Why is BRD considered "support"

[StrejdaTom]

I consider myself support for the only reason - DRG and his buff, SMN and his virus, NIN and his Goad and Trick attacks are all kinda replacable, while you always (or almost always XD) need 1 BRD or MCH in progress party.

I don't mind being the lower DPS in exchange for always having a slot in raid party. The only thing I mind are people who expect BRD to do the same damage as other DPS jobs (clearly not talking about A2 Savage here or Ninjas).

[RiceisNice]

I consider myself support for the only reason - DRG and his buff, SMN and his virus, NIN and his Goad and Trick attacks are all kinda replacable, while you always (or almost always XD) need 1 BRD or MCH in progress party.

I don't mind being the lower DPS in exchange for always having a slot in raid party. The only thing I mind are people who expect BRD to do the same damage as other DPS jobs (clearly not talking about A2 Savage here or Ninjas).

If we're breaking it down to progression, a DRG is just as much needed (due to disembowel buffing piercing, which MCH and BRD do and they're required classes) as well as DRK (to push dps moreso than paladin) because one of the biggest gate to early-progression is dps checks. When you factor overgearing, you get more leeway and BRD/MCH also drop out of becoming "mandatory" when healers become more efficient with their mana and outgoing damage is lessened due to armor.

The matter of fact is, BRD and MCH already get a damage reduction when they use their regen abilties. It really boils down to ; Why do they do lower damage? Their mobility thing isn't that much relevant nowadays, and if it's because of their support, it's double dipping and honestly you're not really encouraged to keep it on anyway because of the mana cost and it being shared between TP and MP (and magic resistance in case of bard). It becomes really prevalent outside of cutting edge progression (look at EX primals on 3.0 release).

It also doesn't help that the devs themselves have jumped from side to side in regards to bard's role; they'd first call it a dps class and they need to be able to deal damage to justify their spot, now it's a dps-support class that deals less damage because of the support (which both are not exclusive and double dipping as mentioned above)... And well the party composition hasn't changed at all.