Bard - they broke my job

[RinchanNau]

I'm currently wracking my brain looking for these mythical parses on FFlogs where the top BRD never use WM.

Want to try this with me? For science. :3 See if we can break top 20 for any savage encounter with no Minuet.

[RiceisNice]

I've considered that my WM rotation may be terrible, but...

WM is roughly break even, if not a damage drop (esp if you use it as soon as you gain it at 52 due to relatively lower crit/det and no access to abilties), unless you're using all your oGCDs and abilities (including flame arrow, repelling shot and blunt arrow). WM needs to have those exclusive abilities and more damage from non-auto attacks to make up for the loss of the aforementioned. Using all of your river resets is important too (since it's non-auto attack damage), and AoEing should hands down be a damage gain no matter what.

They've heard you, they've responded. I doubt they are going to make any substantial changes until the next expansion in regards to bard play style.

This is my primary concern when they do expansions; they're cutting corners when it comes to job mechanics. Things like this can't be adjusted through hotfixes or even 3.x patches, but numbers can be if they end up being undertuned or overtuned. They previewed some good ideas for MCH but ended up scrapping most of them, made GB what it is, and gave that to BRD as well (which diminishes the novelty of it being an "attachment"), homogenizing the two jobs that much more)

It's coming from the perspective of a player that mained BRD and currently MCH, but I'm sure other players would feel just as frustrated if their job gets changes that work against the inherent nature if the job (such as requiring minimum range for damage skills as a melee job, especially without abilities to accommodate such, or positionals on casters) or given the same mechanics in 3.0 as their other counterparts.

[Judge_Xero]

Want to try this with me? For science. :3 See if we can break top 20 for any savage encounter with no Minuet.

Wow nice gear set. How does the play style of BRD change with that level of Crit/Skill Speed? For "Science" would you be able to tell me about what you would think your DPS would be on a Dummy over 3 minutes, solo, no food or pots? I'm curious if my BRD damage slope is accurate and comparing my and your gear I estimate you would sit at ~1430 DPS.

[aabe]

Want to try this with me? For science. :3 See if we can break top 20 for any savage encounter with no Minuet.

yessssssss I have to run as MCH this week but I'll give it a shot next week when I get DRG again lmao

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It's kinda like this

Personally for dummies without a goon I range between 1250-1400 for 3:30-4:00 parses, but the higher range is like food + pots + RNG so you're overestimating a teeny bit, although I dunno where Rin could be at, all I know is that they're probably better than I am :V

[aabe]

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Correlation =/= causation and WM hasn't been a DPS loss for the longest time, it could be something as simple as what I said that possibly in the case of dungeons the other DPS popped all their buffs for one pack, and then the next pack takes much longer to kill because they have zero buffs.

If you're noticing this issue in dungeons it could be ^ or it could be doing something very wrong, WM's bonus should shine the hardest in a dungeon run where you're multidotting and AoEing a lot because you're pulling much more potency per GCD, 30% bonus damage is preddygud for that.

If you notice a problem in raid/boss content you might just be dropping GCDs from moving around too much or something similar.

[TeddyXIV]

I leveled Bard 1-50 and now all of a sudden the play style I was used to and learning CHANGES?! I don't think SE knows why people loved bard in the first place... mobility..

[Greywolfamakir]

mobility + decent DPS + Range = Not balanced.
Options:
BRD/MCH does pretty low DPS = bad idea. Current state if you dont use WM.
BRD/MCH turns into melee = no sense.
BRD/MCH has cast bar = maybe the best option for balance.

[Judge_Xero]

Personally for dummies without a goon I range between 1250-1400 for 3:30-4:00 parses, but the higher range is like food + pots + RNG so you're overestimating a teeny bit, although I dunno where Rin could be at, all I know is that they're probably better than I am :V

Yeah I'm using my value of 1150-1200 DPS @ i203 with the i200 Weapon.

Rin has the Gordian Bow @ i210 with great SPD+Crit (425 acc looks like they were doing Thordan EX)

Estimated gains of 21% as I have high Det and low Crit due to using my MCN gear.

[MPNZ]

mobility + decent DPS + Range = Not balanced.
Options:
BRD/MCH does pretty low DPS = bad idea. Current state if you dont use WM.
BRD/MCH turns into melee = no sense.
BRD/MCH has cast bar = maybe the best option for balance.

TBH, the dps for bard has never been very high or a problem. It has just never been factually a problem for anything other than enmity due to the constant uptime that the job has naturally, which makes it a wonderful solo class and kiter. And, it is only in the aspect that I think it can be claimed as a broken class. Especially, with the 2.0 Shadowbind, which I really miss having. Now, IMO, I'm pretty sure it's a combination of the bard's uptime thanks to its run&gun play-style, a belief that emnity rank equals to who is doing the most damage, and the more advantageous solo play that grinds peoples gears. Our DPS is so not that high. It just totally looks unbalanced because of the infinite uptime.

As for WM: the only real complaint is the jarring difference in how it changes the bard's play-style into that of a frantic black mage.

[RiceisNice]

T. Our DPS is so not that high. It just totally looks unbalanced because of the infinite uptime.

The "infinite uptime" isn't all that it's made out to be though when the other jobs can maximize their uptimes and still contribute more dps than a BRD on average. The solo play is also incredibly absent for the most part, especially in the open world where aggroing more than one mob is generally a death sentence for a job that has arguably the least amount of self healing and defensive cooldown.

I won't disagree that BRD was incredivbly good at the release of 2.0, but it's not for their damage, but their utility; a damage down debuff before it was handed to warrior's storm's path and access to the most reliable and anti-situational silence for bosses like ADS.