New Tank (Beastmaster)

[Ceodore]

So, my partner and I were talking several weeks ago about new classes, and he suggested something kind of radical to me that surprised me, but also made the creative juices start flowing. He suggested a pet class as a tank. We discussed it at length, talking about details, arguing about balance and what type of damage it might do, and we came up with something that feels a little like Druids from WoW mixed with the idea of the Beastmaster that everyone loves. So, here is the end result of a few hours or talk.

Beast Master: Totem Wielder

Introductory Flavor Text Theme Thingy: Nature is a fickle thing to understand, but the Beastmasters have become one with the wilds. From the dry earth deserts to the winds that rustle the leaves of the trees to the chill of the Tundras, the Beastmasters have tamed them all. They worship Mother Bear, Idolize the Free Eagle, and Respect the Furious Wolf. The wilds of Eorzea will never be the same.

Skills

Level 1: Slam: (70 TP) Single target blunt damage 150 potency
Level 2: Bearskin: (150 second Cooldown) Reduces incoming physical damage by 20%. Absorbs mitigated damage as HP at the end of its duration. Lasts 20 seconds
Level 4: Beat (60TP) Single Target blunt damage 100 potency. Increased Enmity. Combo with Slam. Combo potency 200.
Level 6: Savage Slam (30 second cooldown) 100 potency AOE 90 degree frontal cone 5 second stun. 5 yalm reach
Level 8: Savage Swing: (150 TP) 140 potency AOE blunt damage. 5 yalm radius around player. Increased Enmity
Level 10: Milk of the Wolf: (60 second Cooldown) Increase damage by 10% for 15 seconds.
Level 12: Totem Crack: (60 TP) Single Target blunt damage 100 potency. Combo with Slam. Combo potency 210. Combo effect: Nullifies TP cost of Totem Crack
Level 15: Eagle Strike: (120 TP) Single Target 15 yalm ranged wind aspected damage 120 potency effected by strength. Increased Enmity.
Level 18: Hungry like the Wolf: (150 second Cooldown) Increases damage by 20%. Absorbs the increased damage as HP at the end of its duration. Lasts 30 seconds.
Level 22: Totem Drop (60 TP) Single Target blunt damage 100 potency. Increased Enmity. Combos with Beat. Combo potency: 250. Combo Effect: Increased Enmity.
Level 26: Razor Wings: (150 second Cooldown) Reduces incoming magical damage by 20%. Absorbs mitigated damage as MP at the end of its duration. Lasts 20 seconds.
Level 30: Bear Affinity (Costs MP, 10 Second Cooldown shared with Wolf Affinity) Decreases incoming damage by 15% and increases HP by 25%. Reduces outgoing damage by 25%. Increases Enmity generation.
Level 30: Spirit Bear (Cost MP, 30 second Cooldown) Calls the spirit of the bear to your side. The spirit attacks the Beastmaster's current target for a potency of 50 earth damage modified by the Beastmaster's Strength every 3 seconds. The spirit of the bear emits an aura to near by allies which reduces incoming damage by 5%. 5 yalm radius.
Level 34: Totem Crash: (150 TP) Single Target blunt damage 100 potency. Combos with Totem Crack. Combo Potency 250. Combo Effect while in Bear Affinity: Absorbs 50% of damage done as MP. Combo Effect while in Wolf Affinity: Reduces target's Blunt resistance by 10%. Does not stack with Monk's Blunt resistance down skill.
Level 35: Blood of the Bear: (160 second Cooldown) Decreases incoming damage by 35%. Lasts 18 seconds
Level 38: Totem Slam: (150 TP) Single Target blunt damage 100 potency. Combos with Totem Crack. Combo Potency 230. Combo effect in Bear Affinity: Absorbs 100% of damage done as HP. Combo effect in Wolf Affinity: Heals nearby allies for 25% of damage done.
Level 40: Wolf Affinity: (10 second Cooldown shared with Bear Affinity) Increases damage output by 10%.
Level 40: Spirit Wolf: (Cost MP, 30 second Cooldown) Calls the spirit of the wolf to your side. The spirit attacks the Beastmaster's current target for a potency of 80 ice damage modified by the Beastmaster's Strength every 3 seconds. The spirit of the wolf increases the skill speed of nearby targets by 5%. 5 yalm radius.
Level 42: Howl of the Wolf: (150 second Cooldown) Increases spell and skill speed of allies within 15 yalms by 5% for 15 seconds.
Level 45: Razor Feathers: (45 second Cooldown) AOE wind damage in a 5 yalm radius around the Beastmaster for 50 potency augmented by strength for 24 seconds.
Level 47: Dances with Wolves: (180 second Cooldown) Increases Dodge Chance by 30% for 20 seconds.
Level 50: Totemic Rupture: (Cost MP) Deals Earth damage around the Beastmaster for 160 potency augmented by strength
Level 50: Spirit Harvest: (450 second Cooldown): If HP drops to 1, sacrifices the currently present Spirit animal to restore the Beastmaster's HP to 100%. Requires either Spirit of the Bear or Wolf to be present to activate. Buff duration lasts until used.
Level 52: Pulverize: (60 second Cooldown) Slams the totem down on selected target five times, inflicting 100 potency blunt damage per hit and inflicting Pacification for 6 seconds on the first hit.
Level 54: Leap (30 second Cooldown) Jump and slam your totem down on your target from a distance. Must be more than 10 yalms away. Inflicts Blunt Damage with a potency of 180.
Level 56: Wind Totem (60 second Cooldown) Pulls in targets in a 10 yalm radius around the beastmaster and inflicts AOE wind damage with a potency of 100. Increased Enmity
Level 58: Ice Totem (60 second Cooldown) Freezes targets within a 5 yalm radius for 3 seconds.
Level 60: Earth Totem (60 second Cooldown) Binds targets within a 5 yalm radius for 10 seconds.

Traits

Level 8: Enhanced Vitality: Increases Vitality by 2
Level 14: Enhanced Bearskin: Reduces the recast time of Bearskin to 120 Seconds
Level 16: Enhanced Vitality II: Increases Vitality by 4
Level 20: Enhanced Milk of the Wolf: Increases damage buff to 15%
Level 24: Enhanced Vitality III: Increases Vitality by 6
Level 28: Enhanced Razor Wings: Decreases the recast time of Razor Wings to 120 Seconds.
Level 32: Enhanced Bear Affinity: Bear Affinity now also reduces the recast time of Spirit Bear to 15 seconds
Level 36: Enhanced Totem Crash: Increases the MP absorbed by Totem crash to 100% while in Bear Form
Level 40: Enhanced Totem Slam: Increases the Combo Potency of Totem Slam to 300
Level 44: Wolf Affinity: Wolf Affinity now reduces the recast time of Wolf Spirit to 15 seconds.
Level 50: Enhance Dances with Wolves: Increases the Dodge on Dances with Wolves to 50%.

Details: The Beastmaster is effectively a pet tanking class. It can summon two spirit animals, either a Bear or a Wolf. These animals, are like the Machinist's turrets in that they take damage from AOEs, but they are not stationary. They are not a pet like the Egi's since they only have auto attack and a small radius Aura. These pets can die, however, thanks to their low cooldowns, and since they are off the global, they can be quickly recalled, only costing MP. The Beastmaster uses a Totem Weapon to inflict blunt damage to enemies. These are large weapons, larger than the weapons in the game so far, and thus have a slow auto attack while having a higher auto attack damage than most tank weapons to balance out. The beast master does not block, but they can parry, however, slightly more focus has been put on their dodge, however, due to the nature of dodge, their mitigation does not revolve around it, much the same way that Paladin and Dark Knight mitigation does not revolve around block and parry respectively, but are instead additional benefits. The mitigation on the Beast Master is a lot like that of Paladin, where they reduce a flat amount of damage, however, these cooldowns have longer down times, but also return resources at the end of their durations based on the total amount of damage mitigated. The Beastmaster is adept at crowd controlling with access to a gap closer and a draw in as well as Stun, Pacification, Bind, and for the first time, a Freeze. As a main tank, the Beastmaster can help recover its own HP with Totem Slam, or maintain its MP with Totem Crash. This is vital as the Beastmaster's tanking stance is less potent than those of other tanks, and they are reliant on their Bear's Aura to help deal with this loss of potency. While maintaining their MP, they are also reliant on maintaining their pet's presence. Resummoning a pet comes at a steep MP cost, so managing MP is as crucial as it is for Dark Knights. While Off tanking, the Beastmaster is capable of keeping up their Blunt resistance debuff as well as helping to heal nearby allies since the effects of Totem Crash and Slam change with the Beastmaster's Affinity. Further, unlike Warriors and Paladins, the Beastmasters do not have a high potency self heal, their self healing is both reliant on the damage they do as well as the damage they receive. This makes cooldowns especially important to manage, as mismanagement can mean loss of potency. It also means that the tank can be difficult to manage from a healer stand point, as keeping them topped off can also lead to over healing at the end of certain cooldown durations. It is a complex job that can either really shine, or stumble if played improperly.

Obligatory idea in a picture:

[Gralna]

WoW is that way ---> WoW

[Mikhaill]

WoW is that way ---> WoW

I dunno...I think it's incredibly rude to tell someone to go a MMO because they thought of a new Job.
The guy even took his time and posted skills and everything.

[Gralna]

I dunno...I think it's incredibly rude to tell someone to go a MMO because they thought of a new Job.
The guy even took his time and posted skills and everything.

It's basically a FFXIV version of WoW's Shaman, complete with totems, even used an image of a Tauren Shaman. If i wanted to play one, I'd go to WoW.

[Ceodore]

The point was to introduce something that seemed interesting and new for a tank. We currently have three tanking classes with slashing damage. So, my partner and I pondered over one that might do blunt damage. Further, we didn't want it to be like Shamans OR Druids from Wow, as this tank would use a totem as a weapon, not place them. Yes, I used a picture of a Tauren Shaman, but that was to give a thematic idea of what the weapon might look like in scale. AS I said, it would be the largest weapon yet in the game, and thus have a low attack speed but a high auto attack potency. Further, we wanted to try a pet tanking class. This specifically required a lot of discussion because there was discussion of whether the pet would be tanking, or if the player would be as well as if the player should have forms (like Druids from WoW) or stances, like the current tanks. We ultimately narrowed and argued it down to stances and the player being the main receiver of the damage while keeping away from things that would alter the character model (like WoW Druids) but also stick with the more animalistic and naturist theme of the Beastmaster.

[Welsper59]

Beastmaster has always been associated with the manipulation of the enemy, particularly monsters/beasts. BST in FFXI is essentially the prime example of how the job works in an MMORPG. It's about charming wild beasts, where types will determine effectiveness for a given role (better suited for tank/damage), and unleashing them on the target. The idea of a Druid/Shaman-like hybrid CAN work, but it honestly seems to diminish the core symbolism behind the Final Fantasy job. The pet pretty much has to be similar to the companion chocobo, in that it's almost like another player with abilities and strengths/weaknesses, otherwise it's just some generic job that already exists without it. The pet has to be a significantly huge and active part of BST and unique in the sense of diversity through their pets. Think a melee SMN with a diverse selection of pets to use to fulfill certain needs (though generally that just means strongest pet for max damage).

Without the focus on the pet and it being active for everything a BST does, it'd be like taking away signature things that define a job in the FF world. Like if DRK did not utilize dark magic or sword-type weapons, or if PLD could not use shields. Even SMN in XIV is rather borderline in terms of being an FF SMN lol. The only plausible reasons they're considered a SMN is that Carbuncle was an actual full-fledged summon in starting the class, followed by the fact you have a pet and they're just named after summons of the series. Remove the primal/summon names and... well... the identity of the FF Summoner is lost, simply because of how little the Egi actually make you feel like the traditional job.

[Ceodore]

True, and if I had made it into a DPS, I would have come at it entirely differently. This was just an attempt between my partner and I to see if such a theme could be made into a tank. I understand what you mean, that the beasts are a big part of the beastmaster, and that was my very first argument against trying to make it into a tank honestly. However, the challenge was posed to me (mostly due to my partner's stubborn nature) to see what I might be able to come up with from a tanking perspective. I also understand that Beastmaster has always been a DPS class, and I couldn't agree more, that it probably should be such, a melee DPS. However, I did want to see if perhaps my ideas for making a tanking class were worth while. Which is why I posted it here, to get feed back on aspects of what I have proposed relating to balance and capabilities. Other ideas I have had in my head are things like elemental tanks (much like bunker building Elementalists from GW2) and melee weapon wielding ranged classes (like the Revenant, also GW2).

Future posters, please be gentle. I am well aware that BST is a DPS type class, and probably should be such. This was an experiment and a test for me to see if I could make something that is normally considered DPS (Like DRK was in FFXI for the most part) and turn it into something else. I DO NOT for a second believe that BST will ever be a tank, not really, so no need to beat that already dead horse. I just want to see what my fantastical ideas might get in response from all of you.

Just for reference, another idea I have had for tank is Rune Fencer (Piercing Magical Dodge type tank) but I haven't put anything to paper yet as far as skills and such. Even though this does not fit in line with the typical BST, I would like to know how well balanced people think what I have posted might be against the other three tanks, as well as different suggestions from y'all on things to add or take away or change.

[Iagainsti]

If you check the 4th tank thread, we collaborated on this before. I like the totem idea as a wep, just instead of having a pet per se, the "animals" summoned are just cool animations for stance buffs. Ex- Adamantoise buff that absorbs 30% of all incoming damage for 20 seconds or up to 15k hp, the action animation would be an ethereal adamantoise that stands by your side. A dps stance that increases action potency by 50 f

[Raidenz]

If they ever add beastmaster and its not the best damn pet class in MMO history, I will find all the servers and bash my head against them until my fluids short them out

[Iagainsti]

XD on my phone) <contd> and summons an ethereal ant lion for animation. and the ranged aggro attack has to be a whip, like the dragon whisker from FFV or the like.