Direction of Bard?

[syntaxlies]

I don't like the idea of having more than one song up... how many songs do we have? how many can we have up? what percentage of our total songs is that..... even two songs = OP imho.

I think some songs should be ok to overlap and others that are op shouldn't. Swift song for instance i think should not wipe other songs.

[AceofRains]

I love BRD in its current state, but it is most assuredly a type of support class: very solid single-target DPS buffeted with songs. Others who play/played ARC may prefer a pure ranged DPS role, but I appreciate how much BRD can influence a fight positively or negatively. BV Paeon in particular is beautiful to watch when you have several melee DPS jobs in the party.

In a dungeon like AV, the BRD can serve an absolutely pivotal role as a co-leader with the tank, grabbing chests, swapping songs, pulling, etc.

The only adjustment I might want is some way of dealing a portion of elemental damage.

Elemental arrows would be nice.

But then again no ones stopping you from making a mage-bard build. Possible, but it just doesn't compliment that your songs are buffs.

[Leelya]

I'd glad people have weighed in with their own opinions on the matter. What I gather from the reading of everyone's thoughts is that they believe that Bard is either a really good dps still or a great supporting role character. This is essentially what I was asking that we be made more of. Having thm as a job that bard can pull abilities from is useless. Changing that scenario would better benefit bard being in either a supporting or dps role much better.

Don't get me wrong I like the job and all. It just appears to be all over the place in it's current state.

[Estellios]

BRD is the only job that gets access to both Cure/Raise and Resonance... it's really useful so I wouldn't discount that all of THM's abilities are useless for BRD (Sanguine Rite is excellent too, and BRD is the only job that can AOE it). As the game progresses chances are we may see more cross-class abilities added to existing classes so we can see what happens.

[Bustercucumbers]

Personally, I feel the OP may be playing the wrong job if they are as unhappy with it as the post implies. I have played bard as my main class in several MMOs, and they tend to be a great utility class with a "Jack of all trades, master of none" play style to them. I feel that is the direction in FFXIV as well. Perhaps that style of play is simply not for the OP.

As of now, bard is solid damage output in itself. It raises the overall group damage exponentially, by giving BLM more sustainable MP regen, gives the other mellee classes more acc, thus more damage from not missing, as well as increasing ther TP flow, thus allowing more damage with weapon skills. We can raise in a pinch, support heal, AoE stun, and can give a HP boost before attacks like Prmals heavy AoEs slam the group. This all adds to our support and the nature of the class, the OP is attempting to make al of these support abilities appear to be a bad thing because we are not a debuffer.

I do not feel we need more debuffs. I believe bard is to be a "jack of all trades, master of none" support role, with another class will most likely be the debuff support. In general I prefer bard stays just like it is.

Although BLMs can go through their mana very quickly, they usually shouldn't due to the large amount of hate issues that they will gain. Also, you speak about how you can raise melee's accuracy and tp generation. You never said "or", you said "as well as", which implies that bard can do both those songs at once. Correct me if I'm wrong, but only one bard can have one of their songs on a target at a time. So unless your group has two bards, you cannot do as you say in a party. Also, you imply that Bards have an AOE stun in which they can use in a "pinch". That is also very highly unlikely. The AOE stun you speak of is the rein of death combo. This is a three way finisher combo on a three minute cooldown. Add in poor server response time and the fact that the second part of the combo, "quick knock", requires that you stand much closer to the mob, really makes this AOE stun nowhere near feasible as a "in a pinch" ability. I love playing my bard, but I do feel that there are areas that need improvement. I love that majority of our combos add some sort of debuff on the target, but I wish we would have some better debuffs for boss fights. Bloodletter is a great example of a weaponskill debuff for a boss.

[Dzian]

BRD is the only job that gets access to both Cure/Raise and Resonance... it's really useful so I wouldn't discount that all of THM's abilities are useless for BRD (Sanguine Rite is excellent too, and BRD is the only job that can AOE it). As the game progresses chances are we may see more cross-class abilities added to existing classes so we can see what happens.

sanguin rite i find mostly useless on bard. primarily cos you dont get the damage reduction.
my cross crass class abilities are cure stoneskin sacred prism raise and resonance. and i typically suggest any bard to use the same.

Resonance is just to good to pass up. increases the range on your songs which can be usefull when mages are spread out. and it typically lets you raise people from a nice little safe spot.

[carraway]

Prism+Sanguine Rite can be an invaluable time-saver during AV/CC speedruns; I would never go without it.

[syntaxlies]

the only thing i don't like about bard is how some people use it as an excuse to be an awful DD. say things like "im not DD im support" lol, bard is still more DD then anything else

[syntaxlies]

It's a bit more than standard. given the damage you can put out as a bard.
heavy shot > leaden shot> wide volley > peircing arrow > gloom arrow > bloodletter > barrage > heavy shot > quick knock > rain of death. all in 20-25 seconds = a pretty huge spike of damage in very little time and for dessert when you find all that has put your hate in the red you just use chameleon and laugh. i usuallythrow quelling strike somewhere in there depending on where my tp is at.

add to that the boost i can give to the rest of my party makes my brd pretty freaking awesome.

i originally hated the idea of brd i had visions of buffs with such short durations that would kill my dd but actually love the way it's turned out

you should use barrage and quick know before the other skills so the cooldowns are refreshing while you use the other skills.

[Dzian]

the only thing i don't like about bard is how some people use it as an excuse to be an awful DD. say things like "im not DD im support" lol, bard is still more DD then anything else

Thats true though i can put out awesome dps and keep buffs up on all the right people. once got called the best bard on the server by a group of people after someone parsed my brd doing 131 dps in a feast for fools. almost double any other dd in the group. though alot of that depends on time spent dead and moogles not using maximoogle. still it's nice to be complimented. i average between 80-100 at moogle though with time spent snging ballads and stoneskins so it's certainly a capable dd job.

you should use barrage and quick know before the other skills so the cooldowns are refreshing while you use the other skills.

i wasnt quoting any particular order of ability just pointing out the amount of damage you can put out in a short time. the order in which i pop my skills is dependant on timers