Bard skills in 5.0?

[Cetonis]

I don't see any reason to copy other job's skills? That just seems lazy, and homogenizing and etc.

Sidewinder could definitely use some spice, but it doesn't need to be a copy of some existing skill. It could consume current DoTs to deal half their remaining damage maybe? Or apply a DoT itself. Or put a debuff on the enemy, i.e. imagine if it did like a baby Chain Strat (though now it's like a copy of Trick). My favorite pet idea was to just make Sidewinder an automatic crit, or now an auto-crit+DH, just to make it sexy and play off the crit theme of the job.

For Army's, really I don't think it's bad to have a "relax for 20s" song, and I appreciate that SE didn't just want to make a third version of Bloodletter. There's nothing wrong with having a "worse" song if the job is good overall, or a song that interacts with crit a bit differently. So while I agree that it could use -something-, I don't think it needs anything all that big. It doesn't need to be better than MB, it doesn't need to find use for procs 5+, it can just be what it is but mostly I'd like to just see something that makes you care more about whether you got those procs / when you get them. A skill you use once at four stacks, or making the stacks themselves more impactful, that sort of thing.

[Kalise]

Sidewinder could definitely use some spice, but it doesn't need to be a copy of some existing skill. It could consume current DoTs to deal half their remaining damage maybe?

As it stands, Sidewinder and Fester are practically the same skill. They're both "Deal X damage with one DoT on your target and deal Y damage if you have both DoTs on your target"

The only major difference (Other than CD vs Aetherflow cost) is that Sidewinder deals damage even without any DoTs active while Fester doesn't...

As far as that suggestion goes... That's creating anti-synergy.

Since, consuming the DoTs means that Iron Jaws no longer works, you now have to manually reapply both DoTs and in the meantime that means lost ticks that could have proc'd your songs.

If you did that "Deal your DoTs damage" effect without the consumption of the DoT... Well, then you're creating a Thundercloud copy.

For Army's, really I don't think it's bad to have a "relax for 20s" song

Having a "Relax for 20s" song doesn't necessarily mean "Having a song that barely does anything and literally causes you to waste procs for the duration so you want to get out of it ASAP and cut it short the first chance you get"

There are ways to make an entirely passive song that actually utilizes procs from your DoTs/Empyreal. Such as having a Sword Oath style additional hit on your next auto-attack or weaponskill - Something that provides you with a tangible benefit without needing you to utilize an extra new skill.

Sure, the song doesn't have to be better than MB or TWM... But having it feel good to use other than "Well... Other people get some crit while I have it active I guess" would be nice. Even if the song stays entirely passive.