Beastmaster in 6-man parties

[Brocktree]

I'm just moving my guides over from alla, here's one of my older ones that I like. Direct any non-believers of the partying bst to this link here.

Let me throw some of my arguments out there, to see what you think, and hopefully change a few skeptic's opinion's.

All of this information is based off of my personal knowledge of Bst to the extent of my leveling, currently 75bst/37whm. So I have all of bsts major abilities, and understand how they work. Also, all party strategy involving bst is generally only applied post 35, once leave has been obtained. I have also, of course partied Warrior to 30, White mage to 25, and Paladin to 30. Participated in many HNMLS activities as a Beastmaster. So I have a decent, general understanding of how most party set ups work.

I'll skip over most of other jobs actual party roles, to prevent this post from becoming a novel. But let me explain why I think most party leaders are missing out, when ignoring the bsts LFP.

To start, most of you probably know there [lg]no exp cut [/lg]to a party if the Bst's pet is Even Match to the highest level member of the party.

Generally, the role of bst in a party should be to [lg]DD[/lg].
There are, however, several aspects to bst that make it [lg]support[/lg] well too.

Beastmaster uses its pet, and itself to fight and do as much dammage as possible. Bst+ Pet= 2 attack phases (not to mention double attack) which can stack up to be something close to..

Bst (30dmg) + pet(70dmg)= 100 dmg avg per attack round

That being said, I can best most of you understand the "basic" DMG capabilities of bst.

Now, all players develop TP for WS, but Bst's pets are also working hard to build that TP as well, Sic can shell out some major attacks....

-Death Scissors

-1000 needles

-Baeuful gaze

-Acid mist (psn+att down)

To name a few.

These Sic attacks are built on a 2 minute timer, and not linked into Skillchains in any way. They do not interrupt them, so they can be spammed at will from the bst. Often, I can pull this off once per fight, and even twice per fight with powerful mobs. (free dmg neone?)

Now, theres the question of what Sub Job you want your bst to come equipped with. Standard Bst sub jobs vary to: Bst/war, Bst/nin, Bst/rdm, and Bst/whm.

Each of these sub jobs, like other classes SJ's, adds vital support to parties. They can be swapped in and out depending on what each specefic party's situation is.

Bst/war- Warrior, gives the added bonuses of subbing warrior for any other DD class, provoke, double attacks, DMG boost.

Bst/nin- Talk about a self sufficent party member, Whm will love this guy because he's the most low matinence DD I can think of. The stray hits a Bst would take over its pet (bsts rarely take hate over the pet) would be brushed aside by that wonderful Utsusemi.

Bst/sam- Extra TP is a great way to spice things up if you don't need /war for provoke.

Bst/thf- /thf works for bst like any other sub job, SATA tanks and really top off your WS/Skillchain dmg.

Bst/rdm- an excellent little support SJ, adding the En-spells, and dmg/enfeeb magic for those low magic def mobs. Not to mention the cures ect.

Bst/whm- Any white mage will appreciate our helpfullness with this sub job equipped. There is a reason BST can solo better than any other class with this combo, its simply amazing.

Let me cover the additional saftey of having a Bst in the party.

Dealing with links- A pet can be used to distract an agressive link if a blm cannot land sleep on him successfully. Also, a Bst can leave his origonal pet, to charm any link.

Pulling- Fight/leave is the most foolproof, effective way to pull any kind of mob. Fighting a pet onto the targeted mob, waiting till all mobs in the immediate area link onto your pet, and then tapping that leave macro. All mobs that have linked onto your pet disengage, and become inactive for several seconds, the mob you origionally targeted does not, and will chase after you without aany of his friends coming along.

Dangerous fights- If a fight starts to look grim, a Bst can leave his pet and attempt to charm whatever the party is loosing to (as long as the mob is a type that CAN be charmed I.E. no goblins, orcs ect) Which can then be 2hrd, and moved to a safe area, or just left immediately, as long as it does not aggro.

Downfalls to Bst in a party-

The biggest downfall of bst in a party is the duration, and instability of charm, which can be dealt with in several ways.

Any bst with a good head on his shoulders will leave, and recharm before every fight, or even during the fight if it lasts too long. Also, bsts generally try not to use any kind of pet that will link with the prey. Failing charms happens to the best of us, thats why we have teh Tame ability, to stop any aggro monster in its tracks, as long as we havnt hit it ourselves. Also, in a full party with a capable blm, a failed charm could be put to sleep, and then the bst has a few trys to get it right, before he wakes up again.

Well, feel free to post your suggestions to bst in party play, or why bst should be avoided. I will add all legit ideas to the OP for additional ease.

IMPORTANT- Most people replying here seem to think that because bsts do not have their flag up, they are not willing to party. Which is NOT normally the case with Beastmaster. We often ask eachotehr in /tell for bst duo, so putting our party flag up is not something we normally remember to do.

[Lancelot_of_Ramuh]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

Good Post. However; due to the mpk patch of 12-12-05 charming and using even match pets in a party is no longer viable as they despawn almost right away. Your strategy also assumes that an even match and charmable mob will be in the same zone that you intend to party with.

If you are fighting in a zone with even match available pets there is a macro you can use to heal your pets health without having to worry about them despawning:

/ja "Leave" <me>
/wait 9
/ja "Charm" <t>

For this macro to work you must have your pet targeted when you use it, after you use leave there is a 10 second wait period before a despawn occurs. This is very slow but much better than jug pets. That brings me to my second point, in zones where a charmable pet is unavailable a party bst is forced to use Jug pets. Jug pets vary in level and most of them cap at about 12 levels above the level you can first use them (with a few exceptions).

Post 65 it becomes very expensive to use jugs in party and expect to outdamage the other melee DD's, couriercarrie is usable but lacks good weaponskills and very much attack. The only good jugs 66-75 are typically 100-350k each, This makes bst the most expensive job to lvl (assuming you use jugs constantly and in party) from 66-75 for jugs that cost the above said rate for a 15 min pet.

Take Care Bsts.

[Hutch]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

I think alot of people over look the fact that even though BST may not be the best DD in the game but we are a very consistant source of damage.

Yes it is true that if we charm a mob in an area outside its "natural spawn site" it will despawn shorty, however there are several ways to fix this. BST can easily go get another pet and return to the party (most BST a VERY good at moving around mobs that aggro) before the puller can get back, better yet let the BST pull as we are exellent pullers/kiters.

Yes it is also true that our jug pets post 60 can get VERY costly for the "best" jugs out there. However Carrie is fairly reasonably priced and does decent damge over time, several people have run parsers on the subject of BST+Jug damage I will see if I can find one and add it to this post. Also if the BST you invite to your party has high level cooking, which is very probable, they can make some of there own pets and some of us even have 60+ woodworking so we can make Panzers.

Also remember that there are other things that BST add to a party than DD we can use:
/WHM to help the WHM keep the party buffed and Erase/poisona . . .
/NIN so that we do not get hit when pulling or if we have mischarms.
/THF if you need someone to SATA(not my first pick of sub jobs personally)
/WAR if you want soneone to just plain DD

We are also very well equipped to handle any links that might happen and most BST(post60) have already passed that OMG stage when something goes wrong so they are level-headed and able to respond to the situation quickly.

Anyway just my .02 worth of thoughts on the subject.

[tdh]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

Sorry, wrong place, disregard/delete. /sigh

[Sigmara]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

What about jug pet now ? Without the exp cut, I think they are a really good option to use during such PTs.

On a side note : leave that poor BLM allone, RDM or BRD should take care of the sleeping duty with the BLM only as backup.

The ideas in that guides are great but a small update seems needed no ?

[Brocktree]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

Jug pets are an option anywhere and everywhere, I only left them out in this guide because it was made when i was lv 55 and the exp cut still existed. I also know that at any level an EM natural pet will out dmg a jug pet all day any day.

[Sigmara]

Re: Beastmaster in 6-man parties

Of course charmed mobs are far better but wanting one is a big limitation to the avaible camps. That can play against BST in the field of getting invites from regular PTs.