Bard in the party... thoughts?

[RiceisNice]

The response wasn't to make it seem like casters would be less important or not needed as much. All I was trying to say is maybe people wouldn't always have to default to the common dps composition of Melee, Melee, Ranged, Caster all the time if Brd had access to the piercing debuff. Maybe. You say giving Brd a piercing debuff doesn't make sense and won't help them.....before those Mch changes, I didn't think an additional 5% to Hypercharge and the Gauss Round change wouldn't help them as much either.

Giving brd a piercing debuff doesn't make any sense in their placement in a party composition if they're competing with MCH. It doesn't make sense from a damage perspective either because at that point, they'd probably balance bard dps around having the debuff (it doesn't make contextual sense by saying DRG does more damage because of the piercing debuff, because that's part of their kit and would be part of their inherent, personal damage). Nearly every example in this discussion has been directed to a MCH that has a DRG in their party for piercing debuff, giving that to BRD wouldn't change a thing in this regard because as of now, any BRD that wants to maximize their dps would have a DRG anyway for the piercing debuff.

But if you want toe encourage a BRD/MCH composition, then you're effectively throwing casters out of the equation unless you're looking at a triple ranged dps group, because MCH directly benefits BRD through hypercharge as well.

[Kelevra]

snip.

Again, if not a piercing debuff (which would allow the Bard to hit harder w/o a Drg while still benefiting casters and healers that want to dps with Foes)...then something else. Several things they can improve or adjust on Brd to help the job.