Bard's big list of problems

[MPNZ]

This mostly just going to be a list so...

1.) DoTs and Procs: The overall proc rate is very consistent to the point of being an extremely boring and totally uninteresting design. And, the removal of procs from DoTs, while an attempt to cut down it's opener, leaves little to no incentive to apply, reapply, or just remember they exist. I literally have to remind myself to apply them. They're completely unnecessary to the entire kit, and are basically only slightly bellow sidewinder because it's an OGCD. They could literally just delete these three and no one would notice. Multi-procs were like way more exciting for me, but the RNG was totally not. So this is like: One step forward and two steps back

2.) songs: Armies Paen is only good for it's buff, which should be designed as something to keep up throughout the cyclical song rotation. So, implementing an effect that, let's say, reduces the remaining CD timer for songs by like half or so as a part of Haste's effect or an OGCD ability. It would definitely make the class more active again. BTW, is BRD still singing just for itself? That's still not good, if so...

3.) Sidewinder and shadowbite: Oh, this change definitely move Shadowbite into the safe-zone! I love what you guys did with this rotation, totes! It's so good, but Sidewinder is still useless to the rotation.It's like silence shot. An extra button to press that's not really needed in the rotation. Shadowbite's animation is still ugly and slow, and it should have an the same effect as bane to reduce the need to multi-DoT

4.) ladonsbite: An ugrade to quick knock was way overdue, really. Just not at lv82, and being less impressive in aesthetics and sound than quick knock

5.) TY, for giving Bloodletter stacks. Also, read "1.)"....

6.) Nature's minne, troubadour, and Wardens: Warden's just needs stacks, a reduced CD, and cure III's AOE radius. Nature's minne is still just really inconvenient to use, and it still applies after the healer's have topped off whoever receives it. You guys might want to make it like troubadour or give it stacks too. And, troubadour really should be something we have to keep up as much as possible, but it's still useful as it is, so...

7.) Role skills: status effect skills are useless in PVE, and interrupts are just not going to be used because the whole role is just so naturally busy, which is why they're fun. You guys will never be able to get this role to pay attention to interrupts or see any use in heavy or Bind after you released PVP and nerfed them into ground to any level of popularity. The design just doesn't facilitate their use, at all. And, interrupts definitely have it the worst of them all, IMO...

8.) The new buff is great, and I'm really loving it. But, it would be nice to be able to use it more often

9.) Apex & Blast Arrow: They're still uninteresting and still GCDs. You should definitely make it more like PLD's confitiour combo that would cycle through the seven elements that would apply a unique DoT for each element at half the GCD as normal

10.) Button Bloat/consolidation and other notes: Raging strikes and barrage are still most likely candidates for consolidation, Sidewinder is completely unneeded, and Battle voice really should be a trait at this point. Mages ballad could apply "rivers of blood" like "Armies muse" to help with Armies Peaen's issues. Pitch perfect's action should still be usable after the song duration instead of deleting it's stacks entirely, and only generate stacks during Wanderer's minuet. Repelling shot needs to be reworked into something that's more generally useful like "back hopping" from fighting games (the distancing is perfect though), and the CD's for like abilities in the role need to be reduced, or given a unique GGCD as a whole. Make sure that blood letter doesn't animation lock or be be interrupted by it. And, BL's reset-cancel issues still worry me a bit after being mitigated with stacks, so if you could: please make sure it never occurs while testing it's builds for expacs and stuff...

Ok, I thinks that's everything. A few of these issues lead to dungeons giving me excuses to just be totally inattentive at the 60-75% range, and It's really hard to remember most of the visual details like boss and dungeon designs

[HappyHubris]

Quick thoughts now that I've caught my BRD up to 90 and started savages on him:

1. Ladensbite looks and feels weird; I like the new AoE interplay but really dislike this animation/sound.
2. Overall, the class feels less active and more "squished" into the buff window. Longer songs, longer DoTs, and less active procs all combine to a bit of a routine between "slam all the buttons" windows.
3. I enjoy providing the new buff to my the raid; feels a bit more like a BRD.
4. BRD is hitting that tipping point where we have too many buttons; I prefer tight abilities lists. Bloat is creeping in with the new abilities, and some feel really duplicative with the new cooldowns (Ok, I have two self-buffs on a 120s cooldown? Two buttons to apply generic DoTs and another button to refresh both?)
5. If DoTs aren't going to do anything, what can they be replaced with? A default oGCD to use when things don't proc?
6. Buffs independent of DoTs is a quality of life improvement for say Fates and dungeon trash, but it does feel like it's reducing the class identity.
7. With the reduced Troubadour recast time it really feels like a raid mitigation cooldown that can be cycled in as opposed to a "once-in-a-blue-moon" ability.
8. Blast arrow doesn't feel satisfying at all. I would rather have seen our EW upgrade be to add a party buff to Apex arrow to make its placement more interesting. Or anything else.

Overall, 6.0 feels like more of a support and plays pretty well, though I miss the relentless activity of Shadowbringers and would like to see some ability pruning.