Thank you for posting this, it's nice to get different perspectives on jobs from lots of different people. I levelled Archer in 1.0 and have been wanting to get back into it (may as well make use of all my Kokoroon gear) because Bard interests me as I prefer to play support roles (I'm currently a warrior tank go figure). I was hoping Bard would be a ranged DPS/FFXI Red Mage hybrid, but it looks like ill have to change my way of viewing the class.

Personally I'm ok with having a heal limit break as a backup (makes sense if we're a support role, we pick up the slack where it needs to be lifted including heals if necessary I guess).