............................................................................... Final Fantasy XI (PC/PS2) Beastmaster Ballista Guide v1.0 by: halo00to14 Intro: This guide was a long time coming. A post on ffxi.allakhazam.com got me to actually write this. I was in the FFXI open beta way back during the summer a couple of years ago. I was a WHM then, and now, I've a BST on the Asura server. Character's name is Marion, so send me a /tell with extra tips or critique about this guide. For those who want to know, this al came from this thread found here: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=8&mid=1108643243191405065 Many at times, people would post about how BST would do in Ballista and how to perform at the top level (or lvl), and thus this came streaming out. Enjoy. Table of Contents: [00001] : What is Ballista? [10001]: Types of Ballista [20001]: Items in Ballista [00002]: BST Role in Ballista [00003]: Who to Watch out for [00004]: Pets, The Other White Meat [00005]: Gear Recommendations [10005]: lvl30 Cap [20005]: lvl40 Cap [30005]: lvl50 Cap [40005]: lvl60 Cap [50005]: Unlimited [00006]: Tips and Tricks/FAQ ............................................................................... What is Ballista? [00001] ............................................................................... Ballista, as per the Square-Enix story, is a game that the Knight of San d'Oria used for training purposes. The point of the game is to score as many points as possible. You score points by throwing little rocks call Petras at goals known as Rooks. However, you cannot score unless you have Gate Breach status which is done by taking down a member of the enemy force. So, how do you aquire the Petras? By quarrying, which will be talked about in later sections. (Crtl+F and type 00006 to jump there). A match of Ballista last for 24hrs Vana'diel Time. ............................................................................... Type of Ballista [10001] ............................................................................... In Ballista, there's two differnt type of formatts and two differnt varities to these. I'm using a little differnt wording than what SE used to describe these types of matches. Here's a list of what matchs and special rules there are: All or Nothing: A single match of Ballista is played. At the end of the match, the team with the highest number of Petras scored wins the match. Best of Three: The entire match is broken up to "sets." Each set is played for 7hrs Vana'diel time. At the end of the set, all players HP and MP will be restored, and the score is reset. The team with the highest score at the end of the set, then they are awarded a set point. On the thrid set, if a team wins the set, and has a highest scorer for that set, they will get two set points. Normal Items Allowed: Any item that you bought from the AH, NPC or gained through quest are allowed. Normal Items Restricted: Items brought from outside of Ballista are not allowed to be used. Execptions to this: Pet food, Pet Jugs, and ammo. Items found from quarrying and gained through Ballsita points can be used as normal. ............................................................................... Items in Ballista [20001] ............................................................................... During your quest for Petras, you'll come across some items that are called "Temporary Items". These items are on your person for the length of the match. After the match is over with, you will lose these items. Items can be held for later use in the match, or used right away. Remember though, you can only hold one of each type the of Temporary Items. For example, you cannot hold 2 Temporary X-Potions. Without further ado, here is a list of all the known items, at least those that I have came across, in Ballsita. Feel free to post what other items can be found during the matches, and their effects. I'll post how much HP and MP they give if the item boost/restore HP and MP as I can. Container of Carnal Inscense: Nulls all physical dmg for a limited time. Container Of Celestial Incense: Nulls all range dmg for a limited time. Container Of Spiritual Incense: Nulls all magic dmg (not status effects) for a limited time. Vial Of Drachenessence: restores wyvern's HP. (really, if you get this, just throw it out.) Poison Potion: Inflicts poison status on you. Echo Drops: Cures silence Eye Drops: Cures Blind Potion: Restores little bit of HP Hi-Potion: Restores some HP X-Potion: Restores a lot of HP Ether: Restores little MP. Hi-Ether: Restores some MP Pro-Ether: Restores a lot of MP Bottle of Body Boost: Increases max HP temporarily. (remainder of match?) Bottle Of Mana Boost: Increases max MP temporarily. (remainder of match?) Dose Of Baraero Ointment: Grants baraero for a limited time. Dose Of Barblizzard Ointment: Grants barblizzard for a limited time. Dose Of Barfire Ointment: Grants barfire for a limited time. Dose Of Barstone Ointment: Grants barstone for a limited time. Dose Of Barthunder Ointment: Grants barthunder for a limited time. Dose Of Barwater Ointment: Grants barwater for a limited time. ............................................................................... Beastmasters Role in Ballista [00002] ............................................................................... Beastmasters (hench forth refered too as BST) in Ballista play a very interesting role in Ballista. Our main objective is to obtained Gate Breach status and score Petras. Along with this, we are to fly (or provide, which ever term you like) distraction and cause general chaos to break out in the ranks of the enemy. This is done by well timed pet usage. A mage cannot cast spells if they are running. A bard cannot sing if they are running also. A melee with a ninja sub will have his shadows stripped much faster with the pet attacking them, causing them to cast more often and take more damage. We also provide support, depending on subjob by waking team members who are asleep. We must work with the team and not do our own thing, even though we can. When you enter into your first Ballista match, throw everything that you learned out the window. Ballista is a whole new beast (pun!) all together. You will be fighting other people and not stupid mobs. There is no such thing as hate in the terms of how we understand it with mobs. Sure, the DRK over there that you called a little girl and that a WHM can do more dmg just by looking at something will hate your guts, but he will not forget about you for a moment to attack your pet like mobs do. You must remember, if you fly solo in Ballista, 9 out of 10 times you will be ganged up on and killed. This is the first rookie mistake. Stay with your team at all cost. If you are going scouting, communicate that with the team. You are your team as your team is you. All for one and one for all. ............................................................................... Who to Watch out for [00003] ............................................................................... We BST have a sense that nothing can stop us once we get moving. This is true to some extent. There are jobs though that can stop us in our tracks just as fast as we can them. While none of these jobs are impossible to deal with, they can seem that way. Blackmage [BLM]: BLM have the highest damage output there is along with great crowd control. Sleep will drive you nuts. You'll have to wake up your pet if it is asleep or wait till it wakes up on it's own. They are also sneaky little buggers by sneaking up on you while you are distracted and casting their most powerful spells, which, can be very deadly. Ranger [RNG]: Sleep bolts, Blood bolts Shadowstich, Eagle Eye Shot, Barrage, Side Winder. Need I say more? At lower lvls, lvl30 for example, they aren't as deadly. I've eaten many Eagle Eye Shots in my lvl30 Ballista days. They just don't have the range accuratecy and attack gear to make it a one hit kill. Rangers tend to deal with you at a distance, stopping you before you get close enough to even think about hitting them. Redmage [RDM]: The jack of all trades shine through Ballista like no other. With the power of sleeping, curing, nuking, debuffing, they can be damn near impossible to kill. Stoneskin, Blink, and Phalanx will drive you mad, and when do you think that you got them down to their last leg, they can cure themselves back up to damn near full. Bards [BRD]: If there is one job that I hate the most in Ballista, it's the BRD. As weak as they maybe on the attack side, they can stop a team cold with their sleep songs. It's without a doubt, one of the most damaging jobs in Ballista. ............................................................................... Pets, The Other White Meat [00004] ............................................................................... This is our bread and butter. We are nothing without our pets. Since in Ballista, we cannot charm the feral mobs that are out there (as cool as that would be), we must rely on the pets that we always have; the juggies. Fish Broth lvl23 Carb Familiar: Attacks: Big Claw, Bubble Shower, Bubble Curtain. The good ol' crab. Very high defense for its lvl. The down side, very low attack damage and isn't very good at killing things. Fish Oil Broth lvl23 CouierCarrie: HQ (high quality) crab broth. Same thing as the normal crab, but higher defense and higher attack. It's an uncapped pet so it will lvl up with you are you get higher in lvls. She has the downsides of the normal crabs plus the fact that she is fairly expensive to buy, appx 20k a stack on Asura. Alchemist's Water lvl23 Homunculus: Headbutt, Scream, Leaf-Dagger: This one is rumoured to also use breath attacks. I have never seen these attacks, so they are still rumours to me. He is, to my knowledge, uncapped and will do double attack, triple attack, counter, and guard against an opponet. Over all weak defense and weak attack, but very low attack delay make him very promising. One downside though: expensive. 6k a single jug on Asura last time I checked. Carrot Broth lvl23 Hare Familiar: Whirl Claw, Dust Storm, Foot Kick: Decent attack with low defense. His attack time is low, which is nice, but over all a little weak. He can do more harm than good for your team by using Whirl Claw at the wrong time and thus, wakes everyone up from sleeping. Cheap though. Herbal Broth lvl23 Sheep Familiar: Sheep Charge, Rage, Sheep Song. Another alright jug, but not the best. The AoE sleep is nice, but the odds of it going off are slim to none. More than likely it'll do Rage which will lower defense and increase attack. If a player knows what is going on, this is the perfect time to kill off the sheep. Meat Broth lvl28 Tiger Familiar: Razor Claw, Razor Fang, Roar, Cyclone Claw. This bad daddy is one thing and one thing only: Full out attack. Screw worrying about the damage you take, if the other guy is dead before you, who cares? Roar is an AoE paralys attack which lands a good amount of times. Razor Claw and Razor Fang are the big guns though, they are high damage attacks with a slight differnce. Razor Fang is one target, Razor Claw is line of sight. What this means is that if the enemy is lined up pretty close to being right behind each other, they both will get hit. Cyclone Claw is like the other claw/fang attacks, but is a short range AoE. This pet is also the fastest pet out there and will chase down someone without giving a second thought about it. Humus lvl28 Flowerpot Bill: See Homunculus. Not as strong as Alchemist Water, but a lot cheaper. Bug Broth lvl33 Fly Familiar: Curse Sphere, Venom. Remember these guys from the dunes? That's pretty much what you get, but scaled up a bit. Curse Sphere is nice, but there's better pets out there. Venom is line of sight which can be great. It has low defense though. Carrion Broth lvl33 Lizard Familiar: Baleful Gaze, Venom Breath, Secertion, Tail Blow, Fire Breath. High defense and high HP, but over all slow. It's attacks are a little weak from time to time. Baleful Gaze is the best thing that it has going for him. This attack will petrify an enemy for a period of time. Venom breath is a short range line of sight posion attack, Secertion is an Eva bonus for himself, Tail Blow causes short term stun, and Fire Breath is a short range AoE fire attack. Seedbed Soil lvl33 Fungar Familiar: Dark Spore, Silence Gas, Spore, Quesy Shroom, Dance Shroom. This is by far one of the better jugs out there. Dark Spore and Silence Gas are HP based so they can do massive damage in one try while always inflicting status effect of either blind or silence. Spore, Quesy Shroom and Dance shroom all cause paralysis to varying degree. High defense, high HP, decent attack make this jug worth having. Plus, it's appx 7k a stack in Kahzam! Tree Sap lvl38 Beetle Familiar: I have never used these since they are never on the AH. So, I cannot pass judgement. Very high defense though, with an AoE evasion down attack. Famous Carrot Broth lvl43 Keeneared Steffi: See Carrot Broth. A little tougher, but not by much. Singing Herbal Broth lvl43 Lullaby Melodia: See Herbal Broth. A little tougher, but not by much. Warm Meat Broth lvl51 Sabe Siravarde: See Meat Broth. A nice upgrade. I suggest use him in lvl60 cap at most. Rich Humus lvl51 Flowerpot Ben: See Humus. A slight upgrade. Cold Carrion Broth lvl53 Coldblood Como: See Carrion Broth. A minor upgrade. Quadav Broth lvl53 Shellbust Orob: See bug broth. A minor upgrade. Scarlet Sap lvl63 Panzer Galahad: Never used it, can't pass judgement. One thing though, expensive! Sun Water lvl75 Amigo Sabotender: Not lvl 75 yet, but very expensive. Good if you want to show off what you have. 1000 Needles is nice, but in a big Ballista match, it'll get dilluted quickly. ............................................................................... Gear Recommendations [00005] ............................................................................... One thing before reading this. The following is just a suggestion on what gear will make you perform at the best possible gear wise. Nothing more. If you cannot afford certain gear, don't fret, you'll still be able to kick butt and take names. What this if for, is to show you what would be the absolute best. Gear will also vary with how you like to play. I typically get hit more often with spells and such, so I look to get as much VIT as possible and the best defense rating on my gear. You could go for nothing but evasion gear and go for never getting hit [10005] lvl30 Cap(highly recommend you stay away from this I'll explain later) Pet: Tiger Familiar Pet Food: Any Back: Nomad's Mantle/Night Cape Body: Centurion's Scale Mail Feet: Centurion's Greaves/Leaping Boots Rings: Archer's Ring/Bowyer Ring Gloves: Royal Squire's Mufflers Head: Mercenary Captain's Headgear/Empy Hairpin Legs: Mercenary Captain's Hose/Centurion's Cuisses Neck: Tiger Stole/Beast Whistle/Buburimu Gorget Sheild: Bastokan Targe/Republic Targe/Lantern Shield Waist: Brave Belt/Warrior's Belt Weapon: Military Pick You can sub various peices of RSE here if you want. The reason I say stay away from this one is b/c you can't release your pet. If someone kills your pet, then they will get Gate Breach status, and you'll have to kill them before they can score. Because of this, we are very limited in how effective we can be in the match. Why the godawful Buburimu Gorget? You see that +10 Dark def? That'll save your butt more often b/c sleep is a dark spell. The pet food is to wake up your pet from being slept. [20005] lvl40 Cap: Pet: Tiger Familiar, Fungar Familiar Pet Food: Any pet food. Back: Nomad's Mantle/Nigh Cape Body: Royal Squire's Chainmail Feet: San d'Orian Sollerets/Leaping Boots/Cuir Highboots Rings: Archer's Ring/Bowyer Ring/Puissance Ring/Verve Ring/Aegis Ring Hands: San d'Orian Mufflers/Ogygos's Bracelets Head: Purple Ribbon/Cuir Bandana/San d'Orian Helm/Empy Hairpin Legs: Royal Squire's Breeches Neck: Buburimu Gorget/Medieval Collar Shield: Balance Buckler Waiste: Survival Belt/Warrior's Belt Weapon: Barbaroi Axe/Combat Caster's Axe/Warrior's Axe This is where we start to shine. We can now release our pets for confusion tactics as well as have gear equal to a DRK or a WAR at the same lvl. The reason you want to shy away from the sniper rings is the Dark-10 really hurts in Ballista for reasons stated above. You can use RSE body depending on the race, but at this lvl, players start to hit a little harder, and thus, you need to be able to take the hits just as well as you can dish them. You could also go for total EVA, but, I usally like to run in guns ablazin'. [30005] Lvl 50 Cap: Pet: Fungar (i'll explain later) Pet Food: Any Back: Jaeger Mantle/Bat Cape Body: Brigandine Armor/Royal Squire's Chainmail +1/Gaudy Harness/Royal Squire's Chainmail Feet: Royal Knight's Sollerets/Leaping Boots Ring: Phalanx Ring/Archer's Ring/Bowyer Ring/Puissance Ring/Verve Ring/ Aegis Ring Hands: Royal Knight's Mufflers/Spiked Finger Gauntlets Head: Blue Ribbon/Shock Mask/Empy Hairpin/Valkyrie's Mask/Walkure Mask Legs: Darksteel Codpiece/Royal Squire's Breeches +1/Steel Cuisses Neck: Storm Gorget(???)/Royal Knight Army Collar/Moon Amulet Shield: Balance Buckler/Royal Squire's Shield +1 Waist: Life Belt/Any of the RSE Belts/Swordbelt Weapon: Viking Axe/Barbaroi Axe Okay, so this is where the big boys start to come out. All jobs at this point have all their abilities that they can use to whomp on you. If you can afford to the the +1 Brigandine, get it! Over all, you want to max out your Dark resistance, and a couple of the following: VIT, STR, DEX, AGI, EVA, ATT. Acc isn't that big of a deal unless you are going against a THF or NIN mainly because all PC's eva suck hardcore. You're eva should be capped too, being a BST and all, so more EVA gear means you'll be harder to hit. With the VIT gear though, all those nasty magic spells that can get casted on you will have a higher chance of resistance, thus you'll live longer. For pets at this lvl; you can use Steffie and Melody, but there's some slight problems with them. Steffie is very unpredictable in her TP attacks. You'll want her to either foot kick or whirl claw, but, she'll won't want to do that. Plus, she has very low HP over all and low ATT. Melody can do an AoE sleep, but the odds of that going off are slim at best. Most likely she will use the Sheep Berzerk move and thus, lowering her already low DEF. If people knew the weakness of pets like this, they'll attack her all out causing you to either release her too soon (meaning you'll be worthless till call beast is up), use Reward too soon (meaning she will be slept till the reward timer is up). Fungar continues to grow at this lvl and since most people won't bother with him too much, Dark Spore and Silence Gas should hit for full DMG. Not to mention the other TP attacks work just as well. [40005] lvl60 Cap: Pet: Fungar or Saber. Pet Food: Any Gear: Full AF. Sub in Leaping Boots, Empy Hairpin, and Scorp Harness and Haubergeon if you can afford them. Rings: Demon's Ring/Tiger Ring/Grace Ring/Jadeite Ring/Vigor Ring/Archer's Ring/Bowyer Ring Earrigs: Bitter Earring/Assault Earring/Elusive Earring Back: Republican Army Mantle Waist: LifeBelt/Speed Belt/Master Belt/Royal Knight's Belt +1 Neck: Royal Guard's Collar Head: Green Ribbon Weapon: Kabrakan's Axe This is where it gets really fun. Sleep will be the biggest bitch you'll have to deal with. BLMs will have Sleepga II at this lvl which will cause headaches. If you want to be slept less, or have sleep not last as long, get as much Dark resistance as you can. some special notes: Hauby has a hurtful -10 EVA, this is countered though by the ACC, ATT, and STR modifiers, BUT IT STILL HURTS. While I suggest all BST get a Hauby for lvling, I suggest sticking to AF while in these fights. This is also the only time I'd recommend the Scorp Harness for BST. You'll be hit a lot less and you'll hit more often which is a good thing in Ballista. Saber is one of the fastest pets out there and he seems to cap at around this lvl. Razor Claw, Razor Fang, and the AoE paralysis all work to your favor. On top of that, he can run faster than any PC out there besides a fleeing one. It is just insane. Double Attack kicks in a lot too with him, so, sic him on a mage and let him do the rest. Feed him if he falls asleep. [50005] Uncapped: See lvl60 cap: Execptions: God Gear Thick Set AF2 Nadziak, Juggernaut, Ridill, Tabarzin, Leopard Axe, Woodville's Axe, Gutter Now, I don't have much experince in the uncapped battles, but I can say this; "wow!" There's so much that you can do/have at this cap it's crazy. So many differnt options. To me, the full God Gear would be the best bet. Again, you might want to focus on Dark resistance more than anything else, but your options are limitless. One of my dreams is to get the Gutter and do Onslaught on someone in Ballista. ............................................................................... Tips and Tricks/FAQ or... How I stopped gettng owned... [00006] ............................................................................... 1. What's the deal with Fungar Familiar? If you haven't noticed from some of my ranting in this, here you go: The reason I suggest Fungar Familiar so much is for the simple fact that he is cheap. 7k a stack in Kazham, along with being strong. Have fun with other pets. Honestly, my best Ballista moment was when an "uber" DRK got owned by a bunny pet. I swear, we all laughed our asses off at him for dying to a bunny after the trash talking he did. 2. So... any special commands for Ballista? Yep! There's three: /quarry, /scout, /sprint. /quarry lets you dig in the ground for an item, hoping for a petra. Sometimes you'll dig up an item, other times a petra, or nothing at all. I've noticed that you get more petras the further away you are from the Rook. I suggest you macro this /scout lets you "sense" where the Rook is. This is only available once you have acquired a petra. It'll tell you distance and direction. Macro it. /sprint is just like flee, however, you cannot use /sprinit if you have a petra. I guess the small pebbles slow you down greatly. This is better for getting away than anything else, or getting to a battle faster than normal. 3. So I got the Petra, now how do I score? Easy, locate the Rook by /scouting it. Once located, just click on the Rook to score a point. However, you can be interrupted by someone taking action against you by means of spell, or attacking. Also, you can have as many petras as you want on your persons, but can only score 5 at a time. 4. What's some good BST macros? You'll need pet attack, pet heal, pet sic, call beast, pet leave and reward macro. set them up how you like. I recommend having them the same as your normal macros. Leave is your best friend in Ballista. Simply for the reason that I stated in the section for the lvl30 cap section. Should you know that they are owning your pet hardcore, release it so that they won't get Gate Breach off of him/her. 5. Subjobs The subjob topic is a dead horse more or less. Use whatever you feel comfortable with. Me, I use the WHM sub all the time. This helps me in waking up other members of my team and can cause pain for my enemies by casting Silence on their mages. A BLM is good too for sleep and Bind spells. Drain helps out a lot along with Aspir, though, they are not as strong. I found this sub by complete accident by forgetting to change my sub back to WHM before heading out to Ballista. NIN is another popular one, but I don't have the funds to lvl NIN, so I never bothered. Dual Axes are nice along with Blinking, but you can't heal yourself when you need to. 6. Sleep This is important. Poison Potions will prevent you from being slept! USE THEM! They are a godsend. You might still be slept though, but it won't last as long as normal. This is how you can combat sleep. In a match, it is wise for the mages to sleep the melees and other mages while you go after the other teams mages themselves. This will help out greatly by granting you Gate Breach faster, harassing the mages so they can't cast sleep on the entire field and over all, being a MP drain. 7. Stay together. Cannot stress this enough. You must stay with the group if you expect to live. Ambushes are just crazy. One moment you are fighting a single player, the next you got 3 others on you and you are dead. If you get lucky and join up with other BST on the same team, make a BST squad and stick together, supporting each other. Send the pets after one target while you all focus on another. This is the ultimate in harassment since you are tackling two targets at once, a major pain in the ass. ............................................................................... Version History: ............................................................................... 2/17/2005 v1.0 - Fully posted and checked. ............................................................................... Misc Info/Copyright/Contact/Boring Legal Stuff/Credits ............................................................................... Contact: fuji2001@hotmail.com Contact Subject line should include the following: "BST Ballista Guide" I'll try to response as soon as possible, but to be frank, there's other things that I have to do in my life, such as playing Ballista. Copyright: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, FFXI, SE, Ballista area all copyrighted and tradedmarked to Square-Enix. This guide is copyrighted to Robert Zeboski, aka halo00to14, fuji2001, marion, halo00to17: 2005. Express premission has been given to the following sites for posting: www.gamefaqs.com ffxi.allakhazam.com No other site may post this guide without express premission from the author.If you've seen this guide on another web site besides the two listed, please contact me. Credits: Will update as they come in.