusing at least. Where was it discovered that the base crit modifier is 45%? Is this pre 2.0, post 3.0? You do realize that the Crit Damage formula was changed, and how Crit works is also changed, right? I guess I need more information from you to truly understand where you're coming from.

Finally, Ballad and Foe aren't necessary, depending on the composition. If you're overgearing content, Ballad becomes negligible, along with Paeon. If your group is three melee, 1 caster, then Foe becomes less useful as well and the addition of a Ninja, Summoner, or DRG bring additional utility that'll effect raid DPS just as much. However, I will say that Floor 1~4 caters to Bard in terms of longevity, as their songs very strong for fights like As2, As3, and As4.

[Judge_Xero]

River of Blood will always be gated with Wanderer's Minuet, and it's useless to metagame an idea that doesn't yet exist. There'll be plenty of scenarios when you can't hit your BL/RoD immediately, creating an overall DPS loss. Also having BL proc over and over and over again can cause issues for your OGCDs, which in turn messes up your necessary GCDs (EA, Iron Jaws, SS). River of Blood isn't as game breaking for Bard's meta as it was in 2.0. That being said, don't misconstrue my words: River of Blood is incredibly useful and pairs extremely well with multi-dotting Iron Jaws. We shine in AS1 for that reason.

I'm not sure what the bolded section means.
If SE does make adjustments for BRD oGCD weaving then the gating wont be that bad.

Also your numbers are... off, or confusing at least. Where was it discovered that the base crit modifier is 45%? Is this pre 2.0, post 3.0? You do realize that the Crit Damage formula was changed, and how Crit works is also changed, right? I guess I need more information from you to truly understand where you're coming from.

Base Crit % = 5%
Base Crit Multiplier % = 45%

My example
40% Crit Rate with Straight Shot = 5% Base Crit, 10% from SS, 25% from Stats (+1056 Crit)
70% Multiplier = 45% Base Multi, 25% from Stats

Current BiS @ +480 Crit
26.4% Crit Rate with Straight Shot = 5% Base Crit, 10% from SS, 11.4 from Stats
56.4% Multiplier = 45% Base, 11.4% from Stats

Straight Shot = 5.6% damage increase

3.0 stat updates

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So you're right in that, BRD scaling is similar to 2.0, but I just wanted to emphasize how it is slightly different and will ramp up extremely quick.

Finally, Ballad and Foe aren't necessary, depending on the composition. If you're overgearing content, Ballad becomes negligible, along with Paeon. If your group is three melee, 1 caster, then Foe becomes less useful as well and the addition of a Ninja, Summoner, or DRG bring additional utility that'll effect raid DPS just as much. However, I will say that Floor 1~4 caters to Bard in terms of longevity, as their songs very strong for fights like As2, As3, and As4.

Sure, Bard songs are less useful if you are over gearing content, but then so is DPS, class balance, a 2nd healer, 7 other players. My wording could have been better, about party play and progression. I should have said specifically endgame. But, that hasn't really changed compared to 2.0 other than the addition of MCN, but their Turret skills aren't quite as strong, although more flexible.