Quote Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams View Post
Please just let Bard be an actual Bard. Let a future Ranger job take over the archery part with a crossbow and be done with it. Unhappy marriages of conflicting concepts like this don't make for good results in the long run. I imagine someone will eventually come in and try to bring up lore - I'm well beyond having the patience for arguments like that when the job doesn't deliver well on either front. FFXIV's Bard is a failed Robin Hood/Dragon Age Leliana Concept that needs to address its shortcomings.
I hate when people say this, because more often than not its just incredibly thoughtless. Splitting Bard and Ranger would be the death of both those jobs. Ah yes, Bard, a class who's identity revolves around its pure utility, in a game where utility has all but been removed from the game entirely. And Ranger, a selfish physical ranged dps, really swell. Lets check on how Machinist is doing real quick- and its a dead class that's getting locked out of PFs for its dogshit dps. Congrats, you've made a Bard even more flavourless than the one we currently have AND a DoA phys range. Excellent.