Pros and Cons of playing a Beastmaster

[Negorath]

What are the pros and cons of playing a Beastmaster?

My original intention was to create a small FAQ for the newcomers to sort out some of the more general questions they might have, but I gave that up after getting a lof of hate posts, but I hope what information that is posted here can be of help to people in the end.
Anyways, feel free to post what you think are the pros and cons of playing this job

Negorath.

[StarRealms]

Brief list here.

Pros:
>When you solo you keep all the items you get.
>Easy to get beast seals (deals with above).
>You can hunt at anytime.
>A beast is as effective as having a mediocre PT all the time.
>BST PTs are really powerful.
>6 BST PT makes for the easiest BCNM40 possible.
>BST is strongest soloer.
>BST do decent damage with a good pet around.
>Pet pulling is useful for breaking links.
>Pet damage is not capped likeweapons vs lower level monsters.

Cons:
>Very easy to die, especially before level 35.
>Finding good hunting grounds can be difficult.
>Often BST needs as many monsters available as a whole PT, can be bad in crowded areas.
>Difficult to PT with: need ideal hunting ground, should be level 35+, have to constantly release pet, 1hand axe is not the best to skillchain/renkei with.
>BST AF2 was a PITA.
>Did I mention you die a lot?
>Losing 1.5k+ per death after 55 and then 2.4k per death after 60 really sucks.
>Soloing is dangerous, often requires your full attention and you can die from unavoidable random factors (tame resist, lagging out, DCing, etc)
>1 hand axe does little damage later on, need a pet around to do decent damage, and if you need to summon a pet depending on hunting area, it costs 800 gil for the funguar one for ~15-20 minutes max.

[Negorath]

Nice info, will be very usefull

[Rawdog]

Uh...I am really looking forward to become a BST/WHm, but it seems like the cons outweigh the pros here lol. Do you really die all that much? As long as you are careful and patient, I am sure death can be avoided in most cases.

[StarRealms]

Yep dying is really that easy... as a BST it can be really hard to keep from getting frustrated at giving up. After level 35 it's not too terrible because you don't lose an extreme amount of exp and you can get it pretty fast, however after level 60 it really really sucks. For example, I was fighting a skeleton, had to fetch a new pet... Pugil resisted tame, I was at full life> dead after getting an unlucky second resist and - 2400 exp.

[Bigbird]

Yes Star realms is right its is VERY easy to die as a BST, and for every level up, you can expect to die at least twice i would say.

Charm is never a 100% thing, and sometimes, when you need it to work the most is when it doesnt (pet switching ><)

Just think about it, you are figting a tough mob so you can get that 120+ exp, but your pet is doing bad, in this case you need to switch, so you begin to look around, you see alot of easy preys that will get killed fast, so not worth petting, finaly you find a good pet(decent to even match), and you go to tame it while the other mob is already chasing you, your tame FAILS, now you have a Tough and a Decent mob after you. And while you are runing to try to zone, guess what, some agro monsters are in your way, and link to you, now you have your very own monster train ><

I know this sounds over exhagerated, but, this is very comon to me.

I do get frustrated, but i love bst and will keep going no mater how many deaths i have. = )