BRD idea: Songs with MP usage

[Akonyl]

I bring up the usage of the MP gauge for BRD pretty often, it's something I miss from the HW days. But I don't think just inserting MP into the rotation is the way to go (because rotations, even when they seem freeform, tend to arrive at an "answer" at which point the MP cost doesn't become very relevant), what I'd like to see is them delving more into the support side of the "support role" brd was supposed to be (rather than just +rdps), like how MP+TP songs used to be (+foe, but that was just +rdps).

For example, give BRDs extra OGCD utility buttons that cost MP, but also give some mediocre, non-rotation-defining MP-cost OGCD ability. That way, during prog, we can blow our mana on utility skills and support the group, but as the training wheels come off, we can funnel more of our MP resource into the extra damage ping ability as a reward for optimizing well.

I'm still steamed about how the "Ballad of Oblivion" questline was related to burial rites/soothing of souls and it wasn't a ressurrection or something (since we'd just had our healer LB3 taken away), and was instead just the boring sidewinder button. Maybe give BRDs a rez song that takes like 80% of the bar too or something, then you could have other things be a tiny heal, a tiny solo mit (palisade), etc.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

I bring up the usage of the MP gauge for BRD pretty often, it's something I miss from the HW days. But I don't think just inserting MP into the rotation is the way to go (because rotations, even when they seem freeform, tend to arrive at an "answer" at which point the MP cost doesn't become very relevant), what I'd like to see is them delving more into the support side of the "support role" brd was supposed to be (rather than just +rdps), like how MP+TP songs used to be (+foe, but that was just +rdps).

For example, give BRDs extra OGCD utility buttons that cost MP, but also give some mediocre, non-rotation-defining MP-cost OGCD ability. That way, during prog, we can blow our mana on utility skills and support the group, but as the training wheels come off, we can funnel more of our MP resource into the extra damage ping ability as a reward for optimizing well.

I'm still steamed about how the "Ballad of Oblivion" questline was related to burial rites/soothing of souls and it wasn't a ressurrection or something (since we'd just had our healer LB3 taken away), and was instead just the boring sidewinder button. Maybe give BRDs a rez song that takes like 80% of the bar too or something, then you could have other things be a tiny heal, a tiny solo mit (palisade), etc.

I'd like to see Bard damage drop and group augmentation increase.

(random shower thought)
Imagine if while running a song; using your certain abilities at certain "windows" within the song would provide group buff effects - akin to a rhythm game - so say "Mages ballad 20-15 seconds left - Blood letter will trigger a small group heal; Ironjaw will trigger a 2% damage mit for all, etc etc" the idea of treating bardic gameplay more like musical playstyles of its namesake - different songs make attacks provide different effects at different times and eventually result in when you hit Radiant Finale being a powerful party buff depending on the "score" you had written up to that point.

Never happen but would be nice to see bard become a support class; hell I cannot recall the last time I used Wardens Paeon outside of a dungeon where the healer was asleep.

[mallleable]

I'd like to see Bard damage drop and group augmentation increase.

It's already like that, and it feels awful to play right now. I, a BRD player, do not want this anymore.

[Ramiee]

I'd like to see Bard damage drop and group augmentation increase.

Bard damage is almost in Tank territory already, anymore nerfs to Bard damage and you'll be fighting for the top spots in tank damage.

[Akonyl]

I'd like to see Bard damage drop and group augmentation increase.

(random shower thought)
Imagine if while running a song; using your certain abilities at certain "windows" within the song would provide group buff effects - akin to a rhythm game - so say "Mages ballad 20-15 seconds left - Blood letter will trigger a small group heal; Ironjaw will trigger a 2% damage mit for all, etc etc" the idea of treating bardic gameplay more like musical playstyles of its namesake - different songs make attacks provide different effects at different times and eventually result in when you hit Radiant Finale being a powerful party buff depending on the "score" you had written up to that point.

Never happen but would be nice to see bard become a support class; hell I cannot recall the last time I used Wardens Paeon outside of a dungeon where the healer was asleep.

The major issue here is that doing that with support skills just makes them necessarily worse, because it becomes time-locked and isn't always usable when it needs to be. Bard actually had something similar back in stormblood, when the current song system was introduced. Troubadour, the party mitigation button, actually had a different effect depending on which song you were in: +HP during WM, +mag def during MB, +phys def during AP. It led to a lot of feelsbad situations where someone goes "hey can you help out with this raidwide?" and the answer is "sorry, I gotta be in army's at that point". Troub also had the major issue where it didn't apply to the bard at first (making it a "the bard saves everyone but still dies" button), but that was fixed pretty quick + isn't actually relevant here (funny as it was in retrospect).

That's kinda why my suggestion is as it is, it lets them give BRD more potential utility without tying it to our rotation / requiring us to kneecap ourselves to mess up our rotation to align a timing to get the correct utility. I don't particularly have anything against bard damage staying where it is, so long as its group damage buffs are enough to compensate, or we get legitimate utility (with use that doesn't make people just want to shelve the bard after prog, hence my suggestion letting you switch the utility for a bit of damage), or whatever.