Mercenary Analysis: Beast Master (Revised)

(This is a revised Analysis. That means that there are significant changes in the writer's opinion from the time of the original writing of the first article and his current feelings on the mercenary. You can read the original article 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.
• Good vitality produces rather decent HP at later levels.
  
• Giant Crystals are about the cheapest of the Rank C crystals to obtain.
• Axes do high damage and hit a complete row.
• Full row attack means that Beast Masters are attractive targets for Brutal Will and Seth's Will.
• What seems to be a surprisingly attractive base combo rate combines well with the previous point.
  
• 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.
• High defense (even without a shield) means the Beast Master makes a decent backup tank to relieve and rotate your front line with.

Cons:

• No way of reaching back rows except with Beast Summon.
• Beast Summon is relatively weak until level 100, and even then it does not amount to much more than decent.
  
• Obnoxiously weak to Flame Sword, making it a sketchy choice for a front line mercenary.
• Despite decent base defense, not a good choice for a main front liner if you're tight on selection for your build.
  
• Giant Crystals are also required for Exorcists, a very attractive mercenary to spend Crystals on.
  
• Despite upgrading AP regeneration, AP still regains somewhat slower than most other melee mercenaries save for the Viking.

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.

That's what I originally thought. Here's how I feel now.

The Beast Master's first, obvious use 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.

Surprisingly enough, when you completely ignore its Beast Summon skill, the Beast Master can fit its way into many different kinds of builds. It makes a surprisingly decent, intelligent replacement for a Spearman in a three Spearman mid-row build, where its different attack that hits a row over a column proves to be very useful in some instances. Not only that, but it is better at taking damage than a Spearman, which means that the Beast Master might be the mercenary of choice to rotate your weakening front line with. This is all besides her obvious applications in an AoE build. With Seth's Will or Brutal Will, she actually does a good amonut of concentrated high damage, and with a Prophet in the group, her seemingly mediocre accuracy can be improved and her high damage axe can definitely be put to great use along with the aforementioned spells. She is a decent choice for those of you who want to have some variety in your straightforward Spearman strategies, a solid choice for AoE builds, and offers you a stronger mid-line mercenary to rotate your front row with when you need to lay down some heals. All in all, I was very unfair to her in the beginning, but my opinion of her strengths now has greatly improved. Just don't start her off in the front of a formation unless your entire goal is to bait out early Flame Swords, then hide her in the middle, heal her and Will her up.

Example Build:

Variety Option: The Row Sweeper

Level 95

F: LKN / SWO / EXO
M: VIK / BMA / X-M
B: MON / PRO / ORA

This build was made with the idea of being absolutely bizarre in mind. If you're willing to sit through with me for a little, I'll explain to you how this relatively unusual builds work.

Let's start off with the most unusual choice here: three axe users. Your main will be an axe user, and along with those you have your Beast Master and your Viking. So far so good. A lot of people will say, okay, this doesn't seem like a great idea: why would you run a Viking with an Axe main? Bear with me for a little.

The build itself provides a relatively strong front line. Exorcists can become comparable to Swordsmen in the front line if you hand them Guardian Stones, which is what you should be doing at this level anyways. Your front line is also capable of dealing some decent damage and has a major factor with you Exorcist, that aids in control (Mana Seal). This opens up the basic combo of Mana Seal + Freezing Axe on your opponent, already a good start. The idea here, of course, is for your Oracle's level 60 Seth's Will to fire off once you've executed this.

Get ready for an incredibly hilarious front line massacre. With very high Seth's Will, some good high level axes and three Axe users pounding away, it's almost guaranteed that the large amount of spread out damage amongst the three front row mercenaries is going ot stack up very, very quickly. The low AP of axe users is pretty much overcome by the ridiculously high amount of AP that Seth's Will hands to your mercenaries at the beginning of each turn. Have Concentrate up to 60 as well and enjoy what I'm thinking of dubbing the "Atlantica Chainsaw Massacre." You should see the majority of front lines drop within a couple of turns of your Seth's Will going off, gaps suddenly opening up everywhere, and all it takes from there is to hit Holy Guard on the mid row, tag into your Axe users and drop some Freezing Axes all over.

Why not two Vikings, you ask? Vikings have a very low amount of AP per turn, and they don't ever make a good front line rotation mercenary because of their propensity to get dropped faster than a bad habit. Beast Masters are much better to rotate your front row with and they have way more AP per turn. Your main is probably a better option to rotate with than a Viking, in all reality.

Total Grade: Early Game: 7/10 Late Game: 8/10