Quote Originally Posted by Rika007 View Post
Because those of us who like Bard for far longer then just the last year and a half of play actually would like to get back to what drew us into the job, which was a support dps hybrid, not a DPS with a few very un-engaging support skills. At this point I support the party more when I play Summoner or Red Mage then I do when I'm on Bard. Yes I would also say job lore and fantasy is also important, but I didn't play bard for 6 straight years to just play a Ranger in all but name. I don't want to be the 'middle ground' between MCH and DNC. I want the job identity that Dancer stole back from Bard.
I'm not sure what qualifies as un-engaging support skills, but I have a hard time understanding how things like Embolden, Devotion or both DNC steps (Technical and Standard) are any different from BRD's battle voice or BRD's aoe song buffs in the "engagement department".
If you are talking about ARR/HW/SB BRD, it was broken, it had ridiculous personal damage, full mobility and what I believe was the highest raid damage too. Both ranged classes were so over the top that anything that wasn't MCH + BRD + DRG could be labelled as a troll party in HW/SB.

BRD's TP and MP refresh doesn't make sense within the current state of the game. What kind of support skills are you even asking for at this point? You've got a permanent damage buff to the entire party in the form of DH/CH/Damage, and a very strong 20% DH buff every 3 minutes. Then, as defensive tools you have Troubadour (10% damage reduction in aoe) ,Nature's Minne (20% more healing on target) and the Warden's Pean (admittedly...this one's a bit underwhelming, but hey, it's still better than nothing).
I think BRD's support at the moment is only lower than DNC (which has less personal damage in most fights) and perhaps slightly lower than NIN?
Looks fine to me.

The only thing I'd personally welcome with BRD are a few QoL changes because the job is unreasonably complex compared to DNC and MCH.