Bard pre-launch tweak wishlist

[SlyRoyale]

Here are some things I would like to contribute to the wish list:

1) Change Empyreal Arrow back into an off-global weaponskill, like it was in Heavensward and Stormblood. Allowing skill speed, Army's Paeon repertoire effect, and the Army's Muse buff to reduce its recast may be a niche quality of life change, but it will smooth things out with avoiding potential drift during double- or triple-weave windows. It can also be streamlined so that it is the only single-target weaponskill to not use Barrage's effect, seeing how it is now meant to be used on Straight Shot/Refulgent Arrow.

2) Allow a single use of Pitch Perfect outside of the Wanderer's Minuet if the song ends with repertoire stacks available to spend. This will prevent losing uses of the ability when repertoire is generated at the very end of the song, which is an unfortunate loss of potential damage.

3) Add a stack spender for Army's Paeon. As it stands, the repertoire effect caps out at four stacks, so any further procs are lost to overflow or only contribute to Soul Voice generation. Having a stack spender, like granting stacks of Straight Shot Ready or a potency buff for example, would give us more options and activity for the song. This would be a good change due to the extended duration of songs in Endwalker.

4a) Return the River of Blood trait. Before Stormblood, the effect of resetting Bloodletter's recast (and Rain of Death's since Stormblood) was originally a trait. Since Stormblood, it was moved into a repurposed Mage's Ballad, where we only get the effect for the song's duration. The River of Blood trait should be brought back, which leads to the next item:

4b) Repurpose Mage's Ballad's repertoire effect. Should the River of Blood trait make a return, the repertoire effect of this song could be increased proc generation. This would allow for more Bloodletter/Rain of Death resets and a faster accumulation of Soul Voice. Ethos and Muse effects can be added as well, allowing a weaker version of the original effect carry over into the next song.

[Cetonis]

snip

2,3,4 here are almost definitely impossible in the context of a final tuning situation (as much as I wanted 2 as well).

They could probably swap EA's skill type, and you're right that it would essentially "buy back" a GCD of drift per cycle. I assume SE would rather give it charges though, in terms of addressing the related concern. Either would work.