[dev1185] Cait Sith/Avatar feedback.

Hello. :)

After unlocking Cait Sith, who I have been excited about for years now, I wanted to bring to light some of the problems I have with her.

I've been testing her abilities, and for what she brings to the table, I don't think she is powerful enough.

My reasons for disappointment are as follows:

She has the stamina and power of Carbuncle, our now joint-third most powerful Avatar by a long shot. I can auto attack harder than Cait Sith can on Summoner with a Patriarch Cane (which still displays Summoning Magic skill despite not providing the bonus), which isn't much to begin with.

I expected Cait Sith to be equally powerful to Avatars like Garuda and Leviathan, who boast more potent offensive and defensive capabilities than her. Why must Cait Sith, and by extension, Carbuncle, be so much weaker than other Avatars despite not having more valuable support moves?

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(Edit: I'd like to point out that Cait Sith is not as weak as she appears. Thank you, Karbuncle, for showing me how useful Level ? Holy can be. However, my criticism of her other attributes still apply)
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I am aware that the development team has said that Cait Sith will receive more Blood Pacts in the future, but I don't believe this enough. A pet by design should not be inherently weak (weaker than the summoner wearing no melee gear and a weak club) when the "trade-off" is Reraise or a 500 HP Curaga. I feel that because Cait Sith is as weak as Carbuncle, yet has no niche over other Avatars, she will be doomed to fall into the trench known as impractical obscurity.

My excitement is dwindling already because of this fact, as much as I hate to admit it. Avatars should be pets of explosive, yet infrequent power/support as they always have been in the past. (The last Summoner update which increased their power was greatly appreciated, and is a step in the right direction)

This point extends to all Avatars, not just Cait Sith and Carbuncle. A one minute base timer should not provide a weak AoE curing spell or heavily outclassed Stoneskin. Avatars should not be struggling to provide barely competent offensive output, outclassed by most any other job, with more utility to boot. These things, more apparent than ever with the release of Cait Sith, are frustrating to many Summoners who want to be worth a party or alliance slot.

Job points brought this issue to light as well. As much as I appreciate pet accuracy, one accuracy per job point (30,000 capacity points) is just completely weak and ineffective. One accuracy per job point is not going to fix Summoner's accuracy issues on anything that matters.

I don't like being negative like this. :( I have been a Summoner for years, and I'm only trying to show that the job, as it stands, is flawed and outclassed. My plea is that Summoner and their Avatars (Especially Cait Sith and Carbuncle) have their power and utility increased for both auto-attacks and Blood Pacts.

Please excuse my rant, but I would like you to take it to heart. Thank you for reading.

Carbuncle is weak because he's your "noobSMN" avatar.

But Cait Sith being weak........
Um...
I got nothing.

Hopefully, with a bit of tweaking and Her last 2-3 BPs...
She can become what she was always supposed to be: the equivalent of Diabolos and Fenrir.
I think this can easily be accomplished (and thusly we can all calm our collective tits over Her current state) by Her "merit"
BP.
All Avatars have a "70" and a "Merit" BP and those are pretty much the only offensive BPs a SMN will use.
The 70 is usually a physical move (predator claws, rush, eclipse bite etc) but Carbuncle and Diabolos's are magic (meteorite and Netherblast).
And the Merit is... Well... The merit magical BP. For Carbuncle, Fenrir and Diabolos, they don't have real merit BPs, but their lv76ish (it varies) BPs function in a similar capacity and have similar damage output.

Cait Sith doesn't have Her post-75 BPs.
And this is Her salvation.
How often do you use any of the non70 or nonMerit BPs at 99?
Never. (Obviously there's some exception, but an exception doesn't invalidate my point.)
So we don't even need to make lv?? Holy better... Because once She has a "merit" BP, we will never use lv?? Holy ever again.

Personally, she has 7 BPs right now, I would give her 3 more.
1 ward: sneak+invisga
Why? Well, She was constantly going invis during WotG... Plus, it fits with her supersolostyle RR BP. Though this can be axed if Atomos will be doing that.
2 rages: Holyga/ja (the "Merit") and Banish V/Holy III
I'd like the "merit" to follow suit with Carbuncle's model of being just a bigger version of the "70"... So a straight damage Holyga would be like lv?? Holy... Just without the random. (Obviously that means no stupid damage from it... But I'm good with that trade.) and the Banish V/Holy III just to give her a powerful single target nuke.

If they add BPs like this, I think she'd be the equal to Diabolos and Fenrir at 99.