November 2019 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest

[Ilisidi]

The background picture looks really interesting.

With last month's objective having been 'watch Chocobo Racing', there's one thing I have been missing for a very long time: The Gold Trophy.
The storied Chocobo Races have Bronze Trophy and Mythril Trophy, but we never got a Gold Trophy. Maybe we could get one for handing in a CS Gold Stand with 500 wins inscribed?

[Smokenttp]

In my opinion SE kinda deviated the way it actually wants BST to work but if they want the master to fight alongside the pet they need to allow us to do so so here is a couple of sugestions in that regard/things it should consider:

Reward range should be reverted (pupetmaster pets does have the same HP base on tank mode and can be healed from afar, no reason why we cant heal a pet tanking from the front of a dragon while we satay on the side wing to avoid breath damage).

Charmer merlin should lose the -ready recast time and BST should get an extra gift that gives the same -Ready Recast time (1200 job points does not sound unfair for this) wich would allow us to actually not gear swap and get benefits from REMAS aftermaths and maybe even from fencer and shield usage if we desire (more play options = more fun).

More Hybrid gear should be released sugestion of status would be : ACC for both master and pet, -Damage taken for both master and pet, triple/double attack/store tp for master only , the closest we get to this is ambuscade gear (only give ACC) and the superior 3 armor (again only ACC, and while in that subject the pet enmity from it has some people arguing over that it should apply extra enmity to the pet once snarl is used, as for me i am not really sure since this ja does work fundamentaly different then Ventriloquy, but extra enmity control on bst pets might be interresting so i just decided to throw this here anyway).

Last but not least new job abilities , something in line of spirit bond but rather then let the master recive the extra damage let the pet recive said damage instead maybe reward heling the master as well while the ja is active? (altough this might be a bit too much).

Also the new Luccani pet should have an fragmentation propriety rather then fusion, we really lack an solid fragmentation pet.

[Nyarlko]

Please issue an immediate apology for calling the addition of 2 jugs (which are little more than reskins of existing pets) a "Job Adjustment." It's false advertising. This is the equivalent of adding a couple new arrows and calling it a job adjustment for RNG. It's a direct insult to the intelligence level of your customers if you believe that we'd simply accept it and move along. You need to issue an immediate statement that this is not everything planned for BST (and maybe SCH too since the changes are really only going to noticeably affect /SCH subjob.) You need to do so even if you were hoping to get away with doing nothing else for the job that needs the most adjusting.

There are inherent problems with BST mechanics that NEED to be addressed, some of which are functionally bugs that were intentionally introduced into the game by the long-overdue-to-be-reverted kneejerk overnerf to JA range. Even if I didn't play BST, it would still be irritating to me as a player that an entire job was crippled to less-than-melee range. It's an inexcusable failure of game design to leave any job in a state as unreliable and glitchy gameplay-wise as BST has been for YEARS. I say this as someone who still considers BST to be my main job.. but I still know better than to inflict myself on others as BST and relegate it to a solo-only skillchain engine. Even a full reversion of the JA range nerf to restore all JAs to their original values would have zero actual risk of affecting job balance as doing so would cause no actual increase in our pitiful-for-a-"frontline melee" master+pet combined damage output. There are no valid arguments to support leaving JA ranges as-is.

Some questions that I would love to get answers to:
Is there a logical reason behind why BST is the only 1h primary weapon "frontline melee" job that does not have access to native Dual Wield independent of subjob?
Why are there zero native JA/JT to support master melee if we are intended to be meleeing? (No, a few measly Fencer gifts does not function as functional encouragement to be whacking things with an axe.)
Why are we still dependent upon a non-ilvl weapon (Charmer's Merlin) for proper pet performance, that directly conflicts with single-wielding due to how pet levels are determined by mainhand weapon AND conflicts with master melee due to TP constantly being reset every few seconds due to weapon swaps?
Would it be impossible/overwhelming on a technical level to basically copy/paste/modify the code used for PUP to shift BST pet level determination to a new ranged weapon slot item instead of being based on mainhand weapon? Bake in some Ready recast- like SMN gets (along with a lower bound of 10sec minimum charge recast,) and that solves the issue with Charmer's Merlin as a bonus.


Why do you hate us? We've been left to stagnate for the last several years equipment-wise (even getting practically identical AF/Relic reforge sets, and little things like being unable to get Pet:MAB/Pet:MAcc on the same Reisenjima augment unlike SMN/PUP,) player pleas and complaints about the gameplay implementation have been officially ignored and have consistently gone unanswered, our pets don't scale properly for high-end content unlike other pet jobs, there's no synergy between master+pet meleeing, etc.

[RandomCanadian]

If you had not called the new pets a BST job update, maybe people would have received it better... Please try taking an actual look at the job abilities and problems with the class and address them. Its a bummer seeing DRG get more powerful while BST languishes.

This update is just inv -2

[Beastorizer]

If you had not called the new pets a BST job update, maybe people would have received it better... Please try taking an actual look at the job abilities and problems with the class and address them. Its a bummer seeing DRG get more powerful while BST languishes.

This update is just inv -2

I agree

Even then though, their wording still fails, because the jugs are not "New" perse lol. It is just really bad.

[larrymc]

I am very disappointed in the BST update. At a minimum the BST pets should have had superior stats to any existing pet, not inferior. BST has really been trampled on ever since the distance nerf. While other pet jobs like PUP have indestructible tanks from any distance (and excellent DDs too), along with SMNs zerg potential. There does not seem to be any logic to the BST treatment by Square Enix. I know it is not a popular job for the Japanese players, but it was quite popular for others before the nerf. I sincerely hope this issue is addressed.

[Jerbob]

I've only recently started playing as Beastmaster, but I was really excited when I saw BST was next for updates. Seeing it was just new pets earlier this month was pretty disappointing. Finally seeing that it's just recycled pets that are somehow worse than the originals is really concerning. I'm very disappointed with this update.

I was really hoping you'd fix some of the stuff about BST that's broken.

• BST still has to use a level 75 pair of trousers and a level 89 axe to reduce Ready recast time. This is absurd!
• The range nerf is still unacceptable. Even ignoring that it's unacceptable, the pet commands still just don't work sometimes.
• Charm, Tame, Gauge and Sic are essentially unusable - and Charm is one of Beastmaster's iconic abilities.

Depending on pre-99 gear for something so game-changing and essential as -10 to Ready recast is insane. These absolutely need to be job traits or Gifts that don't stack with the existing gear. I know that in the past, SE representatives have asked us to make the choice between the -5 Ready on the axe and being competent in melee - this is absolutely, utterly absurd. We didn't have to make this choice when the axe was new - why do we have to make it now? Why is such a fundamental aspect of the job considered a "choice"?

I get that you want us to be in melee range with our pets. I want that too, most of the time - given the choice, I will be. But sometimes it's not safe. Sometimes I can't. Other pet jobs don't have this penalty. Why do we? If you want us to be in melee, give us the ability to do it safely, not by forcing it through insane penalties. You also mention that you "designed BST to be in melee range", but I see almost no evidence of this. What about all those levels in the past when the only option for us was to charm mobs and pit them against one another? Meleeing solo was incredibly unsafe then, but there was no comment on that. Why is this suddenly a thing? I have to be honest - I don't believe it.

Charming monsters when I was levelling up was the most fun I've ever had on BST. It was an absolute blast. Now it's basically worthless. Charming monsters is hard because Charm doesn't scale well. Because combat has changed so much, charmed monsters can't hit anything or do any damage. Jugs are more powerful - we have no reason to Charm. Gauge doesn't even work properly anymore. Sic moves are atrociously underpowered. I'm not saying ditch jugs and go full on Charm - jugs are good, jugs are fun, jugs are necessary. I just want to be able to choose.

This is a list of things that are BROKEN for Beastmasters. I'm not even asking for an update - I'm asking you to give BST back things that have been taken away from it over time. I'd be satisfied with that - not impressed, but satisfied. Just.

Please, if you do anything, start with the following:

• New job trait "Ferocity" with tiers at levels 75 and 90 reduce Sic and Ready recast by 5 seconds.
• Sic and Ready recast delay removed from all other equipment.
• Fully revert the job ability distance changes or, failing that, at least increase the distance. Some actual justification for this would be nice too.
• Do something to make Charm worth using again. Don't change it completely into something else - charming is great conceptually, charming was great fun levelling up. I desperately want to use it. Be creative!

Please do NOT:

• Try to "fix" BST with new pets. New pets are nice (if they're actually new!), but they are NOT a fix.
• Outdate our current pets with new ones and call it an adjustment. Add options - I love choice, not a rolling Best Pet For This Year.

Even with that said, these are just critical fixes. I think it's reasonable to expect broken aspects of jobs to be fixed as a matter of course. An actual update - "adjustments" in the vein advertised for this Year of Job Adjustments - should be something new or interesting.

Oh, and could you also do something about the Pet Poultice? Its regen effect is really weak - it has almost literally no effect whatsoever.

[Ferth]

Not sure if there is a better place to bring this up, but was the reward for accruing 290 deeds via the monthly ROE supposed to be a voucher for the base ambuscade weapon? That seems like a really mediocre reward for this many deeds.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

-> @ Ferth it's a fantastic supplemental progression as everything is cumulative the way that the "Total hallmarks" functions for ambuscade. No deed totals are ever consumed. This encourages players to try out a new job that they haven't before or allows new/returning players a somewhat accelerated journey, for at least a single job choice, modest assistance towards acquiring minimum itemization requirements for starter tier ilvl battles.

[Ferth]

-> @ Ferth it's a fantastic supplemental progression as everything is cumulative the way that the "Total hallmarks" functions for ambuscade. No deed totals are ever consumed. This encourages players to try out a new job that they haven't before or allows new/returning players a somewhat accelerated journey, for at least a single job choice, modest assistance towards acquiring minimum itemization requirements for starter tier ilvl battles.

I understand how deeds work. But the reward for accruing 170 is a pulse weapon, which I would assume almost everyone uses to actually finish an ambuscade weapon, and the tiers for artifact deeds consistently get better the more you accrue. Ambuscade weapon vouchers are ridiculously easy to acquire so having to spend 9 months to get one via deeds seems mismatched.