Bard Detail

[Niiro]

Based on the most recent statements, "BRD deals too much damage" has gone out the window

when we looked at the time it took to clear content with bards, we found that the DPS was higher than we expected.

[Sigmakan]

So bard is losing raging strike and monk is getting it instead? awesome

[Spider-Dan]

During the previous LIVE letter I made a comment about adjustments to bard, which I think many of you are worried about. The reasoning for adjustments, as mentioned previously, is that bards tend to take away from other jobs that could be used in certain instances. This is due to their ability to deal steady damage in addition to supporting using job abilities. As such, we will be making adjustments to their cross-class abilities. There will be no changes made to archer or bard themselves. Please also rest assured that we will not be removing their ability to silence enemies.

Yoshida: We wanted to reduce the role of bard a bit because too many functions have been added. In patch 2.1 we plan to transfer one of these to other jobs.

Unless they are "transferring" one of BRD's sub-class abilities, these two statements are direct contradictions, and the more recent one should take precedence.

How many times have they said that PLD can tank things that they didn't expect, while simultaneously saying that they have no intention to nerf PLD's tanking?

[Spider-Dan]

(double)

[Korialstrasz]

Spider-DRG has the most raging boner for BRD to lose Blunt Arrow.

[Yukari]

So bard is losing raging strike and monk is getting it instead? awesome

Honestly, that'd probably shaft BLMs and SMNs more, as their crossclass skills pretty much all suck except for exactly 5 of them. (Virus, E4E, Physick, RS, QS or Swiftcast, thunder, RS, QS... I guess surecast?)

[Voyage1970]

Also I remember them saying that the ability to be "removed" from BRD was a cross-class skill, most people anticipated them removing LNC as one of BRD's subs (Blood for Blood).

Removing LNC would hit BRD too hard since they would also lose Invigorate and BRDs can become TP starved pretty easy if they have to keep a Rain of Death rotation up. My prediction is they remove PGL for Internal Release. In the same interview SD quoted Yoshida mentions how they can adjust DPS and TP issues by changing proc rates on certain abilities. This makes me believe they are going to change how River of Blood functions to make up for the fact that BRD will be losing the Crit Boost from Internal Release. Something like instead of 50% chance on crit it's just a flat 20% chance per tick.

[Raldo]

I can't see them removing the crit part of River of Blood. Looking at the BRD relic gear, it's clear that crit was the focus, and it would be weird to back out of that right now.

Also, a flat 20% seems too high, considering we get two chances each tick.

[Judai]

Clearly they are taking away BRD's bow and giving them a straw to shoot spitwads at enemies.

[Voyage1970]

I can't see them removing the crit part of River of Blood. Looking at the BRD relic gear, it's clear that crit was the focus, and it would be weird to back out of that right now.

Also, a flat 20% seems too high, considering we get two chances each tick.

Can't really make an argument for gear, but Allagan has some pieces with Skill Speed and what not on it so I wouldn't really put much stake in it but that's on me.

As far as 20% goes though, with 507 Crit (guessing) that's around a 17% crit rate. Add in Straight Shot for +10% and Internal Release for +20% and you have an almost 50% crit rate. DoTs retain w/e buffs you had upon application so you have +47% Crit on all ticks of both your DoTs. Given a 50% activation rate on crit that's about a 25% chance of activating and like you asid there are 2 ticks so you have two chances at 25% per tick.

[Spider-Dan]

So to reiterate that question: if the ability that is being transferred from BRD to [some other job] is not Blunt Arrow, then what is it? Requiem?

The "we're only tweaking BRD's cross-class actions" quote is clearly outdated, as Yoshida said (at that time) that native BRD stuff would not be changed at all, yet the later transferring an ability quote contradicts it. Transferring a cross-class ability to another job that already has that ability makes no sense, so if BRD were to transfer away Invigorate/BfB/Internal Release, it would have to be to a job that doesn't already get it. I don't see how giving Invigorate to WAR or Internal Release to BLM/SMN solves anything.

[Raldo]

So to reiterate that question: if the ability that is being transferred from BRD to [some other job] is not Blunt Arrow, then what is it? Requiem?

If I had to guess, I'd say rain of death's -damage taken effect. That said, removing that would make Rain of Death entirely pointless to use at all outside of free procs. Then again, removing any effect from any of Bard's utility moves would make them all entirely pointless.

[Ezek]

inb4 they remove Raging Strikes and transfer it to DRG.

[Spider-Dan]

It's entirely possible that they are considering the upgraded Storm's Path debuff (-damage dealt) as an ability transfer from Rain of Death. But yeah, that would make RoD the-same-but-worse compared to Wide Volley, to be used solely on Downpour of Death procs.

[Raldo]

Oooh oooh, add a mild TP regen to Mantra? Please please pretty please?

There's no reason why they'd need to remove some utility from Bard. Maybe they just need to spread the love around a bit and leave bard alone.

[Spider-Dan]

Oooh oooh, add a mild TP regen to Mantra? Please please pretty please?

Not unless they move Mantra to the mid-20s (like they did with Quelling Strike). LV42 for a subclass ability is unreasonable; if Mantra were legitimately important, it would be an issue.

[Voyage1970]

It's entirely possible that they are considering the upgraded Storm's Path debuff (-damage dealt) as an ability transfer from Rain of Death. But yeah, that would make RoD the-same-but-worse compared to Wide Volley, to be used solely on Downpour of Death procs.

In Beta didn't Rain of Death have a -10% Piercing Resistance debuff like DRG had? They could theoretically remove the damage down and put the piercing resist back on it to remove some utility w/o affecting BRDs too much.

[Majidah]

I ran hero's neck vs allagan's neck in the calculator and got these results

Hero:
WS Absolute Increase = 4.09
% WS Increase = 2.92%
WS DPS Abs Increase = 1.94%
% WS DPS Increase = 3.37%
AA Absolute Increase = 5.25

Allagan:
WS Absolute Increase = 3.90
% WS Increase = 2.78%
WS DPS Abs Increase = 1.97%
% WS DPS Increase = 3.43%
AA Absolute Increase = 4.25

I'm not really sure what's best, since I'm not entirely sure what each field exactly means, but the results are so mixed I'd love to know lol

Could someone explain them to me?

The difference on WS dps absolute increase is just 0.03 meanwhile the difference on AA absolute increase is 1. Does this mean we should go with the highest number?

[Deadgye]

I could see removing the damage -10% from rain of death, but that'll make me very sad considering how often I use it specifically for that. Speed runs, primals, coil, etc. Not as sad as losing invigorate or internal release would make me though. Losing blunt arrow would probably make me just as sad as losing rain of death's usefulness. I wouldn't mind losing blood for blood. It'd hurt my damage a little bit and make avoiding damage a bit less boring, but I could deal.

If they do remove the usefulness from rain of death though, when I'm not spamming aoes I'll never have to worry about tp ever again.

[Majidah]

I could see removing the damage -10% from rain of death, but that'll make me very sad considering how often I use it specifically for that. Speed runs, primals, coil, etc. Not as sad as losing invigorate or internal release would make me though. Losing blunt arrow would probably make me just as sad as losing rain of death's usefulness. I wouldn't mind losing blood for blood. It'd hurt my damage a little bit and make avoiding damage a bit less boring, but I could deal.

If they do remove the usefulness from rain of death though, when I'm not spamming aoes I'll never have to worry about tp ever again.

SE said the nerf was to disable bard from generating spike damage. IMO what they'll do is nerf B4B's cross class bonus. I kind of doubt they'll touch internal release because it'd mess up bard's overall DPS.
No way they are touching RoD, they already stated they are just touching the cross class skills.