Confusion about BRD: What do they even do anymore?

[HyleahMyia]

I played BRD as an alt through SB and enjoyed the class well enough;mostly enjoyed its mobility. But in ShB... like I don't even know what utility BRD even has anymore. My songs seem completely useless now; they don't give a crit buff anymore, and outside of doing some dmg when you first initiate it, I don't see what else it even does (except for Wanderer's Pitch Perfect proc).

Would someone be able to enlighten me? Does BRD even BRD anymore?

[ErryK]

Totally glossed over their only actual utility: Battle Voice.

[KageTokage]

Battle Voice, Warden's Paean, and Nature's Minne are basically the only utility BRD has now.

[Nora_of_Mira]

BRD is a dps.

[Fynlar]

There's maybe less utility but that doesn't mean you have none.

Battle Voice - dhit buff for everyone except you, assuming that aspect still works like how it did before (WHYYYYY)
Warden's Paean - (preemptive) Esuna. Only non-healer with anything like it. I got a comm for it the other day on Titan HM gaols. Watch for status attacks that typically go unnoticed by the healers; these are your chances to shine.
Troubadour - 10% party mitigation. Doesn't stack with MCH's or DNC's similar abilities, so you guys are gonna have to coordinate that
Nature's Minne - Convalescence equivalent for your tank because they don't have it anymore
Head Graze - Interject equivalent, because the tanks sure as hell aren't going to bother to do it

Your main 3 songs (Ballad, Paeon, Minuet) are strictly for you. The primary effect of the songs are pretty much the same as in SB (this is the first expansion they've done where they didn't drastically rework BRD), they just got rid of the (negligible) group effects, so not sure as to what your confusion is since you claim you played BRD in SB.

[HyleahMyia]

Having all the skills laid out does clear it up a little bit for me, and I appreciate the responses. I guess my confusion came from the fact that the songs no longer have any group utility; it kind of feels like with each expansion they take more and more away from it, though I guess that can be said with each class in the game. I am a healer main, so I always gravitated towards a DPS alt having a group utility function. I feel like DNC has become more of the buff class that BRD kinda of was before. If any of that makes sense. Maybe I am just being too critical.

[Nora_of_Mira]

Having all the skills laid out does clear it up a little bit for me, and I appreciate the responses. I guess my confusion came from the fact that the songs no longer have any group utility; it kind of feels like with each expansion they take more and more away from it, though I guess that can be said with each class in the game. I am a healer main, so I always gravitated towards a DPS alt having a group utility function. I feel like DNC has become more of the buff class that BRD kinda of was before. If any of that makes sense. Maybe I am just being too critical.

Its not a feeling, that IS what Dancer was made to be and what it currently is. All utility was shuffled around and given to Dancer. If they added more utility to Bard, they would then have to remove some utility from Dancer...then we'd be questioning why Dancer exists, and you can see where this is going. The entire limiter here is 8-man group composition. If BRD was the equivalent of DNC, there would be a heavy chance that BRD+DNC would overtake the meta. the only way to avoid this would be reduce the DPS of both BRD+DNC, and well, no one likes when they do that.

I agree BRD is in a weird spot right now with its identity crisis, but BRD has to walk if Square wants DNC to run.

[TwiibieTwuu]

Wouldn't mind if they added a few more types of buffs to BRD. Perhaps one that reduces certain negative effects like slow, sleep and paralysis. For everyone around you. Give them some kind of raise ability. An attack that spreads both DoT attacks to all nearby enemies. Etc

[Connor]

Basically if you want to be a Bard be a Dancer

[Sathona]

Bards became Archers in 5.0