Quote Originally Posted by Connor View Post
2.0 hits, Bard no longer has any access to support spells. Furthermore, songs are now 'auras' rather than the support buffs they were before. So no more MP management, no more positioning, no more applying different songs to different party members.
I'll chime in here that the design was taken in a direction close to how games like Dragon Age interpreted Bards; that being, buffs acting as auras that consume resources while still dealing damage. Our BRD simply became more like Leliana, just without the option of swapping the bow for dual daggers.
I really enjoy being a caster-Bard, even if it was implemented very poorly. Unfortunately, more disappointment was on the horizon, as the much-hated Warden's Paean was changed from being an actual song to another bland, generic cooldown. Song cast times were cut in half, to the point where you very rarely actually manage to see the Bard using songs because the animation is over so quickly (and that's not counting animation clipping, a pretty awful problem on Bard and other jobs that I don't see discussed at all really)
So you'd rather a skill be near useless? Because Warden's Paean was pretty much that when the expansion launched. On top of having gameplay changed at a terrible point in the job's growth, one of BRD's 5 new abilities wasn't useful.
It's frustrating to have an image of a job so disparate from what others see/want. Where I fervently hoped to return to the singing, casting, magical Bard that appeared in 1.0 (and all previous FF iterations), many seem to care only for the Archer aspect of the job. I know I sound like a broken record, but it honestly feels like I'm being punished for wanting Bards to be, well, Bards, as they originally were. It's the only job in-game that has been changed so much and so often.
If you're limiting yourself to the idea of a BRD solely using songs (i.e, the guy that equips an instrument as their main arm and is a sitting duck in actual combat), that's a limited perspective and one you're not going to see much. Especially given how Bards have been adapted in the recent years on top of things like the protagonist of The Bard's Tale, who was no pushover himself.
What terrifies me is that come 4.0, the Wanderer's Minuet, nor cast times on songs, nor any spell-casting at all will remain. We'll have a generic DoT based Archer with very limited utility and a whole lot of DPS that the devs never intended for it to have.
BRD losing WM would be a good thing, provided you alter the design of the whole Archer base class. The job would benefit from a complete overhaul into something with a clear focus. "Song Magic" would actually be a decent direction to take them in, and I think the job would be well served by mixing song and bow into each other while giving the job some utility where it makes sense.
The point of this thread is first and foremost to discuss whether or not people calling for the removal of Minuet are representative of a majority of Bards.
For what it's worth, ARC/BRD used to be my runaway class. As in, the class I would play when I need a break from tanking. Heavensward pretty much killed that, but yeah.

And now, me spit-balling ideas:

- Insert cast times where it makes sense: One of the major problems with WM is that it gave cast times to almost everything. I've said this before, but giving Straight Shot/Heavy Shot cast times would make sense. Maybe Wide Volley. Windbite, Venomous Bite and Quick Nock shouldn't have cast times.
- Give BRDs combat music: While this clashes with the lore invented for BRDs, I think the job would benefit from having a system that allows them to use music in battle. I'd probably point to Kana from Pillars of Eternity and how he used chants while shooting at enemies with his blunderbuss, not to mention the clever Invocation system that game had. Imagine BRD activating a song that progresses over time, and depending on what verse of the song they're in can trigger unique effects that benefit the group or harm the enemy. You could even build it on top of the current gameplay by having the song progress with actions taken by you (weapon skills and use of cooldowns?).