A Simple Solution to the Change to Bard

[m3eansean]

Back when they announced SCH and SMN branching from ACN, I was sort of expecting them to do so with ARC as well, at least to introduce two playstyles with bows. BRD would be long bow style (somewhat stationary with some utility) while Ranger would be mobile/focus on short bows. Sad that they never did this.

The Devs said branching two jobs off of one class was a mistake for them and created balancing issues beyond what they thought would occur (everytime they try to increase SMN dps, it increases SCH dps beyond what they want in a healer). As a result, they said there will be no more branched jobs.

[Duelle]

The Devs said branching two jobs off of one class was a mistake for them and created balancing issues beyond what they thought would occur (everytime they try to increase SMN dps, it increases SCH dps beyond what they want in a healer). As a result, they said there will be no more branched jobs.

I am aware of this, though as I tend to point out, this is because a) SMN and SCH serve different roles and b) job crystals are not the game-changers they should be.

This is just mere fantasy, but imagine if equipping the Bard job crystal had altered a bunch of the baseline ARC abilities on top of giving the 5 job abilities (maybe give some shots cast times, alter the way Heavier Shot and Bloodletter procs work). Now imagine tacking on a Ranger job crystal that basically enhances existing ARC abilities. You could go as far as giving both jobs different sub-stat priorities (possibly BRD focusing on Determination and Skill Speed, while RNG would focus on Crit and Determination). The BRD relic would still be a longbow, the RNG relic would be a short bow.

Both would still be DPS and use bows, yet both would play differently.