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These guides are outdated and seem to rely on the ghetto leave; does the ghetto leave result in the pet taking more damage thus saving my HP?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

These guides are outdated and seem to rely on the ghetto leave; does the ghetto leave result in the pet taking more damage thus saving my HP?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

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]

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]

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]

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.

[IfritnoItazura]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

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]

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 :P

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]

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]

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.