Which Pets Are The Best For DPS/Enhancing/Debuffing

Taeon works for bst, but bst actually has better/different gear available just like pup has some different gear available in various slots despite the gear overlap.
I'd suggest looking at the bst guide. It has a table of contents so that you don't have to read the whole thing start to finish and various charts that make your many of your questions easily and far more extensively answered even down to the ones you didn't think to ask.

For instance I am guessing you do not know that Generous arthur is by far the most damage in large scale fights where it isn't resisted (Eg. Domain invasion. Divergence wave 3 bosses) by virtue of being able to chop off 10% hp at the start in one go. Once enough people are fighting the same thing it is impossible to actually deal more damage than this pet does in one shot.
It also has utility inside Sheol Gaol for RP farm cheesing and is the best job in the game at giving def down if a geo is unavailable or the content has nerfed geo effectiveness.

In general though, you just pick whatever suits the stuff you do.
Pet correlation and the nature of this game in general makes it so that there is no one size fits all here.
Lizard and heartbreaker ken are good for aoe cleaving for exp in reisenjima.
I also tended to use the lizard to make fire/fusion and lightning Mbed skillchains on it's own a few years ago. That utility has not ceased to exist if you are lacking a scholar , people that know how to skillchain or just happen to be with a trust or person that is inclined to MB.

The compendium here on the BST forum breaks down pets & ready moves. I rarely BST on content, but when I do I check the list along with what content I'm doing. Like most things in FFXI it will shift the scale on what is "Best"

IE:
{Best Enhancing}: What enhancing do you want?

The ready moves section is already broken down to easily determine what will give you the best benefit for what you are wanting to do.

It's overwhelming at first with all the options, but big props to the people who took the time to make an awesome guide.

edit: Khajit said it better :P

Really just depends on what you are doing. Are you solo? Master/pet attacking together? Pet only? Taking advantage of Killer Instinct?

I used Swooping Zhivago for ML. Great skillchain properties, -25% def/m.def ready move...caveat is the ready move is conal so positioning is important if you don't want adds.

Sheep rage is nice with +60% attack buff, but don't ignore the -60% def unless it's super easy mode content or you have support.

Sorry if I sound like a beat up drum but BST is a very situational job with small extras that will push some pets better than others.

In addition to the advice these BSTbros have provided, I would also recommend Rua's BST video. He gives good perspective on the job and a breakdown of pets by role.
https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56134/ffxi-beastmaster-guide-by-ruaumoko/

Taeon gear is perfectly useable by BST and it's somewhat overlapping with Acro gear.
I seem to recall there's some differences in the potential augments but overall they're pretty similar.

Like someone has said though, most of the time the approach on BST is quite different than that on PUP. You want to maximize call beast delay- and sic- because BST pets do not have to wait for TP to be able to use their specific ready moves.
DA/multiattack only affects some of those, and you can find a reliable list in the awesome Falkrik's guide.

If you don't want to mess with skirmish stones there's Emicho+1 too. Some of those pieces offer static augments which can sometimes be a valid alternative to Taeon/Acro. Compromise probably, but an acceptable one if you hate the randomness of Skirmish stones.
Haste is less useful on BST than on PUP for the already mentioned reasons, but if for whatever reason you want haste, don't forget there's the Heyoka set too.



From the bottom of my small BST experience I feel that there's no "best than all others" pets.
It kinda depends on personal preference and what you want to do.

Do you want AoE damage or single target?
Do you want magical or physical?
Do you want a pet to use together with the master (at that point you'll want one of those pets who have buffs which also affect the master) or not?
Do you want a tanky pet or will you handle that with trusts?

All of these questions lead to a different answer when it comes to "which pet to use".

There's also a more practical matter that gets often undervalued.
Some pets are extremely cheap and disposable. While others are expensive and/or rare to find on the market.
So there's that to consider as well.


I can tell you Generous Arthur is a must these days because it's commonly used in RP farming strategies, wether you're gonna be solo or with friends.
Generous Arthur also gets often undervalued for Corrosive Ooze. -33% Attack & Defense AoE is quite... useful if you ask me.
Increases your survivability and allows you to make better use of PDL, which turns Dolichenus Decimation into quite a beast.
For instance, granted that BST is not exactly the most desireable job to bring in a Sheol C run, if for whatever reason you are asked to join on BST, then Generous Arthur would be super useful in such a content.

Beastmaster takes alot of exploring. Its normal that its difficult to choose a playstyle.

Beastmaster is just too versatile really. Its the challenge of an artist to "make something great" when you have so many options, choosing one is difficult.

It is the constraints of the environment that have always determined The beastmaster's strategy and tactics.

In the old-game, when charm was a thing and beastmasters could not get into a party if their xp depended on it, this meant that the you had to determine the level, species and placement of mobs in a zone.

However, in the current game I think a beastmaster is very well able to adapt to the needs of the party. Its hard to expect party memebers to be expert enough on beastmaster's capabilities though, so the challenge is understanding the party dynamics and choosing what is most needful, and sticking to it.
(I always have trouble sticking to it, because I like trying so many things with beastmaster).

You can make a nearly capped subtle blow and counter builds for Beastmaster, and have pets that support you in it(Vickie). Not just TP Drainkiss from FatsoFargann, but also Plague from Infected leech (left-yanded Yoko) and Pestilent Plume (fluffyBredo).

You can focus on magical damage from primal rend or cloudsplitter or many elemental ready moves: Charged Whisker, Pestilent Plume, Corrosive ooze, Fireball, Foul Waters, Doom Spray, Nepenthic Plunge, etc You can do some respectable burst damage and mdb down is NOT a commonly available debuff, but wonderful for any bursting fight.

Or physical damage with Decimation, Calamity, Mistral Axe, Sweeping Gouge, Pentapeck, Tegmina Buffet, Rhino wrecker, etc. though I think to do a full pet party for tody's mechanics you would be making the hard choice of choosing path D Nyame for maximum benefit.

the best tank pets I would list as Patrice(Slime), Edwin(crab), Vickie(Raaz), in general. Though Generous Arthur has fantastic support and magical defense and hp as well. Sometimes the blunt resistance and attack down from fargann is most important, sometimes the slashing resistance from Zhivago is most important.

I don't think there is a shortcut or short list for what bst can do.

Alot of people now know how good Generous Arthur is for support in a party. How many realize that Presto Julio (a VERY underleveled pet,) Can have a 4.5 minutes sleepga? also very long duration and potent aoe slow and paralyze as well?

These are immensely potent in dynamis and odyssey setups where you manage a large group of mobs. I don't think many know just how potent it is and time efficient.

Or how many know that Nihility song has the largest AoE radius of any move a player can perform? Its awesome for pulling a massive group or just a massive Aoe Dispel?

You can choose what role you want beastmaster to play in the party and do it... but you can only choose 1 role at a time typically.

Bst can even spam aoe curaga 3's with PonderingPeter. You have a 30s recast, but no mp cost. I should think that can be very valuable option if mp is an issue for say... Chaos or Obstatrix.

Did you know that ??? Needles has NO accuracy check and NO defense check at all? Falkirk and Beaztmaster made a wonderful Tolba duo video a few years ago showcasing how to cleverly apply this ability.

tldr: Beastmaster is so variable that choosing a role is very difficult, but you can do some really cool niche stuff.

For EP or circa 2010 content like Omen or Divergence, I agree. I don't think the problem is with BST itself, but more that newer content like Sheol and Sortie demands faster adaptation than Call/Loyalty allow for without relying on things like RD/WC.

If I had a wishlist for BST, it would be:

• A ~1m recast /ja that swaps your current pet for a different one at the same %HP, without consuming the jug. Requires an active pet. We have so many options, let us use 'em!

• Scrap the clunky jug pet level system, just match the master's level like every other pet job.

• More baseline pet DT. I don't know what the ideal number is, maybe 20% from a new IV tier of Stout Servant and an extra 5% merit option replacing Beast Affinity(if pet levels are normalized). That would get you within spitting distance of 50% pet pDT with a cape and AF3 legs.

Would these changes make BST better in say, Sheol C vs. your average faceroll Sakpata WAR? No, probably not.
Would BST be more effective and a hell of a lot more fun? Abso-****in-lutely.

Most (all?) pet enhancements that also apply to master have a duration that scales with the Pet TP when the Ready move goes off.
Some of those can easily reach 9+ Mins with 3000 TP.

So I guess if you want to stack buffs you need to raise the Pet TP at least for the first move being used, so that it's gonna last long enough for you to stack it with the move from another pet?

Yeah some last longer with more tp but some don't, so holding tp might be worth while on ibuki, but the debuff durations generally are not nearly as long as the master buff duration abilities. Most of the good debuff pets, their abilities I think last maybe 60-120 seconds, so it would be hard to stack multiple for any length of time. Master buffs though can reach pretty lengthy times, so definitely stack tp value for those pre fight if you can manage. Otherwise, probably just using pet debuffs every minute or so the remainder of any fight. From my experience anyhow ^^.

Yeah misread those posts as debuffs not buffs. Stack tp for buffs I suppose, but your greatest hinderance in that will be your call beast timer. More than likely probably going to use maybe one pet to buff at high tp pre fight, and mid fight just debuff pet. Good luck on justifying your cor to use random deal so you can buff only yourself lol vs using a debuff pet that everyone will gain something from.

Ready moves can only be used while pet is engaged.
So the "prebuff" idea is usually not an option.

Its techinically possible... but typically not practical.

You would need to fight > Ready move > Heel before the pet actually makes any contact w/ the enemy.

Also, keep in mind that the reason Falkirk's Guide sorts the ready moves between Warrior-job pet and non-warrior job pets is because of Fencer TP bonus. (also all ready moves have 1000tp starting point, no matter how much tp the pet has saved up). The pets have the traits that the jobs have. They do not have their own job points or gift bonuses, but thats why the minium tp for ready moves from warrior-job pets is 1540. Pair that with Nukumi Manopolas +1~3 and you always have over 2000 TP. If you have Aymur, you always have 2740+ tp for warrior pet job abilities. or 2240+ for non warrior pets.

This is the 2nd half of the reason having a pet tp set for bst is meaningless. The closest thing is a pet only engaged set for pet parties which don't care about pet store tp but only acc, haste, double attack and attack... and crit hit rate.

I'm gonna call Sechs out for his exaggeration though. 9 Minutes is the MAX duration for most pet ready move buff and debuffs. Four of the Eight buff moves have a max 9 min duration.

Yes, there are some longer debuffs, but I don't think inflicting a 35 min disease is very practical... then again, maybe it is. I mean any fight where you need to let the party wipe and recover should have absolutely no problem w/ the enemy recovering...

13 minute Silence from Chaotic Eye is really nice though:D

On lower level content and starting out, its usually more beneficial to focus on the pet for beastmaster. I would include Omen in this. Its so easy to get alot of power out of the pet for minimal investment.

However as you get higher level and MUST do content in a group to do it efficiently, the benefits of buffing the master become more pertinent. This is because you can have a party buff pets or buff players, but not really both. Can you? yes, but then you will have mediocre/crappy stats spread across pets and masters... usually not worthwhile. The pet then has more benefit in a supporting role.

yes, I found bouncing bertha the most efficient for omen farming. you can slap on full damage reduction gear, gather them up and kill everthing in 2x tegmina buffet if you have no buffs, and 1x tegmina buffet if you have a cor or geo helping you.

Then again maybe w/ Nyame body/legs Path D you can 1 shot a crowd of sweetwater mobs w/out buffs... I'll have to ask Falkirk, cuz I did not go path D either. I really wanted the buffed up Primal Rend from Path B.

As far as keeping buffs up, you can rotate pets every 4 minutes reliably and keep 2x 9 min buffs up all the time w/out too much trouble.

Water Wall and Rage are good options for this. but maybe you want to put Frenzied rage up and just work with Zealous snort until you need to recast frenzied rage.

If you REALLY want to max out the buffs, using Unleash is a Quick way to get them all up, but I suggest you prepare the macros for it first.

Also to answer your question, Ruaumoko has a pretty decent youtube on BST that is pretty thorough. I suggest giving it a watch. It will go into detail and answer your thread questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSDX4kiYJj4