#NerfBRD

[Bourne_Endeavor]

This entire block is addressing "Nerfed bard is deadweight without dragoon".

Which is patently not true.

Your estimations are off. Fortunately, we have a site that calculates rDPS, albeit it isn't perfect but it does the job. http://www.xivrdps.com/encounters/nLjybwfQktHXadTV/13

Litany is a wash in terms of pure damage, though it does impact BRD more noticeably due to the proc nature of their job. For the sake of argument's, we'll put that aside and call it a wash. Likewise, we'll half Piercing, subtract 5% from BRD's pDPS and remove Dragon Sight.

MCH: 6,780
BRD: 6,481

That is a substantial difference, especially as BRD would drop even lower due to the aforementioned lowered chance of procs. For comparison sake, SMN's rDPS hovers just shy of 8k. The gap between them and a nerfed, DRG-less BRD is nearly 1,500 rDPS. I'll grant you dead weight may be a bit too strong a term if only because I didn't include MCH. They'd both be surviving on Refresh. Basically, DRG just became even more comfy in its spot. Which is a moot point. It is somewhat ironic though because the whole fighting for one spot argument is equally true on the melee side. NIN/MNK/SAM fight while DRG slots in. And because Trick Attack is Trick Attack, well, it's not much competition for NIN.

Simply put, a lot of balancing issues need to be addressed. Which isn't going to happen pre-expansion.