beastmasters in partys...

[gabehm]

Is there any way to make a beastmaster good in partys, like subjob or anything else?

[Shep]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

/nin or /war with HQ pets imo....

[RunningDemon]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

/WAR /NIN /THF are all useful in PTs. You will need a good BST though, one that has melee gear, not his crappy charm gear. As for pets, tiger/funguar own up until they cap out in 60s, then you need HQ juggies of CC.

As for damagewise, they will blow the rest of your PT away period, so long as they are decently equipped. BST is DoT, not spike, so don't go looking for 'ZOMG 2k WS!'. But every PT I have seen parsed has had them+pet out in front.






First one to say counting their pet's damage into their own gets slapped.

[Balfree]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

I'd like more BST to start joining parties so they can make a name for themselves as good party members, i love BSTs, i'd like to party with BST more often..

[Moaku Hyena]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

BST in Crawlers Nest PT = Pure Pwnage.
No, seriously. I've seen the awesomeness of the BST.
People underestimate the BST.
Too bad mine is level 3. /sob

[Bov]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

Gear up with the best DD gear you can, eat acc or att food depending on your gear setup and mob choices, and bring along a good jug for your level and you'll be pleased with the results.

Just please don't sub a non-DD sub (unless your party specifically asks for some reason) and don't wear charm gear or AF. Think of yourself as an ambasador for the rest of us BSTs. You will be the first BST many of the people in your parties will have every XP'd with. Let them know that BSTs can contribute!

[Veve]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

Get good ACC gear and use meat. For jugs, use tigers, funguar, and beetles. Use /WAR unless your party says not to. Also, if possible, use an evm pet. It's always, always better than jugs.

[Sigmara]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

Recently I PTed a bit, mainly because I have friends wanting to PT with me and that BST is at the good lvl.

So I took the gear I was stocking to lvl DRG ( mainly acc gear ), some attack food and a stack of mushrooms. The only "decent" subjob I have for now is DRK.

And it works good ... we did 2 PTs like that and both times I got peoples saying things like "I should lvl BST".

The only guys who were really outdamging me where not gimped DRG because of their piercing bonus on the mobs we were fighting and the added dommage of their pet. Now that's my impression : I did not parsed anything.

Otherwise my regular hits are on pare with other DDs. My WS are not freaking big. I have to stack soul eater and last ressort to compete with others here but my pet make up for the lack of dommage.

As I was not planning to lvl BST in PTs I dont have an hauby but used my SH or AJ. And I think a BST reallly planning to join a PT should have one like any melee would.

Now I bought an hauberk and hope to wear it soon.

Peoples often wonder "WTF" when they see a CC or a mushroom pet running around but seing that the BST is not going the cheap way and took the time to get expensive/rare items, really helps to break that first bad impression.

[Kitalrez]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

I've done pretty much the entire 10 levels to 34 in parties, so I think I'm getting a pretty good handle on how we work so far. As Running Demon said, we're DOT not burst DD, so you're not looking to rack up massive numbers in WS. What I suggest is:

1. Get used to pulling. We're hands down one of the best jobs at this. When you absolutely, positively need to have JUST ONE mob showing up in camp at a time, it's gotta be BST or SMN, no one else will cut it. Also, we have WideScan for a reason. If you're prior to Leave, bring along a few expendable jug pets, or find a nice weak mob nearby to get rid of and send it after the mob you'd like to pull. When all the other mobs link, just let it die out there and run back to your party, only the originally attacked mob will come after you, unless the path back to your party has other possible links, (and this can be taken care of with retreats and assaults on the original pull, if you plan ahead).

2. Find the cheapest possible bow and arrows for your level. BST can use almost every shortbow in the game, we just have no natural skill in it. As you only need one shot to pull something if you're not worried about links, go ahead and buy a cheapo one and some wooden arrows for pulling. If this was a major source of damage, I'd say go for the gold. Since it isn't, just work on getting one that will work.

3. Jug pets. Everyone else has already listed my favorites in this category, so I'll just go over what they skipped. Whenever possible, try to get your pet positioned to be on the side of the mob, instead of directly in front or behind it. THFs like to SA from behind, which tends to turn the mob. If you're using a TigerFamiliar v. Mandragoras, this means your pet is about to get countered a few times, and intimidated. Assaulting from the side puts it outside of counter and killer ranges. On the other hand, if your pet would naturally get a killer effect v. that mob, and the mob lacks any counter moves, by all means assault from behind the tank. Your pet's going to snag aggro eventually, may as well make use of his abilities.

4. You probably don't need sushi or +acc foods prior to lvl 40, go ahead and work your way up the meat dishes food chart for +ATK foods. As a 34 Tarutaru using 2 axes, I'm just barely into the Dhalmel Steak range. I could use sushi or mithkabobs at this range, but I won't see a major effect yet, and that money is better spent on gear.

5. /NIN is great for pulling, but has its pros and cons. Using two axes, (as a taru I lean towards the higher damage axes to maximize my DoT), I have the same damage range as a WAR or DRK using a higher range Greatsword or Greataxe. However, because I'm swinging twice with an A- weapon, my base DoT is going to be slightly higher than theirs, as it's pretty rare I miss with both swings. With the shadows from Utsusemi, I can avoid a few hits on the pull and those occasions in party when I can pretty much expect to take aggro. I also get Tonko, which is really helpful in the Jungles when I need to get back to Kazham, and Garlaige Citadel when I'm scouting a camp. The downside of /NIN is that since I'm using two weapons, I'm possibly going to give the mob enough extra TP to do another WS over the course of the battle. So far, this has only been an issue on the Pugils of Valkurm and Qufim.

6. Axe or Scythe is really up to you or the party, I've closed skillchains with each, and the difference isn't staggering either way just yet. In the endgame our best weapon may be the axe, but that doesn't mean it's that way earlier on. Look at THF prior to Viper Bite, where their best SA + WS is Combo, using their E skill weapon. Or DRK, whose best weapon for a few levels isn't GS or Scythe, but their C+ weapon the GA. Before I got to 24 and started using jug pets and /NIN, I was pretty much exclusive on Scythe. Most PTs treated me like a similarly equipped DRK, which is almost exactly how I performed. If you can snag Webcutter in Korroloka Tunnel, I'd suggest getting that, it's been very good to me in the Jungles, and may even see some action in Crawler's Nest later when that Stun proc v. Vermin might be handy. If you go Axes, get the slower higher damage ones like Tomahawks. It won't matter anymore if you get a big spike or two from a crit with these, so you may as well be as deadly as possible.

7. Before lvl 20, if you /WAR you're for all intensive purposes a WAR/. You have the same axe skill, provoke at 10, and probably can afford better armor than 90% of the morons trying to tank in Dunes. Even as a Taru, it was scary how well I could tank sometimes.

Hope this helps you.

[Khidir]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

bst are at their full power when they have a em pet in their possession, they are great DoT but really /war ftw in exp

/nin at 50+

dont party too much and not learn about the benefits of your job now=)

[Lilani]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

Is there any way to make a beastmaster good in partys, like subjob or anything else?

Two days ago, I had an absolutely amazing JP party in Bibiki Bay with my RDM. The leader was a BST/NIN, and I gained about 15k in 1.5 hours (I did use my EXP band for a little while, but it only lasted like half an hour).

She acted as a DD and sub tank for the ninja if things were to get bad (which didn't happen unless the NIN lost hate or was unable to cast shadows). She usually had some sort of jug pet going, but sometimes she would go a while without anything.

The party was absolutely insane, we made chain 6 at some point and we only took one MP break throughout the entire party. The only reason we broke up was because I ran short on time (spent too much time LFP and didn't have much left for partying ) and I felt extremely bad for breaking up such an awesome team (I think they regrouped in Whitegate, but either way, I didn't like interrupting them).

But I digress. When I got the invite and saw the leader was a BST I wasn't all too worried. In fact, I was a bit excited to see what BSTs could do in parties. I had one once before at Yuhtunga Jungle, and the party wasn't the best. The BST wasn't the problem at all, it was the rest of the party. I was dissapointed because I knew I hadn't seen the full potential of BSTs in action.

But now I most definately trust BSTs in my parties. Someone in my linkshell said BSTs had horrible accuracy at upper levels like DRGs, but she used sole sushi, and it obviously didn't hinder anything. I fart in the general direction of all BST-party naysayers!

[Kenki]

Re: beastmasters in partys...

If you have decked out DD gear then you should be able to do 'ok' damage alone without pet. Combine with a good jug pet you will be able to come on part with any power house DD like fully equipped war/mnk/rng...etc. However, if you compare to the 'top' DD like Mnk/War/Blm/Drg/Drk...etc (with super gear) you will notice a huge gap between a Bst/Nin and a War/Nin or Bst/War with Mnk/War... etc. You will notice these people when you PT more and see someone doing over 40~50% of the party damage overall.

I rarely PT, I only have about 1 PT at lv24ish and 2 at lv50~56ish. 2 are ok and 1 is just painful. I have most of the DD gear a BST can get (ie. PCC, snipers/str rings, sword belt+1...etc) at lv50ish but I can say that even with these very good equipments the best I could ever get to is comparable to an average DD with so so equips (not too great but not bad). I have yet to play as bst/war at lv50ish but bst/nin is doing not as good as I expected.

Parser results tell me that most of the time a power house melee will utilize his/her job abilities to greatly increase his/her damage. Even if they can be viewed as 'spike' damage the overall result has proven that playing as bst/nin DD without a pet means playing as a mediocre DD >_<;

Pet damage really events out the difference. If you get a good jug pet like a DC one then it should do some decent damage. In a standard 3 DD party my bst/nin do about 20~25% total damage while the other 2 DD do about 29~36% each. The pet does about 5%~15% depending on how 'good' the jug is (mostly about 40%~50% of my damage). The level of the target is something to be considered while playing as bst/nin since if the monster is slightly higher level your pet damage will drop dramatically thus your overall damage will be lowered. On VT~low IT, most pets seem to do ok damage; comparable to that of a lower-than-average DD. I haven't tried any of the charmed pet on PT yet since the places I PT don't have them or not have them close.

I highly recommend using a pet as a puller whenever it is possible. This is the reason why I like tigers more than fungar since they can outrun most of the mobs. Slower pets tend to die too fast on longer pulls. Most PT won't be at zones where you have to use release after every pull so your tiger pet should be safe for a good while. Also, if you sub nin you can sneak/inv pull without getting detected since the 'fight' command won't disable your sneak/inv. The use of a bow is ok but using a bow meaning you will lose TP whenever you change your ammo for jug/pet food.

The way I see bst in a PT is as a fill-in DD. When you can't get a top-gear DD you can always get a bst (who hopefully having top gear as he's seeking anyway). Bst suffers from the lack of DD traits/abilities; making them quite weak as a DD (a bit similar to thf without trick attack pre-patch).

OR the PT needs a good puller along with someone who can manage some hate control when things go bad. As people have mentioned: bst makes great puller est when you have access to fast moving jug pets or charmable pet. "Charm" with +chr gear works well on VT~IT since you only need to charm once and release them right away. This is a good crowd control method if you can't sleep the adds or when your PT can no longer fight the current monster.

So to answer the question; it's more like learning to play as a bst solo and having top DD gear is the way to make a bst good in PT. Also, always make a macro for PT telling your TP % and a WS macro. You will also need a pull macro to tell them before you pull anything.