Refresher on how classes use Aether?

[Genisay]

I always kind of figured that in the case of the Bard, while they use physical implements like arrows and probably traditional forms of poisoning them, that some of their fancier attacks were aether imbued, as well as weaving a degree of aether into their songs. Though since they are not outright spells, I imagine they use their own aether, and it is at a lower cost than it would be for casting classes. Empowerment more than outright casting.
Likely this is part of what sets bards apart from mere archers besides the usage of songs.

[SannaR]

Oooo. Maybe Bard songs use Dynamis. Think about it Bards are supposed to up lift their fellow combatants spirits so that they can fight on.

[Jandor]

Some Bard abilities did used to use MP if I recall correctly, back when the job had a more explicitly magical focus.

It used to have the healer Limit Break too, was pretty fun to pull those clutch healer LB3 mass rezes as a support DPS. Thinking about it, given how things used to be, it's kind of odd that casters ended up with battle-rez instead of the physical-ranged role.

[WhiteArchmage]

Bard was the odd one out in ARR since it was the only physical ranged. Army's Peon and Mage's Ballad restored TP and MP respectively, and used the BRD's MP, Foe Requiem also consumed MP and I guess it was easier to share healer LB than to craft an entire LB only one job would use (which, in retrospect, hah).

It's certainly a strong contender for one of the jobs that could be using dynamis, at least for their buffs.

[Connor]

snipped.

Expanding in this they sort of did in 1.0; Bard required Conjurer and Thamaturge as a sub job so you could use Cure, Raise, Protect, Stoneskin, various caster abilities (e.g Sacred Prism), and even Thunder (not that you’d use it but it was still funny that you could use it lol). Of course, that was before ‘physical ranged’ existed as a thing lol

When 2.0 came out (I think it was either during the alpha or beta?), SE came out and said they didn’t want ‘physical’ jobs to be using ‘magic’, so they deleted Conjurer/Thaumaturge as a subclass for Bard and replaced them with Monk/Dragoon (which given how things are now is pretty hilarious).
Then after Heavensward they mistook Bards saying ‘we don’t want our normal weapon skills to be cast times’ as ‘we don’t want to sing during battle anymore’ and replaced them with the oGCD abilities we have now and with the exception of Requiem. Then Bard was too strong because Refresh/Tactician + Foe Requiem plus Dancer was coming, so they struck Requiem off Bard’s song list along with various other changes to make it less appealing.

As a result you have a job that bears absolutely no relation to its ‘traditional ff’ lore / counterparts, or indeed even to its own lore description given within the game (i.e ‘you sing to support your comrades’ except you sing for your own dps and it hurts people with explosions instead of helping them). Sadly that leaves a lot of Bard’s capabilities unexplored in terms of lore, especially in regards to anything from 3.0+ when they kinda stopped making job lore lol. I’ve still never seen a convincing answer as to what Iron Jaws is lol. We waggle our finger…and it makes the enemy more poisoned? Wut? Is it like a song? An Archery technique? Is it a Bard skill? How are we doing this? Is it Aether manipulation? Some esoteric archery trickery?

And for that matter, why the hell would these Archers that supposedly started singing after being overwhelmed by emotion upon seeing the carnage of battle unfold…invent all these ultra destructive blasts that unleash carnage on the battlefield?!
They saw their friends were all dying and were like ‘Yes this motivates me to shoot a large laser beam shaped like an arrow…’ what happened to the singing?! I thought you wanted to help!

Maybe I’m wrong but FFXIV’s Bard is the only time a job has appeared in the entire series (including spin-offs) bearing no relation to the general ‘ff’ version of the job. Assuming the game actually uses a ‘traditional job system’ (e.g FF3, FF5, FF11, even counting spin-offs like Bravely Default) you’re not going to see a Summoner kicking enemies around with martial arts, or a Black Mage that stealthily dual wields knives from the shadows, anyway, outside of making that choice yourself through customisations…

[Gemina]

...I dont have any real argument on samurai, but seeing how that class is more actually build around swords-techniques than magic... internal?

Much like NIN with Mudra, and MNK with chakra; SAM just has another name for the explosive manipulation of aether. In their case it is Sen. Iaijutsu is the process of taking the Sen/aether they've gathered and compressing it into their blade while sheathed. When the blade comes out, all that energy bursts from the edge and into their opponent(s).

All the jobs have their way of manipulating aether. 'Magic' or arcana, is just the way mages do it.