Dev Request: Grant Pets 50% of the potency of the Master's active buffs

[Aerix]

Greetings - I hope this is in the right section and hasn't recently been suggested anywhere before, as I haven't found anything using the search function. Anyway, here goes:

I would like to request that perhaps a high-level Job Trait be added to all pet jobs (SMN, BST, PUP, DRG) that grants their Pets 50% of the effect of the buffs currently active on the Master. This should, in my opinion, apply to Protect, Shell, Haste, Regen, Refresh, Regain, all Bar-spells, Bard Songs, Corsair Rolls, Geomancer Indi/Geo-Spells and Temporary Items.

My reasoning behind the suggestion is thus: Pet jobs are generally very formidable in solo or small group situations - however, once in a full party or Alliance where a plethora of buffs are available (especially while zerging), these jobs fall very short compared to others (albeit DRG less so than the other 3), as their Pets still perform at the standard level of efficiency regardless of how powerful the rest of the group has now become.
This causes a very massive discrepancy in usefulness between regular jobs and pet jobs, as "normal" jobs get a boost to 100% of their abilities, while Pet Jobs split their power into two entities, but only one of them is granted any benefits.

An always-active Trait that'd grant Pets the effects of buffs would likely put them up-to-par (or at least much closer) to the rest of the jobs in the game, very likely without unbalancing everything.

A small breakdown as to why I suggested those particular buffs:

• Protect - I believe this is self-explanatory. Some additional Defense would certainly not make Pets invincible, but add a slight amount of very welcome survivability, which is definitely necessary in Events with large amounts of AoE damage.
• Shell - See Protect.
• Regen - This would be invaluable to keep Pets alive and is especially important as SCH's Embrava is very popular, but while Players become very resilient, this doesn't apply to Pets at all, who are still dependent on Job Abilities with minutes of recast.
• Refresh - This would be very useful for PUP Automatons such as the Stormwaker or Spiritreaver, albeit not necessary. Certain rarely used BST Pets might benefit from this, as well.
• Regain - One of the most jarring disadvantages Pet jobs currently have to endure is the lack of Regain that DD jobs so greatly benefit from nowadays. Tactician's Roll, for example, grants a very significant boost which Pet Jobs could only dream for their Pets.
• Barspells - Same as Protect/Shell, really. More of a "would be nice to have" benefit, but certainly nothing to be shunned at.
• Bard Songs - The main reason next to Corsair Rolls why I started this topic. Two or even four Bard songs will massively enhance a player's abilities, but because Pets do not gain any of it, they fall far, far behind in their output.
• Corsair Rolls - Same as BRD songs, with the small difference that COR has Pet specific rolls to enhance their abilities. Aside from the fact that these are almost never used, they'd still be relevant: they grant the full-powered effect of their particular enhancement, while the suggested Job Trait only ever adds half. This way they'd still be useful and might even be utilized in conjunction with similar COR rolls to give 1.5x of the effect, allowing Pets to further close the gap between them and Players who have incredibly powerful equipment bonuses.
• Geomancer Indi/Geo-Spells - Same as BRD songs.
• Temporary Items - Very significant in VwNM. Perhaps Fanatic's Drink/Fool's Drink could apply to Pets as well (at full duration), as it's nigh-impossible to keep Pets alive for very long otherwise.

Now, I know that PUPs have Attachments/Maneuvers, SMNs have Blood Pact: Ward, DRG has Spirit Link/Empathy and BST has... well, I guess Familiar and Run Wild. These are all very nice, but not nearly enough. They do, however, still provide a use even if this Job Trait were implemented. Hastega from Garuda, for example, would grant Garuda the full effect of Haste instead of only half, while Spirit Empathy would grant 100% of the effects of buffs such as Protect, Shell and Regen.
Attachments and Familiar/Run Wild provide a baseline of efficiency for the respective job's Pets and should therefore always be considered as the point where the jobs currently stand.
I am also aware that Pet-specific equipment exists to improve their abilities. However, the Pet specific equipment often improves the Pet at the cost of the Master's potential strength, so all in all, it's very situational and doesn't give Pet jobs the edge they nowadays need to stay relevant in party situations.

It would be very much appreciated if people could give their opinions and if a Community Representative could perhaps consider fowarding this to the Development Team.

Thanks for reading~

[Genoxd]

Don't you know SMN is overpowered? I know I'm just fighting off the tells asking me to come SMN to everything. It's so sad that my relic SAM never gets to do anything because of how amazingly OP my SMN is....oh wait...

[Vold]

We as a playerbase has been asking for more or less this for some time but SE usually takes the traditionalist road. Sometimes I think that because it is the standard for MMO pets to be able to be buffed and healed via mages that SE just wants to be the different kid on the block. They do this for several jobs. Which is fine and to an extent I really enjoy that things are different in FFXI, but in some cases jobs are severely held back for the sake of being... different. Pets are a pretty good example of this. THF is another. RNG was the norm until it got nerfed to kingdom come, if the improvements to gear via haste for melee wouldn't have done it in anyway, eventually.

I would love to see this happen, but for some reason SE hates the very idea of such suggestions, even though it wouldn't suddenly turn your pet into a paladin or a warrior. It wouldn't suddenly take in all kinds of damage and survive, nor would it make easy kills less trivial than they already are for BST. It would give BST a decent little pew pew boost for whatever that is worth and it might, I stress, MIGHT, eventually be just enough for our pets to like last another 10 seconds before it dies which is just in the nick of time for call beast to be up. Of course, because of THAT, you know, call beast being up just in the nick of time, is enough of an excuse for them to site balance issues of casting protect V on your pet, and that it can't be touched so that a disturbance to the force doesn't come to pass.

In the mean time, they will be sure to continue to buff SAM time from time, give people all the reasons they need to be interested in DNC instead of THF because that is exactly what it is, a THF without the TH but with buffs via dancing all the while removing the need for TH in end game content, and continue to dish out content that requires players to continuously do rather than stay with the highly favored style of Abyssea, which I remind SE that the reason we enjoyed that add on so much before we got sick of it was because it took us back to the simpler times of not requiring a key item based progression to fight stuff, which we got sick to death of for many years after the styles of Zilart and CoP end game, and a small extent of ToAU were abandoned, slightly revived with Abyssea, then re-abandoned because everyone could progress, and not just everyone but everyone could progress to the best gear. Must have given them a lot of sleepless nights.


In closing, since we know they will never allow us to buff our pets because apparently God would send them to hell for allowing it, how about this more easily accepted request: Give us new pet foods that further buffs our pets with things like protect, haste so on. This would be more like snacks than pet foods. You need for it to not share a damn timer with pet food. It should work like dawn's. Preferably long lasting buffs but whatever floats their boat. At least then they can avoid what I am sure is their greatest fear, free buffs and heals.

[Mizuharu]

DRG technically already has a job trait like this. However, Empathy only copies 1~4 (you could 5/5 it, but you should already have 5/5 Angon. And, you should have at least 1 merit in Deep Breathing. That's assuming you solo/use restoring breath/etc.) buffs in order from your left side to your right side of the status bar. But I agree that PUP BST and SMN should have a job trait like this. And, who knows? If DRG gets it, maybe we can merit something else.

[Karbuncle]

Think every pet job should have a "Transfer food effect to Pets" Job Trait or Armor... Then I wouldn't feel bad using Red Curry Bun/hydra Kofte +1 on my melee SMN >:3

On that note, I dream of the day when they stop believing pet jobs are overpowered and they rise up beyond their current mediocrity...

[Aerix]

DRG technically already has a job trait like this. However, Empathy only copies 1~4 (you could 5/5 it, but you should already have 5/5 Angon. And, you should have at least 1 merit in Deep Breathing. That's assuming you solo/use restoring breath/etc.) buffs in order from your left side to your right side of the status bar. But I agree that PUP BST and SMN should have a job trait like this. And, who knows? If DRG gets it, maybe we can merit something else.

I already covered DRG's Empathy in my OP - it would still serve a point, as it'd transfer buffs to the pet for the full effect rather than just half. Of course, it'd be comparatively less useful than before, but it'd still be good.

[Horadrim]

Snip

Some modifications to the way pets are treated in relation to party buffs is long overdue.

[Alhanelem]

A better idea would be to just treat pets like players and allow them to be affected the same way by the same spells as everyone else.

P.S. Putting "dev request" in your subject title will not increase the probability of getting dev attention and is pointless to state.

[Svens]

Not just pet buffs, but the whole pet system really needs a revamp like the enmity system is currently undergoing. It feels like it's still stuck at lv75, with pets not receiving buffs, scarce gear that has pet stats, let alone relevant/desired ones, and aged mechanics like 1 minute duration maneuvers and 45 second blood pacts. These may have made sense back then, but now they're severely detrimental to the jobs.

Letting pets have buffs would probably be the easiest improvement to their performance in parties, but there would still be problems present along with the fact that it may drastically upset balance. For example, 1 pup and DD automaton both maxed buffed may significantly surpass 1 heavy DD instead of being fairly equal, letting the job excel both solo and in parties, shifting the job inequality and solving nothing.

*STUPID SUGGESTIONS, NOT EVEN SURE IF THEY CAN BE IMPLEMENTED*
If it could be done, I would propose that each pet job could receive specific buffs that would sort of make sense for each. For example, dragons can copy any buff the dragoon has already, so for the other pet jobs:

Puppetmaster: Mechanical pet so it would have the same equipment buffs applied to the master, making all equipment matter for the automaton instead of just attachments. More importantly, IT WOULD GIVE A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR PUPPETMASTER TO BE ON MAGE ARMOR. Also, would be fun to try out gear with both master and pet haste, allowing for double dipping of the stat for the automaton. (In addition, make pet haste/attachment haste separate from copied haste)

Summoner: Magical pet so it would be able to copy/receive magic buffs. For added bonus, giving them the storm spell would make them stronger like in the avatar fights/always apply the weather/day bonus as if they had an obi equipped.

Beastmaster: Natural pet so it would copy/receive any JA buffs such as berserk, sambas and rolls.

These would further specialize each pet job while improving their performance in parties while not surpassing the specialized DD jobs. (Although puppetmaster seems overpowered for solo...)
*END OF STUPID SUGGESTIONS*

[Alhanelem]

Not just pet buffs, but the whole pet system really needs a revamp like the enmity system is currently undergoing. It feels like it's still stuck at lv75, with pets not receiving buffs, scarce gear that has pet stats, let alone relevant/desired ones, and aged mechanics like 1 minute duration maneuvers and 45 second blood pacts. These may have made sense back then, but now they're severely detrimental to the jobs.

Even at 75 the pet system was crappy, honestly. Other games (e.g. dont shoot me for saying so but... WoW) have had pets that were fully affected and targetable by buffs, debuffs, and healing. And rather than having dedicated stats for pets on gear, the pets would get a percentage of the stats on the master's equipment- this was to compensate for master's stats otherwise usually outweighing the pet's by a wide margin. Despite this stuff, most of the time you didn't have people complaining about how OP pets were.

Stuff like the damage analyses posted in other threads about PUP show that you could buff pets by about a lot without imbalancing the game.