Job change suggestions for BRD in 6.0

[Connor]

The only thing is that I also don't want to take the archer away from players like want to be an archer. Personally, I think adjusting bard to have clear phases of archery and music is the best way to try and appease all sides. Everyone deserves to have the job they love.

They’ve shown before that Bard can definitely have a good balance of the two as well. It doesn’t have to be ‘pure dps archer’ but it doesn’t have to be ‘pure support’ either. 4.0 is a pretty good example with Requiem still existing but not feeling like it was out-of-place because even though you were singing to support the party you were then following up with the archery aspects.

And honestly outside of the severe balance issues I feel like even 2.0 was the same. There was a good balance between actively singing to support the party (e.g not lame passives lol), and using the archery to deal damage. The damage debuff kinda sucked, but it also forced you to respect the dual aspects of the job; as a dps / archer you have to maximise your damage, but as a bard/supporter you still have to help the party when it needs it. Doing only one without the other meant not bringing out the jobs’ potential to its fullest.

Naturally the ‘bard/supporter’ aspect doesn’t exist anymore, but they could still give the job offensive / dps songs that have to be balanced with the archer aspects. Like a ‘Bane Song’ that you use after putting up DoTs to spread to nearby targets, or a ‘Song of Bad Stuff’ that uses song gauge to apply an extra DoT to the enemy or something.

[ty_taurus]

They’ve shown before that Bard can definitely have a good balance of the two as well. It doesn’t have to be ‘pure dps archer’ but it doesn’t have to be ‘pure support’ either. 4.0 is a pretty good example with Requiem still existing but not feeling like it was out-of-place because even though you were singing to support the party you were then following up with the archery aspects.

And honestly outside of the severe balance issues I feel like even 2.0 was the same. There was a good balance between actively singing to support the party (e.g not lame passives lol), and using the archery to deal damage. The damage debuff kinda sucked, but it also forced you to respect the dual aspects of the job; as a dps / archer you have to maximise your damage, but as a bard/supporter you still have to help the party when it needs it. Doing only one without the other meant not bringing out the jobs’ potential to its fullest.

Naturally the ‘bard/supporter’ aspect doesn’t exist anymore, but they could still give the job offensive / dps songs that have to be balanced with the archer aspects. Like a ‘Bane Song’ that you use after putting up DoTs to spread to nearby targets, or a ‘Song of Bad Stuff’ that uses song gauge to apply an extra DoT to the enemy or something.

The main thing that I felt Bard lacks, even in 4.0, is some form of musical attacks outside of your phase changes. I've always felt that the musical aspects have always just been there as an accent or to support the archery segment, but never stands alone. That's why I'd love for Mage's Ballad to be that musical offense window. It makes sense from a lore perspective for you to use a more "magical" form of attacks when singing the praises of a Padjal Conjurer and would make it feel more like the elements of music and archery are working together, rather than the musical elements working for the archery, if that makes sense.