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Guide: What everyone else might like to know about BSTFollow

#1 Aug 11 2004 at 2:08 PM Rating: Excellent
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388 posts
Every job has their moments when they feel that they're being told what to do, or being completely misunderstood. As BST, however, we sometimes get it worse because few people party with BST - no-one interacts with us. Also, we're not a job that people tend to play around with all that much to learn about, as BST requires a pretty serious commitment of time to get anywhere with. As such, after a mildly bad experience or two (and reading about many others!) I thought that I might knock together a reference for anyone who wants to know a little more about BST. Just my way of trying to give something back for all the useful information I've gotten out of here.

What you might want to know about BST 101

I. Who are we?
II. How do we work?
III. Partying with us.
IV. Partying around us.
V. Misc.

I. Who are we?

We are Beastmasters, or BST for short. We are many and varied, but for the most part we are not losers or rejects who simply couldn’t hack it in the world of the almighty party. We choose to be BST because we like it, because we want a break, because we don’t have the time to commit to parties.

As BST we are resilient, because we die. A LOT. We are determined, because you have to be to survive in this job. We (usually) know what we’re doing, because we can’t depend upon the skills of others to shore up our weaknesses – when we bugger something up, we die. Even then, we experience the vagaries of luck - sometimes we put that Tough goblin away like it was made of soft cheese, and at others an Easy Prey lizard wipes us out without even blinking.

BSTs, like a fine wine, get better with age. The first 15 levels of our job are among the toughest that any job will experience, as we not only learn to work with pets but watch them turn on us time and again. If you see a level 40 or 50 BST, you can pretty much assume that they know their job, because they have no choice. We know how to deal with emergencies – low health, links, and so on. We know when to run, and we can get ourselves out of a jam. We usually carry at least up-to-date gear, as a poorly equipped BST is a dead BST.

Due to the fact that we explore and fight in so many different areas, often off the beaten path, BSTs tend to know a fair amount about the world for their level. We will often know more about the monsters in a given area than anyone else, because we’ve fought against/alongside most of them. We also tend to have an awareness of our surroundings that parallels or sometimes even exceeds that of a RNG - Widescan, radar, even just line of sight - because we need to know what's going on around us.

II. How do we work?

As a BST, we are a one-person party. We pull, we buff/debuff, we heal, we deal damage – and as for a tank, we bring our own, our pet. A BST uses his ability to charm a pet, usually a monster in the area that checks from DC to T. We then use our ability to command our pet in order to set our pet on another monster, with the enemy usually being of the same strength or stronger than our pet. This leads to two main soloing strategies for a BST:

1. A BST will allow the pet and the enemy to fight alone, with no more than perhaps the occasional Dia as intervention, until the pet dies. This will hopefully be after the pet has knocked the enemy down to the point where it has only a sliver of health left, at which point the BST will pull his/her weapon and charge in to finish the monster off for full XP. If not, charming another pet might be necessary.

2. The BST will charge in alongside the pet, swinging away and killing the enemy faster so as to take on multiple enemies with the same pet. Each monster killed in this fashion will give up 30% less xp for the BST, but chaining is easier to accomplish this way.

Yes, it’s true – a BST can chain monsters, himself, for excellent XP. I have personally done it to chain 2, and I’ve heard tales from others about chain 4 or 5 by themselves.

To understand BST, there are a few abilities that you might wish to know about:

Charm:
Reuse: 15 seconds.
Level: 1.
Description:This is the basic function of a BST. It is affected by CHR, which is one of the reasons that Monster Signa is priced so highly (+8 CHR). Charm is essentially an attack: if it works, the targeted creature comes under the BSTs control. If it doesn’t, the targeted creature turns on the BST and starts biting. Some creatures cannot be charmed, such as sentient monsters including all beastmen (Yags, gobs, quads, etc) and a few others. On these uncharmable mobs, Charm acts like ‘Bind’, and lasts a few seconds at most.

Reward
Reuse: 3 minutes.
Level: 12.
Description: Reward allows the BST to use pet food to heal the pet. Pet food are those biscuits that you might see in the AH or a cooking guide: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon. Each restores an increasing amount of HP to a pet. These are often used to give a pet a little more oomph to finish off the fight.

Call Beast
Reuse: 5 minutes.
Level: 23.
Description: This is where ‘jugs’ come in. Jugs are equipped in a BSTs ammo slot, like pet food, and consumed to summon a familiar. These familiars act as a normal BST pet, except that they stay for 15 minutes and disappear when killed. The strength of a jug pet is variable depending on the type summoned (for example, HareFamiliar, CrabFamiliar, etc) and the level of the BST, but will almost always be weaker than something a BST would charm in the wild. They are brilliant for a variety of situations, though (see III).

Sic
Reuse: 2 minutes.
Level: 25.
Description: This command allows the pet to use stored TP in a special attack. Ever faced a Foot Kick from a rarab? That’s a special attack. A BST has to know what the specials of his pet are, because if they are AoE the pet’s actions will draw in nearby monsters just like an AoE spell from a BLM would.

Leave
Reuse: Unknown.
Level: 35.
Description: This is the Holy Grail for BSTs, and will often change their fighting strategy. With Leave, a BST can release his/her pet at any time and charm another. While that is happening, the pet will heal at the freakishly fast rate that pets do, which means that a BST can often use two or more pets to take on even tougher monsters (up to IT). Note: see section V, Misc, for an explanation of what Leave means to you.

These are the most important abilities of a BST for you, a non-BST to know about. There are more, but they are not important to anyone but that poor Taru hanging his butt out to the wind.

With all that aside, we move on.

III. Partying with us.

First, let me clear up a misconception, foisted on an unsuspecting public by the good folks at Brady Games and their wonderful strategy guide:

BSTs do NOT reduce a party’s XP!

To explain: a BST in a party who charms a monster that checks even match or lower (to the BST) does not affect the party’s xp. If the pet lives, the BST will take the customary 30% cut in XP, and if the pet dies, the BST gets full XP.

The only way in which a BST can affect the party’s XP is to charm a monster that checks T or above to the BST, a which point the pet is acting like another member of the party. In this case, the pet would be the highest level member of the party (unless, presumably, the BST were a couple levels lower than the highest member of the party – but I’m unaware of this having been tested) and would affect party XP accordingly. However, this will rarely happen, because

1. BSTs know this, and wouldn’t charm anything T or up in a party situation, and
2. Charms on Toughs are notoriously unreliable and short in duration in any case, and not something that a BST normally does.

That having been said, a BST can bring a lot to a party. How?

1. With a pet (wild or jug), a BST adds what amounts to a seventh member to a party – and an expendable one at that. Though not often a full-fledged melee character on his/her own, due to a lack of special abilities like a WAR, DRK, or RNG might have, a BST with a pet becomes a powerful fighting force.

2. Have an emergency? A BST can crack open a jug, summon a familiar, and draw off that link that appeared out of nowhere until you have time to deal with it, damaging it in the process. Or, the pet that is already charmed can turn to deal with this new threat. In a real pinch, the BST's pet can buy enough time for you and your party to zone with little danger.

3. A BST can be a good puller – his pet can grab a mob and with another of his pet commands, he can bring it back to the party with no danger to the puller. If anything links along the way, the original monster will go after the BST once the pet is dead, but the linked monsters will lose interest and go away.

4. Depending on the subjob a BST chooses (and most will choose WAR or WHM for reasons that don’t interest us here), the BST can throw out a Provoke or Cure to help save the day – though this will be emergency only, please, as we are neither tanks nor healers.

5. Widescan - though RNG gets higher levels of Widescan faster than us (we improve at 20, 40, 60, while they improve at 15, 30, 45, etc), it's still useful in a party. In addition, as mentioned above, we've had to rely on it to save our skins, so you can be sure we know how to use it effectively.

These are just a few of the things that a BST can bring to a party. We won’t always say yes to an invite – after all, we are a solo job for the most part. But if you can’t find that elusive sixth member for the uber-XP, why not invite that BST with his flag up? You might be pleasantly surprised.

IV. Partying around us.

Ah. Now, onto more controversial territory.

Even I, in my partying days, remember the occasional burst of frustration as another party rolled into a spot that we had been enjoying all to ourselves, killing the XP in the process. Worse was when you trekked halfway across a zone only to find that another group was already in your super-secret leveling spot. How much more frustrated do you feel, as a party, when you’ve found a great spot for your party only to find that a BST beat you there?

Now, BSTs will tend to stay out of the more populated zones because they don’t like competing for pets or prey, and because frankly, we can. We can level anywhere with appropriate monsters, but there are times when we will cross paths with you and your party. For example, Qufim happens to be a good spot to level for BSTS in the range of 25 or 26 up to the early 30s. When that happens, please remember the following.

BSTs have just as much right to be there as you do.

It doesn’t matter where you are – you have as little right to try and force out a BST as you do to force out another party. Even if it’s the Dunes/Qufim/Kazham, a BST has a right to be there as much as anyone else does. Please respect our right to be there, and we will respect your right as well. A BST is not a second-class citizen. Of course, the reverse is true as well. Any BST that disrespects you is a jerk, plain and simple – but that doesn’t mean that all BSTs are.

A BST goes through a lot of mobs as s/he XPs, so if there’s not many mobs in your favourite spot, consider being polite and moving on if the BST was there first. More importantly, post-35, a BST will be releasing pets and charming new ones, and some of these pets may aggro. Trying to force your way into a BSTs camp could get you killed, and not by any action of the BST (more on this later).

But most importantly, talk to us. Some of us are jerks, just like some of any job are, but more often than not we will be willing to work out something. Just don’t expect us to ‘get out of your way’ if you come barging in.

V. Misc.

Some final notes.

MPKing: MPKing (Monster Player-Killing) is what happens when a BST drops an aggroing mob into the middle of a party or near an individual and uses Leave. The mob will emerge from its charmed haze and latch onto the first poor slob in its way – i.e. the targeted party/individual. Let me be as clear about this as I was above:

THIS IS NOT RIGHT, EVER.

We have the power to do this, though I wish we didn’t. If any BST ever does this to you, call a GM immediately, whether you get killed or not. That is not to say that if you stumble into a BSTs camp as he’s Leaving a pet and he doesn’t see you, resulting in your death, that he was out to get you. I’m speaking of deliberate murder, attempted or otherwise. This is a reprehensible action, and should be punished severely. There is no excuse.

Leave, and what it means to you: If you see a BST dismissing pets at half strength, and wonder what he's doing, than this is for you:

A dismissed pet will heal fast. If the BST leaves, or doesn't appear to be using it (safer to ask first, to avoid misunderstanding), wait until the mob is fully healed before you attack it! If you wait until it has full health, you will get full XP. Otherwise, you'll take a cut.


Credits: Some of the information here came from Shinoda’s Beastmaster 101 as well as Divida’s earlier guide and the good folks in the [link=ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=8]Beastmaster Job Forum[/link]. Thanks to ArtsFalcon (Widescan, situational awareness, and luck), and Dahrken (What Leave means to others)

Suggestions or comments are welcome! Feel free to add anything you might be useful for other players to know, especially in the Misc. section. (FAQs?)

Cheers!


Edited, Wed Aug 11 16:51:24 2004 by Winawer

Edited, Wed Aug 11 17:04:02 2004 by Winawer
#2REDACTED, Posted: Aug 11 2004 at 2:09 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) *cough* there is a beastmaster job forum ya know ^^
#3 Aug 11 2004 at 2:11 PM Rating: Decent
Thanks for the info. I opened this job up last week and I hope to start leveling it soon.
#4REDACTED, Posted: Aug 11 2004 at 2:12 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) /point PostAbove
#5 Aug 11 2004 at 2:19 PM Rating: Excellent
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388 posts
Quote:
/point PostAbove

Excellent idea, just wrong place for it. Most of the time, if it's good enough, things like this are stickied to the Job forums.


I don't understand - the job forums are for people who play a given job, are they not? That's what I've always used them for. I wrote this guide for people who *don't* play BST. Why should this not go in this forum?

Cheers!

Edit: If it really was inappropriate, I'll ask an admin to nuke the thread and forget the whole thing.

Edited, Wed Aug 11 15:24:56 2004 by Winawer
#6 Aug 11 2004 at 2:25 PM Rating: Decent
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491 posts
Quote:
*cough* there is a beastmaster job forum ya know ^^


Winawer ^^ /cheers

Rate up!

This is a great read, and great info to let people **OUTSIDE** our job to see how we work.

You did post it in the right place, because most people dont go to our forum to read on how we work, only to complain about how they dont understand us.

#7 Aug 11 2004 at 2:29 PM Rating: Decent
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215 posts
I think this post is designed to inform NON bst's which is why its in the main forum. IE Most people that are not bst's dont read the bst foruom. Please correct me if I am wrong
#8 Aug 11 2004 at 2:31 PM Rating: Excellent
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388 posts
Quote:
I think this post is designed to inform NON bst's which is why its in the main forum. IE Most people that are not bst's dont read the bst foruom. Please correct me if I am wrong


<shrug> That *was* the point, yes. I can only surmise that I've broken some rule I wasn't aware of or that the first couple of responders didn't actually read the post.

Cheers!
#9 Aug 11 2004 at 2:35 PM Rating: Decent
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524 posts
Of course it's geared at non-BSTs. No BST, even a jackass one, would MPK another BST. And why would already-BSTs need to be straightened out on the brady myth, or given reasons to not ignore a BST as a party job. Think before you post, we BSTs already have 5 fantastic stickies. This FAQ is for the rest of you.
#10 Aug 11 2004 at 2:36 PM Rating: Default
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706 posts
Despite it's intended audience being those of us who are not BSTs, it still provides information about one particular job, which by my understanding is what qualifies something to be placed into the Job forum.

I think it's a great guide you've got here and my intention isn't to knock it or you down.
#11 Aug 11 2004 at 2:43 PM Rating: Decent
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74 posts
Very well done !

I believe this info was posted not for the BST, but for everybody else. Because most players only have a foggy idea of what we do, the mechanics of this unorthodox job has to be explained to everyone, so they don't freak out when they see a BST in their PT, or one just playing solo next door. I did not PT often as a BST, but when i did i often got the 'WTF ! there is a BST in our PT, he's going to kill the xp !!!' kind of reaction. Then it takes a good amount of time and patience to convince them, every time, that the xp cut only affects the BST, not the PT.

BST is a very powerful job. Who else can safely solo EM and T mob one after the other with minimal downtime ? BST are awesome damage dealer, as much as DRK and MNK. If people knew a little more about BST, every PT would have one !
#12 Aug 11 2004 at 2:47 PM Rating: Decent
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602 posts
I hope it doesn't get nuked, im happy you posted it here. I agree that the leastn umber of people know how a BST functions because you RARELY PT with them; we know a collective lot about WHMs, BLMs, PLDs, etc cuz we PT with them ALL the time.

I still remeber the first time i ever PTed with a BST in crawlers on beetles. Our WHM DCed mid fight (we find out later that's how she logs off for the night: pulls the ethernet cable...lets just say i made a LOT of people our lvl range aware to never invite her) and we couldnt take the crawler we were fighting. Next thing i know I'm putting my scythe away and the crawlers name is blue. The BST then runs it off and releases it and comes back, much to our applause. Because of that i always tried to grab BSTs that were seeking ^_^

anywhoo, thanks for the guide. it makes me more excited to lvl BST once i finish my second subjob for my main

cheers! (and a hearty rate up from me)
#13 Aug 11 2004 at 2:49 PM Rating: Default
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668 posts
Taymond wrote:
Of course it's geared at non-BSTs. No BST, even a jackass one, would MPK another BST. And why would already-BSTs need to be straightened out on the brady myth, or given reasons to not ignore a BST as a party job. Think before you post, we BSTs already have 5 fantastic stickies. This FAQ is for the rest of you.


Erm... Some BST's I know have had attempts to be MPK'ed by other BSTs... Just thought I'd let you know.

Didn't work too well, but they did it all the same.
#14 Aug 11 2004 at 2:50 PM Rating: Decent
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205 posts
Great post. Thank you
#15 Aug 11 2004 at 2:52 PM Rating: Excellent
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388 posts
Quote:
Think before you post, we BSTs already have 5 fantastic stickies.


<laugh> Easy, there - I thank you for the defence, but I'm sure we can settle this amicably.

Quote:
Despite it's intended audience being those of us who are not BSTs, it still provides information about one particular job, which by my understanding is what qualifies something to be placed into the Job forum.

I think it's a great guide you've got here and my intention isn't to knock it or you down.


Thank you for the kind words. I understand what you're trying to say, but given the number of posts on one particular jobs that are in the main forums (I see a couple right on the first page, like this and this) and the fact that I know that questions on a single job come up often here, I think I'll leave this up for a while and allow the masses to pass judgement. Look at it this way - I'm just answering a question that no-one's asked yet! :)

Cheers!

#16 Aug 11 2004 at 3:00 PM Rating: Good
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496 posts
Great guide. I'm just starting BST and this really helps me with respect to the way others will perceive me, what I can eventually offer to a group, and dealing with other XPers in general. Nice to see a fellow Edmontonian on here too!
#17 Aug 11 2004 at 3:01 PM Rating: Decent
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524 posts
riiko wrote:
Erm... Some BST's I know have had attempts to be MPK'ed by other BSTs... Just thought I'd let you know.


Ack! There's no room for mutiny in our close-knit family.

Gonna play the /shocked card on this one.
#18 Aug 11 2004 at 3:01 PM Rating: Decent
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81 posts
Excellent post. Rate up.
#19 Aug 11 2004 at 3:04 PM Rating: Default
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668 posts
Taymond wrote:
riiko wrote:
Erm... Some BST's I know have had attempts to be MPK'ed by other BSTs... Just thought I'd let you know.


Ack! There's no room for mutiny in our close-knit family.

Gonna play the /shocked card on this one.

I believe it was more of a JP vs. NA kind of thing.
And it was pretty obvious, from what I heard.

/em plays the /shocked card as well.
#20 Aug 11 2004 at 3:04 PM Rating: Decent
Very nice guide!

I have never had any bad experiences with BST but Gleemonix did release a aggroing charmed mob in a LS mates party. Killed the whole party. GM was advised and my LS mate was told Gleemonix would be banned. Guess what... a couple days later theres Gleemonix beastmastering it up. Watch out for this ****** on Valefor if shes in the same area as you.

That aside rate up for asome good readin
#21 Aug 11 2004 at 3:05 PM Rating: Decent
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1,315 posts
Excellent job Winawer! (I would rate you up, but would it make a difference?)

If you post something useful in the main thread, people will
*****. If you posted this in the BST Forum, some jerk would say, "Duh, we all know this already..." So, you cannot win, Win.

Post whatever you want (if it is informative or a question). Let the geeks that have been picked on for years and attempt to take it out on the Web do their thing. It's all they have, let them have it.

Edited, Thu Aug 12 12:52:36 2004 by Trizzoro
#22 Aug 11 2004 at 3:21 PM Rating: Decent
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134 posts
Interesting and informative. I've been seeing more and more bst pairs "dual"ing for exp. Is this actually more efficient than going solo?
#23 Aug 11 2004 at 3:31 PM Rating: Excellent
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388 posts
Quote:
Interesting and informative. I've been seeing more and more bst pairs "dual"ing for exp. Is this actually more efficient than going solo?


Thanks for the question! We usually call it 'duoing' (or 'trioing'), but you're essentially right. A lot of BSTs, especially after 35 when they get Leave, do duo and even trio for a couple reasons:

1). You can get better XP this way, as two BSTs working together can throw two pets at a tougher monster. With the right pets and prey to work with, a BST party of two can chain ITs, and with Leave, they don't take an XP cut.

2). It is somewhat safer - though we can and do work solo, having another BST can be a nice backup. Losing the amount of XP you do at higher levels isn't fun for *anyone*. :)

I've only duoed a couple times myself, but it was great fun, and I look forward to doing it more when I hit higher levels. There's actually nothing stopping 6 BSTs from partying except for the problem of finding 6 BST! :) I've heard that an all-BST party can really clean house in some of the BCNMs, though I haven't tried it myself yet.

Cheers!
#24 Aug 11 2004 at 3:34 PM Rating: Default
Quote:
I've heard that an all-BST party can really clean house in some of the BCNMs, though I haven't tried it myself yet.


An all BST party rapes the BCNM 40 with the mandys. Just charm em all and turn them all on the main mob, very easy. Can most likley do this with any multiple mobbed BCNM where you need to sleep people.
#25 Aug 11 2004 at 3:40 PM Rating: Good
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358 posts
Excellent Post, Winawer. I never took the time to learn exactly how BSTs operated - and this cleared a lot of stuff up.

The other night I was in a party in a not-very-common place in the Crawler's Nest. A BST had been there before us and kept leaving half dead pets laying around so we thought he was just trying to annoy us or something /blush
It was nice to find out that after the critter healed up, we still got normal exp from it.

Though, there was a point where a second BST charmed a Crawler Hunter (scorpion) and stood in our camp for 5 minutes. That was pretty unnerving.
#26 Aug 11 2004 at 3:41 PM Rating: Decent
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241 posts
It seems sometimes like people look for reasons to complain.

I am glad you posted it here. I learned a lot. I have never played BST, so I don't go to the BST forum. I have only partied with one once, and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for the primer ^^
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