Let's discuss some problems Bard has, despite being incredibly fun

[Kabooa]

The main problem Bards have is this creepy guy that carries a defunct rifle about, constantly breathing over their shoulder about how they are 'just as good' as them.

[Wavaryen]

My problem with bard? Too many buttons. That is pretty much it.

[Lastelli]

I don't get why some people say that BRD has too many buttons. It has as many buttons as any other job in the game, maybe even less since caustic bite and stormbite replace the previous dots so basically lvl 70 brd is the same as lvl 60 brd with the addition of refulgent proc and a couple support skills.

[Wavaryen]

I don't get why some people say that BRD has too many buttons. It has as many buttons as any other job in the game, maybe even less since caustic bite and stormbite replace the previous dots so basically lvl 70 brd is the same as lvl 60 brd with the addition of refulgent proc and a couple support skills.

It is because I got too manage a ton of procs/things going on with songs. My eyes is all over the screen.

[Shunye]

It is because I got too manage a ton of procs/things going on with songs. My eyes is all over the screen.

if you read the live letter, the team member who worked on all the specific class ui's specifically mentioned the bard ui and that they are considering making improvements so you dont have to watch multiple places on your screen for procs. that being said, if you think bard has alot of buttons, you should never heal, tank or play any melee dps.

[Furious]

I don't get why some people say that BRD has too many buttons. It has as many buttons as any other job in the game, maybe even less since caustic bite and stormbite replace the previous dots so basically lvl 70 brd is the same as lvl 60 brd with the addition of refulgent proc and a couple support skills.

It's not so much too many buttons, as too many criteria to respond to (with their own separate buttons). Paladin has more buttons than bard, for example, but the way paladin responds to a given criteria is largely the same (it doesn't matter which kind of damage is coming in, you're going to go to rampart and anticipation first, for example).

There are cooldowns going everywhere when it comes to bard now, thanks mostly to the rotating songs. All of them are vital to dps, and not only does it matter that you use them mainly on cooldown, but what your current buff state is, what your song state is, and what your other cooldowns are at. You use empyreal arrow on cooldown... but not before bloodletter in mage ballad, not if you're at 2+ stacks in minuet, not if you're above 3 stacks in paeon and about to switch, not if barrage is about to come off cooldown and you don't have straighter shot proc... etc etc.

I don't think it's necessarily the number of buttons, but rather the rate at which you have to respond to information and use those large number of buttons.

if you read the live letter, the team member who worked on all the specific class ui's specifically mentioned the bard ui and that they are considering making improvements so you dont have to watch multiple places on your screen for procs. that being said, if you think bard has alot of buttons, you should never heal, tank or play any melee dps.

As per above. Paladin has more buttons, but it is FAR more simple to play than bard is in the stormblood iteration. I don't play melee dps, but I'll warrent you that the 10 seconds I spent on ninja in potd made me want to shoot myself. Healers (other than scholar) have comparatively extremely few buttons and the difficulty in that job is more related to judging how long you have to spend on a certain action without risking the group.

[Lastelli]

It's not so much too many buttons, as too many criteria to respond to

By "too many criteria" do you mean "pitch perfect at 2-3 stacks when singing WM and bloodletter when singing ballad" during a otherwise silly and super easy priority system? Sorry but I cannot agree on this. Take these 2 things away and brd goes back to being the braindead pew pew job we had in arr. You simply need to be a little more reactive and that's it. The current brd is actually pretty easy.

so bard involves lots of buttons? but how come its considered as an easy class to play given that you have to respond to certain situation for your songs? is it because they are less punished with mechanics that makes them an easy class to play?

BRD is not punished at all by mechanics since it has total mobility. Also, "responding to situations" may sound complicated but it's not. Simply put, 2 out of 3 songs will make 2 skills proc, 1 for each song. When they proc you simply press a button to use those skills (with a little caveat for pitch perfect, but nothing complex). End of the story. Same goes for refulgent arrow. When it procs you use it and that's it.

[Shunye]

As per above. Paladin has more buttons, but it is FAR more simple to play than bard is in the stormblood iteration.

there is a difference between playing, and playing well. a GOOD paladin puts out nearly double the damage of a garbage paladin, while at the same time, positioning the boss so that dps can have an easier time. There are alot of bad players in this game that think all you do is run up to the boss and spam your emnity combo over and over and don't worry about boss positioning.

[Furious]

there is a difference between playing, and playing well. a GOOD paladin puts out nearly double the damage of a garbage paladin, while at the same time, positioning the boss so that dps can have an easier time. There are alot of bad players in this game that think all you do is run up to the boss and spam your emnity combo over and over and don't worry about boss positioning.

And yet, my point still stands.

As per above. Paladin has more buttons, but it is FAR more simple to play than bard is in the stormblood iteration.

[Dustytome]

After doing a bunch of dungeons where you're expected to use aoe constantly it's getting really annoying looking over at mages being on cooldown. I'd really like to kill the cooldown on songs, even if they still only last 30s and require us to re-up them. I'd also like some kind of audio cue that only I hear that tells me a song is about to end.