monk vs bard, new player questions

[ThetaTed]

Hello. limited on characters and i have multiple questions.
1. would any end game player describe what they like/dislike about each respective class mentioned in title
2. if i started as an arcanist and am now lvl18 is it a bad idea to start a new class (like will it be any detriment to the story quest rewards)?
3. main reason i dont like arcanist is the DoT abilities/pet play style, I want to be a strong dps without the ramp up/maintenance of a DoT/pet style dps. Which would fit better for a more straight forward approach while providing utility to a group?
4. which class is more "sought after" for end game groups?

Thanks for reading!

[Viridiana]

1) I like the uptime on BRD. A lot of people will say that BRD is the most mobile class, and in some sense that's true. We can keep firing away at the enemy with very little regard to how we have to dodge. That said, I played MNK up through the relic quest, and I have to say, it feels way more mobile due to the fact that you actually *have to* move between attacks.
2) The game assumes that you're leveling multiple classes, anyway, so there's no real harm in changing classes at this point.
3) MNK has the higher dps ceiling, but also requires a ramp up. BRD can spike really high with cooldowns, and has very little ramping.
4) I think this would go to BRD. Most end game groups will have one, while the melee slot seems to be a tossup between MNK/DRG.

[Aeliott]

1. MNK likes: feels faster than other jobs, satisfying when played well
MNK dislikes: fights with inevitable greased lightning loss can be annoying, lack of raw burst when Howling Fist and Steel Peak are on cd
BRD likes: a staple of any serious end-game team party, attacking on the move is a unique luxury
BRD dislikes: single target rotation is almost entirely complete by level 12, gets old fastk (imo), similarly AOE is just spamming one skill and hoping the next lights up

2. Not at all, I got PGL, LNC and MRD all to 15 before picking one.

3. Bard is the definition of straight-forward with group utility. Monk has to be timely with self-buffs and has ramp up with greased lightning stacks. Minor utility in Mantra, which boosts healing received by 20% to you and close allies. Monk is not straight forward.

4. Bard is an essential asset to any 8 man raid. While at least one melee is desirable, people almost never discriminate between DRG and MNK. So Bard is more sought I guess.

Sounds like Bard fits your requirements more. While it is the lowest of the 5 dps classes its song utility is a massive strength.

[Zencurse]

1. Monk has an absolute insane amount of (almost bordering OP) amount of single target dps...If they have the uptime. Bard has the lowest single target potential, however it brings the most utility of any job in the game and you'll seldom want to raid without at least 1 Bard.
2. That's perfectly fine, do some leves, dungeons, fates, and logs for a day and you'll catch up on either.
3. Well SMN has the 2nd highest DPS potential...So if you want straight up deepz Monk is your style. Bard is for the player who wants to work in the shadows, basically carrying groups through wipe inducing mistakes by giving mana song/tp song to those who are rezz'd or the healers while Foes req provides an insane amount of dps to your casters. In addition your mobility makes you the "go-to" guy for special mechanics that give your role a lot of weight (Renaud's in T6, Homing Missiles in T8, etc)
4. Monk can be interchanged with Dragoon pretty easily (though MNK has higher single target but DRG brings better burst/increases BRD dps). However you'll almost never see an endgame raiding FC without a Bard in their static, so Bard wins soundly.

[givemeraptors]

1) MNK - My least favorite class. Absolutely terrible for solo play, requires a long warm-up to get to max power, and 99% of the time greased lightning falls off in between each mob (and poorly timed boss jumps). Extremely terrible AoE skills as well. Howling Fist should have a shorter cooldown xD They also have almost 0 utility outside of the occasional mantra, meh.
BRD - Extremely versatile, they have a lot of off-GCD abilities to weave into their rotation that means you're almost constantly occupied. Have the highest single burst DPS in the game (if I'm not mistaken) if you pop all their cooldowns at once, you can do that every ~2min I think. They're my third fave class after SMN/SCH combo.
3) SMN is the 2nd highest DPS in the game, only MNK can compete and they require ideal conditions (sustained single-target).
4) BRD is really desired in end-game, even if you're only average, however if you are an excellent monk people will fawn/fight over you (because unbeatable DPS).

[Lemon8or]

1. Love monk, keeps me on my feet literally and deals tons of damage if play right. Hates bard, my least favorite jobs in game, no rotations whatsoever, just hitting 1 or 2 buttons, hope for procs.
2. You can just level them through dungeons and roulette. That's how I got all 50s.
3. I would go with BRD. Undeniably best utility and very straight-forward/boring play.
4. Between Bard and Monk, Bard will always be needed/sought after. Good Monks are fought over because of insane DPS.

[PenutButter]

Bards don't have more mobility in some sense, they have more mobility in ALL sense. The fact that monks HAVE to move to maximize their dps actually RESTRICTS their mobility. Monks, and melee in general, also have a bunch of extra mechanics to deal with that bards never will, mechanics that can make people just not bring melee so they don't have to deal with it. SE seems to be doing a better job at balancing this out but melees will always have more crap to deal with, just part of the job.

People do not fight over Monks for their "insane DPS." Yes, Monks have the best single target dps and 2nd or 3rd best AoE dps, but a lot of people fail at Monk. Also, their extra DPS will rarely ever make or break the fight because other DPS are perfectly able to beat any DPS race mechanics. Also, Bard can bring more effective AoE dps through their songs even though they actually have the worse personal AoE dps.

Bards are desired in every group; they are not REQUIRED (no fight in the game requires a Bard) but they provide a very very nice safety net. Having a healer revive at 0 MP is a very bad thing indeed.

[Shirai]

and 2nd or 3rd best AoE dps

I am going to debate this part, while monks are able to do AoE damage we're long from second best, I'd even say we're last on that scale.
Especially between the DPS roles.

Our AoE potential comes in burst and is highly restricted by cooldowns where pretty much any other DPS role can AoE whenever they want with the only restrction being their TP/MP.

[Shinkyo]

MNK:
+ very fast paced and mobile class which makes the play style dynamic and engaging. Best single target DPS but under very strict conditions.
+ You'll get a lot of loot because you'll usually be the only melee, DRG and MNK don't share gear like Casters, Healers or Tanks, and somehow RNG seems to like MNK. I personnaly lvled a monk because I got all the Allagan gear and accessories from running Coil as Tank.
- A monk will only do amazing DPS in ideal situations where they always have clear access to rear/side and can keep up their greased lightning stacks up all the time. Unfortunately, their are too many fights that aren't monk friendly... In most fights, a MNK won't be able to pull that much ahead of BRD because they have much more uptime. You'll only be a DPS star on a training dummy ...
- Monk has no utility to the group other than it's single target DPS and LB
- Monk has position requirements on all attacks which makes them terrible at soloing. for example, my WAR does more DPS than my MNK when doing Beastmen quests...
- Monk are bad at AOE and Bursts. They can be good but only if you have Perfect Balance available (which has a ridiculous CD time I find).
- Groups won't need you... pretty much all fights are better done with range DPS and if you need to bring a melee, DRG is better overall because of their Burst, piercing debuff, LB, and more consistent DPS (because of less buffs and dots to maintain).

BRD:
+ Amazing utility to the group, people always want a BRD in the group.
+ Amazing DPS overall because of the uptime and no positioning requirement
+ Very good Aoe and burst DPS
+ You'll get a lot of loot as well because gear and accessories are specific to BRD and you ain't competing with any other class on loot.
- There are too many BRDs out there, so you'll fight for loots since it's not unusual to have 2 BRDS
- You'll have very bad queue times on DF
- I can't see any really, unless you just don't like the class

[JetBrooks]

3) MNK has the higher dps ceiling, but also requires a ramp up. BRD can spike really high with cooldowns, and has very little ramping.

Bard doesn't have much ramp up. The other side of this story is that BRD has the harshest ramp down, ultimately causing it to fall behind other DPS of the same skill level.

I would say that BRD would be easier to get into a static group because of its utility, although MNK's damage is miles ahead in most cases; it's seriously apples to oranges.