My idea for an archer alt job, the ranger

I've always been a fan of archer characters in games and my time with bard in this game has been up and down, i chose archer as my first dps but then it abruptly switched to the bowmage so I dropped it for smn, then when SB hit i picked it up again and felt it was almost perfect...until the song beggars piped up, so I dropped it again for rdm, to backup dps this time, it's a fun job but I came across players who treat the brd as a mp tank or gripe if a song isnt up for a split second, so I thought what would I want....

A ranger, an archer with no songs, pretty much a selfish physical ranged dps

but I would set it up so it borrows a bit from the old hw bard/rdm/sam camp, it would hit harder than bard but lose some of the mobility, making it have light attacks that let you move freely like a bard and build "targeting" gauges that unlock your main strikes but the heavier strikes would come with cast times, albeit short ones just to add another layer of skill and plant you down when it's time to cause some pain, it wouldnt get status effect attacks to offset its higher damage and mobility

And for story you could fit a ranger in quite easily, just make it slightly darker/distanced than bard, since bard sings to build up their comrades you could play it out that the ranger was an archer on its way to be a bard but during a battle gone wrong they lost their comrades, with no one to listen and the goal now being surviving and being alone they had to find a new way to fight, which lead to their mobile-striker technique.

I know people here don't like the idea of selfish dps but i'm not a hardcore meta addicted player and really enjoy just zoning out and going through content and think more jobs should be given that free range, plus this would be balanced out by the bubbly helpful bard anyway

Maybe in the future they can add a Hunter/Ranger type job but to make it less redundant/alt to Bard, its main weapon can be a Crossbow, which is classic FF weapon that isn't currently in the game outside of Limit Breaks. Maybe it can specialize in setting traps/snares, and they can have various kinds of bolts to add status effects or exploding rounds etc.

I don't see why they would add such a job when BRD exists. Making them different enough with the same exact weapon would be too difficult.

A crossbow is kind of pushing it. I'd really like to see a ranged support class that uses throwing weapons. I think that would be different enough. Heck, it might even be Dancer.

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Originally Posted by GrenGarm

I'd really like to see a ranged support class that uses throwing weapons. I think that would be different enough.

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Been thinking about this myself, theres plenty of weapon options but no signature jobs for them.
I considered something like 'hunter' but I dont think it would have a very unique or intetesting identity to it.

Instead, base it off Hope from XIII, he uses a boomerang and is most adept with Ravager, Medic and Synergist.
Synergist would suit the ranged DPS party support role, or it could use magic to bolster its attacks as Ravager.
Perhaps go the Psychic route from X-2, and have a mechanism where you 'launch' your boomerang/chakram/blaster edge then psychicly control its movements as the weapon combo.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Been thinking about this myself, theres plenty of weapon options but no signature jobs for them.
I considered something like 'hunter' but I dont think it would have a very unique or interesting identity to it.

Instead, base it off Hope from XIII, he uses a boomerang and is most adept with Ravager, Medic and Synergist.
Synergist would suit the ranged DPS party support role, or it could use magic to bolster its attacks as Ravager.
Perhaps go the Psychic route from X-2, and have a mechanism where you 'launch' your boomerang/chakram/blaster edge then psychicly control its movements as the weapon combo.

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I'd been playing around with the idea within Beastmaster or Wildling designs. The Beastmaster would use a seperable Ogre Blade, one of those dual-sided swords each with curved blades, thrown like a boomerang fan. The Wildling would use a "thorn", a living (length-transforming/splitting) spear that can be separated into smaller parts, ranging the aesthetic of weapon-play from very nearly that of a lance (though seemingly far more agile) to a mid-length spear in one hand and a short-spear in the other, to a flurry of daggers, with additional "thorns" (or, small lengths thereof) growable and spendable.

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Originally Posted by GrenGarm

I don't see why they would add such a job when BRD exists. Making them different enough with the same exact weapon would be too difficult.

A crossbow is kind of pushing it. I'd really like to see a ranged support class that uses throwing weapons. I think that would be different enough. Heck, it might even be Dancer.

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It's not Bard that makes the task difficult; it's the lack of mechanics supported by the game. Most status effects in this game outside of DV and DR were gutted past level 50 in instanced play, and once they were useless for instanced play they became "superfluous" to play "in general" and were mostly purged from open-world play, too, come Stormblood.

It means that the only diversifying point--for any job, not just branched ones--they really have available is going to eventually come down to their job gauge graphic, whether gauge is generated by time, auto-attacks, or manual actions, their percent oGCD, the burst-lull gap, and whether their CDs sync to per-90 or per-120.

For the time being, though, available mechanics could include
- converting the Straight Shot maintenance into an actual mechanic with due gamble value (job gauge),
- a similar way to generate Haste, perhaps per shot in a way that tapers value while proportionately ramping effect fade rate (job gauge),
- providing a charged draw mechanic optional with each hit that spends critical strike and increases maximum draw to increase further expenditure (also job gauge; Crit, Haste, and Multiplier, essentially, where the last is balanced against the first two)
- special ammo, special shots, aimed shots (mouse to some circled/highlight-able component of the enemy body within LoS to generate an effect based on target)
- between the above, balancing sniper-like and quicker shots around windows of oGCDs and Hawkeye.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Been thinking about this myself, theres plenty of weapon options but no signature jobs for them.

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The jobs that come to mind that aren't implemented are Gambler from the main line games, and Juggler/Trickster from FFTA2, both of which cover similar ground without having the Gambler's Slot mechanic. Darts, Cards, and Dice are the most ideal options for weapons that aren't already taken. Ranger's a tough one to add when most of its typical weapon options are taken away from it, and Boomerangs are kind of an odd fit. I could see them as a sub-weapon for a melee class for sure but not the main one. It would be more likely for Beast Master to incorporate some Ranger thematic elements into its design instead, mostly to help support the Capture mechanic they'd get as exclusive side content similar to the current Blue Mage, though hopefully with a full job to go with it.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

For the time being, though, available mechanics could include
- converting the Straight Shot maintenance into an actual mechanic with due gamble value (job gauge),
- a similar way to generate Haste, perhaps per shot in a way that tapers value while proportionately ramping effect fade rate (job gauge),
- providing a charged draw mechanic optional with each hit that spends critical strike and increases maximum draw to increase further expenditure (also job gauge; Crit, Haste, and Multiplier, essentially, where the last is balanced against the first two)
- special ammo, special shots, aimed shots (mouse to some circled/highlight-able component of the enemy body within LoS to generate an effect based on target)
- between the above, balancing sniper-like and quicker shots around windows of oGCDs and Hawkeye.

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On the subject of Gambler, I could see them getting a Dice Score & Slot gauge. Dice would fill the Score Gauge at a random rate, and the slot Gauge would simply track any slot-based oGCDs. This wouldn't be pure RNG either. It would be similar to NIN's Mudras, but the key difference of this implementation of Slots is the Slots could spin at a controlled, predictable rate instead of being completely random, giving you a new option every second or so (Similar to the Pick A Card ability in League of Legends, for people who know that). SE could let the player manipulate it via the Gambler's GCDs in addition to one or two contextual oGCDs, that would act similarly to the proposed consolidated combos in another thread.

I doubt they'll be able to implement it cleanly, however. I have reservations on it, but I think including a 'cheating fate' aspect where you're fixing outcomes to be in your favor at minimal risk suits a Gambler job perfectly.

Like Time Mage, i think Gambler is already wrapped up with Astrologian.

After reading all these I saw alot of info and weird ideas(especially the hope from ff13 idea, such a terrible character, no offense)

the weapon change could work, a crossbow that could fire bolts that would trigger different bonuses for the job is a great idea, one friend even mentioned giving the class kunai or some other throwing type weapon, my main reasoning for the job though is that after playing red mage and loving it more than i should i realized that physical ranged jobs dont have a variant of that aka simplicity and minimal support, rdm is an emergency rez and thats mainly if things have gone very wrong other than that, you're a straight dps with no fluff.

also after the reveal of blue mage its obvious the dev team is being careful with new jobs and a fork from another job would be an easy way to add a new one without building from the ground up.

but like i said before aside from tanks and healers which clearly need more jobs for choice, physical range has an open slot for a more free form non support oriented job and it would work because mch and brd are so similar, at this point its easy to spot how many open spots there are for jobs to fill and i wish the team would focus more on the casual to midcore level players than the slim meta/super hardcore ones, all jobs when optimized and played well can reach the goal so why not expand them out

Hope being a terrible character is neither here or there, there's simply not many unique identities for throwing weapons.

We have Amarant from IX, who is more monk, and Yuffie from VII, who is clearly a ninja.
Other than that there's the 'blaster edge' from VIII, but again there's no role or job tited to that.

People are calling the new gunblade job "Soldier", but I'd more more inclinded to believe it'll be 'Commando' as this is actually a role and not a title. So I dont think 'Synergist' or 'Ravager' depending on the direction of the job is too much of a stretch.

from how the game is designed they cant do much, the jobs names are the main thing that separates them, i love ff8 but the gunblade job looks like a slightly less dreary drk at this moment.

i like they want to pull from more games but the system strips them of their identity in some ways and if they go full tilt you get blue mage, its a conundrum

Hopefully Gunblade is more of a Magitek Knight. Think Celes from FFVI. She was infused with magitek and can use Runic to absorb magic, combine with Ceruleum in FFXIV, the Gunblade job could be a heavily armored imperial officer style tank that relies on taking damage and imbuing their gunblade with magitek for damage. Think of like Regula.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Maybe in the future they can add a Hunter/Ranger type job but to make it less redundant/alt to Bard, its main weapon can be a Crossbow, which is classic FF weapon that isn't currently in the game outside of Limit Breaks. Maybe it can specialize in setting traps/snares, and they can have various kinds of bolts to add status effects or exploding rounds etc.

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I don't know why exactly, but a Crossbow has always struck me more as a weapon of a Gambler, Hunter*, Wilder*, or even Thief (if a first-ever dual-weapon job, or one with quite a few available consumables, but a resource system that requires them to be stolen or scavenged back) than a Ranger. It tends to match more of a mid-range, bursty, chance-y fighter -- a man with a plan, rather than just a flowing guideline of tactics -- to me than the more controlled and at-range tactician we see in Ranger.

Heck, Gambler, especially, would be exactly my cup of tea with that kind of weapon.