In 4.0 can we please get rid of caster bars on physical ranged jobs?!

[Ultimatecalibur]

Then why was it taken away? Why can't we have it back?

The Bard mobility wasn't really taken away as Wanderer's Minuet can be turned on and off. Bard is very much intended to stance dance based on the needed level of mobility in a fight. Wanderer's Minuet was intended to be a buff in damage during fights/phase were mobility was not necessary (most classes had increased dps in stationary fights such as Avatar in T8 the Bard did not) allowing Bards to trade unneeded mobility for increased damage.

The problem with WM is a combination of players defaulting to WM as base state and the OGCD Bloodletter/Rain of Death DoT proc system not working properly with cast times which causes WM damage to be less than intended.

[SaitoHikari]

Speaking as someone that only began playing shortly after HW was released, I never did enjoy 2.x Bard, thus meaning I got used to WM rather quick (and have probably achieved a level of mastery with Bard that I don't think Bards are actually weak at all - though they definitely require high crit in order to make the most of a certain trait which is basically the entire point of the class by now).

That said, I do agree that WM is heavily flawed, especially when compared to the MCH counterpart.

- MCH skills and traits were designed around Gauss Barrel, Bard isn't outside of Straighter Shot (and a 20% proc rate isn't much).

- In accordance with the above point, there is ZERO indication beforehand that Bard is suddenly going to turn into a caster-type class. I had met several new players that picked Bard as their first class that were so completely and utterly surprised that many either dropped the class or quit the game outright. And Bard doesn't get any earlier traits or skills that allow them a 100% chance to strategically circumvent the restrictions like MCH does - which furthers the belief that WM was really a last minute change intended to 'nerf' Bard playstyle out of a fear that nobody would play MCH, which is a crackpot theory tier belief that will continue to exist as long as the devs don't give us any straight answers as to why they thought this was a good idea in the first place.

- And continuing with the above, there are compounding reasons why the Bard class has a reputation as having very low damage and a dis-proportionally higher population that is less effective at playing the class compared to other classes. The total playing style change, the fact that you need to gear for super high crit rate to see more Bloodletter/Rain of Death procs, and then having said Bloodletter/Rain of Death reset procs being lost/clipping into GCDs... It's highly contradictory design.

- WM doesn't even add anything to the Bard playing style. Sure, it gave us Emperyal Arrow and Iron Jaws, but if its only positives are locking two essential skills behind it, then one has to question whether it's actually a good system at all. Minuet usage doesn't even help with the support side of Bards at all. One could argue Gauss Barrel doesn't do anything for MCH support too, but at least their support doesn't share cast timers like Bard songs still do.

Despite what it sounds like, I don't even have that much of a problem with WM at the end of the day. But from a design standpoint, the only reasonable response is to ask why it was created the way it was, and it's very very easy to see why people hate it so much.

The Bard mobility wasn't really taken away as Wanderer's Minuet can be turned on and off. Bard is very much intended to stance dance based on the needed level of mobility in a fight. Wanderer's Minuet was intended to be a buff in damage during fights/phase were mobility was not necessary (most classes had increased dps in stationary fights such as Avatar in T8 the Bard did not) allowing Bards to trade unneeded mobility for increased damage.

The problem with WM is a combination of players defaulting to WM as base state and the OGCD Bloodletter/Rain of Death DoT proc system not working properly with cast times which causes WM damage to be less than intended.

If Bards were actually meant to stance dance, the devs would have drastically reduced WM activation cooldown forever ago. 15 seconds is ridiculous. Can you imagine Cleric Stance with a 15 second cooldown? There's a reason why raid Bards use Feint of all skills if they have to move during a fight. I highly, highly doubt that is intended behavior by the developers, this is players trying to circumvent something that clearly didn't have much thought put into it.

[awbalto]

The Bard mobility wasn't really taken away as Wanderer's Minuet can be turned on and off. Wanderer's Minuet was intended to be a buff in damage during fights/phase were mobility was not necessary (most classes had increased dps in stationary fights such as Avatar in T8 the Bard did not) allowing Bards to trade unneeded mobility for increased damage.

On the T8 part, as a bard my mobility allowed me to handle mechanics like eating a mine, homing missile and tower push without sacrificing my skills. While the dmg buff of WM is nice i don't like it and after 3 patches of trying i just gave up and switched to another class because the cast bar is so finnicky

[Ultimatecalibur]

On the T8 part, as a bard my mobility allowed me to handle mechanics like eating a mine, homing missile and tower push without sacrificing my skills. While the dmg buff of WM is nice i don't like it and after 3 patches of trying i just gave up and switched to another class because the cast bar is so finnicky

But there were also long periods of time when everyone was just staying stacked up on the rear of Avatar once mechanics had been handled. During these times all jobs save bard experienced a noticeable increase in average dps. WM was intended to rectify those kinds of situations.