BST Merits suggestions

[Losrase]

I saw an earlier thread about BST Merits but the reward timer was decreased since that post. Is the rule of thumb still:

Reward Max
Call Beast Max

or has Sic/Ready now viable?

[Ketaru]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

I don't know about any rule of thumb, but I did Max Reward and Sic. The merits for Sic also apply to Ready charges (to a lesser extent).

[Romyro]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

I’m personally going with the following

G1 - Sic Timer 2/5
G1 - Call Beast 5/5
G1 - Killer Effects 3/5
G2 - Beast Affinity 5/5
G2 - Pet Regen 4/5
G2 - Feral Howl 1/5

My Opinions on what to Merit.
Sic-
I don’t see maxing out Sic being the best option. Even more so now with Ready. It’s great to be able to use Ready more often but if I don’t have the charges refreshed…I’m going end up waiting anyway. The key is to find that mark where you’re getting 100% TP and refreshing Sic/Read at the same time. For me that’s about 2-3 merits.

Also, a large majority of the things I fight barely allow me to reach 100% with my pet…let alone reaching 100% multiple times. If you use your Bst to farm or more for BCNMs where your pets don’t take as much abuse…I can certainly understand filling this up.

Call Beast
As of right now I’m 3/5 on this… contemplating going 5/5. I admit it has come in handy when low-manning things, but still on the fence about going all the way. I could put the remaining 2 in Reward timer but 6 seconds just doesn’t seem worth it.

Killer Effects
I met a very talented Bst once. He used a few methods I’d never seen before and I watched him solo some odd things. He went 5/5 on KE and him being only a Bst and being around a long time, he taught me a lot…so I’m somewhat taking his advice here. His intimidation rates were more noticeable than mine. Especially on tough mobs we duo’d. I’d see him proc on both mischarms and NMs. He’d even stop Stoneaga IV (or is it III?) from Kirin some times. I was on the fence about this as well…but I’m trusting his judgment.

Beast Affinity
Probably the one ‘must have’ imo. Gives you a wide variety of jugs to use at 75. At first…I didn’t like it. I pumped 2 into it and didn’t see much difference in Fungar Familiar. Once I finally hit 5/5 (and got monster gloves) it turned into one of my new favorite jugs. The HQ tiger also becomes a great jug imo.

Pet Regen
I have absolutely no interest in Killer Instincts. So that left me with Feral Howl and Regen. I have seen Feral Howl in action and though I do like it…the recast time is horrific. I chose this one to compensate for not doing reward timer in G1. The regen isn’t that much but I like it better than the alternatives. I don’t see many Bsts that have a good reward set so I figure this is like a weak version of reward while waiting for the timer to refresh. I think my good reward set (700+ HPs) coupled with slight regen is a nice combo

Feral Howl
As I just mentioned, the recast time is horrific. I don’t think it’s a bad ablility…I just don’t feel I’ll use it as much as the other ones. I suggest unlocking as a secondary back up for tame or even to use on your enemy.

My opinions what NOT to merit.
Tame Timer
Yes tame has saved my life… and it’s also killed me. Oddly enough it’s killed me more than saved me. I usually try and survive mischarms before I use tame. There have been a number of times where I needed a pet, mischarmed and by the time I tamed, the pet moved out of its path and depoped before charm was ready…leading to my death. I find it most useful in situations where I mischarm and get a link. Having 3 mobs on you at once can be rough. If it was 100% success I would certainly pops some merits in it, but it’s not. It’s my ‘last resort” when I’m near death. I don’t need it as often as one might think. Even on tough NMs I don’t mischarm many times w/in a 10 minute period. I find myself using it more on VT+ mobs before I charm to help it land. And since Familiar is 2 hours…I don’t need tame as often.


Reward Timer
I think you need to go all or nothing with this. With the lowered reward time verses the amount of time taken off per merit…I just don’t think it’s a good option. If you constantly farm and you’re able to stretch pets out for long periods of time, I can understand that. But I don’t farm on my Bst a whole lot nor to I want to spend gil on petfood when I’m trying to farm for gil ><.

Killer Instincts
From what I understand, this gives your party Killer effects. Let’s be honest. As Bst, you’re the solo king. And if you’re in a party, 9 out of 10 times you’re in a pack with other Bsts. I find it so rare that normy parties pick up Bsts. Even those who realize a Bsts potential will rarely invite one. We received a black mark on our record in the beginning and it’s haunted us ever since. Is KI it helpful?? Maybe. Will it be used often?? Doubtful.

[Losrase]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

I’m personally going with the following

G1 - Sic Timer 2/5
G1 - Call Beast 5/5
G1 - Killer Effects 3/5
G2 - Beast Affinity 5/5
G2 - Pet Regen 4/5
G2 - Feral Howl 1/5


Killer Effects
I met a very talented Bst once. He used a few methods I’d never seen before and I watched him solo some odd things. He went 5/5 on KE and him being only a Bst and being around a long time, he taught me a lot…so I’m somewhat taking his advice here. His intimidation rates were more noticeable than mine. Especially on tough mobs we duo’d. I’d see him proc on both mischarms and NMs. He’d even stop Stoneaga IV (or is it III?) from Kirin some times. I was on the fence about this as well…but I’m trusting his judgment.

G1 - Call Beast 5/5
G1 - Killer Effects 5/5
G2 - Beast Affinity 5/5
G2 - Feral Howl 5/5

This is what I decided on. I ask many BSTs on my server and more than 70% of them had Killer Effects 5/5. I think I am going to follow their suggestion andRomyro's opinion.

Tho I was told Feral Howl potency get stronger with more merits. About 30% of the BSTs I talk to swear by 5/5 in Feral Howl. They were saying they were terrorizing HNMs on a consistant rate. Can anyone else confirm or deny this? I have been getting mixed results but the BSTs who said it wasnt good to merit never had 5/5 in it.

[LadyKiKi]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

Tho I was told Feral Howl potency get stronger with more merits. About 30% of the BSTs I talk to swear by 5/5 in Feral Howl. They were saying they were terrorizing HNMs on a consistant rate. Can anyone else confirm or deny this? I have been getting mixed results but the BSTs who said it wasnt good to merit never had 5/5 in it.

The in-game description does not state the potency increases, only the timer, I believe. Whereas all other merits state what more increases will do.

Also, by what means is a HNM nowadays, and that would a BST be called upon to fight? If the HNM you mention are Lumberjack, Simurgh, Roc, Serket... etc, I wonder if they count anymore, but that would explain the consistant rate they give off.

Otherwise, nowadays when I think HNM I just think the 3 ZM Kings, the Wyrms, Kimmy Hydra Cerb ...

However, I concluded that:

1. If Feral Howl is not needed and just to play with, it will land
2. If Feral Howl is depended upon to save lives, it will fail

Not much else to add otherwise, I only have 1 merit in it.

[Romyro]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

I was actually thinking the same thing yesterday. I didn’t think more merits would increase potency…unfortunately I couldn’t check wiki at work or log in to verify so…I didn’t reply lol.

Your best bet is to unlock it early. Mess around with it while working on the other merits. If you like it…finish it.


Also, thought I’d add these in there…from personal experience.

1. If Feral Howl/Tame/Charm is not needed and just to play with, it will land
2. If Feral Howl/Tame/Charm is depended upon to save lives, it will fail

[Losrase]

Re: BST Merits suggestions

Also, by what means is a HNM nowadays, and that would a BST be called upon to fight? If the HNM you mention are Lumberjack, Simurgh, Roc, Serket... etc, I wonder if they count anymore, but that would explain the consistant rate they give off.

Otherwise, nowadays when I think HNM I just think the 3 ZM Kings, the Wyrms, Kimmy Hydra Cerb ...

They were refering to Sky force spawns, Sea force spawns, Zilart 75 instance fights, and KS99s.