Quote Originally Posted by jomoru View Post
Your argument would seem to invalidate the existence of rangers. You either get bards who are balanced to not only provide acceptable dps but also utility or.. you get rangers who will not be vastly better at dps and don't provide the necissary utility
This. ARR isn't a game with rubbish design like FF11 where you completely replace your ability set as you progress. Bard and Ranger would be basically identical except for BRD's now-and-then songs and Ranger's whatever-abilities. Ranger's abilities wouldn't even have a role, since ARC already has silence, bind, cone AoE, circle AoE, AoE DoT, ST DoT, and off-GCD spam. Additionally, keep in mind that BRD's "utility" is also damage. The only defensive ability in 2.0, RoD, is now purely offensive.

Quote Originally Posted by EdwinLi View Post
Do you need 2 differnet Archer Jobs in 1 group so you can keep the 2 silence and not lower LB gain?
The system was never intended to make interrupts that essential, and it won't be with the changes to debuff resistance. Moreover, if you're choosing two archers in the first place, then ARC is overpowered and needs to be nerfed.

Quote Originally Posted by EdwinLi View Post
List of ideal fight characteristics
So ARC should have the ideal counterpick to every fight -- just change your job and enter said content, because gear, skills, and stat distribution are all shared?

Quote Originally Posted by EdwinLi View Post
As of now we are not even close to being certain what they will do with 2nd Jobs but they can make Ranger unique in its own way like how Bard unique quality is through helping their Group through songs.
The only question is whether all classes will get a second job at all. ARR's design abhors redundancy. Ranger as DPS is necessarily nearly identical to Bard. We may not see anything from Archer at all, but if we do, it won't be a DPS.