How is Bard DPS these days?

Not their ADPS in a group setting, but their own combined melee/DoT DPS. Assuming they have the bulk of their melee AA's like Ambidexterity, Harmonious Attack, Selo's Kick, Combat Fury, using Fury of Combat Tribute, etc, what kind of DPS is an active Bard (one not being boxed/macroed, I am strictly a one toon guy and will never box multiple characters, ever) with an optimal twist looking at.

 

Oh, nevermind. They don't get Selo's Kick, or Triple Attack or Flurry. That means crap DPS.

I have a 66 Pally already, maybe it's time for a Ranger instead. Don't see a lot of those on the server either.

 

You have correctly deduced that it is low Pre-raid gear rogues will absolutely demolish any dps class. There will be no contest.

 

Is it bad enough that people would suggest a bard in a melee group use a brass instrument in offhand to pump up atk, or should the bard still be dual wielding? (assuming no other good brass modifier in their gear)

 

No. Plus if you use MQ2, can swap. But most of the time, your gear is probably good enough.

 

Here's as specific as I can find this topic in my data:

Bards are notoriously bad DPS on their own, but they do add quite a bit overall to a group...so if you count the ancillary benefits their DPS increases the more toons are in party with them. Even being low solo DPS, they are a must-have in every single group IMO.

Still, for my DPS-group bard I decided to stack Combat Effects on her and pull as much DPS individually from the toon as possible (as a sort of self-challenge/project/experiment).

She's got +86 Combat Effects currently and dual-wields 750dd proc weapons (each with a swarm pet augment).
Below is one of the top parses I've been able to obtain with her against an actual "non-Training Dummy" target (Full Burn used; BER/ROG/MNK Disc Buffs used):

Calliope
--- DMG: 62909 @ 386 sdps (440 dps in 143s) [2.95%]
------ Calliope:
--------- Total: 59299 -- DirDmg: 26719 -- Crush: 24593 -- Strike: 7987
--------- Normal rate: 93.6% (91.8% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 6.4% (8.2% of DMG)
--------- Attempts: 391 -- Hits: 283 -- Misses: 105 -- Defended: 3 -- Accuracy: 72.9%
------ Calliope`s pet:
--------- Total: 3610 -- Crush: 3043 -- Kick: 543 -- Bash: 24
--------- Normal rate: 100% (100% of DMG)
--------- Attempts: 163 -- Hits: 87 -- Misses: 68 -- Defended: 8 -- Accuracy: 56.1%

The Pet Damage is highly variable per fight, and tends to be higher on things like Trash than on Raid Mobs, but in either case it's never a major contributor to DPS. I've thought about trying a switch to DD proc augments, but there just aren't many options there so I felt the swarm pets had more potential.
All that being said, I'm not certain that my attempt with her gearset & everything else is indeed Optimal, so I'd be very curious to know if anyone is able to pull 400 or more DPS out of a Bard consistently. (And if so; how)

 

You had to turn bard swap off for that though? Decreasing the dps the bard provides to the group. Still fun though.

 

These are all my bards on King been a while since i have done a straight tank and spank where I use burns but this is probably as close as it gets since I only use ranged on orbs.

King Gelaqua on 5/31/2020 in 148sec

Cees
--- DMG: 57243 @ 386 sdps (420 dps in 136s) [2.84%]
------ Total: 57243 -- Slash: 20882 -- Pierce: 19643 -- DirDmg: 16540 -- Strike: 178
------ Normal rate: 92.3% (78.2% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 7.7% (21.8% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 384 -- Hits: 285 -- Misses: 99 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 74.2%

Novid
--- DMG: 44840 @ 302 sdps (329 dps in 136s) [2.22%]
------ Total: 44840 -- DirDmg: 18052 -- Slash: 14042 -- Pierce: 12746
------ Normal rate: 94.7% (88.1% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 5.3% (11.9% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 263 -- Hits: 209 -- Misses: 54 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 79.5%

Finders
--- DMG: 41896 @ 283 sdps (310 dps in 135s) [2.08%]
------ Total: 41896 -- Slash: 19611 -- Pierce: 16136 -- DirDmg: 6149
------ Normal rate: 89.2% (75% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 10.8% (25% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 336 -- Hits: 251 -- Misses: 85 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 74.7%

Muser
--- DMG: 36552 @ 246 sdps (268 dps in 136s) [1.81%]
------ Total: 36552 -- DirDmg: 15038 -- Pierce: 12629 -- Slash: 8885
------ Normal rate: 94.4% (91.3% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 5.6% (8.7% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 262 -- Hits: 196 -- Misses: 64 -- Defended: 2 -- Accuracy: 75.4%

Qiles
--- DMG: 35300 @ 238 sdps (263 dps in 134s) [1.75%]
------ Total: 35300 -- DirDmg: 14316 -- Slash: 12941 -- Pierce: 8043
------ Normal rate: 97% (93.1% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 3% (6.9% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 246 -- Hits: 199 -- Misses: 45 -- Defended: 2 -- Accuracy: 81.6%

Ryme
--- DMG: 30650 @ 207 sdps (227 dps in 135s) [1.52%]
------ Total: 30650 -- Slash: 14433 -- Pierce: 11681 -- DirDmg: 4536
------ Normal rate: 96.2% (88.9% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 3.8% (11.1% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 298 -- Hits: 211 -- Misses: 86 -- Defended: 1 -- Accuracy: 71%

Medsai
--- DMG: 28483 @ 192 sdps (207 dps in 137s) [1.41%]
------ Total: 28483 -- Slash: 13823 -- Pierce: 8787 -- DirDmg: 5873
------ Normal rate: 92.1% (81.3% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 7.9% (18.7% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 227 -- Hits: 165 -- Misses: 60 -- Defended: 2 -- Accuracy: 73.3%

Poplea
--- DMG: 25553 @ 172 sdps (189 dps in 135s) [1.27%]
------ Total: 25553 -- Slash: 19604 -- DirDmg: 5949
------ Normal rate: 96.5% (91.7% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 3.5% (8.3% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 224 -- Hits: 171 -- Misses: 52 -- Defended: 1 -- Accuracy: 76.7%

Crope
--- DMG: 24437 @ 165 sdps (185 dps in 132s) [1.21%]
------ Total: 24437 -- Slash: 11484 -- Crush: 7224 -- DirDmg: 5729
------ Normal rate: 96.9% (91% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 3.1% (9% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 180 -- Hits: 128 -- Misses: 52 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 71.1%