Killer Instinct: The Beastmaster Compendium

Can anyone recommend jug pets/ready moves that might perform well (DD vs survivability) in Dynamis Divergence zones?

I understand this is probably a luxury, but thought I'd ask anyway.

The slug.

With a good mab/macc set the slug can deal some good AoE damage, and the additional effects of corrosive ooze is -33% attack and defense down, so they won't be hitting it too hard. With a good sleeper, a well geared bst can take them out no problem. Note, though, with wave two, you'll need more acc to be able to hit.

The sheep is also a good dd/tank and has the ability to sleep, but I really like that slug.

I agree with Malthar.

I usually use Generous Arthur in divergence.


Popping 10% hp off any NM's is a nice start, but Corrosive Ooze is a boon to the whole group. Its like tossing another (stackable) Geo frailty + Wilt on the mobs. It is VERY noticeable. Not only do you hit harder, but I can pop into pet dt set and hold a whole statue's worth of mobs plenty long enough for ppl to pull them off and destroy them. Corrosive Ooze is just such a fantastic ability and Arthur has the highest defense of any pet bst has. Great for Wave 2 bosses also.

The biggest concern is managing your AoE. You don't want to AoE Purulent Ooze if your group is sleeping crowds... It add a strong bio effect. Also, you don't want to wake up an Avatar, and then the avatar gets on Arthur's enmity list and Arthur keeps going back to wake it up. You need to be aware of whats around you and make sure your AoE's aren't gonna screw up your groups strategy.

I did make the poor choice when we were low on time on a farming run. We had a linked statue or 2 (I didn't link them) and things seemed to be getting out of hand. I tried popping unleash with Corrosive Ooze. Which was fine for damage and tanking.. unfortunately I wasn't careful of the Ninja mobs in the crowd... with predictable results. As Falkirk quotes at the beginning of this guide "Know thy enemty, know thyself..." I have always thought that it included "know thy surroundings"

In my run last night I had puppets roll on. I was hitting up to ~12k AoE w/ Corrosive Ooze in Dynamis Bastok. I don't really have accuracy issues w/ master or pet, but in Dynamis I tend to be dual wielding Ankusa Axes and tp in mostly Heyoka set for Acc and Meva. Pet gets all the Acc and haste also. Enslow from Arthur is a very nice boon as well.

When I'm focused on master melee, in a party with other dd's, I mostly use either Arthur or Bredo (whom I pull out for the wave 1 bosses) depending if I intend to focus on physical or magical damage. Those two have the most useful party debuffs, and they burst really really well. plus I don't need to focus on pet skillchains so much as just bursting, while trying to make master skillchains w/ others.


Although, I have wanted to Try Left-handed Yoko in Divergence. Damage isn't as good as Corrosive Ooze or Pestilent Plume/Foul Waters, but Damage + Dispelga would certainly be useful w/ so many mobs putting buffs up.
Also the crowds in Divergence play well to Infected Leech.

Thank you both for the detailed replies. This was really insightful.

little update from earlier in the thread. You CAN get mab + WSD augments on Valorous armor WITHOUT relying on Dark Matter augments.

I saw several (mediocre) combos using Pellucid stones. I did not see any so far w/ Fern or Taupe Stones.

Best Augment I've seen w/ Pellucid so far is 4 WSD + 14 MAB

now to figure how much mab vs each point of wsd...

It struck me how peculiar the numbers are for infected leech. so I decided to try testing it.

I'm sure some testing was done on it before. but I wanted to share some general information on it. Some of this is obvious to anyone who has used Yoko. The rest is... not.

1. Damage is dealt even if Pet is at Max HP.

2. HP absorbed Caps at 914 Per target (20% of Yoko's max hp)

3. Max Damage *appears* to also be 914, or very close

4. HP Absorbed will be reduced from 914 if hp is fully cured. This does not reduce damage dealt. ie. 787 hp absorbed, but 914 damage dealt, because 787 hp restored Yoko to 100%.

5. No Stats or traits appear to modify the damage (STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, INT, MND, CHR, MAB, ATK, HP) I believe Magic Accuracy is the only thing that *might* matter, but this is not proven. This is because hp absorbed, AND damage dealt appear subject to magical resistances. However, it may simply be a matter of distance instead.

6. Targets further away appear to take resisted damage. Most commonly 228 (1/4)

So far, I have only absorbed 914 hp from 2 targets at once. I was not able to do this with tigers at all. But it was normal when I switched to crabs and jagil.

I think the limit for how many targets you can absorb hp from is the model size of the target. Small models will pack more tightly, and therefore closer to Yoko. I will try testing this with pachypodium. maybe apex toads... they can actually hurt yoko, and I think they the smallest ones. maybe can pack them tight on wall edge...

The number are still peculiar however. aside from 914 and 228 which I saw the most of. I also saw 424 and 448. which were NOT because Yoko had max hp. It could have been distance, but I immediately saw 228 after or before these.

I couldnt' cluster toads any closer than crabs and jagils. I think the most you can cure in 1 use is about 45% ~ 50% of Yoko's max hp. but I think that limit is really just because of how far away the target is... which could be a big handicap on something like Urmahlulu. I guess thats my next test.


also Toads only took 685 damage isntead of 914.. then I left before I thought I should switch back to pet mab set to see if it will overcome the mdb toads have.

no time for more testing now.

It's not effected by mdb it's the mdt that toads have. Did some testing long ago and much like you couldn't find any stats to effected it. Only DT/MDT though I never messed with distance and didn't try to deal with potential sdts. Been awhile but I believe yoko's level mattered though maybe it's only caring about base hp?

I seem to recall it being rather accurate even with decent level differences so might just be highly accurate or something weird idk never did too much into it

I was testing my augments on Valorous Greaves for primal rend.

I have 2 different augments I was comparing.

WSD 3% + MAB 18

vs

WSD 4% + MAB 14


The first set was better.

vs ashen tiger level 113, full mab bonus gear (offhand malevolence, hecate's earring) 3000 tp

first piece (in my set) did 15822 Damage

Second piece in my set made 15767 Damage

I know it shifts, but It appears that 1 wsd is not worth 4 mab for primal rend. I wasn't using any other WSD gear either. and I could certainly get higher mab values on valorous greaves and body, especially from DM augments. I've only gotten wsd + mab from pellucid stones. I'm not sure if the cap for mab from pellucid stones is lower than fern (30). I think you can only get above 30 from Dark Matter Augments. (mab 30 slot stacking w/ macc/mab 15+ slot)

short version is that WSD is not all that valuable for magical weapon skills for bst. Its great if you can stack it, but you probably get better augments maximizing MAB.

I also tested to see if using Purgation for undead killer, allows other killer effects + gear (ankusa helm, totemic trousers) to affect undead killer.. they don't.


and I'd like to take the oportunity to say what a really good offhand axe Purgation is for master focused Damage.
Its not the BiS for any particular focus. if you want WSD, Barabarity +1 is the best. if you want STP, then Pangu/Ankusa, Tri-edge, Raetic +1 have it beat, if you want Double Attack, then Skullrender and augmented Digirbalag have it beat. It won't compare for multi hit like a Blurred Axe +1 either.

BUT look at what you have to compare it to for all that! Pangu? Brutality? Raetic? Blurred? All expensive, hard to get stuff. and Purgation throws a useful Killer effect into the bag as a bonus.

if you have BOTH 6 stp and 3 DA. Thats pretty fantastic for tp. Add in 4 WSD and its also a great offhand for Weaponskills. a nice 20 acc as well. Its a bonus to whatever you are doing. I highly recommend it for any Melee Bst. only if you are extreme enough to want specific master weapon sets for specific fights will you outgrow it for master melee.

I took a page from the blu and dnc out there making a 1000 TP Bonus Magian weapon for offhand.

Any of the Melee Bsts out there should have noticed the huge scaling in damage from tp on most axe weaponskills.

I was thinking about it when playing w/ Tri-edge (which I finished a few weeks ago).

Tri-Edge 500 TP bonus
Moonshade Earring 250 TP bonus
Fernagu 1000 TP Bonus

Total: 1750 TP bonus
This setup means getting more than 1250 tp is a waste. It also means that every axe weaponskill that scales damage with TP is always at full power.

Calamity
Mistral Axe
Primal Rend
Cloudsplitter

are the ones I care about mostly, though Raging Axe and Avalanche axe and Spinning Axe fit here also.

I know when buffed vs apex crabs 1000 tp primal rend was doing ~10k damage, but 3k tp primal rend was doing 30k.

Also, I tested this setup on domain invastion dragons.

Ironically though, main hand wielding Ankusa axe was better damage for Calamity and Mistral Axe than Tri-edge (even w/ 500 less tp)(NON augmented). ofcourse this is because of higher base damage on Ankusa axe.

its a fun, and easy to do option for Melee BST. it really boosts damage for self-skillchians, which will almost always be low tp.

The drawback are that Fernagu only has 63 Base damage, but more importantly the offhand Accuracy I only got up around 960 in my normally 1260ish tp set.

Trying to update a few sets.

Valorous gear can get up to 10% Waltz potency with DM augments.

I actually saw it 2x last time around. So bst could cap +50% waltz potency.

Waltz set:

ItemSet 364698

What is the bis non argosy master tp set? Since the lack of mevasion crushes my soul

Stamos you fake bst! What's up man? Make an Aymur and Farsha, or Guttler and Farsha, or all 3 (or 4).

Maybe something close to this:

ItemSet 363328

Val -DEX+1-10, Accuracy/Attack+20-40, Store TP+7-8
Emicho Path D
Artio's - DEX+20, Accuracy+30, Attack+20, Store TP+10

lol it hasn't been that enjoyable for me to make those. I've never had pet buffs! They just shun me when I go on BST

Then make and offhand fernagu to go w/ Tri-edge :P

and just use support pets.

Brave Hero Glenn seems like the logical choice to make their pain a reality

just find some smn friends and get all the good buffs

Falkirk, shoudl update main page primal rend set:

Eschan Stone >> Orpheus sash

I'd also give alternate mention to Fernagu offhand

its really great for Primal Rend, Cloudsplitter, Mistral Axe, and Calamity.

Do you mean TP Bonus+1000 Fernagu? I've been out of the loop and don't understand how you might use this for Axe WSes.

Yeah, thats what I mean.

I picked up the idea from the blu and dnc threads.
Making a 1000 TP bonus Magian weapon for offhand.

Its great for weaponskills with large tp scaling, which bst has a plenty.

I made one to play around w/ Tri-Edge.

So Tri-edge, Fernagu and Moonshade earring means you can have 1750 TP Bonus. that means I can get full power tp bonus by spamming weaponskills at 1250 tp. it also means you don't get any bonus to damage for getting more tp than 1250.

It makes a BIG difference. You don't have to use Tri-edge ofcourse. I do better damage w/ Aymur for Primal Rend ofcourse, and physical WS I do better w/ Ankusa Axe or Pangu for the higher Damage rating. However, its a really big damage improvement.

Its easy to test how it would help. use any of these weapnskills at around 1000 tp. then on same target do one at 2000 or 3000 TP. thats the difference you'll see using Fernagu in offhand. It means you can do higher damage weaponskills faster.

ofcourse offhand accuracy will be very low, and offhand damage is very low as a tradeoff.

Edit: you can g t the last 250 to bonus from having smn in party using Crystal Blessing.

Xilkk thank you for all your hard work and testing.

Thank you x2.

Ok, so I finally went out to test a few things.

1. How much attack to pets get from Str?

2. what is pets base str?


Method for the first should be rather straight forward. Add varioius levels of str, and use checkparam to see how attack changes.

My checkparam values do not match pet attack for randy or hermes from this guide.
It also doesn't line up w/ the attack bonus from gifts.

I have 1442 on Randy and 860 on Hermes with no gear at all.
They should both be level 119 when I summoned them. they have much higher attack than the guide. I am only equiped with Purgation. No pet stats.

my pet str gear are these:
Digirbalag: pet STR 15, attack 16
Valorous mail: pet str 10, attack 29
Valorous hose: pet str 9 , attack 27

total of 72 Attack and 34 STR from gear.

its clear from hermes that pets get 1 attack for every 2 points of str.

SE's update notes appear correct that the change to a 1 str to 1 Attack ratio was a player only boost.

The numbers on randy were not very clear because of his huge attack bonus.

I would appreciate some insite as to why my base attack values do not match the guide. I am not using familiar or anything.
I feel like I asked this years ago when I came back, but don't remember. what level/gift level were the stats taken from on the guide?

Having easy access to pet str gear, should make it possible to determine the str of each pet. This was what always held me back years ago.

So I went to get a damage baseline on level 0 monsters. I used randy first. a poor choice. I'll try w/ non-war pet tomorrow, but perhaps I need a better target. any good suggestions would be most welcome.

looking for min and max melee hits while attack capped, I have 649 min and 675 max on randy.
This makes a base damage of 162.
(Crit min and max were 700 and 732, which line up expectecly)

I then repeated the test after adding all my pet str gear.
The pet attack bonus should do nothing since pdif is definitely capped.

I expected the min and max numbers to both shift up. However, i quickly achieived the same min number of 649.

Shouldn't the increase in fSTR make the minimum damage increase? Or does fSTR have a cap and I need stronger targets to make the difference more apparent?

my max damage only went up to 680. and i wonder if I simply missed the max before with too small of a sample. or if the fSTR is so high anyway, the difference is not affecting the damage.

So incite would be helpful. my brain is about to get a migraine which i wish to sleep thru. also if any good suggestions for targets to test on, i would appreciate it.

thank you.

I'll update this - thanks for pointing it out.


Sharpwit Hermes:
iLvl 119 Base Attack = 750
Job Point Gift STR and Attack Bonuses = 110
Total Attack = 860

Blackbeard Randy:
iLvl 119 Base Attack = 1266
Job Point Gift STR and Attack Bonuses = (110 * 1.6) = 176
Total Attack = 1442

Thanks Falkirk.

My brain is tired and I still didn't sleep well.

I did remember the 106 attack bonus, but completely forgot the 8 str bonus from gifts. Couldn't put things together last night.

it also fits that the 60% attack bonus is applied after attack from str. I didn't post my numbers but ofcourse randy was getting a huge boost from the str/attack gear, and I was not getting the numbers straight yet.

I reviewed the fstr page on bg-wiki again.

its of some general use, but its also easy to guess it might not apply to pets.

the lower and upper caps are based off weapon rank. Another stat that either does not exist, or is completely unknown for pets.

A boost in fSTR of 34 should increase the min damage from 649 up to 784.

if fSTR is calculated like a player 1 hand, it would increase by 8, and min damage should be 682.

If its calculated like fSTR2, then min damage should be 716

I'm fairly confident fSTR was already capped on lvl 0 mobs.

So I need a target with much higher VIT, so that fSTR is NOT capped, but on which I can still cap pet attack.

preferably a mob with known VIT.

I won't know if fSTR is capped or not, until I collect the data.

If anyone knows some good targets, I'd love to hear.
otherwise, I think I'll need a corsair and to go after some apex mobs. Then again...

we can probably determine mobs def just by changing player attack, and using the check command. if we know both target def and pet attack... we can know exactly when it is capped.

I'm thinking apex toads. I dont' think they have any troublesome buffs or debuffs, but their stats should be high enough and low enough.. maybe. I might look to toads in foret du henetial as an alternative.

Anyone know how to determin a mob's VIT? I don't really remember what tests are used.

Blah!

getting frustrated because kparser not working for me

Parse says it has logging feature, but there is no log file in the path specified in the readme. Yes, i did make sure it says log feature is turned on. its on by default

Apex Toad Def
level 133 1272
Level 132 1239
Level 131 1206

I don't have min/max melee damage values because parse doesn't REALLY keep a log.

my attack is 1329, my Weapon D is 230.

I have average melee damage is 230.94 out of 348 melee hits.

I don't think this is quite what I need to get VIT though. I need min/max damage values don't I?

if the average is ok, then I think it puts me at -9 FSTR, which would be surprising because I have 254 STR.
it would put the level 133 toad at 290 Vit.

I'm probably missing something. Its been a long time since I paid attention to these formulas. I'd love to hear some good ideas on how to test.

Are you sure this works?

I'm pretty sure COR would 100% use this for Savage Blade sets. I don't think it works, has it been tested?

I think TP Bonus on weapons only applies to if the weapon itself is being used in the Calculation. If it's not Main it doesn't work I thought.

EDIT: Yeah, looking further into it: https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/TP_Bonus

End of Bullet 1 says this doesn't work.

...CORs already use magian gun exactly for that reason, magian TP bonus has always worked off-handed or in another slot altogether, its non-magian TP bonus that does not.

Ohhh, that makes sense.

Thanks for the clarification.