Curse

Tellani Artini · Jun 24, 2005, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Spiders are the best pet, and the only pet that has different stats than the others (except for physical damage type, according to Prima)

Eclair · Jun 24, 2005, 08:37 PM // 20:37

Does the Bear's Brutal Mauling interrupt casting? I remember it did back when I was taming one.

Tellani Artini · Jun 24, 2005, 08:39 PM // 20:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclair

Does the Bear's Brutal Mauling interrupt casting? I remember it did back when I was taming one.

The pet tester said it was only cosmetic, but he probably didn't test for interrupts and such.

Eclair · Jun 24, 2005, 08:52 PM // 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tellani Artini

The pet tester said it was only cosmetic, but he probably didn't test for interrupts and such.

Aww sucks, because it'd be soo awesome to have the maul be a disruption attack XD

WNxInterceptor · Jun 24, 2005, 08:55 PM // 20:55

I have a PvP Beast Master build myself. It's pretty much all anti-caster.
Beast Mastery: 16
Domination: 9
Expertise: 10

You may ask, why no marksmanship? Well the reason for that is that this build doesnt even use a bow. I use a Cane and a Domination off-hand with recharge/fast cast mods.
Skills I use are as follows:
Diversion
Distrupting Lunge
Ferocious Strike {Elite}
Brutal Strike
Backfire
Call of Haste
Call of Protection
Charm Animal
(sometimes take one off for Comfort Animal if I feel like it)
Reason I dont bring comfort animal is simple.. my pet RARELY dies. With 16 BM Call of Protection gives my pet Damage reduction of 16 which is quite alot. On top of that, and the fact that no one attacks pets, my pet is doing enough damage to casters to make them think twice about standing their groud. They tend to just run away rather than try to face off against my pet, and that is where Call of Haste comes in.. pets can be extremely fast and difficult to outrun. Basically when I approach a caster I'll cast Diversion, Backfire, then cycle through my pet attacks, using Ferocious strike as needed to regain lost energy. All the while I'll cast off Diversion every so often to keep the skills disabled for 38 seconds + the usual regen time. I've actually had situations where my team was surrounding a Warrior and the warrior focused on killing my pet since it was actually the most dangerous one there, and even still couldnt kill it because he just wasn't doing enough damage. I'll bring Comfort animal once in a while if I feel like it, but thats just overkill since then my pet never drops below 75% hp. I'm not saying the build is unstoppable, as it is very weak to melee fighters who like to run up and beat on you, but it is fun and effective to use especially against caster characters.

Tellani Artini · Jun 24, 2005, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by WNxInterceptor

I have a PvP Beast Master build myself. It's pretty much all anti-caster.

That build looks effective for caster denial, and BM 16 gets some really respectable damage.

One of my reasons for not going with hexes/enchants in the pet debilitator build was to keep the "purity" of the class, and to not rely on the most easily removed (and sometimes beneficial to the opposing team) buffs/debuffs. Only a few defenses can stop a debilitating shot, and since I usually attack the off-target (not the same monk the rest of the team is on) those defenses are not focused on my target. Anti-melee is still a weakness of the pet debil build, as ferocious strike is required to feed debil shot. There is no counter to shouts, and I'm thinking of trying R/W with a little tactics just to spam "Fear Me" or "Watch Yourself" with the adrenaline gained from ferocious strike and bow hits (instead of letting it go to waste), but not using melee.

Another thing is, people are going to recognize who's doing the backfire/diversion and put some serious hate on them. Debil shot and a pet are much more inconspicuous. Many people probably don't know what debil shot even does.

nechronius · Jun 24, 2005, 09:28 PM // 21:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tellani Artini

Spiders are the best pet, and the only pet that has different stats than the others (except for physical damage type, according to Prima)

The prima stats compare a level 20 spider to level 5 "other" animals.

I'm positive that the biggest difference between pets at the same level is the type of damage inflicted and not their armor, speed, or hitpoints. I know there's been claims by some that the bear does a special attack without any additional skills, but I've never seen either of my pets (warthog & melandru's stalker) perform any special attacks of any kind and I doubt that the developers would just give a special bear in the game an exclusive special ability.

WNxInterceptor · Jun 24, 2005, 09:32 PM // 21:32

Hmm.. I think I might actually try using your approach with Debilitating shot. I'll take off my Domination spells and maybe keep Comfort Animal on. I'm still going to stick with 16 BM however. I've tried it with 15 and I find that extra point does quite a bit. As for the Bear, I'm pretty sure that it does NOT use the Brutal Mauling skill. It uses that skill when you face them out in an EA, but I have yet to see a charmed Bear use it, and I'm sure I never will.

Tellani Artini · Jun 24, 2005, 09:37 PM // 21:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by nechronius

The prima stats compare a level 20 spider to level 5 "other" animals.

I'm positive that the biggest difference between pets at the same level is the type of damage inflicted and not their armor, speed, or hitpoints. I know there's been claims by some that the bear does a special attack without any additional skills, but I've never seen either of my pets (warthog & melandru's stalker) perform any special attacks of any kind and I doubt that the developers would just give a special bear in the game an exclusive special ability.

It's not the prima stats that say the spider is best, but independant research.

I've been "brutally mauled" by a pet bear, and it didn't seem to do anything.

nechronius · Jun 24, 2005, 10:58 PM // 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tellani Artini

It's not the prima stats that say the spider is best, but independant research.

I've been "brutally mauled" by a pet bear, and it didn't seem to do anything.

I've seen the independent research. I'm still not sold that the experiments were made under the strictest possible conditions but I'll concede that the spider may be able to inflict more damage. Much like 15k armor, the developers don't exactly have a record of making something that's harder to obtain actually be better.

Nidhogg · Jun 25, 2005, 12:41 AM // 00:41

This is my PVP pet build

now I don't wanna hear any more noobs who have 0 in Beast Mastery with only Charm Animal on their skill bar, talk about how "pets suck" because they dont know jack. To the rest of you who are pioneering and enjoying being a Beastmaster, I tip my hat to you all

Tellani Artini · Jun 25, 2005, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nidhogg

This is my PVP pet build

Debilitating shot
Feral Lunge
Disrupting Lunge
Bestial Pounce
Pin Down
Call of Haste
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal

Where's the elite? Ferocious strike or crippling shot would go great with this.

I'm seriously not convinced that pets have 1600+ health. My pet's health plummets when he bathes in balthazar's aura/symbol of wrath/zealot's fire. But I must say, healing for +100 doesn't seem to move their bar quite 1/5 of the way. Remember that pets have their own morale/DP (or so I read in old patch notes). Maybe revive animal is just bugged.

If there's any problem with survivability, I think otyugh's will be a good defense shout for pvp. Call of protection seems kinda limited considering how much damage is dished in PvP, even by one player. Otyugh's also works on all your team's pets, instead of just yours (in my quick testing, calls of haste and protection did NOT affect other allied pets).

WNxInterceptor · Jun 25, 2005, 01:49 AM // 01:49

I agree with the part about Ferocious Strike, it is so very helpful. I never run out of energy on my BM even though I'm usually spamming Diversion. Crippling Strike on the other hand well.. He has pin down so crippling strike is sort of unessecary.

Tellani Artini · Jun 25, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by WNxInterceptor

I agree with the part about Ferocious Strike, it is so very helpful. I never run out of energy on my BM even though I'm usually spamming Diversion. Crippling Strike on the other hand well.. He has pin down so crippling strike is sort of unessecary.

Crippling shot is at least twice as good as pin down. Use it with a recurve bow and you'll never fail to cripple the target as long as you have line of sight. I hate using pin down because it's so much more expensive and slower to recharge, not to mention prone to evasion. Crippling shot is for when you need the target crippled.

But I think ferocious is still better for a pet build. Crippling would be for folks that haven't captured ferocious.

Dhampyr D · Jun 25, 2005, 03:00 AM // 03:00

hey guys i got an account here now... soooo eres what i got to say about pets after doing alot of experimenting with my spider 'rot'

Pets I find are rubbish unless u get high beast mastery and at least 4 skills(charm, comfort, haste, attack skill) which can be a bad thing although i find it fine with the axe skills penetrating blow, dismember, axe rake in a R/W build...
When u boost those beast mastery skills up to an entire bar and take the elite beast mastery pet attack i find the pet to do great damage and to be a great anti healer/caster due to its fast recharge disrupting/disabling attack and its knockdown attack only problem being is that u are left doing nothing which can be quite a waste but not so much since your pet is doing great without u...
Few drawbacks though, even after having played beast master alot im still confused with how i should pace the rate at which i use the pet attacks and ofc there is a slight problem with control

=HT=Ingram · Jun 25, 2005, 03:45 AM // 03:45

The elder wolf for the PvP build is not that great actually. I am still looking for a way to transfer my pet from my PvE character to my PvP character. Original concept was to have a type of guild kennel to do this... so you could use your Charmed animal when you wanted too, and not just the prefab one. that is not all that great actually... at least its not the bear... Cause that would REALLY suck. lol Poor bear... so sought after at one time, and once got, so disappointing...

Nidhogg · Jun 25, 2005, 05:39 AM // 05:39

Alright after some more testing I have changed my build slightly. I took out Feral Lunge because I am mostly going after casters who dont use weapon attacks (I hope that's what it means) and put in Ferocious Strike. If I am wrong about the "if target is attacking" thing and it applies to attack spells also, please let me know. Thanks again. P.S Whats so bad about bears? o_O

Sagius Truthbarron · Jun 25, 2005, 06:47 AM // 06:47

I've killed a pet before in the Arena in just 2 hits with a 6-25 hammer but I haven't tried it with my main character who has a max hammer damage +30% Mursaat Hammer, I think with the right skill I could one hit kill most Elder Wolves, but I'm not sure how much BM skill the pets that I killed in two hits had.

WNxInterceptor · Jun 25, 2005, 02:40 PM // 14:40

I assure you they had low BM. With a high BM ranger you would have alot more difficulty, and if they are good it wouldn't be uncommon for a Warrior to be forced to heal a number of times. Usually they just give up with my pet (when I have comfort animal equipped) because they can just never kill it. Even without comfort animal my pet is string enough though.

ComMan · Jun 25, 2005, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nidhogg

If I am wrong about the "if target is attacking" thing and it applies to attack spells also, please let me know. Thanks again. P.S Whats so bad about bears? o_O

You are correct, "attacking" means just that. Casting an offensive spell does not count as attacking, but using their staff/wand's basic attack does. How many casters really use that though?