Quote Originally Posted by Nyghtmarerobu View Post
I'd like to remind people that Bard was nerfed a long time ago due to their damage potential, and ability to move and shoot back in 2.0. Now they can't move and shoot anymore, but that doesn't mean they should get a free pass to get a dmg buff. Bards and Machinists do a fair amount of dmg and they don't need to be up in the range of melee. Duty finder will always be duty finder, and you got unlucky OP, bard/machinist don't need any buffs.
That was a part of it. I also believe they got nerfed back then because they were perceived by most in the community as being the 'braindead, easy/fun mode' job to play. And on the flip side, things still needed to be ironed out with Smn and there pets, Drg had unforgiving positionals, etc. But SE went through most of the 2.X series tweaking and patching the other jobs (such as Smn, Drg, War) after Brd's nerf in 2.1. Hardly ever giving any attention to Brd while doing so.