Physical Damage Jobs - Themes

[Hysorn]

I find it so weird that this is such a thing. I'm both surprised and fascinated.

I still think Bard is one of the more ingenious job designs in XIV.

Eh, makes sense, while Bards might be quite well received in Final Fantasy games, most people, especially in the west, automatically associate archery with rangers. I know I do and I also know I am not alone in this. FFXIV currently doesn't have any job that fills in the Ranger niche, seeing as even as an Archer you are a military archer and not a ranger.

That's actually one of my biggest gripes with FFXIV, I personally don't really find any of the physical DPS jobs interesting class fantasy-wise aside from Dragoon. Rogues were awesome with the whole "honorable thieves" then they become... Ninjas. Great for FF and Naruto fans but terrible news for Rogue/Thief enjoyers.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Eh, makes sense, while Bards might be quite well received in Final Fantasy games, most people, especially in the west, automatically associate archery with rangers. I know I do and I also know I am not alone in this. FFXIV currently doesn't have any job that fills in the Ranger niche, seeing as even as an Archer you are a military archer and not a ranger.

That's actually one of my biggest gripes with FFXIV, I personally don't really find any of the physical DPS jobs interesting class fantasy-wise aside from Dragoon. Rogues were awesome with the whole "honorable thieves" then they become... Ninjas. Great for FF and Naruto fans but terrible news for Rogue/Thief enjoyers.

Tbh I don't see much appeal for a vanilla ranger job, at least definitely within the design of FFXIV. There really isn't anything in XIV's combat system that capitalizes on things like swiftness, acrobatics, sniping. Ranger's whole job fantasy is really more befitting an exploration-style game--in what are mostly scripted fights, I just can't see the job having much pizazz.

I think the key to enjoying several of the FF jobs (especially physical DPS) is buying into the real-world philosophies they reflect and gamify. Monk incorporates chakra/nadi from yoga and kung fu styles. Samurai incorporates the Edo period art idealization of Snow Moon and Flower scenery. Ninja takes a bit of a pop-culture take on Hindu/Buddhist mudras (like you said, very Naruto). Machinist uses chess motifs, Sage uses humorism, etc. etc.

Some of these are definitely stretches thematically, and in the case of MNK/SAM/NIN/RPR they are *very* influenced by pop culture, but I definitely think there is a degree of buy-in necessary to enjoy the job. Something as small as a single job ability or term might turn someone off because it doesn't feel authentic to their job fantasy. For example, I don't want to play MNK because naming a form after those doofy looking Raptors kills the job fantasy for me.

But I would also argue that the "ranger" job fantasy is equally romanticized by pop culture--and imo is a lot harder to sell because there is no real philosophy behind what makes a ranger a ranger. The devs would likely have to take some other discipline (like SAM and watercolor painting) and style the ranger around it. And while I don't want to dismiss the possibility, I do struggle to think of any schools of thought that would sync up well with ranger. Again, I don't even really know what a "ranger" is supposed to even be, outside of maybe something a little loner/feral/survivalist which is an archetype BLU is already sprawling itself over.