ranger job

[Shougun]

I don't mind them becoming invulnerable in general, but I wish Titan would have kept his HP bar and at least covered the player (like a Paladin) - he now just feels like a buffer rather than a tanky pet. Bit unfortunate. Of course having them gain a more tangible sense would be nice but one of the wild hurdles of pet jobs. If they make mechanics target a pet then oof, if they don't then usually they only die due to raid wide which makes managing their health usually non-issue (unless they're too weak, in which case it is an issue but a super annoying one). I think it solves a number of issues at least, and while not the fanciest solution does do what it sets out to do (remove major balance concerns about pets, and makes them easier to 'manage' the delays and ghosting excluded).

For pet health, I've had a few thoughts but one I don't think I mentioned before is perhaps egi start out with high defense but over time lose strength. Perhaps a non-heal-able hp bar that deteriorates over time. Combine this with a tweak to the egi (or summoning system in general) such that it doesn't cause a huge disruption with the demi thing and maybe there are more egi, with perhaps more personal flavor, and you've now a cycling system where for a period of time you can not worry but at some point you will need to alternate to restore their 'purity' (or because they got rofl stomped by a mechanic). Some system, or cooldown, used so you can't just simply recast the egi you used last and restore purity. It'd work for three, especially if you improve response time and make ghosting less of an issue (and ideally give the melee some sort of gap closer or something), but I feel if you upped the count that it would allow for some more specific decision making opportunities (naturally you start out with 'the best' for the situation, but as the situation evolves and your egi looses purity you'd have to make further decisions- rather than just sitting on one egi the entire time). If it's three you'll very likely just bounce between Ifrit and Garuda mostly. If say Shiva was all rounder with cc, Ramuh blitz / recovery and ranged damaged (bursty- good while sitting around waiting for the boss to come back, and maybe with recovery mechanics, like if you died), etc- then you might go from Ifrit to Ramuh to Titan back to Ifrit. Can't be giving Titan huge amounts of hp and Paladin cover though, so the first idea wouldn't combine fairly with the second- the first was only if Titan stays untarget-able.

Major issue with pets imo is the ghosting and delays. It's been ages since I played WoW as a hunter but I just don't recall having so many troubles with them. I think this is one reason why there is a group of players who just want to move to more of Dissida solution to summoning, more than already is (even less pet elements). Even if you keep things invulnerable just making things snappier and less error prone would make pets more fun.