RE: Pets!!!

[Alkoran]

Time to have a good long thread on this one, fell free to post your agreement (or disagreement, but try not to feel quite so free about this) to keep this near the top of the list for a little while.

Pets do take experience, this can slow down soloing.
However, the percentage of experience taken by a pet in a group of more than 2 people is next to nothing and you will only notice it if you're killing very, very, very, slowly.

Most pet classes have spells for buffing and healing that only work on their pet, these spells are very powerful, hence their "pet only" limitation. With these buffs and heals the Pets become very powerful tools e.g. Enchanters can use their pets to tank down mobs that con red or purple to the Pet.

Pets in groups can be used top hold adds to protect the casters, or deal extra damage to the main mob (quite a bit of extra damage), some pets even cast health regens on the party.

Pets are a very important tool to the classes that use them, they spend valuable spec. points to be able to use their pets well and they are very useful in groups.

Basically what this is about is a complete end to the "kill the pet" order that hit group chat as soon as a pet using class joins, the advantages more than balance the tiny exp payment.

Pet users have rights too
Please sign below

 

[old.Hendrick]

I've seen theurgists solo orange and red mobs with their pets, so the little expierience they drain at soloing seems excusable. I also don't mind pets in my group if they save my life. When necessary, bring the pet to battle, as it will obviously help to kill faster/safer. I do not mind the little exp-loss when I can stay alive and have a safer hunting time, thereby not losing exp to death or slow hunting.

 

[thefunkrocket]

I only did it cause he made me

He did make me , but seriously he has a good point, i play a druid and although i dont spec in nature affinity my pets green to me and with it i can solo a yellow, without it im lucky to kill certain blues.
It's partly cause ive specced as a partying druid but everyone has to solo at some point and most pet classes will but there pet onto passive when they join a group anyway, and its nice to have the comfort of a pet that can at least slow the aggro mobs should the rest of the group die.

But he did make me post so technically this post is invalid

 

[angara-ffs]

i just love my pet for singeling yellow easy and quik.
In RvR he is handy when u see a stealther on a distance. Just select the target, and let your pet take care of the stealth shit

Works great, is just love him. But during travel i dont use it, he takes aggro more easy then i do, so he can be a pain inthe ass.

 

[Elvewen]

Without a pet... mob fodder

In a group.. depends on how many tanks and what level they are.

And if you dont sent the pet in I dont think it gets any XP anyway, just stick it on passive and use it as a bodyguard.

 

[thefunkrocket]

Exactly

 

[old.blackonyx]

All valid points about the pet.... BUT....

Remember a pet counts as another player in the BAF code, so if a "Pet" class and a Healer are grouping there is a good chance with a pet the BAF will kick in and activate as there are 3 in the group.

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by blackonyx
All valid points about the pet.... BUT....

Remember a pet counts as another player in the BAF code, so if a "Pet" class and a Healer are grouping there is a good chance with a pet the BAF will kick in and activate as there are 3 in the group.

Baf code HUH
sorry probably been answered somewhere else

and does this thread count for charmed pets

 

[Elvewen]

From a sorcerers point of view an Add is not normaly too much of a problem (providing the mez sticks :sleeping: ).

And in bigger groups it can be an advantage when farming blues / yellows.

As with all grouping it depends on the level of understanding and skill of the member.

Pets CAN be a pain, esp if they are a low level pet (-2 or lower to the group) then they can be real agro magnets and at that point should be taken out the back and shot.

 

[old.blackonyx]

BAF = Bring A Friend

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by blackonyx
BAF = Bring A Friend

ta
makes sense now

 

[cleeve]

Not a problem for most healers tbh

Root/Mezz add - stick pet on aforementioned add - heal party tanks and poison main target - heal pet to keep add busy. Wait for the group bonus and loot bonus

nice n simple if you know how to use your pet.

It took me 20 hard and long painful levels to get me pet sorted and trained... now I feel naked without them

Revor

 

[Belsameth]

aye, I too find pets very usefull.
not just solo, in groups as well
and the XP steal is minimal, and thought it is there, you do get to kill faster losing no XP per minute.

 

[old.Gronau]

Theurgist pets dont count as another player and as such don't activate the BAF code.
They do however take XP, but if you think about it a Theurgist earth pet is a tank, and if you had another "real tank" in your group then he would also take XP.

 

[Gekul]

I think I read somewhere that the pet takes xp from the pet user but not the group as a whole. Can't remember where though.

 

[Belsameth]

pets take a maximum of 25% XP
esp in groups this hardly ever happens though, as they hardly do any damage being (in general) green to the other tanks

besides that, each attacker hitting a mob adds to the overal chance to hit, so there's a nice advantage

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by Soulcatcher
pets take a maximum of 25% XP
esp in groups this hardly ever happens though, as they hardly do any damage being (in general) green to the other tanks

besides that, each attacker hitting a mob adds to the overal chance to hit, so there's a nice advantage

so what happens if you aheva group of eight sourcerers (im dyslexic leave me alone) got to gether and they all used there pets that would then mean that the group would be the size of 16

does this mean that the XP would be split 16 ways????

 

[old.Lianuchta]

They take damage in relation to the damage they cause. A soloer who's tank pet does most of the killing is going to get a far smaller proportion of the exp than say a pure nuker.

One of my guildies is a lvl43 enchanter, I'm a 40.5 Eldritch. Soloing yellows (irewood greenbarks so lvl40) I get between 12-3M per kill. At 42 he was killing orange invaders in Breifine that gave him 8-9M per kill. So yes, pets take significant exp when you're soloing. In groups however the dmg done by the pet is negligible to the dmg caused by the tanks and the pure nukers, so although it gets some exp, it won't be more than a few percent.

 

[old.tRoG]

Originally posted by blackonyx
All valid points about the pet.... BUT....

Remember a pet counts as another player in the BAF code, so if a "Pet" class and a Healer are grouping there is a good chance with a pet the BAF will kick in and activate as there are 3 in the group.

nope, because the pet is outside of the group, which is why it takes xp.

in a group of 4/5+ people i never command my hunters pet (i have loooots of alts) to attack the mob.

instead, i use this trick which i picked up off a board somewhere.

put the pet on passive and make it stay beside the casters/healers. if the casters/healers manage to take agro, when the mob runs over it is very likely it will attack the pet instead (all mobs hate your pet for some strange reason...). since the pet is on passive, it will not attack the mob, and not take xp. but what it will do is save the mob from opening some whoop @$$ on your healer

 

[Silence]

cant be sure if its offical but i was told by some one who seems to know alot about game, that pets can take a maximum of 25% of the exp, and that is if they do ALL damage on killing a mob.

 

[old.Ozwin]

Just some input on the pets eating experience issue, as a little test on my cab pet i let him take down a yellow con mob with no interference from me and although it wasnt worth keeping him as he was almost dead i received 831 exp. I then did the same again only this time set the pet on another yellow, cast dot and nuked it to death and i received 862. i did this another couple of times to get an average and the max difference between both scenarios was about 100 exp points. This is think is perfectly acceptable when i can take down oranges , recycle pet , get mana up to max, cast another , buff it and be tanking another mob again in around a minute.
I am relatively low level so im not sure how this will change at later levels.

 

[old.Zeikerd]

Originally posted by Silence
cant be sure if its offical but i was told by some one who seems to know alot about game, that pets can take a maximum of 25% of the exp, and that is if they do ALL damage on killing a mob.

This is right. Casted pets take 25% of the xp if he kills it alone, however charmed pets can take up to 50% because they can be stronger and con yellow to the charmer.

 

[obacono]

For 25% max and staying alive longer, I think I'll keep my pet around thanks..

 

[old.CreepingDeath]

u guys seem to be talking about hib / alb a lot.
Im a spirit master, and my pet DOES NOT take XP, I have tested extensively.. (or it takes so little i cant notice)

I acn let my pet totally solo a mob, or myself nuke it with no pet.. I get the same XP either way after repeating this many times.

As for grouping, if it does take xp, its probly about 1k or something (when we earning millions). And being my pet can be first hit shield, can stun, nuke, and even take agro from tanks sometimes, its needed in groups.
It also lets tanks carry on fighting the main mob if i am agrod, as i have my pet for taking agro off me.
And it also acts as another attacking person, causing everyone in the group to do more damage and have more chance to hit. Including nukers.

I know in the beta my pet noticably took XP if i let it take a mob on its own.. that is not the case now.

 

[old.ViscountCharles]

The SM pet DOES take XP, but in the same way as other pets :-

If the pet does *all* the damage, he "gets" 25% of the XP.
If the pet does *none* of the damage, he "gets" 0% of the XP.
Anywhere in between, and it's on a linear scale.

If you are a darkness-specced SM, your pet is simply used to hold the mob's attention while you nuke it to kingdom come - chances are, the pet may only do about 10-20% of the total damage to the mob, so gets a tiny amount of XP.

If you are a spirit/suppression SM, your pet is being used to do most of the damage, so he will take more XP. But I've found that I use less power specced this way, so can move on to the next yellow, then the next, then the next - doing about 4 in a row before I need to rest; with a nuker, the power bar hits 50% much quicker.

Overall, it probably balances out - I get through more kills per hour, but each kill takes longer and I get less XP from each one. A darkness SM will drop the mob quicker, get almost full XP, but thhen has to rest. I prefer my way - I rarely get aggro, can still solo the oranges, and when things go pearshaped I chuck my pet at all the mobs and run like hell - I only die when jumped unprepared by sonething that can take me down before the pet can hit it (ie. purples).

SMs aside, I thing that the pet classes make some of the safest soloers. Others can drop mobs quicker, but most pet classes have the tools to comfortably safe themselves with roots, mezzes and the like. We can usually do oranges when others struggle with them, and a yellow is a certain kill when other classes will be overmatched. Reds dont seem to be worth it IMHO - the XP is pretty much capping on oranges, and the added risk and downtime just dont seem worth it. I'm not 100% sure the ornges are, as they certainly take me much longer than the yellows. Downside of a pet class is that we always have a weakness somewhere - we dont always have the best tools to group with, or other classes can do the same things better. But then, Spiritmasters are a little group on their own - tank, nuker, debuffer, buffer, healer and crowd control all rolled into one Theurges were sort of similar - one-man party, creating his own casters, tanks etc as needed.

The "pets leech XP - lose it" order is one that gets up my nose, though - like the "no AoE spells", there are times when it is good advice, but most of the time it's cobblers. The group just needs to make sure its tactics take account of the pet. It's rare that the pet gets a chance to do enough damage to really "leech" XP, and the extra BAFs bring XP bonusses of their own - with many pet classes, the pet's owner has enough crowd control to deal with the BAF anyway.

 

[cadiva]

Pets have their place

I agree completely with ViscountCharles, I have a spiritmaster and I have never been asked to lose the pet, indeed both my Spirit/Sup specced SM and my mate's darkness specced one tend to be the main pullers and mob controllers in our group.

Anyone asking you to lose the pet isn't worth the other grief they are prolly gonna bring with them imho (like who gets loot etc).

My two coppers worth, do what you will with it

 

[old.CreepingDeath]

in reply to Viscount charles, I dont think u got what i was saying
I can send my spirit and let it kill a mob totally without intefering, or I can nuke the same mob outright.. I get the SAME XP either way. In beta, xp the pet took was easily noticable at about 20-25%. Now its defo none.

As to the rest i kind of agree, killing oranges isnt worth the extra downtime.

The solution I use - If it doesnt baf, dont bother with it
All I have been killing is Isalf's and now Bone Eater's as I can get them to always baf.. thus each easy yellow/low orange is like killing an orange and gives cap / near cap xp each kill.
When bone eaters get too low, I can go onto Fenrir's. Should take me up to at least 45 easy

mobs that baf are more fun to fight, also letting scouts go get their friends is fun and nice xp.

 

[old.ViscountCharles]

If this is right, and my Spiritmaster's pet isn't taking XP at the mo, then that makes it even better

Now if only I could connect today without another ****ing LD, I'd try it out for myself ...

 

[old.CreepingDeath]

yep i cant get on either, LD within 1 second of going on
when i happened i had made 5 bubs in about 1 hour to get to lvl 41.
Ive lost a hell of a lot of xp cos of this

i think its BT ppl getting it

 

[old.ViscountCharles]

Tested the Spiritmaster XP last night.

Soloing a green, no spirit intervention, got about 850XP.

Taking down a green using nothing but the spirit, got about 620XP.

So the spirit is taking up to 25% of the XP, depending upon the proportion of the damage done to the mob by the spirit.

Now why's the little nuisance gone greeen all of a sudden? I thought my pet was supposed to be blue.