BST leveling

[Kuro]

Sorry for another topic but I need to get everyone kind to view this.

I’ve been having real trouble levelling my BST/WHM she’s currently lv 14 but I have died more in the past 2 days of BST than in the past 6 months (including endgame).

These guides are outdated and seem to rely on the ghetto leave; does the ghetto leave result in the pet taking more damage thus saving my HP?
I send a DC Fungar against a DC Fungar throw Dia on the enemy and mine will die every time.

I try to follow the levelling guides, fighting where they suggest, but I keep having my ass handed to me and not just by having my pet die/turn on me.

Does anyone have any general BST levelling tips? I see loads of camp ideas but very few general tips or equipment guides.



What am I doing wrong? Charm EP/DC fight DC/EM/T but I die so often getting to camp's not allways worth it.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: BST leveling

These guides are outdated and seem to rely on the ghetto leave; does the ghetto leave result in the pet taking more damage thus saving my HP?

Ghetto leave had two advantages:
- Avoid the 30% exp penalty which used to exist for BSTs who weren't level 35 yet (the level you get access to Leave). This is no longer an issue.
- Reduce the risk of a charmed pet becoming uncharmed in the middle of a battle. This is probably a bigger problem now, as BSTs before level 35 might be tempted to keep using the same pet for multiple battles. Instead of using Ghetto leave, I would suggest simply finishing off a mob, and then letting your pet die by soloing the next mob. At which point, you would charm a new pet, and start the cycle over. At your level though, you probably can't melee along side your pet without stealing hate.

I send a DC Fungar against a DC Fungar throw Dia on the enemy and mine will die every time.

Perhaps you have simply been unlucky, in that your DC pets have always been a level or two lower than the DC prey you've sent them against. Alternatively, it could be due to the fact that your prey will use 1 more TP moves against your pet through out the fight while your pet is unable to even use 1 since you don't have access to Sic yet. Funguars have some good damaging TP moves to choose from, so even in a contest of two Funguars of the same level, the prey Funguar will have an edge over your pet Funguar.

I try to follow the levelling guides, fighting where they suggest, but I keep having my ass handed to me and not just by having my pet die/turn on me.

Does anyone have any general BST levelling tips? I see loads of camp ideas but very few general tips or equipment guides.

My tip is to just keep trying new camps. Every time I struggled soloing as BST, the problem was quickly solved by finding a different camp.

What am I doing wrong? Charm EP/DC fight DC/EM/T but I die so often getting to camp's not allways worth it.

That's the usual pattern: EP pets to fight DCs; DC pets to fight EMs; EM pets to fight (low) Ts. Also keep in mind that the kind of pet you choose and the kind of prey you target has a big impact. If you try to use Crab (which tend to be high defense but low damage) pets against Funguar mobs (high damage), fights will be slow and difficult. Turn it around, so that you're using Funguar pets against Crabs, and things will be much better.

Edit: there's really no advantage to using an EP pet to fight a DC over using an EM pet to fight a DC once you get leave. The only reason to use a weaker pet to fight a weaker mob is because you wouldn't want to waste an EM pet to take out an EP, only to find that you only have EP pets left to choose from to take on that EM prey.

[Kuro]

Re: BST leveling

Ok, thanks alot for the tips, I think I'm going to try some of the suggest camps here and leave the highlands and pleatu that anoy me so.

[Aksannyi]

Re: BST leveling

Plateau is a bitch to level BST just because there's always so many people killing mobs there that pets are slim pickings. I used to attempt to level my BST there at 14 and it was so frustrating finding pets that I gave up.

[Omni]

Re: BST leveling

Ive said before that it might be better to just plow through EP to EM mobs rather than trying to find an EM mob to take on a T for these earlier levels.

[Kuro]

Re: BST leveling

That's what I've been doing; I jumped over to the canyon and started slaughtering all that moved. Finally got lv 15.

I hate how the anthologies claim that 14-16 is very easy and fast, yet say nothing about what to kill and what to kill with ¬,¬

Only good things to charm are crawlers, who hit so weak they aren’t worth it. And Dhamels are T still at 15.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: BST leveling

Bats. Loved them. I remember getting decent exp (and not that many deaths!) in Maze of Shakrami using Tough bats as pets vs. worms and goblins.

[WovenDarkness]

Re: BST leveling

Bats. Loved them. I remember getting decent exp (and not that many deaths!) in Maze of Shakrami using Tough bats as pets vs. worms and goblins.

I did the same in Ordelle's Caves. Bats are fun, the deaths were infrequent, and the xp rolled in fairly easily.

Pre "Leave", my strategy was simply to use an underpowered weapon to keep my skill capped, and basically just cycle through mobs by getting them killed off. ...as was previously stated, taking hate off of your pet early on is a bit of a problem. My solution was the underpowered axe.

I'd also like to mention that pre "Leave" , dhamels can be a bit of a pain in the butt. It has a tendancy to ruin chains and make you find yet another pet to throw at it..... It sucks to watch your target mob use Healing Breeze 3-4 times in a row....though I must admit that I've only experienced this in east altepa. >.> ...on the flip side, if you have a dhamel pet and are standing close to it when it uses Healing Breeze, it's a bonus.^^

~~As an afterthought:


Don't forget your 2hr. I have a lot of fun charming a T or a VT mob and using Familiar. Role around and wack the snot out of nearly everything in your path. 'Tis fun!!

[Kuro]

Re: BST leveling

Well tried that, died on the first one i tried. Charmed the bat, who got owned and turned on me just before he died. What I attacked was still at 75% HP.

How the hell is everyone gettign such differnt results to me!?

[WovenDarkness]

Re: BST leveling

Well tried that, died on the first one i tried. Charmed the bat, who got owned and turned on me just before he died. What I attacked was still at 75% HP.

How the hell is everyone gettign such differnt results to me!?

That's unfortunate. But your a BST. It comes w/ the territory. Don't get discouraged. At this point in time, I generally don't use Reraise Items, and at one point last week, I ran past the same parting in GC 4 times(death x4). I got greedy while fighting w/ my band running, trying to crush out a couple of levels and subsequently, had 3 different mobs that I couldn't recharm...and I was eating tuna sushi for CHA boost, hell, I'd tame them and the recharm would fail.... I think I was at like +15 or +17. ...something like that. ...I'd have to look at my build to know for sure.

...and speaking of builds. What does your charm gear consist of at the moment? Where can you increase it?

Also, if your pet got owned and your target mob was still at 75% or so, there is too much of a level difference between your pet and your target. Yeah, I know. Some things con EM...and they have DEF++++++++, which will ruin your day. That's something to keep in mind.

~~Edit: What server are you on?

[Kuro]

Re: BST leveling

I'm on ragnarok.

My charm gear is currently:
Bird whistle +3 CHR
Nobel's ribbon +3 CHR
2x Hope ring +4 CHR
So 20+10 when I use charm

I must zoned into the Maze, gonig to attempt worms with bats.

EDIT:

Ok in there bats are 1 EM lots of T, gobs are T but killable with a lot of time and EM bat, but the worms are VT...

[WovenDarkness]

Re: BST leveling

Bummer that we aren't on the same server. I'd have followed you around for a bit. Oh well. Let's see what we can do to work around that.

IIRC, you have the same gear that I had at that level. Thanks for including how the mobs con. That's actually a big help. From the lack of EM's there, and all of the T's and VT's, I'd honestly change hunting grounds and head back out to the dreaded highlands and crank out the last of level 15. Having only 1 and on occasion 2 EM pets IMHO will really slow you down and possibly frustrate the hell out of you. The issue that I would personally have if this were me would be that I would have to face more frequent mischarms as well as having a T pet become uncharmed and come back at me.

I would also advise against having to continually charm and recharm T pets to take on VT worms. While you may be able to get out of the range of the worm, you may get additional aggro while trying to put distance between you and the worm while your ex-pet beats you into pudding. Possibly lots of death, travel time, and aggravation. A higher ratio of you to future EM pets would go long ways to faster exp.

[Zoltar]

Re: BST leveling

i'm currently lvl'n BST right now and I'll give you some advice. There is not much CHR gear below lvl 14. That being said, party your ass off in Valkurm Dunes and La Thiene Plateau. At low levels you should not be relying solely on your Charm ability. In a couple hours I went from 15-18 by getting invites in Valkurm. Now I can solo anything in Konschtat and just about anything in Valkurm without a problem. Once you're at that point, Qufim then Kazham. If you're having troubles with parties, go solo in Konschtat/La Thiene.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: BST leveling

I tend to avoid using T pets unless I know that they are going to die quickly. For instance, if I do a Bomb camp where the bombs are quite a few levels above me, I don't mind charming a mob that is 1 level higher than me to throw at the bombs. Chances are, the bomb is going to kill my pet fast enough that it won't uncharm on me mid fight. But then, I didn't start that practice until I started getting bits of AF with +charm on them (which increases the duration of charmed status).

Before you get Leave at 35, I would advise against charming T pets unless you have the next target mob already lined up and you know for a fact that it will die in less than 90 seconds. Without any +charm gear or your 2 hour in effect, a successful charm on a T pet will only last 90 seconds.

[Kuro]

Re: BST leveling

Well I tried partying in Valk, It was a disaster yesterday, I had the whole cast of retards 'R us to party with. Leaders who don’t know where to go/think camping on a overcrowded each would be easy. And then leaders who wipe on a single crab who think they can take pugs too!

My friends parties from 14-18 yesterday, I however managed to loose about 2 levels in exp thorough death. I made 14-15 on my day off, about 12 hours or more of leveling for 1 level!

It's put me in a mood to drop BST which I don't want to do, but god, its put me in that hating FFXI mood where I hate my friends for getting such luck of lots of PL'd parties! I was about ready to quit FFXI yesterday, I took a day off from working on assignments for that shit ¬,¬

I’ve been trying to find a WoTG zone that has a large area of monsters around my LV, outside Sandoria was great tones of monsters all about lv 12 I however haven’t found the EM/DC areas yet.

Dhamels are however sort of available, there is a EM pet or two around and lots of T’s, But with their healing breeze no thanks .>.<

Update: I crawled my way up to 16 then headed to Valk to solo. I'm throwing DC/EM/T Lizards at anything that moves pretty much. I am semi ghetto leaveing the T lizards by lettimg them get solid hate then castina dia and paralyze then waiitng for them to die/loose, if they start looseing badley ill help them out and just make them stay and run off and wait for uncharm.

I have a Japanese lecture in 9 min so I can't test during night with bats, but hopefully i'm getting the hang of it. Seeing these high numbers is helping to ease my anger at BST.