Bards are one of the highest DPS class after Summoner and always top 3 on Enmity if you know what you are doing. They are mobile and provide good burst damage potential as well as bringing important buffs with their songs. In Bahamut Coil they also play an important range interrupter role and kiting of adds taking minimal damage.

They are extremely good on fights that have tons of movement such as Titan Hard which keeps you on your toes. Bards are a White Mage best friend as WHM use mana like water and is important to pair them up to help regen their mana for intensive healing fights or long drag out fights. If your party is magic user heavy Foe Requiem enhances their damage boost too. In tight situations Rain of Death helps survivability, and your tanks and healers will appreciate it.

Bards also have some cool looking AoE skills which is also mobile however damage is minimal. Cross class skills from Pugilist and Lancer gives not only a boost to DPS burst such as Internal Release and Blood for Blood, but also a boost to survivability and the very important Invigorate which alot of bards don't know exist.

The drawbacks of bard is that they can no longer resurrect allies as the CNJ sub class has changed to pugilist, however the trade off is more dps potential and the elusive Mantra which might prove useful in end game min max raiding. Their limit break however is a pro and cons, cons as in it is not a DPS limit break so if all your dps slots are filled with bards, you basically have no dps LB. On the other hand, should all your tanks or healers failed or are busy running and healing and you are still alive with LB3, you can save the raid by giving a second chance for all. However such situations rarely come by, but if they do, your party will thank you like a hero.

My personal experience, we 2 DPS down Titan Hard last night, after the 2 PUG dps died after Heart phase, we took turns keeping healers mana up and breaking each other out of jails whilst DPSing Titan in a long drag out fight. Kill it with 2 Bards 2 Healers and 1 Tank, and our healers never run out of mana healing Tumult and Flip Table. It was epic.

Overall, bards are doing well and you would always want at least one bard in a raid group. Two bards would be OP for mana regen from Ballard, damage reduction from Rain, and burst damage on demand. Who says bards are doing less DPS? Haha

Yes, I also absolutely love this job, class, looks and our weapon, Artemis Bow! (So cool it folds and unfolds~)