Bard Changes I would love to see for End Walker

[Easayia]

This is exactly how I feel Bard needs more it doesnt need simplification it just needs more added to the weaker parts both animation wise and ability wise to the kit. The overall rotation of how bard works is good. And As I have said I would love to see bard get more music type animation to some abilities since we are a hybrid bow and song and not just bow. Shadowbringers has a stronger feeling of moving towards just bow so hopefully endwalker adds more song feeling to whether it be new skills or new ideas.

I do think Blood letter and Rain of Death will see new animations and a new animation because both of those skills are now old and in need of that treatment. being able to apply dots and then have it AOE to mobs around would also be a nice change.

[Easayia]

I agree with everything here except the charges I don't see the need for them. Its very rare blood letter/ rain of death doesn't proc during mages and for the other songs its a filler skill normally used after empyreal arrow.

But 2 and 3 I would be fine with to a degree. We dont want our damage to be non existent either since we are still technically A dps.

I think if we see a charge on anything it should be 2 emperial arrows which would then let you use 2 procs of the other skills in a combo.

[Jirah]

I\\'m relatively simple to please. I just want 3 things.

1. Bloodletter/Rain of Death Charges
2. Better buffs (even at the cost of personal
3. More music note effects tacked onto attacks for the aesthetic.

Stacks are whatver, I don’t mind having it and not having it. Used to be “I don’t want pointless fodder” now I’m more “we do have two dots and somtimes we get double proced” I’ll take either or it wouldn’t be harmful but outside of Ballad you will never use that 2nd charge of blood unless you neglect it for 15 seconds

“Better buffs” is abit broad but I wanna see more mechanics like Curring waltz where it’s support with a twist, this will never happen as Yoship doesn’t like support jobs and would rather ranged be remedial Casters without the fun kits or cast bars, BRD withstanding so far..

Example being a support skill that’s reactive to Rep. or somthing along those lines that isn’t just flat buffs, or at the very least give Minne/Paean charges

As much as I don’t care for Foes, It was fun to use when it was around and wouldn’t mind more offensive songs. Can’t come up with anything nor do I want it too badly that I would put it inorganically in BRD kit

[Cetonis]

The main need for Bloodletter procs is due to the Empyreal Arrow trait - trying to avoid overwriting with those two EA usages in Ballad is a hellish rabbit hole of a decision tree, and unfortunately tackling that is the least-trivial optimization out of the very few small things Bard has. If they took the auto-proc off of EA, that would be another way to fix the issue.

[Jirah]

The main need for Bloodletter procs is due to the Empyreal Arrow trait - trying to avoid overwriting with those two EA usages in Ballad is a hellish rabbit hole of a decision tree, and unfortunately tackling that is the least-trivial optimization out of the very few small things Bard has. If they took the auto-proc off of EA, that would be another way to fix the issue.

Fixing the issue by giving less control over procs? Hell no, EA would be useless, and I thought the issue was bleeding dps with double proc blood being the picture not the one skill that gives isn’t control over it?

I would personally keep it and on the event of double proc, it would do double damage (Blood letter II) like “under the effect of repertoire and while on full CD, Blood letter does double damage. Might be impossible with the spaghetti code, and might be a bad idea since this was just s brain storm, but don’t take away my precious EA. If it’s such a issue just rewire it for ballad only

[Falcochio]

My changes and additions mainly revolve around more consistent soul gauge generation and use of the gauge.

First off bard song buffs won't overwrite each other when there is two bards. BOOM easy fix!

Army's Paeon Trait: Each proc reduces sidewinder cooldown by 4 Seconds or so. Keeps this portion of the rotation relatively chill and provides an going purpose for receiving more than 4 procs. Might be useful to boost to 5 stacks.

Sidewinder Trait: Adds 20-25 Soul Gauge when used. Applies to Shadowbite as well. (Obviously Shadowbite would spread the DoTs to 1 or two nearby targets )

Nature's Minnie: Instead of 20% healing buff on one person, the effect applies 15% of health shield to self or target.

Soul Arrow: (25 Soul Gauge) Different potency, just a gauge spender to prevent over capping.
Empyreal Hymn: (25 Soul Gauge, 40 Second Cooldown or something) Resets the Cooldown of Empyreal Arrow. Does do damage.
Imbued Tempo: (50 Soul Gauge, 100 Second Cooldown or something) Triples the Party Buff provided by your songs. Duration 20 Seconds.

It might be worthwhile to add temporary DoT that has a cooldown, but that might make the job too busy.

Also as some people in this thread have said, two Bloodletter charges. Which I agree with.

Party buff songs still do not apply to the bard, because as Jirah said, it makes you think about when to use your buffs for the party to have the greatest impact.

[Easayia]

I like the Tempo skill idea for sure definitely a neat one and makes are buffs briefly more effective. I think natures could maybe work like that however I like TRoubador and I would just prefer a full party version of the healing buff for a short time so in dire situations when say your down a healer this may just be enough to keep you up similar how troubador can be used as a bit more defense for a tank about to get blasted by a tank buster and doesnt have enough cooldowns to get through it. Ive saved a few people with troubador even my entire party once from wiping I think troubador is a skill that both animation and the fact its a quick to use party effect is what I want to see more of in different ways on bard.

But again Imbued Tempo is a great idea and gives the soul gage more of a purpose honestly I would be fine if the soul gage when full could be used for either that or the aoe shot we have now and the bard can decide. Now we may see some selfish bards however I think if you do it that way you can use it at 100 for packs of mobs and in fights if you want to buff up the party big pop that and like you said whatever song is playing is trippled maybe even doubled would be ok not sure on the numbers and what would be best but I think as well have a music animation almost like a circle beneath the bards feet of notes signaling when its active maybe even on every party member around their body some type of notes spinning around them for the duration.

"Party buff songs still do not apply to the bard, because as Jirah said, it makes you think about when to use your buffs for the party to have the greatest impact."

This would be fine if we saw a change like this Tempo but current bard I see no reason why not to give them the buff when their buffs are currently pretty meh lets all just be honest about that.

In the end it all depends what they do to Bard we will just have to wait and see.....

[Brandedblade]

Stacks are whatver, I don’t mind having it and not having it. Used to be “I don’t want pointless fodder” now I’m more “we do have two dots and somtimes we get double proced” I’ll take either or it wouldn’t be harmful but outside of Ballad you will never use that 2nd charge of blood unless you neglect it for 15 seconds

“Better buffs” is abit broad but I wanna see more mechanics like Curring waltz where it’s support with a twist, this will never happen as Yoship doesn’t like support jobs and would rather ranged be remedial Casters without the fun kits or cast bars, BRD withstanding so far..

Example being a support skill that’s reactive to Rep. or somthing along those lines that isn’t just flat buffs, or at the very least give Minne/Paean charges

As much as I don’t care for Foes, It was fun to use when it was around and wouldn’t mind more offensive songs. Can’t come up with anything nor do I want it too badly that I would put it inorganically in BRD kit

The reason for the charges on Bloodletter/Rain of Death is to reduce the dropped procs during Mages Ballad with Empyreal Arrow. You always run the risk of procs in that phase going to waste and being able to effectively "store" a double proc in the scenarios where it happens makes it less punishing.

I do admit I was a little to vague on the buff end of things. But I am one of the few people around here who seems to love the fantasy of passively buffing the group with songs while we fill our enemies up with arrows. So I would personally love to see some potency shaved off us in exchange for stronger buffing on that front. And some way to encourage people to stay in Army's Paeon full time so that bard can be a 90 sec cd job and at least try to line it up with some of the jobs would be nice as well. I'm fully aware that's a controversial opinion with bringing it up in the past but personally i like the idea of having a combination of jobs that either have 1-2 min cd cycles or 90 sec-3 min cd cycles.

My last point was half a joke and half me just wanting visual cohesion. Like I said, I love that this game's bard is a singing archer, but it is kinda sad that isn't conveyed in more abilities. 1 dumb thing i always joke about doing is having the bite dots upgrade into song-based dots, no other reason then aesthetic.

[ReiganCross]

Why should a perfectly played blm, that has to deal with cast times and not being able to attack as easily while moving, struggle to do the same damage as a perfectly played mch, which can attack and move like a physical dps but don't need to worry about being up next to the boss the whole time to do their damage and have 100% up time? Same case as a perfectly played rdm vs a perfectly played dnc. Yea both rdm and dancer have utility but I don't have to worry as much about my positioning and needing to move as a dancer compared to rdm.

This is the main complaint about mch's damage, they are supposed to be the selfish dps of physical range but they do too little damage compared to the other selfish dps. But it can't be doing top of the charts dps without having something to worry about like they do. Though I feel in it's current state it should be above ninja and rdm but below everyone else. This wasn't a problem in hw however because they had cast times that they can turn on and off. It's just that they were also a little over tuned damage wise since they were still new to the balancing thing XD

Because of THAT.

Because having to deal with THAT shouldn't be dismissed as a minor point! You shouldn't be losing half your kit due to movement being a necessity in the game and STILL be dealing far above what a Ranged DPS can. Having to deal with casting or being in melee range is currently ABSURDLY over-rated, like it was some kind of herculean task that deserve to deal 5kdps more than not having to do that. Melee can increase their damage by increasing uptime, casters can increase their damage by figuring out the minimal ammount of movement they can do during the fight, Ranged DPS can increase their DPS by wishing on a star and getting stabbed by SE.

I'm not saying that there should be NO compensation, you're damn RIGHT there should be more damage if you can't be in melee range all the time or if you have to keep losing Enochian due to a Down for the Count debuff or anything like that. But the gap CAN'T be this huge! I want to be impressed by a SMN that managed to out-damage a BRD due to mastery of his class, not be made fun of because he couldn't out-damage the DNC! Out-Damaging a Ranged DPS shouldn't be a joke!

[Sindal]

Spitball ideas that would be cool

-landing apex arrow has a secondary party wide enhancing effect based on how much gauge you built. Maybe it decreases the cooldown of battle voice or gives you a buff that arrives the next time you play a song that plays that says "maintain the benefit of your last song to your party members for x seconds". Heck it could even just activate the 'lost dervish' effect from Bozja or an effect thay says "triple the bonus of your party song benefits for x seconds". Maybe old foes activates foe x seconds based on how big the Guage was. It needs soemthing to make it more unique from Sabre dance

-gives proc of AP after 4 procs an effect. Doesn't matter what it is, a passive potency upgrade for 5 seconds to burst shot or quick nock that refreshes on proc. A tiny healing pulse. Something passive that gives benefit for a proc without making you use other buttons more

- a passive that says "if you use Iron jaws within the last 5 seconds of a song, your freshed dots have a slightly higher potency value" to reward diligent dot upkeep.

-making barage just shoot 3 straight or refulgents on button press. It's the only thing you'd ever use it for anyway you might as well remove the extra button press.

-a trait at some point that applies the dot (but not the initial hit damage) to one nearest target. Just to make applying dots a little faster