Beastnaster feedback post-release

[Pricia]

First, beats in Limsa just add lag. I understand that they will mostly go away once people are done leveling and focus on crucible, but... I wish there was an option to turn them off.

Second, it's still overly complicated IMO, but I assume it's the point, considering you added ranked and all/

Third, it's been mentioned already, rank is a terrible idea.

Fourth, crucible feedback. I enjoy it a lot but... only 5 coins as reward? Not even a chest? It's... a letdown. Just a boring grind with no incentive to keep going once you have the stuff (because, really, I'm not gonna bother with ranked, there's just no point).

So, once again, good in theory... in practice it will keep us busy a few weeks. Disappointing.

[Malevolence]

First, beats in Limsa just add lag. I understand that they will mostly go away once people are done leveling and focus on crucible, but... I wish there was an option to turn them off.

Second, it's still overly complicated IMO, but I assume it's the point, considering you added ranked and all/

Third, it's been mentioned already, rank is a terrible idea.

Fourth, crucible feedback. I enjoy it a lot but... only 5 coins as reward? Not even a chest? It's... a letdown. Just a boring grind with no incentive to keep going once you have the stuff (because, really, I'm not gonna bother with ranked, there's just no point).

So, once again, good in theory... in practice it will keep us busy a few weeks. Disappointing.

Am only just starting on Beastmaster, but like Blue Mage, I really am enjoying it so far. I love the lore and gear and the combat, but as noted, have only just started to no Crucible experience yet. If anything like The Masked Carnivale I will likely enjoy it a lot as well. I think my only real complaint is the 'beasts' are fairly underwhelming, but I get they're building a beastiary in the same way they built the Blue Mage spellbook (weaker to stronger), so not everything is going to be as cool as Behemoth or Chimera.

Oh, and play on Sargantanas and didn't notice too many beasts roaming around in Limsa - honestly do not care about pets/beasts in public places I will only be at for a second. If it limits the number of people I have to see standing around glammaxxing, the more the merrier.

[LanaC]

Crucible is way too difficult and should have been an optional mode and not required to continue the BST quests, you're going to have a lot of people like myself stuck with level 30 axe and shield because of crucible.

Trying to use BST in dungeons is an exercise in futility, you have practically no sustain, no mitigations, what little you have is linked to specific beasts and gives you a sliver of mit. I joined a party today to try and do Aurum Vale and it was a disaster.

Blue mage is better in every way IMO. I'll probably level this to 50 and get what beasts I can without having to do dungeons or crucible and then probably never touch it again.

I know I'll get eviscerated for this opinion but I don't care, I'm so tired of the current trend of all the battle content being for raiders only.

[Pricia]

Crucible is way too difficult and should have been an optional mode and not required to continue the BST quests, you're going to have a lot of people like myself stuck with level 30 axe and shield because of crucible.

Trying to use BST in dungeons is an exercise in futility, you have practically no sustain, no mitigations, what little you have is linked to specific beasts and gives you a sliver of mit. I joined a party today to try and do Aurum Vale and it was a disaster.

Blue mage is better in every way IMO. I'll probably level this to 50 and get what beasts I can without having to do dungeons or crucible and then probably never touch it again.

I know I'll get eviscerated for this opinion but I don't care, I'm so tired of the current trend of all the battle content being for raiders only.

Eh no reason to play it in dungeon at all except to get a few beasts but yeah, that worm was tough. And people who rush to 50 will still get stuck in crucible with subpar beasts.

The good thing is that you get exp/coins even if you fail at least, and it gets easier with higher level beasts.

But yeah, my plan is to get the hair (and the hydra, hopefully I get lucky and find LotA parties) and then I will never touch it again, because there's no reason to bother going further as I will never reach the first 300. As I said, it's once again a total failure at keeping us playing for a while. Seriously, the only rewards being locked behind a long grind AGAIN is just... sad.

[Carighan]

I mean it's not a standard class. It's meant as an extra activity for those who want that. So it having lots of extra hoops to jump through helps, no? Means you got stuff to do with it for much longer.

The game has way too many classes already as-is. We really don't need more classes who are "just classes", in particular if they end up like the four tanks who might as well just be an extra visual glamour you pick on a single class, they're that identical in practice.

[Kaurhz]

My concern is the same as it was with Blue Mage, and frankly a leaderboard to try and pad out that replay value does not do to anything to change that fact.

Limited jobs for me are always a waste of resources, simply because they are limited. We barely have a fixed release schedule for them... They can barely interact with the game as is.

A fun job with little actual practical use is just as bad as a not-so-fun job that actually has practical use.

It feels dreadful to play, to be honest. Not much has changed outside of my initial pre-release thoughts.

[Absurdity]

Limited jobs for me are always a waste of resources, simply because they are limited. We barely have a fixed release schedule for them... They can barely interact with the game as is.

This is the big one. Limited jobs can't interact with a majority of core activities in the game, so they rely heavily on the developers to make content specifically for them.
They're basically an endless resource black hole, and a very inefficient one at that, because you're spending a significant amount of time on a single job instead of making content for all the other normal combat jobs.
And to top it off when the devs can't expend the resources to make content for the limited jobs they quickly end up collecting dust.

[Carighan]

This is the big one. Limited jobs can't interact with a majority of core activities in the game, so they rely heavily on the developers to make content specifically for them.
They're basically an endless resource black hole, and a very inefficient one at that, because you're spending a significant amount of time on a single job instead of making content for all the other normal combat jobs.
And to top it off when the devs can't expend the resources to make content for the limited jobs they quickly end up collecting dust.

And at the same time, even these "special" jobs are, frankly, underbaked. If all main combat classes had unique gimmicks this special, they'd still not be very special at all. Which speaks more about how samey and unimaginative the current classes are, having sanded off ~everything to better balance. Now of course, a Blue Mage wouldn't work well in regular combat. I get that. But why shouldn't a Red Mage have a full Black Mage and White Mage kit, and simply have each spell be slightly weaker and also cost more mana or something? Why shouldn't a Scholar be a full pet controller, wholly at the mercy of their pet's AI but in return which much stronger raw output if things work out? Why not? "It'd not be balanced!!!". Yes. But it'd be cool! And if I want balance, I'll go onto a tightrope.

[CidHeiral]

Trying to use BST in dungeons is an exercise in futility, you have practically no sustain, no mitigations, what little you have is linked to specific beasts and gives you a sliver of mit. I joined a party today to try and do Aurum Vale and it was a disaster.

That's the point. The gameplay is about using the beasts creatively, not the Beastmaster mindlessly face tanking everything.

I had a dungeon run earlier where we wiped on the last boss a few times until we were forced to talk to each other and strategize. Once we coordinated the right beasts with their buffs/debuffs, we cleared without issue. That's exactly the type of thing this game could use more of IMO.

I'm so tired of the current trend of all the battle content being for raiders only.

Something requiring a little critical thinking to succeed doesn't make it "for raiders only."

[Kaurhz]

And at the same time, even these "special" jobs are, frankly, underbaked. If all main combat classes had unique gimmicks this special, they'd still not be very special at all. Which speaks more about how samey and unimaginative the current classes are, having sanded off ~everything to better balance. Now of course, a Blue Mage wouldn't work well in regular combat. I get that. But why shouldn't a Red Mage have a full Black Mage and White Mage kit, and simply have each spell be slightly weaker and also cost more mana or something? Why shouldn't a Scholar be a full pet controller, wholly at the mercy of their pet's AI but in return which much stronger raw output if things work out? Why not? "It'd not be balanced!!!". Yes. But it'd be cool! And if I want balance, I'll go onto a tightrope.

Thing is, it's kind of... Just a paper rationale.

Blue Mage already works decently in raids, despite originally not actually being designed for them at all. They can just add immunities to certain spells. Eureka is nearly a decade old now, and the rewards are basically irrelevant courtesy of Occult.

Then when you look at the actual in-practice balance of the content....?

Palace of the Dead has just been passively reduced over time, to where how it is now, isn't even remotely how it once was, even for high floor climbing, and even then you have Blue Mage specific achievements for raids... So just add them for deep dungeon.

Eureka? We have a gigantic echo, where the only thing that presents even a modicum of challenge is spawning the capstone NMs, and even then full elemental bonus turns you immortal.. Similarly, it's a piece of content where they went... "Balance? What's that again" ... Look at the NMs themselves? They don't even last 45 seconds. Not to mention you can add immunities so that you can't just literally 1 shot everything. They even do it for quite a lot of the post-50 FATEs.

Then you look at rewards? Those freebies from Occult that decimated practically everything that isn't the relic weapon.

Then you look at Bozja... Same thing... FATEs don't even last 20 seconds because the developers still don't know how to tune FATEs... Sorry, SkIrMiShEs. Rewards also decimated.. Speaking of Bozja... How's the dead DRN instances going.

Then you look at the content it could do..? IT'S 6 YEARS OLD?!?! (edit// That is to say, I don't think it should be content locked, if it is already level locked anyway)