HW bard- channeling?

[RinchanNau]

I'm looking forward to seeing how to optimize the use of this new song. Really can't wait to hear for info/try it for myself. It's a nice new wrinkle being added to BRD. I've been seeing complaints about taking away BRD mobility.. And sure, that will be lost at times, but it's just going to help make the job more interesting to optimize for each encounter.

Unless they add another skill to occasionally enable auto attack during charges/casts this song will likely want to be off whenever Barrage is available. But who knows for certain? Depending on exactly how much extra damage this song gives BRD as well as encounter mechanics it might even be better to pop your CDs outside of Barrage with the song activated provided movement is minimal and just saving Barrage for when you are forced to move. This would, however, change Barrage into a much weaker buff since it wouldn't 100% always be stacked with Hawk's Eye and Blood for Blood anymore. Another option is that Barrage has a different effect when used with Wanderer's Minuet up. Doubling the charge/cast speed for 10s sounds appealing and comparable.

Much excitement.

Wait I'm confused... I was under the impression wm will add a cast time/channeling phase to existing abilities I.e. venom bite will have the cast time, wind bite will have cast time, straight shot will have cast time etc

is that right?

That's what they made it sound like. I wouldn't be surprised if each attack were given a 50% potency increase given how high a percentage auto attacks are in BRD damage as well as Bloodletter procs that may or may not be used with this new song up. Not quite sure how Bloodletter and Misery's End will fit in yet. Time will tell!

[Elandir]

Bards become black mages. I realize bards currently do less damage than most other classes, but is the best way for us to do higher damage to turn us into one of the other classes? If I want to play like another dps class, why wouldn't I just play as that dps class?

I think bards should either maintain auto-attack while using this song, or maintain the ability to move and use the abilities.

One of the reasons I love bard is it's mobility and constantly doing attacks or off the gcd abilities. Do we just completely lose bloodletter, misery's end, repelling shot, and blunt arrow? Do we just drop Minuet when barrage is up? Then spend another 3 seconds recasting it when buffs fall off.

Maybe in practice, this will be wonderful and fun skill. As it's written, this is killing the fun of the class. Even at it's best, I can't see this being a great concept change for the class. I see a lot of bards changing class if the skill goes live as described.

[LLamaPie]

Bards become black mages. I realize bards currently do less damage than most other classes, but is the best way for us to do higher damage to turn us into one of the other classes? If I want to play like another dps class, why wouldn't I just play as that dps class?

A bards ceiling is lower. That doesn't mean they can't be right on the other classes asses in terms of overall DPS. I know my bard for one tears it up hard and I am pretty sure I come in 1st quite often. The only class that usually way outclasses me is monk at this point and sometimes DRG.

[tjw]

Unless they add another skill to occasionally enable auto attack during charges/casts this song will likely want to be off whenever Barrage is available.

In regards to barrage, I have a sneaking suspicion that the attack right after Barrage was linked to it. Kinda like how you can only perform Energy Drain/Bane under Aetherflow, maybe the new skill is only usable while under the effect of Barrage, and consumes the buff after using.

[tjw]

In regards to barrage, I have a sneaking suspicion that the attack right after Barrage was linked to it. Kinda like how you can only perform Energy Drain/Bane under Aetherflow, maybe the new skill is only usable while under the effect of Barrage, and consumes the buff after using.

Want to add onto this post that Barrage is indeed used for the weaponskill straight after. The BRD loses a buff just before the weaponskill is used; one can deduce that it was the Barrage debuff used right before. That or Barrage will affect the next ability by increasing its potency.

[Dervy]

It's too early to decide how it will play out. A fully channelled Heavy Shot for example, may deal a base of 300+ potency per attack, which is greater, or nearly as good as 1 GCD + 1/2 GCD + base AA damage. Another thing, it could also boost the base damage of your DoTs. So think about this for a moment....

Wind Bite is base 60 Potency, 45 DoT potency for 6 ticks. Let's say a fully channelled skill deals x2 damage.

That's a base 120 Potency skill for 90 DoT potency for 6 ticks. Then you have Sidewinder which increases the effect of your DoTs. Let's say it provides a 30% buff to your DoTs.

That's a 120 Potency Windbite for 117 Dot Potency for 6 ticks, totalling to 822 Potency.

Now, this is obviously a massive overestimation and I fully doubt the multipliers are accurate, but that's how scary the damage output could potentially be if it's done correctly.

[pandabearcat]

You can still play bard at lower dps than other classes while maintaining mobility and support.

Should that support not be needed you can go turret and do better dps, probably about the same as other casters.

To expect otherwise is ridiculous.

You cannot have full mobility and do the same dps as casters, why would you play a caster?

This is a good idea imo, so bards can actually be fulltime dps if they wish to, but on mobile fights and ones where they need to sing they can retain mobility while staying competitive.

The actual damage numbers are not of concern to me. They will obviously be enough to make turret stance worthwhile. Otherwise, it will not be used, and it will be buffed. This is a silly thing to be worried over.

[Inferiae]

I wanna see how this turns out. I don't really wanna be forced to act as a caster to reach optimal DPS. That's precisely why I'm a BRD and not a BLM. If I need to use Wanderer's Minuet to be able to reach my job's full potential, and pretty much become a caster, I'll be disappointed.

I'm all for new skills and stuff, but changing the playstyle that much, no thanks. If you want to stay still to shoot, go BLM. Or maybe they could make Machinist be the ranged-aimed-shot job and leave Bard with it's own unique playstyle.

Of course, it's all based on assumptions and may work differently, at least I hope so.

[Dervy]

I wanna see how this turns out. I don't really wanna be forced to act as a caster to reach optimal DPS. That's precisely why I'm a BRD and not a BLM. If I need to use Wanderer's Minuet to be able to reach my job's full potential, and pretty much become a caster, I'll be disappointed.

I'm all for new skills and stuff, but changing the playstyle that much, no thanks. If you want to stay still to shoot, go BLM. Or maybe they could make Machinist be the ranged-aimed-shot job and leave Bard with it's own unique playstyle.

Of course, it's all based on assumptions and may work differently, at least I hope so.

Other than having to Hard Cast an ability, what makes the "new" playstyle of the Bard like a Black Mage? Because everyone says this and it absolutely baffles me.

[Allyrion]

Other than having to Hard Cast an ability, what makes the "new" playstyle of the Bard like a Black Mage? Because everyone says this and it absolutely baffles me.

Didn't you know? Cast times make BRDs into BLMs and positionals make NINs into MNKs.
It's not like their rotations are largely different or there's anything more to those jobs.

/sarcasm