I wouldnt say they were jack of all trades, that title belongs to the bards, however yes, i agree with you. The only times i've ever wanted a bst was when i cant find a shammy to slow (i prefer bst to enc :P) or i have an extra slot and could use a bit of extra dps.
There abilities have made them desirable to groups though, and allowed them to survive in the game. want haste, slow, *heals*, dps, or a pet class a bst would be a good choice.
If you wait for Nek to respond she'll give you s much deeper and meaningful answer lol.

Well i play on E-Marr server and i'll tell ya its nice to have a Beastlord as my main, shes almost 65th lvl now and its been a wonderfull time. Some important things i feel should be said about this class. First and formost, this class definetively bridges the gaps in most grps by DPS overlapping and Off tanking abilities, make them usefull in any grp, also the have tons of buffs and they all stack with Shammy buffs and dots as well, they also have pretty good slows and stat/atk decreaser spells like incapacatate.

Secondly the have SoW. love the hell outa this spell before i bought a horsey :P, but it made me alot of donated cash too in my younger years.

As a solo class, they are just as much a fun class to play in groups as well as solo. I do recomend doing all the spell quests for this class, especially the gunthak Malaria spell, its a 67 dmg per tick stackable dot that hardly gets resisted as long as your conjure is up to par (130's) you should be fine.

Do all your prequest epics as well, for as your lvl rises it gets harder to go back and do them. for instance do your sewing skill from like 3rd lvl on if you can. Or plan on taking a extended period of time doing this trade skill, for it must be used to make your epic. Plus its a good source of income too. Alot of smithies will be your freind for leather padding for armor, which you also need for epic stuff.

Also do all the pet spell quests in your 55 to 60 range these are really nice procs for you pet. Most of them will be found in Maidens Eye ans Ahkehva Ruins, and neighboring areas.
Also go to East freeport for the merchant named Eyan or look for Firrion Roweus as well for buffs and other spells not found in PoK library. Most reagents are sold in PoK near Potion Merchants in the general supplies people outside and in the npc merchants in baz.(such as batwing for Lev, and so on..)

Do research in your 55's and on for spell upgrades or other spells, otherwise you can buy them from traders in baz or just ask someone and pay them to do it.

Plan on paying through the nose for these though, which its easier to just do it yourself and not to mention way cheaper. If your wondering what to buy this class, i suggest cultural armor as soon as possible because its semi cheap and has nice stats with 3 slots for augs :) which will be filled when you start raiding.
Also go find some Polished Steel Ulaks for your teens through 40's, it raises hand to hand skill for you epic and also gives you ac as well and has decent stats for the lvl.

There ya go ina nutshell, hope this adds to the rest of the info in these threads.

Mistress Knarii Hellkitti of Erollisi Marr,<Knights Blade>
Savage Lord 64th Level Beastlord.

(Beastlord pets dont know the meaning of "back off!")