Are you not a Level 70 Beastlord?

[Tastian]

A lot of times on forums like these attention gets focused on the higher(est) end.  Randomly I'll have someone mention the lower levels, but not too often.  Especially with some classes getting new auras in PoR the issue of lower level bst has come up a bit more.  What I'd like to do is hear from some of the recent/current lower level bst with their experiences/problems/issues.  If you don't feel comfortable posting please feel free as always to just PM/e-mail me.

I ask that you try to post a bit of information about your situation though to help give your comments some setting.  If you just solo, are twinked, are an alt, first char, server issues, dedicated duo, multi-box, etc.

Do you have trouble finding groups?  Is it because you are a bst or just not a lot around your level range?  What do you usually do in groups?

Have certain spell issues or something you think is missing?  Lots of spells got redistributed level wise but does anything still seem off to you?

*shrugs*  Whatever you think fits, fire away...

[Shieara]

/ponder

I'm not sure I am qualified to answer since I do have a level 70 beastlord.

However, I also have a level 39 alt (got 39 last night, woot woot) beastlord on FV and another on Saryn that's 24.  So I have been messing around with the lower end game as well.  I make alts on servers other then my main to avoid the temptations of twinking.  My characters are entirely geared through newbie quests and some bazaar hunting.  I used no monster missions to level them, had no assistance.  However, I can't do anything about the knowledge I have of the game already so it is not really a new player's perspective.

Solo Game :  Beastlords have always been strong soloers, especially at the lower levels.  From my experience, this has not changed.  The spell redistribution helped a lot.  One thing I noticed, however, is that there still is a big gap between pets.  The last two levels before my 39 pet I got through were rough for me to solo, and the pet was light blue before I was done.  Shifting the "hell level" pets down another level or two I think would be an improvement.  Otherwise, I don't see much that we need solo.

Grouping : Every now and then I find one but I have to be really aggressive.  The only luck I have had is during prime time and then the majority of the time it has been me butting in on a powerleveler or two-boxer who took pity on me.  I won't discuss the ones that saw me lfg soloing and decided that was their cue to waltz right in and kill every mob in the area I was working in without even asking.  /grumble...bunny powerleveler bunnies.

I did have much more luck getting groups when I was doing the lowbie armor missions.  Since other "new" people were doing those I ran into them and we just grouped for the missions.  I would recommend extending these, perhaps even into the 50s.  I actually found them fun and it was enjoyable to find other people with similar goals to work with.  If not this, more tasks with decent gear rewards should be available.

In discussing gear, we need to realize that a new low-level player will never have the same gear as a twink.  This has caused problems in lower level groups composed of mainlly twinked people who expect newbies to keep up with them.  In my experience, it causes frusteration from both parties.  I'm not really sure of a solution to this, but I can tell you that nothing is worse then getting in a group that is just too fast-paced for you and feeling like you are holding everyone else back.

Basically I think in order for low-level grouping to remain viable a few things have to happen.  First, we need to try to consolidate people into the same zones more.  This can be done via quests,  experience bonuses, etc.  The emails they send when you level should not send you to a new zone every level.   I know leveling treadmills are bad, but when you have the ten people around level 20 scattered all over the world that is bad too.

Another thing I think they need to do is insert a better guide on grouping into the tutorial.  They need to go through and explain the lfg window and how to use it much more explicitly.  In the inventory of new players also should go a "Guide to the assemblage of groupmates." book that defines the basics needs and roles of a group. 

Lastly the gear gap needs to be closed some.  It is *really* hard to catch up these days.  It's easy to look at it as "you had better gear then I did when I was level 30", but the game has changed and lower levels need to adjust for this too.  Even a lot of the good lower level money makers has changed.  Spider silks and bone chips are not going for what they used to, and gear is costing more.

Well those are my opinions, anyways.

[Taiglin]

I really don't want to derail the main effort of the thread but something in Shieara's post got me thinking. What separates the newbie quests from the rest of the task system is the fact that you are led from leaving the tutorial to the NPCs in PoK. Once those are done my impression is the "hand holding"/leading to the next taskmaster ends. To be honest I haven't done any of the tasks since they went live. My impression though is you go to a zone, happen to find an NPC, that person has you do whatever in that zone or one right next to it (ie go into a dungeon). They are very stand alone.

What WoW does really well in this regard is give you a sense of zone progression and progression into the next zone by giving you a delivery quest or whatever. If this sort of thing were to happen in EQ I think it would help with (some of) the lfg problem regardless of class - something that Shieara's post seems to indicate as well. ie There is someone in PoK who needs you to talk to Bob in Lavastorm. Bob happens to also have an issue with X mobs or whatever. Others are in the area also trying to help Bob out so you group up. As it is now my impression of LS is a way to get to DoNs, the MM, SolA/B, etc. The other side of the equation is a couple of the Arcstone/Relic quests. I mean how dumb is it for you to go through Arcstone into Relic to happen upon 2 guys that give quests to kill mobs in Arcstone - all after you have probably spent time fighting in Arcstone becuase of the "Evercamp" mentality? That said and understanding this is a new zone I see /ooc chatter in Arc where people DO have the Relic quests and pull together hunting groups.

Anyway, like I said I didn't want to derail the main effort of the thread. Tast - feel free to delete all or parts of this as needed.

[Sanois]

I dont know if I qualify as a newb, I have been playing for 3 years now and have seen everything from newbie zones to Qvic.  Sanois, my beastlord is actually an alt for me, however I am thinking about making him my main (70 cleric is my main).  I have also been leveling my wife a beastlord and she is currently 32.  Sanois was started before the spells were changed and my wife, Neandora was started after they were changed.  I found it easier for me to level my beast before the spells were changed because they moved all the buff spells down and all the damage spells up so you have to level further to get the damage spells and that has really slowed down her ability to level.

The emails they send you on where you should go at level X are not very well set up, half the time they send you to a zone were everything is light blue and green then the other half of the time they send you to areas where you would die getting there.  At 31 or 32 they sent my son an email saying to go to iceclad......

Early to mid 30's has always been tough and I am not sure why.  This goes for every class I have played; pally, cleric, beast, ranger, druid.

Gear:  well as I said earlier my main is a 70 cleric, I have twinked my beast, however my wife did some questing for some of her gear.  she has some of the stuff that I took off my beast when he hit 55 but some slots she has nothing and some she has twink stuff.  I did that cause I want her to have to learn some of the game stuff as we level her, not just have everything handed to her.

Most of the time I solo or duo with a friend who has a 52 rogue but when I do group I have trouble because I am so overgeared that I end up tanking and not playing DSP in the background.

other game changes:  I tried to do a DoN with a group of 55's and even as twinked as I am with a shammy, cleric, warrior, beast and I dont remeber what the other 2 were but I know the warrior was twink also and we were getting hit way to hard for a 55 mission, we wiped in the first room...  Mobs in the mission were blue to red.

[tunr]

I have been playing for a little over 2 years now. I am about half way thru 66 atm.

I have been compairing what I did in the younger lvls as to what I am doing now.

In the lower lvls I was able to get a group pretty easily, so much so that I would get tells to come join groups. Now I have to activly seek groups or start one myself, especially if there are no guild memebers online at the time or available. I picked up a second account that has a druid/cleric on it so I mostly 2 box. I have also found that most of the zones for the 66+ range dont give the exp like some of the zones did.(ie the exp bar moves alot slower than it used to). Watching the exp bar move less that 1% per kill is disheartining. The only zones where I find the exp bar moves at 2% or more a kill is when I am in a grp in the tier 2 pop zones or the higher end zones of the new expansions and that is due to the mobs conning yel or red to me. since the gear I have is not suited for the new zones I find that my surviabilty is on the low side when I hunt there. Which in turn causes me to not want to hunt there unless I am in a full group. It's knid of a dubble edged sword in that I need to hunt in the newer zones to get the faction/parts to make the new armor so I can survive in them, however I cant solo there so I am less inclided to work on it.

I dont farm for plat, and there is no money to be had in the tradeskills unless you are doing the Augs (which goes back to hunting in zones for skill up items that I cant solo in) so getting pp for buying upgrades from the bazzar is few and far between.

Another thing I find overwhelming is there are soo many zones to go to. I started playing when yek came out so I have missed much of the old content and I have little hope of seeing much of the higher end content as well since I am not in a uber raiding guild. If I were in a uber raiding guild I think the zones would go by so fast that I would have little hope of seening all there is about a particular zone. (as an example, I have done Behemoth in PoI 4 times and each time I have been in a spider group. Not once have I really seen the room he is in or been part of the group that fights him directly) I'd like to get my sleepers, VT & VP keys but Im afraid that by the time I do get the keys done that the exp I will gain from hunting there will be next to nill per mob kill.

I dont think from a armor stand point that I have any issues other than being able to get the items to make the OoW, DoN oro PoR armor. I dont parse my attacks so I dont know if my dps is on par with what I should be doing based on my lvl and gear and as long as I hunt in older zones I dont have issues with my spells landing or doing enough damage in the case of DoTs. I was upset about the change in agro for the DoTs because I was using them to gain agro when I needed it.

Issues with pet: again this is based on what zone I am hunting in and for the most part if Im in older zones then fluffy has no problems, its when Im in OoW, DoN, DoD or PoR zones that his abilities as are mine diminish. But then again I dont consider the zones in and after OoW to be friendly to characters who have not done PoP Tier 3 or higher as that is what level of gear the mobs in these zones appear to be scaled for.

As for Monster Missions they are a fast way to gain exp and get to 70 in a hurry or grind out a 100 aa's in a weekend. I have done a few of the MM before all the nerfing and found them challenging, now with all of the nerfs to stop the exp leaches and placate all those who were whining about how easy they were to do, etc has made the MM almost unplayable in my opinion.

[Sikem]

I have a 62 Beastlord.  I am on the FV server (limit one character) and re-rolled a BL in December with about 8K plat on hand and a couple of pieces of gear (SCHW for ex).  On my server getting groups is pretty tough sub 65.  Which is one of the reasons I re-rolled.  Most of my time has been in solo play and has been feasible all the way up, with a few tough levels in there in which the pet could not hang in there.

Since it is much easier to find a partner than a group, I have tried to find someone to keep me company as we hunt.  In that environment I seem to do very well and the only problem is keeping up with manna since I can do so many different things.  The only limitation there is if I try to tank high blues or if CC is an issue.

I do raid with my guild, but I am not sure how useful they consider me.  One raid they had me shrink everyone.  I am asked for Beast Crack every raid.  But I do not contribute that much in DPS (mostly a level issue I think) and my pets do not survive, heheh nor me usually.  And of course about 30% of the time I have to destroy my pet either because NO PETS are allowed or because I do not have /hold yet.

My biggest challenge ATM is the POP BL Quest spells.  Some are sold and others are not.  Getting the parchments seems very difficult.  I still do not have IOS. 

But overall I am still happy with the class.  I still do well in the intended situations I think.  I am disappopinted a little in my melee DPS, but the pet tanking so well at this level makes up for it.


Charlie

[Tiroon]

I ask that you try to post a bit of information about your situation though to help give your comments some setting.  If you just solo, are twinked, are an alt, first char, server issues, dedicated duo, multi-box, etc.

I came to EQ pretty late i.e. during LDoN era. I started with a gnome mage pretty much the same day SOE made the newbie zone all but unusable with the 5th anniversary skelly invasion. After getting to level 8 or so I decided to take some time off from my mage - just a little time until the skelly invasion was over - and rolled a beastie. 8-)

I belong to a family guild that has players on-line pretty much all the time but guild groups that are strong enough to take on anything meaningful usually form at the tail end of my (European) playing time.

I pretty much soloed Ti from scratch to 62.200 before DoD and MM's hit and at the moment play mostly two-boxing. I started the second account because, after some thought, I wanted to two-box with a druid. So I rolled the druid, twinked it, and then leveled.... a chanter to 64.80 *sigh*.

I have a host of low level alts, all on the same server so I can twink them shamelessly. I started twinking them after I found it nearly impossible to gain skill-ups while leveling normally on an untwinked toon (I did a lot of farming with Ti at low level to be able to buy some gear while the high levels guildies hunted in Unrest and other high level zones). I tend to deliberately avoid grouping with a character until hitting the 40's just to get/keep the skills of my toons to an acceptable level.

Do you have trouble finding groups?  Is it because you are a bst or just not a lot around your level range?  What do you usually do in groups?

I can usually find groups as a slower if I look for them long enough in appropriate zones. Most of the time though I don't bother and just go hunting instead of playing the search for group game. Also with MM's most people have zoomed to 70 and finding groups lower than that is no longer as easy as to used to be, even on Stromm.

Have certain spell issues or something you think is missing?  Lots of spells got redistributed level wise but does anything still seem off to you?

Ummm what is missing for me is any real incentive to level up when it comes to spells. I mean what's there? A new pet at 68 which is cool and all but what else? Certainly not the proc with its nerfed stun component lol. The reason I am still at 65 is that from now on leveling will no longer increase my powers, but, relative to what I will be fighting I feel like going to gimp-land.

In the end I most likely will start to level again because my chanter has some very nice spells waiting on the road to 68. Basically I'll level the beastie because of my chanter alt. Sad, really sad.

[Mangorn]

Like Tunr, I'm also on Saryrn, even grouped/raided with him a few times, as a good friend of mine is in his guild. My situation's a little different from his though. My BST isn't my first character. I started with a pally about 4 years ago, but only went to 16 with him, then switched servers and started a cleric, who I leveled to 51, the HARD way with a friend. Got burned out, and decided to start a BST when they were introduced. I leveled him up (duo with a mage) also the hard way, with no twinking at all, and managed after much effort to get him to 65, with 235 aa's, where he sits now. I've picked up a couple of raid drops via my pickup EP progression, which I finally finished up about 3 weeks ago, so I'm 3/4 EP flagged, and 1 kill short of Fire. Been to time once on a pickup raid about two weeks ago that bombed due to SoE's screwing up the scripts with the Aura's. Aside from that however, I spend about 85% of my time with friends and guildies, and 15% duoing with my 65 mage. I've played the bazaar market quite a bit, and as a result managed to buy some decent upgrades. I think I'm wearing two or three raid drops, otherwise entirely bazaar bought/group farmed. My aa's and my decent gear put me into a situation where I can tank somewhat reliably in many zones if I can get a group, but frequently I have to form them myself, and even then I get a huge number of rejections because the LFG list looks like this: 60,61,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70....ad infinitum....there just isn't anybody in the mid 60's anymore, and a lvl 65 character trying to form a group of lvl 70's gets a lot of rejections from people.

I went full defensive aa's and I've maxed those out for lvl 65, and now I'm working healing/offensives for a bit. I held off going past 65 due mostly to reading boards here and talking to other BST's who tell me that the advantages aren't really worth it past 65 at this point. Since my small family guild has issues raiding even old PoP content, it seems somewhat of a moot point anyway. I'd like to work my way through some GM gear, but that's gonna take a lot of time and money. I'm somewhat stuck at the moment as I vacillate on where to go. I have quite a few options for duoing as long as I stay at 65, though those zones are starting to wear thin around the edges from my travelling through them so many times.

Grouping is a severe issue for me at 65 however. Getting groups in OoW is virtually impossible, because it's full of lvl 70's who only look at your level and say they don't want me. DoN's are spotty, occasional groups happen, but again rare. DoD progression, DoN progression, and the harder OoW zones therefore are mostly out for me. Though I'm EP flagged now, and I visit them regularly, I've yet to get a group in any of them, as they're mostly deserted. This leaves guild/friend groups as my only option. Unfortunately my guild has a very high percentage of druids, and a group of BST/MAG/DRU/DRU/DRU/DRU isn't the most efficient. Not to say that we haven't done some pretty amazing things for having bizarre group setups either. We do have a couple of tanks, a monk, and a couple of clerics, so we've got the core of a raid, minus CC, but we're missing a lot, so mostly grouping, and pickup raids are my primary options. Generally speaking, for the xp places I go, I'm usually functioning as main slower/tank or backup DPS if I can blackmail my one guildy tank to go with us. With a full group, even in an obscure configuration we manage to do moderately well in most old world content, and all of tier1, and some of tier2 PoP. Unfortunately we can't handle the OoW/DoN's that drop anything that would be of value. The mobs are just too wicked with affordable bazaar gear. DoD progressions have some nice drops, but for the most part are again out of our reach I suspect (haven't actually tried any yet, so could be wrong). Average group level of 65-67, but usually on the lower end of that scale. There are only 3 lvl 70's in our guild, and like 2 or 3 people between 65 and 70, not always playing when we can group together either.

Overall I can't complain too much in a general sense, I can function in a multitude of situations, as our class was intended. I can duo quite easily against dblues that still give me plenty of xp (1-3% depending on location) and cash loot is always accessible if I'm in need, and willing to expend the effort. I do have to complain about my problems with groups though. Especially since the MM fiasco's, although guildies are almost always good suckers. In part because they know how I play, and that we can take on mobs that a pickup group would tend to balk at. Getting tired of some of the older content though, as that's where I'm predominantly restricted to, grouping being such an issue, and many of the newer zone expansions tear me up pretty bad. I can take a few hits from a WoS mob, but that's about the extent of it. I'm certainly not going to be able to do anything there without a group unless I get some serious upgrades to my gear, which isn't going to happen without a group either. Spells are another issue, though I've finally farmed enough EP/SP's to get all of my spells up to 64 that I found of any value (I have no use for a couple of those GoD spells. What possible use could I have for a less effective healing spell than what I have?!? Yea, yea, I know, there're other discussions about this elsewhere, but my point is, that they're a waste of time/money/effort to get) My 65 spells are a royal pain in the arse though, since the glyphed rune words are raid drops, and I rarely get many raid opportunities. (Maybe a few more now that I can assist on Planar progression for drops instead of flags) Otherwise I'm SoL. Looking at what's ahead if I do decide to level, I'm cringing at the need to get the muramite's for spells, or get Progression quests for spells now that those are all "old" content and people rarely do 'em at all anymore, when they do, I'm not one of the included ones.

Additionally I have levelled up a 65 War/Cle duo with about 140 aa's each that I play, and so I've sort of gone to the situation where I'll play the BST/MAG if I want to duo somewhere, or maybe go with a guild/friend group, but have no expectations for any kind of a pickup invite usually. If I want group content, or to go somewhere new, and good I'll pull out the War/Cle set and make up a group if need be. I'm still a bit chicken with the warrior though and haven't pushed him for any of the named content stuff where I might potentially pick up upgrades for the BST, but since those would mostly be nodrop's I've not really gained anything from that perspective either. I basically have a duo group for when I want to do something by myself and a duo group for grouping, which kinda sucks.

[Zarraphel]

I am a level 56 beastlord on Luclin.

It is my first character in everquest, and I started him around august last year. I started playing because I was fed up with DAoC after 5 years (I had simply seen all the zones, done all there was to do, it was a great game, but not much left to explore for me). So I'm an experienced MMORG player but still a everquest newbie.

I came in the situation where I started playing through my girlfriend, who starting playing through a co-worker, who was allready an experienced player. (level 66). So my gear is a strange mixture of a few pieces I got from people we know in the game, some bazaar shopping and some from quests. (I rhink that I walked around with Dark One Bracers up untill level 52....).

I've found the beastlord class enjoyable to play, easier to solo than to play in a group to be honest. When you solo the beastlord's flexibility means that it's easy to adjust him to your style of play. I personally have a few styles of play depending on my schedule (Sometimes I play in bursts of 10 minutes with breaks, sometimes I play for a couple of hours straight, sometimes I pull a mob once every 5 mins while busy in the house etc). It is great that you can do that with the beastlord, in groups the class feels like it tries to be a little bit of everything, which at times make it feel there's nothing it really is. Sure getting the first beasty crack was great for being welcomed into groups, but in all reality only made that situation worse in part. Because Spiritual Radiance, is really completely unlike any of the other qualities the beastlord has.

All in all I like the class,  the only thing that really stands out is that it would have been nice if the role a beastlord plays in a group had been a little bit better defined, that there was something we'd actually be good in.

[MowtaynLyoness]

I think you have 4 types of beastlords that you actually need to think about.

1>The MM alts, that can range anywhere from lvl 50 to 70 and really don't know the class. (the really annoying ones that pretend they know the class but ask for SoW or some other low level stupid buff)

2>Those that are below 65......the "newb" class, because for the most part they don't have aa's either.  But, have actually played the class and stayed out of MM when they were so popular. 

3>Those that are lvl 70 but are not of the "uber" part of 70.  Meaning they don't raid when they log on.  They do more of prancing around trying new things, spent most of their time grinding up to lvl 70 or grinding up AAs.  But may not be KT flagged or done any raids along those lines.  Probably don't have max stats on everything, missing spells....etc

4> The lvl 70 hard core raider with every flag (or close to it) every spell, they have more play time, because they managed to rack up 1000 AAs.....etc....those that can solo every mob in the game (the ones that everyone else aspires to become)


However, I would like to point out that playing a beastlord at each type is very different.  I fall into category 3.  I'm lvl 70,  I play a different game then those that are hard core raiders.  Here's where I have the most problems.  70 cleric and 70 beastlord lfg (husband wife team, not two boxing) in let's say MPG when it was new(still happens in almost every spell mission or spell farming)......first tell is who is cleric and how much mana, second tell is how many hps (for beast).....then get turned down for a group....because either not enough mana on cleric or not enough hps on beast (or no SA for beast or conv for cleric was a no group thing for awhile).......so what comes first the spells or the armor? you seem to need the armor to have enough "whatever" to get the groups to get the spells, however you need the spells to be able to fight in areas/do quests to get the armor.....so it's a situation of "what comes first the chicken or the egg"   It is in my opinion, that spells should be vendor bought, none of this go fight here and wait for a rare drop to roll on to get a spell.  Or this do a bunch of missions talk to someone a hundred times and get a spell.  The reward for leveling up should be your main spells.  For a beast that would be your pet and pet buffs, your slows and your mana regen.  Make the nicety spells like heals, ios buffs the quested or hunted for, but give us something to work with in the zones that the quests are in.  Like for clerics, their main spells are heals and hp buffs, and make their dead dot's, nukes, and whatever else the quested items. 

I see this as solving some of the problem with the type 1 characters and makes the game more playable for the type 2 and 3 characters.  As well, when the hard core raider isn't raiding, they can quest for armors or augs or something other then spells, and when doing these quests, with difficult mobs to match their level of equipment.  As well, pick up groups aren't as scary for anyone, because at least the characters have their main spells.

I like the way the beast plays.  I can't stand playing any of my other characters  for more then a hour at a time (have a lvl 70 druid ...my first character, lvl 60 enchanter, lvl 40 mage etc........).  I love my beast, i've always fit in and been able to do whatever whether it be solo, duo or full group or something in between.   

So, I guess you could say my biggest gripe about leveling up a beastlord or any other character for that matter is that you can't get the spells that define your character.  More pointedly, from lvl 51 to lvl 63 on a beast,  you cannot easily obtain your pet proc (spirit of snow and spirit of fire) This was incredibly difficult as my husband recently leveled up his beastlord (the old fasioned way of actually playing the class).  It actually took him to lvl 65 to find the lvl 63 proc.......and that was with griding up in groups from 63 to 65 in BoT hoping to get his spells. 

I don't think there is a problem as far as group function or solobility lvling up a beast, the problem comes with spells, and it's true for all classes, not just beasts.  I'm not sure this is exactly what you are looking for, but I see so many posts where the uber beasts are so bothered about how unfunctional they are and the new spells are crap etc..... which is what started this post to begin with.   However, I think if the main spells became available without hunting runes or questing, you'd see more changes in the beast class and what they get......because you'd have a larger population complaining about spells and doing /feedback ingame. 

Mowtayn Lyoness

[Zarraphel]

Just to clarify further, I would fall into category 2.

I've done a few MMs (all in all less than 20 and 7 different ones at that).

I've got a single AA (because at level 51 I put AA exp on 10% so I would have "dings" to look forward too slightly more often... hehe)

I've chosen regen before run, because at that point I was mainly exping outside, but now I'm starting to regret that a little bit since I get group in inside zone more and more often.

[shenk]

I've started a few alts here and there, but usually give up on them for the simple fact that I can't find groups.  Don't think it is a matter of what class you pick but rather that there aren't a lot of new people playing everquest and most have thier mains at 70 and just toy around from time to time with alts.  Second, many use MMs to level up alts quickly so starting out on a new server or trying to experiment with a different class can be difficult unless they can solo well.

[Birdienumnum]

A level 62 Beastlord. (left EQ in mid November, just returned)
I consider myself a casual player. My time in EQ is spent solo most of the time. Not through choice, but mainly through lack of groups for my level.

Main gripe: Playing, having fun, getting new stuff is fun till about level 50, when EverQuest becomes EverGrind.
Gripe 2: Gear. This class is one of the few that needs good gear, as well as weapons and spells. Neat,! This is why I like the class. BUT, it becomes a drain of funds to keep up to stay effective, in a group, or solo. I agree with Mawtayn on availability of spells.
The gear suitable for a Beastlord from the midlevels and up must be either bazaar bought, or obtained from zones that are way above the poor Beasties level. The bazaar prices for the gear is very high for a player that does not spend hours and hours every day/night on EverQuest.  The variety of gear, and of Beastlord suitable weapons becomes small, and very zone/fight specific.
Gripe 3: AA's.  I am at the stage where I need to get 2 points, then 4 points, then 6 points for an AA. Then do it again for another. And another. and another.

[Ikkorus]

Gripe 3: AA's.  I am at the stage where I need to get 2 points, then 4 points, then 6 points for an AA. Then do it again for another. And another. and another.

As opposed to the stage where you need 3, 6, 9?  Or the stage where you need 5, 5, 5, 5, 5?  Man I would KILL to go back to having AA's that capped with the max cost at 6...

[shenk]

Gripe 3: AA's.  I am at the stage where I need to get 2 points, then 4 points, then 6 points for an AA. Then do it again for another. And another. and another.

As opposed to the stage where you need 3, 6, 9?  Or the stage where you need 5, 5, 5, 5, 5?  Man I would KILL to go back to having AA's that capped with the max cost at 6...

LOL remember when Pet Affinity was 20?