Killer Instinct: The Beastmaster Compendium

I just caught the freshly picked video section on bst adjustments for august. I wanted to add some details.


This section seems very much a reply to feedback from players, and also quite focused on making bst function better with pet in a melee and partnership role. So they explain they understand there are still many short-comings for bst approaching battle like this.

So the first point is about making it so that both master and pet can hit the target. Currently you can gear for master accuracy or pet accuracy, but rarely both. in higher end content any bst players has probably noticed that if they are ine melee gear, their pet has an abyssmal hitrate which greatly inhibits pet tp gain damage. (heyoka set is an exception). So yes, the first point is an accuracy bonus when both master and pet are attacking the same target. sounds like it will be a job trait. It also looks like they will adjust some equipment to make it so both master and pet can have accuracy bonuses together.
These 2 methods will be used as pillars to improve accuracy for both master and pet to fight together.

This brings up the concern that once you have both pet and master hitting the target, the tp gain ofcourse doubles. So they are implementing ways to accommodate this. No big details on how they will address this. Of course subtle blow comes to mind, but they don't confirm any more.

Its interesting that he comments that the devs understand they have pushed the master to the front line, and that there are legitimate downsides to the master doing so (such as tp generation) so they are thinking seriously about how to compensate for it.

2nd point is new pets. So we should get some new pets in august. The point about the pets being 'sharper' seems to indicate a change in design philosophy for the new pets. I'm curious how they will be. It seems like the pets themselves might have a more focused purpose in my opinion.... then again, they might just be stronger in general. Oh yeah, they also said they would be pets we have NOT had before.

Also, the 3rd point is about adjusting the abilities of Existing pets. They commented how many abilities that are currently not useful will be adjusted so that they are more fun and useful. Not all abilities will be adjusted, just some. WE will have to wait for the update to see which ones. also adding new abilities.

I've kinda mixed translation with some of my own comments here. I hope its not confusing.

I rather hope that with adjusting and/or adding new pet abilities they will give us more options for buffing master. I think this is likely. I look forward to seeing it. Also, I'm hoping they adjust skillchain properties to make many of the pets more useful.

Thanks for the elucidation on these notes, Xilk.

I'm curious about the enemy TP feed adjustment that they'll concoct, since a while back dasva had found most pets already had a heaping helping of Subtle Blow:


I was secretly hoping he'd continue the tests, but I understand how tedious pet testing can be, haha.

Since you mentioned it's likely there will be a new job trait for boosting accuracy when striking the same foe as your pet, maybe the reduced TP feed will get lumped in there somehow...?

Shame that pets will change targets in situations with AoE attacks/spells... anyway, interested to see what develops in August.

thank you.

I should probably clarify that the quotes are the notes from the video translated. The comments below are my translation/commentary from the video discussion.

I am curious to see how it comes out in august :D

It may be too much to ask, but I hope we get a Leafkin pet. Has a great movepool! Technically not a beastmen either, Its a plantoid.

Consecration: Stun + Damage
Sacred Caper: Rasp + Terror + Damage
Phototrophic Blessing: Heal + Regen + DEF boost + MDB
Phototrophic Wrath: ATK boost + MAB + Haste + Enlight

Would be too awesome, so not likely to happen sadly.

At a glance the only monsters that are charmable that BST doesn't have a jug pet are:

Dhalmel
Opo-Opo

Bee
Crawler
Scorpion

Sapling

Hecteyes
Slime

Bat
Flock Bat
Lesser Bird

Sea Monk

And while unlikely, Puks are charmable and would open up using KI against Demons.

Are adamantoise charmable?

Wiki says no

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Lizards

So charmable is not a requirement for jug pets! Leafkin possible!

I wish REMAs would have a belt similar to ranged weapon REMEs that, instead of bullets / arrows, can be used to give us Rare/Ex jug pets. Think about it. Gutler can be a jug that has some sort of melted down dynamis currency. When used, it calls a Moblin pet that can be used to give us Beastmen killer instinct. Aymur can be a jug that gives us access to either a Flan or Qiqirn or something. Tri-Edge would give us access to something from Rhapsody of Vana'diel or Seekers of Adoulin story lines. We can even do the same with Farsha giving us access to a unique pet from Abyssea.

Just for fun and for the "lol"s give us a giant worm pet. It doesn't move from where you called it, it does all the basic worm TP moves when within striking range, and it casts weak earth based spells when out of range.

Well we have a crab pet and a courier crab pet, and now the barnacle crab pet!

Venom Shower from the Krabkatoa pet is interesting, (assuming were getting one but Front Page has one beside BST so, kind of expected)

If it has all the normal Crab moves, could make for a very nice bursting/defensive/defense down pet.

Though that being said limited use in areas like Dynamis if it keeps its poison effect, hmm.

New Adjustment for BST: when the master will perform a /joy emote, the pet will respond with a custom emote different from pet to pet.

There, BST balanced.

It'll probably have Mega Scissors too, which is conal AoE.


Anyone know how much Defense Down the Venom Shower inflicts?

BG Wiki has no data on it. Do the ones in Rala Waterways have it?

I actually remember Krabkatoa from way back at Lv.75 cap. Venom Shower was dangerous since if it was not erased Mega Scissors was pretty much a guarantee 1-shot for your NIN or PLD (was conal so it went through Utsusemi).

I don't think so... they just use Bubble Shower. :c


Mega Scissors
Bubble Shower
Bubble Curtain
Scissor Guard

(It's possible that they might have it, but didn't see it within 30 minutes of testing, so went to check actual Krabkatoa instead.)

Venom Shower
Defense before: 1171
Defense after: 878

It's a DEF-25% effect (and lasted approximately 3 minutes).


Yeah, why is that attack so strong? Is it similar to a Needles-type attack, or a throat stab or what...

BST update.. As scepticism about the changes have got us no where to date, i'm going to go with optimism this time.

This is the update we've been waiting for!!

Everyone focused on the Barnacle crab in the teaser screenahot, but failed to notice the bst is using a shield!

Shield Maatery trait all but confirmed!!!

I think more importantly is that the shield is the Tatami Shield style, of which the highest ilvl I believe exists is the Kaidate, a 109 shield.

Shield Mastery would be interesting but certainly not make up for the lack of everything else a second axe provides, both to our pet and to our own stats.

But they seem to be looking at making BST quite tanky for a DD, which is an interesting though I believe ultimately fairly flawed area to take it. Rarely is the extra bulk going to be valuable in most content from a DD perspective, especially if it restricts us to more defensive pets.

I mean, it fits into a lot of interesting gimmick styles I'd like to test out, but from a pure numbers perspective it's not going to help us too much.

Perhaps it might enable us to take back some of the soloing capabilities?

You guys are thinking far to much into this. That's just the default setup they use for the screen shot. The axe and shield in the picture have nothing to do with the update. The last time Beastmaster got any sort of update, they used the same combo of Mithra in Beastmaster AF with that same axe and shield. It's just the "lockstyle" they use for the picture.

It's their way of toying with us now BST are getting native dual wield

All possibilities aside, BST will still be in the same frustrating situation if the ready move JA won't fire unless the BST is shoulder to shoulder with the pet.
At bare minimum the distance needs to be opened up to where ready moves can go off if the mob is between the pet and the BST, regardless of mob size.

Fencer IV or Fencer V would be great, the tp bonus + crit rate for a Farsha build would be nice.

Heyoka +1 = 42 (sub for Tal hands)
Merits = 5
gerdr +1 = 4
Hetairoi ring = 1
Fencer V = 10
Rogue Roll (11 from +8 corsair) = 22
(I'm likely missing some gear in there, augments etc...)

84% provided you can't get anything out of pDEX - mAGI.

The picture is how they always depict the "right" way to play BST, so I wouldn't look into it too much. Worth noting that in the recent notes about BST upcoming changes to be made, they listed Shield changes, which were the previous month's adjustments to defensive values. If they ever improved on shields in general for BSTs to use, it would make it a more attractive option.

Having fun: They did say they were adding some more moves. But I think it would be pretty neat if they changed the Raaz's Zealous Snort to either be JA Haste (would be my preference), which would really help out the Axe/Shield BST playstyle mentioned above. I would be in favor of Zealous Snort also being it's own Icon buff rolled into one, similar to how Mighty Guard is an all-in-one def/mdef/haste/regen buff. This would allow it to stack with other forms of haste (spell) so you could have a Raaz pet that gives counter, mdef, haste, def down, and a pet move that SCs with Decimation. Would be a nice all-around pet that isn't too strong in comparison to what other jugs provide.

Doesn't matter how tanky BST gets. They could even give BST a 100% block rate with shield. It wont help them fit into any traditional party setup if thats the goal of these balance patches.
It would just make soloing or dual boxing content easier though :).

The FF community is small and tight knit. Why won't the devs just listen to them. I have a feeling BST is getting the PLD treatment. Some fun new tools that won't make them any more useful in endgame.

PLD is getting steadily improved with its updates, its missign the mark on major points but i dont think anyones going to say majesty or rampart change was bad.

Meanwhile, melon mandies and had to walk back the ready charge instead of just lowering the ready recast 5 more seconds so you wouldnt need a pre-cast. Also, ready range

I'm not expecting ***. The devs are too proud to admit they *** up with the Ready range nerf.

They havent *** up Ready range nerf. They simply have different vision of how this job should work (you fight with your pet on the front line, not play like most summoners for example, with only pet engaged).

dead horse but the range is still far too short even for that, for some pets you have to be standing right next to the pet, if you want to say avoid conal damage or aoes centered around the pet, well guess you gotta time your stuff. Just a couple more yalms would be welcome

Even if they restored the range to Bst, the damage output on the Job doesn't compare to Smn. So it's not like it would 'fix' the job anyway at this point.

Also: Incoming OG Charm Potency buff from SE!

I'd like to see a moderate buff to melee damage but address some of the pet issues too like Ready distance, stat scaling, etc. Make us a melee DD that can still do pet stuff, like the counterpart to summoner's "pet DD that can do some support stuff". I don't want beastmaster to be like dragoon where the pet is just a stat stick. We already have dragoon. Back in the day beast played differently than all other jobs. Later on they made us more like summoner but not exactly. Would be neat to have all three pet jobs have their own uniqueness and their own space for pet parties, kind like what Spaitin said.


I don't know that this is even true. Flaming Crush is more exploitable than any BST Ready move and AFAC is better than Familiar/Unleash, but over a longer fight I usually hang with the Nirvana SMNs in my LS pretty well, stuff like pet strat Omen bosses. PUP is also doing competitive damage with su5 and Companion's Roll. If you restored the pet JA distances to beastmaster you could use it for a lot of stuff you use SMN for right away.