I want all Bard changes on EW reverted to what it was back on SHB. All of them.

[Vandso]

DoTs being meaningful, rotation being 80 seconds, the job was perfect back then. I hope they bring it back on Dawntrail. And yeah I know it's copium but let me copium.

[IkaraGreydancer]

DoTs being meaningful, rotation being 80 seconds, the job was perfect back then. I hope they bring it back on Dawntrail. And yeah I know it's copium but let me copium.

I find Bard now fun but I will say I do miss being able to go Rambo style on aoes. If your procs were hitting it was gold. Oh and the song time. At 45 secs I tend to forget. 30 secs was a sweet spot per song.

[remiff]

"Personally, I would prefer if they brought the bard back to a state similar to what it was in Stormblood,
for example, bringing back regen mana songs but not as powerful as before, bringing back the old Palisade skill to target a tank, etc..."

[Raikai]

"Personally, I would prefer if they brought the bard back to a state similar to what it was in Stormblood,
for example, bringing back regen mana songs but not as powerful as before, bringing back the old Palisade skill to target a tank, etc..."

But what a mana regen song would accomplish nowadays when healers are so mana optimal? I'm all for it, but for this to work they would also have to change mana management.

[remiff]

But what a mana regen song would accomplish nowadays when healers are so mana optimal? I'm all for it, but for this to work they would also have to change mana management.

Yes of course the mana management must be updated.

Precisely they should bring back synergies between the so-called support jobs, before to overcome the mana concerns we had all kinds of tools which allowed it to be raised and which made a role essential for a fight,
now this aspect has been reduced and it's a shame, like manashift etc,...

The so-called support jobs have lost a lot of utility so that they are a little more homogenized, and even if it's a personal opinion I'm not a fan of this job itineration.

[Connor]

Im 100% behind them bringing MP song back. They could change TP song to HP regen and give Bard Requiem back so it has options. Unfortunately none of these options are ever possible on Bard ever again because SE thinks they’d break the game balance completely (see: 2.0 release Bard, Stormblood Bard)

DoTs being meaningful would also be nice, they just feel like a relic now because they don’t have any effects on how the job actually plays, you basically just use them once then Iron Jaws the rest of the battle. I don’t mind if they aren’t attached to Repertoire but they should at least proc or influence something .

I want to actually sing in battle again; pulling an instrument out once every 45 seconds then immediately making it disappear for a bow attack just sucks, I still feel like an vaguely music themed Archer and not an actual FF Bard.

Bard will forever remain one of the most unpopular classes in the game so long as they keep trying to make it a middle ground with less utility than Dancer and less damage than Machinist. Just let it be it’s own thing!

[DPZ2]

I want to go back to the Bard of ARR. It was awesome! A Guaranteed Spot in every post-MSQ instance simply because of Mana and TP renewal. And, um, probably other utility.

Oh, wait. Shiny!

For those who want to know what changed, there's this: https://www.icy-veins.com/ffxiv/bard...s-in-patch-6-0

[Vandso]

You know what Bard needs for 7.0? A downtime skill, like the Samurai one. Fills the Soul Voice Gauge over time, or fully if outside the battle. I would also prefer if the songs didn't need a target to be used.

[Jeeqbit]

I'd like it if they were reverted to Stormblood even. The differences are mostly just what you would find in the tooltips, such as crit procs, dots enhancing Sidewinder and needing to wait for Refulgent Arrow procs. It's hard playing jobs knowing they lack depth they once had.

However, between dot management, keeping track of songs and reportoire stacks, and not overcapping anything, I think Bard has a lot more to manage than Machinist, so it's not in the worst place.

[Avoidy]

Support classes in general feel like garbage in this game but BRD probably feels the worst because not only does it suffer from the problems of every other support class, but it also had a fun dps setup that got completely gutted for no discernible reason.

In other multiplayer games where party synergy actually exists, playing a support class feels good. These games are getting rarer and rarer, and it's definitely not a thing in 14. The only times a party syncs up in 14 is to hit their buff button on the 120s mark. Things like MP management basically do not exist unless you consider pressing lucid dreaming off cd for like 3 jobs "management" in which case lmao. Even if bard got an MP regen song, it would not affect like 90% of jobs in this game because most jobs don't use mana for anything. Bard's current songs affect things like crit chance and direct hit, basically invisible number stuff that you can't actually feel when you're partied up with a bard player. In essence, this means if a bard parties you, you might not even notice you're being buffed. This is incredibly shitty from just a "how does it feel to play this support class" angle. Compare this to other MMOs with actual support/party synergy elements. A support class might actually boost your attack speed so that you can accomplish more during your burst. This changes the entire feel of your class and makes you keenly aware of the fact that you're being supported. CBU3 lost track of this and doesn't want us to actually rely on our party members at all, so now all the support jobs just feel hella boring. But on top of this, BRD's DoTs actually felt meaningful in shb because they fed into your ability to take advantage of your songs. Now though, the DoTs don't do anything. Why? Was someone out there forgetting to just press Iron Jaws? So now we all get to pay for it? Who asked for this change? It makes aoe in dungeons slower and it makes the DoTs themselves completely meaningless; just remove them entirely if you're gonna cut out their purpose.

I seriously can't wrap my head around how bad support classes feel in this game sometimes. In the MMO I'm playing right now, the main support class boosts your attack speed, boosts your defense, boosts your accuracy, and boosts your attack power all while also debuffing other enemies. For people on the receiving end of these buffs, this has the effect of "I can't kill this monster by myself, but if I party up with [support class] I'll be faster, be able to hit the monster I want to kill for more damage, and not get immediately killed if I'm hit in turn." See how there's a noticeable difference from support buffs in a game where party synergy is a thing? See how that difference isn't only noticeable if you're eyeing a dps meter? For this to happen in 14, they'd need to basically roll back the game 3 expansions and suddenly make people dependent on each other again via things like MP/TP management. Players would riot and quit in droves because everyone who preferred that system probably quit ages ago and have been replaced by people who just want to do their 123 and not care about the rest of their group -- which is a fair thing to want, since most people you'll meet in this game suck at it.