Is BST the right job for me?Follow

The most important thing is how much you enjoy the gameplay. I love playing bst, but I've met several players who don't like the playstyle.

BST is capable of solo'ing more content than any other job. you can solo most abyssea bosses and af3.

They are capable of soloing at least 95% of Abyssea NMs, although this may be alot more tedious than gathering a group of 2 or 3. They can solo alot of old NMs and HNMs too with great ease. This is all owed to the awesome evasive capabilties of Thief-type Familiars and a whole new host of pet enhancement gear.


Yes, pretty sure they could solo every piece, although it may be a lot less tedious to do this is small groups rather than solo. If you really want to solo I would suggest at least dragging a Black Mage along, for "Yellow stagger" (greatly increases drop rate of items used to upgrade AF3 pieces).


Atmas require "Red Stagger" to be collected from NMs, which is procured by using certain weapons skills on these NMs. While you can solo these NMs you may not have the required weapons skills available on Beastmaster to be able to "Red stagger" and thus you will not obtain the atma. Beastmaster does have access to a few of these weapons skills, but only through certain subjobs, /WAR bestowing the most amount of "Red stagger" weapon skills.


I'm not that much experienced in Voidwatch myself, but I can tell you that based of leader's reluctance to invite me on Beastmaster I can only assume they are not all that great for this battlefield.


One thing that SE did right with the post 75 evolution of Beastmaster is make a lot of viable Familiar options. Whereas before choices were clear due to very imbalanced pets, now the new pets have their own advantages and disadvantages leaving you to pick one based on personal preference or situation. However this not the case for all of them, there are a few that have been outclassed, but it's not an issue as there are still many viable Jug pets to choose from. Here is a list of some Jug pets that can be useful and their reasons;

Gorefanghobs : Very good DD, Very fast running speed, AoE paralyze attack
Dipperyuly : Best evasive tank, possess debilitating TP moves to further enhance defensive ability. Has TH1 and gilfinder, very high wind resistance.
Falcor: Also a good evasive tank, but with more offensive power than Dipperyuly, Choke breath is useful if the target creature is sussceptible to this move. Has TH1 and gilfinder.
GooeyGerard: Possesses high HP, very cheap, inflicts "slow" on attacks, often used as a Tank, but rarely more effective than the evasive tanks.
LuckyLulush: Not sure how this compares with Gorefanghobs as a DD overall, but you can do some very nasty Foot kicks, as an added bonus he can AoE heal the party as well as himself with Wild Carrot.
DapperMac: Great physical tank, guards alot which mitigates alot of damage overtime, it is very lackluster in the DD department though.
CraftyClovonne: Increases exp gain, not really any other reason why you would use this.
Discreetlouise: I find this one great for PvP, using a Zoolater hat or a Glyph Axe open up with Silence Gas it does a lot of damage and cripples magic users.

Oh and try to avoid NurseryNazuna unless; You have Monster Gloves+2 or You are level 96 or under (both of these assuming you have Beast Affinity merits capped).


/DNC is the best subjob for utility, /NIN will produce more damage because of higher tier Dual wield.


Birds of a Feather can be soloed at level 30, Beastmaster is also great in alot of BCNMs as part of a team for example Royal Jelly. Of particular interest are ones that drop Utsusemi Ni (price for this spell is very high at current) and Kraken club (although it has a very low droprate). At 99 Beastmaster can solo KCNM Kindergarten Cap and Horns of War, both of which have fairly decent spoils.


The only question I am unable to answer.

The job has changed ALOT since 75cap, before these radical changes BST solos required alot of a skill and were exciting, now your solo ability is directly influenced by how much pet enhancing gear you have, how much food you are willing to cram into your familiars and lastly how long you are willing to sit there and watch a HP bar fall. Also the journey of leveling solo the entire way has been completely replaced by "get to level 30 and leech exp the rest of the way", which I find very saddening since the solo struggle was the best part about the job.

If you witnessed the job back then and have decided to try it based on what you saw, you may find that it is not what you expected. But the only way to find out truly is to give it a try, I'm sure that despite my negative view on the job's evolution there is still alot of fun to be had for the new generation of Beastmasters.

When you say solo, do you mean like the BST of old? Or do you plan to slaughter EPs? Because they now give EXP as if there were DC+.

As for voidwatch, no one wants a bst unless your ls or group of friends wouldnt mind. Im not 100% sure but when you "enter" the battlefield I believe your pet will de-summon. Not to mention, a lot of the nms have very damaging aoe that your pet will die within seconds.

I'm thinking of returning to Vana'diel after a 4-5 year "break" from the game. Actually I fully intended to never come back, but I just can't stop thinking of the fun I had with this game. I pulled my PC from storage to find that it is still installed and my account info is still there. I'm hoping I can return with all my jobs and equipment still intact. I've noticed a lot has changed since I left. Level cap has increased by quite a bit. I think that BST will be the job I will play the most when I return, as I plan to play much more casually than before (maybe 2-3 days a week, compared to the all day everyday I did before). I've been poking around for leveling spots for 75+, but most guides seem to end at 75. Last I remember was killing statues in sky with the flamingoes there. From what I'm reading it seems that things are a bit easier than before (and I too remember how hard it was until I got [Leave] at 30ish). I am fully aware that players don't party with BST; it's why I love the job so much, I can play on my own time. I guess what I'm asking is where are the new leveling spots? Is this Abyssea thing a paid for expansion? The last expansion I have installed is Wings of the Goddess. Thanks for your help, and maybe i'll see some of you on Ragnarok.