Charm?!

Incorrect. They just spam jugs still. -_-

I did and loved it.

I did.

I returned 2 months ago, and solo'd BST to 73.
Then from 73 to 81/82 I had a duo partner. We then decided to do the rest in abyssea.

FoV and GoV helped a bunch, but there were instances when I completely ignored those. For example doing bombs in GC. And obviously the few times when I solo'd in ToAU area.

Feels like I learnt a lot about the job from playing this way. I'm sure I wouldn't have had the same experience if I chose to book burn BST.

"taking up a BST from 1-75 was never remotely hard if you got half a brain to know of your mob and surroundings" was my quote to you. Want me to Italic and bold it for you too?

Jug pets other than used as an attack pet, can also be used as a foddershield "when" your charm fails, to fully use your BST's JA and snarl it off is hard I guess.

Try solo your way through full merit BLM 75 non pet path as your first job with no LS support on gear and talk, BSTs got it easy enough.

Tame, PDT/Regen sets, movement speed.

For /WHMRDMSCH, Stoneskin, Blink, Aquaveil.
For /NIN, Utsusemi.
For /DNC, you're probably done. If you're good - a proper PDT set and planning however, will give you a fighting chance.
For /Whateverthehellelseyou'resubbingwhilesolo, wtfelseistheretosubwhilesolo?


The "Skill" in playing solo BST, is lower than the "skill" in playing solo SMN. BST has unlimited options, petwise. SMN is limited by MP, aggro (discounting things like Sight/Sound, you still have Magic to contend with in a lot of places) everywhere and long cast times that can't be blinked out. How many SMN sit and complain that "soloing is hard and super skillful"?


I hope that BST does get the option to play "as a BST should" again, I really do. It took forever, and it was less than fun sometimes, but I enjoyed dossing around on my BST (even using my charm sets /gasp) on occasion.


tl;dr: BST (like every job), is only as hard as the person behind it makes it. Proper planning, gearsets and macros, make it simple.

Blm solo to 75 without targeting pet mobs is just HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

SMN solo was harder than BST solo, I did enough of that to keep my skill capped every level after I got all the NQ staves (my first job), if you exempt parties when I got more than one level. The difference is you had the option to party.

With BST your only real option was to find another 1-2 BSTs to team up with, and even then it would be hard to find that (in my experience). Amongst those that mostly solo'd to 75 pre-aby or even better before pet xp- was taken out, did any of you ever manage to team up with someone who wasn't good at recovering from a series of mischarms?

No, but I'd usually only team up with good bst friends who knew what they were doing. Or at least weren't terrible. Back then BSTs were like our own little community. At least this was the case for me.

I do remember having fun charming lizard to fight manticores in cape terrigan in big BST parties. Also bst parties for mandys vs gobbues in boyahda tree was fun too. Good memories.

Hey Chimera. :) Yes, I solo'ed BST and occasionally duoed with friend for certain awkward levels. I prefered Elvaan or Galka BSTs in duos over Tarus. (When my buddy was a taru, I would take with my and my pet. We didn't have snarl back then). It was a great experience though, aside from lots of deaths and loot. :)

One time, we got 6 BSTs to fight with lizards vs manticores in cape Terrigan, pre-BST-nerf. Most fun I've ever had. :)

BLMs that only rely on pet mobs to solo WILL be gimped. Say @ lvl 51 it takes you 8k xp to lvl, each pet (say pso'xja) gives 200xp by 1 single freeze spell, 40 mobs after you ding, unless you get 0.1~0.5 on EVERY spell, your elemental magic skill will start to be off from your character level, your dark magic/enfeebling magic will stay untouched till you get into pt. Overtime, say you move out of pso'xja once you hit 60, your AM WILL resist a lot more than that goblin's pet against that bunny and since you pet burn your way up, your gravity and bind can't stick for crap unless it's under ES and you will feel the hot sand of Cap Teriggan, dying IS NOT FUN.

Since I had no help because at the time I joined a LS and that whole LS basically disappeared from planet earth I was always on my own or trying to find a duo. I would much rather be able to hold my own other than be a gimp *** and get LOL at by pt members when i get into endgame, how is that HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE?

While I agree with you on SMN was somewhat hard due to MP was a really big concern back then before you get access to YYR, Ele staves and crap, I just think you should know not everyone's playstyle is the same and therefore leveling it via other means does not mean it is HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

Anyway, back on BST, this is not BLM thread for that I apologize for bringing it up.

I actually did that for my first 75 D:

Got to about 30 in PT's, then they started slowing down a lot.

No-one mentioned pet mobs to me, so I didn't really notice them. By the time I got to Aht Urgan and finally worked them out (around 60), I was too high for them all, so I stuck to Qiqirn and Puddings from then to 75.

I ended up soloing most of my SMN too XD Refused to play as a "less than gimp" whm and no-one wanted you in a PT otherwise!

Mr. Murphy showed up on a daily basis. Eventually when you die enough you learn not to do certain things. I made my own personal BST rules. I never wrote them down or articulated them in any way shape or form. But there were always certain precautions I'd take or things I wouldn't do to ensure my survival. Plus when charming a mob I would charm it with the full expectation of every single charm failing. Meaning I'd have an exit strategy in place at all times.

Not saying I'm a terrific bst or better than anyone else. Just that you always have to expect the worse case scenario. I've become pretty rusty and have moved far away from these values as I can tell now with this new content lol. Every dirt nap is a new reminder of an old rule I've broken.

Good to see someone else bring up the Terrigan parties lol. That was highly unusual for most of us at the time but wildly entertaining.

Okay, if you did not have enfeebling capped from whm or ram previously, I could see solo getting tough real quick on blm against pets. I leveled rdm b4 blm, I did that completely in normal ToAU party style, rdm, brd, ddX4 so never a chance to nuke, just enfeeble buff and cure; I never got else skill gimp enough to cause issue, but without a lot of enfeeble skillup time I know my experience would go differently. So, I guess I don't have the right to talk about blm solo.

Your way of leveling blm back then isn't retarted. Sorry

Post TOAU no reason not to BLM burn on pets. If you were worried about being gimp, walk into besieged and cast dia 1000 times. Done.

I did , was actually damn fun, especially when fighting bombs.

That may be why I never gimped ele skill. Forgot about that.
I remember on my server, people loved having blm in a normal xp camp for SC MB, but pre-ToAU if you couldn't get a party I definately see issues keeping skill up on pets.

I didn't level BST "back in the day," but when I came back to the game and started a new character I strictly solo/duo'd from 1-75. It was exceptionally fun, but not even remotely hard. It certainly required more effort than just popping a jug, but I wouldn't say it required any extra brainpower. Even as a Mithra (low natural CHR), mischarms were few and far between (except on slimes) with a good Charm set... Keeping up shadows or blink and using Tame isn't exactly a hard concept to grasp.

The people who Abyssea burned to 99 and don't know *** about their jobs are the same people who would have worked the grind to 75 back in the day and not known *** about their jobs. It's about the people and how willing/able they are to take information and use it. How fast it took to get the experience points is irrelevant. That has always been the case.

Mommy's basement sure looks a lot like my condo and my mom sure looks a lot like my wife.

ftfy



Sorry, there are still people who wouldn't take some paths just because it's more "convenient" .

It blows me away that a decade later there are still people who think that injecting artificial tedium into the level-up process will strengthen them as a player.

This wasn't true years ago and it isn't true now; beastmaster is no exception. Contrarian predispositions are not a matter of perspective or opinion- you're simply wrong. I realize that this fact can be rather counterintuitive for many folks, so I'm willing to level with you if you've never had it explained to you, but the time to cut your losses is now.

This discussion is getting ridiculous. Just cease.

None of you have Aymur, I don't know why you even think you're qualified to discuss BST.

Ridiculous? You write that, and you accuse other people of being ridiculous? Please tell me this is the way you always talk to people. I have this beautiful image of a gigantic, sweating douche, and like most people, I don't like my dreams crushed.

You're correct, of course, assuming that during your artificial tedium, people didn't learn other things along the way. But whatever. The big point is that while you think people are wasting their time, you're wasting your time scolding them, and I think that's funny.

Hey- I'm sensitive about my weight. Be nice.

But really, that was less than a minute of typing. I'm gonna' disagree that the wasted time factor involved here is in leagues with what's accrued by those who decide to do/argue to the contrary.

And for the record, it matters very little to me how others go about their progressions. If you enjoy getting to 99 in the more "traditional" ways, far be it for me to impede upon your enjoyment. The issue is when that method is toted as some sort of benefit that the lot of us aren't privy to, which is a load of crap.

Edit: Just as well, and as I've mentioned several times in the past, there's an overwhelming trend of good players acknowledging my take on this particular reality, and poor players clinging to their antithetical one. Granted, that does not a valid argument make, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon.

To kiparu

Not going to quote what you typed but I am just going to generalize your POV to: Good gamers would already be good enough given that they the basics of the job. Amirite?

Say there's a job in real life that requires certain skillset: e.g. Bartender

Bartender A is a person who graduate from bartending school, know all the basic element of mixology, can make a cocktail with textbook format.
Bartender B is a person who has worked in the field for over 1 year+, he had no previous experience in F&B field till he started as a barback, and over the years he acquired the skillset equiv. to bartender A.

While both are equally skill when it comes down to mixology, 8 out of 10 times I can guarantee you that bartender B is a better bartender and you will agree with me.

Experience at the field first hand is something that will better a person. A person lack in ability to adapt from start, can be otherwise made up for, by equivalent amount of training.

Practice makes perfect, and I think a lot of people will agree with this fact as well.

If you seriously do think that you do not need the "artificial tedium", or what I called time spent to learn about the game mechanics and be extraordinarily well in what you do, then I congratulate you, you are better among the rest of us.

However, I am also sure a lot of people will agree with me that post 75, we see an increase amount of WHMs who can't cure worth a damn.

On the road typing on iPad, will respond later if there's a reply.

You do realize that Bartender A in your example still has to perform the same exact functions as Bartender B? Your assumption is that Bartender A gets their education and then...???? what? Smokes pot and calls it a day? Says "*** bartending" and opens a car wash?

Also as someone who has worked as both a bartender and barback, I can assure you that barbacking is a RESUME padder, not a skills padder. You don't learn ***barbacking, other than how to smile and grin when people treat you like ***. Which, strangely, is an apt analogy to "old school xp" even if you didn't intend it that way.

Practice is necessary, but it doesn't take 75+ levels of grinding to be able to perform your role proficiently.

To above:

Not trying to one up you, but also as someone who has been a barback, a bartender, a hotel bar captain, assistant manager of a b and grill, a shareholder of a bar, I can also assure you that barbacking is NOT just a resume padder. I don't know about you, but what I see in barbacking and what I have taught my downlink in regards of barbacking is not just about pouring a drink and smile to the ***, here in Hong Kong as a place for tourists, **** like that IS NOT going to get you far sir.

And as for the example in bartender A, years after years I have seen people who would take up flair/bartending school as a hobby and later try to turn it into a job/career. Has it occur to you that you dont't necessarily have to be in the bar biz while you're learning about it under those circumstances?

I for one who rather hire someone that has more experience inside the field to avoid the training of a rookie if I were to out this person in a fast paced environment, FYI as for bartender b, I would put him in breakfast shift at a bar and grill, so errors are more forgivable. Same goes for my perspective on jobs in this game.

What you are saying sounds intuitive, but you are ignoring the near certain likelihood that someone who applies themselves to learning a craft will also apply themselves to practicing it. I don't know anyone who spent the time learning a job, gearing it, making macros, and then just shelved it until one day someone said "oh hey we need a DRK" so they gear up and then said "how do I use these JAs? Last resort is just a papa roach macro, right?"

This, basically. Practice is good, but you only need so much of it before certain elements are "below you" and the potential for further learning just stagnates. There's a lot to be learned through experience, but a reasonably intelligent person can pick things up fairly quickly and not need 75 levels worth of experience to build that skill set.

And I'm gonna be quite honest with you, I feel like I learned more about the nuances of BST after I hit level 99 and geared up (Abyssea burned 75-99) than I ever did from levels 1-75 (exclusively solo/duo outside of Abyssea). The learning curve for Charming, even with mischarms, is just...not that steep.