Is bard dps the weakest?

[Lecreuset]

having a high crit and having an attack off the GCD that can be reset from crits off dots you put is insanely good..

[savant07]

I'm pretty sure everyone has high crit (though we have about 10% more from straight shot buff) but crit only gives 50% bonus damage so it isn't that great.

I feel like bard damage is honestly lacking even after all the math is done. Heck even the summoner pets hit harder with their normal attacks than our normal attack (170+ damage compared to 120)

[LunarEmerald]

Every heavy shot we do has a 20% chance of having a critical.

Barrage is also a unique buff we have that really piles up on the damage. Auto attack hitting for 200-300 3 times in one quick succession with all your other buffs up.

Bard doesn't put out the biggest numbers but we get a lot more attacks in between due to bloodletter resetting.

[savant07]

But see that's the thing. Bard potency is on the lower end. 150 for heavy shot, 140 straight shot, 150 bloodletter etc. Look at black mages. Fire is 150 but they get umbral fire buff PLUS their weapon damage is 50% higher in damage which means all their attack deals 50% more damage. They are hitting for 600 every 2.5 sec with the occasional 900 Fire IIIs. At the same time, look at summoners. The pet deals more damage than our auto attacks and they also have 50% more damage on weapons which means 50% more potency for each DoT and I have to say, their DoTs hurt!

But I do get your point. We attack more. I just don't see it adding up as much as black mages or summoners.

I wish parsers and combat logs would get updated and fixed so we know for sure...unless there's some sort of simcraft we could use.

[LunarEmerald]

Black Mages have spellcasting times. We don't.

Black Mages interrupt their attacks by moving. We don't.

Black Mages have to spend several seconds refilling their MP. We don't.

Black Mages put out the biggest numbers in the game but big numbers does not translate to highest dps.

And they're not doing 600 every 2.5 seconds because every 4-5 fires, they're out of MP and have to spend 10+ seconds refilling their MP.

[savant07]

I'm pretty sure they only spend one cast of blizzard 3 to get their MP back. It's pretty fast, and takes way less than 10 seconds and then they're back to blowing stuff

[Thotor]

But I do get your point. We attack more. I just don't see it adding up as much as black mages or summoners.

I wish the same.

Like you said our scaling from WD/Determination is lower compared to other class.
However we have a higher scaling from crit just because of bloodletter proc.

Is the scaling the same as other DPS ? That's very hard to tell.

Also there is very important part in BRD rotation : crit buff (also damage) must be applied before any DoTs. If this not done correctly, the dps loss is HUGE. Less crit on DoT ticks but also a lot less Blood letter proc.
Even with broken parser, the difference is about 20 dps between a good and a bad rotation (this is from personal experience)

[zaviermhigo]

With songs your dps will go down, I think its like 10 or 20%, pay attention to that, and know when to use songs, and then when to maximize dmg. BLM or BRD, or go home is how it is right now. So you're crazy a little bit, but its ok ^^

[Ireku]

Hamsteak, we Bards have been trying to keep that under wraps, now that you said it out loud SE is going to nerf us. Thanks a lot...

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

White Mage here just throwing in my two Gath-stolen gil.

If the Bards out there manage to keep Rain of Death more or less up, that damage savings helps me MP and enmity-wise. So even if you're not the top of the DPS chart that run, you've helped saved the party by 10% on a few fronts.

And if you're feeling suuuper saucy during a burn phase/window, run into battle with Foe's Requiem and when I'm in Cleric's Stance, you've upped my damage by 10% (so add 10% of my damage to your DPS). Same for any Black Mages in the party, take 10% of their damage and add it to your score, because you're responsible for it.

I think Foe's Requiem may be the only song (aside from Swiftsong) that doesn't lower your damage.