Working on it, just got 33. :)
Exactly this. Not everything is always the case. But I honestly don't think Healers have it far worse, nor do I think bards have it worse. It's really all the same boat.
In a Light party so rarely are you facing a boss that is going to just rip all the health from the Tank, and in a full PT you obviously are not the only Healer. Under the circumstance that you are in a light PT and the Tank drops below enough, there are several factors that can secure yourselves from wiping if such a situation were to occur as the classes were so designed. You will always have a contingency so long as you know to prepare.
Fair enough, I've got no beef.
Only chocobo.
Two examples: BRD (before) Could move around, lower potency, always attacking. BRD (now, with new ability active) Rooted in place to do damage, no auto attacks, cast bar to do everything.
DRG (before) Could melee, jump around, stab things, had a big stick. DRG (now, with new ability active) Melees, jumps around, stabs things, has a big stick, with Blood of the Dragon move to an enemies side or rear to do some new moves.
BRD = change, DRG = addition.
Activating cleric stance, sword oath, etc does not change how the class plays in any way whatsoever. All it does is lower healing in return for damage/ lower threat and defense in return for damage. You don't lose mobility, you don't have cast times change, you don't get an entirely different subset of abilities to use.
The statement that no other class has to go through that is 100% correct.
You play a bard because Bows are cool! and because SE was lame enough to marry 2 jobs with absolutely noting in common using the flimsy idea that if you break and morph your bow you get a harp... yeah pretty stupid we all know this some are in denial. So suck it up and move on accept that things have changed and change with them because guess what it's not being changed back.
I'd love to see a branch of hunter that turns into beastmaster. Which is what hunter should have been all along.