Ghiblee's responses on discord were as disappointed and disconnected as you might expect.
And her response to someone doing a quick google search to provide context on what a normal DMT sale is like.
Can't say I'm surprised by any of this though. Nexon seems like they want to further slow progression down, despite lowering Exp requirements. Hoping this all backfires on them and whoever is making these asinine decisions gets a reality check, but in all likelihood, players are desperate and will buy off sale.
I am exceptionally disappointed in how Beast Tamer was treated in v214 and calling it a revamp is nothing short of an insult. A bug fix that results in a massive nerf, a few changes that also result in nerfs and a few minor tweaks do not make this a revamp. The removal of passive stacking results in about a 50% damage loss, something very similar to the old Haku nerf from years past which took Kanna from being middling class to rock bottom.
While passive stacking was in error, the fact that Nexon came back and codified in an ability that performed essentially the same effect tells me they are at least vaguely aware of BTs need for it. Otherwise, we would have gotten just another Epic Adventure skill.
This change makes BT very unresponsive to funding, requiring significantly more investment from the player to reach the same level of play as other classes. While there may be the odd one or two individuals that are happy playing the class in the current state, it seems that the majority are not.
One note before I get any further, I am not a Beast Tamer main. My understanding of all the mechanics and playstyles is therefore limited and there are more skilled players out there that might be able to articulate better ideas.
BT suffers from an identity crisis because the developer is trying to make a single class act like four. Where all other classes in the game have 4 jobs that build off each other, allowing them to get stronger, Beast Tamer’s animals act independently. While it gives BT some unique versatility, it hampers them from excelling because the critter modes don’t interact with each other and the modes skill trees are not large or powerful enough to deal with the lack of cohesion. The lack of skill points available only exacerbates the issue.
I believe it makes sense for Beast Tamer’s animal companions to work together and passive stacking seems like a good way to do this.
The easiest way to go about this would be to modify the new hyper skill to something like the following:
All Together! Critter Crossing!: (Req. Lv. 190) Temporarily summons all of the animal spirits at the sound of Chase’s strong, magical whistle.
Lv. 1: MP Cost: 1000, Duration: 60 seconds. Skill applies all buff skills with a few exceptions, regardless of the mode. Only skills with SP invested will be kept and all buffs will disappear when this skill ends. Cooldown: 180 seconds.
Passive: All animal mode passive skills are applied regardless of mode.
The active effect mainly targets Cat and Hawk modes due to Leopard and Bear not having active buffs.
Now, while this much is simple, looking at the possible shared passives/buffs we can see that the total amount BT gets stats looking pretty absurd, and yet only that level of base stats got BT to a level playing field with other classes.
Here what I calculated as BT’s combined base stats would be, in Bear Assault but minus Gold Card. I'm sure there are some errors but it should be close enough to demonstrate things.
Main Stat: 365
Secondary Stat: 90
Crit Rate: 198
Crit Damage: 85
% Max HP: 205
% Max MP: 83
FLAT M/ATT: 415
% M/ATT: 31
Damage: 35
Boss Damage: 63
IED: 92.97536
Final Damage: 40
Much of those stats came in the v206 skill update where many passive buffs were tacked on haphazardly to skills, particularly in Hawk mode.
Thrakkes is suggesting some changes to the damage of many of BT’s skills, most of which fall in line with the more recent KMS patch that decreased the %damage of skills but increased the lines. If BT does get updated damage formulas, some of the passives are going to need to be toned down.
Eka in particular needs some work, many of the skills seemed to be filler due to the devs trying to have the same number of skills for each critter but a lack of ideas on what to make. Cat mode is also nearly as underwhelming, but I don't have many ideas on what to do with the mode outside of a full revamp and that would end up changing how the mode balances with the others.
Assuming my version of Critter Crossing where to be implemented here are some balance changes I think would be necessary.
Bear Strength: -60% crit rate
Billowing Trumpet: Removed. Boost base damage for Majestic Trumpet.
Sky Walk: Movement Speed +45
Eka Express: -10% Crit Damage. Max 1 SP
Hawk Flock: +5 Jump
Feather Cloak: Removed, stats reallocated
Regroup: -20% IED, Max 1SP
Bird’s-Eye View: Critical Rate: +15%
Razor Beak: Critical Damage: +15%
Feather Boots: Removed, stats reallocated
Vertical Draft: I’d love to have the up jump available regardless of mode.
Cat’s Wit: -80 stat
Kitty Treats: Removed
These changes are of course contingent on the damage output for Beast Tamers skill also being raised to a reasonable level, and enough skill points to max all trees being available. Certain other skills in BT’s kit could have their Max SP reduced as well. But, otherwise, I think this nicely distributes the passives between classes and doesn’t overload any one. Lots of work needs to be done on BT to get it to a respectable level, and I do hope that Nexon makes improvements soon rather than later, but until then mine will probably be benched.
The whole thing looks like it was designed in under a week by an indignant employee who lost a bet.
If normal server players are unhappy with the new familiar system, they are free like everyone else to voice their concerns. Frankly, if I were one I'd be ticked off that Nexon has decided to take a simple feature like the codex/familiars and turn it into an RNG/Grindfest/Paywalled monstrosity like so many other "features" that plague the game theses days. If the familiar system goes live the way Nexon currently has planned it is going to suck for everyone regardless of server (but it will likely be worse in Reboot).
If as the video said, one goal of the revamp was to put less emphasis on specific monsters, I think they will have failed. Like others have mentioned, players are going to gravitate to familiars that they can easily grind because familiars from higher-level areas just won't worth grinding cards for if you can't get a decent potential.
