ShB bard has turned me into a ball of rage and depression

[LunaFaelyn]

Ranger/Archer classes have always been my to go to in any RPG. I found it funny that I was going to become a Bard in FF14. It actually turned me off a little when I first started playing ff14. But the strange thing was, I ended up loving the job. Everytime I helped a party member I felt like I was important to the end goal. While I never did the best damage, it was an amazing support job.
Everyone keeps asking me how I am enjoying my bard now with the release of ShB. And all I can say is that it is a giant ball of depression. Right now, I'm only lvl 75 and keep hoping that it gets better. But I no longer feel like I am helping the party out with songs and my dps is still the same as it was at the end of SB. I feel like I am just an archer again with the loss of most of my party buffs. It feels bad. The job just feels boring and lackluster. Like I am the last person you would want to be in a dungeon with.
And now for the rage. I was excited to try dancer. A new support job. But when I get in queue with one, all I can see is all the things that bard lost. And to top it off, dancer is doing big damage like my beloved machinist. I played bard to be useful and machinist to do big damage. Why does the new job get the best of both world? Meanwhile I am flinging toothpicks at the enemies and have barely any utility.
I'm so angry about dancer being everything that I don't see myself playing the job. It makes my heart ache for my bard. I was so excited that it was going to be another physical ranged dps. But now I have the urge to leave any queue I get into with a dancer just because it reminds me of how much the bard is lacking.
People keep telling me to play another job but Bard is my main. The job before ShB that I loved most. I'm the type to fix a broken and cherished toy rather than throw it away. I can only hope that lvl 80 feels better or that SE fixes the job that I love.

[Suniva]

I sympathize with you. I've been joking with my FC that Sqeenix's history with brd is to change it's role give us an identity crisis every other expansion.

In Heavensward, we became bow mages.
In Shadowbringers, we are now rangers.

It's pretty funny/sad all at once.

[AncientCrystal]

I job in a video game should never make you "a giant ball of depression". You taking that waaaaay too seriously.

Anyway, I to was a BRD main for years now and felt they gutted a lot of it's utility to where it just feels like FFXI Ranger now and then gave DNC a lot of utility. I saw this coming a mile away and knew I was changing jobs in 5.0 anyway and I've been a BRD main for 4 years now. I also just needed to revitilize my experience in this game so in ShB I was first leveling other jobs.

[Kaozurei]

While I understand what you mean about losing BRD's supportive ability through their songs, their damage is actually pretty good when played properly. A friend was a BRD main back in SB and stuck to it in ShB and I see him dishing out some insane damage without much effort. Heck, people I know are saying that bard might actually be a bit TOO powerful since it still contributes their DH buff through Battle Voice. It does have a slightly different playstyle now than it did back in SB, though.

As for Dancer, it has the lowest personal damage out of all ranged DPS by a pretty big margin, I have no idea how you could tell the dancer you partied with was doing the same amount of damage as your machinist, but Dancer's far from a damage powerhouse. I've yet to see any dancer contributing the same amount of damage a well-played MCH can dish out.

[HyoMinPark]

I job in a video game should never make you "a giant ball of depression". You taking that waaaaay too seriously.

Anyway, I to was a BRD main for years now and felt they gutted a lot of it's utility to where it just feels like FFXI Ranger now and then gave DNC a lot of utility. I saw this coming a mile away and knew I was changing jobs in 5.0 anyway and I've been a BRD main for 4 years now. I also just needed to revitilize my experience in this game so in ShB I was first leveling other jobs.

If a person only really plays one job because it’s the only one they enjoy and the job ends up being neutered as a result, I can understand the frustration behind it. Even if the phrasing borders on hyperbolic. I’ve mained BRD since I started this game. I left it when I heard it was losing the things about it I enjoyed the most. I’ll still level it eventually, but I don’t think it will be the same.

EDIT because stupid posting limits:

BRD may have lost utility, but from what I've noticed it does very solid damage.

It did solid damage back in Stormblood—it was actually far stronger than it was supposed to be. But that was never the reason why BRD mains mained the job. They mained it for the support aspect. At least for me, I didn’t want some Big D DPS when it came to BRD; I wanted the support and the raid contribution aspect of it. If I wanted the former, then I would have played something like BLM.

[BloodRubyXII]

I job in a video game should never make you "a giant ball of depression". You taking that waaaaay too seriously.

It's a hyperbole, stop taking everything on the internet literally.

[ValStormbreaker]

If a person only really plays one job because it’s the only one they enjoy and the job ends up being neutered as a result, I can understand the frustration behind it. Even if the phrasing borders on hyperbolic. I’ve mained BRD since I started this game. I left it when I heard it was losing the things about it I enjoyed the most. I’ll still level it eventually, but I don’t think it will be the same.

:fistbumpsinMNKmain:

I don't even main Bard but used it enough to understand the contexts of the frustration. The changes to Straight Shot threw me off completely. It felt unnecessarily and for a job that felt really easy and straightforward to begin with to have a noticeable dumbing down was a bit disheartening, not going to lie. And it really does feel like a neutering/dumbing down, instead of a streamlining. That's across the board with all the jobs :criesinMNK: but the DPSes seem to have it the worst, with a lot of forced simplification rather than streamlining for upward evolution. At level 80 a bunch of them don't seem to "evolve," instead they sort of devolved them at 70 and at 80 they do a half-baked catch-up to where they were before, like the 70 stuff was too hard for casual players to understand so they dumbed everything down. The result is not only that the skill ceiling gets lowered while the skill floor doesn't get raised, but the jobs in end-game just become more boring across the board and the fun factor is lost.

[Gallus]

BRD may have lost utility, but from what I've noticed it does very solid damage.

[ValStormbreaker]

BRD may have lost utility, but from what I've noticed it does very solid damage.

Well that's kind of what happens when now you're all about spamming that Heavy Shot since Straight Shot was changed.

[Suniva]

BRD may have lost utility, but from what I've noticed it does very solid damage.

A lot, (not all), but A LOT of people that played bard did so because of the util kit they had. I've been brd since 2.0, I NEVER have EVER wanted or even expected my class to do comparable dps to a dragoon or mnk, now sam, ninja, etc. People that decided to play brd and then complain that they weren't doing as good as dmg as the melee classes clearly didn't/don't understand what brd was supposed to be, imho.

And arguments such as yours that are implying that we should be okay with the trade off of our util for increased dmg is going to make me assume you've never gotten a brd to 70.
(I checked, you haven't.)