The Wanderer's Minuet and class-design frustrations

[Connor]

Hello!

Unfortunately for the FFXIV forums, I'm back with a new thread! Please skip to the last sentence if you want the TL;DR

Today I'd like to continue beating the dead horse that is the Wanderer's Minuet. However, contrary to many threads about it I want to discuss whether there are people out there who actually like Minuet and caster-Bard as much as I do (or at least, the idea behind it, as there's definitely been many problems with the way they implemented it. I desperately want things like the Wanderer's Minuet to stay, but given what I see on the forums that seems pretty much impossible at this point.


Let me preface by saying I started playing Bard in 1.0. I've never really like using a Bow and Arrow / Archery in video games, and I've always hated physical dps. But, being able to cast support spells (Protect / Stoneskin / Raise / Sacred Prism) on top of having to keep up songs really helped me to enjoy the class.

For those who never played/say 1.0, songs worked as real support buffs with a duration and base MP cost, as well as requiring some positioning if possible which allowed you to put different songs on different party members. As opposed to the current system behinds songs of....press a button.

Because of the damage penalties, battle design and dps gain granted by Foe Requiem though, 99% of the time you're going to be using Requiem once - pre-pull of course, because the idea of a Bard singing during battle is completely preposterous - and...that's it. More often than not the fight is over before you can sing it again anyway.

2.0 hits, Bard no longer has any access to support spells. Furthermore, songs are now 'auras' rather than the support buffs they were before. So no more MP management, no more positioning, no more applying different songs to different party members. The class became exceptionally boring as a result. I really, really disliked the changed but continued with Bard by repeating everyone's favourite mantra maybe next patch it'll be better.

Heavensward comes down from on high, and it looks like Bards will be able to use magic again from the trailer. Queue extreme hype, and whilst I was disappointed that Minuet just turned out to be a literal copy-paste of Gauss Barrell, I was ready to take what I could get.

I really enjoy being a caster-Bard, even if it was implemented very poorly. Unfortunately, more disappointment was on the horizon, as the much-hated Warden's Paean was changed from being an actual song to another bland, generic cooldown. Song cast times were cut in half, to the point where you very rarely actually manage to see the Bard using songs because the animation is over so quickly (and that's not counting animation clipping, a pretty awful problem on Bard and other jobs that I don't see discussed at all really)

Now, with Stormblood on the horizon, I very often see Minuet mentioned only when followed by the words 'should be removed'.

It's frustrating to have an image of a job so disparate from what others see/want. Where I fervently hoped to return to the singing, casting, magical Bard that appeared in 1.0 (and all previous FF iterations), many seem to care only for the Archer aspect of the job. I know I sound like a broken record, but it honestly feels like I'm being punished for wanting Bards to be, well, Bards, as they originally were. It's the only job in-game that has been changed so much and so often.

In the transition from 1.0 to 2.0 Black Mages haven't stopped using Fire/Ice/Thunder, nor has White Mage stopped using Stone/Aero, nor have Dragoons stopped using Jump, etc, etc. Bards, however, went a complete 180 from support/utility to just dps.

What terrifies me is that come 4.0, the Wanderer's Minuet, nor cast times on songs, nor any spell-casting at all will remain. We'll have a generic DoT based Archer with very limited utility and a whole lot of DPS that the devs never intended for it to have.

It's painful to have your favourite job in your favourite game be dismantled and made into something new again and again and again. I play other jobs, of course, but none have ever clicked with me in a way that makes me feel like I could play them regularly.

The point of this thread is first and foremost to discuss whether or not people calling for the removal of Minuet are representative of a majority of Bards.
[U] Am I really the only person who wants Bards to be how they used to be as singing, spell-casting Archers?
I won't lie and say that I'm not just venting my frustrations, but nevertheless, at least something worthwhile could come out of it.