Questions for the Beastmasters

Shady

Shady

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Do you solo your way up to 75 or do you find pairing up with other beastmasters a good way to xp faster? How hard is it to find a party if you have your seek flag up? What are the best mobs to kill that keep your pet somewhat healthy after the battle and you out of harms way? What kind of gear is best for stat boosts? Do you typically change your subjob (and if so to what?) when you party for xp vs get it solo? What would you say is the best race for beastmaster?

Shady
 
A lot of BSTs solo their way to 75 and I have more respect for those guys than I do for anyone else in this game because that's a long, difficult and very insane road to travel. However, that long road gives them more satisfaction than any dings they'll ever get in a party. Every level on my BST gives me a bigger high than hitting 75 on RDM did. I think that sentiment is pretty much universal among BSTs. Personally, I work in a duo and while we can kill stronger prey more easily than someone who solos, but camps can sometimes be a challenge to find even more than with soloers. (If one of us dies and a gap starts building between us, the low man always solos on his own time to catch back up - so we know how both approaches work.)

Your average soloer will probably stick to Tough prey for most of his career, unless it's a suicide mob like a goblin or a bomb, which is when he can aim higher because they'll often do most of the work for you. A duo can chain 4 or chain 5 VT-IT mobs when given the opportunity, which means a good supply of pets and prey in close proximity to each other. Duos also experience far fewer pet swaps and die far less.

A BST will almost never get a party invite unless there are no other DDs or pullers seeking. Even decked out your damage will generally be lower than most other melees and people don't really expect BSTs to want parties anyway. I see more and more lower level BSTs partying these days and that's all well and good if that's how they want to play it (though they'll often be looked at like black sheeps in a job that's already seen as a black sheep). If anything, it's amusing when they try to solo because they'll often go down faster than a level 10 tarutaru WHM with Leecher aggro trying to run across the Dunes. It's fine to mix some parties in here and there, but if you don't spend part of your career soloing you never quite learn the job and its true potential. I've watched a lot of party BSTs attempt soloing and die while I've been skilling up weapons. It's like they never stop to think that hey, they might be able to charm that beetle that just aggrod them. Or they never stop to realize just how truly shitty jug pets are against mobs that will give you significant amounts of XP.

As for keeping your pet healthy, once you get Leave you really don't care much as long as you know there's something else to charm close by. Pets are expendable at that point and if you want to save them you can let them go before they get killed, making it so they can regen in their radius or despawn and pop back less than a minute later while another pets chips away at your prey. Before Leave, you're pretty much out of luck. You take whatever you can get in terms of pets and prey. That's why most people who try BST never make it to 35. You stay out of harms way by not meleeing much early on and keeping a safe distance from anything that spams AoE or uses particularly destructive ones, like bombs.

Charisma gear is important early on, though there comes a point where it starts to matter less. That said, you still keep a CHR set for Charm, along with Charm+ gear and a Light Staff when they become available. STR and Attack will get you killed early on should you choose to fight alongside your pet because you'll end up tank, if you're not in a party with an actual tank job. Evasion should probably be emphasized more pre-35 for the soloer. Perhaps defense as well. Later on when you start getting weaponskills that matter - meaning Rampage - you'll want STR, Attack and Accuracy. But not until your pets can hold hate, which takes a while. By the time you get Rampage it shouldn't be a big issue, but the soloing BST has to watch just how much he or she melees so new pets can get hate fairly quickly.

If I was going to recommend one piece of gear for a BST to always have on them, it would be the Gaudy Harness. I haven't had to rest since I got mine and BSTs can solo the fomors who drop the subligar for it.

Solo BSTs go with WHM or NIN subs. Party BSTs go with NIN or WAR.

As for best race, there really isn't one when you throw gear into the mix. Mithra CHR is in the gutter but I have less mischarms than my tarutaru partner. Galkas are more durable but they have no MP unless they equip their RSE. I doubt a level 75 galka BST even has 100 MP without it. Tarus can be a challenge since they have less hitpoints and are generally weaker than everyone else, but with gear they make due just fine and it's trippy to see a taru running around with a giant scorpion by his side.

A lot of BSTs are generally willing to answer questions from lower level BSTs as well, since the challenges involved make the job like a brotherhood for those who go for it. People like Duffman, Crookedmidget, Pakomen, Kinkkerbelle, Kaikyaku and Gideon are great sources of info.
 
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No best race for BST, since it is YOU who decides how you play the job. You can lean towards a mix of MP and acc gear. Too many questions but ill answer some.

BST is a solo job, being in a duo or trio is a lot safer though. If all the BSTs are experienced, you will get exp faster then solo. But really, don't expect to have a duo mate for every level.

For charm gear, macro in all the CHR you can and at 51+ try to earn gil to buy an Appolos Staff (It helps, a lot). Then when you start fighting macro in acc/mp/str depending on your playstyle. But accuracy in rings slot and belt is what I suggest.

For parties, BST/NIN after 50 and BST/WAR before 50. It is hard to get a party as BST, thats because its a solo job. Yes, Beastmaster can be effective, but people don't usually play BST thinking they're going to party all the way to 75.


EDIT : Neyla beat me >.<
 
Shady said:
Do you solo your way up to 75 or do you find pairing up with other beastmasters a good way to xp faster? How hard is it to find a party if you have your seek flag up? What are the best mobs to kill that keep your pet somewhat healthy after the battle and you out of harms way? What kind of gear is best for stat boosts? Do you typically change your subjob (and if so to what?) when you party for xp vs get it solo? What would you say is the best race for beastmaster?

Shady
Click to expand...

Wow that's alot of questions. I'll answer from my point of view. I mostly soloed to 75. Occasionally duoed and never really partied. If you want to party as bst you should make the party or plan it with ls buds. Just putting your flag up isn't going to get you very many parties.

The best mobs to kill are going to depend on your level what type of pet you are using and the area you are xping in, so that's a really hard question to answer since I don't know your level.

I always looked for str and acc in my gear, lower levels I had a charm gear set and a fighting gear set. You don't really need a monster signa, IMO.

When you are in a party setup /war works great. /Nin works too. Never sub whm for parties, but it's the best sub for solo.

I think that any race can play bst just fine. I prefer Hume, but there are plenty of other 75 bsts that are mithra galka elvaan and taru. Mithra is the "worst" race because they have lower natural CHR than most other races. Choose which race you like, they all work for bst.

I hope that helps some.
 
Thanks for the responses, sorry about all the questions but I know didly about the BST job. In fact I was always under the false assumption BST's lower party xp when they throw their pets in the mix.
 
That's an old myth from the Brady guide. The only way a BSTs pet will lower an XP party's results is if they charm something Tough, which creates a level gap. Otherwise the BST is the only one taking a hit if the pet is still charmed at the end of the fight. More often than not, though, a BST in a party won't have the opportunity to charm anything anyway because BSTs and parties gravitate towards different areas not only to avoid each other, but because viable pets and the prey parties go for don't often pop in the same place. Party BSTs use jugs, which is fine since the pet doesn't have to tank. When it comes to soloing jug pets are only useful in "oh shit, I gotta zone or log out real fast" moments or for farming.
 
Neyla more or less answered all your questions perfectly, she's growing up to be a fine BST indeed, Hal too!

Anyway, my two cents on the issue:

Many BST will solo to around level 60-65, but once you get to that point leveling takes a serious amount of time solo, so instead they will look to duo/trio/full bst party type situations. Some don't, but some will. It's really a matter of personal preference.

Generally speaking, you won't be finding invites coming to you very often at all. BST aren't very popular these days with the party types, and many will assume that you don't want to party at all (even if you have your flag up). I've only had an invite to a pickup party once or twice, and that was because the person was a BST herself, and knew what I was bringing to the party in terms of overall damage, and link control.

Don't worry about danger, or staying out of harms way. The solo BST will more or less ALWAYS be in harms way in some form or another. Many exp camps will have you dancing behind or around aggro mobs while you fight, so keeping a watchful eye is really the best thing you can do. As always:

Learn what mobs aggro to what type of stimuli, and at what range. Know what types of attacks your target and your pet will use. Know the hate range on your spells and abilities (typically when your pet and target mob are out of radar range). Know your options for avoiding or diffusing aggro, and always have a general idea where the nearest new pet is; you never know when you will need it.

Equipment is totally up to you, unless you're going to party a lot. For parties, go with your standard acc/str setup that you would for most any melee job. For soloing, go for whatever suits your style best. If you prefer to melee with your pet a lot, but don't want to pull hate (which isn't even possible until around level 30 or so) go for mostly accuracy gear, maybe a little strength. That should get you hitting the mob but not so hard you pull massive amounts of hate.

If you pull a lot of hate regardless, go for evasion or defense type gear. Anything to reduce the damage you take. Or if it suits your style go with MP+, relying on curing away the damage rather than preventing it altogether.

It really is up to you and your playstyle.

Generally WHM will be your solo subjob. Cures really lessen downtime, not to mention sneak and invis for dodging aggro, and the -na spells are extremely helpful. Some people use NIN soloing, and I personally think it is the best subjob 24-35 (after 35 it becomes sort of moot, as you'll have more than enough MP to cure away any damage you sustain from pet swaps, and you won't be pulling hate enough to really justify losing everything /WHM has to offer for NIN shadows).

For parties, if you choose to dabble there, NIN and WAR will be your best subs. Use your best judgement here, but generally WAR will be a bigger asset to you (in my opinion). Double attack and Berserk is a very powerful combonation.

Like others have said, there really is no best race for BST. Just depending on what you are you'll have to gear yourself a bit differently. Perhaps a little more CHR gear if you're a Mithra, a little more STR for Taru, more MP for Elvaan and Galka, and... well.. whatever you want for Hume. These are only suggestions though, like other jobs, your race plays only a small factor in your performance.

The idea of the solo BST is to be adaptable to all situations. My suggestion is to try to do the opposite with your gear from what you would do in parties. In parties, gear is about emphasizing strengths already present in your job. Soloing is more about trying to make your shortcomings less... short.

I do say this however:

I myself party quite a bit on BST, however, I solo'd my way almost entirely from 1-58 before I ended up in a static with some friends. That isn't to say I don't solo anymore, I still do quite often. It's just that the majority of the exp towards actually leveling up comes from partying with my friends, and not soloing.

You don't ever forget your survival skills if you go from a long time soloing to partying, however, it is very difficult to learn solo skills if you've done nothing but party to begin with.

My suggestion, if you want to be a good, all round, skillful BST, is to at the very LEAST solo your way to 40-45 or so. By then you'll have learned most everything you need to know about surviving solo, and you'll be able to incorporate those very valuable skills into your party game, which tends to amaze and impress a lot of party members.

Good luck.
 
I solo'ed my way to L69 so far, not counting the few times I gained xp helping others with stuff like AF keys and the such. I must say, even with the reduced xp tallies (which took effect when I was L55) and the introduction of the Empress Band (got it at L66), it's still an extremely trying road to walk alone. Partying with other BSTs has the benefits of greater xp gains as well as greater safety, thus less deaths. Never tried it though, got it through my head I'd take it solo all the way, and I do regret it at times.

The prey varies greatly. Pre-35, I usually used mobs of the same family against one another, usually DC vs. EM or EM vs. T, hoping I could make my pet last long enough to deplete my prey's HPs, all the while making sure my pet would die before dealing the fatal blow. That meant assisting it with WHM debuffs, using Reward with cheap cookies at low levels, and even sometimes stealing hate for 2-3 blows. At those levels it's usually not that hard to finish off the mob without the use of Weapon Skills.

Past 35? Too much is possible with Leave, but most of your activities will revolve around converting mobs to EM and trying to keep them that way. There is the fun of fighting suicidal mobs (gobs and bombs), the challenge of assaulting a VT-IT for kicks, or finally being able to fight alongside your pet (to a certain point, wild pets keep hate easier at higher levels)

Throughout my career, I've only used my WHM sub, though at certain times (like that unfortunate trip to the Gusgen Mines basement at L33) I wished I had NIN to blink away those pesky bombs' berserked double-attacks. WHM's debuffs and healing spells made my day in my early levels, and Sneak + Invis were my bread and butter later on. RDM's a close second to WHM for a magic sub, mostly lacking the -na spells, and Reraise much, much later.

Finally, for the race, I didn't find it too hard to level BST as a Tarutaru. Heck, due to my low STR, my pets have an easier time keeping hate away from me when I fight alongside them. I can't tell too much about the other races, but seeing how most often the pet's doing most of the job, and we're there only to finish it off, I'd say we're pretty much all equal in the end. The only important attribute for this job is the player's quick adaptability to different situations, that will trump +CHR any day.
 
Hello there,

Beastmaster pretty much has every option available to them - solo, duo, trio, party to 75. The only thing that really changes is the pace. For instance, there are stretches where you can get insanely fast xp solo, and others where you slow to a crawl. Beastmaster's true advantage is that it doesn't suffer the woes of lfp downtime that other jobs do.

More than anything, Beastmasters enjoy the option of being able to xp(or stop xp-ing) at their leisure.

As far as seeking a party goes, due to some rather unfortunate misconceptions about exactly how the xp cut functions while a Bst has a charmed pet(Pre-Leave), as well as our undercover DoT(pet parses are often overlooked), a Bst would often be better off putting in a search comment listing viable party subs, throwing up their flag, and continuing to solo. Either that, or putting together their own party. This brings us rather neatly into our next topic of discussion . . .

Beastmaster's ability to solo

relies heavily on these factors:

1) Consistent Charm success with pets ranging from Decent Challenge to Even Match
2) Xp-able mobs close-by/intermingled with your "zoo" of pets
2) The ability to avoid damage(Utsu, or Blink and Stoneskin)
3) The ability to heal damage(Potions, or Cures)
4) The ability to safely navigate through hostile environments(Tonko and Oils, or Sneak and Invis)

As such, the sub of choice for Bst falls to either Whm or Rdm(though, I personally prefer Whm), with Ninja becoming a viable sub once Utsusemi and to a lesser degree Tonko are accessible. Though more often than not, /nin is a sub used when working in conjunction with other Bsts or perhaps in a party. In terms of solo gear, you'll want to get a reasonable set of Charming (CHR) gear to swap in and a set of melee gear pretty much like any other DD. Bst has decent skill with both axe and scythe(though the spike damage from scythe tends to draw you unwanted hate, in my opinion) as well as access to some of the meaner DD items out there.

Pre-[Leave]

As a solo/duo/trio Bst, you'll be using Charmed pets 99/100 times. Charmed pets are amazingly strong at higher levels, easily outdamaging players at the same level most of the time and with prodigious hp pools to draw from. They're our tanks. They're our butt-kickers. And little do they know it, but they're gonna end up taking one for the team. Before level 35 and the Job Ability [Leave], your goal is going to be either to let your pet wipe up easy prey and decent challenges, or to send it after a tougher mob, but die at a point where the mob's health is low enough for you to finish it off without a pet. To accomplish this, we use the [Heel] and [Stay] commands.

The Happy Hunting Grounds at 35

Here's what you've been waiting on. Now to receive full xp, all that you have to do is use [Leave], finish off the last little sliver of health with a weaponskill(we hope ><), and move on to another (or the rested) pet to throw at your next victim. Back in the golden days of yore, we could take a couple of really good pets (a slime for example) from some distant area of a zone to a safe camp and reuse them, as they would start to wander home once [Leave] was used, regenning their hp at a staggering rate. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Now if you [Leave] something outside its "home", it will despawn after 10 seconds have elapsed and a new spawn will appear back at its original spawning area shortly thereafter. This has proved a difficult change to adapt to, but that's what bsts do - we adapt. Now if you want reusable pets, you'll have to camp near or even within their spawning areas . . . or use the despawn trick to your advantage. This is all very situational here, since practically every Bst camp will have its own unique challenges and hazards.

Beastmaster's ability to party

relies on entirely different factors:

1) The ability to deal damage
2) A willingness to pull
3) The ability to deal damage
4) See 1 and 3

For a party, Warrior sub is really the best option I've yet encountered. Ninja is nice(I mean, hey . . . who doesn't like the cool 2-axe look?) and past 40 (Dual Wield Bonuses start to kick in) it is a reasonably good choice for a standard party, but in my opinion, it simply doesn't stack up against the Attack Bonuses, as well as Berserk, Warcry, etc. that Warrior brings as a sub. Gear up to be a badass, but don't expect to be noticed. Us Bsts are sneaky that way :P

In a party, you'll more likely than not be using jug pets. Jug pets are a great deal weaker than their "Charmed" counterparts, even the HQ jugs like Fish oil broth and Warm meat broth. Most of the more commonly used jug pets are pre-60 synths in either Woodworking or Cooking, so it's not a terrible idea to level those crafts. There is also the wonderful Seedbed soil available for purchase nowhere but at the Kazham M&P store. These are your pulling tools mostly(Bst has no Archery/Marksmanship) and they allow you to pull and shed any resultant links by either letting your jug pet get pummeled to death by the links or by using [Leave]. These are also a significant portion of your contribution to the damage pool.

Beastmaster Races

In solo mode, inarguably our most important stat is CHR. Until 51 and the Light staff, it's the only factor on Charm success that's in your control. That being said, though, it's only the most important by the very slightest of margins, as we very much seem to get diminishing returns on the amount of CHR we invest in. As a case in point: Once watched an Elvaan with a Signa, a Garrison tunic, a Noble's ribbon, and Hope rings mischarm 5 consecutive times in the "Wings of Fury" BCNM while the Mithra with him with no Tunic, no Signa, never missed a single Charm.

The main reason that I bring Chr to the forefront is that it's the one universally applicable stat that Bsts have. Otherwise, you gear to offset your race's natural weaknesses just like any other job would. If you're a Galka or Elvaan Bst/Whm, you could probably stand a little mp gear for solo work, for example. In other words, there is no single live-all, be-all race for a Bst.

Hope this helps :)
 
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What's a BST toughest kind of mob to kill.. what should they steer away from?
 
Shady said:
What's a BST toughest kind of mob to kill.. what should they steer away from?
Click to expand...

Jellies are the devil... D:
 
Anything resistant to physical damage is a pain. In terms of beastmen types, PLDs are a nightmare and BLMs, while weak on defense, can be a nuisance with their -ga spells. As long as you know to stay away from them or can get away in time, BLMs are manageable though. RNG mobs are great because they have no defense at all.
 
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Leeches are a bitch if they link.

I have seen a type of mob that is green(grass?) on top of its "head" with 2 grayish brown tentacles when you get off the ship you can get past Bubu.

It has hp regen and is highly resistant against physical attacks. Don't remember what it was called but man i should have taken a pic of me and my friend fighting it; it was ep to us but it took forever to kill because of auto regen
 
Khidir said:
Leeches are a bitch if they link.

I have seen a type of mob that is green(grass?) on top of its "head" with 2 grayish brown tentacles when you get off the ship you can get past Bubu.

It has hp regen and is highly resistant against physical attacks. Don't remember what it was called but man i should have taken a pic of me and my friend fighting it; it was ep to us but it took forever to kill because of auto regen
Click to expand...

I wouldn't fight leeches. They link like mad and they resist physical damage fairly well, not to mention they attack faster than a lot of mobs. They make great pets but poor prey.

And the other mob is a mandragora. We all know their cons considering a lot of us start fighting them at level one and the rest start fighting them at level 25 in the jungles. Pluses as pets are attack speed and their MNK ability to Counter, but they take damage poorly.
 
No they aren't mandrogas they are by the ship area to the Islands near the ferry of Bubu. The ferry is near eft type mobs and pugs i believe.

Lol its like a patch of grass not two leaves=P
 
Oh I thought you were talking about Buburimu, not Bibiki Bay. Those are Uragnites on the beach. People generally know to avoid those because of their regen and poison abilities.
 
Where's the best starting city for a BST? I'd assume Windhurst..?
 
You can do the first ten levels anywhere because the general recommendation is you don't charm anything until you're 10 or higher. You'll level faster if you level it like WAR and avoid the potential XP hit from pets. After that I think Tahrongi Canyon is better than La Theine or the Highlands because there are more mobs to charm, but people have leveled in the others as well.
 
Well windy would be best since you can get silk and such and i consider yagudo typically of the lesser bstmen threats.

I would say Windy>Sandy>Bastok.

The rocky regions of bastok can be hard to see over so when you go downhill hey there are some bstmen wtf! Quadav can be pretty tough

Sandy is much better still when it fogs and you try to heal yourself hey its a bomb wow! Orcs i consider the stronger of bst tier
 
As a way to get a near constant flow of xp through the starting levels, I'd often fight solo and then charm a pet and throw it at some easier mob while I rested up from my previous fight.
 
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