Mercenary Analysis: Beast Master (10/29/08)

(This is an old Mercenary Analysis article. There is a current, revised version of it available here.)

An axe-toting mercenary that can summon beasts to attack the entire opposing formation.

Rank: C

Basic: Beast Trainer
Stats: Str 280, Dex 170, Def 800, Int 160, Vit 290, M.Def 175

Upgrade 1: Beast Tamer
Stats: Str 350, Dex 180, Def 900, Int 180, Vit 320, M.Def 175

Upgrade 2: Beast Master
Stats: Str 380, Dex 190, Def 1000, Int 210, Vit 350, M.Def 175

Upgrade 3: Zhu Rong
Stats: Str 400, Dex 210, Def 1000+, Int 230, Vit 370, M.Def 175

Upgrade 4: Hero Zhu Rong
Stats: Str 428, Dex 224, Def 1000+, Int 246, Vit 395, M.Def 175

Historical / Legendary Source:
Zhu Rong is the Chinese god of fire and ruler of the southern hemisphere from pre-Qin mythology. He is depicted as a proud man clad in armor wielding a sword and riding on a large tiger. He was one of the gods that helped separate Heaven and Earth and set up Universal Order.

He is most famous for battling his own son Gong Gong, who was a water demon responsible for causing floods. When Zhu Rong heard that his son was attempting to seize the throne of Heaven, he went to stop him. The two of them battled for days across Heaven until both plummeted down to Earth. Finally Gong Gong was defeated and sulked away in shame while Zhu Rong returned to Heaven triumphant, after having won a great battle.

(Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Rong)

Pros:

• Very high defense rating at very low upgrade stages.
• Giant Crystals are the cheapest of the Rank C crystals to obtain.
• Axes do high damage and hit a complete row.
• Beast Summon hits every person in an enemy formation for decent damage.
• The previous two points combined mean that a Beast Master can do damage over a widespread variety of targets.
• Decent magic defense compared to other melee mercenaries, and much better than the other axe mercenary, the Viking.
• AP regeneration increases slightly as mercenary is upgraded.

Cons:

• No way of reaching back rows except with Beast Summon.
• Has only a single skill, the skill itself merely average.
• Obnoxiously weak to Flame Sword, making it a sketchy choice for a front line mercenary.
• Despite decent defense, cannot wear a shield and is defeated handily by a large amount of melee mercenaries in actual melee.
• Giant Crystals better spent on upgrading an Exorcist.
• Despite upgrading AP regeneration, AP still regains slower than most other melee mercenaries (save for the Viking).
• No actual way of dealing high concentrated damage.

Abilities:

• Beast Summon: AoE, skill-based damage to enemy; requires special equipment to use. 150 AP cost. (7/10)

Breakdown:

The Beast Master is a very difficult mercenary to rate. It has its uses, and there are in fact builds that all but require a Beast Master to be effective. However, a complete lack of versatility means that this mecenary is not for everyone.

The Beast Master's main strength is its AoE damage ability. Because of this, it stands to reason that the build best suited to a Beast Master is one that does a good amount of AoE damage and has many different ways of doing this AoE damage. Since the Beast Master uses an axe, it has one point largely in its favor: melee damage. Axes do some of the highest melee damage in the game along with spears, with the major difference being that an axe can hit three mercenaries while a spear can at most hit two without magical assistance. Since the axe can hit everyone in a row, that means that if you drop someone on a front line, you can effectively hit the entire middle line with your axe. This is good if your AoE build also has the capability to stun your opponents, since it adds more stun combo threats to your enemies.

All in all, however, the Beast Master is hurt mainly by its lack of versatility. A Beast Master simply cannot be successful in just about any build; it is a very situational mercenary with a single, average ability. Besides its obvious applications in an AoE build there is no real reason to consider using a Beast Master except in an attempt to work her into a gimmick build. Lack of a reliable method of dealing concentrated high damage is another huge problem with the Beast Master that she will likely never be able to compensate for until very, very high levels with extraordinarily rigged equipment -- where she will still be outshone by better mercenary picks. Keep her in your AoE builds, use her quest for crystals for your Exorcist otherwise.

Example Build:

Refer to the first Build Analysis article, the AoE Damage Spread / Stun Hybrid build. The Beast Master has its home there as one of its actual, major strengths -- one of the few builds where the Beast Master will actually pull her weight and do it very well. It's in this build that the Beast Master earns her third score at the bottom (and will likely be the only mercenary to need such a distinction).

Total Grade: Early Game: 7/10 Late Game: 6/10
However, when used in specific builds can be as good as: 8/10