Inevitable Job Simplifications?

[tearagion]

"Bow Mage" was one of, if not the, worst implementations of BRD in all of FFXIV's history.

nah, EW is easily the worst iteration of bard, it's like they specifically designed it to piss off anyone who liked bard at any point before. Like DoT? Fuck you they're bad, don't interact with anything when they used to be core to Repertoire and before that always had a chance to reset BL cd, and have 45s fucking timers making upkeep a joke and sleep-inducing. Like songs? Fuck you they're boring, Army's is better than Mage's, Army's muse exists, Battle Voice and Radiant Finale are flavourless 2mins, nothing costs mana or takes thought, 3s Repertoire ticks makes song duration locked and leaves 2 useless seconds at the end of every song, and you need a fucking target to sing a song. Like Procs? These are some of the most boring in the game, only PP has any thinking involved and it's a low bar. Like casting as a phys ranged? Better pray for PvP to rub off on 7.0 bard. Like being a support DPS? DNC and MCH both have better utility in hard content, DNC is the golden child for buffing (better now than early EW or ShB). Liked the old 30s songs? Enjoy 2 min cycle like everyone else. The list goes on. The only good change (without fine print) I can think of is Blast Arrow making Apex Arrow less punishing to not get 100/100 SG on every minute.