Bard caps?

[Torqameda]

Combat Skill Ratings
Skill Skill Ranking Cap at Level 1 Cap at Level 37 Cap at Level 75
Club D 4 101 210
Dagger B- 5 109 240
Staff C+ 5 105 230
Sword C- 5 105 220
Throwing D 4 101 210
Evasion E 4 94 200
Parrying D 4 101 210

Magic Skill Ratings
Skill Skill Ranking Cap at Level 1 Cap at Level 37 Cap at Level 75
Singing C 5 105 225
String C 5 105 225
Wind C 5 105 225

I can understand why the combat skills cap so low on Bard, but why do they cap so low on the instrument skills too??

 

[dedalius]

It doesn't really affect performance much. Against anything but HNMs I'm almost never resisted.

Edit: Your numbers are a little wrong. My evasion is capped at 210 as a 75 bard with no merits in it.

 

[Lavi]

It doesn't really affect performance much. Against anything but HNMs I'm almost never resisted.

Edit: Your numbers are a little wrong. My evasion is capped at 210 as a 75 bard with no merits in it.

I'd guess that's the exact reason for not having skill levels so high, SE doesn't want bards to be able to touch HNMs. Bard slow song stacks with slow spell and would make many HNMs extremely easy, comparatively speaking. Bard will still have a place buffing other players, they just won't be able to do anything to the mobs themselves. However, the skills are sufficiently high enough with good gear/food to be effective against experience mobs and I think that is all SE wanted.

 

[Tagrineth]

Bard is not an enfeebler, it is an enhancer. RDM is this game's enfeebling job.

The two cross over, of course (elegy/threnody/requiem and refresh/protect/shell), but their ability to do so is very limited.

The original "design" for the jobs really does become enforced once you move up to HNM (except NIN's original "design", of course!) simply because of the huge level difference.

Realistically speaking, though, a Bard could have F skill caps and still do their job well (though the stat gains from songs would be nowhere near what we get right now!).