Bard is support right?

[SweetPete]

I wont deny that Bard could use a buff, but you do realize that the party buff is supposed to be a byproduct of the songs main effect on the Bard. Bard gameplay is "fine" if you know what I mean, it's just it's potencies need a bit of an adjustment. I think the biggest potency buff they need now if a more streamlined Apex arrow, and the song potencies increased. Bard is well balanced within the ranged role, but not alongside other DPS, when support skill are considered.

I agree with you. I have only been speaking on terms of the support. Bard and Dancer are on par with each other damage wise and that’s totally okay. I also agree with you about Apex arrow being a bit off. Im speaking specifically about the support aspect. The percentages on the damage increase, crit and direct hit from the songs are just way to low. Also bard doesn’t benefit from the song buffs themselves. This seriously needs to change.

[Gallus]

I agree, and I don't agree.

I agree because BRD's passive song buffs are so ridiculously low it wouldn't make a difference to have the BRD itself benefiting from them.

I don't agree about...the above being a relevant factor when considering if BRD's support kit is ok or not.

[Seraphor]

The problem is we have too many support jobs and skills.
Dancer, Bard, AST, then there's Trick Attack, Eye of the Dragon, Chain Stratagem, etc.
Because these can all stack together, they can't have too great an effect or their buffs will quickly snowball out of control and it'll either be too powerful, or the jobs personal damage output will have to be nerfed down to barely anything.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Why would you care that you dont get your own song buffs if one makes you a burst god for 30s, the other turns your bow into a rapidfire arrow-gun for 30s and the last one is basically you after arm day for like 30s?

Apart from minor potency adjustments or some change about Apex Arrow, BRD looks fine to me.

[Darsien]

Why would you care that you dont get your own song buffs if one makes you a burst god for 30s, the other turns your bow into a rapidfire arrow-gun for 30s and the last one is basically you after arm day for like 30s?

Apart from minor potency adjustments or some change about Apex Arrow, BRD looks fine to me.

Burst god? It has the lowest average 30s opener of all 3 physrange while simultaneously having the lowest possible 30s burst due entirely to RNG. That alone tells me you have no idea how Bard works.

[SweetPete]

Burst god? It has the lowest average 30s opener of all 3 physrange while simultaneously having the lowest possible 30s burst due entirely to RNG. That alone tells me you have no idea how Bard works.

Thank you! Which I why I didn’t even respond to it. Has no idea.

[SweetPete]

The problem is we have too many support jobs and skills.
Dancer, Bard, AST, then there's Trick Attack, Eye of the Dragon, Chain Stratagem, etc.
Because these can all stack together, they can't have too great an effect or their buffs will quickly snowball out of control and it'll either be too powerful, or the jobs personal damage output will have to be nerfed down to barely anything.

Then they should just call the job ranger and call it a day. Bard is about support. That’s the fantasy definition of it. I do agree with you when you say to many jobs have support but bards is just way to low and not very impactful to the group whereas dancer, Astro, trick attack, chain stratagem and eye of the dragon are. It’s not fair to bards. Square should correct this.

[Jirah]

Then they should just call the job ranger and call it a day. Bard is about support. That’s the fantasy definition of it. I do agree with you when you say to many jobs have support but bards is just way to low and not very impactful to the group whereas dancer, Astro, trick attack, chain stratagem and eye of the dragon are. It’s not fair to bards. Square should correct this.

Natrues minn, Troubadour and battle voice are all chopped liver than

[BaconBits]

just bring back Foe's Requiem lol

[Rika007]

Natrues minn, Troubadour and battle voice are all chopped liver than

Yes, yes they actually are. Trobadour is a shadow of what it used to be back in Stormblood where it required you to use actual thought and have to communicate with your static when the best use of it was and how the fight lined up with your rotation, now it's just a simplified generic defensive buff that is essentially a glorified role action that was handed out to the other two ranged jobs, just another part of Bard's identity ripped away to make Dancer shine more. Nature's Minne was 'buffed' to allow for it to work on all healing. YAY! But it's cool down timer was double so you get to use it less then half of the time, aka less support usage and chances to flex your play as a support during a fight. Booooo....

Battle Voice is a solid offensive buff yes. But it pales compared to every other offensive buff in the game. It has a longer cool down timer then every single other offensive buff in the game save Devotion and Battle Littany (one of which is a flat damage buff and the other of which is a crit buff, both arguably far stronger stats to be boosting then Direct Hit in all but a few select situations). Trick Attack, Standard Step, Technical Step, Dragon Sight, Brotherhood, Devilment, AST Arcana, Chain Strategem, are all on far shorter cool downs and outside of Dragon sight provide the same if not more benefit than Battle Voice, and EVERY SINGLE ONE of the above abilities I just mentioned, all provide a benefit to the caster of said ability. Battle Voice is the only damage utility in the game that provides the user with NO benefit at all. So not only is it's benefit average or poor compared to its contemporaries, not only do you only get to use it two to three times a fight, but you don't even get anything out of it. It's worse than chopped liver. It's the fat that should have been stripped off the steak.

And before you mention the consistent damage songs let me just put it this way, 95% of Bard's going into Shadowbringers if told they had to axe 2 of the 3 damage buffing support abilities they would have selected the songs first, then Battle Voice second, (and then asked for a new ability to compensate the loss of those) and told the devs to stay the hell away from Foe's Requiem. Cause the songs do nothing for gameplay. They were removed, then added back on, and both changes literally changed nothing about how a Bard plays the game. They don't engage the player or change up anything about what the job does. They are a placebo to try to make Bard players ok with what they loss, and they do a poor job of it.