This is the one update that I've been looking forward to forever. I was soooo worried that they'd screw this up and make the recast longer then 30 seconds and make this ja useless.
The biggest way I look at this is as a true fix for bard. Yes, positioning and hitting songs on specific people WAS how bard was played.
The biggest thing I was interested in about this was the fact that if you were to look, bards get some of the best melee gear in the game. While it's nothing as amazing as Ares or something, they can get Heca and dusk. Not to mention, take a look at a bard's Relic and some of their AF. I've always been of mind that a bard, while not being a huge DD, can add quite alot. Various reasons. One, they're very versatile. If a bard needs more atk, they can do that. If they need more acc, or haste, they can do those too. While a bard's melee skill isn't amazing, it does allow them to get Evisceration, a great WS. If you were to ask my LS, I've shown over and over now that I'm starting to gear my bard for melee, that I don't do omfg dmg, but I do decent, consistent dmg.
Yes, a bard actually meleeing is situational. I still agree with this. But it also means, that we now have more options when doing other things. Brd/dnc is now a vastly more viable option. It wasn't previously, not because of dmg or anything, but because we did need to run around so much casting songs. Now we can stand in place and melee, gaining tp, helping with erases, even more pt buffs, and heals, while still hitting the mages with ballad, and giving everyone else what they need.
Imho this is exactly what bard needed to go back to, what seems to be, the original intent for bard. Something more along the lines of dancer, frontline support.
