Simple changes that would tremendously help PvP

[Mistress_Irika]

Honestly, I would like more game modes.

However, because of how antsy I am I'll never force myself to be loud with this one. For some reason every time we get something new something else gets deleted. This feels as though it's exclusive for pvp only, and I'm not sure why pvp has to have a lack of things to do.

[Nanne]

Honestly, I would like more game modes.

However, because of how antsy I am I'll never force myself to be loud with this one. For some reason every time we get something new something else gets deleted. This feels as though it's exclusive for pvp only, and I'm not sure why pvp has to have a lack of things to do.

Because PvP has a history of being dead and splitting the few players it had into more modes seemed like a bad idea I guess

[Mistress_Irika]

Because PvP has a history of being dead and splitting the few players it had into more modes seemed like a bad idea I guess

I guess...I guess I'm recently having difficulties accepting that reasoning as valid nowadays.

[RyanCousland]

Because PvP has a history of being dead and splitting the few players it had into more modes seemed like a bad idea I guess

i dont think this is really the case, the problem with PVP in terms of activity is accessibility + rewards, if feast was brought back either as a pre-made mode as well as a solo casual mode and RW were put into the roulette itd be just as busy as casual CC is now, the series rewards pass made CC casual not follow the same end as feast, FL is always busy because of Job xp as well as being in Front of the other pvp modes which if RW had that accessibility it would be just as busy, adding variety will never be an issue

[Valence]

People acting like pvp isn't active is always funny to read. Casual is mega active.

If you want active pvp, introduce dailies like for Frontlines. CC casual doesn't need that for now, but it wouldn't hurt anybody to have it. They could even do it for RW, yet they don't and I just can't grasp the why, since people enjoy the mode when there is incentive behind (moogle tomes, etc).

[Connor]

Am I the only one who feels like we have far too little abilities in PvP? At least 2-3 more would be nice lol. Especially for Scholar, once you’ve spread Adloquium / Biolysis there’s nothing left to do except Broil IV

Also as fun as Bard is to play (give me PvE Powerful Shot plz Yoshi), it feels mostly useless outside of silencing one enemy every 20 seconds lol, besides the occasional Empyreal Arrow kill steal lol.

Apex and Blast are tied to your support so you either can’t fully utilise the aoe and shoot it immediately to get the buffs up as soon as possible, or leave the buffs off while you reposition for Apex.

Warden’s Paean has a really long cool-down for PvP despite having a largely ‘meh’ effect, I get that Purify on a party member is really powerful but once every 30 seconds just feels kinda pointless. Warden’s Grace only lasts for like 1 second too, so if the target isn’t hit again immediately they’re not going to actually benefit from the effects lol. At least make it a spell instead of a cool-down like it used to be

Then there’s the LB. It looks amazing, and is very ‘Bard’. Except it basically doesn’t do anything lol . I’m not sure why they wanted to load Bards up with haste/skill speed in the first place, but waiting 120s for a 10% damage boost is just depressing lol. Especially in a game where everything is fixed potencies - that’s a gain of just 3600 on Marksman’s Spite lol. With Apex/Blast up it’s 20% so 7200, unless there’s something I don’t know about scaling. Considering there are jobs out there with aoe Insta-kills, party wide healing/mitigation, huge single target bursts…it just feels kinda bad when it comes to using Bard’s lb lol

[Elfidan]

To be honest I think the number of skills available is generally ok, but I find it weird that some jobs just have more buttons than others when the actions available are just a thinned-out version of what you might use in pve. I would totally back adding more actions for certain classes that feel like they just spam 1-2-3 all match though.

I keep seeing people pooping on BRD in general, but I actually feel like I am controlling the flow of combat as BRD in CC. It's kind of a neat roll buffing people and crowd controlling targets while still doing a decent bit of burst on the enemy team. I feel like most people who play BRD anywhere in FFXIV really just want Ranger from 11 or Hunter from wow instead of the BRD/RNG highbred we got.

[Connor]

snip

It makes sense to do if on a job by job basis for adding new abilities since different jobs could use different things. I just feel like some jobs could use an extra cool-down or two

As for Bard, feeling like you’re doing something is great, but aren’t you kind of holding your team back by playing a Bard? It just doesn’t feel very useful compared to like Samurai, Ninja, or even other ranged like Machinist or Summoner. I’m not sure pressing silence every 15 seconds really qualifies as ‘controlling the battle’ lol, or at least it doesn’t feel that way to me. It can potentially be broken powerful, sure, but also fairly easy to plan around if you’re prepared. Scholar has that playstyle down to a tee in PvP, however, with managing and spreading Galvanize and Biolysis buff/debuff, and using Seraph which gives the same effect as Warden’s Paean but to all party members in range. Or Astrologian with cards, Gravity II and Double Cast additional effects.

I’m not sure what the last part really has to do with PvP, but surely PvP Bard epitomizes the singing Ranger archetype everyone begs for? Our songs are literal Archery attacks now lol. I get that they needed to consolidate buttons but surely it would’ve made more sense for Frontliner’s March and Forte to be actual song buttons like Nocturne than being a passive aspect of your burst lol (and only AoE)

[Elfidan]

yes they definitely do need to look at each job and adjust some cooldowns as some are stacked while others don't really get as much. A prime example is comparing RPR to any of the other melee. Everyone else can gap close 2-3 times with loads of added effects and the like, meanwhile RPR can't even openly egress without having used ingress first which is a really awesome thing about it outside pvp.

I mean if you consider silence the only control BRD has we just have vastly different opinions. Being able to time and position for party-wide buffs leading up to a series of bursts, Cleaving the enemy team who are trying to stack to push the crystal, or binding a player out of mp before they can escape really does feel like more control than most other jobs to me because none of these are limit break gimmicks that you have to wait on a bar to charge for.

No, RNG in 11 was a lot more like MCH doing burst where every hit was massive. It's like playing a Marksman hunter in wow during any of the era's where they absolutely dumpstered everyone. BRD in 14 leans more toward the BRD from 11 where buffing is really important to not mess up and keep timed properly. PVP however is a bit more flexible since it's quick engagements often. People really don't seem to want BRD to be a buffing job in terms of PVP at least they always talk about how it can't solo anyone in FL or how it's holding the team back in CC. I personally will take a good BRD over other supportive DPS any day. I don't know if comparing it to healers though is really that good of a thing to do since they fulfill a different sort of support. It's more like DNC than anything else in pvp.

[Connor]

BRD in 14 leans more toward the BRD from 11 where buffing is really important to not mess up and keep timed properly.

FFXIV’s Bard specifically came from Archer in 1.23 because they wanted to move away from the XI style Bard that was pure support. The developers also literally admitted it was a big mistake and they never should’ve done it.

They also thought ‘Hunter’ would be too boring for most players, so they layered songs abilities on top of Archery and called it ‘Bard’. Between 1.23 - 4.0 Bard was closer to the XI model where you had actual spells that you sing to grant buffs to party members (1.23 was pure XI style buff application, 2.0 onwards used aura style buffs for songs). For Bard’s ‘songs’ now, effects are 30 yalms from the user after the ability, and it acts as an aura around the Bard, rather than just applying the buff to anyone nearby on usage. Positioning for songs isn’t really necessary (unless you’ve got a party member who’s really far away for some reason lol). Unless you mean to maximise the dps from Apex/Blast, which makes more sense, but doesn’t really have anything to do with ‘support’ really.

Then 4.0 came and they decided ‘you know what this job needs? More Archery ’. So they deleted the old songs, replaced with oGCD attack abilities and specifically tied them to your personal dps rotation so you never have to think about supporting again. Then you get to 6.3 and it may as well be entirely passive because all the support comes out at the same time as your burst anyway. Buffing is literally the least important part of Bard and that’s entirely intentional lol; what’s most important is your dps output. Hence why Blast and Apex also happen to give the party buffs (for no apparent reason lol).

Personally I agree that Bard should be more like it’s XI counterpart. But it really doesn’t feel like that to me, especially in PvP. Sure, being able to Bind and Silence enemies is useful, I guess, but as I said couldn’t you just go Ninja and do the exact same but with better damage? Stun, Heavy and an instant-kill at 50% HP and single target healing for a party member and large shield for self? And as if that wasn’t enough you also have literally the exact same non-lb support as a Bard lol. 10% damage increase (albeit not with full uptime but then you can’t use Apex/Blast as burst if you’re going full uptime since you need to use them as soon as possible.