Bard nerf is garbage

[Nubrication]

Silent nocturne nerf was completely unnecessary.

In high tier games, players can easily run out of range. It’s bad enough that bard’s burst relies heavily on silent nocturne and now players can run away AND line of sight more easily from it. Warden’s paean buff isn’t going to offset the nocturne nerf. On top of that, using silent nocturne is now reactive instead proactive, so you can’t even be as aggressive because positioning just got 10x harder especially on maps with a lot of obstacles/walls.

If anything, it should’ve been nerfed to 20y, not 15.

/endrant

[Nanne]

It was the best CC in PvP alongside WHM Imp so I can see why they changed it

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Oh no, the ranged job providing constant damage up to their party, having a purify-esque barrier, having access to a backstep bind and being able to massively shift LB economy with their own LB got their 3s 25y Silence nerfed, oh the misery.

Having a 3s Silence you can fire from your living room sofa was simply too much, a Paladin has to at least go into melee range range for their stun. Id have settled for either a range nerf or duration nerf, but it got both I guess.

The ability is still really good. Just that you can't use it like an ICBM.

[Anzaman]

I'm quite displeased about the range nerf on Silent Nocturne.

"All" other Bard actions having range of 25y, Powerful Shot getting damage boost if you keep distance. And then I'd need to get up close and personal if I'd want to use low duration Silence.

~This is from Frontline perspective.

[Llynethil]

At the very least they should remove the less damage at closer range part indeed, nerfing both range and duration was about as good a change as buffing dragoon again.

[Ransu]

Its basically neutered their only reliable burst combo making them even more reliant on teammates in a mode that forces you to solo queue.

[Nubrication]

Oh no, the ranged job providing constant damage up to their party, having a purify-esque barrier, having access to a backstep bind and being able to massively shift LB economy with their own LB got their 3s 25y Silence nerfed, oh the misery.

I don’t think you understand the implications of the nerf other than at face value. Duration and damage nerf? That’s cool, I get it.

Range nerf, hell nah. Because now in order for you to successfully burst down a target (without having to rely on your teammates aka when you feel like playing casual), you need to get in close where even poor players can automatically swap to you, forcing you to guard, or backstep, purify, etc. So instead of using the toolkit at their disposal for various situations, bards now have to use their entire toolkit just to burst:

Instead of using paean on tank, melee - you have to use it on yourself to make sure you can finish your burst without getting CC’d or bursted down more easily due to being in closer range.

Save backstep for a dangerous melee or to secure a kill? Nope, now you have to use backstep to make sure that your perfect pitch can hit max dmg (8000) due to everyone constantly closing/opening you.

Replenish your emp arrow with powerful shot? Nope, now in order to help your teammates secure a kill, you have to get in close resulting in more dmg taken, resulting in more time used to elixir/avoid getting obliterated which in turn results in lower overall dmg output.

If they make it so that powerful shot does max dmg regardless of range, it could possibly offset the nocturne range nerf. Powerful shot does max dmg at 15y but it has a range of 25y.

Basically, bard’s toolkit synergy is what really got nerfed.

[Nubrication]

It was the best CC in PvP alongside WHM Imp so I can see why they changed it

WHM imp couldn’t be purified and could only be prevented by pre-guarding. And I think all they changed was the cast range?

BRD silence can be removed or prevented multiple ways. And they took away damage, range AND duration.

Kinda lopsided.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I don’t think you understand the implications of the nerf other than at face value. Duration and damage nerf? That’s cool, I get it.

Range nerf, hell nah. Because now in order for you to successfully burst down a target (without having to rely on your teammates aka when you feel like playing casual), you need to get in close where even poor players can automatically swap to you, forcing you to guard, or backstep, purify, etc. So instead of using the toolkit at their disposal for various situations, bards now have to use their entire toolkit just to burst:

Instead of using paean on tank, melee - you have to use it on yourself to make sure you can finish your burst without getting CC’d or bursted down more easily due to being in closer range.

Save backstep for a dangerous melee or to secure a kill? Nope, now you have to use backstep to make sure that your perfect pitch can hit max dmg (8000) due to everyone constantly closing/opening you.

Replenish your emp arrow with powerful shot? Nope, now in order to help your teammates secure a kill, you have to get in close resulting in more dmg taken, resulting in more time used to elixir/avoid getting obliterated which in turn results in lower overall dmg output.

If they make it so that powerful shot does max dmg regardless of range, it could possibly offset the nocturne range nerf. Powerful shot does max dmg at 15y but it has a range of 25y.

Basically, bard’s toolkit synergy is what really got nerfed.

I very much do understand the implications this entails, I simply do not believe BRD to be so down the gutter as everyone here seems to believe.

While I can totally see the compromise and general issue with the reduced Nocturne range down to 15y, I feel like it is still very playable - as you said, PS/Pitch reaches max damage at 15y, which is Nocturne's range. So in a situation where you don't get attacked, you can do something like Burst Arrow > move in and Nocturne > move out then Pitch. And in situations you may need to peel with the backstep it will reposition you for that.

What Im trying to say is BRD now similar to DNC is bobbing back and forth, but with other strengths such as access to CC, AOE buffs and an additional defensive party utility.

I find the CC range fair. What I will rather suggest is potency increases or narrowing the scaling for PS/Pitch or other compensation.

[DioK]

I very much do understand the implications this entails, I simply do not believe BRD to be so down the gutter as everyone here seems to believe.

While I can totally see the compromise and general issue with the reduced Nocturne range down to 15y, I feel like it is still very playable - as you said, PS/Pitch reaches max damage at 15y, which is Nocturne's range. So in a situation where you don't get attacked, you can do something like Burst Arrow > move in and Nocturne > move out then Pitch. And in situations you may need to peel with the backstep it will reposition you for that.

What Im trying to say is BRD now similar to DNC is bobbing back and forth, but with other strengths such as access to CC, AOE buffs and an additional defensive party utility.

I find the CC range fair. What I will rather suggest is potency increases or narrowing the scaling for PS/Pitch or other compensation.

Bard is specifically designed to fight from afar. It is NOT equitable with DNC in having to bop back and forth. DNC has extra DR to account for having to play closer than other range; BRD was not given this. DNC has extra mitigation and self-healing to survive fighting closer; BRD was not given this. DNC does not suffer a reduction in damage output for fighting closer; BRD does. Even worse, using Silent Nocturne was part of BRD's burst initiation by proc'ing Pitch Perfect. Now, BRD has a reduction in ability to proc Pitch Perfect, which is an 8000 potency loss. Now, that can only be reliably proc'ed by Warden's Paean. What other class has had an 8000 potency nerf? Plus, the elimination of the damage from Silent Nocturne, which is an additional 2000 potency loss that we used to use in our burst. So, a 10000 potency loss of burst ability? Did a class already struggling to do damage really need an additional 10000 potency loss? Also, part of using Silent Nocturne was to help secure kills; now that bit of support capacity has been taken from bard without bard getting into mortal danger.

Essentially, bard is reduced to mostly being a totem in the back line, providing little participation in the battle. I don’t think SE understood at all how bard works. You can’t design a class to inherently fight from far away and then shackle it to fighting close. Those are conflicting design choices which can only result in an underperforming class. BRD does NOT fight at 15 yalms or less. Its damage is reduced (something no other class suffers from) and it has no survivability at such a range (again, a property no other class suffers from). If they wanted to reduce Silent Nocturne's range, 20 yalms would have been a better compromise, not 15.