New Enhancing Spells for RDM

[Ketaru]

Bear with me a sec because, honest, this is BST related.

Over on the RDM forum, there have been some talks of possible new Enhancing magics for the job. There's the expected stuff like new auras, Reflect, and new enfeebles. Now, the manifesto said that they want RDM to be a very capable Enhancer. To date, the only real spells it can cast on others are Refresh, Haste, and Phalanx II if merited. Sadly, the best Enhancing spells are self-cast. BRD and COR are currently the jobs we really think about if we think about Enhancing.

I was thinking though, if RDM is to be a premium enhancer, ought it to be a job capable of working together with any other job?

One of the big boons to pet jobs with Abyssea was that Atma also extended to pets and, to me, that just made it all the more clear how much we've been missing out on by not being able to to capitalize on the Enhancements from other jobs to the fullest. We didn't get invited during the Colibri days because, when it came to us, BRDs only buffed "half a job." So what do you guys think about jobs like RDM suddenly having the ability to cast enhancements on us that effect our pet?

I posted these suggestions on the thread about new enhancing magics:

Animist
Decreases the amount of damage taken by a target player's pet and enhances all restorative effects on their pet.

Ogre's Command
Increase's the Attack and attack speed of a target player's pet.

Medium (not all of these are necessarily geared towards enhancing BST)
Confers Stoneskin and Blink effects unto a player's pet and increases the pet's Magic Attack Bonus.

Now, I think they're pretty solid. You don't have to like these specifics ideas if you don't want. But what would you think about it if other jobs can come in and enhance our pets, beyond any coming updates we can expect ourselves? COR can already do it, but that is at the sacrifice of the buff for the master and, beyond that, spells (in general) don't have the limitation of just 2 or talking up the same slot of some sort. Just because somebody casting "Ogre's Command" on us doesn't mean we can't also be Hasted.

I posted that on the suggestion thread for new RDM spells and have yet to really receive any sort of response about thoughts about these ideas. Maybe some people just aren't interested in discussing it. But color my cynical (and, playing BST, I have a lot of reasons to be cynical), my suspicion is that direction to take Enhancing magic may be solid and even for the betterment of the game in terms of job balance. But other people probably just don't want them because they won't make RDM more competitive in the endgame scene as it exists now. They want spells that enhance PLDs, and WHMs, and BLMs, and SAMs, and those other jobs that have always been selected over BST in the name of efficiency.

BST has not yet received a Developer's post on upcoming job direction and I'm posting these here because, quite frankly, I can't ask for anybody else to speak for our job. They want us to be able to join in on endgame and be part of the player community. And I think making it so other jobs can improve our performance is a good step in integrating BST into the endgame scene. Or, at the very least, take a first step to addressing a longstanding imbalance between pet jobs and more conventional jobs.

In turn, I would hope to think we would receive updates that would allow us to better aid our fellow party members. BLM got Enmity Douse. Well what about SCHs and RDMs who are nuking and build too much enmity? How about it if we could "Snarl II" their enmity onto the pet for starters?

Edit: Added "(...and other things)" to the title because I wanted to talk about buffs to other jobs that will enable some level of cooperation with BST, but it looks like that's the direction this thread will ultimately go in.

[Areola]

I love the idea of pet specific buffs, or maybe even regular buffs working on pets. That's one of the main factors that keeps pet jobs on a lower level then formal dd's or tanks or what ever he hell FFXI pet jobs are supposed to be. But SE seems to have this idea that a player and pet a are equal to a similar class. Such as Bst and there pet might be considered = to a war. In some situations maybe, but when you add buff into the mix you'll see the war pull ahead by a crazy margin. The bst's strength is supposed to come form having a pet, but not being able to buff the pet is a bit unfair. And I wouldn't be mad if a whm could cure VI my pet as well ^^

I'm not saying I want x2 march on my pet as well but... Wait fu** that, yes I am. And I don't think there is any room for that would be OP talk. There are a lot of things wrong with pet jobs but this might be the biggest one. SE is so set on maintaining game balance that they haven't taken time to consider that there is no balance. Empyrean weapons for example are the pinnacle of unbalance. Some are more powerful then relics, and some are absolutely worthless *cough*farsha*cough*

Despite what SE did to make pet jobs stronger after the release of abyssea they have done far more for the previously dominant jobs, and I would like to catch up someday, and pet buffs would be a great start. Because right now I feel like my pretty golden axe is just for show.

[Ketaru]

No. You're right, there is no more room to talk of overpoweredness of BST. I think we've been satisfied, long enough, about being able to solo things and been content with our own feelings of overpoweredness. I've seen a WHM and a WAR duo Chloris. Hell, I know a WHM and a THF have duoed Pantokrator.

I'm tired of our job being one that is talked about, not in terms of power, but in terms of inefficiency and inconvenience.

"Oh. Yeah, BST can solo stuff now in Abyssea. But they can't proc anything."
"BSTs takes up party camps and use up valuable resource to get slow EXP for 1 person instead of fast EXP for 6 people."
"BSTs send their pets at NMs and take up everybody's valuable time pin pricking them down for half an hour."

If the development team behind FFXI now is really committed to bring everybody to the table and job interactivity, I want to see it.

[Caketime]

"BSTs send their pets at NMs and take up everybody's valuable time pin pricking them down for half an hour."

At the same time, these people will not allow a BST into their group for the NM kill, they just want the BST to go away and stop competing with them. I've run into this attitude near daily in Abyssea. In addition to refusing to allow a BST to group with them for faster kills, people don't mind grabbing the NM you were fighting if you happen to wipe and then send snide tells about how much your job fails because it's not on the list of jobs that SE gives a shit about and therefore does not receive extra special treatment. Instead, we get Spur. Oh, and Charges to go along with that, so we have two timers to wait on for pet TP moves instead of just one because how dare a BST deal damage indirectly at a decent rate.

So really, we're dealing with two flavors of hate. The original, where people hate us because they can't interact with our pets and dislike the fact that we can solo some things they can't. Then there's the new and improved hate, where the reasons behind it have more to do with our inability to proc anything in Abyssea, which is funny when you consider that Abyssea was likely designed and tested with the base 6 jobs in mind. It would explain the proc monopoly, at least.

Like most of our community, I've found a way around the garbage design and leveled up WHM to collect seals because my BST simply can't get it done, and I'm now well on my way to having all of my Ferine gear finished so I can wash my hands of Abyssea forever. It only took leveling an entirely different job to do what I wanted to get done, and now my main is switching from BST to WHM. Thank you SE, I am now very happy as a Healbot, and groups/people in general suddenly want to deal with me now that I'm not a BST. The obvious solution here is to quit BST and play a mage job, pick any one, you can't possibly go wrong if it uses the magic skillset.

All of that said, I don't think pet specific buffs are going to do anything to help us because our fellow adventurers are convinced that we're shit, and always will be so by design. If we get anything to supplement our job everyone else will scream that we're overpowered even if it isn't true, because BST is the red headed stepchild of FFXI. Loved by few, hated by most, misunderstood completely by game designers who don't actually play their own game.

[Ketaru]

So really, we're dealing with two flavors of hate. The original, where people hate us because they can't interact with our pets and dislike the fact that we can solo some things they can't. Then there's the new and improved hate, where the reasons behind it have more to do with our inability to proc anything in Abyssea, which is funny when you consider that Abyssea was likely designed and tested with the base 6 jobs in mind. It would explain the proc monopoly, at least.

You see, that's actually the worst part of it. It isn't enough to just be pegged as inefficient. But no other job in the game is actually viewed and routinely described as a job whose interests run contrary to the rest of the player base. How many times in the past have we heard the rants about how such-and-such wanted to have a good ol' wholesome 6 person EXP party in Garlaige Citadel and had to leave because those greedy SOBeastmasters were down there taking up the mobs and not killing their pets?

BST is regularly framed as the enemy of all real groups and now they are talking about bringing BST to the endgame table to contribute to the group? Really, I challenge the developers to give us an update that will actually do that. That is the only way people will embrace the idea of supporting a pet job.


Oh, and Charges to go along with that, so we have two timers to wait on for pet TP moves instead of just one because how dare a BST deal damage indirectly at a decent rate.

There is a lot wrong with the ineffectiveness of our pets tied to their (in)ability to use their abilities. The Charges system alone is like taking all of the limitations of SMN and PUP with none of the advantages. More than that, some of the abilities that might actually be useful cannot be relied upon to be effective. How nice would it be if we could count on Fargann's Acid Mist to actually land on the tougher NMs? An Attack cut by 50% would render some enemy's ability to deal physical damage insignificant and, to me, that alone would make the job a consideration to bring to a group. Maybe if somebody else could cast a spell on us that would raise our pet's Magic Accuracy to a point it can land those effects reliably?

[Caketime]

It's going to take more than a spell to make BST group friendly, though one along the lines of which you're describing would help. But that assumes another player would want to cast it on our pet, and we arrive at our previous issue of "BST is the Boogeyman and therefore should not even be in our group w- oh god my hair is on fire~" which is likely to prevent an invite in the first place.

[Ketaru]

It's going to take more than a spell to make BST group friendly, though one along the lines of which you're describing would help. But that assumes another player would want to cast it on our pet, and we arrive at our previous issue of "BST is the Boogeyman and therefore should not even be in our group w- oh god my hair is on fire~" which is likely to prevent an invite in the first place.

I agree what I am asking for here is only a start, but I'd hope it would be one of the many considerations to take into account for transitioning BST into group play. So far, our only selling point is Snarl to make us a low maintenance damage dealer. But that amounts to very little against NMs that deal powerful Area attacks or that would wipe our pet in just a few swings.

It would really take many ideas that have been suggested countless times to in order to fix BST. Even things that are just on the convenience level like zoneable pets.

But we do have pets that are capable of healing Area Cure IV-V amounts. We do have pets that are capable of inflicting 50% Attack Down. We do have pets that are capable of inflicting Accuracy Down. We have pets that give us Treasure Hunter. We do have pets that can deal elemental damage. We have pets that can inflict Area Sleep. We have pets that can Stun, Dispel, and inflict heavy Poison damage. We could expand on Lulush's Wild Carrot idea and make Anna's Secretion grant Evasion Boost to the NIN or THF tank.

Behind all the annoying limitations is the potential for a very flexible job. But until we can let go of all the crap, none of us this is ever going to see practical application. Only a few steps up from what Sic used to be and all we could do was pray Carrie didn't use Bubble Shower. Really, shouldn't the fact we have to pick which pet we want to use on a strict Call Beast timer a limitation enough?