Bard "buff"

[CKNovel]

the world first for tea and e12s had a physical range dps a freaking bard. know your stuff. a 10 potency increase on the most spamable ability on bard is enough until 6.0

That's not the reason there was a BRD (or any ranged) in their group.
If you paid attention, you can see that there is a 1% bonus stat for each different role your group have.

Thoses roles are:
Tanks PLD WAR DRK GND
Healers WHM SCH AST
Melee MNK DRG NIN SAM
Ranged BRD MCH DNC
Casters BLM SMN RDM

The 1% applies to all main stats, including HP and directly affecting your DPS.
Currently, if there wasn't this bonus, easy comp would play with 2 Melees and 2 Casters.

And that 1% is the only reason why all groups wants (or NEEDs) a ranged.

Apart from that, rangeds bring little to the table and that's the issue.
Look at MCH, it has a good mitigation but not enough to compete with Addle and its DPS will never match the one of a BLM/SMN.

And Sfia's group (World first TEA&E12S) had a SMN, BLM, BRD, NIN. It wasn't a lie or a mistake.
Double melee or double caster have no issues, but double ranged comp have their rDPS taxed for no reason except """mobility""" that was proved to be worthless on the most mobile tier.

As someone said:
"Know your stuff"

[Kabooa]

That's not the reason there was a BRD in their group.

While we can only speculate why it's specifically "Bard", there is a strong preference for Bard in world race teams. Maybe the ranged player just loves bard that much, who knows.

But it's more likely that out of the three PRanged, Bard is the only one that actually brings a non-number based utility. Thus giving it a DPS boost would only solidify it.

And, because we're bringing up Sfia's team again, recall it's Melee - Caster - Ranged - Something that they're pushing for. The caster slot is effectively locked to Red Mage / Summoner (Favoring summoner), and the only time this wasn't true was early in 5.0, where sometimes, rarely, you had a solo caster Black Mage for prog, but still a strong preference for Summoner even with the problems people had with their annual rework.

It would be ideal if the "Something" was legitimately a competitive spot for every job to throw in their unique utility, but that ship has likely long sailed.

I've brought it up before, but might as well formalize the "Something" as its own role, shove the problem children into it, and we start from a new normalized baseline.

[SnowVix]

But it's more likely that out of the three PRanged, Bard is the only one that actually brings a non-number based utility. Thus giving it a DPS boost would only solidify it.

Minne is incredibly useful in world race when you're doing stuff at bare minimum item level to qualify, and throwing a healing boost on the main tank can end up being the difference between a living and dead tank, then Wanderer's Paean can be a boost when you have an unexpected Esuna mechanic. plus, bard has the least issues for prog, having no time when it needs to be melee (DNC) and no time when it gets weave issues (MCH). that said, it's more about what classes you're best at, not necessarily what classes are best

also, half of TEA is a 2-target fight, and BRD is ridiculous in 2-target due to being a DoT-based class.

[Beddict]

While we can only speculate why it's specifically "Bard", there is a strong preference for Bard in world race teams. Maybe the ranged player just loves bard that much, who knows.

TpS was on Mogtalk two weeks ago and that was actually a question that came up. IIRC, BRD was chosen over DNC just because it's the easier of the two Jobs. Less procs on BRD made it easier to pay attention to the fight unlike DNC where you've got GCD procs, Feathers, Feather procs, and Esprit and Flourish. BRD's Song rotation is also easier to deal with unlike DNC where you gotta keep that Technical Step moving or it drifts horribly. I am pretty sure those were the main two reasons, but I can't verify since the podcast is almost four hours long and I have no idea where the timestamp is. Still, they do actually answer that question for why BRD over DNC.

[Cetonis]

TpS was on Mogtalk two weeks ago and that was actually a question that came up. IIRC, BRD was chosen over DNC just because it's the easier of the two Jobs. Less procs on BRD made it easier to pay attention to the fight unlike DNC where you've got GCD procs, Feathers, Feather procs, and Esprit and Flourish. BRD's Song rotation is also easier to deal with unlike DNC where you gotta keep that Technical Step moving or it drifts horribly. I am pretty sure those were the main two reasons, but I can't verify since the podcast is almost four hours long and I have no idea where the timestamp is. Still, they do actually answer that question for why BRD over DNC.

That's.... baffling. Dancer procs are extremely forgiving and low-pressure, giving you ample time to use them, whereas many Bard procs must be used within 3 seconds (or less) or else. Bard probably also gets more procs, numerically, over the course of a fight, and has DoTs to upkeep.

This sounds like the person just wanted to play Bard, and fed the team some nonsense explanation because none of them knew any better.

The comment about Technical Step is more true, and gets at the general reason not to bring a Dancer to prog. Dancer requires a very well-optimized group to outperform the other ranged, with bursts tightly planned and aligned, a partner who is on point and not going to die, etc. and that simply isn't what a first clear looks like. Dancer is good to have for Curing Waltz, but you do so knowing full well you're taking a hit on damage output.

Bard vs. Machinist is a little more of a guessing game, because with a strong-dps group Bard should win by a little while bringing some help via Minne, while Machinist is better at contributing damage to sloppy runs but lacks upside if you're at a point of needing a little plus-RNG to clear.