Bard's DPS in endgame.

[Psyca]

Hello, I main in Drg but recently I had to switch over to bard for the group.

We are on turn 8 and our dps is quite competitive. I would stay at usually #2 after the SMN. But as bard I am doing 15~20% less dps than our monk and far less than SMN since I am doing voice requiem and constant requiem for him. Also, I do not get the drg debuff as a bard.

My drg has tidal spear and ilvl 95 and my Brd also has tidal bow and ilvl 90.

Is this normal ? or Am I doing something horribly wrong.

I do not see much to do as a bard other than keeping straight shot and 2 dots up while weaving in CDs and repelling + blunt arrow.

Id appreciate any inputs.

[EvianEverdeen]

How can you even tell who is doing the most damage overall at completion?

[blowfin]

How can you even tell who is doing the most damage overall at completion?

Pretty sure they calculated it manually with an abacus. It's kind of besides the point though.

I do not see much to do as a bard other than keeping straight shot and 2 dots up while weaving in CDs and repelling + blunt arrow.

Yeah that's about it really, keep your DoT's up, keep straight shot up and burn your CD's when you can/it's safe.

What you're seeing is pretty normal. A solid Melee DD will out damage a bard. Keep in mind you're not there just for DPS though. Also, yeah, the drop in iLvl would be making a difference too.

[ErnestoGiovanni]

Yoshi-P did say that Bard's DPS is lower to provide mobility. Actually that's not true but it sounds better than what really happened, there was a massive community outcry because Bard could top the DPS charts since they technically have no down time, they can attack and move on dodge heavy fights despite their toolkit being only fairly limited for a DPS, so all weapons in the Bard's armory had their innate damage lowered so they can never really top the DPS charts unless they are constantly spamming abilities and everyone else is busy running around.

[givemeraptors]

Maybe if you got super lucky with Bloodletter procs you could outdamage someone...

Just think of the damage boost you provide via Foe's as part of your own DPS! You'll feel much better, I know I do.

[fanservice]

so all weapons in the Bard's armory had their innate damage lowered so they can never really top the DPS charts unless they are constantly spamming abilities and everyone else is busy running around.

Excuse the ignorance due to hiatus, but this actually happened? When?

[AkashiXI]

Excuse the ignorance due to hiatus, but this actually happened? When?

The first major rebalance after 2.1 nerfed Bard's Bloodletter and Misery (I think?), along with our cross class abilities (bfb and internal release having less potency). This was the same patch with the WAR buffs, Copperbell/Haukke Manor HM, and Crystal Tower.

[ExiaQuanta]

BRDs can do a pretty good Burst damage but outside of that its pretty slow. I recommend you use HQ Mega-Potion of Dexterity. That CAN act like a Hawkeye for you at times. I haven't been to any of the 2nd coil turns but if there is a lot of melee aoe and dodging to be done, a BRD can potentially out dps melee characters. The numbers may look small on your screen but when added up it can be pretty significant. Do all that you can to boost your damage on Barrage as that is your strongest buff. 3 Auto attack per 1 hit. You can get lucky and get 300+ crit dmg per auto attack for a total of 900 dmg+. Foes Requiem will boost your DoT damage as well as Flaming Arrow. So just cause its lowers elemental resistance does not mean it doesn't benefit you. As givemeraptors said, your also boosting your own damage with Foes Requiem.

[fanservice]

The first major rebalance after 2.1 nerfed Bard's Bloodletter and Misery (I think?), along with our cross class abilities (bfb and internal release having less potency). This was the same patch with the WAR buffs, Copperbell/Haukke Manor HM, and Crystal Tower.

Yeah I did clearly notice the BFB and IR readjustments. The bloodletter and miser end nerfs went over my head if that actually happened.

[Taban]

Yeah I did clearly notice the BFB and IR readjustments. The bloodletter and miser end nerfs went over my head if that actually happened.

The bloodletter nerf was just a tooltip error iirc. Nothing got changed, but people freaked out for a bit since it happened at the same time that the bfb and ir nerf went in.

IMO the reason for the bard nerf (and all the people thinking bard was super OP) was Titan HM. A large portion of the community was stuck on that fight at the time, and it was messing up most of the other classes because of the amount of movement involved. Once people started getting into coil bards fell behind because they didn't scale as well as the other classes. I'm hoping we get a small buff at some point in the future, especially with blm's getting buffed in the next patch.