Bard Silent Nocturne.

[Astralrisk]

2. One of the complaints I had as a bard main was the necessity of keeping uptime in order to build arrows. What they did was shift the damage from Empy Arrow to Blast Arrow which was commonly the ability paired with EA for a burst rotation. BA having a +2K buff makes the following situation:
(Pre Patch)
BA + EA (3) = 20K
BA + EA (2) = 16K
BA + EA (1) = 12K

(Post Patch)
BA + EA (3) = 19K
BA + EA (2) = 16K
BA + EA (1) = 13K

If you are dealing with heavy focus or have targets that need to be bursted cycling repeatedly, getting 3 stacks for each burst cycle is harder if not impossible. In those types of situations, Post Patch, your damage is the same or higher. And with BA being an AoE ability, your overall damage is going up as well especially on maps such as C9 or Red Sands where players are more funneled.

The damage is also technically higher if you factor in the damage buffs you get from Apex/Blast Arrow. I don't know if the damage buff from Blast Arrow applies to itself when you use the ability, but if you do Empyrean arrow after Blast it gets like a 10% damage buff at least. It is still a nerf, but the burst still does like 21.4k from those abilities, if my math is correct. It's still pretty good, just slightly toned back from before I feel like.

[VoidsentStatus]

The damage is also technically higher if you factor in the damage buffs you get from Apex/Blast Arrow. I don't know if the damage buff from Blast Arrow applies to itself when you use the ability, but if you do Empyrean arrow after Blast it gets like a 10% damage buff at least. It is still a nerf, but the burst still does like 21.4k from those abilities, if my math is correct. It's still pretty good, just slightly toned back from before I feel like.

*nods* I went to check since I simplified the math. for exact values:
Apex - 8,000
Blast - 10,500 so it only gets a 5% buff instead of ~10%
3307 arrows * 3 = 9921
total = 20421 for post patch.

pre-patch is 8400 for Blast
4410 arrows * 3 = 13230.
21630 total.

21630-20421 = 1209 so 200 health difference technically for 3 stacks from the simplified math.

At 2 stacks you'd be:
10500+6614=17114
vs.
8400+8820=17220.

At 1 stack you'd be:
10500+3307=13807
vs.
8400+4410=12810