A challenge. Make Bard more Bard.

[Darkhaund]

More intrusments please
more variety and "unique" songs

in 11 it was sad that we just had flute and strings and the SAME "tune" for everthing

[Talshara_Blade]

They should have made it so that it was the bard that was singing the trailer's song. oh, and BRD's should be more of a hybrid support/DD job cause they are thought of more as "Singing Swashbucklers" if you ask me. They should be able to fight and sing on the run, I think singing and moving at the same time should be a staple of being a bard. Like in the trailer , she used a spell(protect?) or something while jumping through the air, then promptly started flinging arrows again.

[Sakasa]

Well if it is ascetics that you really want not so much a complete redesign then maybe a combo song system. So instead of one song every time the buff drops there are multiple smaller buffs that can end in a ws bonus combo or a spell bonus combo. So song 1 > song 2 > ws and when you do the combo the sound effects are a "complete" tune and you need both songs for the full buff. And for animation you would have the folded instrument weapons (assuming there will be more then just the AF) that when you use the song the weapon returns to it's instrument look before return back to the bow for the ws and/or auto attack. Now this where gear design , memory, and practicality comes into play. For the bow you would be able to do saxophones, guitars/lutes, and similar shaped objects and change the pitch and tone for them when the songs played.

[MrKupo]

I can't tell if you are talking about in the cutscenes or as a job altogether. In the cutscenes, I agree. Archer and Bard are different enough that it wouldn't hurt to show both in the cutscenes, archer being on the frontlines attacking and bard in the back singing some nice tunes to the mages.

Gameplay wise, bards are widely used for their buffing songs. And only more will come with the cap raise. If anything, make the songs they play more distinguishable and loud so that all can hear. If we can hear a song and know which buff it is without having to read the information on our log, then that there is a good representation of what a Bard should sound like I think.

[Fafnir_Nidhogg]

Everyone makes an excellent point and I can agree that Bard could use some more distinction. I bet SE is waiting till the level cap is raised before we see more abilities for each job. It seems all of the advanced classes are just barely setting into their true skill sets. I wanted to see more as well across the board but I realize it may leave SE no where to go later on. All we can do is hope SE settles into the new rebuilt system soon and moves forward with content for everyone who has spent the last two years waiting for something more. I sympathize with the overall situation and understand SE is doing what it can to provide all players with a quality gaming experience. I do wish we could get SE to release the flood gates of new information sooner concerning 2.0. That way we can foresee what game play is really going to be like with job abilities for Bard and such. I am guessing they will keep changing things up to the last minute and doesn't want to commit content as much to players. I hate the guessing game

[Qually]

NUUUUU Bard is Perfect the way it is , no need for Harp or anything else than new songs which can do more effects or attack songs. That will make it just perfect

[Masamune1004]

I liked playing as a bard in 1.0. If they change it in 2.0 to be more bard-like I may not want to play it anymore, but I still agree with what you're saying.

[Twiddle]

I am for, and against truth be told... more against, then for actually.

I played XI BRD (what you want) for 5+ years, and well let's face it having all songs 1-75 made NO difference as long as you had Refresh, Attack, Accuracy, Haste buffs and Slow, Sleep... i had ~62 different songs available and I was only needed to play 6. What was the point of the rest of the song's you never use? Or only used under super special and unique conditions? I payed ~100k for song's i played 1 time in 5 years (after learning it) and then never again. No thanks. As well having 20 different instrument's, and debuff song's which didn't like to stick even when combined with gorilla glue.

Would much rather have a Rift bard (what we have now) were the job can do DPS and have it's song's (only what's needed) for support. And stream lined with none of that dead weight that XI bard had. The more stream lined the better.. instrument wise "voice" is plenty.

[Majidah]

I am for, and against truth be told... more against, then for actually.

I played XI BRD (what you want) for 5+ years, and well let's face it having all songs 1-75 made NO difference as long as you had Refresh, Attack, Accuracy, Haste buffs and Slow, Sleep... i had ~62 different songs available and I was only needed to play 6. What was the point of the rest of the song's you never use? Or only used under super special and unique conditions? I payed ~100k for song's i played 1 time in 5 years (after learning it) and then never again. No thanks. As well having 20 different instrument's, and debuff song's which didn't like to stick even when combined with gorilla glue.

Would much rather have a Rift bard (what we have now) were the job can do DPS and have it's song's (only what's needed) for support. And stream lined with none of that dead weight that XI bard had. The more stream lined the better.. instrument wise "voice" is plenty.

I agree 100%.

To this I'd like to add that in XIV BRD has the HIGHEST enfeebling in the GAME, in the G A M E.
If you did bard against nael extreme you will probably know that bard casting aero for bleed would stick 5/6 vs 2/6.
Bloodletter had a highly proc'ing debuff as well.

Lets keep that in mind, now let me follow through with a different topic for a second.
Bard could use either a haste or attack up song, the rest would be useless.
What Bard needs desperately though is lullaby and debuffs.

But for debuffs, do we want songs? Why not just add more debuffs to our WS's?

We know bard isn't a top tier DPS, but he DPS's anyway and he is (this is big) the highest enfeebler that currently exists. So why not make the focus of his DPS keeping debuffs on the mob?

Songs for buffs, WS for debuffs.

[Ingolf]

I am for, and against truth be told... more against, then for actually.

I played XI BRD (what you want) for 5+ years, and well let's face it having all songs 1-75 made NO difference as long as you had Refresh, Attack, Accuracy, Haste buffs and Slow, Sleep... i had ~62 different songs available and I was only needed to play 6. What was the point of the rest of the song's you never use? Or only used under super special and unique conditions? I payed ~100k for song's i played 1 time in 5 years (after learning it) and then never again. No thanks. As well having 20 different instrument's, and debuff song's which didn't like to stick even when combined with gorilla glue.

Would much rather have a Rift bard (what we have now) were the job can do DPS and have it's song's (only what's needed) for support. And stream lined with none of that dead weight that XI bard had. The more stream lined the better.. instrument wise "voice" is plenty.

Whilst I agree that having loads of songs that are useless is a bad idea (which XI did) I don't think there's a problem with having a substantial amount of songs that actually do serve a purpose. BRD had other songs like Hymnus which was useful if your reraise wasn't up, or you needed it fast.

I don't think there should be LOADS of instruments either. Just a few harps and flutes, which maybe augments your favourite song, or lets you sing a second.

As for the debuff songs in XI, the only ones that didn't stick to anything were the Requiems. Every other debuff stuck easily, unless the mob was completely immune (elegy on Kirin for example). Let's not forget Magic Finale too.