How-To Guide: Beastmaster

Born To Be Wild: Beastmaster
The original solo job, and still the fastest one to get experience points when soloing. Especially with recent updates. It’s a really interesting job class because it’s the only one that can successfully team-up with a monster and get it to do your bidding. The benefit is that the solo capability is merely a bonus. Despite popular belief, Beastmaster is a very capable party member as well. With an Axe in hand, and a pet by your side, you can deal as much damage as another competent damage-dealer. Another benefit of Beastmaster is the fact that it can do several B.C.N.M.’s easier than some people, or can even possibly solo them. It is a very flexible job in many situations. The only true downside to Beastmaster is the danger of being defeated. That’s a small price to pay for the ability to do things while you’re seeking for a party (assuming you still want to party). '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Job-Race Combinations
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume

 * If you play Hume Beastmaster, you’ll be right at home with your all-round stats. Having a good spill of strength and dexterity, as well as vitality and agility will help you with your soloing. Your decent HP will allow you to survive in a multitude of situations, and if you are one to sub White Mage, having decent MP can help too. Two of the biggest stats for Beastmaster are intelligence (for Tame) and charisma (for Charm), and Hume certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Elvaan

 * The charismatic Elvaan shares the highest of the stat with its Hume and Tarutaru allies. With a large number of strength, vitality, and HP, you won’t have to worry at all about finishing off a target when your pet is defeated. Your highest mind stat in the game will certainly make up for the lack in Healing Magic skill and MP needed when subbing White Mage. Since Tame’s success rate is determined through intelligence, you might want to help yourself to your RSE when you get there.

Tarutaru

 * Tarutaru Beastmasters make for great solo players with their enormous supply of MP with White Mage subbed. Their highest intelligence also proves useful for Tame, which is great when things go wrong with Charm. However, that shouldn’t be a problem either since you have an equally highest charisma in the game for the ability. Though you lack a little bit more in terms of being able to deal damage per hit with low strength, your dexterity makes up for it by being able to land hits more. As is your low vitality made-up by high agility. Your race-specific equipment can seriously boost either stat, should you feel the need for it.

Mithra

 * A very versatile Beastmaster race choice. Mithra can sub anything very well and still get a lot of benefit from it. Having quite decent intelligence for Tame makes up for the times Charm may fail; though with the types of gear you can get for the stat, it isn’t any worse than the other races. Your decent strength is buffered by having the highest dexterity in the game, and low vitality is more than made-up by having the highest agility in the game.

Galka

 * Galka Beastmasters are great for soloing because of their durability and overall survivability. Your enormous HP pool and highest vitality in the game lets you take a serious number of hits, and your decent agility lets you avoid a number of them too. Like Mithra, having slightly lower charisma than the other three is about the only falter in the otherwise supreme job-race combo. And remember, you can make up for that with race-specific equipment.

Weapon

 * Beastmaster’s highest proficiency is in one-handed axes. No doubt about it, this weapon choice really goes well with your job’s ability to solo well. However, Beastmaster can also choose Scythes to deal a lot of damage as well. In fact, a lot of Beastmasters may even prefer these weapons at some levels. Your primary choice, though, is the Axe. Even with your first weapon skill, Raging Axe, you can benefit from one of the best early weapon skills in the game. And with ones like Rampage later on, who can argue? Since these weapons have quite high damage per hit (and over time), you can easily finish your target off with no problem. It’s even great for use in parties.

Armor

 * Since Beastmaster is a solo job, your equipment doesn’t really need to be as great as most jobs, but you should still consider good gear just for yourself. In early levels, it’s best to choose high HP and defense over anything else. All equipment that may boost your charisma is great too, and anything for strength and vitality (such as rings) may help you out even more. In later levels, having decent intelligence or support job-related gear is a good idea too. When subbing Ninja, you should work on evasion and agility, and when subbing Dancer, you should work on dexterity. For White Mage, work on MP. Really, it’s all preference. In parties, you should definitely sub Warrior and focus on damage through strength and dexterity.

Advanced Job Quest

 * This is one of the easiest advanced job quests in the game. Heck, it’s probably one of the easiest quests in general in the whole game. First you must go to Lower Jeuno and click on the door at G-11 on the second floor. Next, go to Qufim Island F-8. Be sure to have Sneak, as undead will aggro you at night, and where you have to go has a large Kraken that will attack if you are lower level (yes, even at Lv.30). At that location, go down a small cliffside ramp to the Night Flowers. Be aware, the Night Flowers will only appear at night. You will watch a short cutscene. Go to Lower Jeuno and click on the door again. Finally, talk to Brutus in Upper Jeuno. Be careful not to “set the Chocobo free”, as it will start another quest, and you’ll have to finish it before you can get it. After talking to Brutus, you will get a final cutscene. Congratulations! You can now become a Beastmaster.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * Soloing is no more difficult in these levels than in later levels. You have a good choice here as to whether you want to use Charm or not. Even if you don’t want to for soloing, you can still use it for saving your heiny when you get into trouble. With recent updates, there’s really no point in not charming a monster after at least Lv.5. Remember to grab an Axe and a shield (a Marine Shield if possible) and start beating things to a pulp. If you do start Charming things at this low level, first of all, don’t use Jack-o’-Lanterns as they will lower your charisma to 1, and you’ll never land it. Charming Decent Challenge monsters would be a good idea. It will let you fight Even Match, and possibly Tough monsters. Don’t charm Worms. They won’t follow you, and you’ll have to wait until Charm wears off or it dies before you can Charm anything else.

Valkurm 10-20

 * Though Beastmaster is a generally solo job, it can still party. However, you’re a Beastmaster, which means you have at least fifty-five levels by this point, so I’m sure you know how parties work. As a Beastmaster, you will play the role of damage-dealer in parties. Until you hit about Lv.15 in here, though, you won’t use any form of pet. Afterwards, picking a rabbit isn’t a half bad idea. On the other plane of things, you might want to do a lot of soloing. This is a great thing when you’re searching for a party. Just head on out to Konschtat and charm a bee or a sapling or the like. If you don’t want to charm, you can easily fight the worms on the west side of the map. The benefit to Beastmaster is the ability to charm if one of them spawns too close and it links with one of its friends. At Lv.10 you get Gauge, which tells you what your chances of charming a target are. Then at Lv.12, you can Reward your pets to restore their HP. Since keeping one pet for a long amount of time involves a lot of money, you won’t normally use this job ability unless you feel it’s necessary.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Throughout your game, you’ll be soloing most of the time, but partying occasionally. Either way, it’s not very difficult to hit 75. In fact, I think Beastmaster is the easiest damage-deal classed job to level because it doesn’t require searching for a party, and soloing doesn’t involve long, tedious Easy Prey fights and a ton of downtime afterwards. The case remains true in these levels. You can easily solo in Valkurm by Lv.20, and party in Qufim if that is the case. Since you’ve obviously been to Jeuno, having your home point set there and asking for a Teleport to Holla or Dem if needed can be useful. Bringing with you a Scroll of Instant Warp if you are lucky enough to find a party. Basically, as a Beastmaster you can easily solo in the previous place you were leveling. By 20, you can go to Valkurm, by 25, Qufim, by 30, Yuhtunga. In these places, you can kill a lot of things solo. There are a lot of places you can go back to a number of times, as there are higher level monsters later on as well. At Lv.23 you get Call Beast, which allows you to call a pet instead of charm one. Called pets are generally much weaker than charmed ones, but are easier to control and don’t have to re-charm all the time. Lv.25 is Sic, which allows you to command your pet to use a random attack. Avoid using this ability if there’s anything around you, since most monsters have area-effect attacks. Tame at Lv.30 adds the ability to save your life if charm doesn’t work. And at Lv.35, you can Leave your pet. Leave just turns off charm and tells your pet that its services are no longer needed.

Your AF Weapon

 * Good weapon for its level, but pointless three levels later. It gives strength and charisma, both of your most useful stats. Otherwise, it has a fairly low damage over time, and should pick up a Combat Caster’s Axe plus 1 or plus 2 (if you can afford it).
 * First step is to talk to Brutus. Make sure he gives you the quest for your AF weapon. It’s titled “Wings of Gold”, so you can’t miss it if you check your quest list. Go to Delkfutt’s Tower and head to the 10th floor of Upper Delkfutt. If you have your key from the rank 4 mission, it’s not a very long trip. Just take the elevator. If you have Thief higher level, you can just bring along lock picking tools. Otherwise, now you have to kill a bunch of Gigas on this floor. You should be a fair bit higher level than them, and even without a pet should be able to take them down easily. Get a Delkfutt’s Chest Key and then find the chest. Open it, get the Guiding Bell item, then return to Brutus. Congratulations! You’ve acquired your first piece of artifact armor.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * Again, you’ll be doing a lot of soloing. At these levels, you can move more safely into the Besieged and Campaign battle systems to add some spice to your soloing. It’s a lot more fun than doing the same thing over and over. Now, even if you like being alone, having some higher-level friends for these levels is a lot more necessary. You’ll be doing your limit breaking quests and acquiring your useful artifact armor. A major difference in these levels is by Lv.45 you get a new job ability called “Snarl” which transfers all of your enmity onto your monster. It has a number of uses, but it really makes partying and soloing both a ton easier.

Your Artifact Armor

 * All-in-all a very solid set of equipment. Even if you have better things than it, it’s still amazing to have with you for macroing in for Charm. Every piece gives “Charm”+ and HP+, so I won’t divulge into it with every piece of armor. In total, it gives Charm +20, which doubles the duration of the effect, so long as you have it on while you use it. Your first piece is Lv.52, your AF gaiters. They give a nice defense bonus, as well as some agility for dodging. They will enhance Reward so it gives +10% more HP. Your next pieces are your Lv.54 AF gloves. Giving you some dexterity for landing hits and parrying skill for avoiding them. Your cool-looking head piece is next. Increasing Tame directly and through its intelligence buff, and like your other two, giving HP and “Charm”, as well as a decent amount of defense. Lv.58 is your body piece. It’s a really good piece of armor that will also enhance Reward, but it won’t give more HP. Instead, it will now remove Paralyze, Poison, and Blind. It also gives a beautiful +3 vitality for survivability. Your final piece is your leg piece. On top of the Charm, nice defense, and HP bonus, they enhance your “Killer” traits and will also increase your charisma (both for Charm and as a secondary boost to the Killer traits). Like I said, a great set that increases a lot of different, useful stats and your job abilities.

High Levels 60-75

 * Now you can start going into end-game business and having some fun with all-Beastmaster parties and the like. Soloing is a bit more difficult, but now it’s easier with all of you artifact armor and all of your job abilities and stuff.

End-Game

 * (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Warrior

 * Your main support job for partying. It boosts your strength and dexterity as well as adds a number of great job abilities and traits. Attack and Defense Bonuses, and Double Attack make for great little passive abilities. Provoke can be used for partying to then give hate to your jug pet via Snarl to give it a Provoke-like effect. When used with a monster like Courier Carrie, you can have a decent tank for small-scale parties. If he dies, who cares? You also get Berserk and Warcry for dealing even more damage.

White Mage

 * A great soloing support job. It gives access to Blink, Stoneskin, and Reraise in case of problems, and Cure for less downtime. It also increases mind for healing your pets with Reward. White Mage also has a tiny bit of charisma to give for Charming, and intelligence for Tame. Since you solo in a whole bunch of different areas, having White Mage subbed also gives a nice use for Sneak and Invisible; both free money-wise.

Ninja

 * Another useful support job for soloing. It gives you the option of exchanging your shield for a second axe. Though until Lv.50, I’d suggest keeping the shield. Its two primary roles of a support job are Tonko and Utsusemi. Tonko will give you cheaper invisible for going around (though it’s free when subbing White Mage). Utsusemi allows you to take 3-6 hits without taking any damage, which is useful for when things go wrong.

Thief

 * Since you solo a lot, and with the addition of Snarl, Thief can be a very useful support job. It gives Treasure Hunter and Steal for easier drops and money. And because of Snarl, you can give your pet enmity while you sneak up behind it for a Sneak Attack Rampage. That would bring your target a world of hurt. You can even Trick Attack enmity back onto your pet if you felt like it. Though Sneak Attack is far more useful, you could also use them in conjunction with each other to deal a ton of damage at the start of a fight and give all hate to your pet.

Dancer

 * A great alternative to White Mage. This is more for the Beastmaster who fights along side his or her pet as opposed to letting the pet do all the fighting. Instead of using your TP for weapon skills, you could save your TP for Waltzes. This support job actually gives you a bigger use tanking than anything else. You can get your monster to help you keep Samba up, but you will be the only one who gets the Drain effect. Steps and Flourishes can be used for enfeebling and Provoking to keep enmity. This support job is also great for duoing. Since Beastmaster is already such a useful duoer, having Waltzes and TP-using “spells” might be even better than any other support job for soloing. Waltzes are also super vitality and charisma-dependant, so you will definitely get the most out of them.

Beastmaster as a Support Job

 * Beastmaster is a useful support job for soloing, much as when it is a main job. Though you won't get the same control over monsters as a Beastmaster of the same level, Charm will still work quite well. The thing is, though, Charm's success rate when Beastmaster is subbed is actually affected by what level the Beastmaster is as a main job. This means that if you want the highest success rate possible, you actually have to level Beastmaster to 75 as opposed to 37. Otherwise, Beastmaster also plays a role in charming unwanted links or aggro, and/or buffing-up the user's charisma stat for jobs like Blue Mage, Bard, or even Puppetmaster.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * It really works well with the whole Beastmaster thing. Familiar does a couple of things for you and your pet. For one, it will increase the duration of the Charm from whatever it was to a full half hour, no matter what. That means if you charm a Tough crab, it will stick with you kicking tail for a whole half hour. And since you don’t lose experience points due to charmed monsters since the recent update, that might even be a good idea to do before even going into soloing. Keep in mind, though, having a charmed monster that’s higher level than the highest level member in the party will count as the highest-level party member and will lower your experience accordingly. So charm an Even Match and have it act as a more durable seventh party member or duo buddy. The other thing it does is gives your pet a 10% HP buff. Meaning if you do use it every two hours, for one-quarter of the time, you can get one of the best monsters ever. Or if you have a Corsair friend to recharge your two-hour, you can keep it for a whole hour. Of course, by this time you might want to just pick up a new pet. In terms of sticky situations, it’s good to have because you really can’t have that charmed pet become un-charmed. If it is, and you’re already in a bad situation, it’s not a good thing at all.

Job Abilities

 * Charm is a super-useful Lv.1 job ability that is Beastmaster’s pride and joy; its backbone, if you will. Though not really useful until Lv.5 or higher. What it does is charms a monster so it can do your bidding. Think of it as finding a wolf in the wild, but winning it over with your charisma. Then a bear attacks you, so you sic the wolf on the bear and they fight. A charmed pet can do a number of things, such as attack, heel, and do a special attack. Charm’s success rate is determined by the user’s charisma, and its duration depends on the target’s level in comparison to the user’s. Too Weak monsters are charmed for a full thirty minutes, Easy prey for twenty minutes, Decent Challenge for ten minutes. Even Match for four and a half minutes. And Tough for one and a half minutes. Very Tough and Incredibly Tough monsters can’t be charmed. Monsters that can’t be charmed at any level, such as Goblins, will be bound, thus allowing you to run away. Its recast timer is 15 seconds, so you can bind or charm frequently.
 * Gauge is your Lv.10 job ability that lets you see your chances of charming a target, or if you can at all. It’s a good idea to gauge your targets before you charm them. Gauge won’t give the monster a reason to hurt you, so you can use it on anything. Since its recast is only 30 seconds, you can use it as often as necessary.
 * Reward has a really strange level of availability. Lv.12. If you have a pet food item in your ammo slot, you can use the Reward job ability to heal your pet. This ability will grant your pet "Regen" status. It has a ninety-second cool-down, and pet food can be expensive at higher levels, so it’s not a widely used job ability. If anything, people generally let their pets die and get new ones. However, if you are partying, especially pre-23 (when you would get Call Beast), it might be a good idea to feed your pet as opposed to constantly running out and charming another pet. Due to the "Regen" status granted by this ability, this ability can be used to save your pet from the effects of Poison or Dia.
 * Call Beast is another job ability that has an odd level, 23. It allows you to call a pet to do your bidding as opposed to charming pets. This is especially useful in Besieged, where you can’t charm anything, or in parties, where charming is a pain in the rear to do. You can get high-quality pets who look different and have different names than the normal-quality pets. Calling a pet requires the use of Jugs. Different jugs attract different monsters. Called beasts last between half an hour to an hour (except Amigo Sabotender for 20 minutes) and can be called once every five minutes.
 * Tame at Lv.30 is your failsafe if Charm fails. It lowers your enmity on one monster and it has three primary uses. One is if Charm fails, Tame can take away enmity and make it as if you didn’t even try. You can then try again when Charm is ready again. A second use is if things look really bad and your pet is dead (it won’t work if you have a pet), you can tame the monster to try and calm it down so it won’t finish you off. A third use is it will actually make the target easier to Charm. So you can Charm a Tough with a lot better of a success rate. Tame’s success rate is believed to be intelligence.
 * Snarl is a fairly new job ability that really helps Beastmaster out a lot. What it does is gives all of the Beastmaster’s enmity to his jug pet. This means his jug pet can act as a tank for either soloing or partying quite effectively, especially if Courier Carrie or another high defense monster is called.
 * Feral Howl terrorizes the target. Terrorize is a lot like petrification, but lasts between one and ten seconds. Unlike Blue Mage’s “Jettatura” spell, it won’t give you a lot of enmity. And because it’s a job ability and therefore instant, it can be used to stop a monster from casting a spell or using a special attack. Feral Howl normally has a fifteen minute recast timer, but can be brought down to only ten minutes with full merits.
 * Killer Instinct is great for parties. It will give your pet’s “Killer” trait to the whole party. Meaning that if you are fighting a worm and have Courier Carrie out, you can use Killer Instinct to give your whole party the chance to intimidate the worm. It’s useful outside of parties too, since it will boost your Killer trait by about 10% chance. It’s great to use at the start of chains (to reduce downtime) or when soloing and something bad happens.

Job Traits

 * Wide Scan is a useful job trait exclusive to Beastmasters and Rangers. It doesn’t really do anything passive, it just adds a feature to your map. Under the bar “Markers” is another bar called “Widescan”. Click on that and you can see all monsters and NPCs in the general vicinity. It’s great for finding a pet or for finding monsters to sic your pet on. It’s also really useful for camping notorious monsters, but Beastmaster’s Widescan is shorter range, so generally Ranger is more used for doing so. Every 20 levels up to 60 you get another tier of this, increasing its range.
 * “Killer” traits are a super useful line of job traits that will allow you to intimidate your target. This means that you have a perpetual “paralysis” effect on any monsters that try to attack you, as long as you have the appropriate “Killer” trait when fighting it. Intimidation can work to stop spell casting, normal attacks, and even TP moves. Every ten levels you get a new Killer ability that lets you intimidate another family of monsters. Starting with Vermin Killer at 10, then you get Bird Killer, then Amorph Killer, Lizard Killer, Aquan Killer, Plantoid Killer, and finally, Beast Killer at Lv.70. They won’t help you deal any extra damage or anything to the monster family, but you will have a better chance of winning a fight against them.
 * Resist Slow is another trait to help your overall survivability. This job trait lowers the chances of being affected with the ailment “Slow” by a tiny amount. Where it’s most prominent is even if it doesn’t fully resist the effect, it will greatly reduce its duration. Super-useful since you don’t get any form of Erase or Haste to yourself.
 * Beast Affinity increases your called pets’ level by 2 per merit, allowing them to get closer to your level if you haven’t called a Lv.75 pet already. It won’t go over 75, but it will cap there, allowing you to have higher level pets without spending as much money on better jugs.
 * Beast Healer This will enhance the “Regen” effect granted to your pet from the “Reward” ability. It’s currently unclear just how long the effect lasts, but at any rate, it will increase its overall healing potency and can help your pet stay alive even longer. Basically, it just makes Reward a generally useful thing to use.

Monster Commands

 * Fight tells your pet to attack. Monsters won’t attack things unless you tell them to through this Pet Command. It can be commanded once every ten seconds.
 * Heel tells your pet to come back to you and stop doing whatever it was originally doing. It’s basically like telling your pet to disengage battle or to stop its “Stay” command. It has a five-second recast and can be used once you hit Lv.10.
 * Stay tells your pet to stay in one spot, which will allow it to recover HP. It can be stopped using another command such as Heel or Fight. It shares Heel’s cool down timer of five seconds and can be used once you hit Lv.15.
 * Sic commands your pet to do a special move, be it on itself or on the monster it’s fighting. This is where having a “ “ macro comes in handy, since it won’t use its ability right away unless it has over 100%. If it’s lower than 100% when you use this command, your pet will just use it at a random time after it does get 100%. It has a two-minute recast timer and can be used anytime after you hit Lv.25.
 * Leave tells your pet that its services are no longer required, so it will leave and not attack you. It doesn’t have much use anymore now that any monster who is commanded to “Leave” outside of its original spawning circle it will de-spawn. However, it’s still an alternative to letting your pet die. It can be used once every ten seconds anytime after Lv.35.