Bards, Checking In!

[Gyli]

While I'm aiming to be a bard. I miss the classic FFXI bard.

[Connor]

While I'm aiming to be a bard. I miss the classic FFXI bard.

I don't have a problem with "Barcher" itself, really. The problem I have is that there's an imbalance between singing and damage dealing.
I hate being one to posit some arbitrary percentages, but I'd say Bard has become around 70% Damage and 30% support.
Damage dealing and stuff is fine, but I'd much rather see it as 50/50 between damage and support.
Don't let it put you off Bard, though! Songs still have a lot of uses, even if they are in limited number.

What does everyone else think? Should Bard become more support-oriented? Less? Or is it fine the way it is?


EDIT:

Are you sure of that? Because if i check popular sites with guides or even wiki they all still say its 30 archer 15 conjurer for a bard?

http://www.ffxivinfo.com/job/bard.php
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIV

And if im wrong can you direct me to some accurate pages so i can start on the right foot this weekend?

Well, to be honest, there's a lot of ambiguity with it. While I didn't take screenshots or anything, in Phase 4 Bard could only cross-class abilities from Pugilist and Lancer. However, a lot of people are saying that the Pugilist affinities didn't show Bard on them, while Conjurer ones still did. It's hard to say as pulling from Pugilist could have been a bug; conversely, it could just be the affinities that are bugged.
I'm sorry that I can't give you a definitive answer as of yet, but once Early Access comes I'll check again, and it'll be more likely that the subclasses are concrete. I'll come back to this thread and post which is needed, since I'm sure a lot of people are wondering about this question!

If anyone has a better answer for Mrzappa's question, let us know what you've found!

[Mrzappa]

Well, to be honest, there's a lot of ambiguity with it. While I didn't take screenshots or anything, in Phase 4 Bard could only cross-class abilities from Pugilist and Lancer. However, a lot of people are saying that the Pugilist affinities didn't show Bard on them, while Conjurer ones still did. It's hard to say as pulling from Pugilist could have been a bug; conversely, it could just be the affinities that are bugged.
I'm sorry that I can't give you a definitive answer as of yet, but once Early Access comes I'll check again, and it'll be more likely that the subclasses are concrete. I'll come back to this thread and post which is needed, since I'm sure a lot of people are wondering about this question!

If anyone has a better answer for Mrzappa's question, let us know what you've found!

K ty, and subscribed to this thread

[Gyli]

I don't have a problem with "Barcher" itself, really. The problem I have is that there's an imbalance between singing and damage dealing.
I hate being one to posit some arbitrary percentages, but I'd say Bard has become around 70% Damage and 30% support.
Damage dealing and stuff is fine, but I'd much rather see it as 50/50 between damage and support.
Don't let it put you off Bard, though! Songs still have a lot of uses, even if they are in limited number.

What does everyone else think? Should Bard become more support-oriented? Less? Or is it fine the way it is?

I think it needs to be a 50/50 as well or it needs to be 70% support and 30% damage. Bard in nature have been support orientated across final fantasy games.

As for the change to Bard changes in FFXIV here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gOooN8BmhY

Go to the discussion about bards near the end to see the changes.

[Mint_tea]

What does everyone else think? Should Bard become more support-oriented? Less? Or is it fine the way it is?

Having loved my FF11 Bard and enjoying support roles, it's my opinion that the newest changes to Bard are a step in the wrong direction. My limited experience with Archer (lvl 35 in phase 3) from beta made the class already seem like a strong DD that would be able to hold up DPS with any other class. I understand that songs reduce dps but even so, it seemed like a reasonable trade off for their raid utility. If anything, I would have preferred seeing more spells or songs offering things like a single target vitality boost or PBAoE elemental resistance buff instead of a damage increase.

The outcry for a ranged DD should have been refocused toward Musketeer and Archer/Bard should have been left alone... I'm still excited to return to my old job, but those are just my thoughts.

[Pure-Taurus]

I hate being one to posit some arbitrary percentages, but I'd say Bard has become around 70% Damage and 30% support.
Damage dealing and stuff is fine, but I'd much rather see it as 50/50 between damage and support.
What does everyone else think? Should Bard become more support-oriented? Less? Or is it fine the way it is?

When, or IF they add a DPS/debuff Ranger, that's when Bard will become a real support/DPS i think. Until then, i'm afraid we are stuck with not really knowing what it wants to be...

I can't see the TP of my party members so I can't judge when to sing Paeon

I posted feedback for this after the Oβ, i hope the dev team noticed it...