bards and their ...

[Madoka]

A good bard can do pretty well on DPS, especially with good procs. However if the party composition allows it, dropping their dps a bit is usually better. I mean if a DPS check is coming and you know your SMN is about to pop raging and a mega-int to re-apply dots and hit with two hard festers Foes and battle voice will boost those dots even further. And then once their 20 seconds of RS is up you can turn off foes since they're back at ruining. Or even then you can leave foes up since it still boosts their ruin and Garuda, up to you. If you have two casters it's even better, and if you have a DRG it's almost like you weren't using Foes at all.sure maybe you had 280 instead of 310 dps, but you may have also pushed the smn from 320 to 360+ dps to offset it. It's definitely a matter of learning when and to use what songs and the timing though. Like snakes phase is great for mage ballad in twin, since dps isnt a big deal then and you can top off the healers and foes during conflags is just a great help.

I've seen bards put out some amazing dps, but they never touched a song. And I've seen bards who maybe didn't have the best dps but were spot on using their songs for the entire encounter. And then there's the special platform for the bard that does good dps, pops songs with extremely good timing, never misses a silence and doesn't die. Those are the greatest.

[OPneedNerfs]

Foe's does not reduce bard damage.

I repeat,

Foe's DOES NOT reduce bard damage.

[Taban]

Foe's does not reduce bard damage.

I repeat,

Foe's DOES NOT reduce bard damage.

Being careful with using Foe's usually isn't about trying to maximize damage, but about mp management. If we're going into a hard dps check then there's a good chance Foes will be on, but if we're on a progression fight and we're meeting dps checks, I'm probably going to be saving my mp in case there's an unforeseen death and I need to play ballad to get someone back up to speed. It all depends on the fight and your group makeup.