Will Beastmaster appear in any Endwalker content patches?

[Shurrikhan]

It would be cool. If feel if there's any job worth exploring being "Limited" is BST.

They can literally create a new pokemon-esque minigame with pet combat, and tournaments with them as well.

They can also do that without locking it behind a separate grind that would destroy the potential for a real and highly engaging job.

But I guess BST should just be honored to have been volunteered for sacrifice for the next mostly unrelated mini-game?

(At least BLU kept such far more integral, and it's still a waste of a job, in favor of a new flavor of acquisition grind and a bit of unique but highly grind-gated side-content.)

[MellowMink]

This seems to be a common theme among people who are really invested into limited blue mage, it’s like the crab bucket analogy where they want to drag others into the bucket with them, despite the fact that being outside the bucket is better.

...Or some people just genuinely like current Blue Mage content and want to see it expanded with newer expansions and updates, such as with a set of Shadowbringer instance logs and unlockable spells among other things, which seems likely to happen sometime after Endwalker's release. Just because you don't personally like it doesn't mean that someone else is wrong for not liking it; not everyone likes the same jobs and there's plenty of other content for you as well. I don't personally like certain pieces of optional content in the game, but that alone doesn't mean that they're necessarily bad if other people enjoy them.

You're of course welcome to share job feedback, which the game developers and designers also encourage, but you don't need to attack other players directly. And again, if you really hate the idea of playing with a Blue Mage during certain Party Finder content, then make the party yourself and prevent that job from joining; harassing other players isn't really called for though.

I do not believe that you are joining EX farm parties on your datacenter as a blue mage.

I don't usually play as Blue Mage in extreme or other farming content, but I occasionally have or witnessed others doing it; unless the party leader prevents the job from joining in the first place, there's usually not a problem with it.

In any case, the fact remains that limited jobs along with the other controversial decisions made during that time period were some of the biggest stains in the history of this game besides 1.0.

This isn't an objective fact; it's a subjective opinion. You're certainly entitled to that subjective opinion and your own personal set of gameplay preferences, but somebody else isn't wrong for say preferring the flexibility with how spells are acquired and selected between for multiple role layouts.

[Videra]

I sure hope not. Limited Jobs should have no place in the game's future.

[Raikai]

They can also do that without locking it behind a separate grind that would destroy the potential for a real and highly engaging job.

But I guess BST should just be honored to have been volunteered for sacrifice for the next mostly unrelated mini-game?

(At least BLU kept such far more integral, and it's still a waste of a job, in favor of a new flavor of acquisition grind and a bit of unique but highly grind-gated side-content.)

But then, if your point is to advocate for BST to be within the main job cast, can they ever go forward with a job full invested in controlling 2 entities (player and pets) without running into many of the problems that plagued SMN (and SCH by some extent) across the expansions? Can the game code support a smooth job based and focused on that?

Or can they approach the concept of a Beastmaster in a faux-esque fashion, like it appears to be Reaper's "pet" case, or it wouldn't feel like it should? - again, the aspect of micromanaging multiple actors in combat is what mostly defines a pet class/job/profession... at least that's how I experienced in other MMORPGS.

*Questions not meant to be snarky, but truly questioning their structure in regards of receiving this kind of job for the "competitive" play.

[Shurrikhan]

But then, if your point is to advocate for BST to be within the main job cast, can they ever go forward with a job full invested in controlling 2 entities (player and pets) without running into many of the problems that plagued SMN (and SCH by some extent) across the expansions? Can the game code support a smooth job based and focused on that?

Or can they approach the concept of a Beastmaster in a faux-esque fashion, like it appears to be Reaper's "pet" case, or it wouldn't feel like it should? - again, the aspect of micromanaging multiple actors in combat is what mostly defines a pet class/job/profession... at least that's how I experienced in other MMORPGS.

*Questions not meant to be snarky, but truly questioning their structure in regards of receiving this kind of job for the "competitive" play.

How would shackling side-content to a faux-job's (i.e., one that must actually be able to act in the open world in a real-time manner) avoid the issue of pet responsiveness, though? Either it ends up truly just pet battles, in which case there isn't the barest excuse for gating it behind job levels, or XIV needs to learn how to handle player-controlled AI units regardless.

The larger question even then, however, is whether they have reason to. As you've said Summoners were pet classes, but such has since been avoided outright, making them now standard casters with an appended ornamental minion. Is everyone happy with that? If not, that's a reason to actual fix player-controlled AI response procedures. Squadrons? Might we want to extend those? Trusts? Might we want to be able to manipulate them? Those, too, would involve be player-controlled AI response procedures. Are they not lucrative enough areas to justify actually trying to fix what's been left as dog-droppings? I'd argue they are, even prior to BST entering the equation.

Yes, there is certainly a way for BST to be work as a single unit with the pet only hanging idle until given a caster-melee-range action by which to teleport them to the caster's or target's location and perform an otherwise generic combat action. But it would be painfully wasteful of the thematic space.

[Raikai]

How would shackling side-content to a faux-job's (i.e., one that must actually be able to act in the open world in a real-time manner) avoid the issue of pet responsiveness, though? Either it ends up truly just pet battles, in which case there isn't the barest excuse for gating it behind job levels, or XIV needs to learn how to handle player-controlled AI units regardless.

The larger question even then, however, is whether they have reason to. As you've said Summoners were pet classes, but such has since been avoided outright, making them now standard casters with an appended ornamental minion. Is everyone happy with that? If not, that's a reason to actual fix player-controlled AI response procedures. Squadrons? Might we want to extend those? Trusts? Might we want to be able to manipulate them? Those, too, would involve be player-controlled AI response procedures. Are they not lucrative enough areas to justify actually trying to fix what's been left as dog-droppings? I'd argue they are, even prior to BST entering the equation.

Yes, there is certainly a way for BST to be work as a single unit with the pet only hanging idle until given a caster-melee-range action by which to teleport them to the caster's or target's location and perform an otherwise generic combat action. But it would be painfully wasteful of the thematic space.

I see it just being the thematic platform to implement pet battles. They seem to be more invested in you actually feeling the job's "fantasy" rather than adapting it to the main cast's limitations, hence why we have BLU as it is nowadays.

Said that, I just embrace what the game's platform seems to allow nowadays to envision what I'd like to be implemented.. That's why I'm not mad with (most of) BLU's implementation, or the idea of a Limited Job allowing a very distinct way of playing a job, and that's why I feel that BST could only come to fruition behind it.

I would really enjoy seeing BST in the main cast, but even if we all acknowledge that the AI/code/combat engine needs an update, there's no hint whatsoever that they plan to invest on this, sadly.

My stance on Limited Jobs is that I like it, and how it works. What I really dislike about it is the lack of replayability of the place you get as its "endgame".

[Shurrikhan]

I see it just being the thematic platform to implement pet battles.

But whhyyy? Why would you use a job as just a barrier to entry to pet battles?

They seem to be more invested in you actually feeling the job's "fantasy" rather than adapting it to the main cast's limitations, hence why we have BLU as it is nowadays.

And what part of those "limitations" necessitated instead that BLU play on a barren set of nonintegral CDs popped on refresh after its Moon Flute opener?

BLU is a "job" that simply has additional grinds attached to it and somehow ends up with a far worse than average playflow for its troubles. Don't get me wrong; the fact that it pulls use out of old content is brilliant, but there was no need for it to end up "limited" for having done so. The very same internal balance (between the various spells in its available kit) that would, if actually considered instead of given over solely to the grind of vertical progression, have given it actual playflow could have made it a balanced class, taxed with added effort for its added versatility. The problem is that the "job" was an afterthought to a means to somewhat reinvigorate old content, and it didn't need to be. It could as have easily been an "unlimited" job, perhaps even paving the way for a little choice an further identity among those that came before, and instead we got this merely incidental mush.

I don't want to see that repeated, which is why I am not happy to "just embrace what the game's platform seems to allow nowadays." It's low-effort shite that wastes considerable opportunities and each further precedent down that path is, I feel, unhealthy for the game's long-term success.

[MonsutaMan]

What they are doing with SMN, may open the door for BST due to the girth of monsters. I knew, they would never release BST, until they solved the egi issue.

BST may be the melee version of SMN.

[Auryan]

As far as adding a new limited job, BST is the likeliest one. They added a significant amount of lore and NPCs to represent the job and how it plays. That BST tames beasts (shocker, I know) to fight alongside, while buffing and healing them in battle. As seen from many BSTs in Bozja and Zadnor. So it wouldn't work like SMN, MCH or Reaper. Of course the NPCs are missing mechanics needed for an actual job like how the pets will work and where the versatility of the job comes from as required for a limited job. There's a lot unknowns.

Biggest unknown is SE's approach to the concept. They've been very quiet about the idea for a while now and haven't given much direct information since BLU first came out pre-ShB. Here's hoping after the embargo lifts, some interviewers will ask Yoshi-P some content-related questions and bring the topic up.

Oh and I'm definitely in favor of adding more limited jobs. Random BLU and BST (PUP too, because of course) "mains" running out of the woodwork to voice their discomfort notwithstanding.

[Hanayumi]

Think it will be all a matter on whether the devs can catch back up enough with general content after the damage covid where des feel they can start work on more additional content. Sooo we'll just need to wait and see.