Will bard lose it's identity/class fantasy?

[Samsta]

So most of us probably know what "class fantasy" is. It is mostly used in WoW so we probably should use the word "identity" here. It is what your class is supposed to do/feel and what makes it unique.

Bard's identity is supposed to be ranged dps with group buffs in form of songs. While buffing has never been the core of the job, it has always been a strong part of the job that makes it stand out. In 2.x and 3.x bards had their more traditional songs, sure, there were only 3 of them, but they were all relevant and they were strong part of the job's identity. In stomblood I think they nailed it, I think this is the best version of the bard, not only does it corporate the songs in a fun way to it's rotation, it also makes them buff your team. Despite all the basic songs having the same initial effect, troubadour makes the unique. Then you have foe's and battle voice on top of all the other support skills.

In 5.0 bard loses foe's, crit buff from songs and unique effects from troubadour and gets nothing new in terms of songs/support. In fact the basic songs are not really songs anymore, they have nothing to do with songs anymore, they don't buff your team in anyway, they might as well be shot weaponskills. Now your only song is battle voice, that's it really, troubadour is a copy paste skill that dancer and machinist also have. Why do this? Bard feels more like a ranger now.

[Raldo]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As long as the class is still fun to play, I don't personally care about "I'm called a Bard, but I'm not even remotely support anymore."

You could call the job a Plumber for all I care. I don't recall the job quests ever having much to do with music past lv50 anyway.

[Xieldras]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As long as the class is still fun to play, I don't personally care about "I'm called a Bard, but I'm not even remotely support anymore."

You could call the job a Plumber for all I care. I don't recall the job quests ever having much to do with music past lv50 anyway.

May I introduce you to the entire Bard Heavensward quest line : Ballad of Oblivion?

[Kalise]

May I introduce you to the Ballad of Oblivion quest line for HW Bards?

Wasn't the moral of that questline that there wasn't a Ballad of Oblivion and it was just a Siren?

With the "Real" Ballad of Oblivion being Friendship?

[Xieldras]

A Siren whose song annihilated an entire clan of Moogles. You also learn Minuet at lv52 and Warden's Paean at lv54.

My point was that all of Bard's quests in Heavensward had a lot to do with music, heck the quests themselves are named after songs.

[Raldo]

A Siren whose song annihilated an entire clan of Moogles. You also learn Minuet at lv52 and Warden's Paean at lv54.

My point was that all of Bard's quests in Heavensward had a lot to do with music, heck the quests themselves are named after songs.

Fair enough, I could've worded that better. I will concede that the quests themselves do involve music, but I don't recall the player character, the titular bard, ever actually doing any useful singing. We were on a quest to attempt to learn a song, so I guess that kind-of counts...

I fully agree with the OP, I'm just trying to say that it doesn't really matter (in my opinion). The reason we're called "Bard" is already paper-thin from a lore standpoint as it is.

[Lemuel81]

So most of us probably know what "class fantasy" is. It is mostly used in WoW so we probably should use the word "identity" here. It is what your class is supposed to do/feel and what makes it unique.

Bard's identity is supposed to be ranged dps with group buffs in form of songs. While buffing has never been the core of the job, it has always been a strong part of the job that makes it stand out. In 2.x and 3.x bards had their more traditional songs, sure, there were only 3 of them, but they were all relevant and they were strong part of the job's identity. In stomblood I think they nailed it, I think this is the best version of the bard, not only does it corporate the songs in a fun way to it's rotation, it also makes them buff your team. Despite all the basic songs having the same initial effect, troubadour makes the unique. Then you have foe's and battle voice on top of all the other support skills.

In 5.0 bard loses foe's, crit buff from songs and unique effects from troubadour and gets nothing new in terms of songs/support. In fact the basic songs are not really songs anymore, they have nothing to do with songs anymore, they don't buff your team in anyway, they might as well be shot weaponskills. Now your only song is battle voice, that's it really, troubadour is a copy paste skill that dancer and machinist also have. Why do this? Bard feels more like a ranger now.

Well, that is what happens when they start to make jobs more and more homogenized. I would imagine the real culprit is the crowd complaining about Raid meta. Look at World of warcraft, classes are bland, boring and lacking any type of engaging gameplay. Anyone who thinks that FFXIV isn't headed to that direction, is going to be very surprised. Hopefully they do not butcher things as bad as Blizzard did with their game but I see it more and more each expansion. And no this is not a sky is falling post, I have been around MMOs long enough to see it happen exactly like that.

They try and keep jobs as simple as possible to please the folks who do not want to really put effort into the game, they try and keep jobs as close as possible so someone doesn't get their feelings hurt when they are not picked in a raid/PF. It will happen, has been happening for a long while now, just slowly.

[bass9020]

Bard has completely been gutted of any form of being a support or what we come to enjoy about bard. They could have made the songs still affect the party in some way but of course they took the easier route.

Im so tired of them fearing and what-ifing the playerbase and im tired of the playerbase whining about job metas. CREATE YOUR OWN GROUPS OR SUCK IT UP FFS.

[Lemuel81]

Bard has completely been gutted of any form of being a support or what we come to enjoy about bard. They could have made the songs still affect the party in some way but of course they took the easier route.

Im so tired of them fearing and what-ifing the playerbase and im tired of the playerbase whining about job metas. CREATE YOUR OWN GROUPS OR SUCK IT UP FFS.

Gutted is a strong word, and one that is not accurate. A lot of jobs got group buffs removed. Big deal, 3 % crit is gone. Dragoons got their buff removed and so did ninjas. It really isn't that big of a deal. What I did think was a bit funny was that they purposely made dancers a must for groups when they claim they are trying to remove meta/group synergy.

[bass9020]

Gutted is a strong word, and one that is not accurate. A lot of jobs got group buffs removed. Big deal, 3 % crit is gone. Dragoons got their buff removed and so did ninjas. It really isn't that big of a deal. What I did think was a bit funny was that they purposely made dancers a must for groups when they claim they are trying to remove meta/group synergy.

Ok but they arent considered "support" type roles, Bard always had an emphasis on supporting the party. That has now been thoroughly gutted.