Bard does not make sense as a job

[Duelle]

The only reason you think Dragoons are "hard-coded" as concepts is because you're literally only thinking of past iterations in the Final Fantasy series. Which is the exact reason why people expect bards to be harp-players, not bow-shooters.

Unlike dragoons, bards have a much broader definition and a number of interpretations, and those with the frame of reference saw the approach taken in this game made sense. Not to mention that this is one of a handful of RPG series that have a jump-oriented lance wielder, so the number of analogues of what we know as dragoon is obviously going to be limited.

Sure, Edward was not shooting bows, but as I said, other examples of bards popped into my head. If you're limiting yourself to the "it's final fantasy" thing, that's not fault of the developers or class design. This is not even getting into the whole "support won't work in a game designed around the trinity" bit, and that would prevent the Edward-like bard from existing in this game.

Oh, and this "classes are malleable" thing? How many people excited about summoners do you think were expecting to summon multiple different massive monsters to do huge and heavy attacks, but got pets that are a very minor portion of their damage while they just make people sick for the bulk of it?

You mean those that refused to accept that summoner as it was in the console RPGs would not work in an MMORPG? The same people who conveniently forgot that barring a few exceptions, summoner was basically a black mage with more expensive spells and prettier particle effects and artwork to accompany their nukes? I'd say those who were disappointed with SMN set themselves up for it if they were expecting it to be like in the console games. That'd leave FFXI's SMN, but that mess of a job was so fundamentally flawed that I'm glad it didn't work its way here.

[Shirobi]

Unlike dragoons, bards have a much broader definition and a number of interpretations, and those with the frame of reference saw the approach taken in this game made sense. Not to mention that this is one of a handful of RPG series that have a jump-oriented lance wielder, so the number of analogues of what we know as dragoon is obviously going to be limited.

Bard in a fantasy situation has a pretty set in stone, genre wide reputation as a song singing, dagger using rogue type. As far as "dragoon" goes, the only place it really exists as some sort of lancer is the FF series. So no. Flawed analogy. While you can no doubt find some other type of dragoon out there somewhere bearing resemblance to the FF one, its quite likely inspired by it.

I can gurantee you with 110% certainty there are many, many MANY more instance of dagger singy guy bards than jumpy lancer dragoons in games and fantasy.

As far as FFXI's summoner goes, I see you either did not play the game much past CoP or you have a very flawed view of what smn was truly capable of, especially multiple summoners. There was nothing wrong with FFXI's summoner in the least. It merely needed proper gearing, like every job.

[Aiselia]

Unlike dragoons, bards have a much broader definition and a number of interpretations

Funny thing, I just googled Dragoon. Ignoring the Final Fantasy archetype, I came across:

In Legend of Dragoon, Dragoons were winged warriors that harnessed the spirits of Dragons. They didn't jump because they could fly. 6/7 of the dragoons do not use a spear.
In Dragon Saga, Dragoons appear to come from Paladins and use "dragon energy". Their weapons are 1H swords and shields.
In Starcraft, Dragoons are four-legged assault walkers.
In real life, Dragoons were mounted infantry that used guns.

Literally the only time Dragoons were represented as spear-wielding jumpy guys were in FF games or other SE games that were based off the FF style (Bravely Default, for example).

So no, it looks like Dragoon also has multiple interpretations.

[Kuwagami]

There's not much you can do to the DRG without messing up the concept.

Still waiting on breath techniques though But there is hope that they could come in 4.0, being taught by some ancient dragon because we made peace in 3.5 or something and now they can teach us how to become FF dragoons, instead of dancing between goons and templars.

How many people excited about summoners do you think were expecting to summon multiple different massive monsters to do huge and heavy attacks, but got pets that are a very minor portion of their damage while they just make people sick for the bulk of it?

FFxiv's SMN is an invoker, not an evoker. While less spectacular on useless flashy fluff, they still fulfill the role they're supposed to have. No matter what players expected (though it took an entire expansion cycle for them to get to that. 2.X's SMN wasn't THAT clear on the invoker stuff)


As for the bard, well, now it's an archer. Maybe one day they'll have more songs than archery stuff, but that's unlikely. Nothing we can really do about it.

edit : well, maybe it would already make a bit more sense (visually speaking at least) if all lv30+ bows had a little harp mounted on them like the 2.0 relic had.