When SE designed Beastmaster, they put their brightest on it.  Beastmaster in FFXI is an exquisitely crafted job.  Everyone considers it a solo’ing job, but as I’ve been finding out, duo’ing and trio’ing with Beastmaster is as complex as it is fun.  When things go right, you’re elated as the XP rolls in.  When things go wrong, and you’re barely able to escape with your life, it’s a rip-roaring good time.  When you don’t escape, it’s still an entertaining trip.

Case in point.  The other night Ardra and I were in Tahrongi Canyon, both as Beastmaster/White Mage.  We were there too early, and barely scraping out XP, but having a pretty good time playing the job, and making ourself laugh as we named our pets (Mandorius, DJ Hoppy, etc.).  At one point I got ambushed by a — well, Goblin Ambusher.  I told my pet to attack which the Goblin ripped through in just a couple of seconds.  Ardra did the same thing, and we took off running.

Cue the Yakety Sax music.

Since Ardra’s pet didn’t last long either, we were both veering left and right as we saw flora and fauna we could charm and throw at the Goblin to slow him down.  It looked like something from the “running gag” skit that closed each Benny Hill show.

We made our escape, laughing the whole time.

As previously mentioned, my static is currently leveling Beastmaster. One of the primary tricks to playing Beastmaster is to charm a pet that is elementally stronger to your prey.

The effect of properly executing this is the possibility of the pet intimidating the prey. Intimidation causes the prey to loose an action - most likely resulting in a lost attack. Intimidation is just like paralysis, and stacks with any other paralysis effect (the Paralysis spell, for example).

The Vana’diel ecosystem is broken in five distinct beast categories, each with their own groups exhibiting a strenght over the other. Each category is distinct, so flora/fauna from Category 2 have no effect over flora/fauna from Category 1 and vice-versa.

Category 1:

This means, that Beasts can intimidate Lizards. Lizards can intimidate Vermin. Vermin can intimidate Plantoids. Plantoids can intimidate Beasts. This is a linked list, not a stack, so Beasts do not intimidate Vermin, and Plantoids are not intimidated by Lizards.

Beasts are considered anything Animal. Rabbits, Coeurls, Sheep, etc. It’s interesting to note that Cerebus is considered part of the Beasts family.

Lizards are considered anything reptilian, that isn’t a Dragon, Wyvern, or Wyrm. These include Lizards, Bugards, Raptors, and Efts.

Vermin are the insect category and include monsters such as Bees, Chigoes, Crawlers, Flies, Scorpions, and Beetles.

Plantoids represent the plant system and include Mandragora, Sapling, Treant, and Funguar types of monsters.

Category 2:

loop >> Aquans → Amorpha → Birds >> loop

Like category 1, this is a linked list, not a stack. Aquans do not intimidate Birds. Aquans intimidate Amorpha, which in turn can intimidate Birds.

The group Aquans includes Pugil, Orobon, Crab, and Sea Monk monsters.

Amorpha contains Slimes, Flans, Worms, and Hecteyes. One interesting thing to note is that Leeches are considered part of the A morpha, and not an Aquan.

Birds include Birds, Rocs, Bats, and Cockatrice.

Categories 3-5 contain mostly monsters that cannot be charmed.

Category 3:

Undead ↔ Arcana

Category 4:

Dragon ↔ Demon

Category 5:

Lumorian ↔ Luminion