BRD 5.0 Feedback, Suggestions, and Requests

[infinitestory]

Hi, Bard main at a high level since 4.0 here. Here's my list of things I'd like to see changed to help improve the depth and QoL of Shadowbringers Bard:

QoL requests first:

• Apex Arrow’s fill sound is the same as Pitch Perfect’s. This causes misfires frequently during Wanderer’s Minuet phases. Please change it! I hear Bards complain about this multiple times a day!

• Also, Apex Arrow’s Soul Voice Gauge replaces the Straight Shot gauge, but unlike the Straight Shot gauge, it is NOT detachable from the Song Gauge! Please change this as well!

Gameplay change requests:

• Bring back Foe Requiem, in some form.

• With the release of Shadowbringers, Bard has less team utility than ever. It seems that the class is still balanced around being a medium utility provider, but it now has arguably lower class-specific utility than even MNK, with Brotherhood being stronger for damage and Mantra being AoE Minne.

• With the removal of Refresh and the addition of a charge system, it seemed Shadowbringers would be the perfect time to also rework Foe Requiem. However, it was instead outright removed, and now Bard gets literally nothing at level 58.

• Ideally, Foe would be brought back as an oGCD that either spends half mana or is on a charge system, and applies a minor vulnerability debuff to a single target.

• Apex Arrow is too weak in single target, and is a generally uninteresting design when there are many interesting designs that would require only minor tweaks.

• Currently, Apex Arrow provides less single-target DPS than Sidewinder, because it costs a GCD every use. It basically should only be used at full gauge. In fact, it’s certainly weaker than Quick Nock until 35 gauge, and weaker than Burst Shot until 55 gauge (since it can’t grant Straight Shot Ready), so it’s unclear why Apex is even usable at 20 gauge. It’s not an intuitive skill at all. Being able to use it at 20 gauge is a trap for beginner players.

• Because Apex is unpredictable, has no effects besides damage, and is used so infrequently, it doesn’t significantly change gameplay in single-target raid scenarios. Bard only gains 3 skills this expansion, and two of them are just twists on existing skills which barely affect gameplay. There is room for Apex to introduce new elements to Bard gameplay, but it doesn’t.

• Here are some ways Apex Arrow could have had more interesting design. To be clear, I don’t want all of these to happen, but ANY ONE of these would have made it much more interesting:

• Make it an oGCD. This allows Apex Arrow to always have the same potency per gauge value, so it can be saved for Raging Strikes, buff phases, or Adds phases more easily.

• Change the potency scaling so that the potency per gauge value is constant when accounting for the GCD cost. In math terms, the value of a Burst Shot is ~258.5 potency, so if the potency is X at 20 gauge, it should be 5 * (X - 258.5) + 258.5 at 100 gauge. This also allows it to be used flexibly, without taking it off the GCD.

• Double the gauge fill rate. This makes Apex feel more valuable on a single target. It also makes it less optimal to hold a fully-charged Apex Arrow for as many as 25 seconds for an upcoming adds phase.

• Add a cap on the gauge usage, ideally around 40. This would, of course, require increasing the potency as well so that it is even worth using in single-target. This solution would allow us flexibility in using Apex Arrow, and maybe even use it to manipulate GCDs before Barrage or Iron Jaws.

• Bard didn’t receive any charge skills, despite being a class whose number one characteristic is flexibility.

• Bloodletter was one of the top candidates in the entire game to receive charges prior to Shadowbringers. Straight Shot Ready and Empyreal Arrow would also be good candidates.

• Bloodletter charges in particular would make Bard feel much smoother during Mage’s Ballad, especially in AOE situations. There don’t seem to be technical limitations on this, since classes like Summoner and Machinist use creative ways of granting and representing charges.

• Empyreal Arrow charges would help compensate for the lack of Skill Speed scaling, which causes its cooldown to slide against the GCD. It would also get rid of the feels-bad situation where the Soul Voice Gauge fills up right as EA comes off cooldown, where the right play is to use EA and ignore the overcapped gauge.

• Bard has multiple places in the rotation where it benefits them to delay an oGCD after pressing a GCD, which is unintuitive.

• Wanderer’s Minuet should be delayed when transitioning from Army’s Paeon, so that the next GCD is sooner and it is possible to receive 5 GCDs of benefit from Army’s Muse. It also lines up the end of the song better with the GCD timer, due to Army’s Muse.

• Raging Strikes should be delayed within any GCD where it is used, so that the next GCD is sooner and it is possible to have 9 GCDs under the effect.

• Both of these could potentially be solved by making making the buffs last longer. 1s longer duration for each would mostly solve the issue, without significantly increasing the strength of either one.