Bloodletter and Rain of Death

[SaitoHikari]

I actually just came up with an idea on how Minuet could be tweaked better to work with how Bard skills work. Actually I have a whole list of Bard changes I'd like to see.

- Wanderer's Minuet: 1.5 second cast time to all weaponskills and canceling auto-attack removed. Instead, activating Wanderer's Minuet boosts damage by 15% as long as the Bard remains still. Also results in numerous adjustments to earlier skills. Any movement cancels the effect. (I'm aware this is essentially Ley Lines, but I think this system would work FAR better for Bards than what we currently have. Emperyal Arrow still works the same as before. Iron Jaws still requires Minuet being in effect, but cast time is removed.)
- Repelling Shot: While under the effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, Repelling Shot knocks back the target instead of sending the Bard backwards.
- Shadowbind: While under the new effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, Shadowbind stuns the target instead of binding.
- Heavy Shot: Straighter Shot proc rate is increased from 20% -> 40% while under Wanderer's Minuet.
- Straight Shot: Straighter Shot proc while under Wanderer's Minuet additionally increases potency from 140 -> 160.
- Mage's Ballad and Army's Paeon: While under the effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, damage penalty is reduced from 15% -> 10%.
- Swiftsong: Can now be used in combat as long as Wanderer's Minuet is active. Combat version of Swiftsong drains MP while active. Cannot be used with other songs. Effect dissipates as soon as Minuet is also canceled.
- Wide Volley: Changed to a buff that only works with single target weaponskills. Next single target weaponskill used will have splash AoE around the target. (Emperyal Arrow is excluded.) Cooldown of 60 seconds. Shares recast timer with Barrage.

[Kaze3434]

I actually just came up with an idea on how Minuet could be tweaked better to work with how Bard skills work. Actually I have a whole list of Bard changes I'd like to see.
- Wanderer's Minuet: 1.5 second cast time to all weaponskills and canceling auto-attack removed. Instead, activating Wanderer's Minuet boosts damage by 15% as long as the Bard remains still. Also results in numerous adjustments to earlier skills. Any movement cancels the effect. (I'm aware this is essentially Ley Lines, but I think this system would work FAR better for Bards than what we currently have. Emperyal Arrow still works the same as before. Iron Jaws still requires Minuet being in effect, but cast time is removed.)
- Repelling Shot: While under the effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, Repelling Shot knocks back the target instead of sending the Bard backwards.
- Shadowbind: While under the new effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, Shadowbind stuns the target instead of binding.
- Heavy Shot: Straighter Shot proc rate is increased from 20% -> 40% while under Wanderer's Minuet.
- Straight Shot: Straighter Shot proc while under Wanderer's Minuet additionally increases potency from 140 -> 160.
- Mage's Ballad and Army's Paeon: While under the effect of the new Wanderer's Minuet, damage penalty is reduced from 15% -> 10%.
- Swiftsong: Can now be used in combat as long as Wanderer's Minuet is active. Combat version of Swiftsong drains MP while active. Cannot be used with other songs. Effect dissipates as soon as Minuet is also canceled.
- Wide Volley: Changed to a buff that only works with single target weaponskills. Next single target weaponskill used will have splash AoE around the target. (Emperyal Arrow is excluded.) Cooldown of 60 seconds. Shares recast timer with Barra

ge.

for once, there isnt really anything i think is overly bad or overpowered. only thing i would change/dont like is the swiftsong thing. seems like a waste of mp when you could be making healers/caster do more, unless you mean the battle version increases attack speed, because i dont see movement speed during battle as anything great. other thing is the wide volley change. it gives it a use, but no one would ever use it because of the shared recast with barrage.

[SaitoHikari]

for once, there isnt really anything i think is overly bad or overpowered. only thing i would change/dont like is the swiftsong thing. seems like a waste of mp when you could be making healers/caster do more, unless you mean the battle version increases attack speed, because i dont see movement speed during battle as anything great. other thing is the wide volley change. it gives it a use, but no one would ever use it because of the shared recast with barrage.

Yeah, the Swiftsong thing was a last minute thing. It'd be mainly for full physical parties that have little need for MP/TP regen, and people complain that bards don't offer enough support for supposedly being a support class, so I decided 'eh, might as well'. Attack speed increase probably shouldn't be a thing though, or else balance compared to Machinist goes right back into the gutter.

The Wide Volley change is mainly for packs of enemies. The main benefit of using it is that it'd let you throw Windbite or Venomous Bite on multiple enemies at once, instead of having to manually throw it on them one by one. That means easy mass Rain of Death resets. Of course, it had to have shared recast with Barrage because there had to be SOME downside to using it. Then again, Wide Volley would only ever be used for mob packs, and Barrage would only ever be used for single target situations.

In fact I was actually concerned I might have overtuned things...

[Kaze3434]

Yeah, the Swiftsong thing was a last minute thing. It'd be mainly for full physical parties that have little need for MP/TP regen, and people complain that bards don't offer enough support for supposedly being a support class, so I decided 'eh, might as well'.

The Wide Volley change is mainly for packs of enemies. The main benefit of using it is that it'd let you throw Windbite or Venomous Bite on multiple enemies at once, instead of having to manually throw it on them one by one. That means easy mass Rain of Death resets. Of course, it had to have shared recast with Barrage because there had to be SOME downside to using it. Then again, Wide Volley would only ever be used for mob packs, and Barrage would only ever be used for single target situations.

In fact I was actually concerned I might have overtuned things...

normally i would say a move that lets you put oneof your dots on everything would be good, but right now, the only amount of dotted enemies that one can keep up with is 3. any more and straight shot falls off

[Judge_Xero]

Ideas

Nice ideas.

Repelling Shot is part of Bard mobility so that would be a weird change.

I think that a 40% SS proc would be enough under the current WM for a QoL and DPS change for BRD.

The Wide Volley idea is pretty cool for quicker AOE setup for maintaining dots with IJ.

[SaitoHikari]

Repelling Shot is part of Bard mobility so that would be a weird change.

Yeah, I was wondering about how Repelling Shot was going to fit in. The way it currently works, it's actually better than Fluid Aura/Blank because it won't mess up AoEs, but at the same time, being able to use Repelling Shot without canceling my proposed Minuet would be awkward as hell. That was my original plan, actually, but I figured we needed some downsides somewhere to balance things out.

[Cetonis]

Leylines has always felt like it should have been the BRD skill from the start, but at this stage I don't think it's quite realistic to talk about reworks on that scale, and I don't see SE ever removing the cast time aspect given its benefits to class balancing. I think what we're more likely to see in 3.3 are targeted buffs to shore up the places where BRD falls too far behind MCH to be able to compete, namely movement-heavy phases, utility QoL, and low-HP adds.

If we're having fun posting 'wishlists', my personal one would be something like:

1) Straight Shot returns to 70 TP and becomes always-instant-cast.

2) Juggle the trait/level ordering around, and rework the Heavier Shot trait (moved to level 30-something). Instead of granting random Straighter Shot procs, have the trait make Heavy Shot deal 200 potency to targets you do not have Windbite or Venomous Bite applied to. This way BRD can be not-garbage on adds that don't live long enough to do good DoT damage to (MCH skills have the same-ish potency, but they get to add the turret on top for a 'free ~55p DoT' so long as it's in range, while SMN also has Garuda and was given that Ruin 3 buff).

3) To make up for most of the normal-case potency lost by the removal of Straighter Shot, set Heavy Shot's base potency to 160.

4) To make up for the rest of the lost damage, buff Sidewinder (and make it sexier) by making it automatically crit.

5) Make all songs (regrettably) instant-cast because spending 3s on Foe is just too terrible right now when it has to compete against Hypercharge being instant.

Note the careful avoidance of anything that would make BRD's strength (damaging multiple high-HP targets) better, because it doesn't need to be better in those fights that are friendly to it. It just needs to not go so deep into the tank when a fight has jumps/breaks, adds that die in 10 seconds, and lots of running about and moving the boss away from Flaming Arrows and so on.

[alimdia]

Atm bards never need to even use invigorate in single target fights at all, so removing blood letter for tp/mp is ewww

[FoxyAreku]

Nerfing bards highest priority ability? Not sure why anyone would think that's a good idea.

Bloodletter resets are dps gain even if you don't weave them into a GCD. Leave it as is.

[Jetstream_Fox]

I have the best way to fix them and it's rather simple. Take out WM, problem solved.