Or alternatively, just buff bard.
There's a fair few threads active right now, but a mistake many of them make is saying physical ranged overall should be buffed. Physical ranged is used in prog, and obviously shouldn't do as much as jobs like black mage or samurai, which are subject to various restrictions.
However, balance within the physical ranged role is definitely off, and it is very disappointing to see SE ignore this.
Definitions:
Combined DPS, aka RDPS: DPS that includes:
* the total damage directly inflicted by a job
* damage indirectly inflicted via buffing other party members.
The problem:
Dancer has both superior RDPS as well as superior utility. It helps more with prog, thanks to things like Curing Waltz. However, even after prog, it just flat out does more damage than Bard.
Bard, on the other hand, has the 10% mitigation shared with MCH and DNC, but lacks the additional utility Dancer has, while still doing inferior total damage.
Solutions:
Option 1:
Reduce Dancer RDPS by about 800, relative to i470 gear (now that higher ilvl gear is available, this number may need to be proportionally increased). This could be done either by reducing the strength of buffs, or by reducing the potency of direct damage abilities.
This would allow Bard to have about a 400 RDPS lead over Dancer - a fair trade given Dancer has superior mobility, raid healing, and so on.
Option 2:
Increase Bard RDPS by about 800, relative to i470 gear. This is an inversion of the above and likewise could be done either through the strengthening of buffs or increasing potencies. This would give Bard a 400 RDPS lead, in exchange for having considerably less utility.
Option 3:
Give bard similar utility. A dash, a raid heal, etc. I'm not particularly in favor of this because it means more homogenization, but the status quo is rather terrible and it would change that, at least.
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Feel free to debate specific numbers. Maybe they should be tweaked a bit. But BRD having inferior DPS and utility within the role is untenable.
Continue reading...
There's a fair few threads active right now, but a mistake many of them make is saying physical ranged overall should be buffed. Physical ranged is used in prog, and obviously shouldn't do as much as jobs like black mage or samurai, which are subject to various restrictions.
However, balance within the physical ranged role is definitely off, and it is very disappointing to see SE ignore this.
Definitions:
Combined DPS, aka RDPS: DPS that includes:
* the total damage directly inflicted by a job
* damage indirectly inflicted via buffing other party members.
The problem:
Dancer has both superior RDPS as well as superior utility. It helps more with prog, thanks to things like Curing Waltz. However, even after prog, it just flat out does more damage than Bard.
Bard, on the other hand, has the 10% mitigation shared with MCH and DNC, but lacks the additional utility Dancer has, while still doing inferior total damage.
Solutions:
Option 1:
Reduce Dancer RDPS by about 800, relative to i470 gear (now that higher ilvl gear is available, this number may need to be proportionally increased). This could be done either by reducing the strength of buffs, or by reducing the potency of direct damage abilities.
This would allow Bard to have about a 400 RDPS lead over Dancer - a fair trade given Dancer has superior mobility, raid healing, and so on.
Option 2:
Increase Bard RDPS by about 800, relative to i470 gear. This is an inversion of the above and likewise could be done either through the strengthening of buffs or increasing potencies. This would give Bard a 400 RDPS lead, in exchange for having considerably less utility.
Option 3:
Give bard similar utility. A dash, a raid heal, etc. I'm not particularly in favor of this because it means more homogenization, but the status quo is rather terrible and it would change that, at least.
---------
Feel free to debate specific numbers. Maybe they should be tweaked a bit. But BRD having inferior DPS and utility within the role is untenable.
Continue reading...