Community Beastmaster Guide

General Information

Beastmaster is a much loved, and hated, job with a colorful history and unique playstyle and appeal. Beastmaster traits and abilities all revolve around the pet. The master itself plays like a dumbed down Warrior class. However, it is more in-tune with the environment than any other job class in the game. This is not a statement about game lore. It is a statement about game mechanics.

The initial design of Beastmaster revolves around the charm ability and pushed Beastmaster into a solo-player role. Charm allows the player to temporarily take control of a monster to aid you in battle. This means that every enemy was also viewed thru the lens of a potential weapon in your hand. Therefore the beastmaster player needed to pay more attention to what creatures were in what zones. How near to other creatures were they? What levels are they? The beastmaster needed to understand the ecosystem strengths and weaknesses, the job class of the monster, the abilities of the monsters and the special traits of the monsters.

For example, did you know that Ladybug type mobs have a thief class, and therefore have treasure hunter 3 as a trait? They also take tremendously reduced damage from the wind element and very high evasion?

These are details the Beastmaster player tries to become familiar with where ever they go. Charm is almost completely obsolete now, being replaced by pets summoned using the consumable broth equipment (ammo slot) and the Call Beast ability. However, the need to understand all the previous details of our pets has not changed. Choosing the right pet for the job is still what separates the boring Beastmasters from the ones who truly love the job.

The history of hate that Beastmaster has enjoyed(?) is culturally significant, if not very relevant for current gameplay.

Originally, Beastmaster's had a 30% experience point penalty when using a charmed pet. This was presumably to balance the immense power and sustainability this job had to level all the way to 75 solo. This was an practical impossibility for other jobs at the time. This 30% penalty applied to the entire party. So any PUG experience point party never wanted a beastmaster. Many players were less informed about game mechanics at the time, and did not understand that this only applied to charmed pets, and not to pets summoned with the Call Beast ability. This ambiguity helped keep Beastmasters unwelcome for a very long time. There were still players rejecting Beastmasters in parties many years after this exp penalty was removed.

The bad reputation of Beastmaster was not entirely undeserved however. Some players, for sadistic glee or misdirected venting and retaliation for being rejected from such a community-driven game, were exceptionally talented at griefing other players. The Valkrum Dunes incidents, where nearly all mobs in the zone were trained, and dropped at the zone lines, killing low level players on mass, and locking up the zone to be unusable for hours at a time... were largely perpetrated by players on the beastmaster job.

Roles

Beastmasters first role has always been a soloer. This means you are the tank, the damage dealer, the healer and the support. It is a hybrid job and a pet job. This means it typically does not stand out as a specialist or the best at any specific role.

As a soler, you go into somewhere dangerous and tackle a challenge that normally cannot be done alone. There are many examples of Beastmaster going solo to and completing challenges a party or sometimes an alliance struggled to do.

Many beastmaster pets are fantastic tanks in their ability to mitigate and survive tremendous amounts of damage. However, beastmaster lacks the inherent enmity management tools to be a full time tank. Often the pet is taking all the damage while the master is assisting in a support role or damage dealer role.

Beastmaster can, in narrowly defined situaitons take the role of a healer. It has only 1 healing ability, but is a really good one. Wild Carrot is a party-wide, area-of-effect, job ability cure. It does not require Magic points, it is simply on a timer of about 20 seconds. It cures around 1200~1300 hp per party member every time. The Gigas Ambuscade is an example where the healing role is well taken by beastmaster.

Beastmaster has the unassuming party role of a Damage Dealer. This is not truly a satisfying characterization, but it is the simple and boring answer.

What gives the Beastmaster specific appeal beyond other damage dealers in party situations would be one of several specific or niche abilities from pets. For Example:

Acid Mist gives -50% attack down in an area of effect Purulent Ooze gives -10% Max HP down Corrosive Ooze gives -33% Attack down and Defense down, and it has 100% proc rate TP Drainkiss can consistently take all tp from the enemy.

These are a few examples of how Beastmaster is uniquely desired in a damage dealer role in a party but also in a support role.

Beastmaster pets also have a lot of control utility. One aspect is how pet enmity mechanics work. If I send a pet to attack an enmity, the master is added to that enemy's hate list but with no built up enmity. If any mob links with the initially pulled mob, the master is not on their hate list at all. This allows a pet job to pull a single enemy out of a crowd of linking enemies and release the pet so that none of the linking mobs come with it.

There is a related element that applies to tanking. This is seen more on puppetmaster than beastmaster, only because puppetmaster has more reliable enmity tools for tanking. However, in an alliance, if the Enemy uses an Area-of-effect spell or ability targeting the pet, then the area of effect will only affect the pet master's party. The most commonly I used this effect was tanking Omen bosses. Put the pet tank in their own party in the alliance. Then when Kyou or whomever starts casting meteor on the pet tank, only the pet master is in danger. If they stay 30 yalms away they won't be hit. However, the other 2 parties in the alliance will receive no meteor damage at all, even when they are all in range.

Furthermore, the pet Presto Julio or Flytrap familiar have incredibly potent, aoe, and long duration enfeebles. Soporific is dark-based Sleep that can last up to 4:30. Various enfeebles from Beastmaster pets are Area of effect, have high potency and/or long duration which even some Redmages envy. There are alot of very good crowd control tools beastmaster has to add support to a party.

Abilities and Traits

I am not going to reiterate how each of these abilities or traits function. The rest of the Wiki spells that out on individual pages. I will touch on specific mechanics and use examples that may not be apparent.

Beastmaster job abilities almost all revolve around either controlling or supporting the pet. Charm, Call Beast/Bestial Loyalty, Tame, Fight, Heel, Leave, Stay, Sic/Ready are basic pet controls.

Though I will comment that the ability to stay a pet is unique and useful. You can have a pet hold enemies without moving or attacking while you make distance. Also, staying a pet is like stopping to rest for a player. It recovers hp at an accelerated rate.

The pet support job abilities include Spur, Run Wild, and both Beastmaster's Special Abilities: Familiar and Unleash. These all buff the pet for various durations

There are three 3 Job abilities which deserve special attention:

Snarl is uniquely interesting, useful and flexible in how one uses it. It transfers all enmity from master to pet. This can be used to save the master from impending doom, or to build up enmity on pet for tanking. Unfortunately, pet: enmity+ gear does NOT affect the amount of enmity transfered to the pet. Please join me in petitioning Square-Enix on the official forums to change this.

Feral Howl and Killer Instinct are both merited and the only Job Abilities that center around the master instead of the pet. Feral Howl is a simple terror which, if fully merited can last perhaps 15~20 seconds. As much as I like this ability, the recast timer is a rediculous 5 minutes and the Hippogroph pets have a much more effective terror on a much shorter recast timer.

Killer Instinct is a fantastic party support ability for both defense and offense, it is parallel with other circle abilities from Pld, Drk, Sam, and Drg jobs, but much more flexible in application since the ecosystem corresponds to the current pet. Beastmaster has 7 ecosystems for the circle ability instead of only 1.

The job abilities and traits of our pets are an entire guide worth on their own.

The Killer Effect traits on Beastmaster go hand in hand with Killer Instinct and offer the most interesting and potent tool the master has for itself. Through a combination of traits, merits, job abilities, gear and food, Beastmaster can cap the killer effects trait at 50%. this is incredibly potent. I will have to verify, but I don't think any other job can cap killer effects. On normal mobs this will intimidate half of any action they take on you where it is attack, spell or even tp moves. If you can actually get into a tanking situation, this is a huge boon to the entire party.

Merits

Beastmaster merits are not monolithic. You have some choices that are purely on your own playstyle. Category 1

Tame merits are completely useless, don't even bother 0/5

Sic / Ready Recast Merits 5/5 this will probably be almost universally agreed upon. Being able to use ready moves faster is too much of a boon to control, power and survivability.

Reward Recast is very viable for helping to keep the pet alive. I have used 5/5 merits in this category in the past. My reward gearset and pet damage reduction gearsets are nearly perfect and I don't have so much need for this anymore.

Call Beast Recast. This is also a very viable option. I have used 5/5 merits in the category in the past as well. For the same reason I do don't need Reward recast merits I don't find I need Call Beast Recast very much anymore. However, I would point out that if you focus on getting buffs from pet job abilities, having the reduced recast will make the playstyle much more effective. You will be able to cycle pets faster and maintain more self-buffs using these merits.

Killer Effect 5/5 I am a huge fan of Killer effects. They are a unique and fun boon for both offense and defense for the master. These merits directly boost power for the master when combined withe the Empyrean body armor. If you are focused on min/maxing damage, these merits are desirable.

Category 2:

Feral Howl: 0~1/5 Its a pull or emergency interrupt, but you only get its once in a while. I like the ability but it really needs a shorter recast. I don't think it is worthwhile presently, even though its fun to use.

Killer Instinct 5/5 I love this job ability. it is a huge boon to master and party in both defense and offense. Using the Diamond Aspis, this can be kept up on master full time. paired with Killer effect merits and the level 2 traits, beastmaster can easily maintain Killer effect of 30% without using special food or gear. With the Empoyrean body this will be a 32.25% increase in damage dealt and 32.25% decrease in damage received. If you add specific gear and food, it can get better, but the effort vs reward for this boost is really good.

Beast Healer 0~5/5 I don't use this anymore. In challenging pet tanking situations it can be very useful. These situations are rare now. Pet damage reduction can be capped with gear at 87.5% and I don't see a need for Beast healer in the current meta.

Beast Affinity 5/5 My recommendation is to cap this, but it is a playstyle choice which is completely justifiable to not use. This also invites the very confusing world of Call Beast pet levels. This discussion has happened many times in forums. The discussion becomes buried and it reoccurs every 5~20 pages or so. I do not think it is sufficiently described in the wiki.

Every Jug pet has a level corresponding to the level of the item used to summon it. That is the minimum level. It also has what players have dubbed a 'natural cap'. The natural cap is not listed anywhere. It was determined for each pet through trial and error and player testing. This natural level cap is the highest level the jug can be summoned at without special gear or merits.

For Example, the beloved Courier Carrie can be summoned at level 23 when the Call Beast ability is first unlocked. The Natural Cap for Carrie is level 75. This means If I'm a level 85 beastmaster, and I use this jug, then I only get a level 75 pet. The Beast affinity merits allow this natural cap to increase by 2 levels per merit. This means Carrie can now be summoned at level 85. Furthermore, the augment on the Beastmaster Relic hands increases this by 1 pet lever per merit, meaning Carrie can be summoner up to level 90.

This is separate from the relatively recent Pet level+ gear such as Spalirisos, Nukumi Earring +0/1/2, and Gleti's boots. These pet level+ equipment pieces are ONLY effective on Ilvl pets and they are NOT affected by the normal or natural cap associate with the specific jug. This means the pets level can be boosted by this gear only while the gear is equipped. This gear has no effect on when the pet's level when it is summoned. However it does mean an ilvl pet who is normally capped at level 119 can be raised to level 124 presently.

This also allows a pet which is summoned at 114 thru Beast Affinity Merits and Relic Gloves, such as FatsoFargann, to reach ilvl 119 if all the level+ gear is equipped.

Beast Affinity merits help keep alot of pets relavent and useful when they would have been underleveled and too weak to be effective before. This allows to have a wider variety of viable pets, and therefore abilities to use. If a player wants to limit their catalog of summoned pets, they can forgo Beast affinity merits, but most players will insist to go 5/5.

Support Jobs

Beastmaster is happy to use a wide variety of support jobs. The master by itself has very few abilities, meaning the support job very much shapes the role the master plays aside from controlling the pet. That being said, the most popular support jobs are popular for good reasons.

Dancer Dancer is universally a more popular support job than it is a main job. Beastmaster is no exception. Dancer has broad utility and very adabptable to many situations. It does this all without requiring magic points, which beastmaster severely lacks. Dual Wield is a huge difference in playstyle. the number of pet and master buffs on 2 axes varies significantly from an axe and a shield. Steps are specifically good for Beastmaster because the debuffs they apply are effectively buffs for BOTH the master and pet. Buffs in this game very much discriminate between the 2, which always makes dual-use pet and master support abilities very desirable. Dancer also has jigs and waltzes for movement, healing, and status removal. I would also point out that Building Flourish can give +25% attack for the next weaponskill. Beastmaster is naturally starved for attack (unless boosted by specific pets) and that bonus goes a long way. Dancer is the pre-eminently popular and beneficial support job for beastmaster, both in utility and potency. If you are true to the soloer roots of beastmaster, then dancer is the unmitigated best choice for a support job.

Ninja Ninja is the less versatile dual wield option, but not really inferior to dancer. the faster dual wield and fewer job abilities means ninja support job might do more damage. Ninja is a simpler and more focused option than dancer. You only really get 2 things to focus on: dual wield and shadows. dual wield is purely for offense. Tp faster, weaponskill faster. It focuses the master to the damager dealer role instead of all the options dancer hase. Shadows are ofcourse a fantastic defensive option. Though not in as high demand today as in the past, They can tremendously reduce the need for healing in the first place. Ninja is a more suitable support job than dancer if you want both dual wield and to just let the pet do the work. in a pet-only style party, ninja is superior to dancer. you won't be building steps and flourishes if you are not engaged.

DarkKnight There has been rising interest in Dark knight as support job for many reasons. It is a fantastic option for Beastmaster. Dark Knight offers a much desired attack bonus III trait, +.1 PDL trait and Last resort as the most useful damage dealing bonuses. The various absorb spells are viable even from a support job, though the duration is only 2 minutes. Dark Knight offers the highest potential for physical weapon skill damage as a support job. If you are in a zerg situations with alot of support, this is your best option.

Furthermore /drk allows beastmaster to capitalize on actually using the 2-handed weapons: Scythe. Drepanum and Pixquizpan +1 are the best damage dealing options. Dark Knight opens up more scythe weaponskill options and gives job ability haste thru Last Resort and Desperate Blows. Smite will further boost damage while using a 2-handed weapon. Darkknight is the most potent option for 2-handed damage dealing on beastmaster.

Samurai Samurai is the 2nd option for 2-handed fighting. Store TP, Hasso, Meditate and Sekkanoki are fantastic abilities. However the benefit does not seem worthwhile unless you are using a 2-handed weapon. Furthermore you lack the access to additional scythe weaponskills that /drk provides. It is viable, but much more boring less effective than /drk for 2-handed damage dealing.

Dragoon This is all about the weaponskill damage + trait. Dragoon will be the best support job for boosting Magical weaponskill damage and 2nd best for boosting physical weaponskill damage. The jumps are useful tp tools, but this is a simple support job that is all about weaponskill damage power. This is the best for Fencer builds on beastmaster.

Warrior Warrior is a more rounded support job for a fencer build beastmaster. It adds more utility, but not as much potency as /drg. Berserk and aggressor are great bonuses to attack and accuracy, although Beastmaster usually has no trouble with accuracy since the addition of Tandem Strike, beastmaster is very hungry for attack bonuses. Furthermore the double attack from warrior is the best for Decimation builds. Warrior is a solid, capable support job, but its not the best damage outside decimation.

White mage White mage is the most useful support job for a pet-only style fight. Curing, status removal, buffs, reraise, raise. Its all-around great support and probably the best general choice for pet only parties.

Red Mage Similar to whitemage in a huge amount of utility and support but a slightly different spellset. Dispel and refresh stick out as uniquely useful spells where you might really want /rdm instead of other options in a pet only party.

Scholar This is my favorite over /whm and /rdm. You have dispel and na spells. furthermore because of how skill bonuses for light arts and dark arts work, you have much better ability to land enfeebles and crowd control (sleep!) spells. Sublimation is uniquely great mp restoration for non-mage main jobs as well. The biggest downside is how busy you are with the job abilities and timers in addition to all the pet commands.

Corsair Ofcourse you would always rather have a full corsair in your party. However, I have have had great benefit in solo, pet-only fights and pet only partys where that beast roll was a welcome bonus.

Bluemage I find bluemage a very good support job for support an utility. This is not only for pet parties but even normal play. Cocoon, curing with Magic Fruit and Healing Breeze and Sheep song being the most useful healing and buffing spells. Sheep song uses a CHR modifier so I found it surprisingly easy to land as a beastmaster main.

Bluemage ofcourse is a fantastic support job for tanking. It has exactly what the master lacks for tanking: enmity generation. Beastmaster has fantastic gear and Ready abilities from the pet that let the master mitigate damage to a tremendous level; fully worthy of a fullt-time tank. However the enmity generating ability is pathetic. /blu makes it possible. However, mp restoral help is mandatory.

Rune Fencer Rune fencer is a fantastic support job for anyone in a fight needing better magic damage mitigation. It also provides alot of fantastic enmity generating job abilities and spells. ATmaster level 45, you gain foil from a support job and you can truly tank on beastmaster. You won't be able to keep up with PLD or Run main in enmity control, but for a pet party, or party where members have their own tools for mitigating enmity, you can completely fill the role of a tank.

Paladin Another tanking option which brings cure spells, and AoE claim with Banishga, and shield mastery. (not to mention all the defense bonus) Beastmaster has a plethora of great shields to choose from, but Adapa shield is by far the best for actual defensive and tanking builds. Shield mastery from /pld is really quite wonderful for spellcasting and tp generation.

Equipment

<Write about gear here, Template:Equipment Set>