Request for Utsusemi

[Stanislaw]

OH MY GOD DO YOU MEAN IT??! An actual response?

Bard is meant as a support job, yes? Bard has a bow, yes? Bard will have Swiftsong yes? Can bard not be an actual puller for the group, instead of one person mounting a chocobo, getting too far away from the party and only drawing the aggro of 1 or 2 mobs? I hope/suspect that BRD songs will have a good AoE and range on them, where it can stand at enough distance to continually feed the group mobs to kill.

Take for instance:

(Enemy Group)<-------------->(Bard)<-------------->(Party)

The mobs are too far out of range for 1 melee member to successfully link a group, but the Bard stands between them, has shadows, can sleep them, buff the party, do some damage and still stay alive without the guarantee of cures and stoneskin.

EDIT: Please, as a reward Stanislaw, you are free to laugh at me all you like and still get honest smiles. /bow

Couple of things.

While your argument for giving Utsusemi to BRD might sound like good reasoning, it seems to me that you're confused in thinking that a BRD's role in FFXIV will be the same as FFXI. As a BRD player in FFXI myself, whenever I was invited to merit parties I've always subbed NIN because I loved my role as a puller, and as a puller it was pretty much necessary to sub NIN lest you get pounded to death (although I will say it was still possible with a WHM sub, just harder). Was one of my most fun experiences in FFXI.

However, whereas FFXI's style of exping was more about 'setting up camp and pulling mobs to party', FFXIV's style is more 'roaming'. Therefore, BRD doesn't have to the puller. If anything, it would be more logical for the designated tank to pull mobs (attack first), especially because of how links work in FFXIV and how mobs are 'leashed' in their respective areas.

But other melees don't have ranged attack? Actually, there's quite a bit of options when it comes to ranged weapons, even for melee, because of the existence of things like Exorcism Beans which are easy to make/dirt cheap and can stack to 99. This allows all jobs to pull mobs from range if necessary.

Also, trying to use Swiftsong as a reason for a BRD to pull isn't that great either because you actually have to stop and cast Swiftsong first (especially now that movement cancels magic), then go pull the mob. And the moment you attack it, it wears off, so it's not really that great for pulling.

In conclusion, if giving BRD Utsusemi for the sake of pulling is your only reason to give it the ability, I think it's a poor reason, especially given the demerits everyone else in this thread has pointed out.