Flayer: Beastmaster and Blue Mage Proposal

[MartaDemireux]

So this idea may sound sort of off at first but please read with an open mind. Both Blue Mage and Beastmaster have had access to whips in more than one game. As both have to deal with monsters (one using them, one using their abilities) I feel they complement each other well. I'm aware that having 2 DPS jobs coming out of a DPS class isn't ideal and I advocate a 1 class 2 role lifestyle but I feel it would be difficult to create a pet based tank (just look at how much everyone hates Titan-egi) or a blue magic tank/healer based on the monsters we have currently. That said I do believe I've struck a balance where both classes play differently enough that it makes up for it. Will edit in Lore soon please bear with me.

KEY:
(A) = ability off GCD, (S) = skill on GCD

Flayer: They use whips for their weapon and are from Limsa Lominsa. Whips are a melee weapon with a maximum distance of 12y.

Abilities and Attacks:

1: Lash: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. TP Cost: 70.
2: Killer Instinct: (A) Increases STR by 15% (15s). Recast: 90s.
4: Quick Lash: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 90. Add.Effect: Double attack (8s). Recast: 25s. TP Cost: 130.
6: Flame Lash: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Combo Action: Lash. Combo Potency: 120. Combo Bonus: Applies 20 potency fire damage over time (18s). TP Cost: 80.
8: Beastkin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Beastkin ability. Combo Action: Seedkin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of a Beastkin pet. Cast time: 1s.
10: Achilles Lash: (A) Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Add.Effect: Stun (2s). Recast: 45s. TP Cost: 150.
12: Wavekin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Wavekin ability. Combo Action: Beastkin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of an Wavekin pet. Cast time: 1s.
15: Pheromone: (A) Increases the critical hit rate of user and pet by 10% (15s). Recast: 90s.
18: Vilekin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Vilekin ability. Combo Action: Wavekin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of a Vilekin pet. Cast time: 1s.
22: Constrict: (A) Delivers an attack with a potency of 110. Combo Action: Lash. Combo Potency: 180. Combo Bonus: Paralyzes target (10s). TP Cost: 70.
26: Scalekin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Scalekin ability. Combo Action: Vilekin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of a Scalekin pet. Cast time: 1s.
30: Grappling Whip: (A) Rush to your target's side (player or monster). Recast: 180s.
34: Cloudkin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Cloudkin ability. Combo Action: Scalekin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of an Cloudkin pet. Cast time: 1s.
38: Slaying Tail: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 120. Combo Action: Constrict. Combo Potency: 190. Combo Bonus: 5% chance to reset targets Flame Lash duration. TP Cost: 90
42: Seedkin Soul: (S) FLA/BLU: Allows the setting and use of a Seedkin ability. Combo Action: Cloudkin Soul. Combo Bonus: Grants 1 stack of Azure Soul (10s). BST: Allows the calling of a Seedkin pet. Cast time: 1s.
46: Expiacion: (S) Delivers a two-hit attack with a potency of 120 each (one or both hits can miss). Quick Lash must be active. Consumes Quick Lash on use. TP Cost: 180.
50: Howl: (A) Braces nearby party members and their pets for their next attack. Each members' next action will be 5% stronger. Recast: 240s

"-kin Soul" Combo's and Azure Soul:
When the BLU or FLA utilizes a "-kin Soul" ability they will initiate a special combo. For each "-kin Soul" combo they string together they will gain 1 stack of Azure Soul. Each stack of Azure Soul gives a 2% bonus to critical hit rate. Azure Soul caps at 5 stacks and its duration cannot be renewed once capped even if stacks are consumed. Until this point each stack will renew its duration. Spoken and Voidsent abilities are quite a bit more powerful and will consume stacks of Azure Soul.

Traits:

8:Learning: FLA/BLU: Allows the chance to learn Blue Magic. Physical weaponskills will restore MP equal to half their cost in TP. BST: When you land a critical hit there's a 5% chance your pet will receive a 10% damage increase (8s).
14: Enhanced Strength: Increases Strength by 2.
16: Enhanced Strength II: Increases Strength by 4.
20: Enhanced Killer Instinct: Killer Instinct now also increases INT by 15%.
24: Enhanced Achilles Lash: Reduces recast time to 30s.
28: Enhanced Strength III: Increases Strength by 6.
32: Enhanced Killer Instinct II: Reduces recast time to 60s.
36: Deadly Pheromone: Reduces Pheromone recast to 60 seconds.
40: Burning Lash: Flame Lash's damage over time duration extended to 20 seconds.
44: Flame Tail: Increases Slaying Tail's chance to reset Flame Lash's damage over time to 15%.
48: Unbridled Learning: FLA/BLU: Increases the chance of learning blue magic. Physical weaponskills will restore MP equal to their cost in TP. BST: When you land a critical hit there's a 10% chance your pet will receive a 10% damage increase (8s).

The In-Game Taxonomy:

This is strictly for reference. Not all monsters listed will have learnable spells or acquirable pets.

Ashkin - fomor, ghost, wight
Beastkin - adamantois, aldgoat, antelope, boar, buffalo, chimera, coeurl, mole, opo-opo, rodent, sheep, wolf
Cloudkin - apkallu, bat, cockatrice, colibri, death gaze, dodo, hippogryph, vulture
Forgekin - biotechnological weapon, death claw, defender, facer, magitek, mirrorknight, statue, vanguard
Scalekin - aevis, croc, dragon, dragonfly, drake, eft, goryncych, hydra, peiste, puk, raptor, serpent, wyrm, wyvern
Seedkin - cactuar, funguar, goobbue, landtrap, mandragora, morbol, ochu, sapling, treant
Soulkin - coblyn, dullahan, elemental, spriggan
Spoken - amalj'aa, humanoids, giant, goblin, ixal, kobold, mamool ja, moogle, qiqirn, sahagin, siren, sylp, tonberry
Vilekin - antling, beetle, chigoe, diremite, firefly, giant hornet, mantis, sandworm, swarm, yarzon
Voidsent - ahriman, ascian, bomb, cyclops, demon, flan, gargoyle, gnat, golem, imp, ogre, ooze, plasmoid, snurble, soulflayer, succubus, taurus, vodoriga, wisp
Wavekin - angler, clam, crab, gigantoad, jellyfish, megalocrab, pugil, slug, uragnite

Concept: Flayer (FLA) was inspired by the Morpher in FFTA. The "- Soul" abilities are toggle abilities that have a different purpose for the FLA/BLU and the BST. They can start learning Blue Magic at level 8 but are limited to only being able to learn 1 spell from each of the available families. Their attacks focus on getting in more hits in a shorter amount of time. Their combos are: Lash > Flame Lash (attack > attack with DoT), Lash > Constrict > Slaying Tail (attack > paralyzing attack > chance to reset FL DoT) and technically Quick Lash > Expiacion (attack that bestows double attack buff > twofold attack that requires and consumes double attack buff). They have buffs that increase their STR, Critical Hit Rate and the damage of their party members.

Blue Mage: Similar to Flayers the Blue Mage can use the "- Soul" abilities they can unleash an attack they've learned from a monster. Theycan set abilities that the Flayer doesn't have access to, giving them a wide array of spells to pick and choose from for a given situation but they are limited in how many they can equip at a time.

Abilities:

30: Azure Lore: (A) While active the users INT and STR values will be swapped. Ends upon re-use.
35: Spoken Soul: (S) Allows the setting and use of a Spoken ability. Requires and consumes 2 stacks of Azure Soul.
40: Voidsent Soul: (S) Allows the setting and use of a Voidsent ability. Requires and consumes 3 stacks of Azure Soul.
45: Diffusion: (A) Allows next enhancing Blue Magic spell to affect others in a small radius. Potency will be reduced by 1% per person affected. Recast: 180s.
50: Spoken Soul II: (S) Allows the setting and use of a Spoken II ability. Requires and consumes 4 stacks of Azure Soul.

ARC:
Raging Strikes
Quelling Strikes
Hawk's Eye

PGL
Featherfoot
Internal Release
Second Wind

Blue Magic:

Blue Magic is set in a similar fashion to how "Additional Skills" are set and additional slots are unlocked upon learning the appropriate "Soul" ability. Only one ability per classification may be set in one of these slots at a time. For example: You get Flayer to level 8 and learn Beastkin Soul. You open your skill menu and see a new tab called "Blue Magic" which now has 1 empty square at the bottom and all the Blue Magic listed above but they're greyed out until you learn them. Since Flayer can only use Clamor for Beastkin they will not be allowed to learn Tortoise Stomp or Charged Whisker. The Blue Mage quests will not only allow some of these moves to be learned in their instanced fights but will also entail traveling to areas where the enemies are present.

Beastkin:
Clamor: Demoralize target reducing healing effectiveness (20s). Recast: 60s. MP Cost: 128. Buffalo family.
Tortoise Stomp: Delivers blunt damage with a potency of 110 within an area of effect. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 218. Adamantoise family. (BLU only)
Charged Whisker: Deals lightning damage with a potency of 110 within an area of effect . Add.Effect: Paralyze (10s). Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 248 Coeurl family. (BLU only)

Wavekin:
Gnaw: Delivers a piercing attack with a potency of 150. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 183. Angler family.
Bubble Shower: Deals water damage with a potency of 120 within an area of effect. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 213. Megalocrab family. (BLU only)
Irritating Tendtrils: Deals lightning damage with a potency of 140. Add.Effect: stun (2s). Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 103. Jellyfish family. (BLU only)

Vilekin:
Blood Drain: Delivers an attack with a potency of 120 and heals yourself for an equal amount. Recast: 60s. MP Cost: 159. Chigoe family.
Sand Cyclone: Deals earth damage with a potency of 60. Add.Effect. Earth damage over time with a potency of 30 (18s). Cast time: 2s. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 289. Sandworm family. (BLU only)
Deadly Thrust: Delivers a piercing attack with a potency of 160. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 209. Diremite family. (BLU only)

Scalekin:
Body Slam: Delivers blunt damage with a potency of 110 to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 206. Peiste family.
Smouldering Scales: Bestows a Blazespikes effect on user (30s). Cast time: 1s. Recast: 90s. MP Cost: 276. Drake family. (BLU only)
Bog Bomb: Deals earth damage with a potency of 110 within an area of effect. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 236. Eft family. (BLU only)[/B]

Cloudkin:
Rancid Belch: Deals water damage with a potency of 160 Add.Effect: Slow (20s). Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 224. Dodo family.
Poison Breath: Poisons targets in a frontal cone with a potency of 40 (18s). Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 214 Cockatrice family. (BLU only)
Loop: Delivers a slashing attack with a potency of 170. Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 244. Colibri family. (BLU only)

Seedkin:
Stolon: Delivers a ranged attack with a potency of 140 (25y). Recast: 2.5s. MP Cost: 312. Sapling family.
Swift Sough: Deals wind damage with a potency of 100. Add.Effect: 12y Knockback and wind damage over time with a potency of 20 (15s). Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 242. Landtrap family. (BLU only)
Acid Mist: Poisons the air, delivering damage with a potency of 30 to targets that enter the mist (30s). Recast: 2.5s MP Cost: 202 Ochu family. (BLU only)

Spoken:
Footwork: Increases speed of attacks by 20% (20s). Recast: 120s. MP Cost: 200. Amalj'aa family. (BLU only)
Swift Gust: Increases evasion by 20% (20s). Recast: 120s. MP Cost: 200. Ixal family. (BLU only)
Titan's Boon: Increases defense by 20% (20s). Recast: 120s. MP Cost: 200. Kobold family. (BLU only)

Voidsent:
Golden Tongue: Increases magic damage dealt by 15% (15s). Recast: 120s. MP Cost 200. Flan family. (BLU only)
Thunderstrike: Deals lightning damage with a potency of 170 to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Recast: 30s. 317. Gnat family. (BLU only)
Mow: Delivers a slashing attack with a potency of 170 to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 317. Taurus family. (BLU only)

Spoken II:
Bomb Toss: Deals fire damage with a potency of 220 within an area of effect . Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 350 Goblin family. (BLU only)
Spinning Kick: Delivers blunt damage with a potency of 220 to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 350. Mamool Ja family. (BLU only)
Lacerate: Delivers a slashing attack with a potency of 120. Add.Effect: Damage over time with a potency of 40 (12s). Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 350. Sahagin family. (BLU only)
Faze: Stuns enemies within a frontal cone (2s). Recast: 30s. MP Cost: 350. Qiqirn family. (BLU only)

Spell Set Examples/Ideas:

Physical:
1. Tortoise Stomp
2. Gnaw
3. Deadly Thrust
4. Body Slam
5. Loop
6. Stolon
7. Footwork
8. Mow
9. Lacerate

Magical:
1. Charged Whisker
2. Irritating Tendrils
3. Sand Cyclone
4. Bog Bomb
5. Rancid Belch
6. Acid Mist
7. Footwork
8. Golden Tongue
9. Bomb Toss

Mix/Aoe:
1. Charged Whisker
2. Bubble Shower
3. Blood Drain
4. Bog Bomb
5. Poison Breath
6. Acid Mist
7. Swift Gust/Titan's Boon
8. Thunderstrike/Mow
9. Bomb Toss/Spinning Kick/Faze

Solo:
1. Clamor/Charged Whisker
2. Gnaw/Irritating Tendrils
3. Blood Drain
4. Smouldering Scales
5. Rancid Belch
6. Swift Sough
7. Swift Gust/Titan's Boon
8. Golden Tongue/Thunderstrike/Mow
9. Lacerate

Concept: The Blue Mage (BLU) is essentially a more focused FLA. They get the ability to learn 2 more spells per monster species as opposed to FLA's one. They also see the addition of Spoken and Voidsent spells. Spoken is special in that it includes the beastmen tribes so I felt it important to include each of them, requiring an additional ability to set one more with such a large number (Spoken Soul II). They can only equip 1 spell per slot for a grand total of 9 Blue Magic spells set at any time. The types of spells they can equip vary from status effects, AoE damage (physical and magical), single target damage (physical and magical), and buffs. They'll find themselves using their weaponskills less often than their magic spells for more higher damage output but with moderate MP costs their MP will dwindle eventually. When their MP gets low they can continue to deal damage with their weaponskills while their MP replenishes. This is in a similar fashion to THM/BLM using the Fire and Blizzard line of spells. The BLU can also use Azure Lore to swap their naturally higher STR and lower INT values to make better use of magical Blue Magic attacks should they prefer them. The damage output should be about the same (I haven't mathed them all out yet) just in different ways, with magic attacks focusing more on DoT and status effects.

The potencies I've listed for Blue Magic are mostly just an example right now and I'm still tweaking them while seeing how they'd play it in various combinations. I based much of their damage and MP costs (which reflect that of a level 50) in relation to DRG/MNK attacks under the assumption that a BLU would have round 2.5k-2.7k MP without modifications. Potencies and buff increases are likely different than what they are when the monsters use them and some spells I've had to alter slightly but it shouldn't be much trouble to implement. One example was changing the Ochu's Acid Mist to be more like Burning Arrow. They could likely just change the palette in this case.

Beastmaster: While the Flayer uses the abilities learned from monsters, the Beastmaster learns to control the monsters themselves.

Abilities:

30: Reward: (A) Heals pet with a potency of 200 Add.Effect: Regen with a potency of 50 (15s). Recast: 45sec
35: Primal Rend: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 120. Combo Action: Expiacion. Combo Potency: 260. Combo Bonus: Enmity generated from attack is placed on your pet. TP Cost: 60.
40: Snarl: (A) Transfers own enmity and buffs to your pet. Recast: 90s.
45: Onslaught: (S) Delivers an attack with a potency of 150. Combo Action: Flame Lash. Combo Potency:240. Combo Bonus: 20% chance to increase pets attack speed by 15% for 10s. TP Cost: 50.
50: Familiar: (A) Reduces incoming damage and increases damage dealt by pet by 40% for 30s. Recast: 240s.

MRD:
Skullsunder
Fracture
Foresight
Bloodbath

LNC:
Invigorate
Feint
Keen Flurry

Pets:

Pets are obtained via job quests. The level 30, 40 and 50 quests will each reward their respective ability as well as giving access two 2 pets each via a taming side-quest. Once obtained, the appropriate "- Soul" ability will now summon the corresponding pet instead of cast the Flayer's learned spell. The BST's pets each have their own specialty in battle but are primarily there to shield the BST from taking damage. If necessary their pets can also function as an emergency tank using the BST abilities to transfer enmity to their pet. The use of these abilities are primarily for solo use otherwise.

Their pets:
Level 30 Side-Quest Rewards:
Beastkin: Wolf (single target DPS)
Wavekin: Crab (highest defense)

Level 40 Side-Quest Rewards:
Scalekin: Raptor (Conal DPS)
Vilekin: Firefly (Ranged magical DPS)

Level 50 Side-Quest Rewards:
Seedkin: Funguar (area of effect and DoT DPS)
Cloudkin: Vulture (Ranged physical DPS)


When summoned to battle, their level will be equal to yours. As you level up they will gain the use of more abilities for their species and their coloring will change to match that of the common form for that level.

As an example: A BST level sync'd to around level 10 will call out their Wolf pet and it will look like an ordinary Pack Jackal but when they are level 45 it will look like a Snow Wolf.

Concept: The Beastmaster (BST) was originally going to be able to tame pets for future use and the pets be able to be used for different roles but if you read through the first page here you'll see that it sounds a lot better on paper than it would actually perform in game. Due to this I had to fall back on an earlier idea where pets are learned through a sub-quest in the BST storyline. They're a relatively safe class to play since the odds of them getting hate are extremely low with the ability to essentially drop to the bottom of the hate list.

While on the surface it looks like they lose 6 Blue Magic Flayer abilities this isn't entirely the case. They forgo the use of monster abilities to call a monster into battle. The pets chosen were due to their variety of abilities and availability for expansion; each has a minimum of 3 attacks (which could be expanded upon), while the rest already have 4. So, in "losing" 6 abilities they gain pets which boost their overall damage output. Their job ability attacks were also included into combo's so they should be kept busy enough with their own attacks and managing their pets that they won't even notice the hard loss of 2 abilities (soft loss of 6).

Their pets also have low cast times so while the pet skill slots will share recast timers the BST will be able to switch out their pets with ease as the situation demands. What this means is if one pet uses their skill in slot 1 (such as a wolves paralyzing attack) and the BST changes to another pet, that new pets skill slot 1 (such as a funguar's AoE poison) will still be on cooldown. A good example of this mechanic would be the Garuda fight. At the start of the fight you'd benefit from fighting with the wolf, firefly or vulture. As the fight goes on and she starts summoning adds you may be better off switching to the funguar or raptor. When you begin to move her around the outside it would likely be best to switch back to the wolf, firefly or vulture depending on your strategy. Another example is speed running dungeons using AoE pets on the way to bosses and single damage pets once there.

[Gamemako]

2: Tame (FLA/BST)/Learning (BLU): (A) FLA/BST: Allows you to tame a monster to use as a pet. Upon successful taming the pet can now also be equipped in a pet slot for future use. (must be equal or lower level to the FLA/BST). BLU: Allows you to learn a monster's ability after seeing it used (does not need to be used on the BLU, BLU must be alive and within experience points range). Recast: 60s

7 pet types. Really now. Your class has almost no abilities and carries a pointless and obnoxious need for hunting up random types of mobs in the field once per level. You've collected:

1. Massive design time need, huge balance issues with 50+ pets
2. Redundancy out the wazoo
3. Generally HORRIBLY boring character to play due to utter lack of player involvement. You have 5 weaponskills, two of which are debuffs.
4. Hassles player to run off and "tame" mobs -- I'm assuming you aren't claiming permadeath to those mobs, which would be a hilarious mess
5. Fails to account for the fact that not all mobs have level-appropriate versions

And that's not even touching the pet stockroom issues, with the large number of opponents you'd have to collect and index (at least 7 classes of pets).

[MartaDemireux]

.

1. There could be as few as 7 pets. I only listed all those monsters to give an idea of the types for those unfamiliar. They could make it so you can only store 1 pet per type.
2. How so?
3. For BST they have 7 attacks (5 FLA, 2 BST). All of which have their own uses. Since pets have their own abilities too I went lighter on the weaponskills so you can focus on your pet more. Looks less boring to me than a BLM spamming fire and then a blizzard... For BLU every Soul is correlated to their equipped ability so they have 16 potential attacks/buffs/debuffs/heals (12 FLA, 4 BLU).
4. It's a one time taming system. To counter the issue I think you're mentioning: when a monster gets tamed it could register as being killed so it can respawn even though have a copy as a pet.
5. Your pet syncs to your level just like ACN and your companion. When you call it out it is equal to your level. I did make sure there would be at least 1 monster to be able to tame per type.

You could think of it as FFXI's jug pets. Not every type of monster was accounted for with jug pets and you had to craft most of them. Tame allows you to "Charm" like in FFXI if you are in an area and plan on staying there. It also then lets you recall out that monster as a pet in the same manner that you could use a Jug Pet for an instance (like BST needed jug pets to do Abyssea/Dynamis). But the type of pet that can be saved could be reserved just for Coeurls or Marmots for Beast Soul as an example. It could also be likened to the Venomancer of Perfect World.

[Nahara]

8: Enhanced Vitality: Increases Vitality by 2. (FLA/BST only. BLU's will be determined by the spells set)
14: Enhanced Strength: Increases Strength by 2. (FLA/BST only. BLU's will be determined by the spells set)
28: Enhanced Vitality II: Increases Vitality by 4. (FLA/BST only. BLU's will be determined by the spells set)
32: Enhanced Killer Instinct II: Increases INT, DEX and MND by 15%.
44: Enhanced Strength II: Increases Strength by 4. (FLA/BST only. BLU's will be determined by the spells set)

Why so many stat boosts and to so many unrelated things (and why is Enhanced Killer Instinct II a %-based boost instead of a flat one, like the other stat boosts)?

Right now, stat boosts are only given at level 8, 14, and 24, and only in the base class's (in this case, the Flayer) core stat. Even if one of the associated jobs has different stat requirements, the stats given via the class traits don't change. The arcanist's traits still boost INT, even though the scholar needs MND. And speaking of stats, what stat DOES the Flayer, Beastmaster, and Blue Mage need? Why does it need STR, VIT, DEX, INT, and MND?

All three seem like DD, so we can rule out and remove VIT, since that stat bonus is given only to tank jobs right now. Is the whip a true ranged weapon (meaning DEX) or just a melee weapon that can be used at a longer range than other melee weapons (meaning STR)? Blue Mage seems more like a caster, though, so should it just focus on INT? Why does it need MND unless it's going to be a healer?

This is just my observation, but classes and jobs right now are pretty much single-attribute dependent. There's pretty much just one stat that their bonus attribute points and the stat budgets on all their gear is focused towards. This makes picking and choosing gear and assigning the bonus attribute points simple decision without much room for confusion. Melee DDs focus on STR, tanks on VIT, ranged DDs on DEX, casters on INT, healers on MND, and then Piety just kinda there to be helpful for healers. I would recommend thinking about what you think each class should do and rework the stat bonuses from there. Remember, if a second job to a class doesn't use the same stats as the base class, the soul crystal can provide bonus stats to make up the difference (like with the SCH crystal providing a very large boost to MND).

[MartaDemireux]

.

Enhanced Killer Instinct is an enhancement to the Killer Instinct ability. It's intended to be a reverse of Virus. However I'm currently adjusting much of the class and jobs. As I found an actual Taxonomy within the game and a site that is updating monsters and their abilities I've had to re-imagine a few things. Originally BLU was going to be able to off-heal if needed. That was why there was the inclusion of MND in their Killer Instinct. However now that I'm made aware that no monsters know healing moves like White Wind (yet) I've had to change BLU to just DPS. The DEX was in case certain spells would have a modifier for it but again it doesn't appear that way.

Not all classes learn their stat abilities at those levels. ACN as an example learns them at 14, 16 and 32 and MRD at 8, 16 and 24. My reasoning for giving 4 of them is because BST isn't going to be the powerful one in its pet combo (the SMN is 75% of its DMG IIRC so I wanted BST's pet this time to be the one doing 75% DMG) so it gets 2 traits towards a stat increase instead of 3. STR is the primary stat for whips. VIT is there to give the BST some extra HP when having to tame their pets in case of a failed attempt and to give them some more survivability if they draw hate before they use Snarl. But I can see how having those 2 VIT traits could be confusing.

Through BLU's spells they can either focus on dealing magic damage or physical damage and that's why their stat traits vary depending on which types of spells they wish to set. My goal was to have them at roughly equal STR and INT. The more spells set with a certain stat would give 2 traits of a stat with the 2nd highest giving 2 traits of the other stat.

[Gamemako]

1. There could be as few as 7 pets... 2. How so?

That's an absolutely insane number to begin with. What roles will they have? Healer, tank, rDPS, mDPS, buffer, debuffer... and what? You've got to have some serious role overlap, not to mention the absolute mess of balance you've created by having so many roles crammed into one class, then the need to balance at least 7 different pets with ~5 abilities each. Then you have 2 of each type, so it's back to 70 abilities for one class's pets, plus another dozen for its own abilities. You've got serious redundancy, massive development time, huge balance issues, and then you add this:

(the SMN is 75% of its DMG IIRC so I wanted BST's pet this time to be the one doing 75% DMG)

This just doesn't work. In a game designed around movement mechanics, a class designed with 75% of its output out of its own hands is a disaster. What a hot mess Titan would be when your Coeurl gets blasted off the cliff and you lose 95% of your DPS while you resummon. SMN, by virtue of being DoT-heavy, doesn't completely choke when pet gets DoT'd and melts or gets thrown off a ledge. Your design has no such safeguards. Imagine being a PS3 players and attempting to wrestle with the likes of Malboro/Morbols or Terataur -- unplayable doesn't begin to describe it.

3. For BST they have 7 attacks (5 FLA, 2 BST). All of which have their own uses. Since pets have their own abilities too I went lighter on the weaponskills so you can focus on your pet more.

As I just explained, that just doesn't work in practice. Worse, GLA is dull enough with 7 weaponskills (RoH+RB+SL+SB+SS), and it is at least a tank which puts its attention toward battle management.

4. It's a one time taming system.

Then why bother? If it syncs to player level and is resurrected on death, you're asking players to use an ability 7 times in the entire game and call it a day. This is a waste of a slot and a waste of a mechanic.

Your design does not work in ARR and just doesn't have proper design considerations behind it. You need to define roles to your class, jobs and pets and explain how those roles will be fulfilled. Your Beastmaster passes enmity to your pet, but the Beastmaster is never going to take aggro due to being gimped in damage output in the first place. It doesn't make any sense at all to even include the abilities. Your Blue Mage loses a pet that is a large portion of its damage output, and replaces it with nothing at all -- the potency on abilities is still pathetic. Lash -> Flame Lash is 270 unbuffable potency (assuming your Flame Lash at 9s, since ticks are at 3s intervals -- it has to be 9s or 12s, not 10s), or 135 per GCD. MRD, by contrast, puts up an effective 275.56 potency per GCD after accounting for Maim and Storm's Eye, plus has a superior damage self-buff. You'd be outdamaged by tanks if you attempted melee, so you're absolutely stuck with spellcasting for damage, and I'm not seeing the abilities for that.

[Kitru]

Then why bother? If it syncs to player level and is resurrected on death, you're asking players to use an ability 7 times in the entire game and call it a day. This is a waste of a slot and a waste of a mechanic.

Why does it have to be an ability at all? Just make it part of the job quests. The first 2-3 of your class quests are taming various monsters and the quest reward that you get is a summon spell. You don't *have* to have an ability in game just because it's part of the loadout of a job in other FFs, especially if that ability is really just there to allow you to actually use the job's abilities. Plus, this would have the advantage of being simpler to implement while also getting rid of the insanity of having a squirrel dealing as much damage as a wolf or the annoyance that bringing a goobbue would present unless it was drastically resized.

Of course, if both Beastmaster and Blue Mage are going to be DPS and so much of what makes a job is based upon the class itself, they're both going to play almost exactly the same. SCH and SMN manage to play differently because they're completely different roles though, when you're DPSing as a SCH, you're pretty much identical to a SMN. If you've got multiple jobs based off of the same class, they really should have different roles because, otherwise, you're going to have 2 jobs with almost identical playstyle and ability lists that even end up doing the exact same thing.

As to the Blue Mage ability list itself, I highly doubt that they'll provide a single class with a second set of additionals that ends up being larger than the entire additional list of every other class in game or even their own ability list (you've got 29 Blue Mage abilities; classes bring 17-20), especially when you only want to allow 3 to be used. A much more likely implementation of Blue Mage (if it ever gets implemented, which I doubt for various other reasons) would be to have there be a total of 5 Blue Mage abilities that you "learn" as part of the job quests: it would keep the list small so that it's easy to balance and implement without getting completely insane. It would also allow them to bring in iconic abilities, like White Wind, that aren't used by any enemies in game. The list would probably be something like Aqua Breath (AoE Water damage cone), White Wind (AoE HoT and cleanse on a long CD, like 180 sec), Earthquake (AoE Earth damage with stun), Flamethrower (ST Fire damage), and Self-Destruct (reduces current hp to 1, massive damage AoE). You could even explain the limited list by saying something like Blue Magic can only be learned from exposure to primal energies so that you get Flamethrower first, by revisiting Ifrit's domain; Earthquake second, by revisiting Titan's domain; Aqua Breath third, by visiting Leviathan's domain in La Noscea; White Wind fourth, by visiting Garuda's domain; and then Self-Destruct last as a kind of secret technique learned by combining the energy of all of those primals.

[Gamemako]

Make it so 1 type pet can be stored take beastkin for instance, you have admantoise, buffalo, sheep, and wolf. You have to pick which type you wanted to store and when that 1 dies guess what? Go out and find a new 1 to store. This way the ability stays useful and you would be able to choose your arsenal of 7 pets to use but they are all disposable.

Every single Titan party ever would immediately kick all such players. Actually, any sensible part would do so. Pets die in dungeons. Hell, wipes happen. With a setup like that, any screwup means the character is permanently gimped for the remainder of the dungeon. I wouldn't want a player like that in my party. Getting tagged by certain-doom Bad Breath or something would mean you'd have to spend time and gil running all over the godsdamned place trying to recapture lost pets.

...or the annoyance that bringing a goobbue would present unless it was drastically resized.

Reminds me of Shale in DA:O, who got an entire joke backstory related to the developers needing to downsize the model to fit through doors.

Of course, if both Beastmaster and Blue Mage are going to be DPS and so much of what makes a job is based upon the class itself, they're both going to play almost exactly the same....

Er, I don't think his Blue Mage has the pet anymore. It dumps the pet in favor of magic attacks in the summon slots. They really wouldn't play the same in this case because his Flayer has no useful melee abilities (absolutely pathetic damage output), meaning Blue Mage would have to get nearly all damage and utility from magic slots.

As to the Blue Mage ability list itself, I highly doubt that they'll provide a single class with a second set of additionals that ends up being larger than the entire additional list of every other class in game or even their own ability list (you've got 29 Blue Mage abilities; classes bring 17-20), especially when you only want to allow 3 to be used.

Not to mention the number of pet abilities. This class and job would require about 60 pet abilities and 29 spells, plus the other 18 abilities. That's four times the development work of another class and an absolute balance nightmare.

[Tyvek]

Make it so 1 type pet can be stored take beastkin for instance, you have admantoise, buffalo, sheep, and wolf. You have to pick which type you wanted to store and when that 1 dies guess what? Go out and find a new 1 to store. This way the ability stays useful and you would be able to choose your arsenal of 7 pets to use but they are all disposable.

[MartaDemireux]

Hmm well first off thanks for the feedback everyone (though some of it came off like "no you're stupid and so is your idea" ...but que sera, sera). I honestly didn't think it'd raise such a stink to have an ability lose most/all usefulness by 50 (just look at Transpose and Haymaker). I can see where the concern arises though. I was originally going to make Learning a trait, making FLA/BLU the general course with BST being the 2nd getting its pets through quests. But, adding in the classic Tame/Charm/Capture concept to BST seemed like a good idea and a viable toggle for Learning/BLU. Now that I see how that could be difficult I'll revert to my original plan.

On pets and Titan: In my experience (only have had a SCH in party not a SMN so can't say for them) the pets aren't able to be knocked off. They just get knocked to the edge.

For the concern of only setting 3 Blue Magics: The "Soul" abilities from FLA would be toggled for BLU to use one of their abilities so BLU gets a total of 9 setable spells at their discretion (whether they prefer to be doing physical damage, magical damage and what buffs they think will be important for them (which also dictates if their traits are STR, INT or PIE)). Additionally, I took the moves directly from the existing monsters and their movelists so animations and stats are likely already set up. I say this because moves such as Bog Bomb I've noticed always doing comparable damage to a level appropriate class (~15-20% off my HP from an eft in the 30s to my character in the 30's and same deal when my 10's is hit by a 10's eft) which would mean they have a set potency and then is dependent on the monster's stats. They'll likely just have to alter their potency a little to match character growth and of course add in cast times but that's not as bad as building from scratch.

Gamemako is right in my thinking with their usage. FLA attacks on their own were designed to be lower so the pet could shine more so when BLU was unlocked they'd be using their Blue Magic primarily to deal higher damage. I was planning on adding strong combo-damage for some spells as well. Such as Lash -> STR based spell would see the spell getting more damage.

As far as pet "classes" I hadn't really planned for any of them to follow a specific pattern other than what they play in the wild as it is. For the most part I chose the pets based on monsters that already have a minimum of 3 skills they use (some species don't have complete data online yet though). But I could give them specifications I suppose.

But now I see I have some tweaking to do. So please check back later. For clarification: I'm going to be changing it so FLA is more of a rookie BLU than a rookie BST adding Learning as a trait and removing the taming system. Will be removing 1 pet for each classification and making it so access to the pets is given through quests and having only 1 pet for each classification.