BST ready/sic/reward range

[Andro]

I am recently back from almost 4 years ago, less than a month and a half and this? Seriously? You change the entire mechanics of a job, and make it drastically, radically and stupidly different. I can understand wanting to adjust the mechanics and shorten the distance, but this? Chase a pet around every time the mob moves, completely remove the viability of this job in many aspects and go as far as to tie a leash around the player? No thanks. All in all, I am seriously rethinking my giving FFXI another chance, I can finally solo content I've had trouble getting help in for a decade, but mess up my most used and useful job?!? Lets face it, Bst was never a "frontline" job. It was a solo, let pet duke it out, maybe run in when mob was almost dead to help most of the time or get hate and die. Survivability was always tricky and this jobs strongest point, now it is very much diminished. SE has always had serious issues with "adjustments", lets see how long it lasts. As for me, I think I'm out.

[Elexia]

What I don't understand is why the existing range worked just fine for 12 years and now suddenly its a problem.

As said look at the past history of XI. Considering BST burning was the in thing and people were beginning to be salty about it, when hasn't SE started making sweeping changes to try to 'combat it'? The only burns they didn't fight was RNG burn back in sky and 'bone burns' in like 2003 simply because they died out. Like..SE make weird ass decisions some times..but really think about what spotlight BST had recently that might make SE want to "balance" it.

[Gwydion]

I am so disappointed by the recent Beastmaster Nerf. Let's take a look at how you've crippled the job over the years. Folks, please add more, but these are the 4 biggest in my mind:

1.) 2004 - Nerfing Spinning Axe from AOE to single-target.
2.) 2005 - Allowing charmed monsters to despawn when released.
3.) 2009 - Abyssea - Charm is effectively useless, permanently.
4.) 2015 - Reducing the range for job Ready/Sic abilities that have worked since the game was released!

Yes, SE has empowered beastmaster greatly over the past 2 years, but a 7-yalm distance for Sic/Ready makes it very hard for folks leveling BST from 1 to 99 and gives us nothing to protect ourselves in Difficult or Very Difficult fights? Some mobs are large and we can't tell our pet to attack from the other side of these large monsters! Also, in terms of defense, we have none. (Our shield skill is terrible, ~300?)

I'm so upset by this. If you had told me when I started this game, in 2003 that so much would be taken away from my favorite job, I would have never signed up!

[machini]

What I don't understand is why the existing range worked just fine for 12 years and now suddenly its a problem.

I've said it previously. If suddenly new content comes out and a job that was not a problem before is suddenly a problem, it's the content that's the problem and not the job.

The reason BST got as big as it did was the huuuge amount of massive AoE, combined with stupid shit like en-death I'm told one of the Escha NMs have. Players, especially glass cannon DDs who cannot understand the concept of -DT gear, can't take that. So pets were the best choice.

BST was fine for years, and was still fine even now. BST wasn't the problem, the content and the player base were and are the problem.

[Elexia]

#2 was anti MPK measure though. So it does hurt BST..but it was done purely because said BSTs loved to MPK people on purpose with releasing aggresive high level enemies next to low level parties or to try to hinder certain fights like some ground kings back in the day.
#3 a lot of stuff was useless in Abyssea that normally was useful early on due to the dramatic change in gameplay at the time.

So it wasn't a slow progress to hurt BST..some changes were done for other reasons.

[Andro]

Kind of funny really, FFXI has always been about the "popular" job, the only ones people wanted, in fact, coming back to FFXI, the only thing that changed was that my job was now one of them. I chose drg and bst because I enjoyed them, they were unpopular, avoided and ignored, but solo class. Best part of drg and bst back in the day: didn't need a party for exp (though drg was very slow pre-AF helm) and Relic Armor was easy to get, worst part: game content was not. That is why I ended up quitting, could never accomplish anything. There have always been preferred jobs, there have always been massively overpowered jobs, and there have always been overplayed jobs. This update did not actually correct anything, it just removed one job from the top categories, put it on the bottom, slapped some players in the face and said your fired, bst now has leprosy, hepatitis and AIDS, get a new job. Waste some more time gearing it, lvling it and getting used to it.

Let's face it, this game is all about best utilizing the tools acquirable and/or attainable, and now bst is be a good dd and die, or too weak and possibly survive.

SE is either clueless or trying to get people to quit and try their new MMO. Well, I would rather play WoW, and I am not going to, because, well, I hate WoW... So, I am going to play FFVII, read some books and watch some movies. I'll check back in a few days and see if it's fixed, but we know SE, so yeah, not gonna happen, try and have fun and sorry to you other bsts out there. Really sorry to you new ones, at least I am used to it lol.

[Olor]

I guess it's time to put all my BST gear on my mules. I could have dealt with it if they just nerfed pet moves back to the total crap they were before. At least then I could still derp around on BST like I used to, solo stuff, etc, but this just ruins the job completely.

[Ulth]

What I don't understand is why the existing range worked just fine for 12 years and now suddenly its a problem.

They wanted bst to engage in combat but painted themselves into a corner with their previous adjustments and statements. Right now they are thinking that if bst is forced into danger they will put down charmer's merlin and actually fight, but they won't. They should have either required ready moves to have 1000 tp to be used again or capped ready moves at 15. I honestly think they should have went with the 15 second ready timers. At least that way the master could focus on their accuracy and only worry about the pet during ready moves.

[Glennquagmire]

I have been playing this game since the release on PS2........ And this has just ruined the game for me completely.... SE why did this range need adjustment when there was nothing wrong with it to start? Bst have pets so their pets can fight for their masters, it doesn't make sense to stand next to a mob of lv120+ for us to die in a instant... Our gear is made to give our pets an advantage, not the other way around.... Please adjust this, I want to be able to play the game I have been enjoying for years now. If this isn't fixed I'll just end up canceling my accounts..... and I don't want to do that because there is still a lot this game has to offer. Fix it, please.

[Alhanelem]

1.) 2004 - Nerfing Spinning Axe from AOE to single-target.

To be fair, AoE WS seem to see much more use now than they did back then. I don't remember any uproar over this back when it happened. In hindsight though it ended up being a belated middle finger when AoE WS and AoE magic spam both became much more common.

2.) 2005 - Allowing charmed monsters to despawn when released.

This is one of those "this is why we can't have nice things" things. The actions of a few trolls caused this to happen (BSTs dumping aggroing mobs on EXP parties to wipe them). Even so, I can't say I miss the monster trains of the old days before despawning out of a mob's home area was implemented. (They should have just put in leashing instead)