Phys Ranged Skill Feedback

[Connor]

I don't see the use in Empyreal getting charges since they already proc often in my opinion, but I don't have an opinion on it other than that.

I don’t think it’s about the frequency of uses as much as it is about cool-down alignment being so rigid for Bards that Empyreal Arrow charges would add some flexibility to the job because drifting etc wouldn’t cause as much of a loss. I think? Post above explains it much better lol

[dspguy]

Flamethrower, as a capstone skill, really needs something to improve it. It's usage right now is limited to trash pulls where Air Anchor and Chainsaw have a cooldown greater than 10s and we don't have ricochet/gauss rounds to burn before hypercharge. And its damage increase over just using scattergun is questionable.

Have it accrue heat. Have it spend heat to increase its damage. Increase its base damage. It really is a terrible ability right now. Every expansion, I'm surprised it wasn't changed or removed.

[wildvenonat]

Hi there, i just wanted to leave a small list of my suggested changes for each of the Phys ranged, i play all three and have varying thoughts but other than big reworks I think some of these could be (relatively) simple changes for each.

I personally like Improvisation, but otherwise agree on everything else.

I believe though that BRD also needs access to a terrible song without a notable cooldown so that BRD can merely be pwned upon death rather than having its entire rotation blown to shreds. It should be strictly worse than not having died, to keep it feeling interestingly terrible when you mess up, but IMO dying as bard feels like you just can't really play for ages. Sad trombone. Ninja and BLM have notoriously punishing rotations, but they're still more adaptable upon a death than BRD.

[Stasya]

I strongly oppose charges to emperyal arrow. BRD’s proc organisation system is explicitly designed around emperyal arrow being the soft controller for your proc order because you either spend it or drift it

Soft control over other skills is something we don’t see much of in this game and I don’t want to lose it on BRD

..... you can't control rng of procs and it's annoying to use, begging for next 3s song don't proc, are you SE intern btw?

[Naryoril]

Dancer

Tillana
The +50 gauge buff in Dawntrail made this a guaranteed overcap on Espirit Gauge during two minute and openers. I'd like to see Dance of the Dawn removed from Technical Step and add to Tillana "Dance of the Dawn Ready" and remove the +50 Gauge buff.

This would need to be combined with potency buffs of some skills, because as is, this change would simply amount to removing the +50 gauge without any compensation whatsoever. The better solution would do what they did for other classes: don't give +50 gauge, but give a buff that lets you use the gauge skill for free.

[Rika007]

I don't play enough MCH to comment on those changes, all I would like to see for them is there AOE rotation get the same love and care that their single target did. Don't care how they do it, but good god it's the worst AOE rotation in the game and is an insta no play for me in dungeons and field map styled content where mobs exist for that reason alone.

The Bard and MCH notes I can definitely comment on though:

-EA charges. Yes. A thousand times yes. Like this is the number one that every Bard is asking for and it should be a no brainer. And with how bad ranged damage in general is there shouldn't even be need for a compensation nerf. Just throw it on and call it a day. The constant choice between clipping aGCD and letting it drift is easily the WORST part of the job and its a huge shame because this is the most playable and fun BRD has been since Stormblood, DT BRD has really shown some good care in bringing the job back to prominence after two expansions of negelct.

-WM changes. I feel back and forth on this. On one hand it is good skill expression. On the other hand it is REALLY annoying to have that proc happen RIGHT when you need to use EA. And using a 2 proc PP just really doesn't feel satisfying. Not sure on this one. I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I also would like to something different.

-Barrage CD cut in half. Yep. Right there with the change to EA, this is a big need. Add some more stuff to do in the downtime of the jobs 1 min. Give it some more power outside of sidewinder in that moment. Especially since RA is the weakest of the burst window GCD's it doesn't hurt to have it duplicated so we get more uses out of it (plus i mean it also just looks damn cool, I wanna see it used more often).

-Repelling: Yeah. Personally I don't care if they just give Bard their own version of En Avant, just dont give them a bunch of charges, and also do the same for MCH. Too many jobs have too many movement tools at this point, and these jobs mobility are supposed to be a strong point. Once you are the odd man out and everyone else has something that you don't, it ceases to be "unique" and instead becomes a weakness. All the casters and even some of the healers have stronger mobility options now, to go along with every single melee. Give the same to BRD and MCH, or start taking it away from those jobs (which spoilers, is never gonna happen).

-I also personally would ask for the ability to stack two instances of Hawks Eye, but that is more of a pet peeve want. A Bane effect on Iron Jaws or sidewinder (if there is a concern about BRD getting to strong in AOE) would also be really nice. But above all there needs to be a fix for songs rigid alignment issues, so that deaths and small rotation gaffes can be fixed. Hell even if its just a cooldown change that is enough to allow for fixing the song flow but not enough for any cheesiness, I will take it. But that should be right up there with second charge of EA in importance.

For Dancer:

-Tilana: Yeah this is really annoying and has messed up the flow of Dancer. And flow is really all Dancer has. Especially with having so many "so and so ready" traits on other jobs to insure no over-capping happens, this really is just a bizarre change. Make it Dance of the Dawn ready at the bare minimum, but also the extra 50 espirit charge should really be looked at overall.

-Improv: Yeah I'd really like to have this ability reworked entirely. sure you can weave it for a weaker version, and I do, but that doesn't make it satisfying to do. Change it up. Maybe make it so it's not a channel and is instead is a buff that allows you to weave in oGCDs to gain stacks so that you can then use it's full power. As of now its full power can only be used in downtime moments and downtime moments already are frustrating as is, so the dev team doesn't put them in often.

[Raikai]

I honestly think if Improv remains as it is, the shield portion should be much bigger. Currently is such a puny shield that even in a rare downtime moment, it makes almost no difference.

I'd even give up that shield for a slightly stronger regen effect, since that's the actual usefulness of the action.

[EchoingPulse]

Being a Bard main, it breaks my heart when I am 6th on the aggro chart and sometimes 7th under certain Healers, and this is while I'm decked in current raid gear. I love my bard to death, and nothing will change that love. I do wish they got a damage boost across the board to keep up.

[Valence]

( The points I'm not replying means I agree with! )

-Repelling: Yeah. Personally I don't care if they just give Bard their own version of En Avant, just dont give them a bunch of charges, and also do the same for MCH. Too many jobs have too many movement tools at this point, and these jobs mobility are supposed to be a strong point. Once you are the odd man out and everyone else has something that you don't, it ceases to be "unique" and instead becomes a weakness. All the casters and even some of the healers have stronger mobility options now, to go along with every single melee. Give the same to BRD and MCH, or start taking it away from those jobs (which spoilers, is never gonna happen).

I'm not totally sure why people keep asking for BRD and MCH to get movement tools. What for beyond pure button bloat? I could be tempted to agree if an actual attack move was locked behind them (like DNC in pvp, etc), but otherwise, this makes little sense. For DNC it used to make sense in ShB but now that they removed the melee attacks from the single target burst... I guess it still makes sense for AoE? Either way, i'd rather them fix things that are actually important than trying to give mobility tools to a role that literally doesn't need any just for the sake of it. And I don't want to see a mobility tool used as an excuse to further nerf the role's damage to the ground (I know we're already in the grave but still).

-I also personally would ask for the ability to stack two instances of Hawks Eye, but that is more of a pet peeve want.

I would hate that change. This is literally what killed all of DNC priority system around Flourish when they introduced different proc buffs from Flourish so that they wouldn't overwrite the ones from the normal combo. On top of it, the only reason you're asking for Hawk's Eye stacking I assume is not to overwrite a RA proc with Barrage, and introducing that change would remove triage and priority gameplay during the burst where it's literally the only place there is any remaining on BRD.

If your concern is that it makes Barrage drift over time, I do agree and over very long fights with absolutely shitty luck, it could end up out of burst (personally never happened to me yet but who knows...). If that's the concern, then I'd rather them to reduce the recast instead. Skill's still way too valuable to use outside of bursts anyway.

[Rika007]

( The points I'm not replying means I agree with! )
I'm not totally sure why people keep asking for BRD and MCH to get movement tools. What for beyond pure button bloat? I could be tempted to agree if an actual attack move was locked behind them (like DNC in pvp, etc), but otherwise, this makes little sense. For DNC it used to make sense in ShB but now that they removed the melee attacks from the single target burst... I guess it still makes sense for AoE? Either way, i'd rather them fix things that are actually important than trying to give mobility tools to a role that literally doesn't need any just for the sake of it. And I don't want to see a mobility tool used as an excuse to further nerf the role's damage to the ground (I know we're already in the grave but still).

Because when it was only Dancer doing it it's fine. But it's not only Dancer. It's nearly every job in the game now. Save AST and SCH, every other job has engage tools or flat out movement tools to make hectic moments easier. If it was JUST dancer that was flying around, then sure whatever. But now Picto is topping dps charts with a go anywhere button every 20 seconds. A well played Black Mage is unironically more mobile then both Bard and Mch. Hell even WHM has a f this I'm out button. Every Melee has a disengage tool. Sage can go to whomever and wherever they want.


This is what I mean by they are the odd ones out. And honestly the low damage IMO makes it even more of a reason they should have them. Mobility is supposed to be part of the reason we are paying that stupid ranged tax. MCH and BRD should not feel like they are less mobile then classes that are doing way more damage.

I would hate that change. This is literally what killed all of DNC priority system around Flourish when they introduced different proc buffs from Flourish so that they wouldn't overwrite the ones from the normal combo. On top of it, the only reason you're asking for Hawk's Eye stacking I assume is not to overwrite a RA proc with Barrage, and introducing that change would remove triage and priority gameplay during the burst where it's literally the only place there is any remaining on BRD.

If your concern is that it makes Barrage drift over time, I do agree and over very long fights with absolutely shitty luck, it could end up out of burst (personally never happened to me yet but who knows...). If that's the concern, then I'd rather them to reduce the recast instead. Skill's still way too valuable to use outside of bursts anyway.

Nah they already fixed the RA Barrage proc overwrite issue. Barrage now has it's own buff that grants a use of RA that will get used before Hawks Eye gets used. So if your worried about that killing Bard? Yeah that's already been done.

I purely only want it for two reasons:

1) the odd timings that come up with Iron Jaws sometimes that causes you to need to refresh when you already have an RA proc and also in the opener when you have to setup dots. I personally hated that they put RA procs on Iron Jaws and the bite abilities to start with, but if they are gonna keep it that way I'd like the ability to mitigate that myself. I know I can just do the refresh a GCD before, but that is just not as satisfying as literally waiting till the absolute last second to use IJ and refreshing dots RIGHT as they are about to fall off.

2) I like the idea of being able to stack up RA procs for burst windows. Even if it's only two. Pressing RA is more fun then pressing BA. This has been mitigated a bit by now having Resonant Arrow and Radiant Encore, so burst windows aren't nearly as monotonous as they were on Bard during the awful ShB and EW dark times, but it would just feel better to know near the end of AP that I need to build a stack or two so I can really make my burst hit it's hardest.