A real support Bard (New Job class idea)

[Ceodore]

I believe everyone is aware of Bard's classification as "Support" but their distinct lack of any form of party healing. The distinct pulling of this class in two different directions is kind of annoying. On one hand, they are DPS, on the other, they are limited to support with their limit breaks. So I want to put forward this idea. Take the musical idea to its limits by introducing new weapons, Harps. It's been done in previous Final Fantasies. While being weak, they aren't meant for DPS. Keep the songs for Bards, but change Mage's Ballad to consume TP instead (A counter product to Army's Paeon) and provide Bards with an AOE ticking heal song (something weak, like 50 or 25 potency) and a stronger single target healing spell (300 heal potency). This allows them to AOE heal weaker than a White Mage, but single target heal on par with a White Mage. However, keep the limit of one song up at a time. So they are balanced by having to choose between group healing or MP recovery.

[Ceodore]

When they aren't recovering MP, they will consume MP faster because with a group healing song up and healing a tank, they will burn through MP faster, making them have to balance appropriately.

Now, for the addition of an actual separate job. Please... give... me... a... real... DPS! Bring back the Sniper or Ranger. Beast taming would be a welcomed new idea as well. I believe people will recall the Beast Master from FF11, but considering the great solo play capability of FF14, I don't see an issue with Beast Masters here. For lowered agro reasons, I'd say Beast Masters would be great (agro shared between two targets) but for the flash and enjoyment of high damage, I like the idea of the Sniper.

Anyways, there's my recommendations. I think a new healing class made out of Bards would be very interesting given some proper changes to their skills for balancing.

[xEscaflownex]

I'd be fine with them adding another job to ARC that was pure DPS, taking away songs to add more DMG skills (maybe adding in some gun weapons), however I think you would still find most parties still wanting a BRD for silence and songs, so it would end up being another option in the pool if party already had a BRD.

I'm fine with BRD the way it is now, if you play it correctly its easy to keep pace with other classes DPS and be ahead of them in most fights.

[Ceodore]

Oh yeah, I'm not questioning Bard's current DPS at all. I agree that even with a song up and -20% damage, they are still a force to be reckoned with. That being the case, I'd still like to see all classes have two jobs available to them with very different ideas. Bard is a DPS class, like Arcanist, that I'd like to see with more healing INSTEAD of DPS, and then be able to head down the ruthless DPS line if they would prefer that.

[Thorauku]

This has been discussed many times before, but Duty Finder structure says nope.

[Warrlordd]

The are limited ways to implement this. you can:
-Add a 9th slot to raid groups, and a 5th to dungeon groups
-Allow the buffs to enhance the other DPS by the value of 1 entire DPS player
-Allow the bufs to enhance one healer by the value of 1 healer player

This is especially problematic as you will end up with:
-27 man CT's (yikes! i run away from 24 man, no need for more trolling, thankyou)
-5 man Dungeons, with one slot reserved JUST for BRD (that'll make queue times even longer)
OR
-You'll end up with a 4-man party that has 1 BRD, and less other DPS to buff up to make requirements, also if that other DPS is undergeared, it would devalue your BRD
-he is buffing a healer instead of DPS, and the dungeons are tuned for 2 DPS.

So no, just no, absolutely no no no.

[Jamez82]

Would work if they introduced more support classes like Time Mage, Chemist, Red Mage (possibly), ect.
Take away one dps slot and make it a "Support" slot.

[abzoluut]

They should never made Bard. When the new team took over from 1.0, they wanted to bring the FFXI names back. Conjurer > WHM, Thaumaturge > BLM, Marauder > WAR etc.. However Archer > BRD? No.. Kind of a failure right there. They should have make it a Ranger, a pure DPS class. To this day I can't figure out why they chose to make a bard where this game does not support support classes/jobs.

As for the guns part. I think we will see a job which uses guns. So they probably want those weapons for that particular job exclusively. I also hope we will have two jobs coming out of a class eventually, just like Arcanist > SCH/SMN. Maybe there will be enough reason to implement real support jobs and maybe tweak BRD to be more supportive.

[Cspr_Answrth]

I personally like the Bard just the way it is. I have no problem with DPS, and only output slightly like than a similarly geared Dragoon...but with all the added bonuses that come from being a Bard

[Kuroyasha]

I'd be fine with them adding another job to ARC that was pure DPS, taking away songs to add more DMG skills

This is what musketeer was on the job description page b4 it was taken down