Add Arcanist and Musketeer to even things out!!

[yoshikwalla]

I still don't understand why archers are in this game when there are guns. Being an archer myself, this is kind of ironic, but still. Mankind's shift from Bow and Arrow to Muskets and Rifles was a great change that caused bows to become technologically obsolete. However, in this game, using a bow and arrow have magical effects and advantages... perhaps the Musketeer class could be a simple damage dealing class with no magical effects (except knockback - people tend to when getting shot with a musket) All technology and skill, no magic, lore-wise. It would explain why everyone's not simply deciding to use muskets.

[Lexxuk]

Mankind's shift from Bow and Arrow to Muskets and Rifles was a great change that caused bows to become technologically obsolete.

Sort of, the technology for the bow and arrow is still in use today, the mongolian bow and arrow used two different materials for their long bows which is still used today (composites). The French musketeers preferred to use swords as muskets and rifles at the time were highly inefficient, a crossbow was much quicker on the reload. Even in the 1800's with cowboys the accuracy of pistols was pretty horrific, it wasn't the fastest draw that one but the guy that got lucky with his shot. Rifles had the advantage (eventually) of range and tactics were drawn up (Rourkes Drift, watch the film Zulu) which negated the disadvantages of using rifles. It wasn't really until the machine gun came along that other classes of weaponry became obsolete, a weapon that can fire 60 shots a minute is good, a rifleman in the early 1800's could only manage 3 shots per minute if they were very very good.

[Razor]

I still don't understand why archers are in this game when there are guns. Being an archer myself, this is kind of ironic, but still. Mankind's shift from Bow and Arrow to Muskets and Rifles was a great change that caused bows to become technologically obsolete. However, in this game, using a bow and arrow have magical effects and advantages... perhaps the Musketeer class could be a simple damage dealing class with no magical effects (except knockback - people tend to when getting shot with a musket) All technology and skill, no magic, lore-wise. It would explain why everyone's not simply deciding to use muskets.

To add to what Lexxuk said, it was not gunpowder weapons in particular that obsoleted the bow and arrow as a weapon of war, it was a sum of several things. During the age of gunpowder weaponry, armor was becoming equally advanced. Early iron/steel armor developed for knights during melee combat could easily deflect arrows with minimal to no damage being dealt which is why firearms were issued over bows. While incredibly slow and inaccurate, if successful, firearms had the stopping power to break through opposing armor. However, against unarmored targets the bow and arrow was still incredibly effective over the firearm all the way up until the early 20th century when major innovations to firearms allowed for faster more accurate shooting.

To digress back to the fantasy setting that we play in, both bows and firearms often coexist because they offer diversity to the player. Bows are often quick hitting attacks that often are aligned with status effects while firearms are the "battleaxe" of ranged weapons: slow and inaccurate, but provide incredible numbers when they hit.

ANYWAY, back to the OP: While I'm just as eager to run around gunslinging every marmot that gives me a dirty look as the next guy, I'd much rather see the dev team finish working on the current battle mechanics and classes before adding new ones. I'd rather have a small handful of balanced effective classes than a bunch of inbalanced scrap classes. Also: FFXIV is already ahead of the game in comparison to XI. In XI RNG was an advanced job that came only after the initial WAR MNK THF WHM BLM RDM jobs were refined up so we should be grateful we even have one ranged class at launch in the first place.