Curse

ComMan · Jun 06, 2005, 06:31 AM // 06:31

Warthogs are in post-searing too, just not until Magumma Jungle.

I don't think there's actually a difference between pet stats, just cosmetic.

I also don't think they do noticable damage (but my Beast Mastery is really low and I haven't messed with the pet skill tree). They're handy as free damage over time, but all too often I've had one die right when an enemy us rezzing. Your team will get rightfully pissed when you fail to get that Distracting Shot off because your pet died.

They're a cool idea, but they need to be made worthwhile. If they didn't penalize you so much for having a pet (risk of the skill disable, waste of a skill slot), then I'd be more tempted to use mine. As it stands, they're just a gimmick that Rangers had to have because every other RPG has them.

PS- there's an NPC with a pet spider, but I've never seen a player with one.

Rhedd · Jun 06, 2005, 07:02 AM // 07:02

You really shouldn't judge a pet's effectiveness if you admit to having a "really low" Beast Mastery.

I'm lvl 15 with a 9 Beastmastery and a lvl 15 Moa. I carry a max damage bow and my noble chicken can deal nearly as much damage as I can over time. Add an attack that causes bleeding for almost 20 seconds and another that gives him a base damage reduction of 9, and his tanking ability is DEFINITELY worth the 'wasted' skill slot to have a pet.

He's the reason I've done many of my quests completely solo, without even henchmen.

Like any skill, though, you need to specialize in it a bit if you expect it to be really effective.

Pets are underrated. And they're cute, too. Mine eats worms. ^_^

Morat · Jun 06, 2005, 09:04 AM // 09:04

I think pets are very underrated. I often join PUGs where the rangers don't even have one with them, or they don't equip comfort animal so it dies 1 time and is useless. People! If you don't res your pet he will never level! Mine is now level 18 and he's awesome. Just a stalker but something very special - I get a free meatshie-err.. Warrior

when I go into parties. Also I was in a PUG with 4 Rangers, each with a pet and the damage they put onto a target was just insane

They are also fun in the PvP arenas. If you set 2-3 pets on one warrior, that warrior is STUCK still ready for the eles to cremate

Take your pet wherever you go and res him as soon as it is safe to do so. In the long run you'll be happy you did.

Korgy · Jun 06, 2005, 10:08 AM // 10:08

You can find Black Widows deep in UW.

Weezer_Blue · Jun 06, 2005, 10:32 AM // 10:32

spider... capturable in underworld. saw a cool screen of one.

s4nder · Jun 06, 2005, 11:05 AM // 11:05

Black Widows can be tamed in the Underworld. According to a research in gwonline.net all pets have the exact same stats at the same levels. They tested different pets and found out all of them have an AL of 60 (at lvl 20) and attack approximately every 2.1 seconds. AL 60 means that they have the same armor as casters... it's like having a mesmer or an elementalist tank for you. Beast Mastery greatly enhances pet damage though, so if you want your pet to hurt someone, get BM up to 10-12.

I used a warthog until lvl it was level 20, then tamed a lizard and got it to 20 aswell. Pets are fun but in the end they don't really do anything for the 2-3 slots wasted on them. My level 20 lizard still died constantly, even with buffs and despite the fact that I always took most of the hits as a warrior. The damage they do is almost unnoticable aswell. So I remade my warrior and joined the W/Mo croud.

As much as I'd like to have a pet companion, once you meet the hydras you'll see what I mean. I couldn't use my skills most of the time because either the pet had just died or I had just ressed it. In conclusion, as of now, pets aren't worth it. What I'd like to see is pets using skills that drain their OWN damn energy. Why do I have to waste MY energy so the PET can bleed someone?! Pets need to be rethought and improved or fewer and fewer people will ever use them.

Willy Rockwell · Jun 06, 2005, 12:01 PM // 12:01

my wolf Snowball takes -70 damage with each bite and I just bought a major Beast Mastery rune. Can't wait to see how that affects his performance.
A good pet is at least equal to an extra henchman.

womble · Jun 06, 2005, 01:10 PM // 13:10

Valerius:

Quote:

...when pets die.... do they get a DP% ?

I've seen it said they do. Hard to tell, though, when there's no data displayed as to damage dished or sustained...

S4nder:

Quote:

...once you meet the hydras you'll see what I mean.

? I got to the Hydras last night, and I (E/R 12, firestorm, eruption, fireball, with Firemagic 9, Beast Mastery 3) and my Stalker (Lv11) took out a hydra without me having to cast any Flares at all. Burma was taking great chunks out of the beastie's life monitor.

There's a Boss in Traveller's Vale on a Mammoth... the entire party had wiped except for one, and Burma was beating the Boss on her own (I got to watch, lying dead) before the sole party member got back to help her...

Pets aren't necessarily useless, but I imagine it's possible that there's a way of them developing so they don't work so well. Since there's no direct feedback on what they do, it's really hard to tell what the truth is.

Silent · Jun 06, 2005, 01:25 PM // 13:25

After recently releasing my lvl 20 stalker into the care of Jarrel I picked up a snow wolf called Fang. The problem I've noticed is whenever I fight low level enemys such as the stone summit etc, I don't receive any XP does this mean that Fang is also receiving 0 XP because it's incredibly hard to keep him alive in the crystal desert.

Phoenix Denfer · Jun 06, 2005, 03:21 PM // 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhedd

Like any skill, though, you need to specialize in it a bit if you expect it to be really effective.

The above quote sums it up the best. I was taken by surprise when I lost my skills the first time my pet died and I thought it was a bug.

I was first very upset about this "change since beta" but then I started to put points into beast mastery and find "attacks" to use. The one I'm using now, my cat can heal himself, so it takes some of the burden off of me to stop to heal him in battle.

When I started paying attention to my pet and devising ways to use him as part of my defence instead of a kinda nice tag along, I was amazed how effective they can be. My last mission with the guild I would use him to help pull warriors away from our monk and elementist or to deal damage in a group that I was using chaos storm on.

I also believe they do level faster as they become more effective in combat. I'm a lvl 12 ranger and he is a lvl 11 now. The same is true of my me/r and her pet.

Truly, if you really don't wish to specialize in beast mastery, you are much better off not equipping the pet at all, as a low level pet with no attacks becomes more a burden then a help. Probably again a reason why so many do abandon them later in the higher level areas.

Mr. Matt · Jun 06, 2005, 03:31 PM // 15:31

I've had many pets. Stalker (obviously), Strider, Wolf... you name it. Except for the rare ones. I personally prefer the Strider best. Not for any practical reason, but just because he looks cool and makes a really funny noise when attacking. Plus there's no end to the humour of seeing a goofy-looking retarded dodo taking down a brutish warrior beast like a Charr with little to no difficulty

.

I'm just irritated that you can get so attached to the little critters. I keep trying to give away ol' Squawkie to a tamer so that I can charm a different animal to try for a while, but I just can't bring myself to do it. And whenever he dies in battle, I get angry and the monster that did it and make it my life's mission to kill it... weird, I think, to get so attached to something which doesn't exist.

Phoenix Denfer · Jun 06, 2005, 03:39 PM // 15:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Matt

I'm just irritated that you can get so attached to the little critters. I keep trying to give away ol' Squawkie to a tamer so that I can charm a different animal to try for a while, but I just can't bring myself to do it. And whenever he dies in battle, I get angry and the monster that did it and make it my life's mission to kill it... weird, I think, to get so attached to something which doesn't exist.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I was planning on getting rid of my stalker as soon as I could get a snow wolf or bear, but now I'm getting attached.

My Ranger will prolly get a wolf or a bear, my mesmer will prolly keep her cat, and yes, the moa rocks. LOL That was my first pet in beta, and I still think nothing is visually funnier to watch. Well, maybe the spider, if I ever get to see one.

Axelia · Jun 06, 2005, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valerius

when pets die.... do they get a DP% ?

No. You loose 8 sec of skill access when they die is all. You also loose 8 sec when you rez them.

Axelia · Jun 06, 2005, 10:37 PM // 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valerius

so can someone plz answer my question....

do pets get experience from rewards after completing a quest?

cause... if so... i want to get a pet now... so i can get it the exp from quests... but if not... then i ll wait a lil' longer

I can't remember but I think when I dinged on ashes my pet did too. I know they level real close to you. My pet Boz Has been with me since I was level 2 and he is level 20.

Rhedd · Jun 07, 2005, 08:50 AM // 08:50

Yep, you sure do get attached to the little guys. Giving Redfeather away is completely unthinkable. Of course, I think a Moa is cooler than a wolf, anyway. ^-^

No, pets don't get a DP.

Pets seem to level up very quickly until they catch up to you. Since catching up with me, mine's consistently stayed about a quarter of a level behind me.

I know I've said this already, but It bears being illustrated with an example: No warrior would expect to do anything decent with a hammer if he had a hammer skill of 2 and zero hammer skills on his bar, yet that's what people seem to expect out of pets. Beastmastery is an area of expertise, just like anything else, it's useful if used correctly.

When the time came, I did the Althea's Ashes quest solo. No other players, NO henchmen. Just me and a giant chicken. I almost felt he could've done it without me. ^-^

Another funny anectdote; Yesterday we had a FIFTEEN MINUTE battle (no lie, 15 min!) with a self-healing boss. Again, just me and Redwing. He tanked, I did everything I could. It was hilarious, how long it went on, but eventually we took it down. Again, if he hadn't been with me, my only option would've been running.

WRATHCHILD · Jun 07, 2005, 09:39 AM // 09:39

i have the black widow. it poped out of a chest in uw. it starts level 20 and is just all around bad ass. i have killed unskilled players with nothing but pet skills. There not to easy to get but worth the time to get.

pet knockdown is evil and no one ever sees it coming.

Silmor · Jun 07, 2005, 12:04 PM // 12:04

Until ArenaNet gets around to fixing it, Feral Lunge is a very ineffective DoT since it will only cause 3 seconds of bleeding right now regardless of Beast Mastery level, even though the skill description advertises a much longer duration for higher attribute level.

doomhorn · Jun 07, 2005, 10:57 PM // 22:57

My bear

Does anyone know what Brutal Mauling does? Haven't figured out the use of it other than taking forever to cast.

Rhedd · Jun 08, 2005, 01:52 AM // 01:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silmor

Until ArenaNet gets around to fixing it, Feral Lunge is a very ineffective DoT since it will only cause 3 seconds of bleeding right now regardless of Beast Mastery level, even though the skill description advertises a much longer duration for higher attribute level.

Sadly true at the moment, Silmor.

The funny thing is, it worked just fine for me before this last update, in which they specifically said they'd "fixed a problem" with it.

Makes me really wonder what the problem WAS. Was it working too well or something? Government standards on the minimum number of bugs in a game that GW wasn't meeting? What? ^-^

I sent a bug report a while ago. Hope you have too.

MoldyRiceFrenzy · Jun 08, 2005, 02:49 AM // 02:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pevil Lihatuh

spiders can't be tamed; if you try it then all you get is the message "That is not an animal"

u can taME SPIDERS IN THE underwrold ive seen people with them