Creating Beastmaster as a new Tank

[AriaValkyrie]

Hello Tank friends!
I'm usually over in the DPS forums messing with making new job concepts, where I've made things like Green Mage, Ranger, Sword Saint, and Time Mage, and felt like taking a crack at making Beastmaster, since people keep saying it would only ever be a limited job.
I feel there's certainly room to give the feel of a Beastmaster without needing to make them a limited job, so I've been working on a concept for them with some feedback from folks over there. The more I thought about the role though, the more likely it feels that this would be better-suited as a Tank than a DPS. So I wanted to check how all of you would feel about some things, and maybe get some feedback from you for the types of things you'd like to see from this when I mock up some tooltips, later in the process

Currently, the general theme for them is tandem assaults with the various Beasts, each of them changing the way the Beastmaster's general weaponskills work.

So far, they are not pets like SMN's Bahamut/Phoenix, Mch's Automaton Queen, or Living Shadow. Instead they're activated as a GCD, performing some sort of attack and essentially giving a duration buff for them to last, possibly with a stack system, and appear and attack whenever you do, like Reaper's Avatar on a GCD, vanishing after the hit.

This way, there's no stress about input delay from pets, nor with properly aiming conal/line aoes from them.


Currently, the beasts in the lineup are:

A younger version of Dawon, since Lyon's a big influence on how several things are going to work. and they fill a good niche.
A Behemoth
A Coeurl
A Fenrir type of enemy, or at least a wolf
A Malboro (maybe)
A Manticore, or the croc version

Plus a Beetle for some defensive cooldowns, and a Mandragora for some self-heals.

And as of now, they are going to be a one-handed axe and shield wielder, but certainly could change!

This is all still very early my planning phase, but since I haven't made a tank yet I was curious if anyone here had some ideas, or some hopes for a potential addition to the Tank lineup!
Would love to add additional flavor to this, especially with feedback, or to hear what sort of beasties y'all would like to add to the repertoire rather than/in addition to the ones above!

[Kesey]

Hello Tank friends!
I'm usually over in the DPS forums messing with making new job concepts, where I've made things like Green Mage, Ranger, Sword Saint, and Time Mage, and felt like taking a crack at making Beastmaster, since people keep saying it would only ever be a limited job.
I feel there's certainly room to give the feel of a Beastmaster without needing to make them a limited job, so I've been working on a concept for them with some feedback from folks over there. The more I thought about the role though, the more likely it feels that this would be better-suited as a Tank than a DPS. So I wanted to check how all of you would feel about some things, and maybe get some feedback from you for the types of things you'd like to see from this when I mock up some tooltips, later in the process

Currently, the general theme for them is tandem assaults with the various Beasts, each of them changing the way the Beastmaster's general weaponskills work.

So far, they are not pets like SMN's Bahamut/Phoenix, Mch's Automaton Queen, or Living Shadow. Instead they're activated as a GCD, performing some sort of attack and essentially giving a duration buff for them to last, possibly with a stack system, and appear and attack whenever you do, like Reaper's Avatar on a GCD, vanishing after the hit.

This way, there's no stress about input delay from pets, nor with properly aiming conal/line aoes from them.


Currently, the beasts in the lineup are:

A younger version of Dawon, since Lyon's a big influence on how several things are going to work. and they fill a good niche.
A Behemoth
A Coeurl
A Fenrir type of enemy, or at least a wolf
A Malboro (maybe)
A Manticore, or the croc version

Plus a Beetle for some defensive cooldowns, and a Mandragora for some self-heals.

And as of now, they are going to be a one-handed axe and shield wielder, but certainly could change!

This is all still very early my planning phase, but since I haven't made a tank yet I was curious if anyone here had some ideas, or some hopes for a potential addition to the Tank lineup!
Would love to add additional flavor to this, especially with feedback, or to hear what sort of beasties y'all would like to add to the repertoire rather than/in addition to the ones above!

Why can't the monster they "master" just be the monster they're tanking?

They should have a cooldowns called things like "Eye of the tiger" or "Call of the Wild".
Attacks like "White Fang" "Bear Claw" or "Cat Scratch"
And a utility like "Eyes on me"

Everyone who wants this to have a pet or a pet like thing are over thinking it. The beastmaster controls the monster. Just like the tank controls the boss.

[MagiusNecros]

Unless they revamp the Chocobo Companion system they will either go a Lyon Helsos route or do something where the Beastmaster becomes the actual monster.

[Aluja89]

I'm not going bother you with playstyle ideas, I'll leave that to you since you seem to enjoy figuring it out but I got a few visual ideas that might give BST a unique flair.

What if instead of a shield they use a thick chain instead, that acts like a makeshift shield when rolled around the arm? It could also be attached to the axe for a burst phase for example.

I also believe that the beast companions should be unique creatures like Dawon and max 3 creatures of varying sizes.

[AriaValkyrie]

Why can't the monster they "master" just be the monster they're tanking?

I thought about adding some control skills like that, but I feel like that wouldn't make sense for certain fights. Especially when fighting people, or robots.

Cooldowns I think I have a grasp on, at least conceptually.

I've been taking heavy inspiration from Lyon for this, at least to show how the general playstyle could work
But a lot of weaponskills are named after his attacks. Easy to change them if need be.

Unless they revamp the Chocobo Companion system

Also the Chocobo Companion system could certainly use an update, but I would assume that a job like Beastmaster would have at least a trait to buff your Chocobo while they're out. Might not see use in raids or most fights but it'd be thematic.

It would be very cool to let you use your chocobo as a Beast but there's probably too much variation there to properly work that. Would be a tall order to require someone to max their chocobo for their beastmaster damage. unless they did revamp the chocobo companion system

the Beastmaster becomes the actual monster

This one I considered too, where the beast fully replaced the Beastmaster and getting temp HP or something like that. Problem is, I don't want this to be only an off-tank role, and tying something like a Beast, which would likely have better damage than the Beastmaster itself, to a shield like effect wouldn't end up good. And even if it just fully replaced them, it would be strange to have beast getting KO'd = Beastmaster getting KO'd.

[AriaValkyrie]

What if instead of a shield they use a thick chain instead, that acts like a makeshift shield when rolled around the arm? It could also be attached to the axe for a burst phase for example.

Chain is an interesting idea. Would make it so shields aren't doubled up on for the off hand slot, and could use it as a whip. Certainly fitting, given the history of Beastmaster in other games using whips.
Could be other materials than just a chain, too, like a proper whip or something. Might be tricky to work visually, unless it just wrapped around the wrist at like a few inches out or something to not clip through armors.

Problem is the few beastmasters we have seen have all wielded shields too. Could be something new for this, of course. Its something to consider, at least.