I'm disgusted with the bard nerf.

[Clarkamite]

Can someone explain to me this idea of weapon damage not scaling properly on bard? I keep reading that all over the place but I have never heard of it until recently. What's going on with that?

EDIT: When I check the stats on their weapons it shows the weapon damage increasing with each successive increase in iLvl so I'm just confused as to what is being discussed as far as this stat not scaling as well with bards vs. other classes

[DoubleD]

Can someone explain to me this idea of weapon damage not scaling properly on bard? I keep reading that all over the place but I have never heard of it until recently. What's going on with that?

It has much lower base damage than the other dps jobs. Each time a higher Ilvl weapon comes out, the weapon damage increases. It increases higher for the other jobs. Too lazy to look up the real numbers, so for example if a Dragoons WD increases 5, the bards will only increase 3. With each patch, SE keeps on widening this gap to further unnecessarily nerf bards. For example, Dragoon WD will increase 8 next patch. Bard will only increase 5. Widening the gap from 2 to 3. Equal skill / Equal gear, a bard will not come close to out DPSing any other DPS job, so this is really just unnecessary and frustrating.

[Ooshima]

It has much lower base damage than the other dps jobs. Each time a higher Ilvl weapon comes out, the weapon damage increases. It increases higher for the other jobs. Too lazy to look up the real numbers, so for example if a Dragoons WD increases 5, the bards will only increase 3. With each patch, SE keeps on widening this gap to further unnecessarily nerf bards. For example, Dragoon WD will increase 8 next patch. Bard will only increase 5. Widening the gap from 2 to 3. Equal skill / Equal gear, a bard will not come close to out DPSing any other DPS job, so this is really just unnecessary and frustrating.

To be exact, specifically for this patch, every other DPS jobs weapon upgrade from IL110 to IL130 gets 1 more WD than BRD.

[Sove92]

BRD however has a trait that increases their base damage by 20%. They are intended as a support-dps anyway, so it's natural that their DPS is not that high. If the gap grows too wide, there will be a buff at that point, right now, there is no need, bards don't parse that much lower considering their role.

[Viridiana]

BRD however has a trait that increases their base damage by 20%. They are intended as a support-dps anyway, so it's natural that their DPS is not that high.

Meanwhile, BLM and SMN get 30% boost traits and higher weapon damage.

[gamesmart]

Meanwhile, BLM and SMN get 30% boost traits and higher weapon damage.

The thing is, we don't have auto-attacks. We need that extra weapon damage to compensate.

[Viridiana]

The thing is, we don't have auto-attacks. We need that extra weapon damage to compensate.

BLM and SMN get way, way more magic weapon damage than any other DPS class in the game. That should already be enough to compensate for the auto-attacks. Nevermind that a lot of SMN players hug the bosses in order to use their auto-attack, because SMN auto-attack can add up to a fair bit of damage over the course of a fight. Keep in mind that a SMN has as much physical weapon damage as every non-BRD class, on top of having a magic weapon damage stat 40% higher than that. If you think they need 40% more weapon damage and 30% more base action damage in order to compensate for auto-attacks, I have to wonder how powerful you think auto-attacks are.

BRD, meanwhile, has a 20% potency buff trait. That almost equals out a NIN's poison, DRG's Heavy Thrust, or a MNK's DK+TS, if you speak very roughly on percentages (a little over in the case of Heavy Thrust). Then add in the 6 weapon damage difference. A BRD with T13 weapon is wielding something between i110 and i115 for the other classes. That's how big of a DPS difference we're talking. Then figure in the buffs I didn't mention, like Huton and Greased Lightning. Or things like Chaos Thrust by itself being almost as strong as Barrage, only it's on a 30 second timer instead of 90 seconds.

So, yeah, BRD could use some love. I'm probably switching to NIN main, so it doesn't affect me as much, but it's still something I'd like to see happen.

[ServerCollaps]

The thing is, we don't have auto-attacks. We need that extra weapon damage to compensate.

skilled caster stay in autoatk range and deal additional dmg with autoatks when possible

[Ooshima]

If the gap grows too wide, there will be a buff at that point, right now, there is no need, bards don't parse that much lower considering their role.

My question to you is, why wait till then to fix, when you could preemptively prevent an imbalance in the future?

If you have noticed, since Savage SCoB, a 2 MNK party composition has became a common trait among the top competitive raid groups/FCs. Reason? Increasingly tougher raid DPS requirements. The 2 MNKs are kind of carrying the party's required DPS, they are not allowed to fail a single bit (not saying others can fail, but you get the idea).

Other groups that runs without 2 MNKs managed to get their clear slightly later, with more drops and gears. The DRG fix and BLM buff is certainly welcomed to allow a more varied group composition but it still doesn't change the fact that 2 MNKs party are still the top favorite if one wants the highest raid DPS possible.

So what comes for Savage FCoB (if it comes) and future raids? 3 MNKs party? Or will it become a fixed MNK/MNK/BLM(because magic, caster LB, AoE king, infintie MP)/BRD (because you kind of still need one) composition where other DPS jobs will find it difficult to fit in?

If there hasn't been such a huge gap, maybe we could have a more varied team composition without sacrificing firepower? You are more than likely to bring a BRD with you anyways, why do you want to wait to see his/her DPS gap widen to a pathetic state before getting a fix.

Yes, BRDs are mobile, they have unique and quite indispensable utility but that doesn't mean that they should eventually be lagging behind by a margin.

[lxChrisxl]

If there hasn't been such a huge gap, maybe we could have a more varied team composition without sacrificing firepower? You are more than likely to bring a BRD with you anyways, why do you want to wait to see his/her DPS gap widen to a pathetic state before getting a fix.

Yes, BRDs are mobile, they have unique and quite indispensable utility but that doesn't mean that they should eventually be lagging behind by a margin.

finally somebody gets it! i can't understand why all of these people want bards to do like no damage at all just because they're supposed to be support. to the other person that said we get a 20% base increase like it's a big deal we're also the only class that has to suffer with -20% as well. the only thing that gets accomplished by having the bards get weaker and weaker is it makes clearing the latest coils more annoying and makes people use less classes. it's hurting everybody more than it's helping