#NerfBRD

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Oh please, of course it's possible.

Nerf heavy shot to 130-140 potency. There, you just made MCH competitive again.

Uh, no you didn't. BRD has far better support and is easier to approach. Furthermore, MCH is still competitive despite its many flaws. The main issue is people dislike playing it.

[Valence]

BRD is so strong because the developers continue to balance it (and MCH) without a DRG in mind (for piercing), in addition to Crit scaling being far higher than any other substat this tier - just as its been the last two expansions. From what I understand, no job is balanced with any sort of party or buff synergy in mind, which just adds to the problem.

To be honest, ranged physical without a dragoon are utter trash though. Even bard's rDPS right now isn't that high considering how much they lose due to piercing. It's good though, very good, no denying that.

[HyoMinPark]

To be honest, ranged physical without a dragoon are utter trash though. Even bard's rDPS right now isn't that high considering how much they lose due to piercing. It's good though, very good, no denying that.

I never said that they weren’t awful without a DRG—there’s a reason why most BRDs and MCHs who care about their damage won’t run in groups without a DRG. I ran the entirety of Deltascape without one, and most of Sigmascape without one. You don’t need to tell me how awful it feels to be without a DRG. I only said that they are not balanced with piercing in mind, which, in addition to the power creep of critical hit scaling as an expansion progresses, is why they have ended up stronger than they were probably intended. Yoshida has gone on record saying that both BRD and MCH are balanced as just BRD and just MCH, not BRD+DRG or MCH+DRG. We can’t have our own way to apply Piercing because, according to him, it would make us “too OP”.


Speaking in terms of their rDPS, though, BRD does have extremely high rDPS contributions with its entire kit. Proper BV usage and 100% uptime for the critical up buff individually are almost equivalent to what piercing gives a single physical ranged. The top speedkill for the Final Omega has a comp of PLD/WAR/SCH/AST/DRG/BRD/SMN/BLM. BRD contributed 280.7 rDPS from Foe’s, 264.0 rDPS from BV, and 364.5 rDPS from Critical Up. That’s a total of 909.2 rDPS contribution.

Not a small number.

For comparison:
—DRG brought 85.9 (Dragon Sight) + 482.5 (Litany) + 310.6 (Piercing) = 879.0 rDPS
—SCH brought 536.5 (Chain) + 336.8 (Fey Wind) = 873.3 rDPS
—AST brought 553.6 (Balance) + 104.8 (Spear) + 52.0 (Arrow) = 710.4 rDPS
—SMN brought 29.4 + 116.6 (Devotion) + 475.0 (Contagion) = 621 rDPS

So BRD had the highest rDPS contribution in that speed kill.

For the second highest speed kill (Final Omega again), with a comp of PLD/WAR/SCH/AST/NIN/DRG/BRD/SMN:

—BRD: 359.6 (Foe’s) + 372.1 (Critical Up) + 263.7 (BV) = 995.4 rDPS
—DRG: 104.4 (Dragon Sight) + 475.3 (Litany) + 354.7 (Piercing) = 934.4 rDPS
—NIN: 63.2 (Slashing) + 837.3 (TA) = 900.5 rDPS
—AST: 666.1 (Balance) + 100.4 (Spear) = 766.5 rDPS
—SCH: 667.8 rDPS (Chain)
—SMN: 49.1 (Contagion) + 171.3 (Devotion) + 114.7 = 335.1 rDPS


So you’re correct in saying BRD (and MCH) feel like trash to play without a DRG. But you’re wrong to say that BRD’s rDPS contribution “isn’t that great” compared to what they lose with piercing. Piercing is a godsend—that’s coming from a BRD main—but, executed properly, a BRD’s rDPS contribution is almost 3 times the amount of piercing. These calculations do not reflect any benefit that BRD receives (which their benefit from Foe’s is minuscule, and they do not benefit from any other buff in their kit), and would be unchanged if piercing was taken from the equation.

[Caitlinzulu]

noooooooöo, no nerfs to bard please. i like my class just fine

[Kitfox]

Crit scaling should be fixed. Job mechanics should not scale with gear stats when they don't for most other jobs. That just leads to growing balance problems as gear levels rise.

[MPNZ]

Crit scaling should be fixed. Job mechanics should not scale with gear stats when they don't for most other jobs. That just leads to growing balance problems as gear levels rise.

They could have just replaced belts with sphere scroll or something similar like materia slots for greater materia just feeding basic materia untill it gets to 100% crit which would be affected by ilv which would revitalize the usefulness of a lot of junk materia and spirit bounders

noooooooöo, no nerfs to bard please. i like my class just fine

Yes, and right after they fixed everthing too!

Hey everyone. I know this has been the outcry of MCH as of late, but even a BRD Main such as myself can see where balance is off kilter. Ever since I saw Troubadour get added with Nature’s Minne, I thought: “This Job is going to be broken sooner or later.”

Turns out the worst has come to pass. In 4.5 they’ll need to do something about BRD’s potencies in general to bring them in line with other jobs.

No. BRD does not need its abilities nerfed. This was done before and it was terrible. Instead, they need to rework MCH into something that serves a purpose to the party and whose actions feel like something other than just shoving whatever players can in the gun and firing it. Like progressively increasing auto-attack drones, Fall saves, defensive barriers, barracades drones, healing potency-up buff feilds, et-cetera for the party and making the bullet types actually mean something like slug shot interrupting attacks. There is absolutely no reason to nerf bardwhen the job just need to do something that isn't just button-mashing a controller with the player's fist and not paying attention.

[Kitfox]

The point with BRD nerf and crit nerf is that their procs should be a set %, not something that scales with crit. That would make their damage fall back in line and stay balanced throughout the expansions. There's nothing really wrong with BRD skillset that would warrant other nerfs, the crit scaling just needs to be taken away from their procs and they'll back into the balance we had in Deltascape, instead of becoming the overpowered mess we have now.

Fixing general stat scaling at the start of each expansion is not going to solve anything until the proc% is changed, the same problem will keep coming back as the gear progresses again.

[MPNZ]

The point with BRD nerf and crit nerf is that their procs should be a set %, not something that scales with crit. That would make their damage fall back in line and stay balanced throughout the expansions. There's nothing really wrong with BRD skillset that would warrant other nerfs, the crit scaling just needs to be taken away from their procs and they'll back into the balance we had in Deltascape, instead of becoming the overpowered mess we have now.

Fixing general stat scaling at the start of each expansion is not going to solve anything until the proc% is changed, the same problem will keep coming back as the gear progresses again.

Scaling with crit sets an incentive for players to play other content like extreme trials and raids to keep up their performance. BRD is just too good at what it does compared to the nothing-at-all-to-not-nearly-enough, incentivizing the jobs function organically, and how it's perks always earns them a permanent spot in parties. Bard needed nerfs in 2.0 that made it harder to play the solo content, 3.0's changes was way too drastic of a change from 2.0 to 3.0 content, and 4.0 has been totally great and only really need to be changed around to make early content interesting like every other job.

[BeautifulNerf]

Cheeeeeeeeee *Stares at this post* Don't mess with my in town running hore!!

[HyoMinPark]

Cheeeeeeeeee *Stares at this post* Don't mess with my in town running hore!!

Uh, Gesundheit?