The unrewarding state of physical ranged

[Rika007]

Though, I'm pretty sure nobody complained about BRD job design. Only MCH(still holding onto that hope that they revert MCH dear god)

That's the one thing I was gonna say honestly... Pretty sure Stormblood Bard was one of the most well received reworks in 14's history. It was one of the most well loved jobs in the game. Shadowbringers destroyed that. It's one of the least played jobs now.

[Jirah]

That's the one thing I was gonna say honestly... Pretty sure Stormblood Bard was one of the most well received reworks in 14's history. It was one of the most well loved jobs in the game. Shadowbringers destroyed that. It's one of the least played jobs now.

lets be honest SB and SHB BRD are pretty identical they lost MP/TP support and Foes and play somewhat the same, it is only the least played because DNC is brand new and MCH is essentially not recognized from SB MCH and is the safest non threatening job in the game with zero real concerns. Hard to compete with that

[Rika007]

lets be honest SB and SHB BRD are pretty identical they lost MP/TP support and Foes and play somewhat the same, it is only the least played because DNC is brand new and MCH is essentially not recognized from SB MCH and is the safest non threatening job in the game with zero real concerns. Hard to compete with that

Nothing about that statement is honest, SB and SHB Bard are only alike in the core base rotation being the same. Outside of that SHB is a vastly inferior job due to the many passive trait changes they implemented, causing far more frustrations in things like just basic gameplay, on top of all the changes made to the support kit.

-Procs no longer being based on Crit means that the ramp up we felt later on in the expansion where Repertoire happened far more often due to higher crit ratios is now gone. That removes the really fun feeling of having those insane 3 or 4 full powered pitch perfects within raging strikes, or the high level play of judging when it was smarter to use two stacks to avoid an overcap. This turned what was once a heavy burst job into a more sustained damage job, as Bard now has one of the lowest bursts in the game when it used to be one of the highest in Stormblood.

-The straight shot buff now proc'ing on Iron Jaws creates more damage bleed as you can overwrite refulgent procs due to conflicts that arise from needing to reapply Iron Jaws.

-The implementation of Apex Arrow and the Soul Gauge causes another wrench in the rotation causing frustration, as one, it is your second hardest hitting ability that can't be relied upon to show up during your raging strikes burst window. And two, is another GCD that is pushed into your main rotation that you want to use as soon as it hits 100%, but also can cause conflicts if it hits 100 right when you need to reapply Iron Jaws. Also it's another AOE aim dependent move which is just not fun or satisfying to players to use... but that is diverging from the topic.

-The addition of the Army's Muse trait causes anyone without good ping to run into clipping issues while attempting to double weave whenever they leave Army's Paeon and goes into Army's Minuet.

The only outright positive changes that came about to the rotation was the addition of Barrage, proc'ing refulgent. Anything else was a negative.

As for the Support loss you are massively underplaying the other things that Bard loss. TP support is the only thing no ones crying about losing. Any good Bard worth their salt also enjoyed the mini-game of planning out refresh uses to insure they got the most use out of Foe's Requiem to line up with raid window buffs. Trobadour being something that was dependent upon which song you used was another skill expression moment, as it required fight knowledge, although I understand some may prefer the new way. Nature's minne may have been buffed in power, but it was also doubled in cool down, which means less uses overall. Which combined with the gutting of palisade, left anyone who enjoyed using it in raid settings to help deal with auto attack damage when all major healer and tank cooldowns have been blown (after Hello World 2 in A12s being my favorite part). That's a whole lot of interactive support Bard lost that good Bard players did take advantage of and use, that was replaced with nothing.

Add all that in with the obscenely low damage output, and nah I can't in anyway say it's honest to state that SB and SHB Bard still play the same. SHB Bard is just the remaining bones of what was once a near perfect job. The meat and soul of what made it great are gone. Dancer and the MCH rework coming in may have led to a few leaving, but that doesn't add up to what was legitimately the most played DPS job at all levels of play suddenly becoming the second lowest of all jobs, with only Monk being lower.

[Jirah]

Nothing about that statement is honest, SB and SHB Bard are only alike in the core base rotation being the same.

this is exactly what i meant when i said they played the same as in "you play them and feel little difference besides TPMP management foes and straight shot buff" im aware of crit being changed for a flat percentage and actually never noticed it before until i reread my Dot description. I never ran into issues with Iron jaws and refulgent being conflicting tbh Apex arrow is a aoe skill first which is stupidly designed for single fights and itll be remembered as a questionable choice to have the aoe before a ST action i understand that well and it flows unnaturally with the whole kit due to the capp damage and GCD type deal. The role loss isnt unique to BRD, MCH also lost all there goods.

potency is irrelevant to me in the grand scheme of things tbh, if the job plays well thats all that matters potency is just nonsense due it being non-concrete unless its completely under powered or overpowered which BRD isnt. MCH and DNC are literally the reason why BRD is so low played and the community fooling themselves its the weakest job even weird complaints saying its too hard or too busy which is completely contrary to people wishing it was SB again. BRD lost a arm and a leg due to the role nerf i wont deny that but BRD isnt no where near a horrible state as other jobs just because its "obscenely low damage output" or because it not popular