Nerf Beastmaster

[Zekander]

I will admit, the BST was better geared then I made it out to be, I didn't realize that many non-item level pieces are still some of the best things to use on BST. I was not, however, exaggerating any of those numbers. The damage disparity was around 10%, the accuracy numbers were correct, and the BST was using only one gearset (again admittedly better then I made it out to be). It also just now occurred to me that the SMN changed avatars several times, that is not only lost time for melee damage to be dealt, but would also skew the accuracy numbers in his favor, since it would be counting landed bloodpacts as a higher percentage of the total attacks. Yes, that example of the SMNs damage was an incredible outlier, and yes the skillchain was for around 95k damage, I think we had a GEO (non-idris) at the time, the NM was Gestalt in Escha Zi'tah (so fairly low defense).

As I said, this is just my anecdote, it is likely somewhat of an outlier itself. However, given that these numbers were accrued over about 20 minutes of fighting, that would bring it considerably closer to an accepted average. Therefor, if the two pet jobs were at all balanced in power (not that they should be exactly equal) then the BST should have been much better geared in order to achieve those numbers.

The entire point of this conversation is ultimately not whether or not BST should be nerfed, it is whether or not BST is balanced with respect to the other jobs in this game. In my opinion the answer is that it is not, it is completely unbalanced in almost every way.

I do not play BST myself, so I can't really say what the job is capable of. However, one of the jobs I do play is WHM, and I have done various content both with and without BSTs. From a WHMs perspective, content done with BSTs is done stupidly easily and completed much more quickly then a non-BST party. Playing WHM in sinister reign with a party consisting of three players in melee range (one tank and two DD) is an absolute NIGHTMARE, I could not cure stats fast enough when I even had time between spamming Curaga to keep them alive, which inevitably led to me taking hate and dying. The same content played with BSTs led me to nearly fall asleep, the only thing I could even do to support the party was cast Dia II, there was no need to cure the tank as he took so little damage (since most of the time the pets had hate anyway) that he could easily keep himself cured, and most of the time would use echo drops before my silena would even land. From this perspective BST trivializes almost all content, this is UNBALANCED.

[kylani]

I do not play BST myself, so I can't really say what the job is capable of. However, one of the jobs I do play is WHM, and I have done various content both with and without BSTs. From a WHMs perspective, content done with BSTs is done stupidly easily and completed much more quickly then a non-BST party. Playing WHM in sinister reign with a party consisting of three players in melee range (one tank and two DD) is an absolute NIGHTMARE, I could not cure stats fast enough when I even had time between spamming Curaga to keep them alive, which inevitably led to me taking hate and dying. The same content played with BSTs led me to nearly fall asleep, the only thing I could even do to support the party was cast Dia II, there was no need to cure the tank as he took so little damage (since most of the time the pets had hate anyway) that he could easily keep himself cured, and most of the time would use echo drops before my silena would even land. From this perspective BST trivializes almost all content, this is UNBALANCED.

I just don't understand this thinking at all. You think BST and SMN should deal the same damage when SMN has so many additional abilities? That would be like saying RDM, SCH and WHM should do the same damage as BST, while curing, buffing, debuffing. It's ridiculous.

And this trivializes ALL content? Really? I've played BST for around 11 years and this is the first time EVER I've heard of BST being even useful in End Game content, much less preferred.

[Arthos]

It is unbalanced. Too many nasty moves on melee on the one side, bored range jobs players on the other side.

Why not making battles a bit smoother for melee, game is ending anyway.

Difficulty should'nt be too high for content player need to farm over and over again, like Sinister Reign. It should mainly be fun to do, and also doable on every job.

I would set difficult high on mission fights, for special KI's and similar things. Things u only do once. Wich makes them memorable, like CoP was back in the days.

Too bad SE did just the opposite, for reasons i don't see.

[Zekander]

And this trivializes ALL content? Really? I've played BST for around 11 years and this is the first time EVER I've heard of BST being even useful in End Game content, much less preferred.

This is what made me assume you do not play the game. This discussion is not all that new, it's been going on for several weeks at this point, and if this post does represent the first time you've even heard about this then I would have to assume you haven't been playing the game for at least a month. Apologies if this is not what you meant to say.

The only GEO in our linkshell does not play often, and is not all that familiar with the job (and does not really like to play it either), so none of us really know the most effective way to use it in every situation.

Yes, sinister reign is only one event. Yes, there are some situations where BST is not the optimal job (Escha Ru'Aun Caturae come to mind).

At least setting up a skillchain and magic burst is a somewhat complex strategy that involves teamwork.

To be clear I did not skew the accuracy numbers, they were what they were, I simply did not understand all the variables that led to those numbers. Personally I don't trust parsers for exactly this reason, they only give hard numbers without any of the details about how those numbers came to be.

You are entitled to your opinion, just as I am entitled to mine, the facts however, will always be somewhere in between.