BST merits

[Rambus]

I am a bit lost in trying to figure out the best combos, what is good to merit or good combos and why?

all I do lately is LS events mostly and I am running out of things to merit that I know are good.

[blowfin]

Call Beast and Reward timers are the pick of the groups 1's at the moment.

For Group 2 Beast Healer is pretty useful at the moment. Beast affinity is not so great with a wide range of (currently) uncapped pets. Feral Howl is nice to have for the occasional use. Killer instinct is very situational but quite powerful in the right circumstances.

[Glamdring]

I personally went 5/5 beast affinity, 1 KI, 1 FH, 3 Healer, 5/5 sic timer, 5/5 killer traits. However, I did my merits before Abyssea came out and it became apparent that I will hardly ever charm a mob again (and that mostly for nostalgia's sake). To do it over, I would probably choose Call beast and whichever lowers the reward recast time 5/5, at the expense of beast affinity.

[Xilk]

its pretty easy to customize your merits for whatever you are going to do next.
xp is cheap and you don't have to try for it. I juggle my merits around a bit every week probably.

[Glamdring]

agreed, but I'm in the process of leveling a job up (refuse to just leech so I can be dead weight at 90) and that cuts heavy into my Abyssea time. Also, I want to jump on my GENERAL merits (MP, weapons, magic, etc). soon and I still need to finish meriting my thief.

[Karbuncle]

I had 5/5 BST Affinity back when it made the Funguar Pet 75(?) and was useful. However right now our current pets are uncapped. But i kept my Affinity merits on the off-chance by 99 some of my favorites (Looking at you white bunny) Might uncap around 90.

As for Tier 1, Some tests on FFXIAH showed that the Body "Augments Killer Effects" pretty much brings back what they used to be, Added Acc/Atk/Damage-taken/etc Vs The mob you have killer for. he said through tests it appears that "Killer +" gear also enhances that effect as well. So i've considered meriting full Killer Effects/Reward Timer. or Killer/Call Beast. right now its Reward/Call Beast.

But that +2 Body really is intriguing, i wish i could find the thread.

edit: Found it!

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/17616/ferine-gausape-1/

[Nitrous24]

I am a bit lost in trying to figure out the best combos, what is good to merit or good combos and why?

all I do lately is LS events mostly and I am running out of things to merit that I know are good.
Don't listen to whoever said that beast affinity is useless. get 1 merit in it. 3 in either killer instinct or feral howl depending on your preference. But feral howl never lands on anything good so keep that in mind. and 5 in beast healer. For group 1 5/5 call beast is a staple.. After that i would suggest 5/5 reward since no charmable mobs really anymore and if you're soloing nms you may have times when you need to use it on cooldown

[Morgantisthedon]

ATm since charm is ughh and everything is based on jug pets me and my 6 friends did all our merrits like this
top
5/5 call beast
5/5 reward recast
bottom
5/5 beast affinity
5/5 beast healer


Unless things changes the power of bst seems to be in your jugs and gtting those pets out as fast as possible if needed and keeping your pet jug alive. Reson why I chose beast affinty give my sheep or lower pets a higher lv when they come out so they are stonger.

~ now go find u 5 otther bsts or 4 and kill kirin in less 10 mins in non zurg format lol

[Karbuncle]

ATm since charm is ughh and everything is based on jug pets me and my 6 friends did all our merrits like this
top
5/5 call beast
5/5 reward recast
bottom
5/5 beast affinity
5/5 beast healer


Unless things changes the power of bst seems to be in your jugs and gtting those pets out as fast as possible if needed and keeping your pet jug alive. Reson why I chose beast affinty give my sheep or lower pets a higher lv when they come out so they are stonger.

~ now go find u 5 otther bsts or 4 and kill kirin in less 10 mins in non zurg format lol

Yes and no.

It depends on the situation. If you're in an Exp party, if you're any good you'll be out-DDing your pet. VV/RR/Apoc does more for master than pet because of Weaponskills like Rampage. your pet will keep up, But a good BST will out-do his pet, even gearing for the pet. (gear like ACP body, AMK Head or Spurrer's, etc), The Master, if any good, will still out-DD his pet, maybe not always during TP phase, but the WS phase will be like a 10 to 1 split because of how Epic Rampage is with Razed Ruins/good gear/macros/intelligence/etc.

If you're a solo-er BST (lets face it, most of us are...) Then the idea of BST would be keeping your pet alive, and keeping the Call beast timer up when needed.

This is why Im inbetween Killer and Callbeast/Reward. Killer Effect+5% Combined with Ferine Body+2 would increase my Damage by about ~5% when im in a party/event situation. While Reward/Call-beast would increase my pets survivability and my own when soloing.

Before Abyssea I would (And did) go with 5/5 Callbeast/Reward. I still have those, Its just always been a thought about Killer mErits due to the Bodys Augment.

It depends on your majority playstyle, But there are two sides to the BST coin, your solo and group playstyles.

[Morgantisthedon]

Yes and no.

It depends on the situation. If you're in an Exp party, if you're any good you'll be out-DDing your pet. VV/RR/Apoc does more for master than pet because of Weaponskills like Rampage. your pet will keep up, But a good BST will out-do his pet, even gearing for the pet. (gear like ACP body, AMK Head or Spurrer's, etc), The Master, if any good, will still out-DD his pet, maybe not always during TP phase, but the WS phase will be like a 10 to 1 split because of how Epic Rampage is with Razed Ruins/good gear/macros/intelligence/etc.

If you're a solo-er BST (lets face it, most of us are...) Then the idea of BST would be keeping your pet alive, and keeping the Call beast timer up when needed.

This is why Im inbetween Killer and Callbeast/Reward. Killer Effect+5% Combined with Ferine Body+2 would increase my Damage by about ~5% when im in a party/event situation. While Reward/Call-beast would increase my pets survivability and my own when soloing.

Before Abyssea I would (And did) go with 5/5 Callbeast/Reward. I still have those, Its just always been a thought about Killer mErits due to the Bodys Augment.

It depends on your majority playstyle, But there are two sides to the BST coin, your solo and group playstyles.

I agree it does depend your play style but I only realy use bst to solo or for sticking a pet on nms personaly or events. I use other jobs when I xp but I concur what your are saying.

[Xilk]

I had 5/5 BST Affinity back when it made the Funguar Pet 75(?) and was useful. However right now our current pets are uncapped. But i kept my Affinity merits on the off-chance by 99 some of my favorites (Looking at you white bunny) Might uncap around 90.

As for Tier 1, Some tests on FFXIAH showed that the Body "Augments Killer Effects" pretty much brings back what they used to be, Added Acc/Atk/Damage-taken/etc Vs The mob you have killer for. he said through tests it appears that "Killer +" gear also enhances that effect as well. So i've considered meriting full Killer Effects/Reward Timer. or Killer/Call Beast. right now its Reward/Call Beast.

But that +2 Body really is intriguing, i wish i could find the thread.

edit: Found it!

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/17616/ferine-gausape-1/

Nursery Nazuna Caps at level 86. She is the only one of the 76+ jugs that caps so far. 2/5 BA merits are useful at this point.

Also, if you want to use carrie + DG for 100% magic damage reduction, having a level 85 Carrie is required to make this viable at all. 5/5 BA.
So they are still useful for these things.

[Rambus]

Yeah I wrote this mainly because I was confused on the outcome of killer effects where and the beat affinity.

Was also wondering how the relic gloves came into play with BA merits

[Xilk]

Killer effects are actually a very good option if you have Gausape +1/2

you get a +2/5% to damage from the "augments killer effects" from Gausape +1/2
(same % -dt also)
Killer effects merits will improve this by 1%/merit. So you can get a total of 10% damage improvement on anything you have killer effect for. Thats pretty sweet, and should probably be a priority for any DD focused bst.

[Fadnog]

The way i have my merits right now is

Group 1:
Killer Effects 5/5
Call Beast 5/5

I have killer effects meritted cause i got a Tatami Shield and call beast because jug pets are like supreme now.

Group 2:
Feral Howl 5/5
Beast Affinity 5/5

I have BA merits cause i don't know when the pets will cap, so just in case i have them, and I have feral howl cause i like having a stun-like ability (terror) even though it doesn't work on anything in abyssea. (to my experience) It was good for soloing magic casting mobs.

I know my merits could prolly be set up better but I really don't feel like reallocating them.