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What is the purpose of pets?Follow

#1 Mar 09 2008 at 4:52 PM Rating: Good
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Lately I've started to wonder about the purpose of pets are in FFXI.

Surely if a pet was meant to deal damage, it would have gotten songs/rolls?
Surely if a pet was meant to deal damage, it would have gotten food boosts?
Surely if a pet was meant to deal damage, it would have gotten armor effects?
Surely if a pet was meant to be up front in damage range, it would have gotten ways to be healed?

The way I am thinking is that if it is meant to do the same thing as a PC, then why does it not have the same rules to play with? If the point of a pet is to have it melee, why does it not have melee benefits?

Why aren't we allowed to cure pets? We got really odd methods of simulating cures. Spirit Link, Oils, Pet food, BPs, but why would it be bad to be allowed to heal them?

Why do they not get buffs? Obviously a neutral pet is fine since they are in the game, so what makes a pet overpowered by having increased accuracy? increased attack? increased speed?

What about the food? Why does food give as much as 25% bonuses to the PC, and yet as far as anyone can tell nothing for pets. Of course eating food and then having your pet grow stronger is dumb... but isn't eating a steak and getting stronger a bit stretching it too? And since there is drinks and food, why not also pet food as their own category, which you use, but do not eat yourself.

And lastly as I mentioned, armors. Why are so many "melee job +power!" and so few "melee job +power! and some to the pet!". Ran out of lines?


I'd love to hear if someone could actually explain to me why it is this way. I just don't see the balance in this. And if there was balance in this, wouldn't people invite just as many DD BST,DRG,PUP,SMN as DD WAR,MNK,SAM? (Ignoring of course that SMN isn't a pure DD, though I'd say BST,DRG,PUP are fairly full time DD)
#2 Mar 09 2008 at 4:59 PM Rating: Decent
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I always figured its due to the fact, bst wise, monsters are still monsters, and I don't think you can carry around your pet's healthy diet of 40 crabs an hour..

Then again you can carry 60 beds so w/e.

The reason people don't invite those jobs a lot is because of the idiotic "lolmentality", but I dunno, the pet system is just weird in general, but it works as is so ;o

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#3 Mar 09 2008 at 5:15 PM Rating: Default
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There are 3 1/2 Pet jobs, there are 16 1/2 normal jobs.

The many are given far more because there are, obviously, more of them.
The few are given far less because because there are, obviously, less of them.

The 1/2 is Drg by the way. Drg is perfectly fine without it's wyvern. This doesn't really apply to Bst(Though they can do great damage by themselves), Pup(Nothing without Bot), and Smn(They are their subjob without Avatars).


I'm not saying I don't want to see Pet Bonus gear added, but I can see why SE has not done so.

There could be various reasons why Pets don't recieve the effects of songs. Maybe Monster's can't possibly comprehend the music that is being played, therefore they obtain no effects from the song.

I could see food being added for pets. That would make sense really. Well, not for 'Bots and Avatars, but for Wyverns and Monsters.

A lot of these things would be nice, but I don't think they'll ever happen, mainly because they aren't exactly needed. They would just be a bonus honestly.
Like Mnk/Rng/Smn/Blu/Cor/Pup/Dnc/Sch JSE >.>
#4 Mar 09 2008 at 5:20 PM Rating: Good
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Pets are probably the most underestimated power in the game. I've seen small groupings of pet jobs accomplish that which normally only large groups of other jobs could do. Just imagine what a large group of pet jobs could accomplish.
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#5 Mar 09 2008 at 5:21 PM Rating: Decent
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Combined DoT = ftw.


Also,a Dragoons... Dragon... is for the /blush emote and the /dance motion.


Seriously, I giggle like a school girl sometimes still when I do it. Smiley: blush
#6 Mar 09 2008 at 6:13 PM Rating: Default
Mellowy Mellowy Mellowy... is there a single post without you involving SMN?

My point of view is: I _think_ SE didn't want to have pet jobs having pets out 24/7 _originally_, as pets used to have restrictions for not making them viable:

BST used to have -exp% with a pet.
DRG used to have a 2 hour cooldown.
SMN have a perpetation cost.
PUP came out in ToAU, so it's not involved in my argument.

However players actually wanted to have pets full time out, so SE made adjustments:

BST have no exp penalties anymore (save when you using a pet higher than EM).
DRG have a nice 20 (?) minutes cooldown and a 2 hour which is very cool (solo Light SC is nice).
PUP came to exist.

SMN should get an overhaul sooner or later, think the spirits update may (or may not) help a bit.
#7 Mar 09 2008 at 6:15 PM Rating: Decent
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I think you're highly underestimating the power of a bst's pet or an avatar. I can watch tv while my pet beats the crap out of toughs and VTs.
#8 Mar 09 2008 at 6:53 PM Rating: Good
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The two answers I have for that last question:

1.) SE never expected XI to turn out the way it did, and for it to go the direction it is now heading. I honestly believe SE (in RoTZ timeframe) wanted BST to be the soloing job, DRG to fight in parties w/o their wyvern and solo w/ it (if they didn't think that, they really must have been drinking something when they made wyverns so freakingly weak to AoEs), and SMN to only bring out their avatar for a strong melee atk, magic atk, or overall pt buff, like how SMNs have been playing since old FF games. I believe they thought "Hey, we will just adjust it as the game goes" and kind of left them like that, and now that the game dynamic has changed so drastically from RoTZ days (regular pt with skillchain-MB setup) they are really scared to do a serious overall adjustment to a job for the off-chance they may displease the community in an extreme manner (good example: penta thrust nerf; it left DRG with such a bad stigma that I think people are still dealing with it (well, I've been getting good pt invites with DRG as of late, but that could be just me)).

2.) SE fears what curing or buffing a pet would do to the solo capability of BSTs. BST kind of set the line when it comes to pet jobs. DRG being able to control, cure, and buff their wyverns? Now you have a pet that can tank the mob for a couple seconds while you spam spells for Healing Breaths. SMN having buffs and cures on avatars? Give them a RDM and a BRD and you got a tanking machine for BCNMs. PUPs that can buff and cure their puppets? A six-man party with only three people. I'm scared to say that would happen to BST if you could buff and cure your pet.

Don't get me wrong, all those ideas you said I would love to see without a doubt but I believe SE would not ever do it just due to the fact of the overall adjustments they would have to do to compensate for the added survivability of the pets.

..... and you know SE, this are the people who say a boomerang WS is out of the PS2 limitations yet they can still pump out new expansions, abilities, weapon skills, new types of combat, and tons and tons and tons and tons of random equipment and items ppl don't use. :P
#9 Mar 09 2008 at 7:07 PM Rating: Good
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SE has repeatedly said that they want Smns to have their Avatars out far, far more then they do at the moment...

That's a pretty good indication that the job is not being played as they had initially wanted it to be.
#10 Mar 09 2008 at 7:47 PM Rating: Good
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Pet jobs have always been intentionally 'nerfed' to prevent being overpowered and thus more work for SE to fix.

SMN wanted avatars to be out, but made avatar purp high pre-endgame, avatar melee damage outside BPs lol on exp mobs and accuracy a joke. Wiff my Ifrit, hit the air like there is no tomorrow~ The spirit thing looks interesting though.

SE wanted BSTs to solo but because there is hardly any solo content at endgame if you are a first job player your screwed once you hit 75 since the accomplishment leads to nothing but: 'lol ur a bst, go lvl a real job'

On the 8th day SE created Colibri, and the DRGs were estatic that they were top tier at something. The wyvern is still piddly, cant eat aoes and is subject to getting owned in direct combat with little the DRG can do outside a spirit link. Perhaps those wyvern pacts will be amazing and we'll see those little blue bombers do a fang rush or radiant breath.

Puppetmaster got one of the best updates that wasnt 'omg nerf pup' recently and yet the job still isnt getting the acceptance by the playerbase and places in the endgame scene.

Sadly the game boils down to endgame in one way or another and when certain jobs have few practical endgame applications simply because SE is afraid they are going to 'break the game'something is wrong. Making avatar accuracy decent isnt going to end vanadiel, BST having options in the endgame isnt going to shut the servers down and pets overall having the ability to get buffs isnt going put the game outta business.

#11 Mar 09 2008 at 7:48 PM Rating: Excellent
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much as I hate to say it, being a 74 BST myself.

Quote:
SE fears what curing or buffing a pet would do to the solo capability of BSTs


This is probably more than anything else the reason that pets as a whole haven't been given the buff they so richly deserve. Bst's, and to a lesser extent smn's, already solo mobs for xp that a normy party wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
#12 Mar 09 2008 at 8:15 PM Rating: Good
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Surely, if a pet was for anything but looking cute, they'd stop ******** with their emotes and spend that time towards adding useful things.
#13 Mar 09 2008 at 8:17 PM Rating: Excellent
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Good post. I feel that pet jobs excel on weaker mobs that don't matter but become much weaker as you go up to higher level mobs. 2 hander jobs seem weak on lower level mobs but excel on the tough stuff. Balance? I dunno, I wish my BST was decent on mobs that mattered.
#14 Mar 09 2008 at 8:25 PM Rating: Decent
TauuOfSiren wrote:
Good post. I feel that pet jobs excel on weaker mobs that don't matter but become much weaker as you go up to higher level mobs. 2 hander jobs seem weak on lower level mobs but excel on the tough stuff. Balance? I dunno, I wish my BST was decent on mobs that mattered.


Ok. Let's put a DD against a decently tough NM with nothing else but themselves and w/e they wanna bring.

Now, let's have that same NM surrounded by charmable mobs. Pretty sure the BST would have an easier time. Maybe I don't understand BST.
#15 Mar 09 2008 at 8:48 PM Rating: Excellent
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Ok. Let's put a DD against a decently tough NM with nothing else but themselves and w/e they wanna bring.

Now, let's have that same NM surrounded by charmable mobs. Pretty sure the BST would have an easier time. Maybe I don't understand BST.


That's very nice of you to say, but it's not right. In fact, the DD has the better chance, as they will simply wait until the BST gets the enemy low on health, then steal it and finish it themselves.
#16 Mar 09 2008 at 9:06 PM Rating: Excellent
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That's very nice of you to say, but it's not right. In fact, the DD has the better chance, as they will simply wait until the BST gets the enemy low on health, then steal it and finish it themselves.


Quoted for the mother effing, NM-stealing, BST-******** truth.
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#17 Mar 09 2008 at 9:35 PM Rating: Default
SE is new to the MMO scene and as a JP company they tend to have different and sometimes obscure philosophies when it comes to introducing content based on how they envisioned them with no regard to how the player base will actually utilize what they implement.

BST was not intended to be a solo job, SE has made this clear a long time ago. If BST was meant to be a solo job they prolly wouldn't have had an EXP penalty which was obviously implemented to prevent BSTs from soloing and playing in parties for decent exp. BSTs over-came the penalty by fighting T+ mobs making the penalty negligable and later removing it since theirs no point in having it since we've been bypassing the penalty for years. This made soloing easier of course allowing peeps to fight mobs as low as DC for continuous EXP gains.

BST was meant for mob control in parties where if links were pulled BSTs could take care of them with very little problems. I realized this back when I got some party invites to crawlers nest. I would handle the links while the party focused on the main target, this happened several times through-out the party and each time would have ended in a wipe had I not been their, or rather, had they not had a BST. I would also say BST is prolly the best puller in the game since it doesn't matter if a BST pull links since once their pets die agro drops and the link despawns and we whip out another jug pet. with the addition of snarl we now make viable tanks, the fact snarl only works with jug pets shows they still want BST in parties and not soloing.

They try not to make pet jobs too strong of course they don't want them soloing since with the amount of soloing thats already taking place their tends to be problems with soloers encroaching on party camps. the more soloing that takes place the more discrepancies that arise between soloers and party-goers. Even though I leveled BST I always *face-palm* when a BST shows up and kills EXP for me and my party lol

The problem may lie in the fact that the penalties of the Pet jobs precede the jobs strenghts. for the longest peeps only saw BST as a EXP gimper, not a DD/Tank/Puller/Mob controller.

SMN is seen as PL you can have within your party and not a DD/Support(and prolly puller in some cases).

DRG was seen as gimp when their wyvern died and had to wait for their 2-hour cool-down and not as a decent DD.

PUP was seen as a skill-chain ruiner rather than a.. I guess as DDs/Healers/Support, I'm not too familiar with them other than the object is to manipulate them to do what you want them too, like.. Puppetmasters.
#18 Mar 09 2008 at 10:15 PM Rating: Good
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Quote:
Quote:
Good post. I feel that pet jobs excel on weaker mobs that don't matter but become much weaker as you go up to higher level mobs. 2 hander jobs seem weak on lower level mobs but excel on the tough stuff. Balance? I dunno, I wish my BST was decent on mobs that mattered.
Ok. Let's put a DD against a decently tough NM with nothing else but themselves and w/e they wanna bring.

Now, let's have that same NM surrounded by charmable mobs. Pretty sure the BST would have an easier time. Maybe I don't understand BST.


you understand bst just fine. What you got wrong was the situation the original poster was describing. bst pets are great for killing ONE mob if you're willing to sacrifice time, its basically the same as DOT killing a mob just instead of using bio for a couple hundred damage and bind/gravity to keep it from killing us, we use another mob for both of those.

BUT, in the xp situtation, which I think is what tauu was talking about, pets (of all types) are at a huge disadvantage of either costing time(bst and drg) or mp(smn) while still having the extra disadvantage of poor accuracy/att/defense.
NPC's in this game have really ****-poor stats. as an example wiki has greater colibri's defense as ~322. Almost any melee can exceed that number quite easily wearing AF and popping defender, hell knights minne IV gives +49 defense 15% of a greater colibri's natural def. Soul voice minee III + IV and you're halfway to a colibri even naked.

another example: a ninja geared to dd will still evade 30-40% of just about every EM mobs attacks before counting shadows. a normal mob, and I can speak from experience here, will evade about 12% of an EM version of the same damn mob. If I ever bothered to parse myself soloing I know I'd be very close to capped accuracy in my CHR gear with a tav taco as food, let alone when I throw on that potent belt or haubergeon and choke down tuna sushi.
#19 Mar 09 2008 at 10:42 PM Rating: Excellent
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The short answer: They're disposable.

In the case of SMN, get enough -perp gear, Apollo's staff, Carby Mitts, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting, and Carby kiting becomes possible. Only thing the SMN really needs here is kiting room and for Carby to not die in less than 4-5 hits.

For BST, as long as you have a good supply of pets that can reliably hit your target and the ability to move around safely, the only thing you have to fear is a mischarm.

When it comes to DRG, this is something that's evolved more as the game's gone by. DRG/BLU with Ethereal Earring is a pretty monstrous solo machine. DRG/mage in large groups can pump out some respectable progress in various activities, too.

PUP is probably the riskiest of the solo pet types, since the master is in along with the automaton trying to kill the mob before it kills them. A.D.D. was more prevalent before a past patch, but it still exists to a degree.


Overall, I'm not really against pet job improvements, but there comes a point where the above disposable nature of pets must be considered, otherwise you essentially become 2 capable party members in 1 slot. Should that point ever come to pass, what drawbacks should there be for allowing your pet to die? Small EXP loss from the master? Sharp drop in MP? Having to take it back to Whitegate for repairs? Mining a new egg? I can't see anyone liking those sadistic solutions.
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#20 Mar 09 2008 at 10:46 PM Rating: Default
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I think pets should get songs rolls. They already have a way to heal them, with spirit link and pet food (or in SMN case just dismiss, and call again). For SMN there has to be a limit, or they could solo any mob in the game, and that limit is MP. For BST its the same thing. They last so long, even against some very hard mobs, because ATK and DEF is lvl based, and not based on gear/buffs. If a BST could heal their pet with MP, or even another job in the party could do the same, the pet would last sooooooooooooooooooooo long. That's the limiting factor to pet jobs, it wouldnt be balanced, if an avatar could be out for an hour fighting an NM (carby pretty much does this now, but hes not exactly the strongest). As it is, pet jobs dont worry about status ailments on their pets, while it might be annoying, all they really do is increase the amount of time it takes to kill the mob they are fighting.

As far as the pets acc/atk, i think there should be some adjustments. But its apparently not that far off, as pet jobs as of this moment, can solo T-VT mobs SOLO! Yes it takes longer then a tp burn party, but your doing it solo, and getting solo exp for it, and smaller chains.


Admittedly i dont know much about pup (except that that cure 5 never goes off right before i die). I prefer a healer that can heal me at will when it coems to pup being a support job. Last time i party with a blm pup, the spells did craptastic damage, and so did the master. So i really dont know what pup needs, im not going to lvl it, so ill just have to take my info from the rest of you on that.





Edited, Mar 10th 2008 2:53am by acepod
#21 Mar 09 2008 at 10:56 PM Rating: Decent
So they want to be able to do what SAM did post first 2h update/pre-"nerf"?

They're DD's. That's what they do. They're fairly limited to doing that. A pet job has a wider range of things they can do.

I'm not against pet updates at all. I think the no xp loss thing for charmed pets was a good thing that was loooooong coming. This SMN update COULD be a good thing. The pet buffs is awesome as well.

I'm just saying you can't compare what a BST does to what a straight up 2h DD does. Two different beasts (pun definatly intended).

What a SMN can do? Astral Flow is just about one of the best thing for many BCNM fights. I've seen great damage come from SMN's and their soloing ability is good in certain situations. They also have some awesome buffs/debuffs.

PUP I'm not too familiar with but they have alot of tricks up their sleeve and I'm still not sure the mechanics with which they operate but I think they could still use some tweaking.

DRG can be nasty as hell if geared right. DRG is a good example of a pet job with DD capabilities because it is just that. The pet takes a much smaller back role job than with the other pet jobs, however.


It is, of course, not these jobs fault that the community doesn't realize exactly what they can do. Many people just look at output of this or that. The whole picture, however, is a different story.

Buffs on pets = yay
#22 Mar 10 2008 at 12:43 AM Rating: Excellent
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With the update party buffs should now affect our NPC fellowship companions... so now my Khuma can get songs and yet my wyvern is still cured third party. >.> I'm just glad that the majority of the Whm I leveled with were sympathetic about Spirit Link. I remember a few who would get quite angry...

As a Drg main I know that my Toryu's dmg and acc is decent enough where he can pull hate off my occasionally. That turns into a bad situation instantly because his death = my death if timer isn't up (which is some interesting irony there lol).

So imho it's the wyvern's durability that hurts us. His Hp, def, and eva are all terrible >.> I won't invest my merits in Empathy because it won't have a large enough impact to cover the wyvern terrible survivability. SE seem's to be *trying* to give pet buffs with some of the newer armor, but honestly pet buffs shouldn't come from the players gear to begin with. *I* need my armor buffs >.>

A simple and blanced change I could see is to give Wyvern's armor slots, and give Bst special pet foods that give buffs/stat ups. Smn could likely use another way to recycle mp aside from Spirit Taker. (No clues on Pup, haven't played, known, or pt'd with any ^_^")
#23 Mar 10 2008 at 1:02 AM Rating: Excellent
sscearcev wrote:
NPC's in this game have really ****-poor stats. as an example wiki has greater colibri's defense as ~322. Almost any melee can exceed that number quite easily wearing AF and popping defender, hell knights minne IV gives +49 defense 15% of a greater colibri's natural def. Soul voice minee III + IV and you're halfway to a colibri even naked.


Mobs have vastly, vastly more HP (and do more damage in many cases) than any player, so ultimately it doesn't matter that much. Even if the mob takes more damage than I do, it's got 4k HP. I've seen the Funguar jug absorb 2400 damage and still have a third left over, and it only caps in the sixties pre-BA.
Hell, any player over 50 will have a rough time of it vs. an EP. It's hard to argue that a player, even a well-geared one, is a match for a mob of his equal level in brute endurance.

Colibris also have got to be some of the weakest mobs ever. Only in ToAU can I chain VTs with a DC pet. Smiley: oyvey

#24 Mar 10 2008 at 4:08 AM Rating: Excellent
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Quote:

Quote:
Ok. Let's put a DD against a decently tough NM with nothing else but themselves and w/e they wanna bring.

Now, let's have that same NM surrounded by charmable mobs. Pretty sure the BST would have an easier time. Maybe I don't understand BST.



That's very nice of you to say, but it's not right. In fact, the DD has the better chance, as they will simply wait until the BST gets the enemy low on health, then steal it and finish it themselves.


Hire this man.

Edited, Mar 10th 2008 8:09am by RattyBatty
#25 Mar 10 2008 at 5:10 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
As far as the pets acc/atk, i think there should be some adjustments. But its apparently not that far off, as pet jobs as of this moment, can solo T-VT mobs SOLO! Yes it takes longer then a tp burn party, but your doing it solo, and getting solo exp for it, and smaller chains.


Considering RDM,NIN,BLU,DNC,BLM can solo T-VT I'm not sure why this is an argument for not allowing pets to get buffs or food or armor enhancements or being able to be cured.

I'd even believe a SAM/DNC could solo T-VT especially with a soboro.

So we have a whole load of jobs who can solo AND get buffs/food/upgrades and we have pet jobs who can't. I'm just wondering why, and the closest explanation I've seen in this thread is how replaceable pets are.

But replaceable is not a desired function in a normal situation. Being able to let a pet die is useful sometimes. Being able to deal damage is always useful.

Balance is important, but being useful is important too. Being skilled at dying doesn't rank high in a party. Good if you expect the mob to cast meteor or ga IV I bet, but how many monsters do that?


The thing that strikes me as odd is the balance of max-min. You can have a crap equipped BST with pet, and a crap equipped WAR, and you can have an excellent equipped BST with pet, and an excellent equipped WAR. How does the balance handle these modifications? I would assume the BST in crap gear does better than the WAR due to the pet, but is that really a good game design? Pet jobs being the kings in a poorly equipped party, but being poor in a good party?



Maybe pets should just inherit your own stats in some way to make them scale along with yourself. A hasted BST would get a hasted pet. This would mean a good equipped BST has a good pet, while a poorly equipped BST has a poor pet.
#26 Mar 10 2008 at 7:21 AM Rating: Good
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certain pets can simply tank. DC slug in pashhow (S) can solo campaign quadavs (regular ones, not the NMs) with relative ease. I have seen an EM slug go right through 3 DC crabs in that same zone and still be over 50% health.
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