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)