When I stopped playing years ago, probably around 2007ish, and I was playing a Beastlord as my main. I also had a Druid that had been my main till the Beastlord was introduced. I had popped in here and there, but never really stayed. Now I am thinking about putting this back into my rotation of games. I mostly soloed both and occasionally grouped/raided. I have maintained my soling in all games that I play. I really do enjoy it.
BST is a great soloing class. There was a looong dry spell where they did not let BST warder hold aggro over players ANYWHERE, but now that they at least allow them to hold aggro outside of missions, BST pets make great tanks. For max aggro on warder, be sure to use your Protection buff, a Cripple buff, Hobble of Spirits, and use Mage aggro weaps when available. Also be sure to have Pet Taunt on. Don't use buffs that reduce aggro. You have to look at the spell descriptions. And NEVER, I mean NEVER, use Bestial Bloodrage during a burn, since it has an aggro reducing component. The only downside to using Warder to tank is lack of AE aggro. In cases where you get a bad pull, Protective Spirit Discipline is your friend.
Bst is an excellent soloer, the pet is an incredibly strong tank, only lacking in aoe agro, which is pointless for soloing since you'd want smaller pulls. The pet can tank multiple mobs, the bst has pet hot, pet promise heal, pet spam heal/cure, and pet heal proc. BST DPS is good also. If you do ever group, bsts provide excellent group benefits as well (mana regen and melee dps boosts) and can tank everywhere except a few group missions that provide coins for type 5 augs (can tank in those as well but only for ranged group, I've tanked both many times on my bst but no one can enter melee range w/o taking agro). That said, imo, EQ is a horrible solo game. It's doable, but I'd rather play a different game. If you aren't coming back to try grouping or raiding, it's just a long slow slog to get anywhere.
