Let's talk about Beastmaster

[Zyph]

With the Dark Knight and Red Mage threads being so popular, I figured I'd make one about one of my favorite classic Final Fantasy jobs, Beastmaster.

The way I see it, there are two paths that this job could be developed on.

OPTION 1
Base Class: Flayer
Weapon: Whips
Skillset: A sort of blue mage/beastmaster hybrid, studying the the monsters they encounter and mimicking the most powerful of their abilities. In the current armory system, blue magic is kind of a long shot, with a player only getting 15 skill slots per main class. Including whip skills in the mix it seems like a bit far fetched, though a cool idea.

OPTION 2
Base Class: Wildling
Weapon: One-handed Axes
Skillset: If SE decides to make the game more party focused again, this could be a skillset devoted to soloing. The lore I'm trying to drum up here would be that those who are affected by the Greenwrath of the Twelveswood become wildlings, having to fend for themselves as they are deemed "untouchable." This plays well into a solo class. Axe skills would be about damage, debilitation, and HP gain. Wildlings would be encouraged to use shields to compliment their one-handed axes and solo nature.


Regardless of which sort of base class Beastmaster gets, the concept/lore/theme of Beastmaster would be different from previous iterations like FFXI. Beastmasters are not loving, not friendly, not caring. They are cold and ruthless, they use their dark will to cause beasts to submit to their bidding. This is not Pokemon, Eorzea is not filled with lovable creatures. No matter how cute they are, every beast in Eorzea is a deadly monster. Affection is a weakness and can only lead to getting killed by letting your guard down.

BEASTMASTER

Primary Stats:
PIE
VIT

Abilities:

Level 30: Charm
Brainwashes a monster to fight by your side. Using this ability again releases the monster from your control.
(Cannot charm: Undead, Humanoids, Demons, Beastmen, Dragons/Wyrms/Wyverns, Elementals, Notorious Monsters)
Wears off after a certain time, based on Piety.

Level 35: Summon Beast
In the event that there are no pets to charm, the Beastmaster can use bait equipped in the pack slot to call a pet into battle

Level 40: Rejuvenate
Uses a significant portion of your MP to restore your charmed pet's HP by half its total amount.

Level 45: Synchronized Attack
A ferocious attack with your weapon that also causes your pet to simultaneously use one of its TP attacks without needing the normal required TP amount.

Level 50: Dominate
Gives your pet a large bonus to all of its stats, in addition to Regen and a TP gain bonus. If used without an active pet, allows you to charm any level pet for a static 10 minutes.


In addition to the abilities you get, your pets will be able to use abilities every 5 levels on a separate row in the action bar:

Pet Abilities:

Level 30: Attack, Return
Attack: Sends your pet to attack targeted enemy. Return: Calls your pet back to you.

Level 35: Sic
Causes your pet to use a random TP ability.

Level 40: Whimper
Causes your pet to gain enmity

Level 45: Intimidate
Causes your pet to shed enmity

Level 50: Obey
Choose which TP ability your pet will use. Long recast.


I understand that some of these abilities are similar to how Beastmaster performed in FFXI. (Oh my god I'm using the XI word.) However, BST was done really well in XI, why not keep some things similar while adjusting other things for the type of game XIV is.

While we're on the XI note, another thing I would like to see make a comeback is ecosystems. They added a level of depth to combat that we just don't have right now.

I'm looking for ideas, feedback, discussion. I really want to see BST implemented right.

[Keftenk]

Guttler hungers.

[Duelle]

However, BST was done really well in XI, why not keep some things similar while adjusting other things for the type of game XIV is.

Probably because BST was not designed well. It was designed around an idea the players never took to and thus the job was sentenced to several years of leveling on their own. Charm as it was in XI should never repeat itself, because then it gives way to the foolish fears Tanaka and Matsui had for pet classes.

My suggestion for BST would be to have a stable of permanent pets (these can be charmed and kept in stable afterwards) with abilities that require both BST and pet to be active. Pets should have their own stat scaling independent of how open world mobs scale, this way we don't run into the excuse the devs in XI used for BST.

[Zyph]

Probably because BST was not designed well. It was designed around an idea the players never took to and thus the job was sentenced to several years of leveling on their own. Charm as it was in XI should never repeat itself, because then it gives way to the foolish fears Tanaka and Matsui had for pet classes.

My suggestion for BST would be to have a stable of permanent pets (these can be charmed and kept in stable afterwards) with abilities that require both BST and pet to be active. Pets should have their own stat scaling independent of how open world mobs scale, this way we don't run into the excuse the devs in XI used for BST.

I actually liked the way BST worked in XI, aside from the whole "aggro-after-charm" thing. I liked the idea of being able to go out in the wild and steal a beast for your own use, it required a good sense of situational awareness. Keeping track of ecosystems helped too.

To me, having a stable full of pets will mean that by level 50 everyone will be using the same pet because it's the best and blah blah blah. And that's something that I'd rather see avoided, I like having options and situational considerations.

Also the real reason that BST fell into obscurity was that for a while the BST's pet would count as the equivalent of a 7th player in an exp party as far as exp distribution went, bringing down everyone's overall exp. Also as a truly "advanced" job, many players didn't know what they were doing and essentially became gimp warriors by not managing their pets correctly.

[Sephrick]

I like he detail in the OP. Always nice to see posts of passion like this.

However, I think pets should be a character feature and not a class. We know in 2.0 thy're allowing us to have chocobos fight by our sides, it'd be nice if they eventually expanded on that to include other beasts.

[Zyph]

We know in 2.0 thy're allowing us to have chocobos fight by our sides, it'd be nice if they eventually expanded on that to include other beasts.

Hmm, I had hoped that was tentative. IMO it seems kinda dumb, I just, I can't picture chocobos as anything other than steeds (or a summon that calls an entire trampling herd of them). But new ideas, and whatnot, always refreshing. Maybe BST could forgo the chocobo fighting thing in favor of other more wild (and likely stronger) beasts?

[ThePatriarch]

Probably because BST was not designed well. It was designed around an idea the players never took to and thus the job was sentenced to several years of leveling on their own. Charm as it was in XI should never repeat itself, because then it gives way to the foolish fears Tanaka and Matsui had for pet classes.

My suggestion for BST would be to have a stable of permanent pets (these can be charmed and kept in stable afterwards) with abilities that require both BST and pet to be active. Pets should have their own stat scaling independent of how open world mobs scale, this way we don't run into the excuse the devs in XI used for BST.

BST was designed perfectly, and with the solo player in mind.

Why do you say it was designed badly? Because it took copious amounts of work to hit 75? It did, for sure. But the rewards were monumental in terms of content that opened up to you once you were 75.

In the early years I made hundreds of millions in gil from BST (100's of Millions). Solo farming, Hakutaku runs, etc etc. Some people enjoyed the solidarity and challenge that came from leveling beastmaster. Not to mention you were a furry badass in your sheepskin AF. Everyone respected a 75 BST in the early years of FFXI.

It was hands down my favorite job in XI, and I wish they would implement it exactly now, as they did then. Which I know won't happen, because people in today's gaming society would panic even at the thought of a challenge of that scope.

[Zyph]

people in today's gaming society would panic even at the thought of a challenge of that scope.

[Sephrick]

BST was designed perfectly, and with the solo player in mind.

Why do you say it was designed badly? Because it took copious amounts of work to hit 75? It did, for sure. But the rewards were monumental in terms of content that opened up to you once you were 75.

In the early years I made hundreds of millions in gil from BST (100's of Millions). Solo farming, Hakutaku runs, etc etc. Some people enjoyed the solidarity and challenge that came from leveling beastmaster. Not to mention you were a furry badass in your sheepskin AF. Everyone respected a 75 BST in the early years of FFXI.

It was hands down my favorite job in XI, and I wish they would implement it exactly now, as they did then. Which I know won't happen, because people in today's gaming society would panic even at the thought of a challenge of that scope.

It was designed badly because it was designed to be a party class. Like the ninja tank, the players did something with it that SE never thought of and they rolled with it.

[Zaaku]

I fully support the implementation of a Solo job.