Devs, I miss old bard....

[Keramory]

Foe's Requiem was removed for the exact reason CKNovel wants a "relationship" back. It created an unhealthy team composition that was heavily favored. Keep in mind that Bard was a staple job in team compositions for a minimum of 6 years in this game's lifespan so this "synergy" was terribly unhealthy. The job you enjoy should be the only job you need for even high-end content. Being excluded because your job isn't magical ranged or provides a piercing debuff for the always there Bard is terrible.

I'm always happy when the developers push toward balancing that enables people to play what they want rather than the meta team for fear of exclusion.

There's a balancing act on this that can be done correctly but dev's dont even want to attempt to walk it anymore. If Bard was the only support job and an auto include in every party, I'd agree there's an issue. Or if in the end of 1.0 people would spam 6blms or monks for particular content. But now we have multiple support jobs. That's almost like saying we shouldn't force a need for healers or tanks in content and if 8 dps players want to do all the content, they should be able to.

I always found this argument bizarre, like 80% of the end game players arn't trying to push their version of job composition meta anyway.

The worst part about this is for some reason they just hated on Bard in particular. Dancer does what the Bard players want and HAD for themselves. So clearly they don't mind the role being in the game, they just gimped Bard pointlessly.

[SweetPete]

Agreed OP. Honestly they could right now pump Bard's damage up to be right around the same level of where it was during Stormblood, make it a monster again, and I still wouldn't replay the job. I wasn't playing it to be a glorified Ranger, I played it to be a hybrid damage support that felt like the backbone of the party. While I have other issues about the job as it is in terms of some issues it's current rotation and traits cause that need to be ironed out, that loss of job fantasy that was so perfectly well done in Stormblood simply can't be fixed by a flat numbers increase. Hell if I they flat out just reverted Bard to it's level 4.55 version right now but with increased potency to make sure it's damage stayed the same (which still would be the bottom of the barrel in the game), I would go back to it immediately and give up all the things the job 'gained' in ShB.

Honestly, Bard is the least played job right now because they completely mutilated this job in Shb. I’m hopeful in 6.0 that they will listen to the feedback and give us the bard we loved back from SB. I don’t like the job now and been playing machinist myself this expansion and I love it. Just hope bard makes a huge comeback in 6.0 so I can hang up my gun and go back to my bow and songs. I do miss it allot.

[SweetPete]

There's a balancing act on this that can be done correctly but dev's dont even want to attempt to walk it anymore. If Bard was the only support job and an auto include in every party, I'd agree there's an issue. Or if in the end of 1.0 people would spam 6blms or monks for particular content. But now we have multiple support jobs. That's almost like saying we shouldn't force a need for healers or tanks in content and if 8 dps players want to do all the content, they should be able to.

I always found this argument bizarre, like 80% of the end game players arn't trying to push their version of job composition meta anyway.

The worst part about this is for some reason they just hated on Bard in particular. Dancer does what the Bard players want and HAD for themselves. So clearly they don't mind the role being in the game, they just gimped Bard pointlessly.

I totally agree with you 200% Shame on the devs for what they did to bard. Shame on them.

[Jirah]

Honestly, Bard is the least played job right now because they completely mutilated this job in Shb. I’m hopeful in 6.0 that they will listen to the feedback and give us the bard we loved back from SB. I don’t like the job now and been playing machinist myself this expansion and I love it. Just hope bard makes a huge comeback in 6.0 so I can hang up my gun and go back to my bow and songs. I do miss it allot.

popularity doesnt mean jack****, I can guarantee the most popular jobs will either fall from grace via stagnation or have even more issues than Bard does, besides Dragoon tbf. If damage and meta is all you care about then your playing your jobs for the wrong reasons. and if its the lack of support what exactly does that entail? They literally have equal parts both as of 5.5. It lost Foes, Straight arrow bar, its role stuff which isnt even unique to BRD, and the switch to flat percent rather than crit based procs which makes sense due to the other changed they did but ultimately it feels the same as SB. But tbh im more sympathetic to this line of thinking, as the other camp of BRD critiques are DNC and MCH fanatics which think the job has too many skills and id never condone the same pitiful treatment MCH and BRD got. but even then the threads have a tendency to follow the loudest cries and overreact like the job is doomed which no job is, not even MNK

But what I like about posts like these are suggestions to make it better, better to read then saying "bowmage is better"

[Burmecia]

Super unpopular opinion, but I liked the '' bowmage ''.
It felt more like you were using an actual powerful bow meant to kill and not a toy trickshot bow.

...
+1
I liked bowmage too.

[TyrXIII]

I loved bowmage

[Grimoire-M]

I’m fine with where Bard is apart from one thing: Make Raging Strikes buff Repertoire’s proc rate by at least 20%.

Could care less about its lack of utility. Stormblood already made it a joke. The procs being in your favour made the job for me.

[SpeckledBurd]

Honestly, Bard is the least played job right now because they completely mutilated this job in Shb. I’m hopeful in 6.0 that they will listen to the feedback and give us the bard we loved back from SB. I don’t like the job now and been playing machinist myself this expansion and I love it. Just hope bard makes a huge comeback in 6.0 so I can hang up my gun and go back to my bow and songs. I do miss it allot.

Not that I disagree that Bard is a step down from Stormblood, but the least played job at the moment is actually Monk.