Job change suggestions for BRD in 6.0

[Rai_Takara]

The popularity of Dnc even though it's got the lowest personal DPS of any DPS job and much of it's identity is "do Dances to buff others" kinda proves people are more than willing to be supportive.

I'd like to also mention some of the appeal there could be there glam and aesthetic as well as accessibility. It's the only job that can easily appeal to the less is more when it comes to clothing, if you catch my drift lol.

[Brandedblade]

snip

TBH all they'd need to do is upgrade alot of these skills into music themed ones. Something I personally wish they would do would be to upgrade the dots and iron Jaws into something musical myself.

[ty_taurus]

TBH all they'd need to do is upgrade alot of these skills into music themed ones. Something I personally wish they would do would be to upgrade the dots and iron Jaws into something musical myself.

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.

[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.

[Aurelius2625]

Taurus has really, really good ideas. I'd like to know what some of those things that you listed, like Hero's March are, but yeah. Great stuff. The Apex changes make sense, I like those a lot.

[ty_taurus]

Taurus has really, really good ideas. I\\'d like to know what some of those things that you listed, like Hero\\'s March are, but yeah. Great stuff. The Apex changes make sense, I like those a lot.

Thank you! I’m glad the idea came out well. The idea with Hero’s March was to drop barrage and have it replace Barrage with the same effect. It would only be available during Wanderer’s, but you’d use it twice per phase. It would more heavily emphasize the archery segment of the archer song in this concept.

[SweetPete]

Honestly, bard is all over the place. It’s like the dev team just don’t know what they wanna do with the job anymore. Every expansion they have made it more archer/ranger than bard support. I agree it’s a dps job but why isn’t it like dancer? Dancer has a healthy amount of support and dps and bard is just mostly dps and crappy dps at that and the songs just seem to be there. There is no natural flow to bard at all like dancer. In 6.0 I truly hope they take the feedback given to them and take bard to the drawing board and give us a healthy balance of dps and support just like they did with dancer. I can’t stand where bard is right now. It’s not a bad job but I am seeing quite a bit of bard mains switching to either dancer or machinist. It’s quite sad. Bard deserves better. Honestly at this point just remove songs from bard and change its name to ranger and get it over it because right now that seems like what they want to do anyway. What a shame.

[Jirah]

TBH i feel bard is the best structured ranged out of the 3, sure its support isnt as fun or effective as DNC and its dps isnt as big as MCH (for all the bloody difference that makes in casual content tbh) but its alot more fun to play which makes all the difference. its number is in need of a buff, and its support needs a tune up but the basic jist of the job should remain the same with very few exceptions. We all know the devs definition of a "rework" is and its not pretty. From the sound of it people either want DNC 2.0 or suffocate BRD with songs despite the fact it has a mostly even amount of song and archery but you only notice the archery since ya know...your DPS-ing. Adjust the numbers of its DPS or support, but for god sakes dont "reowrk" it

[SweetPete]

TBH i feel bard is the best structured ranged out of the 3, sure its support isnt as fun or effective as DNC and its dps isnt as big as MCH (for all the bloody difference that makes in casual content tbh) but its alot more fun to play which makes all the difference. its number is in need of a buff, and its support needs a tune up but the basic jist of the job should remain the same with very few exceptions. We all know the devs definition of a "rework" is and its not pretty. From the sound of it people either want DNC 2.0 or suffocate BRD with songs despite the fact it has a mostly even amount of song and archery but you only notice the archery since ya know...your DPS-ing. Adjust the numbers of its DPS or support, but for god sakes dont "reowrk" it

I think fans of bard know what the job could be and SE is to scared to do it. They said they don’t want 2 main support jobs but they themselves have backed themselves into a corner because bard was the first true support then dancer arrived and just took all of it. It’s not fair to bards. Bards support is nowhere near dancers at all and dps is nowhere near machinist. The job doesn’t flow well and to me is all over the place. I feel the job is 90% archer/ranger and 10% support, when dancer is a healthy 50/50. All I’m saying is bard could be on the same level but SE seems scared to do that because they don’t want another bard/dragoon situation where bard/dancer are mandatory for high end raids. That’s very sad and honestly not a good excuse for what they did to bard. They stripped bard of all its support when 5.0 came out. Player backlash made them give back support but they gave crappy support back. No where near dancers level of support. Give bard is healthy 50/50 or heck even a healthy 60/40 and I’ll be happy with that.