Killer Instinct: The Beastmaster Compendium

It’s a lot like Blue Mage in that regard. Very durable when done right but seriously struggles with Enmity equipment to generate Enmity reliably.

It doesn't seem too bad at a glance, the real problem is lack of Crusade access. I can put up an +80 or so set together largely from my sets for tanking already, and if you were patient with augments on the Acro pieces, you could achieve a set around +90, which isn't a bad spot to be.

ItemSet 374675

The larger problem is simply enmity tools, as such, you just have very few abilities to build real hate with. I kind of wish we could Charm things even with a pet out(with it only having the bind effect), because that would be a fairly constant influx of hate given it's base 320 CE on a 15 second recast. Worth noting however that according to the wiki Feral Howl is 600 VE, so unlike some of the other circle effects it's a fairly decent beginning tool to use, but it won't do much else.

Another weird one according to BG is stay and heel, as both have 300 VE, though Fight seems to have 0. This means pulling a mob with your pet can produce a small extra bit of VE for very little downside. So a Heel followed by a Feral Howl is 3/4s of a flash to start a fight. Combine that with a Animated Flourish and you're not doing too badly. The problem is just sustaining that, and a real question is if your DPS can keep up.

I think a big thing here would be trying to work some enmity+ gear into the actual TP set as well, which is sadly quite difficult. In theory your DPS isn't much worse than what it'd usually be, so just letting that build up might help.

It's very true, however, that a THF to get you started wouldn't be entirely remiss.

Edits: Thinking about this, for short term style fights, I do really wonder about /pld. You wouldn't have much in the way of anything for long term sustain, but you'd have enough MP to keep flash going, for example, and you'd get Rampart, Shield Bash and Sentinel to really help out with the threat generation.

Pld, which actually has flash and crusade, struggles to hold hate. What makes you think bst will? Ive tried it. Bst doesnt have the tools to hold hate well.Even with dirge and sirvante bst will struggle to hold hate. Your only chance at keeping hate for more than 3 WS will be a DRG or a gimp dps.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/57098

Guess that's that settled then. They have indeed been patching BST to re-focus it as a front line DPS, and they clearly seem to know what the problems currently are.

They seem to be emphasizing that we're getting quite a few new pets, and they will all have specific purposes. We know the Krabkatoa is one but what else... Leafkin for support? Gnat for enfeebling? Scorpion for balls-to-the-wall DPS?

Lol at this disclaimer they included.


So if it ends up a failure, they can say "we'll address it next time".

Yeah the disclaimer is worth focusing on because they said before they are still open to feedback given the directions they are going. So when people try to silence someone with "SE already said", they should be reminded nothing is set in stone and they put disclaimers out constantly.

I'm looking forward to checking out the changes. But if they really want BST to melee in a 50/50 capacity. They need to make major changes as the job is and has been mechanically a pet focused job whether they or other players like it or not.

BST's should be able to summon other players as Monstrosity pets.

Call Beast Zetaking!

These Wings Of The Goddess-style updates for BST have nearly culminated in it being a fully realized job.

Great.

LOL to be fair PUP did get these same kind of staged updates as well to fix the job. I don't like it in particular either (MNK and DRG updates were perfect, THAT is the right way to balance jobs) but at least they have taken notice that there are things not working with BST.

Eh? They have a clear purpose, yes. how does that translate to them having a clear idea of what the problems are?

They have been stating that purpose since they nerfed bst pet command range. That was a long time ago. if they understood the problem why didn't they make better changes at that time to go with it? They obviously did not understand the problems then. they might have paid attention to some good user feedback now, but we are never sure if its hit or miss until afterwards.

We all know they have the purpose of bst master being on the front line.
Is that really a better choice? I'm not convinced.
I've said before that I value versatility in the job.

The most frustrating thing about bst is that SE is constantly forcing a change in playstyle. I think playstyle should be more freely open to the player choice.
(they changed it when the abolished charm, and again when they nerfed pet range.) If they know what they are doing, why do they always force the playstyle on bst?

However, I am a bit hopeful with the stated direction of this update. I disagree with the heavy-handed forcing of playstyle...

BUT incentivising it and enabling the playstyle they want (for whatever reason) is far better than punishing the the playstyle they dont' want.

Adding pets and modifying pet abilities is the right way to do it. because as I stated a little bit ago, Pets abilities and traits are exactly where beastmaster has always been most interesting and versatile.

I know Ruau is not a fan of pet focused playstyle. that's ok. For the record, in the level 75 ~ abyssea days, after joining Monsters Inc linkshell, I was very much the advocate of player + pet fighting together. I was very much wanting better gear for bst and I even put in suggestion years ago to allow pets to skillchain with master.

I LIKE fighting together with pet. I don't like feeling that I'm missing 1/2 the function from the job. However, nerfing the pet instead of the master, still makes me feel like i'm playing with a handicap.

Hopefully they do something to fix the Ready lock out. It is actually much worse than a regular JA. You would need ready moves to do OBSCENE damage to not be a net loss in DPS. Doesn't appear to be something they are doing.

Accuracy is good... but the pet needs a metric ton of attack/acc added to it. Should mirror the master. For the pet not to be worthless on high end content, it needs 1700 or so acc and around 4k attack. If you want both on the front lines, then you need the pet to just have it. Pets will also need a massive amount of MEVA.

Doesnt look like they are addressing the issues with tame, charm, guage. Looks like they won't be addressing range issues with the pet being too far away for ready while both master and pet are smacking away.

I hope I am wrong. But bst might stay in the shed for me. Frustrating.

2 threads discussing the same thing

The Barnacle Crab ally in Rala Alluvion Skirmish (Krabukelevu) uses Venom Shower below 25% HP, and the damage dealt is roughly quadruple that of Bubble Shower.




If SE doesn't deem it appropriate to give some variation on Mega Scissors, then we may have a similar move set for the new pet:

Well they can get creative.....
- Maybe this crab's buff are party based AOE
- Scissors Guard: -PDT II (Surpassing PDT cap)
- Bubble Curtain: -MDT II (Surpassing MDT cap)

Careful, if you get too excited, you might be let down hard.

Theory Crafting

Assuming that hybrid master/pet DPS sets will now be viable, what are people’s thoughts on sets to aim for? I have personally been struggling to find a good hybrid set that keeps me in capped gear haste.

I have been looking at Heyoka Subligar +1 to solve that issue though

Unless pets start shitting out 40-50k damage abilities it's quite an assumption to think pet dps will become viable. Should be able to crank out at least 30k decimation average as master with buffs and that's not tied to a cooldown abilty that also locks you out of other actions and resets tp round. Pets auto attacks don't count for jack and there's already a good amount of pet tp bonus available.

I dont' expect hybrid tp set for master/pet to become valid.

IF you did,you would melee in Heyoka gear to cap out pet haste and keep master haste capped. Then you would add as much tp building in other slots as you can for master. maybe tp in shulmanu collar or beastmaster collar +1/2 instead of anu torque.

probably keep reiki yotai and eabani earring, sherida earring, gere ring and epona's ring

master focused back piece. maybe voluspa tathlum need a bit more acc, but master stp probably still more valuable.

you can do this now, there is just no point because of how ready works. If you are sporting Aymur + Nukumi manopolas +1, then you ALWAYS have at least 2100 tp for every ready move.

It doesn't have to be the "best" to be viable. You're only taking into consideration one style of play. Being in a max buff party setup with a single DD. There are TONS of way to play the game and you don't need a Cor, Geo, Brd just to play the game. Let's so you're in a low man setup and your Decimations hit around 12k, if the ready maneuver is also doing 15k and making a 10k skillchain it's definitely worth doing both!

Really all the best ready maneuver has to do is enough to justify not using -33% def down. If you can use a ready maneuver and it creates a SC everytime you use a weaponskill and the ready maneuver + skillchain damage is enough to justify the delay it takes to use the ready maneuever, then its worth using. Bonus points if it..... applys a condition, does a damage type you don't have, can magic burst as well, doesn't need buffs, creates versatile skillchains, or any number of thing. Don't always need to go for max damage.

If you're not first you're last.

They would have to do more than 50k to not be a net loss in DPS. They arnt going to fix ready moves, I am okay with that tbh. I would like pets to get more haste acc and attack (maybe MA as well). That way DPS tiger can auto attack for like 2-3k extra DPS via extra white damage. Ready moves are a trap, maybe make the pet a white damage DPS. THat would make Bst viable, pet being crippled by most debuffs would keep it balanced. Then more acc/macc for enfeebling pets would fix the issues with enfeebling. Bursting will continue to suck just because bursting sucks. I also want them to force the pet to stay within range. That is a big issue. Pet hybrid master/pet buffing sets are pretty horrible and I dont see them taking the time to fix that. If they did, then bst might start catching up in lowman fights. I think they need to stop the pet from changing hate. Needs to target ONLY what the master is targeting. It causes so many issues. Using heel/fight to fix it is a big DPS loss.

That way you can build a full DPS set up OR a limited DD/Support set up. Use the tiger or something and now you are in DPS mode. Use the slug and you are now a gimped DPS with good debuffs. I personally like that. Bst doesnt need to do as much dmg as the big DD, but the gap is far too large atm considering what bst brings to the table. Id rather take an extra cor/rdm/most other jobs than a bst as it is right now. ooze is great... in gimp parties.

I dont think most people realize how much acc/atk the pet needs to be viable in endgame content if you want it to fight on the front lines WITH the master. In a 6 man party you are forced to choose between buffing pet and master. Master is stronger so kinda dumb to buff the pet. The problem is the pet ends up having floored acc/macc/atk/haste etc and cant even touch the mob. A lot of the time you can get the same result without even calling a pet. You literally need to get the pet up to 1700 acc and 4k attack somehow at the same time as the master if you want them to fight together.

If that were true, i would agree. But decimation will do wayyyy more dmg than 12k solo against apex. Also, why do people care about apex solo? If you are in a party, you aint using the bst to do a multistep SC lol. ALl the DD have versatile SC that are MUCH better than bst. You want bst to be good, it needs to be good at VD ambu, T3 and T4 escha. It needs to do good in the new HTB. It just isnt.
I have a few complaints about bst.
1 - it is horrible in 6 man content (most common content)
2 - it is really bad in lowman content (the content it SHOULD be good at).
3- it isnt good at solo content anymore. Many jobs are much better solo's

It's best use is literally in 18 man parties because you already covered everything else.

I think you're being a bit negative.... It's good in 6 man content, this VD ambuscade in my opinion it is the BEST job you can take. I've only been able to get a 5 minute or lower clear on this months VD ambuscade if I go as BST and I have many jobs geared.

It's great in low man content, which in my opinion is the most common content. I think 80% of the game can be done with low man. I've duo'd most of the omen bosses on Bst + Sch/Blm. I'm able to make constant SCs for the Sch/Blm to magic burst, while having a pet that's incredibly tanky. Or I can magic burst myself while providing -mdb when the SC makes a SC. I've done all of Escha Zi Tah able to solo the pixies on Bst. All but Kirin and Warder in Ru Aun solo/duo. All but the Helms in Reisenjima Solo/duo. I've killed all four Dynamis D midbosses Duo on Bst. Nearly every High Tier battlefield, minus Alexander with Bst. Vagary is super easy with Bst + Sch. Delves can all be soloed with BST. For job points solo I can do what an AoE party does solo in Reisenjima warp 3. Not really sure what content you feel BST just isn't good at but that's literally like 80-90% of the game right there and I'm sure I'm forgetting things.

Assuming we got the accuracy and attack buffs needed,
Is the time it takes to use a ready move enough for another weaponskill entirely?
for the master its a 2 second delay in tp gain, maybe a bit more if you consider the gear swapping. So is it really enough that a ready move needs to be powerful enough to fully replace a weaponskill to make up for the damage? i don't really think so.
Especially since at most it is an interruption every 10s.

And that is of course for when we only care about max buff dd situations only.

Maybe a bit negative. but i still stand by it.

Jobs that can solo escha zitah.... EVERY JOB

Jobs that can solo ruan except WOC and Kirin/kouryu. rdm/blu/war/drk/sam/drg/sch/nin/run/mnk/blm/smn/PUP. Maybe more? Most will do it much faster and safer.

Jobs that can solo t1-t3 reis. RDM BLU WAR DRK SAM DRG NIN RUN MNK PUp SMN. A few of them can even solo 1 of the helms. Maju can sometimes be an issue. Pain for a few of the jobs.

THe new HTB? yes they can do those too. Even alex. not sure what your issue is with that one. Alex is by far the easiest. Think you just might not know his gimmick. I solo alex VD on bst. Just dont enfeeble him and turnaround when he does his thing

Jobs that can solo various omen mobs.... ALL OF THEM. RDM and blu probably being the overall best, they have good solo's on all the omen bosses. Basically all jobs have a fairly easy time with kin/gin/fu. Most can figure out kei/kyou/ou.

This months ambu? sure I agree bst is good at it. what you doing the other 12 months? Even without a bst you can do VD in 4-6 minutes.

You are actually a bit behind in the solo department. Bst should be better at it.

Actually, you need to make up for MORE (slightly) than an entire weaponskill plus the white damage of the master and the pet. Break even point i came up with with capped buffs is 52k -56k depending on the pet. Ready lockout is brutal. It gets even worse if zone is laggy for some reason. This is break even. It isnt even helping you to use the pet. This is so the pet doesnt hurt you. ;
This is not true, it really only depends on haste/stp. If haste is capped then you need a ready move to be doing something like 15-30% more damage than a WS. Bursting "can" make it worthwile in super wierd low man scenario like a rolls only cor or a 900 + geo. and you HAVE to burst darkness. Or if you are both gimped on acc then single hit WS will make the master beat out the pet by so much that the pet will be a bigger DPS sink.

How are you getting 52~56k ? it takes what? maybe 3 seconds for a ready move, if you include the gear swapping.

You saying that your master is doing 56k damage in that 3 seconds... average? because that is how it would work if you need a ready move to do that much to compensate. That doesn't make sense.

I thought you said before your were averaging 39k decimation. I don't think you are getting 17k white damage between master and pet in that small window. I don't think the 3s for a ready move is a full Weaponskill cycle either. Aren't ja's a 2s interruption to tp phase? I'm adding another 1 second for gear swapping because the ready move is delayed after (even though you will start to melee just in suboptimal gear)

So, I don't understand how 56k ready moves can be a fair comparison.

it sounds like you are assuming using a ready move is causing bst to be delayed more than a full cycle of white damage + weaponskill damage. 115~130% of the damage of a weaponskill is just silly. at WORST it would have to be equal damage to a weaponskill if that were the case. but you won't be doing it every 3s. it would be every 10s at most. and if a weaponskill cycle is 10s (actually I think its 5s at best), then a 3 second delay means you only need 30% (and 60% of ws damage on a 5s cycle)of the damage of a weaponskill cycle to break even.

edit: ahh, I see you are saying 52k~56k is 130% of your ws damage. that lines up with your numbers, but I don't understand why you think you are trading 6.5+ seconds of master dps to use a ready move.

Does Ready have a worse post-use delay than other JAs or something?

You use the JA and then there's a delay to the use of the ready move. Just like a bloodpact.

So yeah, but honestly not noticeable. Really getting into the point where your human reaction speed is not what it would be "on paper" dps.

Yeah, but that delay on your pet's side doesn't prevent you from starting back into melee after 2 seconds or using another JA/WS after 1 second, right?

Right, you would lose one melee round to wearing pet boosting gear.

That's what they're talking about, not being locked out longer, but losing a potential round(s) to subpar (master) gear.

I think you're mistaken. This is not a pvp game. There is no reason to compare a job versus a job. They are all very different. You were complaining that a BST is incapable of playing solo very well, yet you can clear almost all content in the game solo/duo as BST. I think you are just complaining that BST is not the best at everything which is absolutely silly. What is the point at being the best? You get into pugs more often? Is that really your true goal of the game, to be accepted into pugs, the worst form of content in a video game? BST is accepted into end game linkshells, they are very desired for the only content in the game that requires a linkshell to really do, Dynamis Wave 3. In fact one might say they are the best at Dynamis Wave 3 to have because no one can do what they are doing.

Your list is also very skewed too, not many jobs can solo Vir'ava in Ru'Aun and struggle with Duke Vepar and the Dread Spikes of the other T3. I don't think 80% of the jobs you listed can even begin to fathom soloing Genbu or some of the ark angels. I know most jobs can't solo the 3 Coven Clan in Zi Tah or the Death Bunny. Also not many jobs can solo Golden Cist easily. I'm sure there are others you are exaggerating on to make BST look bad, but I'm not really interested in looking into it because it's a moot point. By your argument, any job that isn't the fastest at killing those is "Crap" so therefore we can eliminate most of your list, since its all crap since there are jobs faster than that one. Why is it fair that Bst is considered "Crap" because you feel it is slow but others aren't held to the same standard?