Angry Bards

[Darian]

Bard is still my favorite job in the game however, I wish they would have come up with something else for bards. IMO WM has taken a job that had a great flow with a unique playlist and made it into a BLM with a bow. SE should have embraced 2.0 bard and came up with ways to improve core mechanics like its support roll or add more layers. ie. doing certain skills/combos with songs on will result in other bonuses like foe's gaining more damage or the caster gains a AoE that increases spell speed, etc. There was a ton of stuff they could have done to make bards say my tool kit has improved.

Also, bard is NOT at all harder to play. It actually got A LOT easier to play thanks to less oGCD weaving and Iron Jaw. What's actually hard about stopping a cast to move or what else about 3.0 bard makes people say it suddenly takes skill to play vs. 2.0?

If you love the new bard I'm glad some people are having fun. However, I hope SE will meet both sides in the middle soon.

[SlyRoyale]

Also, bard is NOT at all harder to play. It actually got A LOT easier to play thanks to less oGCD weaving and Iron Jaw. What's actually hard about stopping a cast to move or what else about 3.0 bard makes people say it suddenly takes skill to play vs. 2.0?

There's still plenty of oGCD weaving. It's just trickier to do without clipping into your GCD, and even then the best times to double-oGCD weave outside of Straighter Shot procs is just before Iron Jaws reapplication for your buffs, and attacks that are stronger than Heavy Shot, especially if they're instant cast.

Cast times aren't that hard to deal with, but stopping DPS to get out of an AoE is not an ideal situation to be in. If you're finishing up a cast, you can still get an attack out and dodge. If you get targeted with an AoE just as you start casting, it's better to dodge than be a floor warmer. WM simply introduced new challenges that BRDs never had to deal with before.

[AskaRay]

There's still plenty of oGCD weaving. It's just trickier to do without clipping into your GCD, and even then the best times to double-oGCD weave outside of Straighter Shot procs is just before Iron Jaws reapplication for your buffs, and attacks that are stronger than Heavy Shot, especially if they're instant cast.

Cast times aren't that hard to deal with, but stopping DPS to get out of an AoE is not an ideal situation to be in. If you're finishing up a cast, you can still get an attack out and dodge. If you get targeted with an AoE just as you start casting, it's better to dodge than be a floor warmer. WM simply introduced new challenges that BRDs never had to deal with before.

Feint is a good cross-class skill now.
Not affected by WM.

[SlyRoyale]

Feint is a good cross-class skill now.
Not affected by WM.

Indeed it is. Despite being TP-inefficient compared to Heavy Shot without WM (Feint's 156 potency in WM for 80 TP vs. Heavy Shot's 150 potency w/o WM for 60TP), it's still great to have for extended movement periods when WM is on cooldown or you need that buffed Empyreal Arrow to nuke an add down. I can usually burst down an Alarum with Hawk's Eye + Blood for Blood + Barrage buffed Empyreal Arrow, followed by Feint and Misery's End. Depending on how far the missile you're on is from your Alarum, any BRD should be able to place and kill it before Resin Bombs go off. It feels great to pull it off.

[Egnasya]

Also, bard is NOT at all harder to play. It actually got A LOT easier to play thanks to less oGCD weaving and Iron Jaw. What's actually hard about stopping a cast to move or what else about 3.0 bard makes people say it suddenly takes skill to play vs. 2.0?

If you love the new bard I'm glad some people are having fun. However, I hope SE will meet both sides in the middle soon.

Don't think this is about Bard suddenly being much harder at all. Most players who complain are actually just alienated by getting converted into a caster at level 52 and I very well understand that. That isn't what they signed up for, that isn't what they played for 2 years straight during 2.xx. This isn't even faithful to the identity of the job, despite Square promising time and again they wouldn't do anything which results in players not recognizing their job anymore. Of course they would be mad. Wouldn't you be? Worse, if we're honest this new playstyle is just a carbon copy of MCH. Why have two physical range jobs that both get cast timers for most of their abilities in the end? Makes no sense.

The real problem now is that others like that new playstyle and would very much like to keep it, creating a rift in the community, resulting in point- and endless debates. Meanwhile the ones responsible for this mess, Square, can hardly make a move as one side would always get upset no matter what they did. And so it's highly likely that nothing will change even with upcoming major patches. Which causes additional frustration, needless to say. I understand why people are fuming left and right.

However, what I believe won't ever work is trying to force a change by starting an angry mob; the more chaotic this whole thing gets, the less likely Square will listen to anything their community has to say. It is, after all, their game - even after all the time, expenses and efforts players have invested into it, we can only try and put our faith into them, and it's vital that they still listen when we do.

[Malachai]

I've spent enough time on this thread to read and get amusement about half of the "discussion." While I have spent no where near as much time as some people with a bard (since the birth of bard) and only started in February, I still have to say I have enjoyed being a bard. When I found out there was a bard, I immediately mained as one and completed RR and HW. The HW change threw me off as I was very fond of the AoE spam and dodging while maintaining dps. Sometimes depending on the fight, it is easier for me to dps without WM because I feel i cannot dps at all if I spend too much time trying to stay safe and attack with WM. Thankfully the last move at 60 at least can be used while out of WM which I think helps us be more flexible. I can easily see why so many are upset with the changes, I really do. In fact I am upset with them to some extent. That said, however, I believe SE has a right to change it however they want even if we don't like the changes they make because it is their game.

[Aiselia]

That said, however, I believe SE has a right to change it however they want even if we don't like the changes they make because it is their game.

That said, they had the right to leave it at 20% damage bonus with cast time, which was objectively a DPS loss. But they didn't because people pointed out it was bad and they recognized it was bad.

Just because they have the right to make changes doesn't mean they should make bad ones.

That being said, they make the game, but we pay to play it. We also have the right to voice our discontent with a product we're paying for, especially if we were perfectly content beforehand and it was just an unnecessary change.