[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Just to add on top of what was said before (and rather than make a new topic, I'll just hijack this one), there really hasn't been a lot of pet accuracy gear out there and what we have seen is pretty recent.

Herder's Subligar with Treasure Casket update and now this ACP series of armors.

Before this it was always Pet Def and otherwise, Pet Accuracy and Attack buffs only came directly from COR. We still don't even have data for Puppet and Beast Rolls years after the addition of COR. And aside from low-man pet situations and SMN PTs, I can't say I've used them much.

Looking back on all the other adjustments made to BST, the only real things SE has left to do with BST would be:

(1) Buff BST for the EXP PT/Endgame situations
(2) Let pets grow in power over time in the EXP/solo situations, but not so much it overrides Familiar.
(3) New Jug pets

I think BST as the player character deserves a little job trait buffage. Killer effects are all well and good, but they don't do much for PTs. Melee traits would be something, even if it was something as small as Accuracy Bonus I.

If SE keeps supplying this pet accuracy/attack gear, then they may not need to do much with the pets themselves. The pet "growth" concept that was applied to DRG actually was initially intended for BST, but they weren't sure about giving it to BST given the nature of jug times and charmed pets. We may see something like that on the pet end in the future.

Also, the job designer wanted to see BSTs have a "wide knowledge" of beasts, so this may mean more Jogs are on the way. We're certainly due some new jugs, all things considered with new mobs appearing in ToA and WotG.

I think SE should have a little more fun with the Jug pets, though. Since we're restricted from charming certain mobs, it would be nice to have Jug pet versions of them, even if they have to be really soft on the HP or have low jug timers.

Also think SE needs to relax some of the restrictions placed in BST and certain areas. Yeah, i can see why they don't want us with Malaboros, Minotuars or Piestes, but then they turn around and let us charm Lou Carloths and Ladybugs, which have some nasty and powerful abilities. Plus if BLU can learn some of these abilities, why can't some of these be jugs?

But I do think BST deserves a jug for each charmable mob alignment.

We have Aquan, Plantoid, Beast, Vermin and Lizard jugs. Its time to cough up some Bird and Amorph jugs, SE.

Colibris and Slugs, also preferably ladybug jugs, too.

That aside, I don't think it would kill SE to let us charm hpemdes and Xomits in sea. Add bats to palace in sky and some kind of vermin inside the sea palace. I mean, birds and trees are outside in sky, so not too farfetched to expect bats in the palace. They're in all the other zilart ruins anyway.

[Malacite]

Well IIRC SE said they want to adjust BST so that we gain an advantage for using the right jug pets against the right enemy (monster correlation) other than simply intimidating them.

I think the best thing they could do for the BST itself is make the Killer traits work the way they did in previous FF's (increased damage to those enemy types). Maybe a 25% boost? (about what piercing weapons get on birds, etc) it can't be too high for balance sake but it would give BST an appropriate edge.

I mean, what's the point of studying and knowing everything about wildlife when you can't even figure out how to kill 'em more efficiently? doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Note that this would also apply to PLD DRK SAM and BLU as well.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If Killer Effects meant something a little more than intimidation, we might actually see more utility out of those jobs and see camps we rarely even see.

Though SAM and DRG could prove to be problematic. Some of the bigger baddies out there are demons and dragons. Not only are these not common encounters, neither are Arcana.

Undead, though, there are plenty of those.

[LadyKiKi]

Also think SE needs to relax some of the restrictions placed in BST and certain areas. Yeah, i can see why they don't want us with Malaboros, Minotuars or Piestes, but then they turn around and let us charm Lou Carloths and Ladybugs, which have some nasty and powerful abilities.

In ... Halvung, the scorpion "Antares" there is uncharmable, yet the equivalent in Gustav is... god knows why

If it could be charmed I'd wreck some of the NMs there ... but ..

[Raydeus]

Did SE add control over TP moves from pets? If they haven't then that's one request I have for them.

My BST is only 45 or something but I intend on taking it to 75 this time around (I really like the AF and even have some Dynamis pieces ready for it.) Heck maybe I should take Mirke and go with Acc+10 P.Acc+15 instead of worrying about the crappy RDM armor.

[Malacite]

No Sic is still for some ridiculous reason completely random. It'd be nice if we could control what TP moves our pet uses (and the same goes for automatons and spells/WS but that'd be more complicated because of maneuvers)

[LadyKiKi]

When someone completes an Aymur then we might have some hope in regards to Sic.

Speculations I've read from people include it (not all at once) allowing you to pick a TP move, the effect/power of the move is increased, pet will use TP attacks more often (when TP reaches 100%).

The axe's unique description reads: Enhances "Sic" effect

Well, while we mentioned that, I'll add to it. When Sic is used, the TP consumption for the pet is halved. Given the general idea of Mythic Weapons so far I think it's pretty reasonable (in terms of expecting it to be awesome and turning out to be not quite as good as we hoped)

[Losrase]

my two cents

Killer effects:
For BST pet: I always felt that killer effects should have worked kind of like monster correlation for BLU but the + to damage should work for melee attacks. Damage reduction for taking damage for animals it is strong to. (A animal would know the best way to take down its prey with little damage to itself)

For the BST: I always felt that killer effects should have worked like monster correlation for BLU but the + to damage should work for melee attacks. (A hunter should know the weak points of an animal.)

Sic:
For Charmed Pets: I think it should work like the commands in Parkration (sp?). Basically the commands will tell the pet to either do an enfeeble WS, damage WS (includes spell casting), defense buff WS, or healing WS. (A wild animal wont know which WS you want them to do but they would know that type of WS)

For Jug Pets: I think you should be able to pick which WS you would want the jug pet to use. (Jug pets I feel are trained pets, hince the lower HP for time spent for training them...for example, the not trying to kill you when the timer is up)

[Boldfinger]

When I first saw the options I immediately thought Pet Accuracy and Pet Attack were the way to go, now some of you have me wondering if Pet Accuracy and 2% Pet DA & Crits is the way to go...

If the maths is the same, Pet Accuracy +15 should be the same as a bonus to Pet Hit rate +7.5%, right? I'm happy to take that over 2% Pet DA & Crits. However, can anyone tell me how Pet Attack +15 weighs up against 2% Pet DA & Crits?

I'm guessing that since I predominantly use CC over jugs that natively have DA, the Pet Attack +15 is the better option. Unless I were to switch to a jug that natively had DA, or if the augment grants DA to jugs that wouldn't normally have it, then I'm not sure at all.

I'm looking for some guidance here. Anyone?

[Armando]

Go with the Attack.

DA+2% is a 2% boost to DoT and TP gain speed if the mob has no DA (1.02/1 = 1.02) or a 1.8% boost if it does (1.12/1.10 = 1.0181818).

+15 Attack will be a bigger boost than that and the crit rate, especially against higher level mobs your pet can't damage easily.

[Ketaru]

Did SE add control over TP moves from pets? If they haven't then that's one request I have for them.

No, everytime somebody asked for them on other popular forums, you got the usual ninnies who go "Oh...but...but...if they did that, AmigoSabotender would be 1000 Needles spam and...and...overpowered-like!" Seeing as BLU has it available as spell, I'd say...apparently not seeing as most don't even use it.

I swear, every other job in this game realizes what an incomplete job BST is and would not oppose an update to it. From what I've seen, BSTs do more arguing for not improving the job than anybody else.

As for Mirke Waldecors, I can't seem to justify buying ACP just to get body armor. Everytime the thought of gear that augments pets comes along, I run into the same problem that I find with COR's pet rolls: to get a buff for your pets, you yourself have to suffer a relative drop in performance. And I find, when it comes to jug pets, most of the time, you're going to outperform your pet without any buffs. Royal Redingote is just out of the question, since the only direction that would lend anything different in terms of gear from what I have now is to make it a RDM nuking piece. Or worse, making it a RDM Haub but without the STR or DEX. Oh...and it looks like arse.

An alternative idea I've considered is choosing Double Attack and Pet: Attack, to make it a sort of "Askar Korazin with pet buff", since with high Axe skill, we're normally not hurting for the Acc on Haub anyway, though Haub would still be the better choice for Rampage. See if I'm going to essentially spend money to buy gear, it's going to have to be more than just "Alternative Hauberk" which as far as meleeing is concerned, is easily one of the most full-timable gear available to us. Could go for Acc Pet: Att, but once again, that seems like it's just an alternative haub. Or I've even considered: +Acc +4 MAB, to basically make it "Haub with Primal Rend in mind" or even +4 MAB Pet: Attack or Pet: Acc, essentially making it Primal Rend+Sic gear.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally Posted by Ketaru

No, everytime somebody asked for them on other popular forums, you got the usual ninnies who go "Oh...but...but...if they did that, AmigoSabotender would be 1000 Needles spam and...and...overpowered-like!" Seeing as BLU has it available as spell, I'd say...apparently not seeing as most don't even use it.

Aside from the self buffs, just about ever Blue Magic ever in any game as been notably less powerful than the enemies that use it. BLUs don't use it til they have the accuracy and the merits to put it on one target.

Seeing they have as much chance of getting full damage out of 1,000 Needs as we have of Amigo even performing it, I think we can call this one even.

I swear, every other job in this game realizes what an incomplete job BST is and would not oppose an update to it. From what I've seen, BSTs do more arguing for not improving the job than anybody else.

Right, because every other job in the game knows the needs of BST
The only damage we take from the community perspective is the same damage as any other pet job - they don't parse our jobs correctly. With the proper jugs, gear and axe skill, we can compete with and potentially also exceed a Warrior's performance.

What we need at this point is less attention on the pet side and more on the main job side. We have all these killer traits, but no melee traits to call our own. If SE isn't going to give them to us like they did DRG or PUP, they need to add it through our existing traits. Those Killer Traits should do a little more than proc intimidation.

SE did make us part of the hate control department, akin to THF and DRG. Only problem there is the community no longer takes advantage of such skills, so this turns out to be more of a decent PT ability and mostly a farming/NM solo one.

Our merit abilities are mostly good, save for the Terror one.

Pet-wise, we just need our mob families better represented. I wouldn't object to a Ladybug jug, but at the same time, we have plenty of Vermin options and need focus on Bird, Amorph, Aquan and Plantoid

[quote]As for Mirke Waldecors, I can't seem to justify buying ACP just to get body armor. Everytime the thought of gear that augments pets comes along, I run into the same problem that I find with COR's pet rolls: to get a buff for your pets, you yourself have to suffer a relative drop in performance. And I find, when it comes to jug pets, most of the time, you're going to outperform your pet without any buffs. Royal Redingote is just out of the question, since the only direction that would lend anything different in terms of gear from what I have now is to make it a RDM nuking piece. Or worse, making it a RDM Haub but without the STR or DEX. Oh...and it looks like arse.

An alternative idea I've considered is choosing Double Attack and Pet: Attack, to make it a sort of "Askar Korazin with pet buff", since with high Axe skill, we're normally not hurting for the Acc on Haub anyway, though Haub would still be the better choice for Rampage. See if I'm going to essentially spend money to buy gear, it's going to have to be more than just "Alternative Hauberk" which as far as meleeing is concerned, is easily one of the most full-timable gear available to us. Could go for Acc Pet: Att, but once again, that seems like it's just an alternative haub. Or I've even considered: +Acc +4 MAB, to basically make it "Haub with Primal Rend in mind" or even +4 MAB Pet: Attack or Pet: Acc, essentially making it Primal Rend+Sic gear.

There are other rewards in ACP besides the body pieces. They have a random BC-like reward quality to them, but you can luck out an land some pretty nice augmented gear for other slots besides body. Yes its a grind to get this other gear, but then, so is everything else in the game.

Also, you're just giving us rationalizations as to why you're not getting the expansion chapter. Here's a thought - Don't make it a Hauby at all. Make it a Hybrid TP piece for you and your pet and keep Hauby for Weaponskills.

Most players in general are being dumb and making a free Hauby out of any of the bodies and selling off the Haubs. Good time to buy a Haub if there ever was one, but there's potential to get something you don't have from the ACP rewards.

[Ketaru]

Seeing they have as much chance of getting full damage out of 1,000 Needs as we have of Amigo even performing it, I think we can call this one even

I'm not calling out BLU as having a distinct advantage over BST because of 1000 Needles. But Amigo cost 4x the amount of our second most expensive jug pet. It "should" consistently outperform the others. But it turns out it is more of a gimmick. There is more to problems with Sic that are not just not being able to use the most powerful WS over and over.

For example, in situations where we are surrounded by mobs, or a mage has slept the mobs around us in an event, we often cannot use Sic for fear the pet may use an AoE attack. Just as bad, it may end up using abilities that don't do anything, Slowing the Slowed, Paralyzing the Paralyzed, and so on. Or not using abilities that might be very instrumental. it would be quite nice if you could count on Homunculus to use Dream Flower when you actually need an AoE Sleep. One might say you'd not have a need for a mage for sleep anymore, but considering mages expend MP and pet would expend TP, I'd call that fair. That's a lot of potential versatility that goes wasted.

SE did make us part of the hate control department, akin to THF and DRG. Only problem there is the community no longer takes advantage of such skills, so this turns out to be more of a decent PT ability and mostly a farming/NM solo one.

There is also the problem of hardly anything in this game needing that sort of sophistication. I've complained about it, but since most of the population plays a DD, nobody has a problem with the general way of defeating any and everything by simply throwing more DDs at it and make them capable of "zerging" it down as fast as possible (how to beat an enemy: Get 2 BRDs, get a couple of DDs with nice 2hrs, and let 'em go at it) Most THF know they are great hate control, as well as being able to put out a modest amount of damage, but they are still viewed as little more than a tool for Treasure Hunter. When hate control is put out there as a boon of a job, it is often met with a lot of eye rolls. As a result, people don't generally work with anybody on the premise of hate management. No need. Too many things in this game can be accomplished without it.

Pity too considering the continued misconceptions about the job as a damage mitigator. Contrary to a lot of opinion, jug pets do not get destroyed by merit level mobs, especially if you're diligent about using pet food (and if you know somebody who has high level cooking, Zetas are actually quite cheap to make, much cheaper than the inflated AH price would lead one to believe). But if pet has hate, people seem to instinctively provoke off it anyway. Considering the mob hitting an expendable party member is always preferable to hitting another person, I put that up there with "Lining up for SA and TA is too hard".

[Malacite]

The reason most BLU don't use 1000 Needles is because it costs 350 MP. But yes it would be nice if Sic wasn't random - _ - (sure would make Dhalmel pets a lot nicer to have around)

[Vyuru]

The reason most BLU don't use 1000 Needles is because it costs 350 MP.

And is highly resisted, is AoE and possible for it to hit other mobs and to do less damage if it does so, and why use it when 2x Disseverments will do more damage than one unresisted 1000 Needles?

Most players in general are being dumb and making a free Hauby out of any of the bodies and selling off the Haubs.

Quiet you! I want Hauby prices to drop more.