Quote Originally Posted by Grimoire-M View Post
Complexity from what, exactly? Snapshotting I can agree was more fun, but the need to stack a specific party composition to be viable due to proc variance and gear scaling affecting your base crit chance was decidedly antithetical to the support aspects of the job, purely because it bizarrely required that support to be given to it to function as a real job. I didn’t think there was a problem with ShB Bard as long as we got increased Repertoire proc rate on Raging Strikes. Ballad has proven to survive unscathed, so with the lower cooldown in Endwalker I’d only want it to apply if RS is used during Minuet. Hell the Coda management could unlock that function and I would be satisfied.
The change in repertoire removed Iron Jaws optimization. It dumbed down the job; thereby, removing complexity and depth from those that wanted to do more than the average or bare minimum play. Those that wanted that extra layer of optimization. What optimization is there in IJ now? Far less than there was in SB. Sure, you still snapshot—but under stricter circumstances now. Snapshotting crit buffs doesn’t matter nearly as much now as it did before. And you don’t snapshot as frequently as before. I believe now there has to be at least 2 damage buffs out to snapshot, where as before you could single snapshot if just one crit buff was present. This will likely change again with increased DoT duration in EW. IJ seems like it will become less relevant then than it is now.

BRD was more than capable of functioning “as a real job” without its optimal comp. I’m honestly not sure what you’re even trying to say with that statement. Your post almost insinuates that, without a DRG and SCH, BRD wasn’t viable. BRD was viable. It was just extremely feelsbadman to not have either; especially to not have a DRG.