So how would you buff bard? (Just like to hear peoples thoughts)

[Carighan]

Just because the job is doing Numbers™, does not mean it's actually a good job.

Yeah but that could be FFXIV's sub-header at this point, that goes for ~all jobs.

[mallleable]

But Bard is doing a good job people at ultimate and savage on discords are crying for a good BRD to join their group. DNC and MCH need help and BRD too but that comes down to role more than BRD being bad

BRD is only doing well because it can give PCT a 10%+ damage buff every 2 minutes.

also DNC is by far the most popular phys ranged in FRU right now so it's almost like people will prioritize fun, and ease of play over rDPS.

[Connor]

BRD is only doing well because it can give PCT a 10%+ damage buff every 2 minutes.

also DNC is by far the most popular phys ranged in FRU right now so it's almost like people will prioritize fun, and ease of play over rDPS.

It does seem Bard isn’t exactly high on the ‘popularity’ scale, especially in higher end content. It’s not the worst, but not great. I think lol. So it is true that being ‘ok/decent dps’ isn’t exactly making everyone play it.

Still, I can definitely see the devs turning being like ‘people wanted Bard changes? But it’s been doing [the numbers]!’ lol. As if being the best poop of three is a major achievement lol (the poop here being phys ranged).

Like, I think to any player Bard (and the other phys ranged) definitely need ‘more’ to make them fun/interesting/valuable/etc. But for the devs it’s like they look exclusively at [the numbers] and are like ‘yes clearly this job is a success no problems here’, even when it has a relatively small use rate.

[Shyxx]

BRD is only doing well because it can give PCT a 10%+ damage buff every 2 minutes.

also DNC is by far the most popular phys ranged in FRU right now so it's almost like people will prioritize fun, and ease of play over rDPS.

Agreed but that doesn't change the fact that right now physical ranged is only included because of the 1% bonus. They need to get their head out of their *** to realize melee is vastly easier now than BRD and other phys ranged and remove the "difficulty tax".

[Sindal]

I mean,
The point of my thread was just to hear peoples thoughs on how they might like bard to overcome their ranged tax.
Not to outperform melee, just shed their tax. Because they are paying it as are the other ranged DPS.

it was not a 'ONLY' bard should get a buff. I was just focusing in on the one I usually play more than the others. I wholehearted want machinist and dancer to also receive some love as well.

People usually have varying answers, some wanting to acutally be 'bards' which isn't feasable considering that this incarnation of bard is 'an archer, but also music'.
Getting some of hte PVP tools would also be nice.
What a world it would be if bards got some damage boost if they were further away from their targets.

[Shyxx]

I disagree with "not to outperform melee" BRD is harder than every melee they need to get rid of the "ranged tax" melee is so easy with the current tiers

[Azurarok]

Like with any of the other physranged jobs, if the role is considered to be easier and thus shouldn't be allowed to have higher dps than them, they should receive a complexity boost. Personally I'm not a fan of them getting it in the way Melees and Casters primarily have it with limited range/positionals and cast times, but if they do implement attacks that involve standing at a specific distance away from the target, they should overhaul the target circle to include a visual indicator for them too (it needs an overhaul anyways, all the flashy effects are making it harder and harder to see it lately, even with other players' turned off).

I actually find BRD harder to play than a fair lot of jobs because of its song and dot management and rng procs, which adds to the things I need to be monitoring, but if it needs any more make sidewinder do more damage when used with DoTs applied again, and make song procs work off DoTs again. Other than that, make DoTs still do damage when the boss is untargetable.

[Valence]

I don't know where this myth comes from that BRD is harder than melee jobs to be honest.

[Shyxx]

You've never tried to maximize BRD to be honest it's so much harder than SAM PCT VPR for example

[Raraka]

I don't know where this myth comes from that BRD is harder than melee jobs to be honest.

I would say its harder to pick up compared to melees, in execution is about... slightly harder than melees

The main difficulty of bard is juggling all the timers at the same time, emp arrow, song, getting to burst with 100 gauge and 3 bloodletters, sidewinder, and of course, the dots. Most melee usually can book it and do just fine, while on bard messing up 1 or 2 of your timers will seriously make you wish you didnt

On the topic of the thread title. I would make it so Bards start battle with the 3 Coda (mostly for things like dungeons or alliance where you have time out of combat), and add a second charge of Emp arrow to help with the drifting