Is it girls, girls, girls, or shields, shields, shields (sic/ready -5)?

[Malthar]

Hello SE,

May beastmasters have a shield with sic/ready ability delay -5? Currently, to get a 10 second ready recast, bst's are limited to subbing a dual-wield job so that they can offhand Charmer's Merlin. This dramatically reduces the offhand accuracy and and serve no other purpose than to cut 5 seconds off the ready recast.

Beastmasters are meant to be an axe and shield job. This is what I get from all the adjustments SE has made to bst. So give us a decent shield with sic/ready recast -5, and put some nice pet stats on it, too. :-D

I know some would argue against the sic/ready recast -5 shield because bst's would opt for the 5 second ready recast by equipping both the Charmer's Merlin and the shield. But remember, the pet's level is dependent on the main hand weapon and equipping the Charmer's Merlin in the main hand would lower the pet's level to 99. I don't know about you, but one would have to be nuts to throw a 99 pet at 135 content! Even with 99 level content the pet would get beaten up a lot if it were 99. I remember accidentally calling a pet without a 119 axe so my pet was stuck at 99. I wondered why it was getting beaten up so much. I was using stacks and stacks of pet food and it wasn't doing the damage I expected. Then I realized my error and recalled it at 119.

So a 119 shield with sic/ready recast -5 would fit right into the vision of the beastmaster job and give us a chance to actually melee and take advantage of fencer. The worry about reducing sic/ready recast to 5 is negligible. Sure, it could be done, but the pet would be so ineffectual that it wouldn't matter.

[Gwydion]

Hello SE,

May beastmasters have a shield with sic/ready ability delay -5? Currently, to get a 10 second ready recast, bst's are limited to subbing a dual-wield job so that they can offhand Charmer's Merlin. This dramatically reduces the offhand accuracy and and serve no other purpose than to cut 5 seconds off the ready recast.

Beastmasters are meant to be an axe and shield job. This is what I get from all the adjustments SE has made to bst. So give us a decent shield with sic/ready recast -5, and put some nice pet stats on it, too. :-D

I know some would argue against the sic/ready recast -5 shield because bst's would opt for the 5 second ready recast by equipping both the Charmer's Merlin and the shield. But remember, the pet's level is dependent on the main hand weapon and equipping the Charmer's Merlin in the main hand would lower the pet's level to 99. I don't know about you, but one would have to be nuts to throw a 99 pet at 135 content! Even with 99 level content the pet would get beaten up a lot if it were 99. I remember accidentally calling a pet without a 119 axe so my pet was stuck at 99. I wondered why it was getting beaten up so much. I was using stacks and stacks of pet food and it wasn't doing the damage I expected. Then I realized my error and recalled it at 119.

So a 119 shield with sic/ready recast -5 would fit right into the vision of the beastmaster job and give us a chance to actually melee and take advantage of fencer. The worry about reducing sic/ready recast to 5 is negligible. Sure, it could be done, but the pet would be so ineffectual that it wouldn't matter.

I agree with you but would prefer it be an offhand ilvl axe intead of a shield. (Even if it was a part of R/E/M weapons, that would make the offhand axe moot IMO).

[Malthar]

The problem with introducing an iLvl axe with sic/ready ability recast -5 is that it will be used as the main hand axe and the Charmer's Merlin as the offhand axe giving the user sic/ready ability recast of 5 seconds. To my knowledge, there is no mechanism that prevents an axe from being main hand.

A shield is much more eloquent and opens up possibilities with fencer traits augmented to it, just like the Charmer's Merlin.

[Ulth]

Blood Pact Ability Delay Reduction has a cap. They could just add one to sic and ready. That would stop them from using both to try and get 5 second tp moves. In fact with something like that they could put another -5 ready/sic in gifts somewhere between 550 and 2100 and you wouldn't need a -5 in main or off hand at all.

[dasva]

There is also the issue of bst being the only melee job that uses 1hd weapons that neither has native dual wield nor access to good ilvl shields. Even war gets great shields and it pretty much never uses 1hd weapons.

It's about time SE decided do they want bst to axe/shield and give us good shields or they want us to dw and give us native dw like all the other 1hd jobs that don't shield it up. But not doing either is a huge gimp

[Ulth]

What about whm, geo, rdm, brd, rng, and cor? I doubt they are going to block with shield, but it would be nice if their were some stats on them that would make them use their 1 hand weapons over staffs. Shields have pretty much been neglected for ilvl. Aegis and Ochain can't even be made 119 yet, and they are supposed to be the best shields in the game. I don't think their special bonuses should be increased or anything, but they should at least get shield skill.

[Malthar]

He said melee jobs. You can make the argument that rdm is a melee job, but rdm has some pretty darned good shields! As a native bst, I'm terribly jealous at the range of shields rdm gets.

Whm, geo, and brd are support jobs and not melee jobs. Rng is a ranged job and cor is a ranged and support job.

So I guess he's right. Bst is the only melee job that both has no dual wield ability nor has access to any good shields.

I like the idea of capping sic / ready recast time, but I suspect they'll say that they looked into it and don't think it can be done. It would be easier just to introduce a shield with sic / ready recast time -5. I know a lot of people like dual wielding, but personally, I prefer an axe and a shield, 'cause it just looks cooler. lol
Now, if SE can find in itself to further buff fencer, such as adding a store-tp bonus or double attack bonus, then more single wielding jobs that make use of fencer would be apt to using a weapon with a shield.

[Ulth]

Well if we are picking nits, then it's pretty easy to argue that bst isn't a melee job either. It's a pet job that fights with its familiar while staying out of AoE range. Even right now you aren't asking for a shield to increase the master's damage, but one to increase the pet's damage. Just like the jobs I listed need shields with the stats they need. Also rdm and bst have access to the same ilvl shields. The shields are still bad though, and rdm is better off dual wielding clubs and swords, or just using a staff for their spells if they can't afford to have a sub that give dual wield. And cor actually does get tp faster by melee which it then uses for it's ranged weapon skills. Actually cor is probably the one job that doesn't have native dual wield that I think should have dual wield. I mean come on they are pirates. Or maybe a daken like trait where if their offhand is empty they will use it to shoot.

Anyway if they just add a -5 second shield without capping, people are just going to use both to get a 5 second ready and Nukumi Manoplas +1 to spam 1600 tp moves.

Just to be clear. I don't think bst, rdm, and brd should be on the back line. Bst should be able to fight with its pet to make skillchains, rdm and brd should be able to land spells with out switching off from their daggers and swords. But really I would say the reason they can't frontline has more to do with mob's aoe tp moves that do more damage than their single target ones.

[dasva]

If bst isn't a melee job then why does it get fencer? And a lot of heavy DD gear like war, drk, drg, and pld, get? What would be the point of all those killer traits? etc. And um plenty of bsts still melee. The harder solos demand it and the whole not meleeing being popular is only recently happened. And half the reason other bsts don't right now is because the tp loss from switching axes makes it poor... but if you don't switch that slot and actually get use those fencer traits and gifts you'd see more bsts meleeing again.

Even if you try to say fine it's just a pet job... what other pet jobs use 1hd weapons? And since 2hd and h2h weapons tend to have higher stat bonuses than 1hd again forced to dual wield. And of course there is the fact that other pets all have much higher versatility than jugs. And trying to compare backline mages and buffer/ranged jobs ability to melee to bst seems quite a bit of a reach to say the least.

Also I'd also like shields for there own sake and not just stat ones. Like the new blurred shield. I'd love for something that gives a real chance to block and some ws dmg and more fencer

And I seriously doubt many people would use shield and a non ill axe to get 5 sec recast. Taking your pet down to lvl 99 for a second or so ever 5 seconds is suicide

[Ulth]

Way to miss the point. Saying that rdm isn't supposed to melee because that's not what most people use it for is like saying bst isn't supposed to melee because that's not what most people use it for. Seriously what is with all the solipsism. I say there should be more shields for all jobs and you guys are all like "nope, only bst matters". Every job without dual wield and uses 1 hand weapons should have a decent option for a shield.