Artifact Armors!

[Endemerrin]

It's also somewhat of a fitting choice lore-wise. Oschon the Wanderer is represented as an Archer. He is the god of wanderers and vagrants, and bards would most definitely be included in that.

Eorzea is a dangerous world, and it would make sense for Bards to have some sort of martial prowess to protect themselves during their travels. Combining a weapon directly into their instrument is a perfect way of doing so. Plus the grace of archery just seems to fit a style of combat a Bard would employ. Something that isn't as gritty as melee combat or as complex as magic. Even Thancred is an agile, ranged-weapon wielding Bard.

I think it's just an awesome idea. It's fresh and new, compared to rangers, which we've seen in plenty of MMORPGs. They're going outside the box on this one, and introducing a new concept for a job - something a lot of people were begging for. I think it's going to end up being an incredibly fun job to play. Funner than bashing your face into a keyboard and watching big numbers pop up on your screen in my opinion (Though, to each their own. Some people enjoy that style of play).

Either way, I think it's just something that people should wait to actually play for themselves before screaming bloody murder. You might find that you actually love it.

Hopefully we'll hear something later today if there is information regarding the jobs in the Famitsu being released in a few hours. Depends on how fast us NA players can get our hands on some scans and start translating.

[goonMagi]

I think it's just an awesome idea. It's fresh and new, compared to rangers, which we've seen in plenty of MMORPGs. They're going outside the box on this one, and introducing a new concept for a job - something a lot of people were begging for. I think it's going to end up being an incredibly fun job to play. Funner than bashing your face into a keyboard and watching big numbers pop up on your screen in my opinion (Though, to each their own. Some people enjoy that style of play).

I agree that we all need to wait and see exactly how the bard is supposed to be implemented in order to judge it's role. But with that being said, I also think that there's no saying how "new and fresh" the idea actually is. If the new "Barcher" was simply a corsair in disguise, then they would ultimately be redefining the roles of the classic bard, and the archer in XIV.

It could be a great thing, but that doesn't disprove that the classic support style bard will be nixed, or that the archer's DD role is being changed into a support/DD role (like the corsair).