We complained at the release because it was almost useless to put WM on because the damage boost wasn't enough moreover we had to stop attacking to cast it.

It is much better now but it feels awkward as hell. Bard was my first love and switched to Monk because of static and was looking forward to play it again in HW. No matter how much I want to love this class I just can't bear playing it anymore. The only pleasure I got from this class is when I'm needed for my support but that's it. I don't enjoy having cast time. I don't enjoy to have a place for only 1 off cd in between my spells. I don't enjoy not being able to use procs like I used to. I kinda like iron jaws and empyreal arrow but that's it. Overall the job is totally different from what it used to be. Hell even when I do lvl 50 roulettes it feels awkward even if I played this class for 2 years...

On the other side Machinist is more enjoyable because you can plan movement with ammunition and hold your procs so you loose no dps while moving. Also only one spell from your main combo has a cast time and we have a tool to nullify cast times, what do we have as bard? Straight shot procs which are completely unreliable. That is WHY it feels awkward and everyone is complaining. DPS is not the issue unlike many people like the OP think. The problem is that they totally redesigned a class that's 2 years old so it can be similar to their new one but it feels like the devs rushed it and we end up with a job that just doesn't feel natural anymore.

The primary attribute from bards is to hit things while moving. But it's also a simple rotation with a lot of procs and buffs to manage. Everyone claimed how easy bard was to play but in fact there was only a bunch of good bards who were able to maintain high dps while singing buff, because the key behind playing bard was to manage your buffs and procs.

If you're giving up mobility you should get a compensation and not only dps unlike SE thought. The job NEEDS to feel the same at its core. When I got Gauss Barrel as machinist it felt awkward but with ammunitions and wildfire it didn't really feel different from what I've been used to during my leveling. SE literally managed to put cast time on this class without "breaking" it, but they didn't with bard.

We're struggling to use our buffs efficiently because we got so many, its hard to put them all in our rotation without loosing an extra weapon skill. We are not as mobile as machinist and the bloodletter mechanic is almost useless since you'll only use them when all of your buffs are off (or if you're singing) or when Empyreal Arrow is off. Something is wrong with the gameplay.

There have been many reasonable propositions made here and there. This thread is not about proposing tweaks, but bard definitely need some so the job feels natural again...