Which jobs is at its prime?

[Sqwall]

BRD is massively RNG based and RNG can punish you. And on top of that you are the worst DPS, if people lets you in their party, it's for the 1% bonus.
That's the take from a MCH, thought. A main BRD could probably bring better and more relevant points.

...while this Monk DPS main cries about talk of RNG.

[Eliadil]

Whats wrong with Bard? its issues are mostly potency related no so much job desighn

The glory days of bard were in Stormblood, where the class had complexity in its rotation due to the massive amount of proc you could get, and the massive party utility it had for a group. Its damage was also really strong because Dragoon and Piercing was a thing back then. In Shadowbringers tho, while the high level rotation got better, the low level didn't improve much. Bard lost also half of its party utility (be it with role action, song buffs that got removed, to be added back at the cost of a big portion of its damage, or even Foe's Requiem who straight up got deleted), and the worst part is that the only new spell it got (apex arrow) doesn't fit anywhere in its rotation. Every other new spell of bard feels good (or is useless lul, the aoe sidewinder isn't that good tbh except in dungeon). Heck, they even lost the upgraded aoe too. Quick nock looks and feels meh for the most part.

Biggest issue right now is, apart from potency, Apex Arrow which doesn't feel that good. Once they fix this, and allow it to be actually used decently (like maybe make it usable once every three song, so you can line it up with your damage buffs) or turn it into an oGCD it will be an actual good spell. But for now it's not that great.

[Jirah]

BRD (And MCH) went through so many changes it was good or bad to play.
In HW, they added casts. It worked with MCH but not with BRD which was not designed with casts in the first place.
In SB, they removed the casts, which makes BRD to be played like a BRD again. On top of that, BRD had massive utility and really good crit buff to all allies.

In ShB, they removed a lot of utility and never balanced the removal of rDPS.
As for new actions, song doesn't feels like song but more like stance, each of them having their problems.

The job relies massively on procs, so much you could compare it to a WoW class.
Mage's Ballad refresh Bloodletter and Rain of Death cooldowns. But those two cooldowns don't have charges, so you definitely lost some casts.
Army's Paeon is boring and the skill speed is also based on RNG.
The Wanderer's Minuet is the same, based on RNG to use Pitch Perfect and any overflow is lost.
Then you have the soul gauge. It's a bit like MCH wildfire, you cast it around every minutes and just it just empties the gauge, it doesn't feel impactful, doesn't deals incredible damage (It only outclassed Sidewinder in 5.2, will remains the same in 5.3), it doesn't feel as a ultimate skill like NIN's Hyôshô Ranryu, DRG's Life of the Dragon phase or SAM double Midare.

BRD is massively RNG based and RNG can punish you. And on top of that you are the worst DPS, if people lets you in their party, it's for the 1% bonus.
That's the take from a MCH, thought. A main BRD could probably bring better and more relevant points.

I’d argue Dancer is far more RNG based, I’ve had times where I’d do 1-2-1-2-1-2 with luck not being on my side for flourishes. Also “worst dps” is abit hyperbolic considering I know some Meta would rather you MCH for its mindless DPS or DNC for its personal buffs but mastery of the fight outclasses DPS. Also idk if your well versed in BRD to speak about it no offense. (Comparing Soul gage to Wildfire the most redundant skill in MCH arsenal took the cake) and didn’t bring up Army’s Muse or Emperyl Arrow granting Repertoire gives you control like Dancer flourish but less toothless and every 15 seconds.

[Jirah]

The glory days of bard were in Stormblood, where the class had complexity in its rotation due to the massive amount of proc you could get, and the massive party utility it had for a group. Its damage was also really strong because Dragoon and Piercing was a thing back then. In Shadowbringers tho, while the high level rotation got better, the low level didn't improve much. Bard lost also half of its party utility (be it with role action, song buffs that got removed, to be added back at the cost of a big portion of its damage, or even Foe's Requiem who straight up got deleted), and the worst part is that the only new spell it got (apex arrow) doesn't fit anywhere in its rotation. Every other new spell of bard feels good (or is useless lul, the aoe sidewinder isn't that good tbh except in dungeon). Heck, they even lost the upgraded aoe too. Quick nock looks and feels meh for the most part.

Biggest issue right now is, apart from potency, Apex Arrow which doesn't feel that good. Once they fix this, and allow it to be actually used decently (like maybe make it usable once every three song, so you can line it up with your damage buffs) or turn it into an oGCD it will be an actual good spell. But for now it's not that great.

Palisade (which is a stronger but significantly less frequent “Heart of Stone”) Refresh (Which aslong with Mana shift got deleted for what I assume is the devs don’t want Mana support skills anymore) Are Role Skills but still a loss I guess and didn’t Wide Volley get removed in Stormblood? I do agree Apex is loose considering every other skill BRD has meshes so well together unlike some
Jobs (*cough*) but I kinda dig the idea of a singular gage for songs, if it was oGCD it would’ve been better since 20 is putrid and a DPS loss when you could’ve used Burst but as I mentioned before they’re are 90% likely gonna make a single target Soul Skill ie Sams Kenki 120 CD 1,100 potency attack. Which makes me mad that they gave us the AoE first

[Beddict]

I’d argue Dancer is far more RNG based, I’ve had times where I’d do 1-2-1-2-1-2 with luck not being on my side for flourishes.

DNC also has multiple layers of RNG that BRD doesn't have. With BRD you either get the proc or you don't and that's the end of it. With DNC you use Cascade and hope to get the Flourishing Cascade proc, then you use Reverse Cascade and hope to get the Fourfold Feather, and then you use Fan Dance and hope to get the Flourishing Fan Dance proc. That's a lot of RNG baked into the kit.

[Aurelius2625]

NIN is in an amazing spot right now. Mudras are so flexible and allow for disengages and things that a melee job simply should NOT be able to do lol. Mudras being on the gcd means you can weave at a range if you have to back off, and allow for weaving during TA windows. Hyoshu Ranryu is a fantastic way to make Hyoton not worthless in PVE content. Imagine telling poeple that the ice mudra would be your strongest one in SB and be laughed at for it.

AoE rotation is god level.

Mudras hit strong, and are fun to use. You are no longer beholden to your ping on NIN and do great damage and utility. TA windows being 15s every min are great for most jobs with extended bursts, like DRK with its shadow, WAR with IR and IC, PLD with FOF and Req, there's a lot that extra five seconds helps out.

NIN feels busy in a good way. Suiton being 20s allows for more flex when using it to set up a TA.

TCJ having two core functions: the Fuma, Katon, Doton for aoe and the Fuma, Raiton, Suiton into Meisui for ST is a fantastic idea. Suiton is valuable now, and they made it like that with Meisui, that grants another Bhava, making you want to use that combo in raids vs the doton combo of TCJ.

The ONLY THING that I take issue is Bunshin being 90s. You can't really fit any of it into TA, so I guess that's why it's 90s, it's intended to be used on CD between your bursts? It just feels weird for a job based on a 60s burst to have a 90s cd that can't really be used in TA, except for like one or two globals. However, it's kind of nice to have something in between trick that grants good potency. So I guess it's fine as is.

Assassinate is kinda pepega, but it is what it is. Other than that, the only thing that's a person gripe is Shukuchi, esp. on controllers. It's total aids to use. I'd like it to be like DRG's jump where you teleport back to the boss without ground targeting. I HATE that our gap closer is a ground aoe placement.

Honestly NIN needs nothing, and most gripes aren't real issues, just personal preferences.

[Leiron]

After playing DNC for a bit I'd say, the only thing I dislike is the RNG on top of RNG.
It means you miss out on a lot of potential damage if you become unlucky enough. I have had stretches of nearly an entire boss fight without any procs.

[Aurelius2625]

I agree with that Darsien dude. Like, if you're a grey parser who has no idea how to play their job like at all and you just freestyle mash buttons lol how the hell do u know if a job is it its best form or worst form it's ever been in? Like. I'm not saying you need to be a 100 percentile gold parser, but like... at least be purple to low orange to appreciate a job.

EXAMPLE: I'm not qualified to talk about BLM, RDM, or SMN...since I don't parse on those jobs so I don't have the right to talk about them. Same thing with BRD, MCH, and DNC, I play them sparingly so my opinion is complete garbo. Like, I THINK bard is good, but idk since I don't intimately play them.

NIN, SAM, DRG, and the Tanks on the other hand? I'm very qualified to talk about. I play them all the time in savage.

I think the bar is: do you clear savage fights with the jobs at a decent level? (At least blue so you are average and understand how the jobs works and are decent at it?)....

[Ayuhra]

I mean for me it's Dancer. Maybe less RNG would be nice but it's perfect for me.

I like mobility, I like support classes, and I can't handle too many buttons.

If not for Dancer I doubt I would have played the game at all past Heavensward (skipped Stormblood) because I would physically be unable to play it.

[Phalk]

the only thing that's a person gripe is Shukuchi, esp. on controllers. It's total aids to use. I'd like it to be like DRG's jump where you teleport back to the boss without ground targeting. I HATE that our gap closer is a ground aoe placement.

Honestly NIN needs nothing, and most gripes aren't real issues, just personal preferences.

You know, we can make Shukuchi work as you described with a macro:

/macroicon "Shukuchi"
/ac "Shukuchi" <t>
/action "Shukuchi"

With this, if you have a target it'll teleport to it on use.
If no target, you'll be able to teleport to the ground as usual.