i barely see BRDs anymore and possible Utility fixes

[Kabooa]

Personally I did quit Bard because it lost all the interesting utility and got nothing in return but more damage.

You misspelled damage. Which is weird, because you spelled it right at the end there.

[Atamis]

I feel they should just rename Bard to something else and change some ability themes around. They're clearly not bards anymore. Dancers are better bards at this point. Also i want my Ranger/Sniper back, not this spoony nonsense.

[Darkstride]

I don't see as many Bards because all I see is Dancers 24/7.

[Connor]

You misspelled damage. Which is weird, because you spelled it right at the end there.

I’m not aware of any damage abilities Bard has lost? It also got potency buffs across the board

Edit: I remembered Misery’s End, but I can’t say I found it particularly interesting to use. That said, they could have reworked it instead of removing it I guess

[Merryl]

I mained bard since november 2013. Quite frankly I took one look at the crossed out actions, read the descriptions, but the deal breaker was having to spam straight shot to fill a gauge to use the 3rd action.
I got nothing to make up for that rotation loss in slot 3.
So I erased bard from my gear list today.

Now I'm a machinist/black mage

[HyoMinPark]

I mained bard since november 2013. Quite frankly I took one look at the crossed out actions, read the descriptions, but the deal breaker was having to spam straight shot to fill a gauge to use the 3rd action.
I got nothing to make up for that rotation loss in slot 3.
So I erased bard from my gear list today.

Now I'm a machinist/black mage

What are you talking about? Straight Shot doesn’t exist anymore in any capacity to its previous iteration. It’s a proc off of Heavy Shot, and at level 70 it turns into Refulgent Arrow, which functions the same way.

The Soul Gauge fills based off of your Repertoire, which is a flat 40%*. The Enhanced Empyreal Arrow trait you get at level 68 also helps fill it, but it in no way fills based off of spamming Straight Shot. So you misread the tooltips completely.

*Lower level content lowers Repertoire to 20% — which is cancerous, but it ultimately doesn’t affect the Soul Gauge since that’s only available at level 80.

[Elleia]

I switched to DNC. I love providing utility to my party and DNC does it in a unique and fun way.

I planned to keep playing BRD as well, but I honestly haven't touched it. For me, they just lost too much of their utility and decision making. I really liked optimizing Foes require uses and planning out when to troubadour during fights for maximum effect. You just press everything as they come up now, and even double snapshotting is less important now. AA being just another "press at 100 gauge and not before" is bland and uninspiring. Charges on BL would have gone a long way too, and it seemed like the perfect skill for the new system.

I love the theme and aesthetic of BRD much more than DNC. If BRD had more utility and had more decision making involved I'd be back on it in a heartbeat. SB BRD was almost perfect imo, I just wanted to see more unique utility skills added in ShB. Unfortunately they did the opposite and stripped much of the utility out - all their new tools are just more damage.

[Merryl]

What are you talking about? Straight Shot doesn’t exist anymore in any capacity to its previous iteration. It’s a proc off of Heavy Shot, and at level 70 it turns into Refulgent Arrow, which functions the same way.

The Soul Gauge fills based off of your Repertoire, which is a flat 40%*. The Enhanced Empyreal Arrow trait you get at level 68 also helps fill it, but it in no way fills based off of spamming Straight Shot. So you misread the tooltips completely.

*Lower level content lowers Repertoire to 20% — which is cancerous, but it ultimately doesn’t affect the Soul Gauge since that’s only available at level 80.

Sorry I'm not sitting in game right now couldn't remember the exact name of it. I'm still not interested in relearning the class again.

[Liselsia]

BRD feels a lot like RDM to me. Both jobs I loved in SB but I played them to death and old rotation is just old to me now. BRD/RDM got solid QoL changes but besides that are essentially same job with same rotation. While they are a good job and I probably love them if I never played SB. Sadly I have and I have no interesting playing a exact copy of a job I already spent last few years playing.

[HyoMinPark]

Sorry I'm not sitting in game right now couldn't remember the exact name of it. I'm still not interested in relearning the class again.

No need to relearn. It plays more or less the same as it did in Stormblood. There’s honestly no difference to it.

There is no skill that you spam to fill the Soul Gauge. It fills passively based off of Repertoire procs; you press it at 100 gauge and no sooner. BRD is fairly braindead.