Bard nerf is good

[Nubrication]

Now let’s compare to bard’s SOLO kill potential to any other class, only pld and sch are beneath it. The only time bard can secure kills reliably is with a well placed silence burst. That’s almost the ONLY time. Emp arrow dmg by itself can easily be recuperated. PP is ranged dependent. Then you see meteodive/mnk burst, sam burst/lb, mch burst/lb, sage burst… etc. Every class has reliable ways to secure kills and their toolkits support it, bard’s toolkit doesn’t support it because:

In order to burst you need be in mid range now.

Which means more dmg taken, more self paean, more backstep, more movement, more dmg taken.

Which means more time on elixir, more time moving to reposition when you’re not in burst phase.

Which means less time casting powershot, which means less emp arrows.

Which in turn means less overall damage output.

Do you see a cascading effect? That’s the real nerf here, bard’s toolkit synergy. Bard is squishy btw.

P.S. I’m not even a bard main and I’ve been on the receiving end of silence so many times. Still don’t think the nerf was needed.

[Ransu]

If bard was easy and could easily climb before then I would like to hear from those who got all the way up the ranks playing solely as bards. Have either of you guys done that?

Except for super early into Season 1, I played primarily BRD season 1-3 and reached crystal in all 3 seasons and then gave up trying to play ranked in season 4 when ranked queues were 30+ minutes but that has nothing to do with how strong or weak BRD was since I could have done the same with MCH, or WAR, or DRG, or BLM (especially BLM during Season 2 lol)

You have to be kidding me if you believe a job with a modifiable and cycling tool button and a placed area buff/debuff is easier than one where all you have to know is how to stay at range and target swap.

This is how I know you don't know how to play the game lol. MCH is extremely strong and has a very easy burst setup. The only thing that is annoying is cycling past the dot which forces them into melee range (which is equally as stupid.)

Yes, it’s a powerful wombo combo if your team gets the enemy down to around 50% HP. That’s why you play LOS when you know there’s a good bard on the other team. Instead of rewarding good bards who keep an eye on purify and guard usage to secure kills, they’re rewarding poor players who don’t know what positioning and LOS is and making it easier for them.

The amount of people I come across who do not use recuperate, pop purify or guard too early and just simply have pure tunnel vision and don't back off when getting focused is absolutely terrifying. Dying once or twice is fine, but every game there's at least 2 people who die 5+ times on either team and it scares me because I simply do not understand how you die that often. If I die that much it means my brain is off and its time to take a break.

The rank 1 player on Aether last season played only Bard. And was in the lowest of total games played so it wasn't even a grind.

There was also only 30 people in the top 100 until right before the season ended and the season before that had the same person with 3 different characters in the top 3...So, doesn't really say much lol.

[Hik3n]

Bard skill synergy got destroyed... they can take out silent I don't care, but give me something that does actual dmg, now I need to go in mele range, and i can only do max dmg at max range, what is up with that? So what i will do, i have 2 choose, i stay max range and do normal attacks, or go in mele range and get destroyed, what's the point for a ranged job if it needs to go in mele range, and has skills that do max dmg only at max range? I don't have dmg, i don't have burst , i don't have a skill to escape fights , meanwhile most mele jobs can attack you at a big range, do more dmg than bard , can jump in fights and can jump out ( Ninja for example ), Bard has no utility to survive like ninja, and they force the job to go in melee range.... Anyone who plays pvp a lot can see what is the problem, everything is. They nerfed Bard because everyone who plays ranked got destroyed by someone who actually knows how to play PVP, and he can do that with any other job too if he wants. Bard can be destroyed in seconds if he doesn't play in range, and do it in a way that makes others think twice to go after it, now there is no fear to do so, because you are in their faces, so they can destroy you in seconds because every ranged is paper in this game , meanwhile mele jobs have better defense than actual tanks, they nerfed Bard in a way that makes no sense, without Silent there is almost no way to kill anyone with Bard, it has no dmg to do so, and the only reason it was good was because the good timed silents and nothing more, now you can't time your silent because Sprint is a thing, and you do your stuff at max range for dmg, than when you want to finish your job, you can't because there is nothing to go in to shoot your silent, and no one will wait for you to sprint in, no , they will sprint out, so you have no chance to use your Silent because you will never be in range to do so, the entire thing is a joke and just shows how bad the balance of PVP is when a mele job ( Ninja for example ) is better at range than actual ranged characters. And let's not talk about how Bard skills are, so for example somehow i hit someone with silent, now that it has been nerfed to 2sec by the time i can do anything to the other party silent is already over, so the only people who benefit from silent with this 2 sec are only my team.

[Eisi]

Figures a melee main would say this lmao. You were probably at the receiving end so let me educate you on bardanomics.

I play different jobs and have mostly played Bard in CC. Lower ranks, my highest was Diamond, usually I skillcap in Platinum.

1. In general, even bard players are cool with A nerf on nocturne (even though it wasn’t necessary). Except that the nerf was extensive for no reason at all. Miracle of nature got a range nerf, cannot be purified and could only be prevented by pre-guarding. Nocturne got a range nerf, duration nerf AND dmg nerf. Do you see a disparity yet?

The disparity between White Mage and Bard's overall toolkits? Yes! Here, check my next argument on that:

2. People are comparing rdm silence with brd silence but imo there is no real comparison because rdm aoe silence is there as a resource but they can still get kills without it due to their toolkit.

Oh wait, it's actually your argument!

Bard burst relies ENTIRELY on silent nocturne to secure kills but AT THE SAME TIME, most of it’s toolkit is meant to be played at max range. Why? Because they have an animation lock, move slower and are basically sitting ducks if they want to replenish emp arrow. Do you see why using powershot would be bad mid range?

Animation lock which allows movement, you also replenish via PP and who said you should use Powershot at mid range? What you think Bards couldn't get stormed prior to the nerf?

What’s everyone always doing in pvp? I’ll answer for you, moving. Chances are with a bard at mid range, someone is closing the bard. Basically bye bye Pitch Perfect damage. Bye bye saving paean for tanks or melee. Bye bye backstep to stop a powerful melee.

Yeah, that's the fun part! You sell these new considerations as bad when before Bard didn't have to think much in order to utilize it's kit to the maximum potential.

3. The class was designed to be played at max range, now forced to play at mid-range without enough changes to it’s toolkit to support it. The range nerf causes your OVERALL damage output to suffer (clearly bard was doing a ton of dmg in the first place) due to a cascading effect - I’ll explain later.

Still is but now makes it more interesting than "just stay at range at all times".

Yes, it’s a powerful wombo combo if your team gets the enemy down to around 50% HP. That’s why you play LOS when you know there’s a good bard on the other team. Instead of rewarding good bards who keep an eye on purify and guard usage to secure kills, they’re rewarding poor players who don’t know what positioning and LOS is and making it easier for them.

Ok, which winrates are we talking about here? You wanna reward skilled play when BRD cropped above 50 in higher tiers for being too powerful, was that because people couldn't LoS? Which btw is inherently tied to range on most maps either way.

This is how I know you don't know how to play the game lol. MCH is extremely strong and has a very easy burst setup. The only thing that is annoying is cycling past the dot which forces them into melee range (which is equally as stupid.)

So Bard was easier than MCH, got it. Nice argument Ransu. "But MCH is easy too!"

[Eisi]

Also regarding the "synergy" argument, you must lose your mind looking at the reaper kit. "Just how am I supposed to play this?! Is Arcane Crest for offensive or defense, I don't know!"

And then this "Bard has to go in melee range now (to execute a 15 yalm skill)" is such a deliberate exaggeration when most melee attack ranges don't exceed 6 yalms. If they wanna touch you, yeah you better stay at range! That's the whole point of this update, to make you actually analyze the situation and check what you can get away with! No more mindless executions.

[Ransu]

Hard capped at plat is all people need to see lol.

[Eisi]

Hard capped at plat is all people need to see lol.

Bard has 50%+ winrate in higher rankings though, which is why it got nerfed. The way it got nerfed is condusive to a more interesting playstyle as well.

On the other hand - challenge accepted.

Of course I will climb to crystal on Bard but sometimes I will switch things up to keep it interesting.

[Ransu]

Bard has 50%+ winrate in higher rankings though, which is why it got nerfed. The way it got nerfed is condusive to a more interesting playstyle as well.

On the other hand - challenge accepted.

The last and only infographic we saw officially was around season 2 and literally every job sat at the 50% mark. That's not really the argument you think it is.

[Eisi]

Just getting into new Bard and it's a blast! I never did less damage and scored less assists, I have to completely rethink how to play. Great nerf!

[Ransu]

Just getting into new Bard and it's a blast! I never did less damage and scored less assists, I have to completely rethink how to play. Great nerf!

Now I know you're trolling.