Can’t say I speak for anyone else but I don’t think is anyone is claiming there’s anything wrong with Bard’s damage dealing kit or mechanics. It’s just that it’s been gradually taking a U-Turn from a supportive job to a Black Mage / Samurai Style ‘selfish dps’, (which I believe is also the identity for Machinist), and with the removal of a slew of utility like Requiem / Role Skills / Double Minne Cooldown and even silly things like that 3% crit buff or the different Troubadour effects we haven’t been given anything new to fill those now blank ‘supportive’ ability slots. Personally I don’t think utility necessarily needs to be a straight up damage buff either I mean, everyone seems to really prefer the old Astrologian card effects to the straight up damage buffs.

The tl;dr is that I don’t think anyone is saying there are major issues with Bard’s damage dealing, just that the supportive aspect of the job is now feels lacking compared to before (not compared to Dancer)