"Serious" Bard 6.0 predicted/suggested kit

[SweetPete]

The other big problem with bard is button bloat:

Right now most of your mental energy is spent trying to maintain your DoTs, and rotating song effects without 'wasting' any like a bloodletter or not casting pitch perfect before the time is up, which doesn't feel like the real 'bard fantasy.' But any new focus on other stuff might get overwhelming as Bard already has a lot of ways to lose quite a bit of DPS, so removing those tedious punishments for mistakes makes a lot of sense going forward.

I like what you said about bard not feeling like the fantasy job it should. That’s a really good point. Allot of people on this forum has really good ideas on where they want to see bard go in the future. I just hope SE is listening to us and won’t continue to tell us to leave feedback when they aren’t really listening themselves. I am okay with bard just getting small bandaids this expansion. I just hope in Endwalker we don’t see allot of the same things on what’s going on in this one. Bard and dancer do about the same dps to me yet I’ve heard people say SE looks at dancer as more support oriented and bard is in the middle of mch and dnc. I think that should be the other way around but I digress.

I’m not sure what abilities will go or change but if I had my guess it will be Shadowbite that will change into the dot spreader. Repelling shot and quick nock might go bye bye. Not sure why we have to be in sorta melee range to use quick nock. We’re ranged so it’s just weird to have to be that close to enemies. I don’t even use repelling shot at all and I know many bards who don’t even have it on their hotbar anymore. I’d also like to see sidewinder improved. Weird that it’s on a 60 second cool down when it just does mediocre damage. I’d like the songs to attach some kind of support to it for the party. If not just make it a weapon skill in place of burst shot that does a bit more damage as long as you have and keep both dots up.

[Cetonis]

Someone has to explain this Bane thing to me. What... is the goal of this anyway? It's not like we spend all that long applying DoTs, by the time a pack is gathered I only want like 2-5 more usually. It's not bad at all.

I rather like the (DoTs while running --> song up after a couple --> a few more DoTs when stop -> Apex/Nock procs everywhere flurry) personally, and WM is quite fine for this too honestly, really underrated.

It's a different and unique AoE setup and I think that's a good thing. Also in so far as dungeons go, "play another job if you don't like how x plays" is super applicable, because you don't need to be particularly well geared at all. I'd like for more jobs to have distinct AoE rotation styles honestly.

[Rika007]

Someone has to explain this Bane thing to me. What... is the goal of this anyway? It's not like we spend all that long applying DoTs, by the time a pack is gathered I only want like 2-5 more usually. It's not bad at all.

I rather like the (DoTs while running --> song up after a couple --> a few more DoTs when stop -> Apex/Nock procs everywhere flurry) personally, and WM is quite fine for this too honestly, really underrated.

It's a different and unique AoE setup and I think that's a good thing. Also in so far as dungeons go, "play another job if you don't like how x plays" is super applicable, because you don't need to be particularly well geared at all. I'd like for more jobs to have distinct AoE rotation styles honestly.

I can understand your thinking, but for me anyway, the current AOE rotation of having to apply the dots on 3-4 targets before going ham just feels kinda tedious to me, and is not something I really enjoy to do. And speaking as a controller player, where d-pad switching isn't probably nearly as effective as tab targeting, and I know for a fact the cone of vision isn't as precise as mouse targeting, the current option of having to multi dot up several enemies during the initial run up and after the first volley is not fun either.

The last thing I'd want is a straight up copy of Summoners: "Wait till the pull is gathered > swiftcast outburst > Tri-disaster priority target > bane > summon durgen/birb" rotation though. I'd instead like to see something that has a mathematical potency advantage/disadvantage, where if it's only like 2 or 3 targets, keep to the current Bard rotation. The moment we at 4 though, we would do something like: "Storm & Caustic primary target > Let enemies gather > quick knock > hit new ability that has a harp styled animation (I don't know call it Elegy of Torment or something, I'm bad with names) that then uses a Bane effect to spread a new singular DoT that is potency based on if you had Both Caustic and Storm on the initial mob." This new Dot will count for Repertoire procs, and just because this is all theory crafting, let it increase the potency of Shadowbite as well if a target is marked by it, but the potency of the dot will only be like 30, so it's best use will be on those major pulls where you have like 4-10 mobs, where multi-dotting is not a fun thing to do. This will allow for more Apex procs and nice big Shadowbytes, along with even more rain of deaths, and to me at least would feel more satisfying.

[Cetonis]

How is using the enmity list on controller? That's honestly what I've always used to swap targets.

[Rika007]

How is using the enmity list on controller? That's honestly what I've always used to swap targets.

Possible, but also not the most comfortable, essentially you have to set it up to hold down R1 or L1 and then use the D-Pad to scroll through it, and depending on how you have your Crossbar setup, this can create most issues. Most players who are serious players who play on controller (and while not a lot of us, we do exist), set up their controller to either use the shoulder bumpers or triggers to either swap to a new cross bar or to activate the Expanded Crossbar. Regardless of which way you do it, those shoulder buttons are at a premium as it is, and the more you use them for one off things like targeting, the more strain in your fingers.

[SweetPete]

Also for Endwalker,

Can bard do more with their instruments please. Dancer flows through their many dances to attack and ninja flows through their many ninjutsu. Why does bard only give a flick of the string once and that’s all? It’s so bad. I hope to see more instrument play during battle. Not just the single flick of the harp string or the no sound of the flute, just a weird spin. Come on SE. Do better by bard please. We deserve so much more than what you giving us...

[Cetonis]

If we weren't flooded with oGCDs, I wouldn't mind reprising 3s cast times to play the harp honestly. But probably the best we can hope for is some added flute animation and/or more musical sound effects. Battle Voice just kind of making a low hiss is super lame for instance.

[Rika007]

If we weren't flooded with oGCDs, I wouldn't mind reprising 3s cast times to play the harp honestly. But probably the best we can hope for is some added flute animation and/or more musical sound effects. Battle Voice just kind of making a low hiss is super lame for instance.

Can agree there, Battle Voice is just overall so underwhelming and it is supposed to be the major boost we provide to the party offense, but it has no feeling or overall impact to it. I honestly wouldn't mind like a 1 minute cooldown weaponskill based on the harp or flute animation that has a faster AST like cast time that did any number of things to the enemy or for your allies. Not sure what it would be, but something that capitalized on the musical fantasy of the job.

[SweetPete]

Can agree there, Battle Voice is just overall so underwhelming and it is supposed to be the major boost we provide to the party offense, but it has no feeling or overall impact to it. I honestly wouldn't mind like a 1 minute cooldown weaponskill based on the harp or flute animation that has a faster AST like cast time that did any number of things to the enemy or for your allies. Not sure what it would be, but something that capitalized on the musical fantasy of the job.

Well Yoshi P did say he wants to bring job fantasy back to each job in the game so let’s hope that means bard will get some love in 6.0

Not betting my life on it but I’m hopeful. If not I’ll just stay machinist as my main dps.

[HyoMinPark]

How is using the enmity list on controller? That's honestly what I've always used to swap targets.

I play on controller, and have for over 5 years. You can use the left and right arrows on the D-pad to maneuver through the enmity list fairly easily. I’ve rarely had issues with targeting via it. The most important part is to just keep your camera face the mobs, since your character doesn’t typically want to target things behind it or things it can’t see. There are also filter settings to filter out irrelevant objects like items, doors, NPCs, whatever while you have your weapon drawn. For instances that have those.