Nope. All three ranged are in a bad spot right now. In all likelihood the meta comp will be three melee and BLM, because ranged are so far behind they won't even be worth the 1% main stat increase, once NIN and/or SAM are buffed. (Even now it might actually be best to just MNKx2 + DRG + BLM, limit break be damned)

So DO NOT buy into any of this nonsense about how Bard's damage would need to be decreased. With all the ranged needing to be buffed by a fair amount, it'd simply be a matter of buffing Bard via raid damage contribution, instead of via personal damage. Give Dancer and Machinist equivalent personal damage buffs to match and we're all set.


I have two broad requests that run counter to your suggestions too -

One, any added support should carry decision weight.

The main reason people were fond of Foe, despite its clunkiness, was its flexibility - depending on the fight timings and the mp restoration available, you could sit down and work out when it was best to use it and for how long each time.

If any damage support is to be added, it should be of this nature, and not something like the 2% crit buff that's just passively always on with no interaction.

Players will "feel" more supporting when they're actually engaged with their support skills, compared to something passive, or even something like Battle Voice (or your proposals) where you just press a button every n minutes.


Two, do not neglect other concerns.

In particular, Bards are widely disappointed in Apex Arrow as a capstone skill, and it would be a boon to QoL to have charges on Empyreal Arrow and/or Bloodletter.

Also, Army's Muse leads to some weird timing outcomes by shifting the GCD just enough to muck with the WM-MB transition at low SkS.


In general, the charge system makes a lot of sense for a lot of Bard's kit. Putting a second charge on Battle Voice would make its timing much more of a decision, and for similar reasons a revived Foe rework would most make sense as a charged skill.

Plus the aforementioned EA / BL QoL options, and heck charges for Minne would be a nice compromise to avoid actually cutting its cooldown. Presumably SE wouldn't want to go too crazy putting charges all over the place though (even though in theory they could and it'd be fine), so it's a bit tricky.

As for Warden's, I kinda like it as-is? Not everything has to be Savage-relevant. Though if it's causing them to be shy about adding cleansable stuff to Savage for ranged dps balance reasons, they ought to rework it on that basis alone. Something like a baby Excog would be a good fit for the current flavor and mechanical structure of the skill, imo.