A Discussion of Weapons: Current Classes vs. Future Jobs

Much of this is in reference to the upcoming 1.21 patch, most notably the picture posted in the Producers Notes:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/33685?p=490995#post490995

Based on what we know, once you reach level 30 in a currently available class, you will be able to unlock the advanced job through some means (assuming some series of quest(s) ). When you read about the new jobs, and you refer to the picture posted in the link above, you can clearly see each of the new jobs will use pretty much the same weapon, with the exception of Bard.

Here is where I'm somewhat concerned. Most likely when the 1.21 patch is released, they will re-code the current items so all swords will work for GLA/PLD, Polearms for LNC/DRG, so on so forth... If the plan is to incorpate the Bard's "Musical" ability directly into their weapon, how will this effect current Bows? Will Bards be required to obtain an entirely new series of "Barcher" weapons with Harps attached?

If Archers upon promotion to Bard are required to obtain new weapons, this would render current bows like Ifrits/Moogle/GC Bows useless. Knowing this, why would Archers promote at all?

My personal recommendation would be either to allow for Players to retro-fit or exchange current bows for Bard "Approved" version, or change how Bards will work and allow their instrument to be Off-hand. I tend to lean towards the second option as this would allow for players to maintain their current gear and potentially their DD functionality.

Please let me know if I'm off the mark or if anyone has read differently regarding this?

Thanks!

I too, wondered how they would handle bard, since they seemed to be pasting the harp on the bow itself...

Something tells me that you'll just carry around a generic harp if your bow can't transform, or (sadly, probably more likely...) bard won't make use of the harp on the bow at all and it's purely aesthetic.

I think the bow-harp is just an aesthetic touch to bard. With regular bows, I'D ASSUME your bard sings rather than plays a bow harp.

Ball is in your court SE ^^

There's a lot to wonder at this point. The only thing I recall is a Yoshida post from last month that mentioned job specific armor would be on par with melded crafted gear. So what I am getting at is that the job system will inevitably mess with some of the gear we already have, but it won't alienate everything. This is the price we pay for playing a game that is under construction.

I'm taking a shot in the dark and assuming if BRD has to use instruments (Kind of debatable considering ARC has a song now) that they'll be used in the offhand slot.