my final thoughts on BST/WAR...

[Antwan_3000]

anyone who recognizes my username knows that i've always been a supporter for thinking "outside the box" on the issue of BST subjobs.. my combination of choice was BST/WAR...

this is mainly for a couple reasons:

1) i like melee characters.. when i first read about BST i was excited about the idea of being in a PT and grabbing a powerful beast to fight alongside me and my friends.. and at the same time, i was glad to read that BST can solo very effectively...

2) i have absoloutely no desire to level a mage job.. especially WHM.. i leveled BLM for a little while since i was initially interested in DRK (i was a n00b WAR/BLM when i first bought the game.. lol..) but i cant see myself putting any levels on WHM..

3) i already had WAR leveled and i really enjoyed the job..

but the harsh truths of the matter where:

1) i originally envisioned myself as having a spot in a regular PT.. and even though a BST/WAR and an EM pet do some of the best melee damage you can find, PTs just aren't that willing to send you an invite...

2) and since you're forced to solo most of your BST career, choosing a WHM sub (or maybe RDM) was widely preached as the "only" way to go..

well, i bucked the system and continued to level my BST/WAR.. i had minimum time in regular PTs and an average amount of time in BST duos but most of my time was spent solo... and i soloed my BST/WAR all the way to level 59.. i have yet to put a single level on WHM..

to keep it short, here were my overall findings:

the BST job as a main job has a certain amount of pure soloablitity... its simply the nature of the job.. and this is regardless of the subjob choice.. but as you will see, this is both the success and downfall of the /WAR sub...

basically as a BST/whatever you can kill toughs and maybe VTS with little to no downtime as long as you have the following conditions:

*100% TP for a weapon skill

*a sufficient number of pets with a comparable strength ratio to your enemies in order to get the enemy down to near death..

bottomline: as long as your able to have a pet tank your enemy down to a "last hit" status and if you have 100% TP for a WS, you're gonna be able to finish that mob without being hit more than once (if you get hit in the first place)..

these condition exist on mobs that dont have powerful radial AoEs (like crawlers, funguars, beetles, crabs, pugils, bats, spiders, and etc..)

but admitingly, these conditions dont always exist.. when fighting mobs like gobs, flys, leeches, and etc. you're going to suffer severe downtime if you're hit with a bomb toss, cursed sphere, or anything like that...

other conditions that mess up a "BST/whatever" are:

*failed charms.. lets face it, they happen.. and if you dont have a method of avoiding the damage (blink or utsusemi), absorbing the damage (stoneskin), or restoring the lost HP (cures or regen) you're gonna suffer a magin of downtime before you even get started on your next mob...

*closed-in areas where you cant help but pass by aggro mobs just to simply move around.. i've soloed thru Crawlers Nest and Garliage Citidel with a BST/WAR with little trouble but places like Labyrinth of Onzozo are examples of the trouble areas if you dont have sneak or invisible...

*and any number of other things that may occur.. veteran BST know what i mean...

so essentially "BST/whatever" will get you very far if you come prepared (bringing sneak oils and prism powders is highly recommended).. i forsee that you can esentially solo all the way to 75 with BST/whatever is you so choose to.. just realize things would be easier if you had a subjob that gave more "sure things"...

by "sure things" i mean that Defender (from a BST/WAR) or Dodge (from a BST/MNK) might help you avoid some downtime if you catch aggro.. but things like cures, regens, stoneskin, blink, and utsusemi will ALWAYS eliminate/reduce potential downtime.. they are a "sure thing"..

most of the other jobs have "points of interest" that may or may not help you out in an emergency or unfortunate situations.. but like it or not /WHM offers the most in terms of helping out a BST's solo time...

even i've settled in on BST/NIN.. utsusemi: ichi garantees me that i'll make the mob miss 3-6 times.. that means alot when you're recycling EMs and DCs on Ts and VTs.... there are other advantages to BST/NIN i really wont get into here but if you dont wanna level a mage job, then BST/NIN is your only true choice if you wanna have a melee subjob and still get the most out of your solo time..

i basically realized this once i decided to go back and level my WAR from 30-37.. i decided to raise NIN as a subjob for my WAR.. but i immediately fell in love with the NIN job and its potential applications for my BST...

in closing, is BST/WAR "doable".. yes.. i've confirmed this imo.. BST/WAR is definitely the best choice for PT play... but for solo, its almost totally dependant upon the initial soloablity of the BST job in general.. if you want to add soloablity to a job thats already soloable, then WHM, RDM, or NIN are your best choices imo...

-peace...

[Aeolus]

Re: my final thoughts on BST/WAR...

Originally posted by Antwan_3000
[I}garantees[/I]

Just pointing it out.

Dont ppl just play /whm cause its easier. Going Bst/War just makes it more challenging and ppl that say your a newb just say it because they die when they try it.

[Antwan_3000]

Re: Re: my final thoughts on BST/WAR...

Originally posted by Aeolus
Just pointing it out.

Dont ppl just play /whm cause its easier. Going Bst/War just makes it more challenging and ppl that say your a newb just say it because they die when they try it.

bst/war is definitley more challenging... i never saw myself as a "newb" for going to level 59 with bst/war.. actually the bst/whms i dued with gave me alot of props for doing what i was doing (atleast they did after we grouped for a couple of hours first.. lol..)..

for all intents and purposes, bst/whm is definitetly easier.. but i will never look down on a bst/war, bst/mnk, or bst/sam... bst/whatever is a solo class.. period.. you're just going to have a more challenging time at soloing than if you went bst/whm, bst/rdm, or bst/nin..

but the bottomline is that when u solo, that's your time you're spending.. so it up to the individual to decide what's best for that person...

[Gman]

Your views are from your own experience, and I can respect that. After all, we're Beastmasters... whos approval do we need? So what if you go BST/SMN or BST/RNG... no one is affected but yourself. When soloing for experience, I find the wide array of utility spells to be why WHM is the best. Not so much the cures. If you're careful, you will barely get hit, so cures shouldnt be the issue. Sneak, Blink, Stoneskin, Invisible, Bar-whatever, -na spells, protectra/shellra, etc are the reasons I like WHM. Curing is 2nd to those, and 99/100 times I prefer regen to straight out curing. It gives me less hate, and it heals more than a cure 2.

I will say BST/NIN is a good solo combo, however, recently I've been doing some BCNM "Tails of Woe" In Horlais Peak with a 5-6 BST party, and let me tell you... for that STOP BEING GIMP AND LEVEL WHITE MAGE (not you Antwan, I'm referring to the BST/NIN that come to BCNM)

The reason I say this is 3-fold.

1) You cannot cure yourself. You must rely on the BST/WHM to cure you. Not like others will mind, but they dont want to draw hate either, and its good to be self-sufficient.

2) You cannot cure others if they are in trouble. This is all about team work, and BST/NIN is a selfish combo which offers no assistance to your teammates.

3) Whirl Claws strips all utsusemi shadows and hits you for damage anyway. Why bother?

Please, all BST's I beg you, dont show up to BCNM with a non-whm sub. You are doing a huge disservice to your party.

/end rant

Good post Antwan, I need to level WAR so I can participate in skillup parties, NM hunts, AF quests etc ^^ At the moment I just go as my RDM, but as my BST approches 60 I want to go more with that job.

[Antwan_3000]

Originally posted by Gman
3) Whirl Claws strips all utsusemi shadows and hits you for damage anyway. Why bother?

i havent done that bcnm as a bst/nin yet but i can tell u that utsusemi blocks the whirl claws of the hares in Uleguerand Range and Boyahda Tree (i dont see why i'd be any different for those bcnm hares).. whirl claws usually only takes 2 shadows (at the MOST it would sometimes take 3).. so u just recast utsusemi and continue on with no damage taken..

in that bcnm u're surrounded by multiple hares so i can see how u might get hit by a whirl claws if u're careless.. a good bst/nin wouldnt let that happen often enough to cause any probs.. a 30 second recast is pretty quick in terms of blocking mob WS/specials..

lol.. the times i went on that bcnm, i went as a bst/war ^.^;.. and we'd always have atleast one bst/nin in the mix too.. noone seemed to care tho.. they were just glad to have enough peeps to charm the hares.. >< noone ever came close to dieing or anything...

i do see your concerns tho...

[Gman]

Ya, I should verify that we havent lost because of it, so its not a problem that way, but when you have a BST/NIN telling you to keep up on the cures you get a little ticked off and want to tell them to sub WHM next time :p

As for whirl claws, I know it strips all my Blink shadows and hits me for damage, so I assumed it did it with Utsu too. I know Utsu has 3 vs Blink having 2, but it still strips my effect right off and nails me for 90-100 dmg, Helltail Harrys whirlclaws hit for 200 ; ;

I guess if everything goes fine and there are no problems in the fight, having NIN sub wont matter at all, but if something goes wrong, the cures are handy.