Decision making

[Azir]

Ok I have a silly question and I assume I will get a silly answer. But i'm making this in the off chance I dont.

I am stuck trying to decide whether I want to play as a Bard or Summoner (Silly right). I have them both at 50 and love playing each of them for their own vastly different reasons. But my question for you is which do you prefer to have in your party? Which do you think brings more to the table at the end of the day. I'm not saying im gonna stop playing either one so saying "play both" wont really help. This is more for who I want to mainly focus on.

Thanks for any help

[dday3six]

As far as pretty much guaranteed to be wanted in an 8 player raid, well that's Bard.

[Izsha]

Bards are more popular. Bards are also a dime a dozen l. There's almost as many bards as ninjas. Good smn are awesome and I wish there were more of then out there.

[Jim_Berry]

As a BRD, you'll be competing for a spot. However, there are BRDs who don't want to multitask or do extra (T7, for example). As much as I try to retire BRD, it's kinda late for me to do that, as a lot of people know I can stay alive and kite while still contributing to the group. This is offset by my lack of me not being fluent with pushing damage output, but the job gets done.

If you stick with BRD, yes, you may feel like there are too many. But then you realize that some of them are new to the job, some only want to pew~pew, and some have a better weapon than you but you see they only have 4k HP, Hero's accessories, and die a lot lol...

I can't speak on SMN, but I DO know you may feel exclusive with it. Not sure how often a SMN is being asked for in content. I know SMNs make for excellent kiters in T7.

[Ehayte]

If I were you and...

- I wanted to push new content by joining a static group: I would go SMN
BECAUSE: SMNs do have raid utility and have special applications. It is also going to be extremely rare to find a vacant BRD spot in a good static, as BRDs are usually one of the better players or the leader, as they tend to handle specialty mechanics most often.

- I wanted to do older content that has the echo applied or has been deciphered so much that it is very easy: I would go BRD
BECAUSE: Stacking 4 BRDs on echo-applied content or easy content makes it easy mode. If you remove the DPS checks from things like T8 or Ifrit/Titan X etc, BRDs become the ultimate flexibility tool because they are hard to kill and supply songs to the party that refresh resources that cannot be applied by other any class.

[Zencurse]

The following assumes you wish to raid at a high end level at some point, aka Final Coil and whatever comes with Heavensward:

Bards are more necessary in a raid group than SMN, though both are desirable for their utility alone. It should be noted, assuming you don't already know this (which I suspect you do, but just to restate), that due to the nature of the Bards role in a group they generally won't be the highest dps out there and compared to summoner will generally do less. If you are a person who wants to push the numbers hard, but at least bring a good amount of utility (and I can't understate the importance of their battle rez and virus) then SMN is good. If you want to feel like the raid couldn't function without you, Bard is good. Just know you probably won't be pushing god levels of numbers.

The only problem with this is BRD tends to be a very popular class due to its accessibility (though it is very difficult to get "good" at) so you may find it harder to find a raid group as a BRD. SMNs are more rare (especially more so now that BLM just became Flavor of the Month among the casters due to the longevity of this raid tiers boss fights) but harder to get to a competent enough level to raid at a high end with. I hope this helps you make an informed decision, both are very good choices as both are extremely useful to any raid group, even in multiples.