Newb question re: MNK/BST

[Boldfinger]

I was wondering if you thought it would be possible to level MNK with /BST ??

If I equipped lowbie (or even none) H2H weapons, would that help to avoid stealing hate from my pet but still keep H2H capped. Is that even possible ??

Actually, same question for WAR and a lowbie Great Axe or NIN and a lowbie Katana.


thanks.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

/BST doesn't work the same way other subjobs do, your level as a BST has to be equal to that of your main job to charm as effectively as you could. Meaning, if you were 75 MNK and a 37 BST and went out to charm Wajaom Tigers as 75MNK/37BST, you'd likely be reinacting Sigfried and Roy's greatest trainer mishaps more than you would be charming anything. You'd have to be a 75 MNK and 75 BST and then go 75MNK/37BST to have a hope in charming anything.

You can't use the jug pets or pet food under /BST, so Reward and Call Beast go to waste. Additionally, it will be extremely difficult to find pets of even or DC levels in most camps you will PT for EXP in.

BST adds no real traits that would be of benefit to MNK main, either.

If your intention with this is to solo, its even harder to reccommend since MNK has no real crowd control options and very limited healing options. Chakara is nice, but likely would not offer you the healing you need in the most dire situations. COR, BRD, BLU and RDM can actually use /BST rather well, as can a few others, but its a hard sell on a melee job since there's usually no safety nets (Bind, Sleep, Shadows, Cures) for them to fall back on.

[Boldfinger]

Your first paragraph is golden. Thanks for that, I've been having a bad day

Well, as I have a RDM 30, my plan is to level BST with /RDM and then use /BST to level my other jobs to 40.

I was hoping it would be a good way to level the jobs that I don't really plan on 'specialising' in, to the point that I could use them as fully levelled subs or for BCNM 40 if they were required.

MNK, WAR, THF and NIN were what I was thinking... after WHM of course

Thanks for the reply.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

You can't use the jug pets or pet food under /BST, so Reward and Call Beast go to waste.

Actually, you can use pet food as /BST. Not that it makes a huge difference for MNK/BST or WAR/BST.

They both sounds like they won't work that well. Both mains do too much damage. I tried doing some skill ups as a lvl 68 WAR/BST using a Neckchopper (yeah, a lvl 20 GAxe). I wasn't even equipping DD heavy gear, and yet I was still pulling hate quite often.

I've heard of someone pulling off DRK/BST. But I imagine it's more workable thanks to Drain (for the damage you know you're going to take from time to time) and Bind (for those multiple mischarm moments). WAR can compensate for healing with Bloody Bolts, but MNK has to rely on Chakra once every 5 minutes. They're both in a pickle if you get multiple mischarms.

[Boldfinger]

Oh well, it looks like I'll most likely have to level MNK and WAR the old fashioned way if I want them. You've taken the shine right off of me with your news about your WAR 68 using a neckchopper with no joy because I thought I had sussed a way that it could be half done. Thanks for sharing though

Still, I suppose there's no harm in at least giving it a try at some point with /BST is there ??

Anyways, I still want to level WHM, NIN and THF first before I even think about tackling anything else really

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Actually, you can use pet food as /BST. Not that it makes a huge difference for MNK/BST or WAR/BST.

Oh, right pet food doesn't have the BST tag on it, only pet jugs do. I had my wires crossed on that one.

I've heard of someone pulling off DRK/BST. But I imagine it's more workable thanks to Drain (for the damage you know you're going to take from time to time) and Bind (for those multiple mischarm moments). WAR can compensate for healing with Bloody Bolts, but MNK has to rely on Chakra once every 5 minutes. They're both in a pickle if you get multiple mischarms.

Yeah, I can see DRK in the select few to pull it off, they have all the tools RDM, COR, BRD and BLU would have to make it work well enough.

[judisa]

Oh well, it looks like I'll most likely have to level MNK and WAR the old fashioned way if I want them.

While I agree that MNK/BST would be rather difficult and probably involve a lot of downtime, WAR/BST is do-able in that at least you can use bolts. Macro in enough R.acc stuff and sleep mobs in emergencies (even in a mis-charm situation) and use bloody to sustain yourself.

[Boldfinger]

Interesting. I have no real experience with anything outside of RDM (and even that's not very much) so I wouldn't have thought about going down the "bolts" route.

I've been thinking about leveling my THF too but since I haven't been on in so long, I can't remember what THF can equip. Is this a route that THF could take also ??

I'm not being lazy, honest. I'd go and check myself but I'm stuck behind a web-filter and this seems to the only FFXI site that I can access. Something about it being labelled "community" instead of "game"

[Ellipses]

THF has slightly better rating in Marksmanship (C+ vs. D) than WAR, and can equip the status bolts. Maybe not all the same crossbows, but that's not really the point.

[Boldfinger]

I guess since I want to try and solo THF/BST anyway, I'll see how I get on with the bolts and then take it over to WAR if I'm any use.

Thanks for that.