Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be reviewing another job for FFXIV this soon! The bard dropped on 27 June as I discovered from my periodic check on Square’s official page for the TTPRG; I’m going to have to check more regularly if Square is going be dropping free content on us! 🙂

The bard is a ranged DPS job with some interesting buff/debuff abilities and minor healing. I’m trying to decide if the bard has signs of power creep to it as it seems to have a lot of advantages that don’t have any apparent cost: DOT and Proc effects, incredible range, and a pseudo-combo effect (Arrow Volley) come standard with the bard at level 30. Though many of the bard’s abilities are once per phase, they have a vast suite of primary, secondary, and instant abilities; and some instant abilities restore when other abilities are activated.

At level 40, the number of Traits & other effects doubles for the bard and from what I can tell none of the bard’s abilities cost MP.

The only apparent weakness with the bard is low-ish HP, at 24, 32, and 45 respectively; however, this is the same HP totals as the white mage, not the black mage.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES

Right out of the gate, the bard has a very strong array of attributes: +1, +2, +2, +3, +4. While not starting off with any +5 attributes, the bard also doesn’t start with any +0, either.

The bard has midling Defense, Magic Defense, and Vigilance, and a Speed of 5.

At level 50, the bard gets the same bump that we have seen with the other jobs, with all primary and secondary attributes raising by 1.

TRAITS & OTHER EFFECTS

I do like how some of the bard’s Enhancements affect everyone in the party, that’s a much more streamlined approach than the typical f20 design of the bard buffing one party member at a time.

Bardsong has a particularly long duration lasting until the end of the bard’s next turn after the Enhancement is activated, unless replaced with another Enhancement.

PRIMARY ABILITIES

The bard has a lot of abilities at their disposal and for this reason I would put the job just after the mages but before the dragoon in terms of finesse. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone interested in pure damage output.

The main primary ability of the bard is Heavy Shot. It has a Proc of 15 and enables Arrow Volley. On a 15+, Heavy Shot grants the effect of Straight Shot Ready.

X Ready is an Enhancement making its debut with the bard. It effectively grants an additional primary ability; in this case, Straight Shot. Straight Shot, in turn, grants Arrow Volley.

This means that, on a pair of very good rolls, the bard can lay down anywhere from 4 damage to 3d6 x2 (for a crit) plus DOT (4) on their turn not counting any secondary ability damage buffs! At level 30!

SECONDARY ABILITIES

The main secondary ability for the bard is Raging Strikes, which is line with other level 30 buffs, adding 2 damage. The other secondary ability available, Mage’s Ballad, is more powerful but of much more limited use. It can effectively increase the damage output of the bard by 6 for one turn, however.

INSTANT ABILITIES

Let’s talk about Foot Graze. This instant ability inflicts the Enfeeblement Bind, hobbling foes regardless of size by drastically reducing their movement speed.

LIMIT BREAK

Of course, the bard’s limit break, Sagittarius Bow, has an AoE that’s 5 x INIFINITY and deals a pool of damage divided evenly among the bard’s targets. It does, however, scale downward in direct relation to the number of enemies that are targeted.

CONCLUSIONS

So … is the bard overpowered? Are we seeing power creep at play here? With a range that exceeds all of the battle map sizes in the starter set, a limit break with an infinite length, an Enhancement that confers either a free damage re roll, and an Enfeeblement that gives everyone an Advantage die, with the only cost being that some of the abilities are limited to once per phase – – the GM will be hard-pressed to keep enemies standing if the bard is on the field.

However, this is very much in keeping with the general tone of FFXIV as a whole: Adventurers are awesome is the name of the game here and the bard really trots out the game’s anti-trad philosophy here.

FFXIV’s embracing of the fact that adventurers will only be challenged when facing down boss-level equivalents or higher-magnitude of order enemies is totally in keeping with the tone of FF in general; how else are you expected to be fighting gods in the end game?