Suggestion Identity for Phy Range Jobs

[BabyYoda]

But what would you gain from high range attacks in the current encounters? You play at melee or medium range 99.9% of the time...

If the whole model actually embraced mechanics that have multiple range bands in mind where the closest to the target the higher damage attacks you could use, then sure though. But it doesn't.

It is like you save melee attacks after the mechanics.. you don't have to be melee all the time it's 50% 50%

[Valence]

Returning rphys to MP based raid buffs would bring back a lot of identity to the role altogether. MCH included. Making buffing and support actually involved instead of fire and forget buttons would go a long way already.

It is like you save melee attacks after the mechanics.. you don't have to be melee all the time it's 50% 50%

I see, I didn't exactly understand that you wanted to mix melee attacks into the kit, a bit like with pvp DNC and ShB pve DNC (for burst). Maybe it could prove interesting.

[Connor]

Bard should get cast times on its songs again and have them turned back into spells. Make Paean/Minne GCD spells. Return Foe Requiem. Make them drain MP to limit the duration.

Frankly i don’t see the point in ‘just give it more dps’. I mean, first of all we all know that’s never going to happen; we’ll get a 10 potency increase on Empyreal Arrow and that’ll be it for ‘more dps’. I mean, Bard is already fairly high in rDPS so more nDPS would just unbalance it against all other non-blm/Picto ranged and break the balance, would it not?

SE will never risk Bards having good dps after the 4X Bard fiasco at Coil release, they’ve been absolutely fucking terrified of the job ever since lol. So even if it did get ‘more personal dps’, it would be such a minuscule increase it would be completely unnoticeable unless you’re on a PC specifically running metrics. That’s not even mentioning that it would just make Bard laugh even harder at Machinist’s inferior dps contribution lol.

At least if they increase the value of its defensive / non-offensive abilities like Paean/Minne it might have a chance of being worth bringing over a Summoner / Red Mage with Raise. Returning Foe Requiem would still give it a slight overall dps increase; MP drain and long uptime could prevent it being cannibalised by 120-meta. Cast times on songs balances the main three while giving more leeway on rotating them with no cool-down.

I mean, Bard has been at the absolute bottom of the personal dps charts since its inception, and that only changed (slightly) when Dancer was added. Does it really matter if they stay there? Giving every phys ranged cast times is homogenisation, sure, but isn’t making them all even more heavily pDPS oriented homogenisation as well? We have Machinist for phys ranged who want extra high personal dps without having to support the party in any way.

[Connor]

Returning rphys to MP based raid buffs would bring back a lot of identity to the role altogether. MCH included. Making buffing and support actually involved instead of fire and forget buttons would go a long way already.

Honestly I don’t remember if people liked them or not but I think it’d be pretty cool if Machinist’s Deploy Turret / Promotion made a comeback. Not as an actual pet ofc, just the mechanic itself lol. They could have the promoted turrets give debuff effects to keep in line with Machinist being more ‘offense oriented’ as opposed to the defensive/healing support oriented Bard/Dancer. Though they’d probably need to separate Queen Automaton from Rook Autoturret first or there’s be a SMN Carbuncle situation with it popping in/out at certain points lol.

Rook Overdrive could restore more MP if Promote is used for a shorter duration to make applying buffs for short periods and switching between them more regularly more worthwhile than just using one and forgetting about it until you hit 0MP. Or maybe they could add a MP recovery effect to Double Check / Checkmate so Hypercharge phases doubles as an mp maintenance one? Idk just random thoughts.

Basically I do feel like if they did want to lean more into the ‘phys ranged = support dps’, there’s plenty of space for Machinist to fit into that niche too without having to give up it’s more ‘offensive oriented’ nature. Not that anyone is saying otherwise lol I just think it’s worth pointing out since I know a lot of people prefer Machinist precisely because it has a (somewhat) more ‘offensive’ leaning than Bard and Dancer

[Ramiee]

If any phys range job has walking casts it should be BRD because its the only phys range job that has a weapon that requires charging, knocking an arrow and letting it go makes far more sense then a gun cast. Other than that instead of a cast but DNC having its spin move from pvp in pve its something that I literally can't understand why hasn't been added into PVE, that skill just suits DNC so well and would be so much fun in AOE and its already in the game just rework it slightly for PVE.

[mallleable]

If any phys range job has walking casts it should be BRD because its the only phys range job that has a weapon that requires charging, knocking an arrow and letting it go makes far more sense then a gun cast. Other than that instead of a cast but DNC having its spin move from pvp in pve its something that I literally can't understand why hasn't been added into PVE, that skill just suits DNC so well and would be so much fun in AOE and its already in the game just rework it slightly for PVE.

I feel like walking casts would work really well for MCH as well because they are mechanically similar to scoping in/aim down sights mechanics present in most shooters where you can have perfect long ranged accuracy at the cost of limited movement, and field of view. DNC on the hand I absolutely would not want walking casts because the would be wildly inappropriate for the theme, and feeling of the job. If anything I think DNC could benefit from some melee attacks, and maybe something like a walking channel attack like Honing Dance from PVP.

[Ramiee]

DNC on the hand I absolutely would not want walking casts because the would be wildly inappropriate for the theme, and feeling of the job. If anything I think DNC could benefit from some melee attacks, and maybe something like a walking channel attack like Honing Dance from PVP.

This is quite literally what I said

[NobleWinter]

I would love meaningful cast times on MCH and BRD and I mean that visually. Like Bard calling Moogles to play instruments and directing them like an Orchestra Conductor. Or MCH stopping to actually build something like a machine gun turret or teleport pad that other party members can walk thru for quick movement wherever they have placed the second pad.