what can be done to improve the phys ranged situation?

[Akiudo]

my primary gripes with the job boil down to less damage than the melee jobs who have (arguably) less demanding rotations

this is a big aspect many overlook, or just go "duh, you can move totally freely, phys ranged are all easy" while never having actively played one (or at least bard for that matter).

i'll admit i haven't played melee in ages, but i've tanked, i've healed, i've played caster (at least 2 of each of these roles in a raid setting in the last 18 months), none of those came close to the stress i felt on bard.

if i want to optimize my dps on redmage i try to get in an extra cast in a situation where its hard to do so and the second i manage that i gain 40-50 dps.

optimizing dps on bard ? changing up my song rotation, pooling blodletter stacks, making sure i cut my dots as closely as possible while risking for them to fall of completly and costing me 3 times the dps i can ever gain by perfecting it, permanently watch out for proccs so i don't miss one by reacting too late and than theres refulgant arrow and barrage optimization aswell. not even saying bard is hard, but bard is a class that tends to die a death of a thousand cuts when it comes to optimizing it (and dying is brutal as heck depending on where you are in your rotation, not a bard exclusive problem but its definitely one of the classes that get hit the hardest by it).

the procc gameplay honestly takes an enourmos toll on me compared to other classes with a more static rotation. i can raid 4 hours on healer or caster without issues, but 2 hours on bard and i get headaches because the amount of concentration it takes me to optimize the class simply put is exhausting.

[Memoranda]

this is a big aspect many overlook, or just go "duh, you can move totally freely, phys ranged are all easy" while never having actively played one (or at least bard for that matter).

i'll admit i haven't played melee in ages, but i've tanked, i've healed, i've played caster (at least 2 of each of these roles in a raid setting in the last 18 months), none of those came close to the stress i felt on bard.

if i want to optimize my dps on redmage i try to get in an extra cast in a situation where its hard to do so and the second i manage that i gain 40-50 dps.

optimizing dps on bard ? changing up my song rotation, pooling blodletter stacks, making sure i cut my dots as closely as possible while risking for them to fall of completly and costing me 3 times the dps i can ever gain by perfecting it, permanently watch out for proccs so i don't miss one by reacting too late and than theres refulgant arrow and barrage optimization aswell. not even saying bard is hard, but bard is a class that tends to die a death of a thousand cuts when it comes to optimizing it (and dying is brutal as heck depending on where you are in your rotation, not a bard exclusive problem but its definitely one of the classes that get hit the hardest by it).

the procc gameplay honestly takes an enourmos toll on me compared to other classes with a more static rotation. i can raid 4 hours on healer or caster without issues, but 2 hours on bard and i get headaches because the amount of concentration it takes me to optimize the class simply put is exhausting.

See, and I just personally like the satisfaction of playing Bard well and optimizing it as well as is physically possible. It feels really good to hit all my procs and keep an eye on DoT uptime (even if I do kind of find the DoTs in general to be an ancient relic of how the Bard used to be) and correctly managing my songs and their Repertoire stacks.

That good feeling dissipates when I realize that I'm contributing less than a player who's really optimized whatever melee job they're currently on. This is especially true for Ninja, who arguably has a rotation every bit as strict as a Bard does yet aren't saddled with the ranged and support tax ensuring their DPS is barely above Dancer, who is also the support job that provides more meaningful support than the Bard actually does. Like, I'm not asking for Bards to be doing Samurai or Black Mage levels of damage. But there is also no valid reason for them to be at the very bottom of the barrel just because they have a bit of utility and are ranged. The same kind of applies to Dancer, although with how much a Dancer can supercharge a single player I do feel that Dancer itself shouldn't be anywhere other than towards the bottom of the charts.

[Akiudo]

snip

oh totally, i love playing bard, i just don't think its as easy as people make it out to be, in fact i find it harder than a lot of other classes. and yes, dealing shitty damage (and having no meaningfull support while at it) most certainly contributes to people not liking to play bard.