Bard - they broke my job

[Aiselia]

Not sure how BRD can be where it was in 2.5.

Because everybody else also got increases to their damage. Additionally, Bards still get their 10% less WD inherent nerf and with bigger WD numbers, that's a bigger gap. When other classes had 58 in 2.x, BRDs had 52, a difference of 6. Now other classes are at 76, while Bards are at 68, a difference of 8. A Bard Gordian/upgraded Eso weapon has the same WD as a DRG's Bismarck weapon and less than a DRG's upgraded Law by 2 points.

Also, you didn't factor in the loss of auto-attacks under WM and change to Barrage. When calculating someone's relative damage, you can't just ignore the negatives and only put forth positives. You're also not factoring in the fact that in 2.x, BRD could have 100% uptime while fighting at full damage unless they needed to do mechanics that would stop them. Movement now demands either doing lower-damage instant attacks like Feint if it's only a short movement amount, or turning off 30% WD if it's longer.

So yes, if you ignore the objective removals of damage sources and ignore that every other class also got increases to their own damage and ignore that there's a widening gap in weapon damage and only focus on what Bards DID gain, then I guess it would look confusing how Bards aren't topping DPS charts.

[RiceisNice]

Because everybody else also got increases to their damage. Additionally, Bards still get their 10% less WD inherent nerf and with bigger WD numbers, that's a bigger gap. When other classes had 58 in 2.x, BRDs had 52, a difference of 6. Now other classes are at 76, while Bards are at 68, a difference of 8. A Bard Gordian/upgraded Eso weapon has the same WD as a DRG's Bismarck weapon and less than a DRG's upgraded Law by 2 points.

Also, you didn't factor in the loss of auto-attacks under WM and change to Barrage. When calculating someone's relative damage, you can't just ignore the negatives and only put forth positives. You're also not factoring in the fact that in 2.x, BRD could have 100% uptime while fighting at full damage unless they needed to do mechanics that would stop them. Movement now demands either doing lower-damage instant attacks like Feint if it's only a short movement amount, or turning off 30% WD if it's longer.

So yes, if you ignore the objective removals of damage sources and ignore that every other class also got increases to their own damage and ignore that there's a widening gap in weapon damage and only focus on what Bards DID gain, then I guess it would look confusing how Bards aren't topping DPS charts.

If the weapon damage difference stayed the same percentage wise as it was in 2.0, then that alone would not count for BRD's drop in damage compared to 2.5. Although you are right in the regard that BRD is the only class that had "lost" something (cant say the same for MCH since they didn't exist in 2.x, but the context is the same) that contributed to their damage previously. WM is not an objective increase in damage until you get the abilties attached to it, and it's certainly not a straight increase to output to the same extent the other jobs have.

I've always said that BRD's (and by extension, MCH) dps is still behind by "true dps" classes by the same percentage as it was back in 2.x to argue that WM doesn't "increase damage" anymore as the other jobs have with their new post-50 abilities. But at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they're also doing less percentage wise compared to 2.x either due to oversights in the grand scheme of things (auto attacks, delaying weapon skills and oGCD clipping), because it was certainly the case in 3.05 and the buff from 20% to 30% is honestly just a bandaid fix if anything.