[LyonheartLakshmi]

Originally Posted by Kuro

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 don't remember if anyone mentioned this, but using a T pet or higher will reduce the amount of exp you get for the kill. While there's no longer a 30% exp penalty for having a charmed pet, having a pet of a higher level than you will cause base exp to be calculated by your pet's level.

For example, if you used an EM pet to fight a T mob one level above you, you would get 120 exp. However, if you used a T pet one level above you for the same fight, you would only get 100 exp.

[Kuro]

Yeah thats the one thing I did know heh, saw this a lot seeing as there are another 2 BST's in lizzie land so i have to use T's

[IfritnoItazura]

I only mentioned T bats because they were relatively easy to charm. I kept using them in the Maze until I leveled to the point where they turned into DCs, I think, and then some.

Worms are nice targets, because they don't chase you, and you can have Barstonra up to reduce damage from Stonega. I brought Selbina Milk to deal with Rasp.

[Kuro]

I just hit lv 17, SO i guess I need the monster signia thing now?

/sigh Don;t have the fgil for it and im about 0/10 on that guy. got many a pair of zelots mitts though.

[Omni]

u dont need it. eat some tuna sushi if you need some extra CHR.

if you want to get one, it'll be fine for your charm macro but thats about it. I went without one and did just fine. Light staff at 51 > all.

[Twinlance]

I'm a returing player so I haven't played with the old Bst just the new patched version. I got all my levels up to 27 atm just within the last month or less. Too be honest I can remeber a lot of what your saying an even now still feel some of that frustraction. A earlier poster said the camp you have makes a difference. Honestly it makes a huge difference. Certain mobs, certain setup an whats around you has a huge effect on how well you work.

The best hunting spells I have had is usually with a EM or DC hunting something lower. I keep the pets which can be very frustrating for them getting loose on you. I have noticed the higher I get the more hate the pet holds. However even at 27 there still pretty bad at holding hate. I get the feeling ( an some higher Bst is welcome to answer this) that the higher you get in the game the easier the class gets to play. I have a Elvaan Male an with a Scythe I'm pretty much tanking with the pet as a damage add. At best I can hand hate kinda back an forth between us.

The hate issue is whats getting you I would bet. The pets don't taunt an if you hit for anything the mobs right on you. I would suggest to try an keep it simple. Easy targets with EM DC pet like I said above works well. You just mow through stuff. The exp numbers don't look great but the lack of downtime an the fact you just keep pushing through gets levels fast.

Atm I'm actually hurting for a decent hunt spot. Most areas seem to high with toughs to at best EM. I need a little lower. Oh which brings to the point of where your hunting. Soloing is rather odd for FF11. The zones really aren't designed for it. So find a area where you are safe as possible if things go wrong or if you have to zone out.

Well hope that helps.

[Kuro]

well i suffer more trying to find enemies to charm and kill. this became very easy for me the second i hit valk.

I knew where the monsters were, there were a lot of EM/T lizards and T gobbies about for me to charm and have kill each other, soemtimes my pet would die others not. I was close to the zone line that also helped.

I just had an awesome Pt from lv 17 to lv 20, we hit up worms in the back of Koko tunnel we had a pl at the start but ended up not needing one. Was a lot faster than soloing could ever be.

My friends agreed to PL me a little, so I'm going to use him to explore WoTG camps (This wont' be PLing but lureing him to help me find monsters)

[Vejiita]

Originally Posted by Twinlance

I have noticed the higher I get the more hate the pet holds. However even at 27 there still pretty bad at holding hate. I get the feeling ( an some higher Bst is welcome to answer this) that the higher you get in the game the easier the class gets to play. I have a Elvaan Male an with a Scythe I'm pretty much tanking with the pet as a damage add. At best I can hand hate kinda back an forth between us

I'm only 38 but I've noted the same thing. My pets now keeps the hate pretty much all the time unless I'm stupid, cast dia + Paralyze + slow and then engage and do a WS... then I'll die fast

But yeah, seems better at my level and I'm pretty sure it gets better as the damage output of the monsters (and pets) increase as you increase in level.

[Esoa]

My BST is 11 and I tried sending my EM 2-houred bird against a tough yagudo, it got destroyed and I died. Then I went and sent an EM beetle against tough bats, it didn't even get the bats to 90% before it died. I managed to charm another beetle then drew agro with 1 heal. While running away the bats managed to kill the beetle and still not below 75% health. Then in desperation I tried to charm EP bats but it failed (lol). Then I died.

WTF. I guess I'm just going to charm a DC pet and kill EP's like every other class.

[WovenDarkness]

Originally Posted by Esoa

WTF. I guess I'm just going to charm a DC pet and kill EP's like every other class.

The early levels are the hard ones. I remember having a ton of trouble in your range. It was hard to balance hate. It was hard to tell when I needed to help out my pet in order for the mob to die. It was hard to judge when I was helping my pet out too much. (From the pet longevity standpoint).

What worked best for me took some time to learn. I basically started to pay attention to how fast my pet was dying and how much of my target mob's health was left. It doesn't take to long to figure out if and when your going to need a new pet, and roughly how much damage your pet will do before it becomes uncharmed. Keep at it and you'll figure it out.

Things become easier as you progress in levels. EP-->DC is good for now. If you choose to go DC-->EM, this is okay too, just keep in mind that you'll have to either use a couple of pets or help your pet a touch and time it so that your pet dies and you can finish off the mob. Come to think of it, at that level, I was having a hell of a time doing DC-->EM. IIRC, I had to use a couple of pets and help out....

...don't worry, it gets easier.

[Esoa]

I finally got to 14 and was able to charm/fight the beetles and bats in Inner Horo. Ruins but what gets me (and this is probably the case at almost every camp) is the wide level spread of the mobs. There were tough mobs and easy prey mobs of the same type (or perhaps only beetles were ep) so often you'd have 2-3 tough mobs grouped together so you had no choice but to charm one, then it would beat up another tough all by itself so I'd be stuck with the tough at 20% life and then I'd run with it to see what respawned and lo and behold it was some ep's...you get the drift. The whole "send dc and em vs. tough" strat doesn't work very well when you lack one part of the equation on a frequent basis. It's like that when you XP in PT's even at high levels, some of the mobs will give great xp but their brother next to them is like 5 lvls lower and gives you crap.

It's pretty fun though. I saw a slime down there that I'm gonna charm for my 2 hour, he'll tear everything up for sure...I sent 2 toughs at him and they got him to 90% health lol.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Originally Posted by Esoa

My BST is 11 and I tried sending my EM 2-houred bird against a tough yagudo, it got destroyed and I died. Then I went and sent an EM beetle against tough bats, it didn't even get the bats to 90% before it died. I managed to charm another beetle then drew agro with 1 heal. While running away the bats managed to kill the beetle and still not below 75% health. Then in desperation I tried to charm EP bats but it failed (lol). Then I died.

WTF. I guess I'm just going to charm a DC pet and kill EP's like every other class.

1. EM can only be one level, but Tough can be a pretty wide range. At higher levels, an EM will be better at tanking even VT mobs. But that's not the case early on. For now, if you can't be sure that a T is just 1 level above your EM, then don't risk.

2. Undercon vs Overcon. Some mob types are always stronger than they check (undercon). Beastmen, undead, slimes and leeches are just a few of the mobs that are typically considered undercon. Some mob types are generally weaker than they check (overcon). Beetles, worms, crabs and colibri are classic examples of this -- there's a reason exp parties like to target them! If you send a pet from an overcon class against an undercon mob, you can expect the fight to be harder than usual. If you can reverse that, you'll be in good shape. For example, an EM Leech vs a T Crab is a much safer bet.

[Mykezero]

If i may give you some advice, Kuro, I leveled most of my bst by duoing. this was way easier then soloing bst by myself. But, recently, my duo partner decided to stop training bst. I now realize what a pain in the *** bst can be. I say, the right way to go to make bst easier to handle, is to get a duo partner. I had more fun duoing bst then soloing it all by myself ^^

[Balfree]

I remember dieing a lot on my way to 30 or so, that stopped eventually. Nowadays and since then, dieing only happens if I mischarm on a pinch or if I get some sort of crazy link or agro.