Here is my 2 gil on the subject. I love Bards, but you gotta at least try. I don't mind being the sole DPS as a Ninja while the bard supports and adds in what he can. But for F sake, please be able to stop the prison and holds some bosses do. For instance, I ran the dungeon with Niddhogg at the end yesterday i forget the name. LUCKILY the boss didnt put me in that stupid prison until after the big waves of adds, but after the adds boss prisoned me, bard got to maybe 50% health and thats giving him some credit, and I was dead, cool not a problem. Healer rezzed me, i got back to work for 5 seconds, then prisoned again... This time BRD didn't even try to release me, just let me die.

I love BRD's but you can't be a horrible bard if you're gonna play one. Learn the role, I can carry DPS. It'll be a little slow, but i can do it. Luckily I haven't done an extreme with a bard yet, but if it's anything like the bard above, ill take the lockout timer.