You obviously haven't played BST or PUP. There is no "strong offensive output", unless we're talking about punking some terribly geared gimps.
BST is supposed to be a generic DD but since half the class is stashed away on an NPC not receiving buffs, you wind up losing to classes like SAM, WAR, DRK easily.
Even against comparable 1handers like BLU, THF or NIN, the lack of DW and the reliance on 1hand axes - a slow weapon by nature -leaves BST in an uphill climb to keep up. The class has no offensive JAs so unlike WAR your Rampages are going to suck and subbing WAR means losing out on an offhand.
Now, I say to myself "well, BST isn't supposed to be a good DD duh, that's what the pets for." and then you come to the realization that even if the BST gears completely to buff the pet that current gear leaves much to be desired. Pet haste, attack and acc are in short supply, magian axes are pretty much the largest bonuses you can get and such a build will cripple the offensive output of the master.
Backline BST would give the job a niche if anything (like SMN but more focused on DPS rather than hateless damage) but the current environment leaves the class in limbo.
-The pets are too weak to fight on their own.
-The ability to cure status effects is still tied to the Reward timer.
-Offensive pet gear is a nightmare to acquire.
-Pets get smoked even in low haste scenarios where they have the advantage.
If BST had some JAs to reduce it's offensive output in exchange for increasing the pets then perhaps the class would begin the long march out of irrelevance.
Puppetmaster on the other hand is sold to us as an all-purpose vehicle but again you have limitations holding the class back from being useful, nevermind replacing other classes.
Again because you have a scenario where pets cannot be buffed, they get blown away in any situation where DD are receiving haste. The master gets the buffs but since they are supposed to be a team and your potential is stuck on an NPC, you lose every time.
The mage AI is just laughable, bordering on useless for any practical application. Every time I see a
PUP say that they can backup heal, the ignorance of the classes limitations becomes more apparent.
It's something like me coming into a party on a DD with an NPC fellow and declaring I can backup heal.
It's possible to make the pets too powerful but as it stands right now, the huge penalties make PUP far too unreliable to use in any scenario.
Need a DD? Any purist can do better.
Need a healer/nuker? SCH and RDM are always options when the purists are away.
Need Ranged damage? Sharpshot shoots so slow, you're gonna be tickling the parses.
Need a tank? Valoredge will gladly appear to be turned into a crushed soda can for you.
BST and PUP need some serious retweaking.
