What abilities do you wish to see for your job in 4.0?

[TarynH]

Brd
- a new or current exist skill to spread both wind and venom dot to other enemy, maybe using wide volley?

I would like to see BRD use the harp more. Would be cool if they'd add direct damage or DoT songs. Or maybe a song to spread the DoTs.

To be honest, I'd rather see BRD completely split from Archer. I know I said this jokingly earlier in this thread, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

It would cause a rework of the job quests, so I doubt it'll ever happen. But I'd like to see Archer progress on to Ranger as a straight ranged DPS. Perhaps with elemental arrow buffs to give it some fun variation. (Enspells for arrows)

Then I'd like them to add a more traditional Bard. Either as a healer, or a ranged magic DPS. If they go the healer route, it could have direct heal songs, and regen songs, and the erase song Bard currently has. As well as some direct damage and DoT songs for some DPS, and buff songs like defense up.

If they went the DPS route, direct damage and DoT songs, with support songs like attack up, and foe requiem. It would be a balance of using MP to give buffs, and keep it's own DPS going.

But it's all just wishful thinking, because of the way Archer > Bard is currently.

[Shurrikhan]

<snip>
It would cause a rework of the job quests, so I doubt it'll ever happen. But I'd like to see Archer progress on to Ranger as a straight ranged DPS. Perhaps with elemental arrow buffs to give it some fun variation. (Enspells for arrows)
<snip>
But it's all just wishful thinking, because of the way Archer > Bard is currently.

Unless you're trying to create skills that a bow would be specifically unusable for, Bard stemming from Archer isn't the limiting factor.

The 1.x explanation for the (originally Ishgardian) Bard's existence was as a relay commander, a sort of platoon organizer and mover who doubled as a lore-keeper/strategist and a center for army morale. I honestly can't imagine a better use for the Bard toolkit than that, nor a better position by which to deploy them (from range). The bow alone might feel limiting to the wandering lore-keeper motif, for whom a broader weapon selection might allow for more connections, but it's an easy if not best choice for any single weapon.

[Daniolaut]

I would just like to see existing, working actions to stay relevant...

but..

old, useless actions (Feint, Haymaker, Fists of Wind) to be reworked so that they work at all levels, and content.

Then maybe just 1 additional skill at level 70 that really complements the job.

Lastly, add Ranger as an secondary job to stem from Archer, since so many people dont like level 60 bard, but some do. Options, but I doubt thats going to happen because of "people."

[ADVSS]

I would just like to see existing, working actions to stay relevant...

but..

old, useless actions (Feint, Haymaker, Fists of Wind) to be reworked so that they work at all levels, and content.

Then maybe just 1 additional skill at level 70 that really complements the job.

Lastly, add Ranger as an secondary job to stem from Archer, since so many people dont like level 60 bard, but some do. Options, but I doubt thats going to happen because of "people."

I think a bit pf "people" wouldnt mind/ would even support this.

[Nexxus]

Ninja:

Merge the Dancing Edge's effect (slashing debuff) with Aeolian Edge.
enhance the movement speed while under hide effect.
Merge Sneak Attack and Trick Attack so that the damage will be différent depending on if you're hitting front or back (with the addition of the vulnerability for the back).

Add more kiss of *** effects

[TarynH]

Unless you're trying to create skills that a bow would be specifically unusable for, Bard stemming from Archer isn't the limiting factor...
The bow alone might feel limiting to the wandering lore-keeper motif, for whom a broader weapon selection might allow for more connections, but it's an easy if not best choice for any single weapon.

I don't think the bow is entirely a limiting factor. They might need to rework a lot of the job quests to where Bard was more musically inclined. It might be easier if they simply let Archer progress into Ranger, and keep the bow. Then add Bard as a different job all together. At least, the Bard I envision. It would probably be too much work for them to even consider it anyway.

If anything, the musical side of Bard is currently the limiting factor. Basically because it feels like they don't know what to do with it half the time. It's designed to be a buffer/dps job, but has restrictions on both of those fronts. Two of the three AOE songs it can utilize, have huge penalties to DPS. If you want to buff, you can't DPS to your full potential. And if you want to DPS, you can't buff to your full potential. It's almost like they wanted to balance something that didn't need balance at all. The balance already lies in the MP usage.

I think they should either let the job split off into Ranger and Bard, or change the job to Ranger, and add a new style of Bard. Whichever is easier to implement. It would make a pretty fun healer, imo, playing songs to heal, and "boosting morale" with buffs. But that's just my opinion. (And wishful thinking.) I feel this type of Bard might not utilize a bow as much, but could be wrong.

[TarynH]

Ninja:

Merge the Dancing Edge's effect (slashing debuff) with Aeolian Edge.

I just wish they'd let us close off of Shadow Fang. Maybe Spinning Edge > Shadow Fang > Dancing Edge? Unless, of course, you have an angry WAR that wants his Storm's Eye. Maybe Armor Crush would be a better closer for it.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't think the bow is entirely a limiting factor. They might need to rework a lot of the job quests to where Bard was more musically inclined. It might be easier if they simply let Archer progress into Ranger, and keep the bow. Then add Bard as a different job all together. At least, the Bard I envision. It would probably be too much work for them to even consider it anyway.

/shrug

In my opinion, obligatory class skills should only last until 30; after that point, you should be able to take additional job, cross-class skills, or native class skills (likely in descending cost there) as you see fit.

Archer would split into, essentially, Archer, Ranger (new advanced skills around a central theme and different adapations on or uses of core Archer skills), Bard (like Ranger in what's added, but of a nearly opposite theme), and Archer (borrows more from any other class instead, becoming an "unnamed" job like a Stalker, Brigand, etc.).

If anything, the musical side of Bard is currently the limiting factor. Basically because it feels like they don't know what to do with it half the time. It's designed to be a buffer/dps job, but has restrictions on both of those fronts. Two of the three AOE songs it can utilize, have huge penalties to DPS. If you want to buff, you can't DPS to your full potential. And if you want to DPS, you can't buff to your full potential. It's almost like they wanted to balance something that didn't need balance at all. The balance already lies in the MP usage.

I think they should either let the job split off into Ranger and Bard, or change the job to Ranger, and add a new style of Bard. Whichever is easier to implement. It would make a pretty fun healer, imo, playing songs to heal, and "boosting morale" with buffs. But that's just my opinion. (And wishful thinking.) I feel this type of Bard might not utilize a bow as much, but could be wrong.

I honestly think the limiting factor of Bard is less that it pays a passive price for carrying support functionality as that its support functionality is rarely all that well supported by the game, and that control over those tools isn't really fleshed out in an enjoyable manner. Only Foe Requiem sees consistent use, and song usage, due to the GCD cost to activate, is almost always 'until MP depletion'. Just having a more universally useful toolkit and being able to better provide point-support (or to somewhat integrate our songs into other areas of combat gameplay) would be a huge boon for the Bard playstyle, imo. You could easily have a new, awesomely fun Ranger and still have Bard compete even for internal rotation and complexity (let alone rewards for game knowledge) just through song integration. (Wind Song (Swiftsong but combat-usable) to stack Attack Speed enough to unload fully over a Foe Requiem point-support (sabotage) window, only to quickly swap into Army's Paeon for the bonus TP on kill, etc.)

[Shurrikhan]

Ninja:

Merge the Dancing Edge's effect (slashing debuff) with Aeolian Edge.

There's a reason our strongest attacks appear to be our weakest (assuming no clipping or redundancy), and our weakest the strongest, and it's not just balance. The difference between vuln/buff skills and our capitalizing skills (the ones that most benefit from them) not only gives depth to our "dummy target" / optimal rotations but allow us reasons to vary them when not able to keep perfect uptime.

enhance the movement speed while under hide effect.
Merge Sneak Attack and Trick Attack so that the damage will be different depending on if you're hitting front or back (with the addition of the vulnerability for the back).

Add more kiss of *** effects

Yes, please. As long as you mean reasons to use the two poisons we have, rather than another poison that is mostly without difference from the others.

[Lambdafish]

Lastly, add Ranger as an secondary job to stem from Archer, since so many people dont like level 60 bard, but some do. Options, but I doubt thats going to happen because of "people."

This is never happening, ever, in the entire history of the game, let alone for the reason of "some people don't like level 60 BRD" (the reality is that 99.5% of the community couldn't care less either way). Splitting SMN and SCH off of ACN is famously one of the worst and most limiting decisions the dev team has ever made, and they know and are regretting it, and this is because it causes problems balancing and nerfing ACN skills because they need to take into account how it will affect the other job, and the fact that both jobs share bonus stat point allocations, meaning you can only optimise one of them. On top of this, this idea involves expanding upon the class system, which the dev team is slowely making obsolete and assumably phasing out over time.