You do not rely on people never taking damage, that is one of the reasons you bring a support.
DPS can do much more damage when they feel comfortable knowing they can take more risk.
The highest DPS loss I witness daily is people who run around in fear.
You’re right, supports are not needed at all. Your entire worth is DPS saving on potions. Without Desperate Salvation, the only reason to take you along disappers.
Problem is the normal heal is shared more people in circle meand less heal for each person. DS 3 provides 24% hp to everyone in the vicinity when the heal ends its still massive.
Why are you comparing DS with Grudge as if you’re putting yourself in a huge risk where you can get 1 shotted by bosses? When you’re playing a class that uses heavy armor 3 and becomes as tanky as a Gunlancer and Destroyer?
I’d still run Expert and Awakening for more Song of Courage and better shields.
True Courage can be taken at lvl1 it’s very strong lvl1 engraving. I run Expert/Awake/Grudge/TC1 on my Bard. I pull out something like 1/3 of a standards dps-class damage only from myself, and that’s for a proper dps, usually I’m equal dps wise than shit dpser. I still provide strong shields which is more than enough for sustaining dmg at my ilvl content, run identity tripods (less damage but more uptime on song of courage).
So far the only people that have made rant about me not having DS are people that are shit and eat every single hit in Argos and Yoho. Most people run just fine withtout Song of Salvation just like they run just fine without supports in Argos and Valtan. The shields and dmg reduction buffs are bonus for theim.
Basically if you want to play a support setup that put accent on damage at the cost of no Song of Salvations (non-DS support bard basically) then I’ll suggest you to play this setup : /Grudge3 /Barricade3 /Awakening3 /Expert3 /TrueCourage1 /Adrenaline1 and set your party around back-attack and strong burst dps class. Basically your ideal party would be Igniter /Surge /Shock /You.
Be mindful tho that this build is completly off-meta. People will ashame and flame you for not using Song of Salvation, everyone including god speakers KR streamers.
NA/EU monkeys will flame you beaucause KR god speaker will flame you.
KR god speaker will flame you because they know how legion raid past Valtan are going on and they know that you definitely don’t need this additionnal damage and need much more the healing meta-build, even tho you aren’t supposed to take damage. It’s a safety net that allow you to eat more hits. Let’s say you’re doing Abrelshud the encounter is 20mn long you only have 7 potions and damage are high enough at ilvl that you basically need to get back to full health every time you get it. Without healing you only have 7 chances for 20 mn long encounter while with a support, you can slowly sustain mistaken hits and save these 7 chances for emergency.
If I ever got to play Artist, I was planning to try a DPS build that also buffs allies. Even without healing engravings, I’m sure I could pop down a heal if absolutely needed.
It’d be like having a 4th mini-DPS that buffs everyone else’s damage and has an emergency heal.
All that said, I’m sure there are problems with that idea…which is why I’d need to test a few things out.