I'm not sure what the case is now...
My husband just tried to do Thordan EX trial as MCH, he made it to 1% and his item level is i195. far lesser than mine.

Clearly I'll be looking very in-depth at my Bard rotation to make sure Im not messing something up... or did they really Boost MCH's capability that much with the patch? If its the latter, then Bard seriously needs some love lol