A Bard Question

Hey friends! So I’ve been wondering for long time, given how long some of these fights can be, how does a Bard go about ammunition realistically? Do they just carry a giant quiver with a bunch of arrows? Or can they use aether to conjure whatever arrow they need? These are only things I could think of that would make sense. If anyone has an answer I would very much like to hear it. :)

As far as I know it's never been explained and was just one of those "ignore it for the sake of gameplay" things - back in 1.0 ARC/BRD actually had to equip physical arrows in an 'ammo' slot and each arrow was expended (naturally, if you used them all up you were pretty much stuffed as you couldn't even do a physical attack), which is why it was changed into ARR, that and how expensive it was to play having to buy or craft each arrow you fired was considered a barrier to players wanting to play the class/Job. It's just handwaved that you replenish them as you go along off screen (gotta love those delivery moogles! ;)).

So, it's just something that's ignored for gameplay's sake.

Enchanted infinite quiver?

Maybe there's a warehouse somewhere in Gridania that's just filled with a tonne of arrows getting fed into a teleportation device.

The bard question I have is why the devs decided to put their quivers on their backs when quivers on a belt on your hip were much more common, more comfortable, and wouldn’t clip with everyone’s tails.

Just roll with it. Things are much better for MMORPG characters with bows since Hunters in World of Warcraft ditched the need for purchasing ammunition. I detested the need to actually have a quiver as one of my bags. That, and being the only class that had to purchase something to do their job. And, of course, there was the need to replenish Mana after a number of bow shots ...

Be glad that particular problem did not make it here.

As for quivers on belt or back ... it depends on which culture developed the bow and whether they are mounted or on foot. I understand that the English longbowmen carried their arrows in a sack.

I just headcanon that they self-replicate via magic.

Yes Western archers used hip quivers. It also depends on what you're doing along with personal preference. I'm glad from 2.0 on XIV stopped being like XI in the need for ammo department. I would hate to need to carry around 2 full stacks of 99 arrows in XIV just to be able to do my job. Before they made stack numbers go higher. But yeah this is one of those things where it probably is best not to try to rationalize it.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I just headcanon that they self-replicate via magic.

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They definitely do with some of the fancier bows. Terpander Lux has those super pretty glowy arrows that seem to be made out of light.

https://youtu.be/kfy514ueI7Q

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Yes Western archers used hip quivers. It also depends on what you're doing along with personal preference. I'm glad from 2.0 on XIV stopped being like XI in the need for ammo department. I would hate to need to carry around 2 full stacks of 99 arrows in XIV just to be able to do my job. Before they made stack numbers go higher. But yeah this is one of those things where it probably is best not to try to rationalize it.

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A quick google says that a back quiver probably is better for the Archers/Bards we play as, in fact. Specifically, a back quiver doesn't get in the way when traversing rough terrain; most archers you see in the modern day are doing it for target shooting, so there's no reason for them to favor that. Hip quivers are also good for when you have multiple arrow types, but we don't, and back quivers need no alterations for left-handed users, which would theoretically make them better for the armies we typically see using them in-game, but left-handedness isn't rendered in the game so that's kind of a draw.