Quote Originally Posted by Akiudo View Post
if jobs are well designed and work, i.e. have a compeling "class fantasy" and smooth and engaging gameplay people will use it, if a job lacks these thing than things like damage will not change that.
Except people will absolutely ignore a lack of compelling class fantasy and gameplay issues if a job has high damage. 5.05 Monk attests to that. Even HW Bard itself while having gameplay that was hated by a vast number of people saw heavy usage due to it's high damage potential. The exact opposite is far more true. A job slightly lacking in damage will never be used even if it has a compelling class fantasy or engaging gameplay. Monk's gameplay in HW was highly engaging. You still almost never saw it due to it's damage potential being low. Players in this game have always cared more about the damage potential of a job than anything else. Look at the threads from 5.0 asking for Bard to get it's song buffs back because, "muh class fantasy". What happened when the buffs were reinstated? We had threads immediately following up complaining about the subsequent potency nerfs that were implemented to balance the rdps increases the songs brought. It was never about class fantasy, or compelling gameplay. It was an attempt to get damage buffs veiled behind "class fantasy".

If compelling class fantasy and engaging gameplay will see people use a job then why aren't Bards and ranged in general asking for improvements in these areas? Even when they ask for more support abilities, it is almost always for support of an offensive nature. Damage potential is where players have always put the most weight when it comes to job selection.

Bard has been top of the totem pole for nearly 7 years. They'll survive not being top tier for an expansion. Other jobs have survived being in a far worse place for far longer.