At this point should Bard and... I dunno, "Sniper" just be split into two jobs?

While the initial concept for the Bard also being an Archer was pretty neat, now that the Bard doesn't really provide much support... it's kind of just an archer class, y'know? They've still got their buffs and all, but they're kind of underwhelming for the most part.

Would it make more sense, at this point, to simply make the advanced form of Archer a Sniper, and make the Bard its own proper Bard-like class? Or are we also beyond ever having a real support class? As for performance for playing instruments, I really wouldn't care, let "Snipers" continue to perform in addition to Bards, not really a big deal. Wouldn't make much sense, but would seem a bit lame to take it away from people who specifically leveled it to perform.

I think for me this is a symptom of a greater issue in the game, where everything has to be rigidly defined as DPS, tank or healer, and the absolute fear the team apparently has of letting anything be too unique, lest it be "required," which seems like a poor reason (again, to me) to sort of hinder the overall design of the game.

I think about how they had to literally carve off a part of the game to let BLU even sort of function as a bootleg job, and I worry that we'll see similar issues (or just more homogenization) for future jobs we may or may not get, like Beastmaster, Time Mage, Puppeteer, that kind of thing.

Personally I think it'd be neat if they just, I dunno, either swapped the DPS role to a support role or, heaven forfend, added an additional slot to dungeons for another person, that person being support.

One of my bigger fears overall is that any new classes we get will just feel the same but with a unique job gauge or a single mechanic to differentiate them, rather than feeling like an entirely new experience. I'm sure it certainly keeps the balancing very simple, but I think it sucks some of the soul away from the game.

Balance is both important and good, but it's a beast that if you tame too strongly, will make everything more boring and less interesting. Having totally unique classes is, to me, far more important than whether something might "break" a savage raid or what-have-you.

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Originally Posted by Xbob42

Would it make more sense, at this point, to simply make the advanced form of Archer a Sniper, and make the Bard its own proper Bard-like class?

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Maybe, but it's not something I believe we can expect.

It would be neat if they did have the two separated, but I think we are too far down the rabbit hole to have that happen. The best I can think of, is there being a new job called Sniper added, but not sure what they could use as a weapon since Bows are already used...maybe a crossbow instead since those aren't used. Or make a Minstrel class that is 90% support - more healer style than DPS I guess, and uses a harp or lute as their weapon.

I'd like that to be honest. Just like I'd like Machinist to focus on machines and a new gunner/corsair job to focus on guns...
But yeah, I don't expect it to happen.

I don't see this as likely. They'd have to untangle the story/lore they've already established on top of restructuring combat around a whole new role type. This far into the game's life, that's an awful lot of work.

Engineering sniper? Sign me up!!!

They could make a Crossbow job "Hunter" or "Ranger" in the future. There's precedent for this type of job in the FF universe, typically employing traps/snares/special arrows and sometimes a falcon or other forest pets. But the problem is a few BRD skills kind of incorporate these, e.g. Nature's Minne/Wanderer Minuet/Barrage

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Originally Posted by Avatre

It would be neat if they did have the two separated, but I think we are too far down the rabbit hole to have that happen. The best I can think of, is there being a new job called Sniper added, but not sure what they could use as a weapon since Bows are already used...maybe a crossbow instead since those aren't used. Or make a Minstrel class that is 90% support - more healer style than DPS I guess, and uses a harp or lute as their weapon.

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Are we too far down the rabbit hole? It kind of seems like the opposite to me. Like the Bard part of the class is slowly being bled out to focus on the archery. For the storyline, definitely, but as far as mechanics and design, it doesn't really strike me as very Bard-y at all anymore.

It's because BRD in 2.0 had to sacrifice DPS to replenish resources for MP/TP regen for the party. These were slowly phased out. Then they decided casting songs no longer made sense since that's time spent no longer DPSing. Since this isn't a game with Support Classes, they reworked the songs to just be "stances" that confer a slight boost to raid DPS. They cannot make BRD a true support job as it was in other games because that's not a role that exists.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

It's because BRD in 2.0 had to sacrifice DPS to replenish resources for MP/TP regen for the party. These were slowly phased out. Then they decided casting songs no longer made sense since that's time spent no longer DPSing. Since this isn't a game with Support Classes, they reworked the songs to just be "stances" that confer a slight boost to raid DPS. They cannot make BRD a true support job as it was in other games because that's not a role that exists.

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Yeah but what if it was? New jobs are neat, but new roles? I find the even more exciting! Especially since so many of the classes are starting to feel very samey. I was kind of excited to give Gunbreaker a shot, my mistake was switching to it from a Paladin, and immediately recognizing a huge portion of my toolkit with a slightly different flavor. Like I said, they change a mechanic or two and give you a unique bar, but it doesn't feel the same as each class feeling wildly different.