Is Bard a difficult job?

[Vandso]

I don't know, I feel like it's pretty difficult, a lot of stuff to keep track of, busy ass burst windows, minucious optimization, risky af... most people agree with me but those who don't say it's braindead easy, like one of my friends said it's objectivelly easy because there's no animation lock, and I find this argument dumb because lvl 50 summoner would be harder than bard in this case. What's your opinion?

[mallleable]

I wouldn't say it's hard, but it kinda demanding at 90 in terms of APM and attention required. You have to be pretty strict with your song timings, and oCGDs uses on top of song procs that have a chance occur every 3 seconds. It's mostly just incredibly, and maybe a bit too punishing when you die in fights. Like with all jobs, it takes practice, but eventually you start to internalize the timings, and when decisions have to be made. I really enjoy its hectic playstyle even though I feel like it could use a little more 'oomf' to its damage output.

[kaynide]

You have to gauge what you mean by hard or not.

My wife plays it as her main job and she plays incredibly poorly from an optimization standpoint…yet she can 100% do all the content she wants to do and clear the game.

Of course, she’d never be allowed in any kind of endgame raider party…but she doesn’t care to do that in the first place.


So is it hard to beat the game with? No. Is it hard to clear 99% of the content in the game suboptimally? No.

Is it hard to do the rotation correctly to put out similar dps to others in savage? Don’t know.

[Ath192]

My wife plays it as her main job and she plays incredibly poorly from an optimization standpoint…yet she can 100% do all the content she wants to do and clear the game.

You can press one attack button all game from level 1-90 ARR - EW and clear this game. During normal content noone cares what a DPS does, let alone a phys ranged lol. Depressing, but true, so this isn't a useful perspective on the job at all. A rock could clear this game.

[Jeeqbit]

Bard is deceptive. You would think it's the easiest job because you just spam 1 GCD. But it's actually the hardest ranged physical job, in my opinion.

Bard has to:

• Apply DoTs and refresh them right before they expire, without getting distracted by mechanics.
• Keep songs up and rotate them as each one expires, without fall off.
• Resist the temptation to use Pitch Perfect until they have reached 3 Repertoire stacks so it has max potency, then spend so they don't overcap.
• Try to use Apex Arrow near cap without overcapping.

Rest is just easy weave everything off cooldown.

In comparison an MCH just presses everything off cooldown and that's kinda it. The hardest part of MCH is accidently starting Hypercharge before using Drill/Air Anchor/Chain Saw, or overcapping Gauss Round and Ricochet, but compared to Bard it's just a ZzZz tank rotation.

[kaynide]

You can press one attack button all game from level 1-90 ARR - EW and clear this game. During normal content noone cares what a DPS does, let alone a phys ranged lol. Depressing, but true, so this isn't a useful perspective on the job at all. A rock could clear this game.

That's (sadly) my point. There really isn't a reason to be good at the game or make an effort to be better when you can do it all with NPCs; it's not like you're inconveniencing others.

I get wanting to be good at the game if that's something someone feels is worth their time...but I dunno, I feel if someone wants to play a game that rewards playing well they either A) have to want to do the savage-level content, or B) might consider trying a different game that demands better play and rewards them for their efforts.

OP was asking if the job was hard to play, and my long-winded answer was essentially that it depends what content they're going to play.


Back to OP: This isn't to say "don't play good! you're wasting your time!", but to say "You don't need to worry about it unless you intend to play at a certain level of Endgame." I wish you all the best if you're looking to get better, but also wish you the best if this alleviates stress or anxiety about "doing it wrong."

[CaptainLagbeard]

I don't find Bard to be particularly difficult, mostly just DoT and song uptime to worry about honestly. The main thing that can interfere with that is boss mechanics happening at around when you need to refresh the DoTs so they might slip while you're not looking or the song runs out.

• Try to use Apex Arrow near cap without overcapping.

I would say some overcapping is fine if it's just before your burst window is coming around. Losing a few points in order to have a fully charged Apex/Blast Arrow with Raging Strikes and Radiant Finale.
And generally I find it to recharge a little over twice total over the course of all 3 songs.

[Raven2014]

I don't know, I feel like it's pretty difficult, a lot of stuff to keep track of, busy ass burst windows, minucious optimization, risky af... most people agree with me but those who don't say it's braindead easy, like one of my friends said it's objectivelly easy because there's no animation lock, and I find this argument dumb because lvl 50 summoner would be harder than bard in this case. What's your opinion?

It depends on what your goal is.

First, 99% of difficulty of any classes are due to the 2 minutes meta, where you have to align everything and jam packed into your burst window. Which is only important if you are going for Floor 3 and 4 clears on the first month, or you want to play competitive on FFlog for internet cookies.

Secondly, if your goal is to play so that you can meaningfully contribute to the party without being a deadweight. For example you're happy with 50-60 ish percentile with maybe the occassionally 70ishthen yes, BRD can be said to be pretty easy. In fact, all the 3 P.Range can be pretty relaxing to play, that's one of their selling point. When I switch from DRG to BRD it's so relaxing it made me feel skittish because it feels like I'm missing something and should do more.

And before anyone ask, I hate FFlog with a passion and want that thing burnt in hell. But I can't run from the fact it's one of the primary metric most people know, so using it as a frame of reference provide clearer and more meaningful context.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

I don't know, I feel like it's pretty difficult, a lot of stuff to keep track of, busy ass burst windows, minucious optimization, risky af... most people agree with me but those who don't say it's braindead easy, like one of my friends said it's objectively easy because there's no animation lock, and I find this argument dumb because lvl 50 summoner would be harder than bard in this case. What's your opinion?

I feel of the aiming Bard is middle of the pack; Machinist being the hardest as they got to manage more of a straight jacket rotation. Dancer is the easiest though as it stands Dancers suffer from RNG feathers tremendously. I mained bard End of SB and start of EW and I found that the songs felt more reliable then Dancers feathers regarding procs. I actually mapped one of my mouse buttons to click and play a song and actually play a IRL song with the duration I was supposed to let the song run for...a 2nd click of my mouse would click my next song and queue up the next song in media player. Its kinda makes barding fun - sadly your also the generally lowest damage of the aiming classes and with the iron-clad marriage to 2min meta it feels like I'm not bringing anything to the battle that a Dancer doesn't do better.

[Bonoki]

As a former Bard main, I honestly say it's probably the second-hardest job after BLM for optimization.