Split Archer into Ranger Bard for 7.0

[glamazon]

Hear me out. This iteration of bard in 14 is unlike every other. They should make a ranger class for physical range dps and a bard class for the magical range dps.

The ranger can keep the bow and get all the archery skills and abilities and also a pet hawk wolf or bear or maybe all three built into their new gauge.

The bard can keep all the song abilities as well as get new ones and get a harp weapon along with the bard gauge system tweaked maybe but still good.

This would be amazing!

[kevin_satron]

so basically ranger will be a summoner but range dps

[Jeeqbit]

I feel that Bard in this game is mostly an Archer. The songs are hardly noticeable and it mostly is shooting arrows. Even the songs are attacks now instead of casts.

Rogue is what bothers me more, because once it becomes a Ninja it's just not the same to play. You go from just doing this combo that feels good to do, to doing all this ninjutsu stuff all the time and certain move animations resemble a Ninja more.

[Connor]

Agreed 10000000% that Bard lacks a solid identity and is caught between a rock and a hard place, because it’s ultimately always going to be drawing players from two very different classes (one generally pure support, one generally heavily dps/pet focused), which means that nobody is ever able to agree on exactly what Bard should be. If it’s too ‘Bard’ there’s a flood of complaints from people who want to be archers/rangers. If it’s too ‘Ranger’ (now tbh lol) then inevitably people who wanted to be Bards will complain that all we ever get to do is shoot laser beams.

Unfortunately though it would take them like literally a full expansion worth of work to split the classes into two separate classes, so I sadly doubt it would ever happen in the game’s lifetime. Maybe the next FF game with a job system will do Bard and Ranger justice

[Renalt]

I'd be for it. However I think they are done with pets so they might not implement it that way.

Also another thing I do believe they said they aren't going to use any "known" classes anymore and are going to develop brand spanking new classes from this point forward. However they might end up making a Ranger like class and call it something else.

[Hanayumi]

Would be nice but the only ways thatll happen is if they gave one of them a crossbow or gave bard a purely instrumental based weapon, devs pointed out;
A) Big NO on jobs to being too similar
B) Big NO on jobs sharing weapons
C) And at this point in games life they rather make original jobs

[MikkoAkure]

Considering what happened to SMN, SCH, and MCH pets over time, we're never getting another pet class. Let alone taking a job with quests, NPCs, and promotional material that goes all the way back to ARR and redoing it for the sake of class fantasy.

What's described in the OP feels more like a beastmaster or a DnD ranger than a FF ranger anyway.


Bard got a short end of the stick being an extra tacked onto an archer class, but at the same time I don't think FFXI's style of ranger would work in FFXIV with how flashy everything else is. Remove the songs and all you have left is "shoot better" or "shoot different", so you'll just end up with the BRD we have now but with less going on. MCH rework gave it Edgar's gadgets from FFVI to prevent it from being monotonous and help save it from that problem.

[Jeeqbit]

Agreed 10000000% that Bard lacks a solid identity and is caught between a rock and a hard place, because it’s ultimately always going to be drawing players from two very different classes (one generally pure support, one generally heavily dps/pet focused), which means that nobody is ever able to agree on exactly what Bard should be. If it’s too ‘Bard’ there’s a flood of complaints from people who want to be archers/rangers. If it’s too ‘Ranger’ (now tbh lol) then inevitably people who wanted to be Bards will complain that all we ever get to do is shoot laser beams.

If people are playing Bard thinking it is partially a pet job and that this is causing them to lack a solid identity, then it's entirely in their own mind. Bard is not a pet job, and it's not conflicted. It manages things. Dots, procs, songs. It's like a captain being on top of all the different things it has to keep track of, which is quite a lot more than many other jobs, even ones in the same category.

[Soge01]

I'm hoping we're getting something like this next expansion, though without the animal pet system. Something that actually uses those two handed muskets we see laying about in the marauders guild.

[Bad_Luck]

So you think this is DnD?