Solo Jobs, Specifically PUP Vs BST

Hey, I was looking for updated opinions on solo jobs. Specifically, PUP vs BST. Possibly interested in BLU. I basically want a job that I can solo T1-T2 Ru Aun or Reisenjima and UNMs, maybe the High tier battlefield fights. Being able to solo T3 Zitah for pulse weapons would be sweet. BLU could be an option but honestly, I don't really want to go spell hunting so I'm not considering it as much.

My current main is a COR, so in terms of solo'ing, not the best.

I have a BST 99 already but have barely touched it. I don't have PUP leveled. I'm curious mainly on a few things:

Soloing power - What can I do with the job? How well?

Gear requirements - How much time and money am I going to have to sink to be able to meet my goals? I have no desire to start REMAs for these jobs. What is the minimum I can get away with and not suck?

Other usefulness - This I already know some, but like I know PUP is useful outside of soloing since it can tank. BST is decent at AOE so you can use it for powerleveling etc. What other things can I do?

Finally, a recommendation. I have COR, SAM and RUN at various gear levels, what job would help round me out the most? (And being able to share gear is a plus)

Edit - Just a note, I've done research, I've read guides. But it's hard to get a gauge on some of these things. Especially with BST since it seems not many people play it, same with PUP but to a lesser extent.

Disclaimer, I am not an expert in either of those jobs, but rather just enjoy PUP quite a bit and pet jobs in general. I'll address your questions in order:

Solo power: PUP is capable of soloing Escha T3 and probably T4 with overdrive and some luck. It can definitely solo Reisenjima T1-2. I am not certain about BST, but would imagine similar capability. BST is going to be better at AoE soloing CP, but PUP is plenty fast at soloing apex bats, so pick your poison.

Gear: The gear demands are going to be similar, by nature of pet jobby-ness. Master TP, Pet TP, Master DT, Pet DT, Master WS, Pet WS, Master accuracy, pet accuracy encouraged but less necessary on PUP (attachments are powerful in this regard), Pup encouraged to have a master fast cast/cure potency set. From there you can really go on and on gathering for XYZ situation as you see fit.
In general, as the jobs stand, PUP is a great tank and should prioritize puppet survivability gear, and BST is generally a better DD and should focus on pet damage output gear first.
Obviously, though, the more gear sets you have, the more situations you can manage solo.

You addressed the "other usefulness" portion yourself basically. PUP is good in omen and dyna D as a tank. I have not personally seen a BST in either of these situations, but i don't see any reason they couldn't if the party accommodates them.

Last: I would say RUN. It functions as a player DD and a player tank, if pet jobs are not viable for some situation. Being a *highly competitive* DD is pretty dependent upon you having Lionheart, though. Otherwise, RUN is best suited to remaining a tank. RUN has some nifty tricks like Rayke etc that help in burst damage phases and party support versus other tank options. RUN Shares a lot of DD gear with COR.

I think it kind of depends what sort of solo you mean, trusts or no trusts, etc?

In my experience, as a general rule because for specific fights things are different, BST is probably the best for easiness.

PUP is incredibly powerful during Overdrive, but outside of that it's kinda, uhhh, I dunno, but I don't think it reaches the level of BST.
One big difference is that BST is incredibly powerful at AoEing mobs, PUP is at best a single target job.


If you want something more "traditional" then BLU is probably the best DD job for soloing. Has access to a plethora of incredibly powerful spells and job traits and also very strong, sometimes unique, self buffs.
Without a proper buffer, BLU really shines above any other DD jobs.
BLU also has very powerful defensive tools and heals.
It's also the job with the strongest AoE cleaving capabilities among all jobs in FFXI.

I think BLU will take more effort to play, more effort in gearing and also has the additional burden of having to hunt spells.
BST would probably be faster to gear up to decent levels. Decent enough that it would allow you to complete some easy content, to gather better gear and then do harder content, and so on.



Just my two cents, I haven't personally played BST in a LOOOOONG time, so my idea of the job might be a bit skewed towards how things used to be rather than how they are right now.

This. I know hunting spells is a hassle and the gear requirements for BLU can be numerous, but the job synergizes very well with trusts, for various roles. It can dps, nuke, aoe, tank, crowd control etc. As a personal note, I did every single HTBF/Farming/Solo event initially as BLU, because the learning curve was more forgiving than other jobs I felt like. That includes things like Escha/Reis NMs, UNM clears, Delves, Skirmish etc. If things were going bad, I could sometimes sleep, gravity, stun, or hide behind a dozen shadows and let my trusts help me out a bit. It's not as safe for tanking as say a PUP, but it can do way more with proper planning.

There's a few videos and guides out there you can watch to get an idea, but I really think you would enjoy BLU. It does take a certain amount of skill and job/game mechanic knowledge to be proficient at it, but it's a good job to learn those things on.

One thing to add is that even though BLU will take more effort to gear than PUP or BST, that gear will have much wider applicability to other jobs if and when OP decides to branch out.

Cor can solo all of above extremely fast, and I honestly dont think theres many job that can beat cor when it comes to solo T3 pulse weapon farm speed.

That being said if you find them difficult to solo on cor you may be (very) undergeared, and fat chance is that the time you spent on lving a brand new job just to solo them, the time is probably better spent on gearing an existing job a bit more.

For example PUP can be somewhat time consuming to gear since you need jp, pet DT and DD, as well as attachments. And you dont even have them leveled. Its probably going to take weeks of playing just to meet these goals. Its much faster to build from what you already have, imo.

As far as gear requirement goes, +5 rolls, nq adhemar/ambu +1 set, kaja sword, tp bonus magian gun and access to august should be enough to solo ruann T1/T2/reisen T1 on cor. I was able to solo these NM years ago on cor before ambu/+3 gear even exist and max roll potency was only 5. Theres no reason you cant do the same with at least ambu +1 level of gears.

My 2 cents:

PUP:
-Very safe to solo with, automaton is toughest PC/pet in the game and master has no distance requirement except for repair
-Master + pet hybrid is viable strat, great for cp solo
-Pet can do a lot (melee, ranged, healing, nuking, tanking)
-Auto gets a TON of accuracy

BST:
-Much better on fights with adds
-Higher damage ceiling with pet-only
-Takes careful positioning and master DT because of the distance nerf.

As to what else you can do on beastmaster, it's fine for most of Omen or Geas Fete pet strats, where we would bring summoners. Outside of AFAC spam bst dps is competitive. The job is good for HTBF and good for Incursion, powerleveling as you mentioned, NNI/Einherjar farming, etc. I think both jobs are great solo jobs and similar in terms of starting gear investment, but puppetmaster has a higher gear cap if you want to do everything the job has to offer. PUP offers more for parties in general, though, hard to deny that. edit: eh I forgot the starting costs of attachments, I've been playing PUP so long I never think about that. Yeah, PUP costs more to start.

Oh, also, the two jobs can share a lot of gear! A lot of the pet accessories can be used across all three jobs and you can do -DT Taeon, Tali'ah +2, etc.

Can solo all zitah, t1+2 ru'an, and 7or8 t1 reisen on my bst.

If you go the bst route check the bst thread for gear and slowly get geared.
Bst is gear heavy but fun after you get good at it.

If you on asura someday when we both have time, I can show you what you need and how it works solo'ing hard stuff.

This is a highly subjective factor.
If you look at things from a "pro" point of view, I think all jobs are very gear heavy. Some more, some less, but you get what I mean.

If we want to compare BST, PUP and BLU, I think the latter is more "gear heavy" to reach a point of decency where you can start tackle content solo with a certain minimum degree of efficiency.

This minimum threshold of "gear required" is imo smaller on PUP (and even more BST maybe?) compared to BLU.



This might be irrelevant for someone who already has jobs and wants to level a new one, but it could be a very vital aspect for a returning player who has no jobs at all.

Another Dancer disrespect thread I see...

Dnc can easily solo everything you listed and do the Pulse T3's just as fast as a Cor. Bst and Pup might be safer and more reliable, but that's a play type preference. If you enjoy tossing pets at things, then by all means those are the top tier solo jobs to do it with.

Cor has it's place, just beneath Blu and Dnc in my opinion.
Having said that, if you already have Cor and half the gear, then perhaps it's easier to focus on that, rather than farm a new job from scratch. Just depends on what you enjoy or want to do/solo I guess.

I have all 3 jobs mastered and well geared.

Bst is my main, pup and blu are next in line for my favorites. Although Blu has been my number 2 for a long time, the bandwagon effect tends to dampen the appeal for me.

Bst and pup are just as gear heavy as Blu. No contest. Those saying otherwise, don't really play the jobs. All 3 jobs are highly flexible hybrid jobs. Your usually not in only a single role.

My bst is my most gear heavy job, just because I like it the most, and play it more fully than any other job, though I tend to play all 3 rather fully. (I actually keep a breath set for blu if that is any indication).

Bst at least ties with blu for AoE cleaving. I think the differences will be in the skill of the player rather than the capabilities of the job. However, bst will have the gear needed for this pretty thoroughly from Augmented Valorous, while blu will want HQ Amalric.

I would say bst is easier to gear for high level cleaving than blu is.

Bst and Pup are both incredibly capable jobs for Solo'ing ALOT of content. However, as has been said earlier, most the content you are mentioning can be solo'd with good preparation and the right trusts.

They also tend to excel and solo'ing different content.
I can solo Sovereign behemoth with Pup (OVERDRIVE!). i cannot do the same on bst. I can solo the pixies in Zi'tah w/ Bst. I haven't yet been able to on Pup. Bst also does well with the Escha ru'aun nms which summon adds, which are usually more trouble on pup.

I do feel that there are alot more pups in non-solo content than beastmasters. Pup makes a really great tank and its easy to understand in this regard. (its a very complex job all around).

I think the scarcity of beastmasters in team content is really a lack of awareness and understanding of the advanced aspects of the job. Alot of this is knowing how to choose the right pet for the right fight.

I do regularly go to Divergence on Bst. Corrosive ooze is great for debuffing crowds of mobs or NM's to benefit the whole alliance. I've held crowds of mobs as well with Generous Arthur.

I think alot of the content you want to solo, you could manage on corsair if you up your game a bit. I would suggest playing pup or bst if you really want to and you enjoy it. But ofcourse they are very powerful jobs for solo'ing.

There are many HTMB or Macrocosmic orb fights that you can solo on pup or bst on VD but you really need to be well geared for it.

With pup I usually supertank a crowd and then kill individual nm's w/ master and trusts.

with Bst, I often use Soporific (up to 4 min sleepga) and kill 1 at a time as well. I often use a hybrid pettank/tp set for either approach.
It depends on the fight however. You can also extend survivability in a lot of fight with Dawn mulsums and pet only.

I totally believe you, but I think it's a different situation from OP's.

Let's start with completely zero gear/JPs and see how much time it takes before you can start tackling easy content solo with BST (or PUP?) and how long it's gonna take you on BLU.


It's not a matter of the maximum potential of a job that you really like and want to turn into your main.
I think it's more a matter of the entry point.
The threshold necessary for a job who's able to solo stuff, to actually begin and solo stuff.
On BLU you'd have to go through a whole lot of necessary things before you can solo.

On BST (or PUP?) you could just throw pets repeatedly at stuff with just a minimum bare of things you can get off AH or similar.
Would be slow, but safe and failproof.
It's just "quicker", or "easier" or "faster" to reach that threshold on BST, compared to what you'd need on BLU.


This doesn't negate what you said, it's just a different thing imo.

I agree than anyone maximizing a job will have more gear for it.
However, where is the point where you are being a gimp player, because you only want to play a job for 1 purpose? in a narrow scope?
What if someone only got dd spells for blu and only played it like a physical dd?

They could then make the case that blu is not any more gear intensive than any other dd.

I think this is the mistake you are making when you assume beastmaster and puppetmaster have such an easy entry point.

If you do not gear properly, you will not be able to accomplish the things the jobs excel at. This is true for all jobs in the game. I think the direction of how they fail in battle by being under-geared is different.

The pet will not survive if you do not have a good pet -dt set and reward/repair sets. This is not so easy to make. it is not ah gear and you have to dip into lots of different content in order to build it.

You will be stuck with no pet, and be incredibly vulnerable if you do not gear properly. Restoring your pet is 90s at best on pup, but it will be weakened. it is about 5 min on bst. Charm has not been viable for a very long time. that was when bst could just keep throwing pets at something until victory. Smn is the only pet job that can truly do that now, but smn pets are not nearly so robust as bst or pup.

Even if you DO have a great pet dt set, you will not be able to kill anything. you will timeout. The way you fail from being undergeared on pet jobs is just different from dd's. You won't die, you just wont' win.

My gear isn't amazing, but I cover that stuff easily. In terms of soloing, I find it hard to handle everything with trusts. I always pull hate off tank trust, AAEV or August, though I find AAEV holds hate better in my experience. Just some of the weird mechanics that trusts aren't smart enough or good enough for is my problem. My ranged set could use some work, but my Savage Blade spam is pretty solid.

I have solo'd a lot of these NMs already on COR but sometimes is a coin flip depending on if a certain mechanic goes off. I'm not quite at a point where I can chunk it down in seconds with huge Leaden Salutes. It really just depends on the fight and the mechanics, I'm looking for a job with a bit more consistency to handle some of the more annoying fights.

In all seriousness, could you actually tell me what the minimum required stuff is for BLU? I have blu lvled to 99 but I mainly play BST. I'll see if I can reach that threshold and compare it to my BST. I've wanted to try BLU out more.

For at least PUP, youll want 1200 jp as an entry level goal. The difference between 0 jp and 1200 is insane.

I dont know enough about bst to know if theres a jp requirement.

BLU can function at 0 jp, but also gets a massive boost at 1200.

I don't think 1200 is an entry level requirement for pup. I tanked all the Omen bosses successfully only at the 100 jp level. Its alot easier at 1200, but if you gear right, plan ahead and pay attention, you can do it just fine.

That being said, I agree completely that the 1200 JP is a HUGE milestone for puppetmaster. Especially for solo'ing content (Overdrive!). There is a big difference in the damage your automaton can put out.

For beastmaster, I would say that the pet gifts and jp bonuses are much more critical (pet acc, attack, macc, mab, spur, run wild, unleash, familiar), and not 1200 jp, but really 1900 jp is where you need to get.

on a side note, I did a few pup kills of sovereign behemoth to help some ppl out last night. I ALMOST killed SR 2x on a single Overdrive. He had 6% hp left. Granted there were 4 ppl in party instead of just 3 (HP increase iirc), but I also had geo and cor in there.
I've often done it solo and up to 3 players solo with no buffs. If I had Xiucoatl, I think I could do 2x kills on a single OD.

1200 Gift for PUP is insane.
But BST JPs are very very useful too.

I think getting used to these bonuses for so long creates a bias in our mind though.
For instance: people were soloing pretty hard on BST long before Gifts or even JPs were even added, so clearly at least for easy content I'm not sure I'd call many of those things "required".

You do have to reach a certain threshold of course, how you reach it I'm not sure, I think you have multiple ways.
Consider every thing that contributes to your performance as "points". You need to reach, say, "100 points", but where you get them from (quality of jug, gear, weapons, job points, gifts) becomes slightly less relevant.

I'm sure you could do that but:

1) I doubt you'd be very efficient at soloing. At doing other things maybe, but not soloing?
2) You have to get spells. Wether it's all 196 or 20, wether it takes you 2 weeks or 2 hours, it's still additional work you don't have to go through on BST.

Plus you're forgetting the OP already has BST at 99 whereas his BLU probably isn't.
That would be additional work as well, and even more if you have to skillup sword and blu skill and blahblah.
On BST it helps but TO BEGIN it's not as vital as it is on other jobs where clearly you can't solo stuff on BLU or DNC, for instance, with level 10 dagger skill xD


But they have! Simply because they rely on pets which at entry level are way more powerful, durable and sometimes "sacrificable" compared to players.
You don't have to "skill up" pets. You don't have to "raise" them, you don't need a healing subjob or trusts to heal them (you get items and consumables for that)

That's because you cannot "equip" stuff on the pets (yes there's pet: gear on master but it has a much smaller impact compared to the impact gear has for players. See the amount of stats for example)

For these reasons and more Pets are very powerful and bring to easy, even if slow, kills.


I think so much time has passed that you forgot when BST actually was a bandwagon job and everybody was soloing/lowmanning stuff with BSTs :D


On stuff that's hard, sure. But on very easy things I'm pretty confident you could keep throwing pets at monsters with Call Beast on cooldown using Reward and Musulms.
Wouldn't be viable for all content *of course* but you'd still be able to kill the initial level of content.

I was talking mostly about BST btw.
Think things are slightly different for PUP. (which OP doesn't have levelled anyway)

I don't think that works for SMN.
First of all there are things you need to skill on master (SMN skill) to be able to use pets.
You also need to manage a resource on master (MP) to use pet related stuff.
Also SMN isn't really a job you can tank with (not at entry point at least. When you're a Papesse you can probably do that and much more lol) and without gear the cooldown of actions is sixty seconds, good luck killing stuff with those cooldowns.
You'd run out of MP anyway, even with trusts.

Yes this is a concern, but I feel for the easiest content you either have no cooldown or it's big enough to allow you to kill stuff slow & steady.

Without 1200 jp the gear required to do similar tanking would take longer to obtain than just grinding the JP. Especially if you want to tank *and* deal damage. The slot efficiency that comes with 1200 jp is too big to ignore, unfortunately, especially since he wants to solo content. Pre 1200, youre pretty much required to use OD, and OD pre 1200 is decent but some things might live.

This is all good info, some of you have me leaning BST. I have Despair gear, Acro gear, I just haven't played the augment lottery on them yet. I could make a Kaja Axe easily. Even Relic +2 and +3 is dirt cheap because the shards aren't in demand.

I'd have more of a barrier getting into BLU (only level 60 + farming spells) and PUP (level 10, skilling up Puppet skills) but if something was clearly worth the extra effort, I'd be fine with it.

But this is all good info and will help someone else in the future when they try to Google this question like I did.

Pet jobs take a lot of the uncertainty out of soloing or even low-manning. They can be slower sure but as you know, when I want to farm gear and it's just me I'll break out the pet jobs. PUP in particular counters annoying mechanics.

Another alternative would be rune fencer. It's very rugged. Problem with corsair is that it's squishy, if you can't SC it down with Leaden then you have run out of options.

Speak for yourself, lol

Lean more you won't regret it. It's fun!

Automaton you do have to skillup. Its extremely annoying. Also, pup has a MASSIVE gil cost to entry in the cost of attachments, some of which are nearly 1m and required (looking at you, optic fiber)

If you do UNM, you will pull hate off trusts no matter what because of how hate mechanics work there. You would need to tank it and DD on the same time.

Pet jobs will probably make things easier, but like others point out, you would need to work on gears too or else you'd time out or pets will die.

I feel if you have ok gears, some tweaks in strategy and trust combo may solve your problem easily. Why don't you ask advice for specific NM instead?

Of course, it does not hurt to just gear pet jobs from scratch if you enjoy them anyways. So it's really up to you.

Forgot about that. Such valid points! If I were OP I would lean even more towards BST now lol


(there's also automaton heads/frames cost BTW, they don't come for free)

IIRC it was 6 mil to straight out buy all the attachments for pup. probably 7 mil after the last Pupdate

not terrible really.