Bowharp and the Death of RNG

[Xenor]

Archers ARE indispensable in FFXIV already. Bards were indispensable in FFXI.

Combining the two is like assembling the five parts of Voltron together. Archers should be ecstatic not depressed. Bards are going to rule this game.

Why should I be? If I were to play FFXI again I would level every other job before bard. That's how appealing the job is. I doubt they are going to make bard so different from its XI version that it's a bard in name only. That would be like giving a job all the healing spells and calling it a black mage.

[Physic]

Why should I be? If I were to play FFXI again I would level every other job before bard. That's how appealing the job is. I doubt they are going to make bard so different from its XI version that it's a bard in name only. That would be like giving a job all the healing spells and calling it a black mage.

In all honesty i doubt barcher if it exists will play like bard from ffxi. It would prolly be a support dps hybrid, with a number of buss and debuffs.
In order to make a bard like job they would need a tremendous amount of skills. bard had one of the biggest spell lists in that game i think. Also an archer probably couldnt effectively enter in and out of melee range.

and its funny you said that about the blm because, lets be honest blm doesnt really fit thm or con, especially before they reassigned skills.

[Travesty]

EDIT: Bonus fact - Archer turning into Ranger would be redundant. They're the same job. Combine this with what I said on the first page about Rangers not being "ranged attackers" but people who "range over an area" and ARC >> RNG sounds just as silly, if not sillier, than barcher.

That's incorrect, really. An archer is simply a bow-user. In most fantasy settings, and even the real world to an extent, a Ranger has much more of a survivalist and nature element to go with it.

[Anonymoose]

Just because the arguments are centering far too much about "What a harp is," I thought I'd settle that once and for all so we can get back to business.

This is Final Fantasy XIV's Harp (when it's not on a twelvedamn bow)

Familiar? Now, I don't want to hear any more of this, "It doesn't have enough strings," "It wouldn't resonate in that shape," or "The strings are too thick."

[Corrderio]

The strings are too think.

/trollface

Sorry, had to.

[AmyRae]

Why should I be? If I were to play FFXI again I would level every other job before bard. That's how appealing the job is. I doubt they are going to make bard so different from its XI version that it's a bard in name only. That would be like giving a job all the healing spells and calling it a black mage.

No, actually it would be like giving the healing job all of the only nukes in the game and saying here, now you can heal and nuke.

So not only is Bard the only ranged attack job, but it's also the only buffing job. Spare me the crying. This is going to be an in-demand job from start to finish.

[Travesty]

So not only is Bard the only ranged attack job, but it's also the only buffing job. Spare me the crying. This is going to be an in-demand job from start to finish.

That's actually a bad thing, I think. It's like making a tank the best DD. If their goal is broken up party roles, Barcher as you're describing it is the antithesis of that.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Broken record here, but Bard doesn't replace your Archer. They are two separate things. The system doesn't dictate that you must become a Bard if you have ranked Archer to 50.

You are still an Archer. You just have the option to use Bard as a separate profession. Which is actually an upgrade in my opinion. You have the awesome DD capabilities with your Archer class and a support job. What other classes get that kind of treatment? You are basically being stretched into more desirable roles. I think Archer prereq for Bard is getting more bang for your character progression.

[Anonymoose]

That's actually a bad thing, I think. It's like making a tank the best DD. If their goal is broken up party roles, Barcher as you're describing it is the antithesis of that.

If it's done badly, that's exactly how it could go wrong. I'm not saying that I have NO faith in SE, but my surplus of it is running on about a quarter tank. So, that's entirely possible.

On the other hand, if done properly, it could be very effective.

Hypothetical Endgame Battle:

Battle starts, barcher knocks an arrow, but casts haste buffs because he's not an idiot that needs to be told that his attacks take hate way too godsdamned fast to be doing any damage yet. While the other members use their haste to get their first round of true buffs in place... - barcher knocks another arrow. Waits.

The party is ready, barcher hits the attack and accuracy songs, and the tank calls that hate is secure - barcher EXPLODES out of the gate with three arrows to the mobs back and starts building TP while the rest of the party begins the grind.

Repeat?

Idk, just how I imagine it. Sounds fun as hell - and gives you something to do in-between all those damn recast timers. Archers were getting reckless and overconfident anyway, better to keep them busy and give them some actual responsibility aside from "Stop taking hate, you jackass."

[Ferth]

Broken record here, but Bard doesn't replace your Archer. They are two separate things. The system doesn't dictate that you must become a Bard if you have ranked Archer to 50.

You are still an Archer. You just have the option to use Bard as a separate profession. Which is actually an upgrade in my opinion. You have the awesome DD capabilities with your Archer class and a support job. What other classes get that kind of treatment? You are basically being stretched into more desirable roles. I think Archer prereq for Bard is getting more bang for your character progression.

I can understand that Archer is not Bard is not Archer...

What annoys me though.. is that Bard should be leveled up as a bard... not as an archer who can then toss on an awkward bow and suddenly gets a slew of abilities that change their role completely.

In ffxi if you leveled up Paladin you didn't get Whitemage free.

If they want to allow archer to unlock access to bard... I'm not all that for it, but I'm not vehemently against it either... but atleast require some form of progression as the bard for it to become useful.

The jobs don't need to progress on the same scale as classes... but it shouldn't be that every level 50 archer is also now a level 50 bard if they want to be.