I purchased a shirt, but I have to completely honest. I'm very disappointed in front-facing artwork on this t-shirt. Final Fantasy, in general, has some of the BEST artwork every made for any franchise, period. In fact, take a look at this artwork you display during your weekly Digest videos. Can we see more artwork like this on Final Fantasy 11 merchandise? At the very least, please at least, include the official Final Fantasy heading that is so iconic to every game in the series.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui
https://i.imgur.com/QT2f13p.png
P.S. I would also buy the giant artwork you have behind you, shown above, during the digest video. T-shirt, poster, etc. Please make it available! Who is the artist?
Thank you.
January 2020 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest
Printable View
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01-27-2020, 06:55 AMGwydion
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01-27-2020, 09:34 AMZehiraI am happy that you are happy about how popular the shirt is. However, you could have done better than that don't you think? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui
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01-27-2020, 01:36 PMTullemoreAsuraFFXI
On amazon alone, granted the filter is spread when you seek for "Final Fantasy" in the apparel category, 488 results appear. So it's not as if Square-Enix is not exploring fashion related products. I am certain that prudent decisions are being made based upon what return on investment can be projected for. Individual aesthetic tastes are tough for even top tier fashion professionals to pin point especially when considering producing thousands of merchandise.
May I suggest a biannual fan art contest for T-shirt prints (Front & Back) where the community could vote for a winner from a offering of 24-36 contenders selected by FFXI staff? -
01-27-2020, 07:30 PMWanoranoEurope says hi...Quote:
Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui
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01-28-2020, 04:16 PMSpaitinBEASTMASTER
The decision to let pets buff the master is a welcome change. It is however, a fairly insignificant improvement to the Master. Extra attack doesnt do anything in a full party situation and while the extra defensive stats are nice, the master will never be a tank in a party. So those extra defensive stats are mostly a waste. But it is at least an improvement.
The rest of the update was pretty detrimental to the job. It was actually a rather large step backwards for the Beastmaster class overall. Three solutions to fixing this. Option 1 is to make merits reduce ready to the minimum 10 seconds, this would make the most sense since no 119 gear exists for ready reduction anyway. Option 2 is to revert everything from the last update with the exception of the Pet buffing the master and the ready recast. Option 3 would be to create new gear that decreases ready time that is iLvl that also increases pet attack/acc/multi attack/ready dmg.
Even with this solution, Beastmaster job will be a TINY bit better than it was before the update. Before the update Beastmaster was widely considered one of the least effective jobs. I currently rank beastmaster as the worst job. Too bad since it is my favorite job. If you want to have Beastmaster be a front line job, then you need to have gear AND buffs affect the master and pet. If your goal all along was to have the master fight right next to the pet, then I am baffled as to why you never made gear that buffs both the master and the pet at the same time to actually encourage side by side fighting. I am also baffled that it took you 14 YEARS to realize the master was not fighting next to the pet. The gear is just not made that way, why didn't you make them both able to be enhanced by gear at the same time if you want them to do the same thing? Currently gear and buffs are segmented in a way that forces the player to choose between having a strong pet OR master, you cant have both. You can have a strong pet with a weak master or a weak pet with a strong master. "Strong" in this case is subjective, bst has by far the weakest of the pet jobs and the master is one of the weaker melee jobs.
The range issue is huge. It is completely possible to try and use "Ready" while attacking a mob and be too far away from the pet to use it. This is despite having both pet and master next to the target. This needs to have a better solution than simply ignoring it. So to compensate for this, since only the master OR pet can be enhanced by gear and buffs, players are actually just running in and using ready and then running out of range. This is because your range nerf ENCOURAGES players to keep distance from their pets. Just makes it a larger pain to do the EXACT SAME THING YOU WERE TRYING TO PREVENT. they still do it. Adding a couple yalms or making the distance for ready based on the target would be a much smarter way of doing things. I cant really think of a worse way to do it than the current distance requirements. It was a HARD fail at encouraging master and pets to be side by side.
A simple but fantastic solution to most of bst's issue would be giving it access to Job ability haste. This would at least make it a solid melee class.
Currently Beastmaster's best builds are to have a well buffed master and then have the pet sit in the corner and not do anything. The pet in those builds is so weak that it is actually a loss to use ready moves. The difference between a master + pet VS just the master is actually quite small in a party set up.
Gear for bstmaster needs a large overhaul OR you need to massively increase the Multi attack, attack, acc, crit rate, crit dmg, pDif and Weapon skill damage of pets. The second would probably be the easier one to do. Making the pets stats based off the masters stats would also be a fairly solid option.
Charm and Tame are two job abilities that have 0 use in today's game. Removing them entirely would make no difference on how Beastmaster is played. I highly suggest turning them into new job abilities that do something else.
All of the "jug" pets need to be made accessible at 119 levels. Or at least a version of each one.
Your attempts so far to get the master to fight next to the pet have been hilariously lacking. You have yet to address ANY of the big issues that make the masters not want to stand close the the pet.
We have been trying to fight along side the pets for a long time now. Unfortunately there are no gears/buffs that encourage this. You have given us zero incentive.
So my main question would be, what exactly do you think you have done to encourage the master fighting next to the pet other than the range nerf?
In a party build the master or pet wont be a tank. The extra attack and defense will be useless. The only thing that is somewhat working is the slug pets ooze, but that has been around since before you started "encouraging" us. Using pet attacks has a negative effect on the Beastmaster damage.
The recently added pets were EVEN worse than existing options.
Perhaps tieing ready moves to the master's WS similar to that of drg. DRG is the only pet job that actually has incentive to melee alongside the pet. Or maybe allowing the pet buffs to effect the entire party. BST needs SOMETHING to be good at. It currently has no strengths.
As it currently stands. completely deleting the bstmaster job would have minimal effect on the game as a whole. Nothing would change, no fights would become harder.
Unless you give bst SOMETHING to be good at, i recommend just removing the job from the game until you can brainstorm a solution to improve the job. Your constant updates that end up weakening the job are just sad at this point.
The reason you get so little feedback on the job is simple. You have wrecked the job to the point that all the dedicated beastmaster players have quite the game. Not may people play the job. You can go weeks without seeing one in the field. -
01-28-2020, 09:36 PMLucor
I'm gonna give the perfect solution for fixing BST, hopefully it doesn't get buried...
Change the Merit effect of Beast Affinity. Like other jobs let the pet be the master's level, ilvl matching the weapon.
Make the new effect for Beast Affinity actually match the name, have it make the pet and master stronger while they are a set distance next to each other. Each merit could give both master and pet a 2-5% attack/magic attack buff and 1-3% job ability haste. Maybe even some -physical/magic damage taken II for the master.
The relic hands augment could add the -DT effects if adding them to Beast Affinity by default is too much.
With something like this, you would give the master a reason to always be by their pet, as well as the means to not be afraid to. You wouldn't even need to limit the distance for pet commands anymore since the master would always be by the pet. And let's be fair about it, with how sporadic the pet AI is, it feels like the master is on a leash, not the pet. -
01-29-2020, 01:24 AMNadieWould you consider an adjustment that would make it both easier to melee on beastmaster, while making it harder to stand back?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito
Presently, when meleeing, the short range makes it very frustrating, even when meleeing, to issue pet commands, as it's possible for the pet and master to be fighting on opposite sides of the target yet still be too far away to use pet moves.
Meanwhile, somebody who stands out of range, can just run in after a TP move, use a ready move, then run back.
My suggestion is that the requirements for using sic and ready be changed from being within 7 yalms from pet, to being within 7 yalms of the pet's target, and reward being changed to 10 to account for the pet potentially being on the opposite side of the target.
This means a beastmaster still has to be up close to the target to use pet moves, whereas for somebody who stands back, they will have to run in even further to use pet moves.
Here's an illustration of the suggestion to help visualize it:
https://abload.de/img/bstsuggestion02j28.png
Apologies for any improper translations. Hopefully it's still readable. -
01-29-2020, 03:12 AMXilkThank you for your attention into these concerns.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito
Making the ready activation time 60 frames will work just fine. OR as some others have suggested, making the jp 1200 gift into ready recast -5 is also fine instead.
The latter would probably be preferable for players.. It does simpify things. Its not that instant or 25ms activation is bad. Its that it creates a conflict with our ability to swap the appropriate gear. Either solution is workable, but the 1200 JP gift is probably the most elegant solution.
I know you want players to stop complaining about the range nerf. However it is rather onerous. ALL the comments from Square Enix tell the players that you don't understand our concerns.
You think Beastmaster is too powerful when it can fight with only the pet, while the master stays away in safety.
This is the only argument we have heard from you. You want the beastmaster to be in danger.
I think there are 2 big player complaints.
1. The range is so short, it is actually difficult and cumbersome when the master is close and we play exactly how you want us to. It is frustrating to fight in close, and the large model enemy means our pet will not follow commands. It tells the players that it does not work as intended, and you refuse to see this.
2. You have eliminated the beastmaster role. It now has nowhere to exist except for solo'ing. Again.
I think this is the point we players have had a difficult time articulating.
There is a long tradition of forming up Pet-Centered strategies. They were already limited to very few jobs:
Beastmaster, Puppetmaster, Summoner, Geomancer, Corsair
The range reduction for beastmaster pet commands has removed beastmaster from this strategy.
However, beastmaster is NOT competitive with other jobs for party damage dealing and support. Corsair, Redmage, Bluemage, and Dancer, are all better in the hybrid damage dealer and support roles. The pure support classes of Bard and Geomancer are practically required in all high level content.
So where does Beastmaster belong? Final Fantasy XI is still alive today because the absolute NEED to work together in a party. This is a brilliant design choice. We players LOVE it! However, when a job has no home, that is no party role, it is painful.
Your argument for reducing the ready recast range is that beastmaster should not be able to fight with only the pet. Yet that playstyle still exists for puppetmasters and summoners. This fact cripples your argument.
There is already a built in balance for beastmaster when it uses Pet only. It sacrifices a HUGE portion of its power to fight with ONLY the pet.
This is very similiar to how Ninja has Innin and Yonin stances. It has an offensive mode, and a defensive mode. It cannot Play both a damage dealer and a tank at the same time!
Dancer is in the same situation with Saber Dance and Fan Dance. OR Scholar with Light arts and Dark arts.
Well Beastmaster does not have explicit job abilities to change its role. However the gear options and pet mechanics have this limitation and balance built in.
In order for a beastmaster to use pet to tank, they must give up the damage dealing power from both master and pet.
In order to deal good damage, beastmaster must give up defense on both master and pet
In order to recover from Enfeeblement, there is at least 1 minute recast from reward AND the master probably needs to be erased first.
MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, the way party buffs work either focus on buffing the master OR the pet. It is unfeasible to give sufficient buffs to both.
Support buffs from Corsair can target either pet OR master. Not both. Bard has no buffs for pets. Geomancer has DEBUFFS which might help pets, but no buffs which will help pets (though thematically they should)
The current dependence on these 3 jobs for high level content, AND the fact that ready move range has been reduced, means that Beastmaster has no home in party content.
Aside from Nostolgic appeal from players like me, it will die.
The recent update allowing pet self-buffing ready moves to affect the master is very fun and clever. It helps the bst function better in a party as a melee dps. However, it is a short-lived novelty.
The party roles are NOT well distributed. They are like the folllowing:
Healer: Whitemage, Scholar, Red Mage, Paladin, Dancer? mabye, Bluemage? maybe
Tank: Paladin, Rune Fencer, Puppetmaster, Ninja (situational), Dancer? mabye, Blue Mage? maybe
Support: Bard, Geomancer, Corsair, Red mage
Damage Dealer: Warrior, Monk, Dark Knight, Blue Mage, Red Mage, Dancer, Thief, Samurai, Dragoon, Beastmaster, Ninja,
Ranger, Summoner, Black Mage, Puppetmaster, Corsair, Scholar
The traditional party will consist of:
1 Tank
1 Healer
2~3 support
1~2 damage dealers
17 jobs are competing for 1~2 party slots. They Hybrid Damage dealer jobs already have a disadvantage for these slots. Beastmaster has the additional problem of a pet who does NOT fit the strategy for buffs.
However, the 2 ~ 3 Support Slots only have 3~4 Jobs competing for them.
I think enabling jobs to fill in other roles, or partial roles, would help alleviate this party imbalance. For Example: If a puppetmaster and a dancer could partially play as damage dealers, and replace the need for a geomancer it would open additional options.
However, this really assumes that we are constrained to this traditional party setup. I have been proposing slight modifications to let beastmaster slide into a tanking role. Namely, methods for managing Enmity, as an alternative so that it has a home.
With all the buffs red mage recieved last year, I would not think this to be onerous. I don't really play red mage, but I'm happy for the rdms who get to play with alot of REALLY cool abilities. I think Red mage is so powerful right now, I can fill many party roles by itself even at the same time. I don't want Red mage to be nerfed, but by comparison, ready range abilities on beastmaster are nothing.
Some players have done really great things with Subtle blow focused parties. Using Ninja, Monk, Dancer, etc. This is a wonderful style option for the game and for these jobs.
Having a pet style option is also a wonderful option for the game and for those jobs.
However, you kicked beastmaster out of the pet party and left it homeless. That is why we won't stop nagging you about this design change.
It might fit a rubric or balance for individual job, but for party dynamics and variety of strategy it was a poor choice. -
01-29-2020, 03:49 AMJerbobI'm not going to lie - I won't be happy with anything but a full and complete reversion of the distance nerf. All these suggestions are good compromises, but the nerf is based on a flawed premise, and we shouldn't have to compromise. I am explicitly asking for a revert, because it's ridiculous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alhanelem
SE, please understand that I already want to fight on the frontline with my familiar. Please understand that I will do so in any situation that I possibly can. Please understand that I have no desire to stand back and spam Ready moves from 20 yalms away. You don't need to force me to fight. But also, you need to understand that familiars move and retarget erratically, that monsters are large, that knockbacks are commonplace, that equipment that allows true master/pet synergy is still not quite up to scratch, and that having to constantly perfectly position myself relative to a familiar that has a mind of its own is NOT. FUN. AT. ALL.
It's also important to understand that sometimes I want to fight at range. Sometimes I want to kite things. Sometimes I want to solo things at a distance. These are things that Beastmasters (AND OTHER PET JOBS) have done since their introduction into the game. Sometimes it's really fun to do these things. And the same penalties have always been there - they're intrinsic to the strategy. If I'm not fighting, I'm not adding master damage. If I'm not able to safely be on the front line, managing enmity and my familiar's HP is going to be challenging. I get that there are concerns that people will just spam Ready moves to kill dangerous monsters, but... (a) that was years ago and things have changed, and (b) other jobs are still doing it.
SE, please understand that people are going to keep bringing this up whenever BST is mentioned, because it's not working. Asserting that you are not considering making changes is all very well, but you're going to have to keep making that statement over and over, because what we have now isn't fun, and it isn't working.
And, from another perspective, I want to address the fact that we've recently heard SE say they want to promote a wide range of playstyles. Beastmastering from the back lines is unquestionably a valid playstyle - there are other jobs that do exactly that, and not only pet jobs. The penalty is intrinsic - I'm not adding master damage. That should be motivation enough for me to be in melee range as frequently as I possibly can (which, I reiterate, I want to do). I don't want to backline as a standard thing, but if I can when situations are less than ideal, or when I play solo, I have more options available to me, and I can BST in more situations. That's fun!
A recent example - I run with a fairly relaxed linkshell. We don't mandate that people have to level certain jobs. We try to make sure people can come to events on jobs they enjoy. We don't demand that people log in at XPM on Someday or face consequences. Of course, we don't expect to have this ethos and also be The Very Best Like No-one Ever Was, but we work hard and do what we can. And despite appearances on forums, I suspect this is how most people play the game. Sometimes we'll not have quite enough support, or quite the right jobs, to use a given strategy perfectly; as things stand, with the range nerf, that means I can't come as BST, because I endanger the group if I have no choice but to be frontline at all times. With an acceptable pet command range, I could go back to the well-established Beastmaster emergency fallback of bobbing in and out of melee range as support permitted without standing around like a complete lemon for half the fight. A different playstyle, adapting to available jobs! And again, the penalty is intrinsic - I'm not adding master damage. We might lose; if we win, it'll be much slower that a well-formulated, draconian-job-assignment strategy.
But we all had fun.
Regarding the equip issue:
- Please just increase the Ready recast merits to 3 seconds per merit spent. We should not have to use level 75 gear at this stage in the game. Please don't forget that our shortest <wait> is 1 second.
- Also, it's really interesting to see developer discussion about precast gear. I would really love for you to look into how this works for magic - at the moment, with the granularity of <wait>, those of us who aren't cheating can't use fast cast gear to reduce the casting time of quite a lot of spells, as there's no way for us to change into the appropriate gear in time to finish the casting. Anything you can do to address this would be extremely welcome. -
01-29-2020, 03:57 AMXilkI will give the developers a little more credit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaitin
Some recent pieces do quite a good job at buffing both master and pet. Aymur, Guttler, Heyoka armor, Tali'ah armor, Pangu, Beastmaster Collar +2, Voluspa Tathlum, Cath Palug Ring, Shulmanu Collar, Adad amulet, Udug Jacket (if it really exists... It might be a myth:P).
Heyoka set buffs both master and pet for tp. However, the tp phase does not matter much for bst pets. The ready recast of 10s and the pet tp bonus equipment means that the pet tp phase is not very significant. its also rather superseded by Malignance set for master.
Tali'ah set is decent tp set, but realy its mostly wonderful to have good options for master and pet magic accuracy.
The reforged +3 artifact and relic gear ~kinda attempt to buff both master and pet, but its rather awkward for several pieces.
It is a turn in the right direction. I hope the momentum keeps going. It is not yet enough though.