Bard Rant (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

[xXRaineXx]

I know, I know there are like hundreds of these posts... but I need to get this off my chest. So please be nice. I apologize beforehand.

I first started playing FFXIV back when I was in New Zealand, where I had to put up with a lot of latency lag when playing on a NA server. I started off as a Monk and shit was just a bottle of heart cancer with all dem lag... Now I am back in Japan, though the internet is faster here; still can't shrug off the slight latency lag. The only job where I could really perform was with a Bard which does not require a specific combo and no casting (which could possibly kill me). The mobility really helped me come over the latency issues. For example in T13, I have to move a split second earlier before everyone else starts moving to avoid being killed or clipped.
Now with minuet implemented into the playstyle... this pretty much 'ruins' the only aspect the Bard excelled in.

Now you may say, 'Learn to play!', but if I wanted to learn playing a casting class, I'd rather play a BLM. But no, I want to play Bard not a hybrid.. Red Requiem Bard...

I love playing support as Bard, as that mobile Bard that casts Foes+BV at pull for a happy BLM and casting Ballad when healers start screaming MP! I don't want to be in and out casting Minuet, while trying to juggle other songs too. I've heard too many prunes who kept telling me staying in Minuet 100% of the time was the way to go then telling me to uninstall the game when I disagreed.

Now, I don't want to say Minuet was a bad addition, rather a poorly executed addition. Overall, the Bard mechanics were poorly designed in 3.0, there are other ways they could have done this.

For example, instead of having to 'cast' and 'continue singing' Minuet, they could have made it into a one off buff with a cd WITH a downside.

Minuet - 60sec Buff - 2min~Xmin CD
*No additional cast time for skills.
While in Minuet buff, minuet skills are activated. Downside, singing other songs while in Minuet will cancel the buff prematurely.

With this, Bards still maintain their mobility and get a new risk factor. This way you will be able to do a Minuet opener and cast Foes for BLMs too.

Also, gadamnit! What in the world did they do to barrage! They butchered the best CD in the game for Bards! So ok, not only did the Bard get nerfed in the AOE department and no actual BUFFS in a non-minuet playstyle, they decided to 'nerf' Barrage in favor towards Minuet! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ GARRRRRRR!! At least let them crit if your going to do this...! A perfectly timed Barrage, pre-nerf can fit in 4 AA's = shit tons of damage. I understand that Barrage had to be tweaked for Minuet, but you could of simple made the skill effects change WHILE IN MINUET. The whole CD didn't require a change! BRING BACK 2.0 BARRAGE!!!

Not to mention Yoshida personally said that Minuet was not made to be used 100% of the time, which means it's near impossible to get a accurate DPS reading in parses. All those Minuet parses with 900dps on a dummy is bullsh*t, they cannot be accounted for in realistic situations. A Bards dummy parse and actual raid parse in 2.0, ultimately does not differ too much. You will probably get higher 3min DPS parses in raids under certain circumstances. If a 25% increase in damage does 900 dps and you gotta turn that shit off every now and then, realistically you are looking at a massive dps loss. People are even saying Warriors do more dps and pro bards now. W.T.F.(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Same thing with MCH's... now that's another story.

I was really looking forward to playing both MCH and Bard as they share a similar playstyle but slightly different support role. But after playing MCH a lil bit, I was just like... um... wut?

[Intellion]

Don't worry, you are perfectly justified in feeling disappointed by the intrusive core gameplay/mechanic changes to Bard.

Tons of career Bards in both the West and Japan have complained and are still outraged even now, to the point that Yoshi-P could no longer ignore it and have promised a fix in the future while admitting and apologizing that the current 3.0 Bard was not well-thought out and implemented.

A lot of people from both sides of the globe have already proposed their own fixes and changes for the 3.0 Bard, parsed it, number-crunched it, and so on. I myself have even proposed my own fixes for Bard some time back. This just goes to show that it's an undeniable fact that the Bow Mage class (I refuse to even acknowledge "bards" with WM as a Bard) is a clunky mess/failed experiment. If it "wasn't" a mess, then people wouldn't go to such great lengths of testing.

By the way, for some reason, there are TONS of non-BRDs and non-MCHs right now who are making smart-aleck comments that both classes are "fine" and don't need fixing. Don't listen to them; they spout nothing but lies and ignorance.

[xXRaineXx]

Omg... I'm literally crying... I wasn't alone... ToT

I wanted to facepalm myself so hard when people tried to argue that Barrage wasn't nerfed in any way and rather buffed since you will play in Minuet 100% of the anyways...(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

I hope the changes come quick... I can't be bothered progressing at all lately... normally I would be playing right now, but I haven't even turned the client on and I'm here ranting. That's just how much I am deeply saddened by these changes.

[Humorless]

And why was this worth yet another thread? Bards have already gotten an official response about being buffed. It's been two weeks since release, have some fucking patience, you're not 10 years old.

[xXRaineXx]

That's just how much I'm fustrated. Like I said in the OP post, I know there are lots, but I had to my own pov off my chest. This has been boiling me down the last couple days.

Only a person who plays Bard and only Bard will understand this.

[Humorless]

That's just how much I'm fustrated. Like I said in the OP post, I know there are lots, but I had to my own pov off my chest. This has been boiling me down the last couple days.

Only a person who plays Bard and only Bard will understand this.

All the bards I know either give useful feedback or have patience, so no. It's been less than 14 days since release, get over yourself.

[AskaRay]

I understand where you're coming from but I don't really agree..
I mean, do I think WM could've been better implemented? Yes. Does it need some kind of buff? Oh, yeah.
But the concept itself is fine to me. I don't mind standing still for one second to cast a stronger attack. (And lag? I get it all the time. Titan is the bane of my existence >:T I digress)

I really think people more wanted a Ranger job and not a Bard job. The songs are what is most important to a Bard, not movement.
While the movement is a big part of the job, it's not the most important.

I do however, comparing MCH and BRD, that Gauss Barrel was better implemented into the MCH set than WM was with Bard.

And yeah you shouldn't stay in WM all the time... I mean, the more you run content, the better you learn it and you can predict what damage is coming from where and THEN you can stay in it for longer... but some battles just don't do well with it at all (I've seen some fellow bards do the last boss of Neverreap fully in WM....it's hilarious).

[xXRaineXx]

Did you even read my post? I did give my own feedback to how things could have been improved. I apologized for my lack of a better word rant before writing as well. The only people here creating useless replies are people such as yourselves.

[Croisciento]

The main issue lies within the development team which did not get why people enjoyed played bard. Most of the people just like bard because they can move while attacking. But most of them also don't know how much DPS they are loosing by unnecessary moving. Good Bards knew they should stand still to output as much damage as they could because of AA, I think this change was aimed at the latter.

But where they failed is how they implemented it. I wonder if actual testing was made because any career bard would have said it feels clunky as hell.. They screw up really hard. People don't really care about having lower DPS but at least keep the core feature of the class. A good example of game design failure.

[pandabearcat]

I'm unsure if people realize the changes planned.

The changes planned seem numbers changes rather than mechanics changes.

You'll still likely have to cast your skills. However, it will be more worth the risk.