A Simple and Easy Solution to the Bard Identity Debate

[ty_taurus]

Alright, so there have been debates on here before about the aesthetic identity of Bard. This is a job that's trying be two things at once: an archer and a musician. Some are happy with the mix while others are frustrated with it's lack of commitment to a dedicated archer or musician aesthetic, but I think there's a very easy solution that we've been overlooking.

In a similar vein to Summoner's Egi Glamour, why don't we simply add a feature called Action Glamour? Several jobs feature actions that, when learned, directly replace existing ones. A great example is with the healers' DPS actions: Stone, Stone II, Stone III, Stone IV, and Glare being one "tree" of a single action. Bard has this in the form of Heavy Shot and Burst Shot.

One thing that could be done is replace Heavy Shot's visuals with Burst Shot at level 1, then change the level 76 action from Burst Shot to a musical attack, but provide players with the option to select which of the animations they'd like to use. You could also make it so that your glamoured action animation will stay even when you sync to a lower level. The damage and effects will reduce to what they're supposed to be, but it will still look like you're using a musical attack if you have it glamoured to stay that way.

Right now, there aren't a ton of applications to this for Bard, but it seems like having a direct upgrade for other actions like Bloodletter, Rain of Death, Empyreal Arrow, etc aren't out of the cards.

With this setup, everyone wins because you'll be able to choose what kind of aesthetics you want to use without impacting your performance in any way.

[Cetonis]

Considering how terribly difficult of a time they've had putting out more egi glamours, I'd say this is anything but easy.

This wasn't really a big topic during Stormblood. SE just needs to design better. That's all.

And it's by far the easiest thing. They just need to stop trying to yolo their design if they're going to be this absolutely clueless. Find some players to consult. Content creators, The Balance, whatever. Maybe actually read forum feedback instead of just snap reacting only to things that get hundreds of replies.

[Mindiori]

Appeasement is half the reason they are in this mess. They should pick a vision of their own, stick to it and if people don't like it that's just too damn bad. Constantly flip flopping to the whims of those who can't be bothered and feel the need to cry loudest, sure has become tiring and has already ruined tank/healer diversity. Offering more up to the altar of 'try to please everyone and end up pleasing none' is not something worth pursuing.

[DPZ2]

Some are happy with the mix while others are frustrated with it's lack of commitment to a dedicated archer or musician aesthetic ...

You weren't listening to Jehantel closely during the initial Bard quest were you?

"When folks think of a bard, they conjure images of a minstrel wandering the realm, performing at banquets and in alehouses for the pleasure of king and commoner alike. But the bard I would speak of is one born from a battle-hardened archer—one who sings his/her songs in the heat of combat to inspire his/her comrades to ever greater feats of martial prowess. As battles unfold, the distinctions between the lines of friend and foe grows hazy. Yet the archer must stay ever alert, with arrow nocked and eyes trained upon the struggle. One need not have a vivid imagination to appreciate the torrent of emotions that rages within him/her in that moment. Nerves near to fraying, his/her breast fit to burst, the archer does the only thing he/she can: he/she sings. And in that raw melody resides the power to stir the souls of men. That, my friend, is the true definition of a bard, and one that few now remember."

[WigglesTheWiggly]

You weren't listening to Jehantel closely during the initial Bard quest were you?

"When folks think of a bard, they conjure images of a minstrel wandering the realm, performing at banquets and in alehouses for the pleasure of king and commoner alike. But the bard I would speak of is one born from a battle-hardened archer—one who sings his/her songs in the heat of combat to inspire his/her comrades to ever greater feats of martial prowess. As battles unfold, the distinctions between the lines of friend and foe grows hazy. Yet the archer must stay ever alert, with arrow nocked and eyes trained upon the struggle. One need not have a vivid imagination to appreciate the torrent of emotions that rages within him/her in that moment. Nerves near to fraying, his/her breast fit to burst, the archer does the only thing he/she can: he/she sings. And in that raw melody resides the power to stir the souls of men. That, my friend, is the true definition of a bard, and one that few now remember."

Yes, coming from the guy who's bow is literally a transforming Lyre.

[ty_taurus]

The Egi Glamour system being stagnant has nothing to do with the system itself being hard or time consuming and everything to do with the fact that models, animations, and visual effects for Ramuh, Shiva, and Leviathan Egi don't exist and would need to be made. The actual system itself is incredibly simple and fast to make. The reason they don't want to put in the time to create new egis for cosmetic reasons is because that benefits exclusively the Summoner job. Meanwhile a system where you can choose which version of an action in an action tree you want to use is something that benefits every job that has any actions that get replaced by new ones at a later level. I can tell you the healers would appreciate this as well.

And the point of the system is to make it so that rather than spending time making additional assets for the Bard job that would require man hours that would otherwise go elsewhere, you just use the time already allocated to making whatever actions Bard is getting in 6.0 to be all musical-themed, but with a system where if you don't want to be a musical bard, then you continue using the old animations for whatever's getting replaced (Bloodletter, Rain of Death, Sidewinder, etc.) In short, no extra time that's not already going to making Bard's 6.0 actions will be used to make any additional assets for this one job alone and no others.

Also I have no idea what a random lore excerpt has to do with the proposition of a simple game mechanic.

[DPZ2]

Also I have no idea what a random lore excerpt has to do with the proposition of a simple game mechanic.

Obviously.

That 'random lore' is the entire key to the Bard job. It has driven the remaining lore of the Bard for the last 6 years.

And you want to change it into (to grossly paraphrase) "Let me make my bard into a magical minstrel instead. LOL"

Here's a video of your magical minstrel, who is definitely anything but a Bard.

[Narigo1]

just bring back SB Bard

[ItMe]

In a similar vein to Summoner's Egi Glamour, why don't we simply add a feature called Action Glamour? Several jobs feature actions that, when learned, directly replace existing ones. A great example is with the healers' DPS actions: Stone, Stone II, Stone III, Stone IV, and Glare being one "tree" of a single action. Bard has this in the form of Heavy Shot and Burst Shot.

One thing that could be done is replace Heavy Shot's visuals with Burst Shot at level 1, then change the level 76 action from Burst Shot to a musical attack, but provide players with the option to select which of the animations they'd like to use. You could also make it so that your glamoured action animation will stay even when you sync to a lower level. The damage and effects will reduce to what they're supposed to be, but it will still look like you're using a musical attack if you have it glamoured to stay that way.

That sounds like a looooooot of extra animations they'd suddenly need to make.
Also, I don't know about you, but when my character is attacking I'm usually not watching them, but the enemies and the arena. I feel like that's a enormous amount of work to ask them to do, especially considering it'll all just become a blue of particle effects.

[ty_taurus]

That sounds like a looooooot of extra animations they'd suddenly need to make.
Also, I don't know about you, but when my character is attacking I'm usually not watching them, but the enemies and the arena. I feel like that's a enormous amount of work to ask them to do, especially considering it'll all just become a blue of particle effects.

Well, historically, every job has gotten new actions each expansion that include all new animations. So of whatever new actions come in 6.0 that replacing existing actions can have musical animations that can be swapped out by those who prefer archery for the animations of the moves they replaced.