My only issue as a bard in 2.1

[Phai]

Even 5 man, a pure support is a waste over a 3rd DPSer. It's only in large groups, aka raids, that pure support vastly outweighs the loss of a DPS overall. Depending on the support abilities of course. Starting to think that outside coil (inside if party geared enough) better to roll as ARC and be more versatile as DPS due to the increased number of cross class skills as compared to BRDs with support buffs that for the majority of content are wasted slots on the action bars.

Cant argue on that, thats for sure..

SE should just remove songs and make it a pure dps class, and balance it toward rest of dps.
If not, they should make Brd's utility so strong, it makes up for the dps loss and make the other PT members realy benefit from it.

But imo, my statment still stands, planned while drunk, made in the dark.... SE try make an effort plz...


When talking about coil, Brd is only usefull for progressing grp's. after ppl get geard up, brd becomes obselete.

[Ooshima]

Agreeing with OP. No idea what SE is doing. Claims to nerf bard because bard can support and damage is OP (really?).

Okay, nerf BfB from 20% to 10% is fine, but RoD?

Honestly, at times in coil, I think our WHM manages her MP well. And thus the 10% damage reduction were more used/useful than Mage's Ballad lol.

[Elherm]

i think the only reason they nerfed Rain of Death because now war has a 10% dmg reduction as well, if they kept brd RoD it will be a reduction of 20% (war and brd) + 10% strength from pld which they think its too much on a single boss. So they kept the 10% of war and 10% from pld as a single debuffs.

looking at the bright side i guess its a save up for the brd TP as well (since it was 200 for brd and now 60 for war with rotation)

the only loss will be on multiple since it is single target debuff now for war

[Luso]

The problem with the evasion down is that we can't always keep it up. If someone is constantly missing they are undergeared for the content. No amount of evasion down is going to help them because the bards will be out of tp quickly trying to keep rain of death on.

With the damage -10% we could anticipate damage spikes and try to mitigate some of it. As of right now, there are no fights which require us to anticipate dropping an enemies evasion.

[EdwinS]

If only Rain of Death lowered enemy accuracy...

[Luso]

If only Rain of Death lowered enemy accuracy...

That would be much better. ^o^

[Warlyx]

ACC as stats has been always a problem , because is a binary stat, u have 100%+ or u dont . if u dont u get more until u are capped.

its a lame stat if u ask me , isnt interesting (like crit or haste that are fun stats) , its just a numer u have to achieve in order to "not fail" ....once u get 100% u forgot it exist....UNTIL u change a piece of gear....then u go crazy on math at how u have to gain another gear piece in order to able to put the piece u won now because u are losing ACC

FFXI was all about ACC , as ranger back then i hated that with pasion , all my gear with Racc , Racc food and missing a barrage still.....RETARDED

i say remove acc already from rpgs

[Moontide]

I'd say the main issue is with accuracy in general. You're not supposed to even fight enemies of higher level than you for the vast majority of the game. That renders accuracy as a stat nigh-useless.

[FizzGigg]

Personally, I feel the change to RoD was thrown in due to the War change and they had pvp in mind. With the change to the warrior skill they had to change RoD to something else. I think they could have went a few other routes with it, but I also feel they thought what a great chance to put in something that could be beneficial in pvp. Now, Im not saying that currently with pvp being fresh that this helps a ton in pvp... but if you think about it, eventually this could be a wanted and very dependable debuff in higher tier pvp. Many of the melee classes get keen flury as a cross class ability, which ups evasion... this is a good counter to that.

Other than this.. which honestly is the only reason I can see them going this route since it could be valuable in both pve and pvp down the road.. I don't see how this is helpful over a different debuff they could have chosen.

[Rochetm]

RoD change was stupid and I don't play bard. THey could have made it increase the damage of AoEs or reduce the accuracy of enemies...

Just about anything would be better than what you got.

I understand why bards got nerfed... lots of support comes at a cost and that is fine. What I don't understand is how Smn can sit on top of the dps list while providing more support than any other job except bard. In many cases the Smn has better support options (rez).