Getting started.
Why should you play Beastmaster?
We are simply the best solo class in the game. If you have had enough of hours waiting while you look for a party, BST could be your cup of tea. I know other classes -can- solo good exp but as far as I have seen and experienced, no other jobs can solo as long, as consistently and as effectively as a Beastmaster especially after we gain the JA Leave at 35.
I would encourage any new Beastmaster to try and complete as much of your 75 levels as you can solo. Certainly get yourself into a party once in a while to keep yourself adaptable but in my experience, BSTs who party more than they solo have real trouble dealing with solo hiccups (mis-charms, links etc). Plus if you wanted to party all the time, you might as well level WAR or SAM or some other full on DD that will produce uber numbers and result in lots of pt invites instead of waiting around for the uneducated masses saying "lolbst wants to pt. do we choose him or that WAR that also wants to party?"
Another cool strength of BST, especially for the solo BST, is that gear is relatively cheap. Your pet doesn't care that you are still swinging your AF axe at level 60 instead of the Tungi or Wrath tabar that a pt would expect you to be weilding. You also get to try your hand at soloing items you need/want such as the Tungi.
Perhaps one of my favourite things about BST though is that you keep ALL the loot. Beastman seals, Kindred seals, stackable ingrediants, gil....all yours.
Which subjob should you use as a soloist?
As a soloist until level 70, I would suggest that 95% of the time you use WHM as your sub of choice. The only other sub I would try as a soloist is NIN but until 70 when you gain access to dual weilding Rune axes which when used with your Gaudy harness provide an infinite +10HP regen/tick, if you get hit by AoEs or with shadows down, you get to have downtime resting it back. Granted you can rest while your next pet fights but that only leads to slower kills and that kills exp chains. Resting back ~100 MP is much faster than resting back 500HP. Subbing WHM will also keep your hate in check a little better espcially after 50 when you get the Dual weild upgrade making you swing faster. A soloist BSTs main concern is riding the hate line without crossing it and taking hate in order to maximise kill speed and therefore exp chains.
WHM sub also provides you with many more beneficial attributes in the form on sneak/invis, Divine seal, bar-spells, na-spells, Stoneskin/Blink, auto-regen, dia I/II, prot/shell etc while NIN sub only gives you shadows and dual wield.
Don't get me wrong. There are definitely times when /NIN is better than /WHM before 70 but they are far more the exception than the rule.
After 70 and the purchase/questing of 2 Runes axes and assuming you have your Gaudy harness (you better have by now -.-), I found that /NIN was more efficient most of the time giving me guaranteed shadows (turn away as soon as you pull hate), more dd (faster kills), and a way to regen back hundreds of HP without stopping to rest...ever. These days I hardly ever break out /WHM unless I'm at an event.
I am yet to try /BLU but certainly acknowledge the possibilities of this sub over WHM. I will post my findings when I get my sub up and try it out.
What about subs for a party?
I have tried both WAR and NIN in parties. Until I got to 70+ (and even a few times after), always subbed WAR for double attack/berserk etc and greater attacking stats. The couple of times I tried /NIN in a pt before 70, I found that I was lagging behind in the DD department horribly. Once you gain access to lots of haste gear and highend axes (especially the Temperance axe), I found that /NIN was where its at. Your tp gain is more than adequate now providing lots of WS's combined with your pets damage makes you a reasonable DD.
Just always keep in mind that we are a DoT DD, not a spike DD like our nemesis's, the WARs (I'm looking at you Loren -.-). If you run a parser combining both you and your pets damage, you will be up there but a well geared WAR will always put out bigger numbers. Thats just what they do. You even need really good gear to be semi-close to a well geared WAR.
Life out in the wild blue yonder:
What gear should I use?
If you want to be in parties all the time, then expect them to judge your gear and if its not up to par, expect them to let you know.
Gear is totally up to you as a soloist. Like I said earlier, your pet doesn't care if you still use your AF axe when you have better options available to you 15-20 levels later.
Lets break down gear into the respective gear requirements for the job...
- Charming - You need to charm pets to do your job well right? Charming success is based on the stat CHR. Before you attempt a charm, you want to load up on every piece of CHR gear you have. Keep in mind CHR doesn't do anything to prolong the amount of time your pet stays charmed. Thats where "Charm +" gear comes in. You will need to experiment and take note of your Charm successes as you level and which mobs you are trying to use as pets then decide for yourself how much CHR gear you need. Mobs like Slimes and mandy's which make great pets are very charm resistent and need MAX CHR gear whereas leeches which are also good pets simply WANT to be your pet and require minimal CHR gear. When you are at a comforatable level of CHR gear, try and fit in "Charm +" gear in the remaining slots incase you are fighting a particularly tough mob that takes a little longer to die. Last thing you want way out in the middle of the Boyahda tree is to fighting a Tough Robber crab and your EM pet suddenly uncharms with 20% left on the crab coz then you get to have 2 angry mobs wailing on you instead of none and no chance of anything except a quick snack on dirt.
- Melee - Again, you need to decide the limits of things here as well. For the most part you want to increase your accuracy, attack and STR in that order. BSTs have crap evasion so don't bother trying for evasion setups. If you are doing your job right, the mob will be focused on your pet for 99% of the fight until you clean its clock with a finishing weaponskill. Crits are also not too desirable when solo as they pull hate so don't stress about DEX. Remember your main focus is hate control so if you are hitting too hard and/or often that your pet is struggling to keep hate, consider changing some of your attack gear or start meleeing a little later in the fight in order to let your pet establish more hate for the duration of the fight.
- Weaponskills - Firstly, scythe's are crap. I -never- use mine except for fun. I know a SA'd 300% Spiral Hell can do some nice damage on a god but I don't usually go to gods as a BST to be fair. I never use scythes if I'm exping with any amount of seriousness. That being said I will assume you will be using an axe. The only stat modifier for any axe weaponskill is STR with the exception of Calamity and Onslaught. If you have Calamity, then you have Rampage and therefore won't be using Calamity. If you have Onslaught, I bow to your masterfulness of getting your Guttler. I am intensely jealous of you right now. Every other WS is modified by STR noteably Rampage. That means for your WS gear, you want to load up on STR. The only problem I see with that is accuracy, especially with Rampage. If you are missing 3 of 5 swings of a Rampage then I don't care how much STR you have. Your weapon skill just stunk up the room. So figure out the balance of loading up as much STR as you can without killing your accuracy and you will be in tiptop shape with blasting the enemy into the next life.
Are there any essential pieces of gear for a Beastmaster?
Short answer....no. No piece of gear is absolutely needed for you to continue your quest to level 75 and beyond. Certain pieces however make the job a) more exciting b) quicker to level c) more immune to mishaps that WILL occur etc etc. However, here are a few pieces that if I had my way, people would go to jail for not getting....
Perhaps the single best body piece in the grand scheme of things for a BST. From 50 to 70, this will keep your MP refreshed to 49 for when using a mage sub (which you probably will be using). This is enough for a Cure III or a Blink and Stoneskin in one go! I still use mine for Charming with the CHR+3 that it has even though I know there are body pieces with more CHR. Perhaps the most brilliant part here is that at level 70 when used with dual rune axes as /NIN, you get infinite +10HP regen! Until you experience not having to stop and rest anymore and you regen all that Bomb toss AoE damage back without blinking, I can't express how much this piece of gear means to you. Whats more, you can solo it at level 40!!!! GET THIS PIECE OF GEAR BEFORE YOU CAN USE IT AT 50 AND DON'T LEVEL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT BY 50! NO EXCUSES!!!!
Your AF legs useable at level 60. Again, perhaps the single best piece of gear for your legs. CHR+4 makes them your pants of choice for life to charm with. Even better if you have sea and do Limbus with any sort of frequency, you can upgrade them for level 74 giving you CHR+6 and STR+6 for your Rampages. Add to the mix "Enhances Killer effects" make these the "OMG" pants in your inventory. Wear them, love them, feel BSTly in them, have them ready for as soon as you ding 60.
CHR+6. The only charm piece you will ever use for your waist. 'nuff said. I used mine as my sole waist piece from 40 to 48 when I got a Life belt.
Nothing else in the game gives you better charm success than this one item. Light staff is ok but if you can swing it, you will never sell this item. +15% charm success rate is simply godly. +10% on Light staff.
If you can ever get your hands on this, you have the best axe in the game )except perhaps the Guttler >.>). I love my LS for this weapon. The "Virtue stone equipped: Occasionally attacks twice" trait should be adjusted to read "Virtue stone equipped: Usually attacks twice". Uber tp gain {You can have this}. OK, not essential but life is not the same after getting this axe.
Where should I go and exp?
Another point of beauty about being a BST is that Vana'diel is your oyster. You can go and exp wherever it tickles your fancy! No more being stuck in the same old exp spots competing with 4 other parties for the 3 mobs that spawn in that area. Search out an area that strikes your fancy, make sure there isn't another BST there and head on out. There are plenty of good camps/level postings on the various FFXI websites that will give you direction for your particular level so I will leave it to you to go find them for yourself. I will however tell you about a couple of my favourite spots when I was leveling to 75.
- Purgonorgo Isle (level 35-36ish) - omg, BST haven! NO-ONE comes here except for the odd quest or to kill Shen as an alliance of 75's. This is where I first came across mobs with the en-drain trait. The clots here (slime mobs) have it and con Tough at this level. The beauty about this is you charm one (remember slime mobs are very resistent to charm), 2 hour it and clear the isle of life! The en-drain trait is 100% from what I remember so it with your care and help, the clot will last the full 30 mins.
- Bostaunieux Oubliette (level 56-59ish) - Again, a place no one seems to come to except for the few NMs that can spawn here. A lot of people avoid this place especially after the BST nerf that made pets despawn once you released them. One thing you really want to have down here besides MAX CHR is Apollo's staff. Light staff is adequate usually but your pets here are slimes which suck to charm at the best of times. Not only that, if you charm fails, your run to the zone is passed 3-4 IT hounds that destroy you before you get half way there. If you have Apollo's though, your charm rate will be much better against the slimes. Your target here is the big bats which do not aggro but do link if i remember correctly. The reason people don't come down here though is that slimes live just passed the hounds from the Ronfaure zone. This means getting a slime and taking it to the zone area becomes somewhat inefficient and camping where they spawn makes people nervous. But if you have the stones for it, there are 2 slimes in the area which you use to kill the 4-5 bats. The slimes spawn in separate sections of the tunnel so you can kill bats without worrying about the other slime sneaking up on you. Once you kill off a bat or 2 and get into the rythm, the next bat will just be spawning as you kill the last one resulting in great exp chains.
- Wajaom Woodlands (level 62-???) - ToAU came out at the perfect time for me as a BST. I had just hit level 62. At level 62 you can now charm the worker bees (be careful of mis-charms coz the whole hive will be ensuring you are allergic to bee stings) and set them about owning the non-linking, non-aggro Lesser colibri. My favourite camp for this was at I-7 and it lasts for a good 3 or 4 levels. These were the fastest levels of my BST career. With the exp bonus from sanction as well as refresh, I was chain 5ing more often than not. Add in an exp ring once in a while and you have 10k an hour exp easy. Kinda wanna delevel myself back to those levels as I type this >.>
The Beastmaster code:
With the advent of ToAU and the uber exp gained by most jobs, courtesy and thoughtfulness of others has all but disappeared. One thing I always loved about BST early on was the respect we all had for each other. Its one thing to be at a camp and a party of 6 strolls up and licks the place clean so to speak thinking "stupid BST can go level elsewhere. 6 peoples exp is more important than 1". But for another BST to stroll up in a camp that we all know only takes one BST and for him to start camping over top of you is the worst travesty in all of Vana'diel. We need a special GM jail for BSTs like that. The sad thing is that this happens more and more these days. So here are a few points of Beastmaster code that I would emplore you to adhere to. PLEASE!
- NEVER be /anon at your camp and always put a comment in your search comment area. Type in your pos, what you are using as a pet and what you are fighting, and even specify if you are solo/duo/trio. If you don't do this and another BST shows up to camp there while you are anon without a comment, don't complain if he doesn't leave. He may have just spent 5k on a tele, 500 of a choco and 30 mins of his time to get there. You can't expect someone to turn around and leave if you haven't given them fair warning that you are there.
- Search the area you intend to go to before you head out. If you see another BST there at your level with his comment up (even if he doesn't a comment up), don't go out there and camp on top of him if you know the area only takes one BST. If you go out there thinking that 2 BSTs can level there, please respect the BST that was there first and leave if he asks you within reason to leave coz you are hurting is exp/hour.
- If you head out to a camp where there are no BSTs but you come across a party leveling there, be respectful and don't mess with their exp. You'd hate it if they did it to you.
- Help people who need your help in the area if it is within your capabilities to do so. I'm not saying to stop and raise the RMT BLM group that just got pwnd by the Goobue they were trying to burn or to help with -every- little request you get every 5 mins from people but as an example, the other day I was farming Elder Goobue at the waterful by the Cloister of storms in The Boyahda Tree. A BLM arrived thinking he might try soloing the Sleepga II NM. He obviously reconsidered when he got there and asked if I would help him. I did, we beat the NM, he finished his quest getting a scroll that he should have had 20 levels ago (but I digress -.-) and kindly offered me a warp2 back to town which I accepted as I had finished farming but forgotten a means of warp. This sort of thing only results in good feelings from the normies (general non-bst population) of Vana'diel towards us. I'd like to think that when that BLM gets to a camp next time and theres a BST exping there, he will say "guys, we shouldn't camp on top of this BST here as he was here first. lets go elsewhere". A little idealistic maybe but more chance of that happening than if I told him to beat it, I'm farming right now right?
Conclusion:
Beastmaster is a fun, relaxing, sometimes infuriating, useful job that you can use for the rest of your days in Vana'diel to make money, help friends and LS mates and just simply use to relax and chill out after being around others for too long. You can even use it as a sub to level other jobs. RDM/BST owns almost as much as BST/??? does. Play it right and you will have fun, people will remember and respect you and Vana'diel will embrace you. Play it wrong and karma will certainly bite you in the butt through mis-charm deaths and others camping you out of your spots.
Golden rule: Respect Vana'diel and its inhabitants and it will reward you immensely.
For those of you that read this and have further questions not answered clearly or at all here, please feel free to drop me an email at ennayramffxi@hotmail.com or catch me in game and I'll be more than happy to help you out. ^^b
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