[Rida]

kk so Im really confused about merits on BST. I originally thought Sic and call beast 5/5 but now Im thinking wtf Im never gonna get merit PTs on BST lol why am I meriting call beast. Although it does help me alot in campaign I'm generally SMN there now. So now Im thinking Sic and reward.

Secondly Merit 2s I was thinking Feral howl was worth doing but someone told me its pants and I should cap Beast affinity. Hmm this I dont get as I thought Pets cap @75 and I already have MST Gloves so how does this give an advantage? Or am I missing something?

I have done a forum search but nothing seemed to be on the merits subject.

Thx in advance

[Nattack]

im partial to sic and call beast, meriting reward wont get you much as the recast is already pretty low!

[Raidon_666]

call beast is also helpful for times you run out of pets tho.. or if your NM hunting in places that dont have charmable mobs (lol castle zvahl (granted theres not many times u go to tehse types of places)).. reward seems daft to merit imo, ive never had a time where i thought "shit i wish reward was up" cos its so low, as nattack says

i DID merit Feral Howl.. i go sky farming alot as bst... ive saved the pt alot of times with it.. during meltdown and such.. when the blms or drks either dont have stun up or are just plain sucking... its also helped me alot during tough fights.. i wouldnt say its invaluble(sp?) but i would say it definatly has its uses (plus nothing like seeing a pt lol @ bst then go "omg that was awsome" or something similar..)

sic, again, i merited cos i do alot of sky farms as bst.. also i help out alot of people on my bst.. it just seemed right to give me that bit more damage dealing potential (or my pet if you wanna look at it that way)..

beast affinity.. i have only just started.. so from what i have read.. its good for things like the fungar jug and the tiger jug (basicly the pure DD jugs?).. im sorry i have not much personal experiance with this merit yet or i would give you more info on it...

if you solo alot, which judging by your post (and the fact your a bst) you do.. mebee killer effects will be useful to you, again i have no personal experiance in this merit so i cant say how much it actually helps but if i wasnt to merit call beast i would probabley merit killer effects

those are my personal experiances with the merits .. hope they give you a bit of an idea.. sorry for long winded post i tend to get carried away lol.

i would imagine the more experianced BST will be alot more help to you tho.
=)

[Rida]

Thx Ill keep on the Sic/CB 5/5 route then.

But Ugh iunno if Imma bother spending 22 merits on Beast affinity for a lvl 75 SirSaber -.- thats alot of merits

[Arkley]

It does also give you a 75 funguar. It's well worth it simply because the only really affordable 75 jug is Carrie, who...isn't exactly great. With 5/5 BA you can use funguar and the HQ tiger, which are much better and more affordable than the other non-carrie 75 jugs, if I remember correctly.

[Janeash]

I haven't quite finished with my BST merits although they are pretty close.
Group 1 merits

Call Beast 5/5
Reward Recast 5/5

Group 2
Beast Affinity 5/5

Would like to cap Beast Healer to increase the potency of Regen when you use Reward.


I don't rely on sic a lot so I left those merits alone and focused on the things that would increase over all survival of my pet.
If you solo NMs I guess this can be very useful to you but they aren't 100% necessary.
Build your merits on how you like to play
If you don't use Sic or Reward a lot then you might be a little cautious and reduce your recast timer of Tame instead, although I don't know many people who would take that path.

I see a lot of people posting about Feral Howl and it doesn't really appeal to me as the recast timer is way too high for me to show any real effectiveness.

[anyenai]

only BST merits that matter are axe and crit attack.

[Babyorphan]

only BST merits that matter are axe and crit attack.

While I find those two some of the more important ones, I also do like the HP/MP Merits.
7 HP and 1 MP (to proc Gaudy harness+Rune axe regardless of other gear/subjob).

5 Merits in STR is also very important too me, equally as much as Axe and Crit percentage () merits.

Since I use lolRidill (as many would want to call it, I guess) I also like having 8 Sword merits.
8 Axe merits like you said and 4 Evasion merits (probably switching those around though).

Since I have other jobs, like in example NIN.. I don't touch Enmity merits, but I did put 4 into Critical Hit Rate
and 4 into Spell Interruption Rate. Those 4 SIR merits could just as well have been spent someplace else though..

5 Killer Effects
5 Sic Recast

1 Feral Howl
5 Beast Affinity
4 Beast Healer

Those Beastmaster merits of mine are kinda silly.. but only ones I kinda care about are Beast Affinity.

[Janeash]

only BST merits that matter are axe and crit attack.

Crit merits is fine but not axe unless you intend to only play BST

[Nattack]

or if you plan to melee with bst, really. i never do anymore except in campaign

[Janeash]

I don't have any merits in any weapon skill because I'm not a 100% on which job I want to play more then another.
><

[Nattack]

got scythe and katana done... but may trade out katana for axe depending on how things go

[Danagon]

Since I use lolRidill (as many would want to call it, I guess) I also like having 8 Sword merits.
8 Axe merits like you said and 4 Evasion merits (probably switching those around though).

what kind of gear ya wear with your ridill out? im planning on getting one and am looking into gear and how well it hits. ACC + DMG wise.

[Endoq_]

it really depends on your play style, i solo/duo alot of NM's and stuff and alot of them dont have charmable mobs and i dont merit/exp on bst anymore since i get capped buffer from farming and pting is just boring to me, so i went with merits that will help me when pets arent around for charm, like call beast5/5, beast affinity5/5. i use reward alot too so i got beast healer 5/5, and i like to share hate off my pet to maximize my dmg output, make fights faster and keep pet alive longer so i did axe8/8 crit4/4 str5/5 and to help stay alive Killer Effects5/5 and MP8/8 because mage sub is necessary sometimes and also im Elvaan, for the best results on killer effects try stacking stuff with enhanced killer effects, merits do seem to help alot though. i hear feral howl is good but misses alot, so i didnt get that since i rarely need stun anyways. these merits wouldnt be best for all play styles, but they work for mine ^^ and for me when it comes to merits/gear i always put bst first