Which Job, in your opinion, has the biggest identity issue?

[BRVV]

In my opinion the only way they’ll ever actually resolve this is if they ever separate Bard and Archer.

Maybe for 8.0 because they could make Bard into a healer and Archer stay DPS. How should archer be called then? And then there is the problem of the jobquests but then again they didn't change any for the Astro changes XD

[KitingGenbu]

mch... i feel like im supposed to be a gunner. but the use of gadgets is getting to the point im questioning why i even have a gun and not a bazooka. the job is really confused if its a gunslinger or an engineer. wish theyde add more gun skills and not to mention the lack of bishop/knight makes my queen feel utterly usless in aoe desite getting aoe battery. also wish theyde continue with the chess theme on mch... it was quirky and unique

MCH will probably merge with Queen in 7.0 for a 15 second ironman phase.

That said, I do wish they'd make the gun 'upgraded' animations optional since its still jarring to me seeing a Roe flipping all over the place like a pro gymnast and has a gun shooting with 100% accuracy.

[VictorSpoils]

Any of these:

1. SCH - Mentioned before, its weapon and several actions are shared with SMN or outright inferior to SGE actions, and the faeries are glamours now.
2. AST - Bloaty, one-dimensional cards, weird level scaling (also mentioned before, its heals in Holminster Switch are a joke compared to SGE for instance)
3. BRD - Remember when the songs sounded cool? Just a bunch of ideas mixed together and a lot of old actions that had their identity scrapped.
4. SMN - Nothing interesting about the job now. Don't see how it was hard to use in ShB either.
5. CNJ - Water magic is supposedly an important part of the lore and its absent now.
6. MCH - Could do with an interesting addition akin to its old ammo, especially with all the balance complaints. The Queen is boring and spends half its duration winding up. The flamethrower sucks and blows.

SCH and BRD were probably bound to have these issues the moment they were tied to ACN and ARC (glad I didn't mix those up).

[Connor]

Maybe for 8.0 because they could make Bard into a healer and Archer stay DPS. How should archer be called then? And then there is the problem of the jobquests but then again they didn't change any for the Astro changes XD

I mean, the majority of the Bard quests are basically about how they don’t exist lol, and the Gridanians trying to add them to their militaries just to fail until Jehantel/Us comes along with a magic stone. So it’s not like there’s some heavy ‘Bard’ lore that would stop making sense if it was just an Archer/Ranger.

[Snorky]

100 million percent Bard.

Almost no relation or similarities to previous FF Bards, fails at the ‘ffxiv unique barcher’ iteration, fails gameplay-wise (extremely unpopular), it even fails aesthetically because it’s so confused about whether it’s a laser beam archer or a magic musician. Support is primarily full passive, boring, or borderline unnecessary (Paean / Minne / Troubadour).

The devs have literally said that Bard was a mistake before lol, kinda says it all

In my opinion the only way they’ll ever actually resolve this is if they ever separate Bard and Archer. Players numbers pretty clearly show the current iteration is not well-received at all. Except that would require actual effort and admitting they were wrong, so yeah, crappy Barcher that nobody wants to play is here to stay sadly

I have to agree, Bard was my first class when I returned 5 years ago. I played it til level 80 and dropped it because of the mess it was then. I love archer classes but it felt so out of sync with the fights which are dances. I truly believe archer and bard should be separated. Bards should weld instruments. That means dots and buffs. Bard truly has an identity crisis

[Jeeqbit]

mch... i feel like im supposed to be a gunner. but the use of gadgets is getting to the point im questioning why i even have a gun

Originally, it was supposed to be a gunner, but it was boring and not fun like Bard was, so they decided that in order to make it more interesting they would redo it with the idea of it being about machines rather than just a gunner. And it's way more fun this way. I enjoy it a lot!

the only way they’ll ever actually resolve this is if they ever separate Bard and Archer.

I admit I thought this was odd when I started playing Archer. The natural thought process is "really? they are going to combine a harp with a bow?" which makes you think it's some sort of bad joke except it's not. But it's been that way since ARR and it is explained in lore well enough. I'm just glad it plays more like an Archer than a music player.

I was excited at the idea of Bards playing music but I was disappointed when we couldn't use it in battles or macro them, because designing motivational songs for use in battle would be neat.

Players numbers pretty clearly show the current iteration is not well-received at all.

Bard seemed like the most popular DPS in Stormblood. It was everywhere. It was super fun to play and I was motivated to play it, not because of liking the aesthetic (I didn't), but because it was fun mechanically and had just been changed from being a "bowmage" which made the job extinct in Heavensward.

Bard isn't even all that different to play now, functionally. What happened was just that Machinist also became fun to play and took its thunder, whilst Dancer released also taking its thunder. It never recovered from that split.

And people just got into other jobs since. We have a larger variety now (20) compared to 15 at the time.

[Mimilu]

For me:

BRD: It keeps going back and forth between being a Bard and being a Archer/Ranger and rarely do the two meet outside of shooting arrows surrounded by musical notes and/or harp strings.
MCH: Is it a Gunner or a Gadgeteer? Queen feels out of place and over the top but not in a fun way.
SCH: SCH is a Plague Doctor, Military Tactician, Magical Geometrist, and Orator who can summon a fairy.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[VentVanitas]

all of them, to be honest.

[Mostly_Raxus]

personally i would love a pure archer, and would love to see bard moved to the magic tree instead and perhaps have a say Lute as their primary weapon..

iono i may be to invested in D&D style bards, i was never fan of a ranger that sings, i prefer the caster side of it. (granted they make good melee too)

i would love to see them attacking with music using a lute would be really cool in my opinion,
they could almost be a magic based dancer style system (i'm not speaking on difficulty more so flow of play), where you play certain damaging notes that proc the songs that work as combo finishers perhaps. kinda how monk plays where once you execute a certain combination of songs it triggers your big ultimate ballot based on which songs you use...

iono just spit balling here, but really like the ideal now that im thinking about it..
as for the archer class can become ranger keep its bow skills and pick up some more damage profile to replace the lost songs, maybe a range of dots or bleeds to add some complexity..

[Tulshe]

We end up tanking because our mentor decided to become a bodyguard.

And he doesn't really teach us anything. We just tag along, while Radovan does his business.

- Gunbreaker weapons aren't meant to shoot bullets, instead they imbue the blade with various effects (consistent with FFVIII lore). That there are numerous actual GNB weapons in-game with seemingly functional barrels is... wrong, they shouldn't, yet they do.

Some blades also don't have triggers. How should we use cartridges? Or triggers are so far away from handle it's impossible to pull with the main hand. And most attacks are single handed.