Bard Support as it stands now

[SweetPete]

To the bard mains out there or people who just occasionally enjoy playing bard sometimes. Do you guys think bard party support will ever be equal to dancers? As it stands bard songs are lackluster and dancer is supreme in party support. I’m sure bard isn’t going to get anything new the rest of this expansion but maybe next? You guys think they will put both bard and dancer on par with each other for party support? I’m so confused why they screwed bard over in the support department. MCH is fine as it’s a DPS monster but to me I think bard should be more support oriented along with dancer but it seems SE doesn’t want it to be. If that’s the case then just rename bard ranger or something. I’m just bothered and confused about SE decision on this... help me understand guys. Thanks. Happy gaming.

[Brandedblade]

To the bard mains out there or people who just occasionally enjoy playing bard sometimes. Do you guys think bard party support will ever be equal to dancers? As it stands bard songs are lackluster and dancer is supreme in party support. I’m sure bard isn’t going to get anything new the rest of this expansion but maybe next? You guys think they will put both bard and dancer on par with each other for party support? I’m so confused why they screwed bard over in the support department. MCH is fine as it’s a DPS monster but to me I think bard should be more support oriented along with dancer but it seems SE doesn’t want it to be. If that’s the case then just rename bard ranger or something. I’m just bothered and confused about SE decision on this... help me understand guys. Thanks. Happy gaming.

No. from my understanding they're meant to be the middle ground between MCH being the "raw dps" and Dancer being the "support dps" if they do get support, it will probably be balanced around dancer getting more support as well.

[SweetPete]

Ah that makes sense I guess. I always thought bard would be the super support while dancer was in the middle of both.

[Connor]

It absolutely should have support (and damage) that’s equivalent but unique to Dancer. E.g Bard focuses on defensive buffs, Dancer still in offensive. Maybe give Machinist a debuff worked into it’s damage rotation

Truth is nobody wants that though. The developers don’t want Bard to be support oriented, the community doesn’t want it, hell the npcs in game probably don’t want it. Bard apparently never has and never will be related to supporting the party in FFXIV (not sure what all that lore about inspiring their comrades through songs was about, seems a bit silly to have a load of lore about something that doesn’t exist in-game). The developers are acting like it’s always been this high-dps, proc-based ranged attacker with limited/useless support abilities that gets out-dps’d by one competitor and out-supported by the other.

Better to accept Bard for what it is. It’s Ranger but they had to stick with the name choice because 1.0 happened and it was an entirely different job back then (it actually focused on using songs to support the party whilst dealing damage with the bow). Anytime I hear Bard I just replace the word with Ranger. It makes life much easier...it’s why I’ll never play one seriously again lol.

It’s pretty telling that the game’s actual job guide literally describes ranged dps as ones that can ‘provide support to their companions’. How does that make any sense if it applies to only one of the three jobs that make up the role. And how can they ever add a new ranged dps to a sliding scale of ‘high dps’ ‘low dps’ ‘middle dps’. Are we going to get ‘higher than middle but lower than high’ next? ‘Lower than low but higher rDPS so it’s actually higher than middle’? They developers are backing themselves into yet another design corner where they’ll have nothing left to balance it but basically gutting the entire toolkit of every job within the role (*cough* tanks and healers *cough*)

[Jirah]

MCH is fine as

wrong but it isnt the point. Petty comment aside a changed back to BRD as MCH is super mindless and feels like a childs job being so easy and boring, shout out to the stans always seek improvement unless your BLM, every job has the potential to be better.

DNC also feels very boring and mindless if it weren't for the rng adding in some arbitrary excitement when i get a flourish. But DNC support is more fun with Close position. Curing waltz, Standard finish buff, Devilment buffing partners, Technic finish raid buff,and the esprit.

Now Bard if played correctly should give the party a buff every 30 seconds , Mages= damage dealt by 1%, Paeon = Direct hit rate by 3%, Wanderers= Critical hit rate by 2%, Minne is like pesudo convalescence (for those who dont remember its a skill that boosts healing potency and shield potency) Paean is a Esuna shield so its useful only if aliments are common and as of 5.3 they arent nearly as threatening compared to the likes of The Burn saving your healers a ton of trouble but severely situational. Battle Voice which is Bards best support as it increases direct hit by a whooping 20% to everyone BUT the Bard and can only be used while under a song. a troubadour is basically a ranged role action as ALL ranged has the same skill doing the same effect and cant be stacked which is JUST FINE. but it sucks.

DNC has more fun support options since it can chose a dance partner and they reap most of dancers buffs, but BRD is more fun to play not being governed completely by RNG and requires some practice to find the most optimal rotation of songs and keeping the dots alive. being ranged makes things alot easier but no one told DNC and MCH because they are so easy with few things to worry about with DNC just being slightly better with support and the fact it needs to keep its Standard up and Flourishes active every 30/60 seconds with insanely large room for error. but Im digressing alot BRD support is sadly not as good as DNC long story short but its up to the player tbh