Why do Bards have the highest DPS?

[Kroktar]

BLMS and SMN are in the top of DPS chain.

Then usually bards followed slowly by monks, and then DRG.

Of course this can change depending on the battle...Like on titan...but because of the utility on bards instead of going full dps they have to be doing the silence or wipe at coils.

[Dijana]

Yes if the boss was always still or if there was no constant aoe's/adds

Which is why I said in theory

[Genjisamurai]

Don't forget to factor in that Bards also have access to enough damage boosting skills to increase damage constantly by cycling between them: Raging Strikes increases dmg by 20% for 20 seconds, Internal Release increases crit rate by 30% for 15 seconds, and Blood for Blood increases dmg by 20% for 20 seconds but also increases damage taken by 25%.

Yeah but who the hell has all those up at once? Plus the cool down. I dont even bother with blood for blood.

[Ryans]

Is it possible that your melee aren't as skilled/geared as your bards? Or that particular encounter is tailored more towards ranged utility? I haven't participated in the endgame of ARR yet, but in 1.0 I ran into a few instances where a good brd could be comparable to average drgs and mnks. HM Garuda for example, the typical brd would finish as the lowest DD, but occasionally I would get brds that would be competing for the top 3 spots. (Most likely a combination of the brd being on the ball and the drgs/mnks moving around more than needed) Then there was HM Nael van Darnus where drg would just outshine everything no matter how good the brds, blms, or mnks were. Again. I haven't gotten around to doing endgame in ARR yet, so I could be completely misguided here.

[Reika]

Simple answer to this question is that ARR bards aren't really bards, they can just pretend to be bards for a bit. They are Support Rangers in clown costumes.

Is it possible that your melee aren't as skilled/geared as your bards? Or that particular encounter is tailored more towards ranged utility? I haven't participated in the endgame of ARR yet, but in 1.0 I ran into a few instances where a good brd could be comparable to average drgs and mnks. HM Garuda for example, the typical brd would finish as the lowest DD, but occasionally I would get brds that would be competing for the top 3 spots. (Most likely a combination of the brd being on the ball and the drgs/mnks moving around more than needed) Then there was HM Nael van Darnus where drg would just outshine everything no matter how good the brds, blms, or mnks were. Again. I haven't gotten around to doing endgame in ARR yet, so I could be completely misguided here.

And drg is really at the bottom of the barrel in ARR. Every other DPS has either traits to increase all damage/healing done, or in the case of pugilist greased lightning and fists of fire. After getting 3 greased lightning stacks with fists of fire mnk is a beast. DRG however, has only its short duration heavy thrust buff and risky blood for blood. Cooldowns wear off, and I dont know why heavy thrust buff is weaker than warriors maim buff... If they put power surge back to how it was in 1.0 to match mnks damage increase but not speed increase, dragoon will do better.

[Rolvag]

Still cant figure if OP just QQ because Bards (I am) do hight dps or its just because they are "easy to play" due to hight mobility.
cant argue monk but about dragoon, I still cant understant why there are too much them around, compared to bard and warrior they are super ultra boring (atlest to 34 lvl), i leveled my Dragoon just for "blood for blood" and cant bring myself to do even one more step with him

If you ask me :
* yes Bards are great, we have good dps and our utility with songs is amazing.
* yes nerf hammer will strike soon,not because bards are OP but to silence masses (9 of 10 mmrpg players can garantee it)

[Hanemakikaze]

I've done titan a lot of times and bards always are in the first place in dmg, ahead from DRG>Monk. They have advantage because they have the easy job, spam skills while running away while monks have to keep 3 DoTs on the boss, greased lightning 3 and one extra buff to do less dmg.....

Primals are the only place they will ever shine as "top" dps over monk, for sure.

[Genjisamurai]

Still cant figure if OP just QQ because Bards (I am) do hight dps or its just because they are "easy to play" due to hight mobility.
cant argue monk but about dragoon, I still cant understant why there are too much them around, compared to bard and warrior they are super ultra boring (atlest to 34 lvl), i leveled my Dragoon just for "blood for blood" and cant bring myself to do even one more step with him

If you ask me :
* yes Bards are great, we have good dps and our utility with songs is amazing.
* yes nerf hammer will strike soon,not because bards are OP but to silence masses (9 of 10 mmrpg players can garantee it)

They better give us a ranger our scout job then.

[Kyriea]

BRD's who don't use songs have good DPS which is fair enough because they are a DPS class, but as soon as you use a song it's cut by 20% which is a significant amount. A lot of people only care about numbers and don't use songs effectively which makes them a bad BRD. High DPS does NOT make you good.

[Reika]

BRD's who don't use songs have good DPS which is fair enough because they are a DPS class, but as soon as you use a song it's cut by 20% which is a significant amount. A lot of people only care about numbers and don't use songs effectively which makes them a bad BRD. High DPS does NOT make you good.

A good bard doesnt just start playing a song at the beginning of a battle. You only need to start playing a song when it is needed. That is why they are just support rangers.