Summoner/Puppetmaster and Item Level.

[MakkotoParinne]

Hello! Coming back to the game after a few months has been a lot of fun, I've really missed it.

That said, I have some thoughts regarding the jobs Summoner and Puppetmaster and how imbalanced their pets are when it comes to making them more powerful and accurate, and how their situation may be improved.

Currently, pets in general are extremely inaccurate and underwhelming on most high level content.

Summoner can dish out some high power Blood Pacts, but not frequently enough to warrant a spot as a damage dealer in most parties. In between pacts, Avatar melee is inaccurate and slow, and many support moves are outdated and underwhelming, such as low power heals or Stoneskin.

Puppetmaster can often hold its own, with a strong weapon skill and support options, but the automaton is very fragile, and the AI is limiting. Damage dealing frames cannot contribute much to a party or alliance outside of niche situations.

Having Item Level ranged equipment for these jobs does not alleviate their inadequacy, in fact, their lower than average level for the most part hinders their effectiveness and does not warrant them a party slot in most content.

With buffs to pet jobs incoming, my proposed change is this:

Is it possible for Summoner and Puppetmaster to have their pet's level and strength be tied to the Item Level of their equipped weapon at the time of summoning, much like Beastmaster and Dragoon, and have Animators and Satchets increase pet stats further?

At this point, the ranged equipment that Summoner and Puppetmaster wear define what their pets can do, not supplement it.

With the ranged slot equipment having more useful pet stats on it due to the master's Item Level weapon determining their level, acquiring better ranged equipment will help pets contribute more to the party.

For instance: (These numbers are purely for example)

Say an Item Level 115 automaton has 700 accuracy, a 117 one has 750, and a 119 one has 800 accuracy. Only the Item Level 119 automaton even remotely has a chance to hit in higher level content, depending on the monster's evasion.

If stats are based on the master's Item Level weapon, you are more likely to have an automaton with 750 or 800 base accuracy.

Now, if the animator itself had it's own stats instead of boosting the automaton's level, it might look something like this:

Eminent Animator (Pet: Accuracy/Attack +100, All stats +10, Haste 5%)
Magneto (Pet: Accuracy/Attack +125, All stats +15, Haste 6%)
Divinator (Pet: Accuracy/Attack +150, All stats +20, Haste 7%)

Using the example Eminent Animator alone with a level 119 automaton would increase the base accuracy from 800 to 900, allowing it to hit monsters much easier. The new pet food on top of this would only benefit these stats further, allowing the automaton to not be completely useless against higher level monsters, while still having higher tier animators better in every way as direct upgrades to work for.

Please excuse my long-winded explantation. I do believe that if pets had access to much better gear like players do, pet jobs in general will be played and chosen for content. Redesigning what the Item Level ranged pet equipment does while keeping a higher level through a main weapon may be a way to address some of the issues these jobs are having.

-Takes a deep breath- xD

Thank you for reading, please post your thoughts!

[solodragon1984]

yeah i agree cause some stuff added are dropped from VERY hard BC or AAs but what about the soloers?

[Mitruya]

Oh yes my friend, there has already been an ongoing 40+ page thread hashing out pet job problems.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...en-To-Our-Plea.
It sounds like changes are coming, but I don't really know what to expect. They've given us new weapons, new foods, new jugs, new sachets/animators, and yet if we dare walk into endgame we are like the red-shirted crewmen on Star Trek. Therefore we are still not wanted.

[Babekeke]

1 very simple addition that I'd like to see is the addition of gear haste to the ilvl ranged items.

Something as simple as adding 4% for the 109, 8% for the 113, 12% for the 117 and 16% for the 119 would be a very good start.

[Crevox]

Do we really need to add gear haste on the sachet? I don't think it would really help. Haste, as is, already exists in a large number of forms for pets throughout gear, and even then, for something like an Avatar, it doesn't help very much. Our avatar's auto attack damage remains abysmal compared to DD's; haste would help, but if we really wanted haste, I feel there's already plenty of gear choices.

[Babekeke]

Do we really need to add gear haste on the sachet? I don't think it would really help. Haste, as is, already exists in a large number of forms for pets throughout gear, and even then, for something like an Avatar, it doesn't help very much. Our avatar's auto attack damage remains abysmal compared to DD's; haste would help, but if we really wanted haste, I feel there's already plenty of gear choices.

Haste for avatar means they gain TP faster, which means your next nuke BP will be stronger.

[Glamdring]

Haste for avatar means they gain TP faster, which means your next nuke BP will be stronger.

for those affected by TP, not all are. and lest we forget, there's a good bit of time between BPs, might as well put it to some greater use. I sometimes use the belt that adds pet haste, Kuru Stone? for that reason. and I haven't got much better, smn not being one of my primary jobs. so, perfectly valid suggestion Babs, and otherwise it's just a placeholder slot to set an iLevel on pets, at least bst and drg get some utility out of their iLevel pet slot since it's main weapon-although to be honest, not alot.

[Babekeke]

There are some hands as well from one of the higher-tier ilvl fights with pet haste on, too.