Thread: 3.2 Patch Notes

Originally Posted by Jetstream_Fox

What? Where are you getting BRD isn't a high damage class? BRD can dish out a ton of damage if it is played right, not damage like MNK or DRG but it can push out a ton of damage not to mentions Foe's contribution throughout the party, makes up for it not being as strong as pure melee dps or magic.

Ballad and Paeon infring 15% damage reduction which is why people say don't play them because even with Wanderer's you're still losing half of the amount you gain. At high level DPS checks that loss of 15% isn't helping out the party unless players are TP and MP starved. Those songs are like a double edged sword it's good and bad.

People don't know how to play BRD right at times because of SE and their lack of direction with the class. You can't fault anyone for not really knowing BRD cause SE keeps proving they don't either. This isn't 1.0 and the class didn't start with support skills, you gain those and the class becomes a hybrid that was very interesting to learn. Then we became casters overnight and SE basically said 'have fun, we don't know how to balance this class' and threw the class into a spiral. Ya we have more damage and that was the direction it seemed they were going with us which was fine. But then they decide Wardens Paeon isn't used enough cause leeches and esuna are loads better and now they want us to deal with that mechanic as well.

TL;DR
BRD is probably one of the toughest and most convoluted classes to play because of SE and their lack of direction to go with the class.

Honestly, I feel like the biggest limiters to Bard are simply:

• (1) it depends on at least one good caster and dpsing under-acc-cap healers to meet the raid contribution a MCH will put out with an all melee party,
• (2) some jobs will still drain TP faster than others even with these changes
  (it's almost like the Monk changes were to keep its dps lead even while having to mid-combat Meditate for Purification TP, because while the slightly slower TP-draining NIN, MCH, and BRD all got TP improvements, Monk got a dps increase instead),
• (3) natural TP regen not being synced to skill speed
  (which means the party drains means there's an even further disparity between classes for which skill speed is decent (MNK), cap-required (DRG), or unavoidable (gear choices), and those that can avoid it),
• and (4) the fact that no support generally gets its own (MP) support
  (as per old double-bard setups with near-permanent Foe).