Thread: Bard's 6.1 changes - why bother?

I think they need to just rework bard into an actual bard, and get rid of the bow. At this point in the game they may as well start making content 5 player and give us support roles. Cause let's face it, it sucks now, it'll probably suck like most things after the rework. But at least it will be a bard?

The change is disheartening because it shows how little SE understands about the issues with BRD currently, but then again I guess the playerbase feedback is also at fault.

Just to get this out there, the one issue they absolutely need to address is merge the shadowbite and refulgent arrow procs. This has been done for DNC, I can't understand why would it be so hard to just port it over for BRD. Would solve both the barrage problem and the issue with shadowbite's area being terrible for aoe scenarios, sometimes forcing us to spam ladonsbite and ignore the proc. I'm predicting this will 100% be an issue in the upcoming ultimate btw. Also the former of those was an issue that they acknowledged and fixed back in the SB->ShB transition by having barrage proc RA. Why does it feel like with every step forward with this job we take one backwards as well?

Originally Posted by QT_Melon

Ew no. Because if you need change focus to a single target you then have a lower potency shot made for AOE.

The progression should be it going from Quick Knock to Shadowbite since I don't see a legit reason that it shouldn't change to the higher potency proc just like it should go from Heavy Shot to Refulgent.

Unless once again it can be pointed out why it shouldn't.

My original post was a bit misleading, sorry. I did not mean that they should merge those two into one skill, but have the "Straight Shot Ready" buff enable both actions, then it would be up to the player to choose which one they would use.

This is required, beyond just having barrage proc both, because sometimes Ladonsbite can hit 2 targets but Shadowbite can't due to its radius being way smaller and a different shape (cone vs circle). In those scenarios it is optimal to keep firing Ladonsbite and ignore the (currently AoE only) proc, even if it feels like garbage to do so.

Originally Posted by taksqth

My original post was a bit misleading, sorry. I did not mean that they should merge those two into one skill, but have the "Straight Shot Ready" buff enable both actions, then it would be up to the player to choose which one they would use.

This is required, beyond just having barrage proc both, because sometimes Ladonsbite can hit 2 targets but Shadowbite can't due to its radius being way smaller and a different shape (cone vs circle). In those scenarios it is optimal to keep firing Ladonsbite and ignore the (currently AoE only) proc, even if it feels like garbage to do so.

In that case they should increase the radius a bit as well. You should get reward/satisfaction from proc'ing and that's one of the reasons Bard is in a spot where it is.

Originally Posted by QT_Melon

In that case they should increase the radius a bit as well. You should get reward/satisfaction from proc'ing and that's one of the reasons Bard is in a spot where it is.

I guess they could, that would also be a good fix. However, what's annoying about this is that ShB BRD already had the flexibility I'm asking back. In that expansion, Quick Nock could proc a Bloodletter/Rain of Death reset. You got both the single target and AoE option. Rain of Death is already a bigger radius than Shadowbite (8y vs 5y), but even then there would be situations (such as TEA JWaves) where you would use Quick Nock and Bloodletter (the single target proc), not Rain of Death.

The Shadowbite change was a step backwards in two different ways and the fact that SE did that makes me believe that they don't understand the core gameplay of BRD at all.