Bard - I miss Refresh :(

[Straynge]

I'm not jumping ship. I have yet to find a class that enjoy playing half as much as a bard. Just the mobility, being able to position myself how I want in every single fight is enough for me. I love the fact that I constantly stay in motion without slowing down any of my attacks and it's hella useful to dodge aoe's but I'm still sad that I no longer feel as if I have anything even remotely unique to bring to a party. Yeah, my songs still help but it was all those other litttle things that I enjoyed so much. It's odd not having to watch mage's mana now....which is usually what gets me killed more than anything lol.

Change is always weird and I'll admit I'm not one of those persons who really likes change that much but I'll get used to it. After looking over the new abilites I am a bit disappointed though. I was going off of the hope that some new and improved utility would be added but nope...just more dps. I just remember while leveling and how cool it was that all of the bows were also harps and that all of the class quests really focused on us being bards who utilize songs and music to add to our abilities with the bows. Why would they just abandon that? It was gradual but at some point I started noticing that the harp designs started fading while our bows began looking more and more normal. I guess I sort of miss that emphasis on actually being, you know a bard. Why not just change us to archers and clear up the confusion? I'm really not trying to complain here or discourage anyone from playing a bard. We're still a great class (the best in my opinion) but man do I miss having more of a supporting role. It just feels awkward.

[Hezzlocks]

While leveling DNC today I got into an Aurum Vale with a new tank, who was pretty bad and didn't know any mechanics, wiped 3 times before he ate morbol fruit on the 1st boss and didn't dodge a single hit on the Coincounter, and a new healer, who was pretty good but clearly entirely unprepared for the horrors that Aurum Vale brings upon healers, let alone the sheer agony of Aurum Vale with a bad tank.

I found myself wishing I had Refresh more than ever before, because that healer was really struggling.

[Bluejay]

I am moving on as well. This class is so boring I can't deal with playing it for the rest of the expac.

[Tyssyn]

I haven't actually looked at Bard or RDM yet, the two dps classes I was swapping mains between - I loved RDM in dungeons/raids for the ability to heal myself if I oopsed or to help out the healers and verraise of course. I have been doing DNC, which I love a lot, but I do intend to level both the others. I am dreading it a bit for all the changes though.

[Straynge]

Just a weird thing I noticed yesterday. When gaining XP it now says "Archer experience" instead of "Bard". Maybe this isn't a new thing though. i'm not really sure because I really never payed much attention to it. Before Shadowbringers when you gained XP did it used to say Bard or Archer experience? If they did change it that's so weird and definitely shows they're moving us more towards a tradional archer as opposed to a Bard. If it's always been like this then shame on me for never noticing...probably got distracted by something shiny which happens a lot

[Xieldras]

Just a weird thing I noticed yesterday. When gaining XP it now says "Archer experience" instead of "Bard". Maybe this isn't a new thing though. i'm not really sure because I really never payed much attention to it. Before Shadowbringers when you gained XP did it used to say Bard or Archer experience? If they did change it that's so weird and definitely shows they're moving us more towards a tradional archer as opposed to a Bard. If it's always been like this then shame on me for never noticing...probably got distracted by something shiny which happens a lot

Did you have your Soul Crystal on?

[YanderePrincess]

Just a weird thing I noticed yesterday. When gaining XP it now says "Archer experience" instead of "Bard". Maybe this isn't a new thing though. i'm not really sure because I really never payed much attention to it. Before Shadowbringers when you gained XP did it used to say Bard or Archer experience? If they did change it that's so weird and definitely shows they're moving us more towards a tradional archer as opposed to a Bard. If it's always been like this then shame on me for never noticing...probably got distracted by something shiny which happens a lot

Pretty sure it's always said the base class for any jobs that have one, because that's technically what you're gaining exp on (thus why smn and sch are both increased in level together, cause you're gaining arcanist exp).

[HyoMinPark]

Just a weird thing I noticed yesterday. When gaining XP it now says "Archer experience" instead of "Bard". Maybe this isn't a new thing though. i'm not really sure because I really never payed much attention to it. Before Shadowbringers when you gained XP did it used to say Bard or Archer experience? If they did change it that's so weird and definitely shows they're moving us more towards a tradional archer as opposed to a Bard. If it's always been like this then shame on me for never noticing...probably got distracted by something shiny which happens a lot

For jobs that have base classes, it has always said “You gain [number] [class] experience”.

[AncientCrystal]

I saw this coming a mile away before 5.0 The moment I saw they were removing Refresh (which was BRD/MCH main utility skill) I knew the job was in for trouble. I moved on to GNB for now.

I do feel that if they would just give Refresh back to BRD that would be enough to make people feel it has good utility again. But I think the reasoning for removing it was they wanted healers to manage their MP better.

[Xieldras]

I saw this coming a mile away before 5.0 The moment I saw they were removing Refresh (which was BRD/MCH main utility skill) I knew the job was in for trouble. I moved on to GNB for now.

I do feel that if they would just give Refresh back to BRD that would be enough to make people feel it has good utility again. But I think the reasoning for removing it was they wanted healers to manage their MP better.

I think a lot of Bard mains out there saw the Tour video or read the changes and said "oh no". I certainly did.
I do wonder if a better way to balance 2 rDPS support-type classes would've been to make Dancer focused on 1-person buffs and Bard on AOE/Raid-wide utility buffs. Buff Dancer's since it's single target while Bard's keeps a lower potency.
Maybe another way would've been that Bard's buffs could focus more on certain types like mp generation and defensive-type buffs while Dancer's would be more offensive-focused.