Bard makeover due?

[Midnightjade]

I still enjoy BRD, but I guess I tend to do low-number events which are a bit more active. Plus I get to solo BST in my time off. The jobs are polar opposites and I find playing one acts as an antidote if I'm bored with the other.

[Byrthnoth]

I think you guys are both whiners and wrong. Playing bard is all that brings me happiness in this cold barren wasteland of a game. Sometimes, I sub DNC so I can both sing and dance. Life truly cannot get any better!

PS. Utsu tanking/kiting is the only thing that couldn't be done using the gambit system. Oh yeah, and there was a little sarcasm above.

[Gergall]

One thing that bugs me is that SE changed Etudes to single target, and gave BRD single target Sirvente and Dirge, then added Pianissimo without touching these songs. AOE Etudes or Dirge might actually see use in a BLM party, allowing BRD an actual option once in a while.

Virelai is an extra CC song if your lullabies fail (or aren't enough to keep up with the massive amounts of aggro your group has attracted). Just an extra something small, just in case.

Naked bard with only an instrument is very strong.

Here's the really sad thing though:
BRD A is completely naked except for a relic instrument, and has no merits except Troub.
BRD B has mythic weapon, HQ staves/chanters, amazing top-notch gear and tons of merits focusing on improving BRD (like Wind, Singing, heck even CHR).

BRD A is way better than BRD B. That is kinda lame.

[BRP]

Making songs uninterpretable and the whole combining skill gimmick was stupid. Without those it wouldn't be BRD though, so whatever.


EDIT: Well that and being the only source of stuff like March and Minuet and so on, while Haste and Warcry and so on are shared. Adding COR just created another layer for BRD to sit on.

[Tulun]

Giving a way for BRD to do some damage (or something) while buffing might make it far less boring.
But it might just tread too close to COR and it already has several advantages over COR...

[Ezhno]

To be honest, I would kill just to get a permanent buff to song duration to match COR's. Maybe I'm asking for too much, but what's stopping Bard from being a light to moderate DD while being a support like COR is? Granted Bard has gotten some specific songs (Elegy March) that balance it from being eclipsed and replaced by COR, and perhaps asking to be even with COR in damage potential is too much, but at least give us a longer duration or a shorter casting time.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Maybe they should make it so that songs are a JA instead of a spell (so they are instant), and double the duration (to around 5 minutes, or so). But to give BRD a little more interaction, maybe they should make it so that when you use your song JA, the song doesn't quite come out right every time, so you have to try again. For balance purposes, you'd have to only get a limited number of tries at getting the song just right.

Of course, with it lasting so long, you couldn't have BRDs just re-singing the same song over the top of itself repeatedly until they got the song perfect. So you'd definitely have to make the recast pretty long... maybe a minute. And you'd probably have to have some way of preventing them from re-singing a song that's already active.

But yeah, if you did all of those things, BRD would be the perfect job.

Would read again

[noodles355]

I'd like skill+ gear on buffs to matter.
I can spend all the time I want getting a pimp skill+ set for march and meriting singing/wind, but in the end, my song is only about 1% haste faster than a naked, unmerited bard.

And that sucks.


SE looks like they originally saw brd as a psuedo-DD, they gave it dagger skill higher than it's string/wind/sing skill, and gave it gear like haiadate and hecatomb.

However, melee-brd is just fucking lol. That said, it is hella fun.

Maybe if SE took bard away from the magey role to a more front line role (read: upped it's dagger and sword skill). I mean, it can already easilly get 25% haste in TP gear (Turban/Goli body/Haiadate/swift/dusk feet+hands/angel's lyre) and has pretty good WS options (heca, AF+1 legs, osode, AF2 body) as well as having access to good weapon combos (Blau/Joyeuse. Hell, it can use Mandau).

[Ezhno]

I'd also like to add that Mordant Rime seems to do some decent numbers, especially coming from having only Evisceration before.

[Bakthi]

We did have a BRD with Mordant Rime outdamage a SAM at Omega once...but I suppose stranger things have happened.

BRD was my first job to 75 (my sig is in order), and I don't really enjoy it much now. I play it when I have to because it's the best choice for that situation. I've learned that in Salvage, being able to control the pace of the event (because on BRD, I pull almost everything) makes me happier in the end than playing a more fun job but quietly going insane due to a slow BRD. It's the same way with Nyzul and non-boss Limbus, generally. Mercifully, I never go BRD to Dynamis anymore.

A well-played BRD can really make a difference in some events, but the problem is that you're driving a good player crazy. Also, many....tactically challenged players seem to level nothing but melee jobs anyway. If everyone had BRD leveled so we could rotate more people through on it...well, at least people wouldn't burn out on BRD so much, and hey, maybe they'd hold up a second before fleeing in terror from that buff when they're on another job.

[barber2006]

A decked out DD can do literally double the damage of an AH DD over the course of a party/event. Make it so with bard. Put elegy on a sliding scale based on skill/merits. Make it where I cant pull a 3 hour merit pt naked with a staff and NEVER get a lullaby resist. Make gear mean something. 9/10 G-horn brds that have either blm or rdm leveled don't even have wind or singing merited because they do practically NOTHING compared to elemental/enfeebling.

[Yugl]

BRD/NIN in merit PTs would be too difficult! I don't see how BRD is much different from melees in the sense that your gear does everything for you once you hit the macro. If you want more excitement, don't make macros.

[Spider-Dan]

Perhaps I was being too subtle.

If you are looking for BRD to have shorter cast times, longer buff duration, and maybe some increased damage-dealing capabilities, all with more separation between fully-merited, dedicated career BRDs and Charlie Auction House BRDs, this job exists. It's called Corsair.

Maybe next, we can ask for some new songs that give +EXP and +MAB, so we can close the loop and make COR completely obsolete?

[Arthars]

brd has been good all the long

the only problem was single cast and it was solved

also have the ability to yield 2 relics, access to heca for WS, and haidate

do you want a 8 hit crit WS to go along?

[fantasticdan]

Perhaps I was being too subtle.

If you are looking for BRD to have shorter cast times, longer buff duration, and maybe some increased damage-dealing capabilities, all with more separation between fully-merited, dedicated career BRDs and Charlie Auction House BRDs, this job exists. It's called Corsair.

Maybe next, we can ask for some new songs that give +EXP and +MAB, so we can close the loop and make COR completely obsolete?

Yeah, because it's not like COR buffs stack with BRD songs, quickshot exists, that brd damage would always be weaker by comparision due to sidewinder, or that COR has any situational advantages due to being a ranged DD. And COR certainly wouldn't have an advantage over BRD in dealing damage to higher level targets; low skill blau/joy combo totally owns. I mean shit, look at how well DNC is doing vs HNM.

You're absolutely right, reducing the time a BRD has to spend singing buff songs to make the class more interactive and interesting to play would just plain obsolete COR.

[tymora]

Turn BRD singing into a simple mini-game but perhaps limit it to X number of random key strokes (notes). Higher skill allows for a higher delay before it is considered a 'miss'. The best skilled BRD would be able to click through 5 songs faster than an unskilled or d boxed BRD. A miss would be similar to a COR's bust? Or perhaps an unlucky roll.

Solves all the issues put forward, but I'll look forward to the cries if this happens

[Katoke]

Lol, waiting for Ashira to post in this thread <3

[Katoke]

Turn BRD singing into a simple mini-game but perhaps limit it to X number of random key strokes (notes). Higher skill allows for a higher delay before it is considered a 'miss'. The best skilled BRD would be able to click through 5 songs faster than an unskilled or d boxed BRD. A miss would be similar to a COR's bust? Or perhaps an unlucky roll.

Solves all the issues put forward, but I'll look forward to the cries if this happens

worst thing ever.

[Carraway]

Fuck QTE and stupid mini-games and whatever other completely superficial layers you think need to be added to a job to make it more "interesting" to you. If BRD's performance as a god-tier job remained the exact same as it is now, but the margins of efficacy matched the kinds of scales that DD deal with (as barber2006 suggested), then you could play the same Dress-Me-Up Barbie mini-game that everyone else plays.

In terms of pushing buttons, you can reduce every job to that aspect. At its most hectic, BRD is as engaging as any other job.

[noodles355]

brd has been good all the long

the only problem was single cast and it was solved

also have the ability to yield 2 relics, access to heca for WS, and haidate

do you want a 8 hit crit WS to go along?

It still doesn't make up for base 240 skill on our best weapon.