Letter from the producer LIVE III!

[Spider-Dan]

XIV BRD is basically outcome-stabilized (gamble-free) COR with a bow.

I'd think that Musketeer -> Ranger is the obvious class/job path now. Ideally, I'd like to see MSK be a debuff support job; e.g. shots for defense down, slow, paralyze, gravity, stun, with a high-level Manifestation-type AoE ability. Then you can have RNG with more DD-focused extra abilities, a stance that changes the debuff shots into direct damage shots, and ARC/LNC cross-class abilities.

End result: a more DD-focused ranged job and a useful multipurpose class.

[miokomioko]

Whatever they do, I hope it doesn't involve a bunch more cool looking equipment that's locked into shitty class-only.

[Lucavi]

Just give me S-Shot and Critter for ranger and I'm good to go. Nightengale in 2.0 would be so fucking OP, and I'd love it.

Go play FFV if you don't know these references.

[Kirin]

Just give me S-Shot and Critter for ranger and I'm good to go. Nightengale in 2.0 would be so fucking OP, and I'd love it.

Go play FFV if you don't know these references.

I was wondering myself how exactly calling Bees, Squirrels, and Nightengale's would work in a MMO without it being too similar to Summoner.

[Lucavi]

The same way it worked in FFV. Bee swarm = damage and blind on a single target or group. Squirrels = damage and stun/confuse/ect. on a single target or a group. Nightengale = single or AOE heal that recovers mild status effects. Either slap all of them into a single Critter ability with a relatively short cooldown to account for the randomness, or devise a "Critter" subset with all of the moves separated, but on different cooldowns depending on the power of the ability. Have the moves cost TP per use, to make the Ranger decide between blowing TP on powerful physical attacks like S-Shot, or supplemental abilties such as Critter.

Fuck it; the idea is too good for 2.0. Give it to GW2 so I can play with it now.

[Ayn]

The same way it worked in FFV. Bee swarm = damage and blind on a single target or group.

No, bee swarm should be called Huggbees.

[Nadrojj]

I guess if Ranger was introduced as an entirely separate class it'd have to use a crossbow, since bow and arrow are taken.

What exactly is the deal with ARC/BRD/RNG in XIV? I was a Ranger in XI and an Archer in XIV before I left the game. Does Archer ever get used or do people equip Bard 99% of the time? I love DDing with a bow and arrow, but singing songs, party support and equipping cross class skills from mages sounds really lame... All the other Class to Job combos (LNC -> DRG, PUG -> MNK etc) seem logical, but Archer to Bard seems so random.

I'm still confused at the whole Class Vs Jobs system because while I get Classes are meant for solo play, they still just seem useless when compared to Jobs. I can't see how Archer is a better solo player than Bard.

Edit:



That would be awesome.

I played Ranger in 11, was not amped on playing bard in 14 but I wanted to play ranged dd. Everyone basically was like you have to play bard, there is no downside and it's the same thing just watch.


I've got to say it's awesome. Like it's been mentioned before you spend about 3 seconds every two minutes casting songs then you go back to dd'ing. Since then I've lvled blm and am working on war at the moment and neither are as fun as playing bard. I'm hoping for a ranger/beastmaster hybrid kind of like hunter is in WoW.

[Lucavi]

I have no faith in SE's ability to handle a pet class. They couldn't design a modern-day functioning pet class if Blizzard gave them the source codes to the entire Hunter class as a Christmas present. They've done nothing over the history of their existence to suggest otherwise.

[shepardG]

I have no faith in SE's ability to handle a pet class. They couldn't design a modern-day functioning pet class if Blizzard gave them the source codes to the entire Hunter class as a Christmas present. They've done nothing over the history of their existence to suggest otherwise.

WTF DO YOU MEAN???? CHARM WAS ONE OF THE AWESOMEIST ABILITIES EVER, AND ANY COMPANY THAT DESIGNS AN ABILITY LIKE THAT (AND WOULD NEVER JUST ABANDON THAT MECHANIC) CAN DO NO WRONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNG!!!! ><

[Zimbabwe Justice]

I sincerely hope they eventually add a beastmaster-style class. I actually kind of enjoyed how Charm worked.

Also a puppetmaster, but I am probably the only person ever who wants that.

[Elcura]

Also a puppetmaster, but I am probably the only person ever who wants that.

I loved PUP, and I know many people did it's just... XI (and to some extent XIV) have you choose between having fun and being effective. Sometimes a job meets in the middle (and for a lot of people the definition of fun and effective can change), but for the most part jobs are polarized as either one. SE couldn't really do a pet job with XI's frame work, but XIV seems loose enough that an idea isn't constricted by technical limitations (YET).

[Grey Jorildyn]

I felt BST worked very well within the framework of the game for one reason alone: it was a launch job. The game was created and whoever crafted BST tailored the job well to the system. We can see how it fell apart as the game grew and expanded. Everything was mostly fine with CoP but once ToAU came out, the support for BST wasn't there as strongly, but players made it work. Sticking a pet class in the game later really forces them to think creatively, which imo isn't one of their strong suits (general class development). A job like PUP basically existed well in the microcosm of ToAU and past that, well I dunno since mine was level 1. It's a pattern that's easy to see in any case.

[Elcura]

I felt BST worked very well within the framework of the game for one reason alone: it was a launch job. The game was created and whoever crafted BST tailored the job well to the system. We can see how it fell apart as the game grew and expanded. Everything was mostly fine with CoP but once ToAU came out, the support for BST wasn't there as strongly, but players made it work. Sticking a pet class in the game later really forces them to think creatively, which imo isn't one of their strong suits (general class development). A job like PUP basically existed well in the microcosm of ToAU and past that, well I dunno since mine was level 1. It's a pattern that's easy to see in any case.

BST was a launch job? I thought the original jobs were RDM, WHM, BLM, WAR, THF and MNK. BST and the rest didn't come till later right?

[Charismatic]

I do not believe that is true. Pretty certain that 'advanced' jobs were already in the game at launch.

[Egon]

I do not believe that is true. Pretty certain that 'advanced' jobs were already in the game at launch.

PLD and DRK were the only 2.

[Manako]

Its so fun to read the early patch notes, someone here had a link to the compilation. Seeing how useless SMN was in the start (only used elementals??!) was part of the reason I was excited to play FFXIV. To see the evolution from the start to the future -- unfortunately it was significantly worse than expected. I think the curiosity is really the only reason why I've kept with it at all.

[Spira]

BST was a launch job? I thought the original jobs were RDM, WHM, BLM, WAR, THF and MNK. BST and the rest didn't come till later right?

there were 11 launch jobs.

the 6 standard WAR MNK WHM BLM RDM THF

and 5 advanced. PLD DRK BST BRD RNG

but BST was broken as fuck back then. if i recall rightly, charm timers were like 5 minutes.. but you could charm heavy mobs.. and i dont think they implemented the exp penalty then. fun thing of the day was charming marlboros and using Familiar so you had a godlike pet for 30min

[Charismatic]

there were 11 launch jobs.

the 6 standard WAR MNK WHM BLM RDM THF

and 5 advanced. PLD DRK BST BRD RNG

This is more in line with what I remembered reading when the game was out in Japan only.

[Gokulo]

Might wanna specify which launch people are talking about then

[miokomioko]

Yeah... that game was a whole 'nother story if you're talking about what kind if content it had for the Japanese release.