Beast Affinity

[Metah]

I've been wondering about this for a while now. Clearly, BST Tier 2 merits aren't that great. Beast Healer is one of the most lol traits I've ever seen. Regardless, there are three abilities that remain that can have some use.

Feral Howl: Induces Terror. Can miss. Still, it might be enough to save a BST from getting destroyed in an unlucky scenario, like an extra Tame.

Killer Instinct: Gives your party members the Killer Trait your pet has. Appearently it is somewhat potent.

Beast Affinity: Increases the maximum level of jug pets by 2, up to a max of 75.

There's the background. Here's my question:

Should Beast Affinity be meritted at all? Now, I've searched it up on BG, and what I've found were some old posts by Solsovly back in Dec 2006. Basically, he states that despite having 3x Beast Affinity and Monster Gloves, he doesn't use any 75 cap pets, but Funguar instead. However, since then, LifedrinkerLars (my pet of choice these days) has dropped in price (about 10k each) and has had increased duration (60 minutes).

If Beast Affiinity does not increase a pet's level past 75, and a pet will always spawn 0-2 below you (0-1 with Monster Gloves), is it even worth meriting Beast Affinity if you're using level 75 cap pets (Carrie, Lars, lolChucky, etc)? Or does Beast Affinity work similar to Monster Gloves, and reduces the 0-2 range that your pet can pop, making it worth upgrading to level 1?

[Jer]

Don't assume they will always spawn that close in level to you. I forget who it was, but somebody posted with AF2 gloves and full Beast Affinity merits that CC still didn't spawn 75 (was unable to be petrified by Level 5 Petrify) which means it had to spawn lower than 70.

[gmonkey]

Don't assume they will always spawn that close in level to you. I forget who it was, but somebody posted with AF2 gloves and full Beast Affinity merits that CC still didn't spawn 75 (was unable to be petrified by Level 5 Petrify) which means it had to spawn lower than 70.

what? No... just means it spawned 71,72,73,74...

Also i was wondering about this question for along time..

The way you put it makes sence... using 75 jugs with MG seems best.... BA is really to give them old jugs semi-new life

[Skeetaru]

SE: hey lets give BST something to shut them up because we have completely forsaken that part of the population since the jobs inception. And THEN by the time they realize it sucks we will hopefully have had a better idea by then!

[Rasantath]

Beast Healer is one of the most lol traits I've ever seen. Regardless, there are three abilities that remain that can have some use.

I think you have underrated it. This is useful in a long drawn out fight when you are fighting something large. The regen effect from Reward can *really* extend the life of your pet, helping stretch it out so you dont die before Call Beast is up again. Pop off a Reward (dont forget to equip the right pieces of AF) when your pet is actually doing quite well (like around 75%) and ride the regen until Call Beast is available again. Maybe even use a second Reward when its up again. This is no longer as useful when fighting many smaller mobs though, as you can use Stay for regenerating your pet now between fights. I plan to put my last 2 level-2 merits into this, eventually.

Feral Howl: Induces Terror. Can miss. Still, it might be enough to save a BST from getting destroyed in an unlucky scenario, like an extra Tame.

mines at level 1. its fun, but its crap. its accuracy is complete garbage. it misses a LOT on anything higher than EM. the description indicates that extra merits only lower the recast (bah 15 minutes, even 10 is too long). I've had it land on some higher mobs, and its always comical to see an HNM frozen mid-tp move or something. if this were 3 minutes or something, it'd be real nice to have as a backup stun type move. and if it had better accuracy. maybe some tests are needed here to find out if there is any modifier which might improve it. i suspect INT (due to some AF having INT on it, and SE liking to reuse stuff)

Killer Instinct: Gives your party members the Killer Trait your pet has. Appearently it is somewhat potent.

mines at level 1. cant say i use this a lot. i'd love to be able to use this in skillup parties in boyahda tree or kuftal when fighting crabs, but funny enough there are no bird or bat type mobs in there, and there are no bird or bat jugs...
plus, Recast Time: 15:00, Duration: 1 minute. wow. so useful there. even dumping it on your tanks when fighting something big doesnt seem all that useful. no more so than paralyze2 anyway. and it cant be recast for 15 minutes. bleh.

Beast Affinity: Increases the maximum level of jug pets by 2, up to a max of 75.

mines at level 3. i advise every bst to max this out. it makes fungars and tigers and maybe even lizard jugs usable at 75. and Ambusher Allie (eft) too, if you can find any. any jug from 51 up. 51+12+6+2 = 71. thats a decent level for a bst jug at endgame, and anything better will just be better.

Or does Beast Affinity work similar to Monster Gloves, and reduces the 0-2 range that your pet can pop, making it worth upgrading to level 1?

i thought Monster Gloves just gave you 2 extra levels on your jug... otherwiki says gives an effect similar to Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl. (ie, +something to each base stat. ie +4.) i wouldnt even know how to go about testing this concretely...

as for level 1 merits, max Call Beast out. always useful. I currently have a couple in Killer Effects, but i plan to remove them (the trick on bst is to let the *pet* tank, so why do *i* need to intimidate the mob when its not facing me?) and max out Reward recast. Sic is just too unreliable (using an AOE TP move at the wrong time sucks) to warrant meriting it, in my mind.

[Metah]

My information comes solely from Solsovly, who has Monster Gloves, and my friend who has them, although he plays like once a year these days. I, unfortunately, only have Monster Jackcoat and lolTrousers and cannot say from experience.

Regardless, this isn't a talk about Tier I merits. I'm more focused on Tier II, although it seems the information on Beast Affinity is the same as it was a year ago.

About Beast Healer, I haven't done extensive testing on it, just what I've seen from eyeballing the HP bar after using Reward. It doesn't appear to give you that much from the Regen, its barely noticeable. That's why I think an extra 1-3 per tick on HP isn't worth dumping a decent amount of merits into.

And, I said from the beginning, BST Tier II merits are pretty meh. Still, I'm trying to figure out what can be the best set up for my playstyle by trying to find out information on Beast Affinity.

[Sargas]

Feral Howl I believe was meant to be basically an extra Tame, most useful in case of mischarms. Its accuracy and duration is best on EM or lower mobs, and terrible against VT+. It's reasonably accurate in city Dynamis and similar stuff, but unreliable at best on anything tougher. Still worth putting a point in to unlock I'd say.

I have no experience with Killer Instinct, good or bad. As for Beast Healer, at level 75, the regen from pet food zeta will be 5 or 6 hp per tick, depending on the level of your pet, and lasts for 3 minutes. If you feel it's worth boosting that by 1-3 hp/tick, then go for it. Bear in mind that SE may adjust the regen if and when they shorten Reward's recast, since it currently lasts until the (unmerited) timer is up.

My own tests on Call Beast and Beast Affinity has led me to these conclusions:

• Uncapped jug pets pop from 0-2 levels below you. With Monster Gloves equipped they pop from 0-1 levels below you. Beast Affinity doesn't seem to affect this at all.[/*:m:1dfpv465]
• Beast Affinity does raise the level of capped pets. So funguar and the like get boosted to level 71 with 3 merits in it. On the other hand, Monster Gloves don't boost their level.[/*:m:1dfpv465]
• The alla BST forums swear that capped Beast Affinity boosts the performance of uncapped pets anyway. Some people there claim to have parses showing CC getting stronger as they merited Beast Affinity. I can't personally say for sure if that's true or not. My only test on this indicated it was true, but that could have been a fluke as well.[/*:m:1dfpv465]

I'd say the rest of BST's Group 2 merits aren't compelling enough to not cap out Beast Affinity, even if it doesn't boost uncapped pets at all.

i thought Monster Gloves just gave you 2 extra levels on your jug... otherwiki says gives an effect similar to Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl. (ie, +something to each base stat. ie +4.) i wouldnt even know how to go about testing this concretely...

I just checked, and it seems to be a recent change (in the last month), possibly predicated on some guy on the talk page saying that capped jug pets don't actually cap in level, it's just their stats stop scaling properly. I'm thinking that's all bs, but I should be able to do some tests on it when I have the time.

[Rasantath]

i thought Monster Gloves just gave you 2 extra levels on your jug... otherwiki says gives an effect similar to Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl. (ie, +something to each base stat. ie +4.) i wouldnt even know how to go about testing this concretely...

I just checked, and it seems to be a recent change (in the last month), possibly predicated on some guy on the talk page saying that capped jug pets don't actually cap in level, it's just their stats stop scaling properly. I'm thinking that's all bs, but I should be able to do some tests on it when I have the time.

lemme know and if i'm not working i'll go with you. that way we can chuck 2 pets at the same mob at the same time, while only one of us used the gloves.

[Metah]

I was just in a Campaign battle with CourierCarrie as my pet, and she got hit with Bio II. I used Reward, and aside from the initial HP restore, her HP did not drop or increase otherwise. If her HP was dropping or rising, it was so little that the percentage just didn't change. So it is probably 6-7 HP Regen without Beast Healer.

(It was a standard BLM Orc, standard Campaign mobs aren't difficult so I think its safe to assume its Bio II wasn't particularly strong)

I'll probably put one merit into Beast Affinity, no more than two. It just doesn't make sense to put merits into something I won't use.

[Sargas]

I was just in a Campaign battle with CourierCarrie as my pet, and she got hit with Bio II. I used Reward, and aside from the initial HP restore, her HP did not drop or increase otherwise. If her HP was dropping or rising, it was so little that the percentage just didn't change. So it is probably 6-7 HP Regen without Beast Healer.

(It was a standard BLM Orc, standard Campaign mobs aren't difficult so I think its safe to assume its Bio II wasn't particularly strong)

Yeah, I wasn't overly clear in my last post, but several months back I actually went out and personally tested the strength of Reward regen since there wasn't any information about it out there. I'll attach the (kinda oversized) chart I made. Incidentally, this was also how I was able to make conclusions about the level of jug pets and how they're affected by Beast Affinity and Monster Gloves, since a level 75 pet gets a stronger regen than a level 74 pet (tested on EM vs DC korrigans).

[Metah]

Hmmmm... maybe Beast Healer isn't as lol as I thought it was. If you had 6 +3 Regen effect, and it lasts 3 minutes, you'd recover an extra 360/540 HP with a Zeta. That's... not bad at all.

[Valyana]

otherwiki says gives an effect similar to Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl. (ie, +something to each base stat. ie +4.)

Yay for random wiki edits. Fixed back to the info I got from Studio Gobli, which also matches my testing.

[Valyana]

The alla BST forums swear that capped Beast Affinity boosts the performance of uncapped pets anyway. Some people there claim to have parses showing CC getting stronger as they merited Beast Affinity. I can't personally say for sure if that's true or not. My only test on this indicated it was true, but that could have been a fluke as well.

My old testing results are at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Talk:Beast_Affinity . At first I thought I was seeing some slight benefit, but after reading Studio Gobli's writeup decided that it was just randomness. My CC was hitting an EM Steelshell for mode 68, 69 or 70, which should correspond to level 73, 74 and 75 pets (with fSTR of -5 because CC has no subjob and thus low STR). With Monster Gloves, I only got mode 69 or 70.

[solsovly]

My information comes solely from Solsovly, who has Monster Gloves, and my friend who has them, although he plays like once a year these days. I, unfortunately, only have Monster Jackcoat and lolTrousers and cannot say from experience.

Regardless, this isn't a talk about Tier I merits. I'm more focused on Tier II, although it seems the information on Beast Affinity is the same as it was a year ago.

About Beast Healer, I haven't done extensive testing on it, just what I've seen from eyeballing the HP bar after using Reward. It doesn't appear to give you that much from the Regen, its barely noticeable. That's why I think an extra 1-3 per tick on HP isn't worth dumping a decent amount of merits into.

And, I said from the beginning, BST Tier II merits are pretty meh. Still, I'm trying to figure out what can be the best set up for my playstyle by trying to find out information on Beast Affinity.

I was using mostly funguar and carrie back when these merits came out. I had another 75 bst who had no BA merits use Carrie and I would use Funguar. The results were depressing. Some fights Carrie would parse higher damage. Now that SE has made adjustments to jugpets, I actually don't even consider funguar as a pet to use at 75 anymore for any situation.

Lars is by far the king of damage, I use him in every situation where I can. Chucky seems to do comparable damage to lars but from the parse's I've run, comes up a bit shorter on damage. I've only gotten to use Allie in a handful of events but she seemed to favorably compared to the other "uncapped" jugpets.

If you use jugpets on any regular basis, BA merits are the way to go. With Snarl, Jugpets are very solid for bst in and out of parties. I lost access to my second 75 BST account (friend returned) so I can't do any formal testing between merited and unmerited. There's some more formal testing done by some posters on Alla that showed some of the improvements with Carrie if you wanna dig around.

[Jer]

Don't assume they will always spawn that close in level to you. I forget who it was, but somebody posted with AF2 gloves and full Beast Affinity merits that CC still didn't spawn 75 (was unable to be petrified by Level 5 Petrify) which means it had to spawn lower than 70.

what? No... just means it spawned 71,72,73,74...

Also i was wondering about this question for along time..

The way you put it makes sence... using 75 jugs with MG seems best.... BA is really to give them old jugs semi-new life

My bad, the thread was a while ago and I thought they said it was because the 3x2 levels from merits and then the AF2 gloves didn't make it 75, it had to have been lower.

Edit: I just realized that the way I typed the first post may have been misunderstood. I meant it would have spawned under 70 without the merits and AF2.

[Metah]

My information comes solely from Solsovly, who has Monster Gloves, and my friend who has them, although he plays like once a year these days. I, unfortunately, only have Monster Jackcoat and lolTrousers and cannot say from experience.

Regardless, this isn't a talk about Tier I merits. I'm more focused on Tier II, although it seems the information on Beast Affinity is the same as it was a year ago.

About Beast Healer, I haven't done extensive testing on it, just what I've seen from eyeballing the HP bar after using Reward. It doesn't appear to give you that much from the Regen, its barely noticeable. That's why I think an extra 1-3 per tick on HP isn't worth dumping a decent amount of merits into.

And, I said from the beginning, BST Tier II merits are pretty meh. Still, I'm trying to figure out what can be the best set up for my playstyle by trying to find out information on Beast Affinity.

I was using mostly funguar and carrie back when these merits came out. I had another 75 bst who had no BA merits use Carrie and I would use Funguar. The results were depressing. Some fights Carrie would parse higher damage. Now that SE has made adjustments to jugpets, I actually don't even consider funguar as a pet to use at 75 anymore for any situation.

Lars is by far the king of damage, I use him in every situation where I can. Chucky seems to do comparable damage to lars but from the parse's I've run, comes up a bit shorter on damage. I've only gotten to use Allie in a handful of events but she seemed to favorably compared to the other "uncapped" jugpets.

If you use jugpets on any regular basis, BA merits are the way to go. With Snarl, Jugpets are very solid for bst in and out of parties. I lost access to my second 75 BST account (friend returned) so I can't do any formal testing between merited and unmerited. There's some more formal testing done by some posters on Alla that showed some of the improvements with Carrie if you wanna dig around.

I won't go near Chucky for the life of me. I have yet to try AmbusherAllie, admittedly.

So there have been tested and confirmed improvements with pets that cap at 75 do gain some benefit from Beast Affinity? Hmmm

[Valyana]

So there have been tested and confirmed improvements with pets that cap at 75 do gain some benefit from Beast Affinity? Hmmm

I tried to find the alla thread mentioned, but didn't find anything relevant.

From my testing it's pretty clear that Beast Affinity merits do not affect CourierCarrie's level; I'm sure the same is true of other 75 cap/uncapped jugs. It seems that Beast Affinity is only useful for jugs with caps below 75.

I notice that the otherwiki table says that VoraciousAudrey and AmbusherAllie are uncapped pets, which I find surprising. I would expect Audrey to cap at 65 (like the other L53 jugs) and Allie to cap at 70. Full Beast Affinity merits would bring Allie up to 75 cap, then.