Bard Needs ‘Looked At’

[Jirah]

Last time they “looked at” a job were AST, BLM, and SMN. Draw your own conclusion as if its a good idea for them to “look at” others

[mallleable]

Last time they “looked at” a job were AST, BLM, and SMN. Draw your own conclusion as if its a good idea for them to “look at” others

I keep hoping for a MNK/PLD level rework of BRD -- like changes that may piss off the vets, but ultimately leads to the job being a lot stronger, and more flexible. I don't think BRD's strictness, and fragility has a place in the future.

[Connor]

Last time they “looked at” a job were AST, BLM, and SMN. Draw your own conclusion as if its a good idea for them to “look at” others

Fair point. Nothing seems to come out unscathed when they ‘look at’ jobs based on their track record. They’d probably remove the DoTs ‘so you can focus on Burst Shot’ or something ridiculous lol. Apex/Blast no longer uses gauge, is just a standard cd. God I’m just giving them ideas aren’t I?!

Still though it’s probably the copium talking but I’d like to believe they can do better lol. Hopefully. we’ve just yet to see it for phys ranged

[Absurdity]

They’d probably remove the DoTs ‘so you can focus on Burst Shot’ or something ridiculous lol.

Not that unlikely, those are already vestigial since Endwalker.
All the DoTs do nowadays is give you access to Refulgent Arrow, something that your Burst Shot can already do and you spam that anyway. So if they simply increased the proc chance on Burst Shot they could remove DoTs and it would make barely a difference gameplay-wise.

Which doesn't mean that I think it's a great idea, but it says a lot about the sad state of what was once a core aspect of the job.

[Carighan]

That's not the primary thing tbh. The more DoTs your class has, the more resilient your overall output is too messing up, something every one of us does multiple times in a single fight. Which kinda makes sense as we're supposed to keep the timing on the songs up, so having some extra leniency in regards to missing a GCD roll or using the wrong DPS ability makes sense. Of course like you say, gameplay it doesn't matter sadly. Still want a DoT class.

[Reginald_Cain]

Bard is funny. People assume its easy because for some reason they assume phys ranged is easy but it's super punishing to die like red mage, really awkward to optimize song cut offs, only job nowadays to manage two dots in single target and way harder than dancer for basically the same pay off.

Meanwhile viper did the phys ranged job for them in m6s because uncoiled fury was broken. Viper is a braindead job btw. Forget bard for 1 sec machinist shouldn't even be in the phys ranged role because being balanced around two supports as a pure dps gunner will forever kneecap its enjoyment and viability. The dps subroles really need to be reviewed and reworked. summoner and red mage having to compete with black mage and picto just doesnt make sense. bard and dancer are nothing like machinist other than being ranged. Ninja was garbage until this patch despite being way harder than viper and no longer having a 60s raid buff cd.

My idea may suck but here's my proposed change to the subroles.
Put red mage bard and dancer in the support dps subrole give summoner a stance that controls whether it wants a support role kit with extra carbuncle/phoenix buffs and its res or a raw dps kit with focus on bahamuts and aggressive summons like ifrit and garuda. I think summoner would benefit from being a multiroler within the dps subroles because its thematic and cool.

The role i would next make is called Blaster, this would contain selfish summoner, black mage, pictomancer and machinist. This is the role to play if you like high damage ranged jobs.

now that we have all the ranged dps covered it is now time to address the whopping SIX melee jobs we have. Samurai and Viper are the only TRUE selfish melees and despite being easy for me to play I think this warrants keeping them high damage jobs. I'm not sure if we should break up the melee role into two subroles because we'd only have 2 selfish and 4 with some kind of raid buff. that would eliminate the flex spot if I did so perhaps we can balance the melee's to be closer in dps be it thru buffing the party or personal damage. really i think the easiest way is to make all melee's selfish and instead of having damage buffs give jobs like ninja, dragoon and reaper give defensive buffs like monk's mantra. If that proves too unlikeable then perhaps we can try making the raid damage contributed by buffs smaller to mitigate less selfish melee falling behind because they're team underperforms.

[Seraph_Variel]

I’d say the fact the Bard playerbase is so clearly divided into 3 entirely separate groups and clashing (traditional Bards, traditional Rangers, FFXIV Barchers) is a massive issue in and of itself. No other job in the game has such a divided playerbase, because no other job in the game is as confused about what it is/does than Bard.

I’ve been saying since Stormblood that Bards identity is completely fucked when you consider the fact that literally no two players will even define it the same; ‘archer with instruments’, ‘musician with bow’, ‘a bit of both’ ‘a dot dps’ ‘a proc dps’ ‘a support dps’. Look how that’s going for it lol

You know, I've never actually really thought about this, despite being very clearly in the "I play this like a dot dps ranger with support tools that happen to be music related" camp especially with regards to my glamour. I actually really enjoy the current gameplay for it, and repelling shot was a core part of my rotation during LHW, since I was constantly swapping between ranged and melee positions for my group, not to mention the debuff barrier of warden's. The songs are definitely the minor part for me, in the end.

Regardless, I do think things need to change. Minne being a 2m cooldown for 15% party healing up via GCD is... not great.

The strictness of the rotation (While exactly what I enjoy, being a failure point on the player's end) was a massive issue that led to quite a number of my parses during that tier being quite bad, not that I was aiming for good ones over a clear, mind you.

Warden's Paean only having a use once in a blue moon, and usually only in old content bar, like, the off-chance you remember it exists during something like Idyllic dream and end up wasting a healer's GCD.

The songs are boring. Even as someone who enjoys their strict, 45 (effectively 42) second timers, they just boil down to "Dont Overcap also this is your burst", "Don't overcap, but keep 1-2 by the end for burst", and "Wait, you can overcap your Apex arrow gauge, you need that for burst". ...I think I don't even need to explain more. Other people have much better and polarizing ideas than I.

[Azurarok]

When there's already been 3 DPS jobs reworked to represent their SNES counterparts that have pushed out its mains and left them to starve I'm a lot more hesitant about having any job get major reworks to "fit the job fantasy better"

[Connor]

When there's already been 3 DPS jobs reworked to represent their SNES counterparts that have pushed out its mains and left them to starve I'm a lot more hesitant about having any job get major reworks to "fit the job fantasy better"

I mean, does the fact they’ve failed before really guarantee they’ll fail again every time? If that’s the case why is the game even still running, when we know the outcome of 8.0 already? (Failure).

Again I just think they can do better lol

[NightHour]

bards need a ott more power

No it doesn't..

Bard is the best Physical ranged in end game and has been for a while.


Physical Ranged and Casters are in a weird spot.



Physical Ranged and Casters are getting punished by a nonsensical balancing logic dubbed "Ranged Tax"



"Ranged Tax" is an outdated, archaic balancing logic that serves no other purpose than to stroke melee players ego.





The original reasoning for "Ranged Tax" consisted of a few key points


1. Melee have to fight for uptime
2. Melee jobs are generally more complex.
3. Ranged jobs have freedom of movement.
4. Ranged Jobs bring utility and raid buffs to a party.
5. Melee have positional requirements on their abilities.




Let's discuss these key points shall we?

Melee have to fight for uptime

I'm sorry but not in 2026.

Yoshi-P has said in the past that fight mechanics are "designed with melee uptime in mind".


Also 90% of mechanics now a days resolve at max melee or have some sort of safe spot allowing melee to keep uptime.

Sorry but the "we gotta optimize uptime" statement is complete utter bs.

If you're forced off a boss, congrats you have a ranged attack (unless you're a monk).

Doing little damage while disconnected from a boss is better than doing 0.

Melee jobs are generally more complex.

No, they really aren't.

Except for maybe Monk and Ninja.

Ranged jobs have freedom of movement.

Melee can move freely also.

You have no cast times, unless you're RPR or SAM.

Ranged Jobs bring utility and raid buffs to a party.

This is probably the most nonsensical reason for "Ranged Tax" existing.


Dokumori? Battle Litany? Brotherhood? Arcane Circle? - Last I checked, these are raid buffs.


Feint? Mantra? Arcane Crest? Earth's Reply? - Raid utility abilities.

Melee have positional requirements on their abilities.

True North goes brrr.

Many bosses have omni-directional phases also.

Boss hitboxes are also MUCH bigger than they were 8-10 years ago as well as many bosses being wall bosses.

















I'm not sure what the actual % difference is between the worst melee and the worst ranged, probably 10-15%?

It needs to be 5 or less.