Avatar Behavior Issues and Requests

[Jerbob]

While it's really, really nice to see that Summoner's myriad of bugs is being looked into (actually quite excited about that), this list barely scratches the surfaces of the issues that Summoners have. A list of some (some!) of these issues is here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...ner-Job-Issues

I'm sure other pet jobs would appreciate these things being fixed as well!

[Vivivivi]

This is of course super super low on the nice-to-have wish list, but any chance we'll ever see Avatar emotes? At least for Cait Sith? I realize many of the avatars may not have emote animations programmed, but I'm sure Cait Sith has a myriad that could be used from cut-sceens.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Hey everyone!

We’ve received a couple reports of issues and requests about avatar behavior and I would like to pass on some comments regarding this.

• The recast timer is activated when an enemy dies right before a Blood Pact is executed
  We will look into whether we can make it so the recast timer does not activate similar to how it would when a target moves out of range after executing a Blood Pact.

While you're at it, this happens for BST too.

[Jerbob]

Automaton spells and Wyvern breaths as well, I think.

[Kaisha]

Automaton spells and Wyvern breaths as well, I think.

Just don't fix it for Wyvern. I like it when my pet just glows inconspicuously for a whole minute.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Oh where to begin. Well my biggest gripe for smn is comparing to bst. I may make some bsts mad saying this, but it makes no sense to me why their pets can take more hits than avatars. Not raging so much, i know the score that we can use PDT gear for pets too (atleast some PDT gear) and we have super-short recasts compared to beastmasters. I just find it so strange that a sheep has more hp than titan. Also a recalculation for the auto-attack damage would be nice. I just feel like smn's pets need to be stronger across the board. I always look at pet jobs as two parts, the pet and the master.

Puppetmaster and the Automaton are fairly close in strength in relation to one another.
Dragoon is stronger than its wyvern for the most part.
Beastmaster is weaker than its pet.
Summoner is weaker than its pet by a large margin.

But when comparing the pets to eachother and the jobs to eachother for most considerations, i find it looking like this;
Drg is the strongest core pet job, weakest pet (argueably). Though in fairness drg is more of an honorary pet job.
Beastmaster is strong on its own with strongest pet.
Puppetmaster is stong on its own with an equally strong pet.
Summoner is weak on its own with a strong pet.

A Drg without a pet can fight very well. A Bst or a Pup without a pet can fight pretty well. But a summoner without a pet is like a silenced blackmage and can do little.

Just my rant but i feel that because summoners have so little strength on their own, their pets should stand out much more than they do and being otherworldly beings, should actually measure up more against vana'diel's native creatures rather than be outclassed largely by them.

Thats not to say all avatars must outclass bst pets 100% of the time, cause i find it reasonable for an adamatoise (Crude Raphie?) to stack up against Titan in taking some lumps. Just my gripe and i know its not 100% needed to make avatars into demigod pets, i know theres a degree of balance in ffxi already between pets in game. But thats my thoughts on the matter. On paper, it makes me scratch my head.

[Infidi]

I forget... Is it both BST pets and avatars that get auto -50% pdt? I thought it was just avatars .

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I forget... Is it both BST pets and avatars that get auto -50% pdt? I thought it was just avatars .

Only SMN and (I think) PUP gets native reduction:

Avatars -50%
Pupper -10%

The trait now gives BST -11% DT with trousers.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Even with -50%(55% with stout servant i believe?) it turns a 1200HP avatar into a 2500ish hp avarat, which isnt even HALF of nursery nazuna's 6000ish hp. so at 99 avatars can still take less than HALF the damage a level 76-86 jugpet can. Additionally its harder for a summoner to stack more -PDT gear for their pet. Im not saying bst shouldnt be a great pet job and im not asking for nerfs to bst, im asking for upgrades to smn. Theres also the fact we have no native ways to heal our pets, though thats something that i can live with since the recast time is so short for them.

Also dont mistake my wanting avatars to have more hp as me ignoring other things smn actually has over bst. Time for a bulleted list.

-Party buffs and heals provided by pacts, or favors.
-Short recasts
-High Physical damage and magical damage blood pact rages.
-50% less physical damage taken
-Pets that do not need to be purchaced or crafted.

Now as for beastmaster over summoner.

-Pets with monstrous hp.
-Passable melee ability.
-High autoattack damage (varies).
-Decent Sic damage (varies).
-No need to maintain mp to maintain pet.
-Built in utility to maintain pet HP (reward).
-Variable pets with variable traits (we have limited diversity among pets).
-Massive selection of pet gear options from defense, to haste, to damage, to -pdt (where as smn has little to none of this, especially -pdt which only exists in magian staff form or other potential augmented gear).
-Hate management ability.

Other than being scorned in group play for whatever reason, bst isnt so bad off. Which is why i want some fixes for smn.

[Lilia]

High Physical damage and magical damage blood pact rages.

lol 2-3k dmg in 45 sec. on easy mobs or 750-1500 on nms- that is not high.
i can do more dmg with my melee whm T.T not to say a good dd can do in 45 sec. much much much more.

i rly hope new 99 rage bp come.