WM - Why does it turn Bard's into DoT Casters?

[Nekotee]

I agree a decent bard deal massive damage in no time

Coming from black mage and playing bard (occasionnant it's a subsubsub job for fun... and my bow is covered by dust now)
I was baffles to hear bard complaining about mobility when i see how Short cast time are

I mean... try out black mage flare or Fire IV and you Will talk about mobility struggle
Add with that leyline and aoe spam from the ennemies...

The bard lose a bit of his mobility but they really can't complain to a black mage
I had fun playing bard because as a previous black mage i knew how to position myself adequately to avoid unnecessary move

[Neophyte]

Can't a BRD move like 1-2 seconds after every casts, except they have to use Ephymeral Arrow in the 2nd half of the GCD?

While BLM/SMN have something like 0,1-0,2s to move after GCD without dps-loss.

[Vifrague]

I adjusted to WM pretty easly mostly because I was never moving around like a hamster on caffeine, to me it (WM) really forced us to focus more on where our DPS was coming from our dots, obviously our dps is not on par with smn but if you mess up that dot recast or fumble on our rotation our DPS tanks our job just had the skill cap raised a bit all be it very sudden.

[project359]

I'll be honest, I hated 3.0 Bard at first. I mained Bard from 2.0 and switched to BLM when 3.0 launched.

But after sticking with it and readjusting my play style, I absolutely love Bard now, to the point where I hate playing old content without WM.

On the plus side, WM has done away with those annoying Bards that used to run around in circles for absolutely no reason.

[GavynG]

I like Bard. I love Machinist. I don't care if we're more mobile or less mobile. And I believe even if bards and machinists could freely move and shoot, they'd get their shit together quickly as far as getting others hit with skills is concerned. People aren't THAT stupid late-game. Cough.

But...

I still hate how it feels to cast a shot. To have a skill interupted by damage. To have the tank move a boss behind me during a cast and interupt it that way. It just doesn't feel good. Still.

Honestly though, the idea of charging up a shot is interesting. but does it have to affect -everything-? On Machinist, it'd be nice if Hot Shot didn't have to be casted with Gauss Barrel Attached. Everything else, I'd be fine with. But Hot Shot is a boring "must always have up" move.

I got tired of removing Gauss to reapply Hot Shot then put the Gauss back on, so I just cast it now.

Always. Have. To cast. It. : |

[Ashur]

forgive me, im not a post-50 bard, but i dont feel as though WM exactly.. fits. in essence, it is a cast. but can anyone tell me the explanation for it being a cast? is it concentration, or charging aether, or a song that just works that way? I almost think it would make more sense if it were a bit more complicated..
For example, lets call it Pinpoint. explanation - the now experienced archer is aiming specifically for the enemy's weak points, when before they could aim and shoot quickly with less specific placement. each GCD shot has an aiming time of 1.5 seconds, but its more of a charge. the bard can move at any point during the charge and the global cooldown starts at activation. if the skill was charged .5 seconds before interruption, it does 10% more damage. 1 second charge is 20% more, and 1.5 is 30% more damage (okay the stance would have to increase oGCDs by a proportional amount, or adjust values, but anyway).

Now this means having to cancel your skill quickly is a dps loss and encourages people not to run around all the time, but its not the same as that pesky AoE or mechanic we couldnt avoid moving for cancelling a skill you already charged for a second and making you start the cast again. to me, thematically it also makes more sense, the minuet seems like it does what it does because.. it just does. extra damage for aiming at weak spots, coming from an experienced bard's knowledge, seems like a much more likely idea. But again thats just me and i'm no bard

[Lewtskie]

snip

See, you're not a post-50 Bard, but your thinking puts you miles ahead of some of the others before you. You realize just how flawed the whole idea with WM is. Props.

The ignorant man's response to why it's a cast is "lol, because yer aiming a shot! hurr durr." as clearly you have to hold and steady a shot as if you were pinning a target miles away when its only 3 feet in front of you. Also, you could only ever fire an arrow standing perfectly still. Clearly there doesn't exist any fashion of archery that focuses on literal run and gun tactics. Yeah, the charge idea has always been dumb. If one were one recreate the whole action of interrupting your charge in real life you'd spend 1 second knocking and pulling back an arrow, you twitch you left foot a centimeter and you then just drop the arrow. Not let it fly, nope, you just... take it off the bowstring.

But that just further validates that the whole introduction of WM was a hasted, slapped on side job done in crunch time because they have for forever now been in conflict with themselves over what they actually want from Bard.

Your not the first to offer the idea of a proper wind-up mechanic, scaling power over time. I've suggested that rather than halt movement completely to instead just slow movement mid cast, only losing cast if you were to turn to face away from the target. You gain the window for more damage, can still adjust, and utilize mobility that can serve under duress. It'd certainly open itself to players wanting to have that middle ground that existed pre-HW.

If we ever see a change in 4.0, these concepts are what I would love to see. At least, DPSer wise. I still wait to see more utility out of the support mechanics as well, and hopefully by 4.0 SE will have thought of something practical AND appropriately thematic that really brings life into this job.