Bard Rework

[Renathras]

They aren't going to change the mainhand weapons of Jobs at this point. While we could get a new musician Job in the future (unlikely, but possible - we did get DNC), we aren't going to see BRD suddenly stop using a bow, be its own Job, have Archer become something else, etc.

Me personally, I like the idea of BRD since it's how a lot of people see the Bard class fantasy or play it in games like D&D - a ranged, stand off character who buffs his allies, debuffs their enemies, and does some token damage from the safety of range with a little magic on the side - but FFXIV's BRD is just too...chaotic. Leveling one and doing it in some roulettes, I find that a lot of the random procs and stuff are annoying to keep up with, I kinda wish Iron Jaws didn't exist and it was just optimal to refresh your DoTs manually, and I wish things procing was much more visible without having to glue your eyes to your hotbars.

Don't get me wrong, I like the "simple" rotation and priority system, and how you can roll through songs, but there are a LOT of changes I'd make if I was going to design/redesign the Job myself.

...but some people love the randomness and stuff, and for those, I wouldn't want to take it away from them. I'd say we have to see what actual BRD players want with the Job and go from there, honestly.

[Kosachi]

I'd say we have to see what actual BRD players want with the Job and go from there, honestly.

This is sadly more complicated than it may seem. Biggest problems that I've seen over the years are A) SE has no idea WHO exactly to listen to and B) It doesn't seem like they have anyone on their team that plays the job at any kind of high level to make sense of the asks. The changes that came about with Endwalker were kind of just what people (Influencers, not people who play the job) said they wanted for the job mashed together into a mush without any semblance of thought for how they would work together.

-Three stacks of BL? Who cares! We have half procs now. Procs that come at like what, less than half the rate they used to? What's the point. Would have been amazing when we had the full dot procs rate but why now? Now take those uber slow BL procs and make them 100 potency. Maximizing their usage/buff alignment just doesn't feel good anymore.

-Make EA's CD not scale with SkS? Nice! Now the speed bard that was popular in SB and ShB is dead. (That was my playstyle.)

-And don't even get my started on the limp dot potencies. What was the point of that? Bard used to be the ruler of multi target fights and now you're griefing if you bring it into TEA when it used to be dominant for the first two phases. Was it incredibly difficult to play properly on multi-target? Yup. But the rewards made the effort worth it and that's just gone now.

-Not having your songs proc with dot ticks was the single biggest mistake they ever made with this job. Nobody who plays the job asked for this. Less than nobody asked for this. Leagues bigger mistake than bow mage.

-Minor personal gripe of mine was them getting rid of Flaming Arrow and Misery's End. Were they a little bloaty? Flaming Arrow: Yes. Misery's End: Debatable (but I think not). But the biggest thing they provided was variety and that's something I feel bard, and most other jobs, sorely lack.

-Make blast arrow last 30s. For the love of God.

But what do I know? I've just been playing bard at a high level for almost a decade ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ETA: I know I'm salty, but I love this job deeply and the direction they're taking it is worrying to me.

[RisenDante]

They aren't going to change the mainhand weapons of Jobs at this point. While we could get a new musician Job in the future (unlikely, but possible - we did get DNC), we aren't going to see BRD suddenly stop using a bow, be its own Job, have Archer become something else, etc.

Me personally, I like the idea of BRD since it's how a lot of people see the Bard class fantasy or play it in games like D&D - a ranged, stand off character who buffs his allies, debuffs their enemies, and does some token damage from the safety of range with a little magic on the side - but FFXIV's BRD is just too...chaotic. Leveling one and doing it in some roulettes, I find that a lot of the random procs and stuff are annoying to keep up with, I kinda wish Iron Jaws didn't exist and it was just optimal to refresh your DoTs manually, and I wish things procing was much more visible without having to glue your eyes to your hotbars.

Don't get me wrong, I like the "simple" rotation and priority system, and how you can roll through songs, but there are a LOT of changes I'd make if I was going to design/redesign the Job myself.

...but some people love the randomness and stuff, and for those, I wouldn't want to take it away from them. I'd say we have to see what actual BRD players want with the Job and go from there, honestly..

That wouldn't be the furthest from the truth, even when you mention pen and paper type of games, like DnD or other MMO's, as a bow addict i can verify that bow has its own little niche type of killer on every type of game apart from FFXIV for some reason, with the permanent debuff of supporting. It even got idolizing several types of blockbuster fantasy film characters like Legolas or Hawkeye. Yet here one could never be a proud Marksman. Hell, historically even Ninjas favored bow over others. While Bard in such games stick with the magic usage, cause simply music is mind affecting.
Avoiding any misconceptions, marksmanship as a term, should be counted in power of fire arms like Machinist's? Cause in my eyes that doesn't make much sense.
Also, im sorry, i dont want to comment in anyway about the game/skill mechanics, I'm not a game designer nor a math person, i only address the class fantasy and role that i see as an issue.