Question about beastmaster to yoshi P

[Aomine1992]

Honestly I feel as though we don't need another pet job until they get a solid pet AI in place first.

[JunseiKei]

I'd love to see beastmaster in FFXIV, but with some improvements over SMN:

• Easier execution and automation of companion skills.

Assuming the beast functions like a fairy or egi, having skills that must be manually commanded. MCH's turret does it right (does not aggro when placed and automatically turns to fire your target). They vastly improved the fairies (much faster execution of skills; they do it immediately now, but for some ungodly reason, they omitted this nice change from SMN). Honestly, all they'd really need to do is tether the beast to you and tie their skills with yours (much like Wyrmwave with Demi-Bahamut).

• Tied beast skills should function like other special class skills at minimum.

Like SMN's Enkindle or Ahk Morn(SMN's skill that commands an egi to do a special), SCH's Fey Union.

• A beast is not created from thin air, so there's no need for a "summon."

You can call/whistle for it if a need to have it appear from somewhere else if absolutely necessary. Like egis and fairies and even the turrets, do not put this on an absurdly long cooldown, least we have FFXI's DRG folly committed again.

• There is not an absolute need for multiple beasts.

Tie the beasts to class quests if you must. I'd rather have one great functioning pet with egi glamours while the lore says this is your use of multiple beasts over niched beasts (IE: Garuda until Contagion was changed, now Ifrit-egi is the preferred summon).

• The class does not need to be a mirror of ARC/SCH/SMN or other pet jobs from other MMOs.
  
• Make the class melee.

We have MCH, SCH and SMN - all ranged with companions.

However, I'd long been under the impression that SMN that we have shouldn't function the way it does, being we control egis. I've long thought summons should have been like what Demi- Bahamut is - you channel certain skills and after enough gathered aether, you call that summon down for a short time, doing burst damage. AKA, exactly what you do for Demi-Bahamut and how it works, but with the other primals.

Right now, all of the pets are too set-it-and-forget it because how bad movement is for them and how it also detracts from your DPS in such a DPS oriented game.

[Aomine1992]

However, I'd long been under the impression that SMN that we have shouldn't function the way it does, being we control egis. I've long thought summons should have been like what Demi- Bahamut is - you channel certain skills and after enough gathered aether, you call that summon down for a short time, doing burst damage. AKA, exactly what you do for Demi-Bahamut and how it works, but with the other primals.

Right now, all of the pets are too set-it-and-forget it because how bad movement is for them and how it also detracts from your DPS in such a DPS oriented game.

I absolutely agree I always thought HW SMN was a step in the correct step as what real SMN/evokers should be doing and SB was what we should have always been (excluding the hot mess it was at the beginning)....

channeling strong primals or summoning things like bahamut to do his signature move is the class bases but instead we were always a witch/warlock class in my opinion with poisons and unresponsive pets.

[Bright-Flower]

I find myself in an odd situation with SMN. On one hand demi bahamut is a step in the right direction toward being a 'real summoner.' But honestly I prefered HW smn over SB smn. I feel like bahamut makes the rotation a bit too long and a bit too convoluted with yet another 'phase' added, and honestly what drew me to the job was more the 'arcanist' base class I guess, the tactician math wizard angle more so than the summons, so the closer it gets to true summoner the less interested i become in the job.

[DamianFatale]

But why would you ever need a pet other than Bahamut?

Beastmaster is a classic Final Fantasy job.

[Gemina]

I have to agree with Yoshi as far as how difficult it would be to implement this job into FFXIV while keeping the core concept intact; i.e. taming mobs. However, this only applies if trying to make it a DoW class.

A while back on the DoL forums, it was suggested to make BST an additional DoL class. I loved the idea so much that I have proposed it several times, and believe that as a DoL it would have all kinds of flexibility and not be subject to standard PvE/PvP imbalances. Like FSH, they literally can design a whole other mini-game around it and accomplish some items of player demand in the process. This includes but is not limited to: BST implementation, taming mobs with this class, facilitation of mob drops for crafters, more players in the open world, and more open world content. Done correctly, the class would appeal to gatherer and combatant alike as it would require engaging open world mobs.

I'm probably in the minority, but BST in FFXIV has gatherer written all over it.

[Stormfur]

Can someone explain to me what XI beastmaster was like? I want a Beastmaster job in XIV more than anything -- and not pet micromanagement like summoner.

[SilverObi]

Can someone explain to me what XI beastmaster was like? I want a Beastmaster job in XIV more than anything -- and not pet micromanagement like summoner.

Pet management was a much bigger thing in XI than it is here. In here you have the option to command your pet when to use its actions or where to stand. You can mostly ignore their HP or positioning though (aside from fairy AoE) since they can be brought back into battle almost instantly.

In XI you had a huge variety of pets that were relevant at different level caps due to their unique abilities and traits. You had monitor their HP just as much as yours and use items to restore their health over time. Each pet had different advantages over other certain monsters so that was something to take into mind, and if your pet died before your Call Beast ability was available then you had to fight on your own and that ability is on a 5 minute cooldown. You had to command it when to attack, retreat, and when to use its special abilities. A fun thing beastmaster could do was Charm wild beasts for a time (and that's what Call Beast was an alternative to: using an item to summon a pet when there's no charmable targets in the content you're doing) and I would like to see that be a key part of its kit if it was ever adapted here.

Essentially in XI, your pets were entire other entities rather than purely extensions of you. They had their own resistances, advantages, negatives, attack speeds, TP gain, varying stats and varying usefulness. The pet system we have in XIV is a grossly watered down version suited to the different style of combat.

[Stormfur]

Ohh I see... that sounds crazy complex!

I had always envisioned XIV's beastmaster to play a lot like a job from one of my other all-time favorite games -- the Ranger class from Dragon Age origins. Here you summon one of several types of animals to fight with you -- each one having a certain effect on the battle. As you become more skilled with using them, you can summon "upgraded" versions -- so like a Direwolf instead of a Wolf. For example, you could summon a spider that would stun/bind the enemy for a time. Of course, the animals couldn't be summoned "just" for that purpose (we already have stun/bind as quickly as you can press a button), so they would need other actions beyond that... but it was a fun class to play with a lot of situational awareness of what animal would be best in what encounter.

[Ashel]

I would love to see beastmaster in ffxiv. However I think it would have to be quite different than Beastmaster in ffxi. I played beastmaster quite a bit in ffxi, before the change in experience gain. It was definitely a challenging job, but rewarding.