Quote Originally Posted by Darkpaw View Post
Because logic? You say the fact that you can't just run in with a harp/flute into a battle destroys the job fantasy, but for me.. if I saw a bard running up to let's just say.. Shinryu with a harp/flute.. "welp he's dead." and if he wasn't i'd be like that's completely ridiculous. Attaching it to a bow makes sense from a realism perspective. The flute/harp aspect still exists in Bard. it's not like they stripped those animations away. A lot of this sounds like Bard's finding something to throw a fit about because they are losing their guaranteed spot in basically any party.

Songs are still a thing. Oh no Bard is losing all it's support! We're being homogenized, we're losing our job fantasy! You mean like Machinist did in 4.0? Bard isn't crit proc based anymore so there's no need for the 3% crit rate buff anymore, Foe's was a touch and go thing that was a balancing nightmare and pretty much made bard mandatory. Warden's is still around, playing music to help soothe what ails you. Wanderer's, Mage's, and Army's is still all there and key aspects of the rotation, Pitch Perfect is still there, Battle voice is still there! Troubador is still there! Granted it works a bit differently but it's all still there. You lost one song. Foe's which needed to be gone so that we could finally get a balanced Physical Ranged sub role. Because as it stood through this expansion the physical ranged sub role has been.. Bard and "Omg what is that a mange infested dying mutt that's been run over by a train and struck by lightning?"

This whole thread is just.. wow..
The problem is that the archery aspect is way more proeminent than the bardic aspect. Why the proc arrow couldn't be "Refulgent Song" instead, or something like that? I think it's fine for it to use bow and arrows for the regular rotational attacks, but we needed more stuff involving songs to justify the job's name.

They could keep MCH like it was and just adjust or create new abilities with gunplay in mind, but they actually went for a thematic change and made MCH live up to the job's name and not feel like a gunner with some touches of machinist here and there.