BRD Action Revamp

Wouldn't have been possible without ocealot's VFX Editor and his technical support through this building process.
Big thanks to Red for teaching me the basics of TexTools and being my mentor guiding me through the mod packaging process. (https://www.redmakesmods.com/)
A special thanks to papachin for being the first pioneer into VFX mods and showing us what was possible and being my biggest inspiration.

2/17/2022 1.4 Update: Scaled up the Bloodletter Orb to better match the Misery's End initial impact. Also added a new mod that scales up Sidewinder so it still feels more powerful than Bloodletter.

Instructions on Installation:

1.) Download and install TexTools: https://www.ffxiv-textools.net/
2.) Download the modpack.
3.) Unzip modpack, open the skills you want to apply. Hit OK on all the dialogue boxes.
4.) Enjoy getting double proc when you already have two stacks of Bloodletter

Hi Guys!

I was amazed by the reception from my Monk skill revamp mod. Never thought I would hit most viewed mod page for five days in a role since its inception, but here we are. With this, I had a bit more confidence in my product so I'm pushing out another pack which is a lot smaller compared to the Monk pack, but I thought it would be worth sharing.

So before I begin I want to give a background to who I am and how I approach modding:

I am a one-man shop. I use my own free time after work to develop VFX and animation mods that enhance the feel of the class while staying as faithful to the vanilla design that SE intended. I keep three core tenants in mind when developing these mods:

1.) Visceral Impact: Does the skill animation/VFX feel good to use when you tap it on gamepad and mouse?
2.) Combo Logic: Does the skill's power level feel appropriate for its place in its rotation?
3.) Gameplay Clarity: Does the skill's new VFX/Animation get in the way of gameplay clarity or does it feel bad to play when its taken out to the live environment?

With these tenants in mind, I tinker away on ever class until a nearly perfect product is produced. Hours were poured into making sure that each VFX had no bugs, were binding properly to targets, and timed correctly to ensure maximum delivery and impact.

So for Bard, this is more of a minor adjustment than a full blown rework, but this adjustment took weeks to make it functional. From scalings to bindings, this single skill had me pulling my hair to make it functional in game. Basically, I combined the old VFX of Misery's End and Bloodletter into one cohesive impact VFX. It will feel much better than the base Bloodletter we have in game. I also changed the icons for Apex Arrow and Quick Nock for stylistic purposes.

Now the next question will immediate popup: "Why didn't you utilize the old skills for Bard. There were some many cool ones from ARR and HW?"

The answer to this is simple: Bard is already in a good place right now and a lot of the old skills have issues.

So what do I mean by this? Bard has some very fluid and dynamic VFX's/Animations already. We look at Refulgent Arrow, Ladonsbite, and Empyeral Arrow and see that these are already beautiful and feel good to use. All the retro options available like Blunt Arrow and Flaming Arrow actually feel horrible to use. Not only are the VFX's for these skills are from old 1.0/2.0 assets, but also the character animations clip badly in comparison to the more modern skills that were designed to be weaved together in a burst window.

"But Naes, why can't you replace Straight Shot or Heavy Shot with the older skills? No one will care about those since those are the low level skills."

While I do agree the the earlier skills' don't have as much impact compared to the later skills, the early level skills' VFX and animations are appropriate for their level. On top of this, the issues I stated earlier would still be persistent if we swapped those old skills with these low level skills.

"Naes, how about Wide Volley? It looks really cool and I'm really upset they removed it from HW."

This is something I 100% agree with. Its an amazing skill with both a gorgeous animation and a matching VFX. However, there is a glaring issue where it would clip horribly both as a GCD and oGCD. We're talking the old Monk Tornado Kick bad clipping. So by principle, I cannot put an animation that jarringly breaks gameplay flow into my modpack and I will not plan on putting it in unless SE decides to fix Rain of Death like they did with Tornado Kick. However, if you don't care about bad clipping teka has a mod out there that does that swap.

Again, when I get the time I will post video showcasing this mod.