BST Tactics - Beastmaster Questions Answered : FFXI Submissions

I started a Beastmaster recently since the expansion was released because everyone got so busy starting the new jobs that parties became scarce on my other jobs. So I did some reading and waded though Alakazham and what not to get a feel for how to operate. However, I mostly found general ideas and locations for level, as opposed to answers to questions that had been arrising as I was playing the job. So I started my own thread, asked my own questions, and got some good answers.

I feel like this is good information anyone starting out on the Beastmaster path should know. If you like it, great! If not... at least I had my questions answered
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What lvl mobs would I be fighting?

I'd start with DC pets on EM mobs until you get the hang of things, then you can try moving up to EM pets on T mobs. After {Leave} definitely EM on T if possible.


If I use pets higher than me I hear there is exp penalty, so I assume my pets should always be Even Match or lower. If thats the case, wouldn't my pet consistently lose to a tough?


Not always. Never understand the power of an EM mob. Some EM mobs will completely rip through a T, VT or even an IT mob. Slimes come to mind first when I say this.

Depends on the mobs. If you follow the various leveling guides you can find camps with EM pets that will have no problems lasting long enough to take down a tough. Even some DC pets (such as slimes) can take on toughs and win.


If yes, whats the point of "Ghetto Leaving" and Leaving?


Nine times out of ten it's merely to ensure you get the killshot and receive the full XP from the death of your prey.


but then I have a question about How to "Ghetto Leave." I have a question because the "Heel" command always seems to get me aggro... so if I have aggro how is that going to get my pet killed effectively?


You dont use "Heel" alone for ghetto leave. You use "Stay". "Heel" Brings your pet to your location. Which you dont want if the mob has you on it's hate bar at all. Once it dimishes your pets hate to nil, it will come for you. Which you have experienced. When "Ghetto Leaving" you use "Heel" then immediately following that you use "Stay" so your pet stays away from you, and assuming you are using this tactic correctly, the mob will not come for you until it has successfully killed your pet. You need to keep your self too low on the hate list for the mob to care about you while the pet is still alive.

One of the skills you have to learn as BST is how to manage your hate line. You want to make sure your pet has enough hate to hold the mob's attention when you {Heel}. That means possibly not meleeing until after your pet is dead, not casting any enfeebling or healing spells in the mob's aggro range, not resting in the mob's aggro range, etc. If you do melee while your pet is still alive and manage to pull hate, just turn around until your pet gets hate again. For ghetto leave this might mean quitting melee early if you're meleeing so that your pet can build up enough hate to hold aggro when you use {Heel}.


The mob does get a few hits on my pet and may eventually kill it, but the aggro is all screwy and I get hammered at the same time, so sometimes I'm forced to kill the mob before my pet dies resulting in gimped exp.


If your still in the low levels and would rather depend on Ghetto Leaving, everytime you use an ability, skill, magic or even /heal too close to the mob, i.e. still on radar, you will be put on the hate list. Which until your pets can hold your hate effectively will mean that the overall hate between pet and master will be screwey. I for one did not like the Ghetto Leave strategy and instead choose to plow through as many mobs as I could. Sometimes it's faster XP than intentionally waiting on a pet to die. That and in order to get this tactics to work effectively you have to try to time it down to almost near preciseness everytime so you dont die while your attempting to melee that last sliver off since you dont have TP to one hit it down.


Also, if I am using multiple pets to kill one mob, aren't I going to drain the area of usable pets pretty fast?


Yes. One of the disadvantages of ghetto leave.



Another question is about the exp break up. If I fight an even mob with an even pet and my pet dies before the end, do I still get full exp?


Yes.



How does it work if both the pet and the mob are below my level? How about if my pet is Tough but the mob is VT?


You get the full xp as long as your pet is dead before the mob because your level is higher than your pet's level.

You'll take an xp cut. The xp is based on the highest level "in the party" just like in a normal party. If your pet is tough it's at least a level higher than you, so you'll take a hit in xp.

Whenever you have a pet out it's a straight line 30% xp penalty as long as the pet is EM and under. Regardless of the level prey or the pet, if your pet is EM or under it's 30%. If there is no present during the killshot you recieve the full amount of the xp. You do not use a T mob unless it's going to have a quick !@#$%^&* death before that charm fades off. That works very well on Bombs and the things that go BOOOOOOOM. For Tough pets the penalty is higher.


Would anyone care to run me through a step by step hypothetical battle?

Once you have heel~stay but before you're able to melee comfortably alomgside your pets a fight might look like this:

Bst: Charms an EM sheep and sets it to fight a T sheep. Bst uses a couple of debuffs but otherwise stands back.

Alternative A - your pet brings the target's health down to 20% and then dies. You wade in a melee the target to death and get full exp.

Alternative B - your pet dies still leaving the target with a good chunk of health. You then charm a second pet sheep and set it on the target. This pet is likely to win so, as it nears victory, stand well back and hit your heal~stay macro and let it be killed. You then wade in and kill target for full exp.

Using EM pets against other EMs can lead to your pet easily winning on his own, depending on what is fighting what. If so heel~stay at the right moment so that your pet gets killed.

The command heel by the way can attract hate on its own so run to the edge of your radar circle before hitting it.

Any health lost by you killing off the target you rest/cure back whilst your next pet is already fighting your next target. This can mean that all of your fights can be strung together to be almost continuous............. until something goes wrong, or a goblin pops on you, or you get a link, or use magic while standing next to an elemental or do any one of the 1000 stupid things easily done by a Beastmaster ................ and get killed.

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Hope that is useful for someone!
Hopefully I won't get too many nays! XD
Here is the original thread:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html ... m=6;page=1

There's a better guide called the "BST Bible" stickied to the Allakhazam job forums.

Yea, there are much better guides.

there are better guides and that answer more questions. yes the bst bible is much better. by the two there are better guides i'll take those as a no. for people who want bst stuff answered look on alla. forums suck there generally (BG is better for the drama ) but it has a lot of good information

Ive seen the BST Bible, this deals with a lot more specific issues than it does. If that thread fully answered all of my questions I wouldnt have made my own thread. BST bible only vaguely delves into things and mentions a few things in passing. Its good to develop a general understanding, but this gets more specific. I liked peoples responses to the aggro issue in particular and using the radar to escape generating hate. But whatever... i tried...

Yeah sorry but there are soooo many guides like this out there.

Good work on the guide though, maybe you could add more info over time
and make your own elite guide.

Keep up the good work.

I don't think general job guides are the way to go to be honest....It's so difficult to write one that is truely 'the best'.

Try to find something specific that you can do that no-one else can or has, and write one about how to do that.

this guide doesnt have an MPK section

^^......That would be fascinating....A guide on how to make life hell for other players....You could describe the best strategies for stealing mobs, exp, maybe MPKing them, trying to make them lag out, how to avoid getting caught....

One thing I love is pulling a couple of monsters with Diaga, and setting up right next to a party who are using AoE magic bursts. Since Diaga doesn't claim all the mobs, they get a load of links onto their mages, and if you're careful you can wipe most parties.

Not that I enjoy killing people, of course.

Get to work^^ xD