Bard is utterly destroyed

[Kataz]

Has SE confirmed that the tool tip is wrong and the ability is working as intended?

[SasakiNori]

Has SE confirmed that the tool tip is wrong and the ability is working as intended?

Considering half of the english tooltips are worded wrong or poorly and it doesn't state anything regarding wanderer's minuet in the japanese tooltips, it's very likely to be the case.

[HeavensSword]

I need to try and find a source for this, but I had heard that the JP skill description does not mention requiring WM on it.

[Lisotte]

At the end of the day, I'm not sure whether Bard is stronger or weaker than before. What I am sure of, is that by homogenizing Bard to fit in with BLM and such, it makes it far easier for the devs to balance the job and make it put out comparable DPS to other jobs.

I wasn't exactly asking for this, DPS wasn't the reason I rolled Bard, but I see why they did it and I can live with it. Also I'm cool with change. If we get another rework just as big in 4.0 then that'd be great.

[awesomeuno]

At the end of the day, I'm not sure whether Bard is stronger or weaker than before. What I am sure of, is that by homogenizing Bard to fit in with BLM and such, it makes it far easier for the devs to balance the job and make it put out comparable DPS to other jobs.

I wasn't exactly asking for this, DPS wasn't the reason I rolled Bard, but I see why they did it and I can live with it. Also I'm cool with change. If we get another rework just as big in 4.0 then that'd be great.

The problem lies not in that we are now immobile, it's that we were promised DPS comparable to other DPS in exchange for a loss of mobility...and we simply aren't getting the numbers for that. so we are now immobile with WM...for nothing more than a stronger starting burst. I really hope they change this, such a slap to bards.

[Seifa]

SPOILER ALERT.

After doing Bismark Extreme, i found WM best used during the burn phase: pre cast WM, precast Foe (yay, 6 seconds of no dps) and burn the hell out of the spine with cds up and as soon the burn phase ends, return to instant casts expecially because that fight has a lot of stuff to avoid between tornados and water bubbles, you can't stand still for more than 1 cast. When the burn phase returns, i repeat the WM burn rotation. Not so bad, but not good at all. The cast time is horrible, the OGCD cluttering is terrible and the sustained damage can be even lower than the regular bard stance; i even tested with a DRG friend for the piercing debuff, and it resulted a higher DPS when i tried the WM opener switching back to normal attack after buffs ran out and using the stance only for Hawk / B4B / Barrage + EA (which i'm not even sure if it's worth doing in a real fight).

Continue.....

[Seifa]

After my rough testing, i think WM isn't a good stance outside the opener and super fast burn phases (but it requires a lot of pre cast time); SE just underestimated the value of auto attacks, ogcds weaving (hi Bloodletter proc mid cast) that 20% more weaponskill damage don't cover the loss of those two things. I'd like to hear other opinions from Bards in dungeons and raids to share opinions and see if i'm utterly wrong at this point and the naysayers like me are baddies.

Ps. Bloodletter's bug happened to me even without WM, i couldn't use instant cast spell but autos were shooting like normal until the spell returned off cd and it casted itself automatically. Anyone else had this happening?

[Warlyx]

we need to get AA back in WM (same goes for MCH) , and let us use Bloodletter even when casting other skills....and there u go :P

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Has anyone legitimately tested how well auto-attacks scale now for Bards? I keep getting told that they nerfed auto-attacks, and the fact that Barrage no longer affects them they no longer make up such a large portion of our dps, especially now that we have a 240 potency attack that can occur every 15 seconds, a 350 potency attack that can occur every 60 seconds, and making the upkeep on DoTs only take a single gcd instead of two. Keep in mind that WM is a permanent Raging Strikes buff that stacks with Raging Strikes, so yes, our burst is absolutely crazy right now. The reason why people are questioning it's validity is because a lot of Bards no longer know their rotation, and instead are perfectly comfortable using the 2.X rotation and completely ignoring all of the new abilities (Except the new Sidewinder which I assure you is going to get fixed).

I could legitimately see them either raising the damage bonus on WM to 25 or even 30% or nerfing auto-attacks hard if they haven't already so that people are forced to use the new abilities. The point is, that this is a new way to play, and if you're not willing to adapt to the major changes in the class then you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that you're not optimizing your class and people will begin to start calling you out on it. I don't care if they suddenly add in a new Bard Song next expansion that requires you to be within melee range of the enemy, I will always main Bard and I'm willing to adapt to the changes.

[Ooshima]

Did dummy parses with and without WM. The numbers proved to be similar, within 10DPS range. Checked with another bard who did the same, our similar results.

I can see reasons why, but as of now I do not think that WM is a long term stance to go. Should only be switched when bursts are needed or during phase changes where you can turn it on during down time and burst it on the boss when its back, etc.