So, what is the hold up on Beastmaster?

[Raikai]

Multiple problems:
Pets are so much a problem SMN received a whole rework for it.
We basically have 3 types of pets in the game:
-The Glorified Dot, Automaton Queen and Living Shadow. Terrible AI, works badly against multiple targets and they're so forgettable you mistake them for players.
-The Good Bahamut&Phoenix, stands like a turret and execute Akh Morn on command. The best pet at the moment.
-The fairies, you put them in the middle and they execute order.

The thematic of Beastmaster
Beastmaster captures and use pets. This will not be possible.
I've played MMOs with this mechanic, there was always a pet superior to the other and most of the time it would break the balance.

BLU reception is mixed
Many players are complaning that BLU wasn't a full job and were disappointed about its limited status.
You can't enter content where it would shine such as Eureka, Bozja or Deep Dungeon, you can't queue as a Blue Mage, you can barely do anything as a blue mage.
What should've been a fun job with barely any limits is now an infuriated mess that can't access most of the content.

In conclusion
If Beast Master is released, it will be a generic job with a fixed pet probably close to the Glorified dots or Bahamut&Phoenix, maybe a completely new type of pet if they surprise us.
The best beast master we could have would be a generic job with a pokemon mini game as a side content.

Hm, they could combine both a regular with a limited job.

BST regular job works with one of the faux-pet options. To me a true "pet class" has the skill ceiling with the player being able to do their thing and micromanage the pet at the same time to make the most of it. I don't know if such a thing is possible with any "pet" iterations we have so far, but I also wonder if they are waiting for combat code improvements to somehow make a new thing that wasn't possible before?

And... as a side activity, let a captured pet battle other pets in a coliseum match, a la pokemon. The pet you own wouldn't change your normal PVE rotation, but they would have unique perks for these matches depending on the type.

[ICountFrom0]

Multiple problems:
Pets are so much a problem SMN received a whole rework for it.
We basically have 3 types of pets in the game:
-The Glorified Dot, Automaton Queen and Living Shadow. Terrible AI, works badly against multiple targets and they're so forgettable you mistake them for players.
-The Good Bahamut&Phoenix, stands like a turret and execute Akh Morn on command. The best pet at the moment.
-The fairies, you put them in the middle and they execute order.

The thematic of Beastmaster
Beastmaster captures and use pets. This will not be possible.
I've played MMOs with this mechanic, there was always a pet superior to the other and most of the time it would break the balance.

BLU reception is mixed
Many players are complaning that BLU wasn't a full job and were disappointed about its limited status.
You can't enter content where it would shine such as Eureka, Bozja or Deep Dungeon, you can't queue as a Blue Mage, you can barely do anything as a blue mage.
What should've been a fun job with barely any limits is now an infuriated mess that can't access most of the content.

In conclusion
If Beast Master is released, it will be a generic job with a fixed pet probably close to the Glorified dots or Bahamut&Phoenix, maybe a completely new type of pet if they surprise us.
The best beast master we could have would be a generic job with a pokemon mini game as a side content.

I see your points, but lets talk limited job.

What if we go turret type, but with a mixed random rotation of possible abilities. Lets say 5 abilities per monster. Lets say 5 monsters with some functional overlap per 10 levels. Yes, we're using the chobobo companion as the template. To make it more limited they have a HP bar, can only be healed by beastmaster abilities, and the HP bar ticks down with each action they take, giving them a timer. If they take damage in combat, that also shortens the lifespan.

This should get around the pet problems by using the only functioning pet in the game.

For the lore it's an Aetheric copy, and you learn it by fighting the monster for long enough for a bar in the book to fill up.

With this setup the right beats could be picked as needed, a tanking one with all melee attacks that do only physical damage and an ability that STEELS your agro bar for itself. A flying DPS that shirks onto you as one of it's 5 abilities and has all ranged attacks.

We're also taking the mechanic from the queen where it targets what you hit last, with the weapon being a 10 yalm range WHIP.

So we CAN get around this stuff, and mostly with borrowed code.

[Soge01]

With the way Summoner currently functions, I'd like to see Beastmaster work the same way, while giving Summoner a more Caster playstyle again while maintaining to a degree the way our egi and demi are summoned now.

The Ancients show us how we can actually carry around all our little critters via crystals. Twould be interesting to just throw our own version of those crystal seals, like pokeballs, to have our monster of choice in the moment due their super powerful ultimate attack before recrystalizing and coming back to us so we can call forth another powerful beast of our choosing.

I just want to summon my own cyclops like that and have it rain destruction on my enemies with its eye beams and club! xD

[kaynide]

I'm for BST personally, but the devs have said a lot against it.

1) I can't remember when, but devs said they do not want to do a pet job
2) There is a bit of soul searching in job development; the devs have said they kind of don't really want to add many more jobs, if any. One of the final dungeons in ShB is a tease/troll on this, as they technically added "Berserker", "Thief" and "Necromancer" to FFXIV...as bosses- jobs that many fans want, but the devs have been adamant about NOT adding.
3) BST was mentioned as being a possible limited job, but it would entirely depend on BLU's success.

In my mind, they should add BST, and they should do it as a limited job that basically copies Pokemon/acts as an activity a la Triple Triad. But eh, I dunno.


Important point, they can/do change their minds often. Ultimately it's going to be about what hypes/sells expansion packs.

[Payadopa]

Considering how terrible pet AI (especially pathing) tends to be in MMOs, I suspect they probably scrapped the idea even if they had ever considered it seriously. They've already pretty much eliminated pet function for ACN/SMN/SCH and haven't touched Chocobo Companions since HW.

And yet MMOs have it and it works. That's not a valid excuse.

[Deveryn]

And yet MMOs have it and it works. That's not a valid excuse.

To say that Pet AI works is very disingenuous. I have plenty of experience with it elsewhere and I would use the term "work" very loosely. It works in other games like XI because you're never dealing with too many mobs at a time, like you might in XIV. Pathing and aggro have also been a problem not just here, but in other MMOs.

[Payadopa]

So what? FF14 is a braindead easy game. So what if one pet does 2% more damage than another? PvE isn't competitive. And if pet balance really is a problem, just do what WoW did and allow you to stat swap pets so they all have the same level of competitiveness.

I agree. You can already go into extremes and raids without being oPtImAl. A pet is essentially like a piece of gear. It's not this outlandish, inconceivable idea.

On that note, can we just acknowledge that perfect balance is impossible and inject some much needed diversity back into the game?

[Payadopa]

Next time they'll create something fully from the ground up instead of sticking a popular job names on it.

The funny thing is, 1.0 did exactly that and people didn't like it. Maybe this time it'll be different. Who knows.

[Ameela]

The funny thing is, 1.0 did exactly that and people didn't like it. Maybe this time it'll be different. Who knows.

There's definitely a difference there though.
It's like saying everyone hating Street Fighter 3 means Capcom shouldn't make any new Street Fighter characters - the game wasn't hated because of the new characters, it was hated because of the lack of old characters.
Now that pretty much every classic FF job is represented in XIV there's nothing stopping them from coming up with original ideas.

[Iscah]

We're not talking about damage alone but mechanic as well.
What if we could capture a Morbol or Malboro and have it spew its 30 debuff on the ennemy?
Could you get the Mist dragon and freeze the ennemy?
What about the size of the ennemy? You'd have to be able to hide it or reduce its size.
What if an ennemy is able to heal, wouldn't it be broken?

If that's what people are envisaging for Beastmaster – summoning selected pets and having them use their signature attacks to fight for you – how is that any different in practice to BLU? It seems like the two jobs would just be standing on each other's toes the whole time, unless you limited BLU to only learning skills from human-type enemies, but even then it already has plenty of beast skills. You can already spit Bad Breath on your enemies, minus the practical complication of having the morbol appear on the battlefield.