Curse

Glasswalker · Sep 26, 2005, 11:10 PM // 23:10

[Disclaimer]
This is my 5th character since mid-beta. I've only casually played him for 1 week. He's only level 10. I've only played solo or with henchmen, gained armor/skills legitimately, and never been run anywhere.

I've only played him in Ascalon and Yak's Bend so far.
[/Disclaimer]

Now that that is out of the way, this is a post primarily about how fun this has been. I'm playing a R/Mo, and my idea was to have a Smiting Warthog, and this fell through for 2 reasons. #1, I didn't have the patience to wait until I could find a warthog, and by the time I did, I was in love with my Strider. #2, you just can't get decent smiting skills early in the game.

So the bird naturally is the true damage dealer -- and she is amazingly good at it. My Beast Mastery is at 9 with a major rune and tamer's mask, and with Call of Haste, she attacks at amazing speed outdamaging most of the warriors I've teamed up with. Plus, I'm using Feral Lunge which is a practically spammable bleed. She really gets people's attention.

My other main attack is Predator's Pounce (mainly because it was the only other one I had when I started), and between that and Call of Protection (damage - 11 from all attacks), her health bar stays full without me having to take yet another slot for Comfort Animal. I started off with Strength of Honor on her, but didn't notice a drop in DPS after I removed it.

The weak link so far has been me. As a Ranger I'm not usually targetted, but occasionally a group doesn't know what it's doing, OR a few folks have played on my team before and know about 'the bird'. Anyway, I go down like Don King payed me. After the bird kills the next guy she just comes back to my body and sits in a firestorm till she dies. Eh, what can you do? My full build (at the moment) looks like this:

Beast Mastery:9 Healing Prayers: 5 Expertise: 4
Full (Ascalon) Leather Armor + Drakeskale (Yak's Bend) chest piece+ Tamer's Mask

Level 10 Strider -- Shiva (she levelled during my last match).

1. Point Blank Shot
2. Feral Lunge
3. Call of Haste
4. Predator's Pounce
5. Call of Protection
6. Orison of Healing
7. Charm Animal
8. Res Signet

The bird takes down Droknar's Armored folks with Eternal Shields and Elite skills. I've seen Barrage, Poison Arrow, Hundred Blades... Others I didn't recognize. The fun part comes after the match when almost invariably someone curses "----ing bird!!!", also watching the other team focus fire on Shiva and doing little damage, or just watching someone run from her (she's faster. Go ahead and sprint).

And if all that fails -- When she dies, she bursts into feathers which slowly float to the ground (that's fun too). Even as a level 10 in Yak's Bend, the times I've lost have been because the other team has at least 2 Elites, Max Damage weapons, and Platemail/etc. My record so far is 17 wins (7 flawless -- hello to all those teammates, you were great!!).

P.S. I couldn't find a better forum for this blatent braggary. If there is one, please move.

Oryaka Drake · Sep 26, 2005, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Havent seen too horribly many pure beast handlers before.. this could equate to a reason why you are having soo much ease against these peeps.. but fyi it will end the second you get much higher in level!!!!

Glasswalker · Sep 26, 2005, 11:53 PM // 23:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oryaka Drake

Havent seen too horribly many pure beast handlers before.. this could equate to a reason why you are having soo much ease against these peeps.. but fyi it will end the second you get much higher in level!!!!

No doubt. The fact that this has (mostly) been random teams has helped too. Hopefully by the time I get much higher, I'll have a few better smite skills. I'm really looking forward to the Elite Shield of Judgement. Hopefully this will increase my chances again.

Vilaptca · Sep 26, 2005, 11:58 PM // 23:58

You can get a Warthog in Pre-searing.

knives · Sep 27, 2005, 04:40 AM // 04:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vilaptca

You can get a Warthog in Pre-searing.

Yeah its near Althea.

Yukito Kunisaki · Sep 27, 2005, 03:19 PM // 15:19

I run a pure beast build myself...

Words of advice, ditch healing. Comfort Animal + Beast Mastery = good times...

If you go hard on Beast mastery [yeah to 16], 9 expertise, and then 8 marksmanship [for whatever max dmg bow ya got] and 8 smiting, you'll have a pet that really can rock your enemy's world...

I'm currently raising a wolf right now. Got me a wolf first, to lvl 20 ;_;, then tried out a dune lizard. Damn that thing is so awkward I couldn't figure out WHY people like it. [until the Dune Lizard called Godzilla enters your party... It's all I could do to stop myself from laughing till my back hurts...

]

Back on wolf again. I was thinking of getting the Elder Black Widow from underworld but upon multiple attempts... Just gave up seeing that my lvl 14 lizard was EATING these damn spiders for dinner. Natural enemies I guess?

If you're going to go pet, FOR GOD'S SAKE BRING A TON OF PET SKILLS!!! Don't bring just charm animal unless your build NEEDS the pet dying... [IWAY anyone?]

After much testing, I've discovered these are awesome pet skills to be packing if you're crazy enough to go 16 BM

Ferocious Strike {E} - You can't call yourself a beast master till you bring this sucker in. Without this, your build is nothing...

Call of Protection - The skill that will allow you to cast this skill fewer times...

Comfort Animal - now that it's a built in revive, it's ALWAYS good to have...

Predator's Pounce - take a bite out of crime

Call of Haste - 125% movement AND atk speed with NO penalties? sign me up

Brutal Strike - the Final Thrust of the pet world. No adrenaline required ^_^

Melandru's Assault - pvp only, VERY good in the right situations, pve is iffy

Feral Lunge - for a basic skill you learn early in the game, it's well worth it for the energy efficiency...

The list of animal skills are quite good. As far as usefulness goes, I think that maybe the BM Pet Attacks list of skills is probably one of the most useful in the game with few [crap] skills in terms of effiency...

I like warriors. So, for a ranged attacker, I've created a remote control offensive tank warrior..> ^_^

Glasswalker · Sep 27, 2005, 04:36 PM // 16:36

Yeah, I knew where to get the Warthog, but it's a random spawn. You should have seen me step out of Ascalon, then back in. Then back out, then back in. I must have done it 20 times, and no warthog, just a couple of striders. Finally I decided to charm one of them, and the get the guarenteed warthog on the "North of the Wall" quest. But by then, I was sold on the Strider.

Thanks, Yukito for the sage advice as usual. When I want a build I should ask you, cause you've usually done it first.

A question though... for a R/Mo, can you explain why I want Ferocious Strike? I won't be doing a thing with the adrenaline, and (so far) energy is no real problem. By the time the skills have recharged, I've gotten more than the 5 energy they cost... I may have to settle for "not calling myself a beast master" because Shield of Judgement is so very tempting.

Yeah. Healing is temporary. I've got an Orison that does 40 healing, just to keep ME in the game a bit longer, and help out a bit as secondary healer. Granted, even this early in the game 40 health is a drop in the bucket, but it counters degen until Alesia (or a monk teammate) can do the real job. Anyway, I plan to move back to Smiting as soon as I get a few good skills.

And frankly, between Call of Protection (Cast it 2 seconds before the match and it lasts the whole time) and Predator's Pounce, the bird can survive focused fire (4v4). Keeping her alive has NOT been an issue. That being said, I plan on a 16 Beast Mastery and hope to find room for a few more skills.

The question really is -- With the mandatory (I feel) Res Signet and Charm Animal, I've only got 6 skills left. I need Call of Protection and while I initially had no interest in Call of Haste, it has been awesome. That is 4 skills left. How much can I devote to the bird and still be of some use/survive myself? So far, I've split it 2 and 2 with one of those skills being Orison, and I still feel a little useless. When I'm lying dead on the ground, the bird can't use any skills...

big mr furious · Sep 27, 2005, 05:38 PM // 17:38

perhaps protection would be better than healing. If you are the only one you want to heal as well as your pet then the proactive benifit of protection spells is there without the small disadvantige of who do i put it on, cause thats you, mabey alittle on your pet if the call of protection fails.