Quote Originally Posted by Duelle View Post
Of which only 4 were trully useful (Ballad, March, Elegy, Madrigal) and everything else was a waste of space until Abyssea procs made them quasi-relevant. It's not that different. In fact, they actually gave Bard something to do when not using songs. That and Bards ARE a subsect of the Rogue archetype, which can use daggers and bows. XIV's Bard is more like the Bard from Bard's Tale or a classic D&D Bard rather than...well, that horrible thing from XI that was stupidly rare that few actually liked playing, to the point it gave birth to the princess BRD.

PS: If you want a more modern example, look up Dragon Age: Origins. Leliana, in specific.
Yeah I played Dragon Age I enjoyed it... The lore and the mystery behind Leliana was great especially the little expansion they had for her. I totally hear you on that! On Bard only having 4 useful songs in FFXI I think it would be fair to say the number is a little higher. I used quite a few but I made the mistake of forgetting the different tiers of strengths for the songs. Fine give it a dagger or some other weapon as well...oh wait we can't use multiple weapons on a class/job. Here is the solution ready for this?

Give bard a flute right? Make it the weapon... you sing songs that do more than just buff. Does damage, debuffs, crowd control, speed enhancement as well us the usual buffs. The possibilities are endless on what a bard can do...

As it is now we are an ARC that can do a couple of extra buffs. BOOM that's the bard. Kinda lame imo...

Think of your Bard as someone that can do a channeling constant damage on the mob while his buffs are up, being able to slow, stun, poison. Being able to use his "ahem" instrument for anything any other mage can do. There is that mage everyone is looking for.