The main problem with Bard is that its gameplay changed a lot for the previous mains and it was no longer the class they loved. Wanderer's Minuet was the game-changer that Dreadwyrm Trance was for SMN. Coming from a previous WHM main, I didn't have any problems adapting to HW BRD (enough to make it my new main) and in fact like it a lot even if I rarely break 1.1k DPS (yes, I'm working on it). I WOULD love if WM didn't take away my auto-attacks, though.

Although, really, having used a bow irl, it DOES take a few seconds to nock an arrow, aim and fire it, so...