Holy Effing Bard!!

[Vespar]

Though what about our AoE, we had great AoE with the Bloodletter/Rain of Death Proc... what now?

They may have removed Wide Volley and changed procs for Rain of Death but we still have Quick Nock. Its a lesser TP cost than Wide Volley but its in a conal area before us, rather than a circle.
I'm hoping SE may consider switching it to a circular AOE now instead of a conal aoe. (Either that or just swap us Quick Nock for Wide Volley. I never really used Quick Nock because of its positioning requirement)

[Chevronone]

Are any other bards concerned we no longer buff damage directly, rather only provide a 2% crit increase, while mch still remains capable of directly buffing magic/physical damage?

Also does our 15% HP increase also heal that amount? 0.o

[Fynlar]

Also does our 15% HP increase also heal that amount? 0.o

I assume if it did, it would say so, like it does for WAR's Defiance.

EDIT: Err sorry, I meant Thrill of Battle. But incidentally, Defiance also does mention that it increases healing received, which is why I mistakenly mentioned it. Even THAT would make a lot more sense under a skill called Mage's Ballad, even if it only really affects the healer mages.

[SaitoHikari]

This so far are the changes I am most looking forward too, I saw SCH and SMN, and I was like " I thought we were DoT Mages... Where did our DoTs go? Though what about our AoE, we had great AoE with the Bloodletter/Rain of Death Proc... what now?

I'm a bit worried about this as well, but what Bards are currently capable of in the mobbing department is straight up broken as is, when done properly. Some Bards can nuke mob packs even harder than most Summoners can. It's a thing of beauty to watch.

That said, note what Mage's Ballad does now. You'll still have River of Blood, it's just only going to happen every 30 seconds out of 80 (though it's even more ridiculous in said 30 seconds compared to before, on account of proc rate apparently being 100% when critting with DoTs + the fact that we no longer have to wrestle with cast times meaning we won't fumble with unused resets anymore).