Originally Posted by
Alhanelem
18 pages (@ 20 posts/page) and still not much of a result =\
I still don't understand why they can't make pets work like in any other MMO in existence and let them be affected by everything/almost everything instead of needing dedicated special effects just for them. It creates the very obvious problem, which we've run into, where the pet's power does not grow on the same scaling rate as the player himself (Even on SMN, where pre-audolin shattersoul was pushing blood pact damage in some circumstances...) therefore causing the pet jobs to decrease in power as the power of gear and effects rise.
In FFXIV, summoner's pets are affected by every buff under the sun (except protect for some reason), can be cured by anyone, take 10% damage from most AoE effects, and there is no outpouring of QQ of pets being OP. The damage of pet and master was carefully balanced and does not get out of line as stats increase, as the pet's stats are based on the master's.
It's simple, it's clean, it works. (That being said, FFXI's smn has much more of a coolness factor due to a currently greater variety of pets and their appearance, but design wise are more flawed)
It really makes me wonder if at any point in the game's development that the devs actually went and measured master+pet's DPS for all pet jobs and compared that to the other jobs. That's all it takes to see the problem. Being able to solo effectively doesn't mean that pet jobs should be less effective in endgame content than other jobs.
As far as the food: While it's a nice thing, there shouldn't be special food to buff the pets. All pets should simply gain whatever the master gains from their meal.