Cian's (Almost) Instant Gratification Beastmaster Guide

OK, so this is for Bruce and other people who would like to know how to be a beastmaster.

Expertise for Medic Beastmasters

Firstly you need to reset your expertise to hatch your egg. You need at least 2 points in BM (incubator and attack) to call your pet and get it to attack, but it won't be very good that way. This would be OK for getting it through the lower levels, I suppose.

If you want you and your pet to be an effective fighting team, you're going to need to invest a lot more points in the beastmaster tree. I recommend 26-28 points (28 if you want a fourth pet special attack). I only know about medic/BM, and this is the 26-point beastmaster build I prefer: one that gives very strong heals and allows me to use stasis. This is great for PvE and instances. Here are screenshots:

Beastmaster Tree

My beasts can currently only use 3 special attacks. For most pets such as cats, only three specials are necessary... I saved 2 expertise points this way, which gives me just enough left to get stasis.

Medic Specialization

This build is great because heals are really strong and I have an action and constitution buff for both me and my pet. It's very defensive... I rely on my pet to deal lots of damage. My job is to keep him on his feet. If he dies, aggro will transfer to me... and that's where stasis comes in. Stasis self, rez and heal pet, and all is well. This will let you solo cl90 gold elites easily, and has the bonus of being more useful as a healer in instances.

Obviously there are many other builds you can try. Suff swears by a build with four pet specials, no stasis and vital strikes buffed all the way up.

Keeping Your Pet Happy and Well Fed

Your pet has likes and dislikes you must discover (planets, activities, and food), and these affect his mood (ranging from miserable to ecstatic and everything in between). A better mood = a more obedient pet who will deal a LOT more damage and get more XP towards both CL and loyalty level. VERY important... try doing lots of different things and visiting different planets with your pet and see what happens. Here's a quick list of possible likes and dislikes:

• Being on specific planets
  
• Being grouped (I believe that there's also a chance your pet could give the group an extra buff if he likes it)
  
• Being medic buffed
  
• Watching people dance or listening to music (doesn't have to be an ent... but can't be you. you have to be actively watching or listening to someone else)
  
• Killing creatures (some may prefer flying beasts to land beasts, not sure)
  
• Killing NPCs
  
• Killing droids (unconfirmed)
  
• Swimming
  
• Watching their master get incapped (yes, this is confirmed)
  
• Being slapped (or other mean emotes)
  
• Being petted (or other nice emotes)
  
• Doing Stupid Pet Tricks (this requires expertise on the other side of the BM tree)

You also need to find the type of pet food that makes your pet happy. It's very cheap on vendor. Here's a list... get them all and try each one till you get the prompt saying your pet is excited. Keep plenty of this on hand to feed him... he gets hungry often.

• Blubbery Fish Substitute
  
• Coarse Fish Substitute
  
• Cooked Fish Substitute
  
• Cooked Meat Substitute
  
• Dry Fruit Substitute
  
• Fatty Fish Substitute
  
• Fatty Meat Substitute
  
• Juicy Fruit Substitute
  
• Sour Fruit Substitute
  
• Stringy Meat Substitute
  
• Sweet Fruit Substitute
  
• Tender Meat Substitute

These topics are covered in-depth in the SWG forums Beastmaster FAQ.

Leveling Your Pet

OK, so now you have hatched your new friend and you want to get him to level 90 as quickly as possible. Me too! This is my guide for hurrying up and getting your pet to uber.

Before You Begin: Maxing Pet XP Gain

Firstly, you should get a factory crate of beast supplements that are for your pet type. This will make him level MUCH MUCH faster and are good through level 75. Here's a list:

Supplement A : Borgles Bats Banthas Bolmas Dewbacks Guf-Drolgs Mouf And Tulruses
Supplement B : Kittle Jaxs Sand-Panthers Gurrecks Kimas Langlatches Narglatches Tusk-cats Durnis Squalls Fanged Tiglons And Vir-Vurs
Supplement C : Wallungas Grauls Grondas Kash-banthas Rancors Snorbals Thunes Bagerasets Brakasets Eopies Falumpasets And Gurnasets
Supplement D : Fambaas Huf-Duns Malklocs Tortons Gnorts Gubburs Spined-pucs, Worrts and Chubaflys
Supplement E : Bolle-bols Condor-Dragons(mantrigues) Rontos Sharnaffs Ikops Murras Perleks Swirl-prongs Pikets And Vernes
Supplement F : Gurks Hanadaks Veermoks Gulginaws And Kai-toks
Supplement G : Bordoks Gualamas Krahbus Tybis Bocatts Bolotaurs Dune-Lizards Kimogilas varactyls Vesps And Voritor-lizards
Supplement H : Dalyrakes Klikniks Mereks Mamiens Purboles Shaupauts Skreegs Squills, Woolamanders & Mystingars
Supplement I : Capper-spineflaps Carrion-spats Corellian-butterflys Fynocks Mynocks And Vynocks
Supplement J : Boar-Wolves Motts Robas Peko-Peko, Reptillian Flyers And Zucca Boars
Supplement K : Winged Quenker, Blurrgs Cupas Kaadus Kwis Mawgaxes Pugoriss Quenker Stintaril And Womp-Rats And Blistmok
Supplement L : Bark-Mites Horned-Krevols Lava-Fleas Rock-Mites Shear-Mites Tanc-mites Crystal-Snakes Fanned-Rawls And Spined-Snakes
Supplement M : Anglers Gaping-spiders And Hermit-Spiders
Supplement N : Pharples Baz Nitch Nunas Chokus Slice-Hounds Huurtons And Kusaks

Once your pet hits CL75, you'll need the less effective (but still helpful) Mark II supplements of the same type to keep boosting XP.

Keep your pet's mood at ecstatic or very happy as much as possible to speed XP gain as well.

If you want to boost xp even more, there are now beast experience exotics to make attachments for clothing and armor (I haven't confirmed whether or not they are PUPable yet, but will know soon. The junk needed only drops off mobs in EK and ISD instances).

What To Kill

Your pet gets XP off any mob as long as it is no more than 20 levels below your pet's CL. It gets the same amount of XP regardless of difficulty. HOWEVER, YOU CANNOT HELP YOUR PET KILL ANY MOB LOWER THAN CL70. If you do, he will not get XP at all.

Here are my favorite grind spots because of their amazing spawn rates and in many cases awesome loot pools:

Levels 1-15: cl2 Chunker Punks behind Dearic, Talus starp at 283 -2856 ; alternately static spawns outside Bestine or Mos Eisley
Levels 15-38: cl18 Greater Tatooine Mynocks at -2713 2539 outside of Mos Espa
Levels 38-58: cl38 Braggan's Fist Thugs at -5246 -2001 outside Tyrena on Corellia
Levels 58-65: cl45 Chiss Poacher Defenders at -1110 0 in Etyyy Hunting Grounds on Kashyyyk; alternately, all Etyyy creatures are cl 45-50ish
Level 65 and up (you might need to bring a friend at first; feel free to ask me as I'm still grinding to BFF): cl79 Feral Wookies in the Rryatt Trail Webweaver Path on Kashyyyk (you can help kill these!)

For more grinding options, here's the awesome Complete Leveling Guide on the SWG forums.

Pet Grind Macros
I am the macro queen! I have a set of macros I use with a specially set up toolbar for pet grinding; in most cases this can allow you to happily grind your pet AFK or with only periodic attention.

Here's how I set up my toolbar... really, the only part you need to pay attention to is the bottom row. If you don't put things in the right toolbar slots, the macros won't work. Note that in a macro, to call the first toolbar slot the command is /ui toolbarSlot00 and you count up one as you go across from left to right.


From left to right, here's what is in the slots: Bacta Spray Mark 6, Nerve Gas Mark 3, Heal Beast Mark 3, Bacta Bomb Mark 5, Bacta Infusion Mark 3, Soothing Comfort, Vital Strike Mark 7, Metabolic Accelerators Mark 3, Nutrient Injection Mark 3, Pet Food, Beast Supplement, Revive Beast

Pet Buff Macro
This rather fancy macro will feed your pet once an hour, refresh your pet supplement every 15 minutes, and in addition give your pet a medic health and constitution buff every 30 minutes. Replace (petname) with your pet's name without the parenthesis. Name the macro petbuff to make it loop.

/tar (petname);
/ui action toolbarSlot07;
/pause 2;
/tar (petname);
/ui action toolbarSlot08;
/pause 2;
/ui action toolbarSlot09;
/pause 1;
/ui action toolbarSlot10;
/pause 965;
/ui action toolbarSlot10;
/pause 965;
/tar (petname);
/ui action toolbarSlot07;
/pause 2;
/tar (petname);
/ui action toolbarSlot08;
/pause 2;
/ui action toolbarSlot10;
/pause 965;
/ui action toolbarSlot10;
/pause 960;
/m petbuff

Pet Heal Macro for grinding mobs below cl70
This macro loops the area heal and beast heal, which don't need targeting. In most cases this should keep you and your pet nicely healed, even AFK. Name it petheal1

/ui action toolbarSlot00;
/pause 0.1;
/ui action toolbarSlot02;
/m petheal1

Pet Heal Macro with AOE for mobs cl70+
This macro is the same except with the added bonus of nerve gas, an aoe damage tick. You can only use it on cl70+ mobs because the AOE damage will negate your pet's XP on lower level mobs. It's great against feral wookies. Name it petheal2.

/ui action toolbarSlot00;
/pause 0.1;
/ui action toolbarSlot01;
/pause 0.1;
/ui action toolbarSlot02;
/m petheal2

For added zing when fighting wookies (or other mobs above level 70) AFK, you can balance a cup on your left mouse button to hold it down (this can be tricky). Provided you're set to autotarget, you'll automatically fire on any hostile target selected.

Pet Attack Macro With Autoloot Feature
This macro sends your pet to attack and then brings him back, more or less. Different mobs may require you to change the timing; play around with the pauses to see what works best. I included an autoloot feature in this because most of the grind spots I recommend have excellent loot pools. Name it petfight.

/ui action untarget;
/pause 0.5;
/ui action cycleTargetOutward;
/pause 0.5;
/ui action petToolbarSlot0;
/pause 0.5;
/tar corpse;
/loot;
/pause 3;
/m petfight

Alternate Method for Leveling
If you would like to keep your expertise all on being a medic while you're leveling your pet, you can kill anything level 70 and up with your pet on passive (blue icon furthest to the right on your pet toolbar). Your pet won't attack, but he'll get XP just the same. You only need 2 points of expertise in beastmaster for this to work... the reason I don't do it is because as a medic I think it would be harder to AFK level by killing things by myself.

Pet Loyalty Levels and Special Attacks

Every pet can learn several special attacks that will make them much more powerful. These attacks are what set different types of creatures apart from one another. These attacks mostly come in levels 1-5 and are based primarily on loyalty level. Your pet starts out Wild, then goes to Disobedient, then Trained, then Loyal, then Best Friends Forever. (best friends forever TAKES forever, but allows you to use far more powerful specials). Loyalty level is based on number of kills and modified by how happy your pet is for each kill.

Lists of special attacks and where to learn them, as well as further explanations of pet loyalty, are well described in the main Beastmaster FAQ, so I recommend reading about them there.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

Much love and good luck,
Cian

Really nice guide Cian, especially liked the macro section, ideal for those of us who get a nose bleed trying to construct macros. Really detailed

Thanks muchly

EL Bac0niz0r

glad you liked I try. I know a lot of the stuff I cover is in the main Beastmaster FAQ, but I tried to simplify things a bit, hit on the most important points, offer what is in my opinion the best options and then throw in some macros to make it easy.

I have plans to make a few other guides for guildies as well and add to the link lists... need to look that over and see what I use that's not on there.

Cheers!
Cian

awersome guide! i i will add the commando expertise tree when im not at work, dam proxy filters