Thread: 3.3 Patch Notes(Pre)

Originally Posted by Cetonis

The Bard buffs make no sense. DoT damage was basically the one thing that -shouldn't- have been touched, and yet that's where most of the damage increase is going to hail from.

Bard's problem is what happens when a fight makes it so that their DoTs just aren't going to be good - this changeset fails to address that, while also introducing risk of overcompensation (making MCH undesirable) depending on what A9-12 looks like.

It's not consistent with anything SE has said or done in recent times. i.e. they say they want MCH to always be a bit ahead, and then buff Bard's ceiling damage way more than its floor. i.e. they give Monks Chakra and buff Ruin 3 to help those classes shore up weaknesses, and then buff Bard... DoT damage?

I suppose it's consistent in the sense that SE consistently fails to grasp how 3.0 Bard works.

They buffed all of BRD's skillset besides SS HS RS & IJ....what were you expecting? Heavy shot potency increased to 200?

Originally Posted by Cetonis

I was expecting them to -not- increase DoT damage. This isn't crying that they didn't buff enough - this is saying that they buffed the wrong things. The total pps gain here is about 6.66. A little over 4 of that comes from DoT damage increases which were not needed.

Sorry if I sound dumb but what is wrong with Dots on BRD?

Originally Posted by RLofOBFL

Sorry if I sound dumb but what is wrong with Dots on BRD?

Bard's problems in current content stem from how weak they are when they can't keep their DoTs running on any targets. Each time they have to either apply their DoTs anew, or forgo them entirely in the case of an add that isn't going to last very long, they lose out on hundreds of potency. Additionally, Flaming Arrow gets undermined by mechanics that cause the boss to be moved around.

Making the DoT/FA ticks stronger doesn't really change any of this - in fact, it makes the gap in DPS between a Bard-friendly fight and a Bard-punishing fight even wider. While raising the ceiling damage by 5% or so will of course raise the floor damage by a few percent as well, the goal should have been to raise the floor by 6-8% while ideally only adding maybe 1-3% to the ceiling.

And if SE actually took the time to understand how 3.0 Bard works, there were at least a few relatively obvious ways to make strides towards that goal, and a lot of room for creative solutions as well. Chief among the options would have been a duration compression on Flaming Arrow, better initial-hit damage on Windbite / Venomous Bite, significant oGCD attack buffs, an extension of Straight Shot's duration, addressing the WM vs. River anti-synergy, some way to get consolation damage when DoTs are down, or a couple other things.

But the Blunt Arrow change is the only thing on that list that they actually did - other than that it's a bunch of fairly thoughtless "we don't know what to do so let's just add a little bit to everything" buff. (Granted the song changes make a lot of sense, but that's sort of a separate category that doesn't take much of any class-specific knowledge to grasp)

If A9-12 roughly resemble A3, A4, A5, and A8 in style (as in, if A1-2 and A6-7 are true outliers), then the final numerical result of all this could actually be okay. Bard will be a little better in a fight or two, Machinist a little better in a fight or two, and they'd be even-ish in a fight or two.

But now the onus is on SE to actually produce those suitable fight designs - while also not botching BLM vs. SMN - when they could have had more freedom if they targeted Bard's weaknesses for buffs rather than just making their strengths even better.

Originally Posted by Cetonis

I was expecting them to -not- increase DoT damage. This isn't crying that they didn't buff enough - this is saying that they buffed the wrong things. The total pps gain here is about 6.66. A little over 4 of that comes from DoT damage increases which were not needed.

The BRD buffs look pretty solid IMO. A higher sustained damage allows for saving of CD's in the need of burst/dealing with mechanics. Blunt Arrow having double potency is a significant increase.

DOTs Changes -> higher AOE potential without altering burst AOE too much, higher sustained @ a 3.33 pps increase.
Blunt -> Burst Potential + Higher Sustained
EA -> Significant Burst Paired with Barrage + Higher Sustained
Flaming Arrow -> Significant AOE increase
Sidewinder.....an increase that doesn't change anything significant lol.

If you look at the single target pps of 6.667 combined from all the changes you will notice that the changes to the DOTs is exactly half @ 3.33 pps. The target here I believe was having the ability to hold burst CD's if required, which it appears to have done.

For the most part, BRD now has a ~100 DPS increase @ current gear + changes to BV and songs.