Bards in most fantasy games serve as go-to songsmiths and musicians to aid parties and irritate enemies. Interestingly, they take up a contrasting Physical Ranged DPS role in Square Enix‘s Final Fantasy 14. In the Final Fantasy MMO, Bards serve as one of the Job upgrades for the Archer, serving as its iteration under the Discipline of War. As with Archers, Bards specialize in using Bows, which in turn depends on their Dexterity to boost their overall attack potential.
As with most DPS classes, Bards rely on maximizing their skill speed, direct hit, and critical hit potential to dispatch foes as soon as possible. However, fans seem to divide themselves when it comes to the overall “usefulness” of the Bard Job. On one hand, players praise FF14‘s Bards for their ranged specialization. Likewise, others say they’re possibly the worst Job in the game. So what gives?
10 Great: Reactive, Not Proactive
Bards don’t necessarily rely on “go-to” rotations. Unlike Jobs like the Dragoon that requires precise positioning and combos, Bards “react” to situations based on elements at play.
Essentially, Bards keep to their stereotypes of music and singing – with their Songs in FF14 providing various buffs, depending on the situation. However, a Bard adjusts their priority casts depending on which effects currently proc. In turn, Bard’s choices become heavily influenced by RNG – providing them with a ton of flexibility, perhaps even more than the Black Mage and the Dancer.
9 Meh: Too Many Variables At Work
Unlike other DPS classes, Bards adjust their rotation depending on the situation. For instance, Stormbite and Caustic Bite sets up enemies for damage-over-time, arguably the main source of damage for Bards in the game. Bards should use Iron Jaws if the DOT timers near their end – otherwise, they should always have a Song up at all times. More than that, Bards have recommended abilities to use depending on the Song activated at the time.
In turn, newcomers to the Bard might feel overwhelmed with the layers of complexity involved in their play. Bards seem like an extremely timing-intensive Job. After all, Bards can only meet full damage if they use certain skills with certain Songs. Fans of more straightforward Jobs like Tanks (e.g., Gladiators, Dark Knights) might have a challenging time adjusting to the Bard’s rotation.
8 Great: Mobility, Utility Powerhouse
Most – if not all – of the Bard’s spells have instant cast times, allowing them to roam around the battlefield if necessary. This allows Bards to stay close to other DPS members that can dish out damage with them, especially with useful utilities. Bards can greatly improve the party’s performance with offensive buffs such as Mage’s Ballad (increases damage dealt), Army’s Paeon and Battle Voice (increases direct hit rate), and The Wanderer’s Minuet (increases critical hit rate).
Meanwhile, Bards also offer useful defensive utilities. For instance, Bards can increase the party’s survivability, courtesy of Troubador (decreases damage taken), Wanderer’s Paean (removes a debuff), and Nature’s Minne (increase healing).
7 Meh: Benefits Depend On Party Composition
Unfortunately, the Bard’s benefits imply they become increasingly dependent on party composition. For instance, a Bard’s damage increase won’t benefit a party that can’t maximize the boost in critical hit chance and overall damage.
In turn, Bard players should either focus on getting with the right party (such as with a tank like the Paladin), or adjusting with whatever they have. As such, Bards need to be just as attentive to the party’s needs as a healer. However, instead of healers, Bards need to ensure they proc necessary benefits – light healing, damage buffs, removing debuffs, and other situational effects.
6 Great: Situational Abilities Enhance Flexibility
Similar to the Astrologian, Black Mage and the Dancer, the Bard greatly capitalizes on their situational utilities. However, whereas the Black Mage possesses devastating AOE setups, Bards rely heavily on their utilities to take advantage of any situation. Moreover, even as the novice Archer Class, Bards inherently don’t have insanely high damage numbers. Unlike the robust Lancer, Archers and Bards whittle enemy strength with their debuffs and scaling damage.
In turn, Bards possess the potential to be on par with heavy-hitters with the right rotation. For instance, Raging Strikes serves as a great prepull ability in tandem with Stormbite and Bloodletter. However, players may consider this rotation timing-dependent, as some of its cooldowns might collide. Alternatively, tinkering with the order of these skills might be more forgiving with ping at the cost of some overall damage.
5 Meh: Low Base DPS
Despite the utility potential of Bards, they suffer heavily in the DPS department. At its core, the Bard possesses the lowest base DPS among its fellow DPS classes. This comparison makes sense – after all, the Machinist rakes in DPS numbers courtesy of its potency-focused build. Meanwhile, the Dancer procs debuffs via AOEs, further increasing overall output. Sadly, the Bard does sacrifice damage at the expense of meeting a more “stable” and flexible build.
Of course, Bards still make up for these low base numbers with DOT-reliant attacks and various offensive boosts. However, Bards do need to time their Songs and incorporate various gauges into their combos to maximize their damage.
4 Great: Apex Arrow, Soul Voice Gauge Adds DPS
Once Bards learn the Soul Voice trait, they unlock a new gauge called the Soul Voice Gauge. This gauge works with the Song Gauge, which increases the more Repertoire the Bard gets. At a certain point, a Song Gauge can allow Bards to cast Pitch Perfect, a powerful attack that grows in power the more Repertoire stacks players have. Like the Song Gauge, a filled Soul Voice Gauge also allows Bards to unleash a powerful attack – this time called the Apex Arrow.
Once unleashed, the Apex Arrow deals a 100 Potency attack to all enemies in a straight line. Moreover, using Apex Arrow with 100 Soul Voice Gauge amps up Potency to 500. In turn, Apex Arrow easily becomes a powerful attack worth waiting for, especially for Bards with flexible rotations.
3 Meh: Apex Arrow, Soul Voice Gauge Can Underperform
Despite the damage potential of Apex Arrow, it does share the same caveats of Pitch Perfect. Like the latter, Apex Arrow only works best with the scaling of a maximum Soul Voice Gauge. In turn, Bards have to wait an unrealistically-long time before benefiting from the amped damage of an Apex Arrow. Unfortunately, this does mean the Bards suffer in the DPS department, particularly due to a skill that can easily be buffed to proc much faster.
Moreover, some eagle-eyed fans notice that the Apex Arrow doesn’t have optimum scaling as a GCD. After all, Refulgent Arrow only has a 2.5-second cooldown, and has a potency of 340. Granted, players need to have a charge of Straight Shot ready to cast Refulgent Arrow, but it’s still much faster compared to Apex Arrow. In turn, even some Bards don’t consider Apex Arrow a worthy opening skill.
2 Great: Make Music Out Of Instruments
Playing into their stereotype, Bards in FF14 possesses not just combat weapons but also various instruments. For instance, Bards can play the clarinet, fiddle, fife, flute, harp, lute, panpipes, piano, and the oboe. Perhaps one of the best perks of being a Bard is having the ability to actually play musical instruments and create music with them.
Bards that finish the “Plucking the Hearstrings” quest can create music with their instrument of choice. In fact, players can add certain notes to their hotbar, allowing them to create actual music in the process. In turn, even Square Enix warned users against performing music from third parties.
1 Meh: Better Damage Output From Other DPS
Unfortunately, the utility-focused builds of Bard might not be useful in most circumstances. In terms of DPS output, the Bard easily gets outshined by companions such as the Summoner, Dragoon, Black Mage, and Machinist. For instance, this time around, the Machinist not only has devastating turrets and an improved Heat Gauge, it also has a few nifty gadgets to add offensive utility into the mix.
Meanwhile, the Black Mage’s Enochian mechanic offers a decent balance between single-target and AOE-based attacks that alternate between damage types. In fact, some say the Black Mage easily tops other DPS in terms of base damage.
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