My husband was a bard main since 2.0 release. The 3.0 bard rework not only killed the class for him, but also the game. Before Heavensward, bard could do decent DPS, support when needed, and was mobile and fluid. Now, you have to work much harder just to do decent DPS and contend with a clunky skillset that feels like it was shoehorned into the class. Yoshi-P says it was not intended for bards to feel like they're stuck in WM all the time, but that's exactly what they have to do when their best skills are gated behind it.

It makes absolutely no sense to completely change a gameplay style that has existed for two years and make it a carbon copy of a new class that's introduced to the game. They should have left bard the way it was for people that enjoyed it and made machinist the non-mobile turret. That way, people would have a choice of gameplay style. Instead, now we have people who had established a beloved main class shelving it, and some shelving the game with it.