SM Block Pet... god I love it...

[voth]

Melees just pissed that it actually takes more than 3 hits to kill a caster and reap the rps now. It's nice that we can actually mez a melee for about 7 seconds and get an amazing 26% resist against their damage while they get over 50%+ against spells and can interrupt us for 4 seconds by breathing on us. Casters need more survivability or something needs to be nerfed. There's a reason 90% of the server is stealthers, melee or some type of healer.

http://home.ljusdal.net/~claus/hugpet.jpg


Edit: Yes, I whine and I'm good at it!!

 

[toxx]

i dont think the intercepting pet is majorly overpowered. i just think it is in comparison to other casters survivability.

Anyway, i do still kinda hate it when you try to solo an SM and he just stands there casting pbae / nuke while the pet sucks up the loving

Maybe having the pet intercept but keep the interupt on the caster might be alright.

But then where does that leave all the other casters?

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Other casters generally do greater damage at range than SMs or have pets with ranged abilities.

Thats kinda the point of making SMs slightly tougher up close.

 

[old.Spug]

yeah what roo said

 

[umilard]

Ye grivne, they wtfpwn in pve!

But dot isn't really that fantastic in rvr ;>

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Might be true, but its still one more speccable offensive spell than summoning SMs have

I think cabbies suffer from exactly the same thing as SMs. Most of the changes to various game mechanics are aimed at classes like chanters, runies and wizzies but they get caught in the backwash when they weren't exactly overpowered to start off with.

(Note: I couldn't tell you the first thing about how to play a Cabby, these are just observations from the various comments and so forth I see around the forums and a brief look at what they can do).

Sadly, in RvR, the only thing that a Summoning SM has to be offensive with is harsh language. When a tank can slap you for up to 800+ damage a hit and the only specline damage you have is a realm castable damage shield which isn't insta and only lasts 1 minute the tools given to a Summoning SM are a joke.

Slightly off topic but I think the higher you spec in a pet-only specline, the less xp that should be leeched by a pet in PvE - after all, you are only able to damage beasties with the pet and you are getting penalised for this. Given that Summoning SMs and their counterparts in other realms are getting badly nerfed so they can't take on higher level mobs so well, I think this is kinda appropriate.

 

[faderullan]

Edlina: It was a typo

I do know how it is.

 

[zedorf luribomb]

from 15 hits pet intercepts around 11-12 usually.. and you hit pet for 20-50dmg and it has like 2k HP \o/
almost easier to kill alb mages with BoF on than sm's'


edit: damn i QQ'd :<

 

[uma_thurman]

Originally posted by eynar
Ah, that makes sense, comparing to Hib / Mid other pet classes...

Nothing wrong with comparing primary mezzers. Try and respect people's opinions and arguments instead of coming up with moronic remarks.

 

[balistic]

every1 clearly forgetting ice wizzy, their pet rox oh shit wait, forgot they dont have one

 

[Turamber]

Dunno if it's because US players are better players, or just because they've faced the "uber" pet longer, but they know how to handle it.

Very rarely do people attack my spiritmaster in 1v1's without first stunning, mezzing or snaring the pet first.

No need for whines or nerfs, just learn to use the tools you have at your disposal to kill the enemy.

 

[Turamber]

Originally posted by uma_thurman
Nothing wrong with comparing primary mezzers. Try and respect people's opinions and arguments instead of coming up with moronic remarks.

So ... spiritmaster's are the primary mezzers of Midgard? M'kay, will have to retire my Healer right now then!

 

[old.Spug]

why should they have one though?

 

[haarewin]

um..... bards/healers have insta because they cant quickcast. other than that sorcs have bolt range mez too (so shouldnt need instas...)
back on topic.
i like the sm pets... they dont cast at you from a mile away

 

[bigchief]

Originally posted by old.Spug
with my pet standing on me, I'd say its less than 50% and mythic state its 50%,

In practice I find that a SM pet intercepts alot more than 50%. Its not uncommon to see every single hit intercepted including both hands. And thats from a green con pet!

Its quite often the case now that when fighting a SM the pet will die first. I also found this when in a pbae grp on excal. The pet would usually die way before I did ;o

 

[umilard]

Turamber, i always mezz the spiritmaster pet before i attack the sm.. for some reason it feels like the mezz is alot shorter then normally..

The pets have some kind of mezzdurationbuff or high natural bodyresist? Or is it just my imagination?

I _don't_ think this was needed for spiritmasters, they had better defence than most casters already (mezz, lifedrain, pet).

Personally i would have given something to runies instead, only single target root.. now there's crappy defence ;>

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Originally posted by umilard
I _don't_ think this was needed for spiritmasters, they had better defence than most casters already (mezz, lifedrain, pet).

Personally i would have given something to runies instead, only single target root.. now there's crappy defence ;>

rofl

I really hope thats sarcasm because if it isn't you *really* don't know the first thing about Spirit Masters

 

[Turamber]

Originally posted by umilard
The pets have some kind of mezzdurationbuff or high natural bodyresist? Or is it just my imagination?

Imagination

The SM has a demezz spell so, if cute or has purge up, he can demezz his pet before you start work on him.

Spiritmaster's are casters with some survivability -- it shouldn't be nerfed, it should be rejoiced over by casters from all realms!

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Actually Summoning SMs have anti mez buffs for the pet, but they are at quite a high level on the Summoning spec line you are very unlikely to encounter an SM that has them.

 

[Turamber]

/bow to the Spiritmaster's Master I'm only a newbie, FOTM spec, one anyway

 

[umilard]

I know that spiritmasters could solo me before they got the intercepting pet, not many casters that can After they got the pet they solo me 80% of the time becouse the pet intercept 50% of my hits

They do have lifedrain / mezz, yes? or they can qc mezz and move in for pbaoe if specced for that..

 

[Sagba]

Supp SM without a pet is better than Ice Wizzie - Tried both

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Full sup SM pbae > any other pbae simply because they have to spec higher to get it (49 as opposed to 48) and the pay-off is that it does more damage. PBAE from all realms has been moved to same cast time though for a while the Sup SM had the fastest casting. Most peeps already know this stuff, apols for repeating.

Now here's the thing.

Sup SM is what you are likely to face 90% of the time in RvR. Hel, 99% of the time in RvR. (No spelling mistake btw )

If a sup SM with MoC up and intercepting pet doesn't own anything that gets within cast radius and hasn't bothered with basic CC... you're looking at deathspam that doesn't have an Alb or Hib on the happy end of it. And to be blunt deservedly so. ANYONE that plays RvR and thinks that merely by slapping something its time for wtfpwnage deserves to lose.

On the subject of wtfpwnage when people talk about SMs they don't mean SMs. Not us dark puppies and certainly not Summ chaps. They mean Supression SMs.

1 spec to rule them all and in the.. erm. No. Wait a mo. I'm the Dark One. I think there's a reason Tolkien thought "Hmm And in the Suppression bind them... no, that won't pay for my next beer. Hmm. !!!! Darkness. Nobody would ever gimp that. Yes Darkness it is."

OH SHIT I'VE TURNED INTO TEH SEEL.

<cough> Well. Anyway...

The intercepting pet was introduced primarily to address the issue that the Spirit Master is the only caster pet class with zero ranged ability on its pet and as a pet class was a lot weaker than its counterparts. I know that now that certain particular nerfs are inbound people are going to argue this but I'm sorry, been on the receiving end too long and I fully appreciate the problems. Chanters can choose between healing, nuking and tanking pets and Albs have got stuns, lifetaps and other ranged abilities on various pets. Believe me, most SMs would rather have a ranged ability pet. When Junior can shoot lightning bolts out of his ass and has laser guided tracking (er, ok, actually the second one he does have) then maybe I'll say yeh, take away the intercept.

At range, SMs are weak. The lifetap, even though reasonable tbh doesn't do as much damage as many tanks, it certainly doesn't have the damage output of runies or their counterparts. But then, it shouldn't, because it has a heal component. I object to it not having the damage output of tanks but I don't have a problem with it doing less damage as other casters. All SMs are weak in keep defence (except sup SMs when everyone arrives at the lord room), the odd incident excepted. Very good in keep assaults once door 1 goes down. Btw thats another nerf. Didn't used to have to wait til Door 1 went down, used to be able to send Casper the Unfriendly Ghost inside the keep at will. It made up for a lot but that got taken away. Ok it affected all realms equally but I refer you to the fact that SM pets don't have the ability to nuke anything on the battlements.

What is an SM really about when it comes down to it?

Up close and nasty. Regardless of spec. Thats what we do. Its a caster that makes it hard for anyone that wanders near to take it down 1v1 unless you have the realm rank difference, ranged damage output, stuns, or frontloaded damage. And rightly so. SMs cannot run away. We have no speed buffs, no snares (high spec summ SMs do on the pet, but not as a castable spell of their own). You get up close to a class like this and aren't thinking about I'm sorry, but you deserve to type /release.

Summ SMs are all about surviving up close (which makes the realm castable damage shield in RvR terms a complete joke), Sup SMs are about taking out tanks generally that go OOOH CASTER KEEL. The odd one out is the original viable spec and that is Darkness. Ranged DD, embaressingly weak CC since resists went off the richter scale and debuffs that rarely get used in active RvR and will be even less so soon. Actually Dark SMs with mix spec secondaries have suffered even more because since the level bonus to have an attack stick got removed and there is zero value in having a low level single target mez because its guaranteed to be resisted. I used to have low level sup because I could then have a single target mez and use the str/con debuff to interupt enemy casters (it has a larger radius of effect than the dex/qui debuff, something I've never understood). Game mechanics changed and my single target mez got turned to slop.

A lot of stealth nerf chaps, and some you don't hear about often because most SMs were jumping on the Sup bandwagon and the only thing they wanted was high sup with secondary dark for evening out damage on the DD. Mythic was generally happy with this because with one viable spec for a class it meant it was playable and percentage-wise showed up well on any stats run on the game. At least, on a superficial level.

So then they looked at pet classes across all 3 realms. Wow. Can O' Worms time. Because then it emerged that SMs that people had been saying were the weakest of the pet classes actually turned out to BE the weakest pet class in terms of pet abilities. Unless an SM was sup spec not only was it not welcome in groups it was very much proven to be non-viable versus just about every caster from the other 2 realms and in every group lineup you could think of. Lacking speed, range on caster or pet, they really were in trouble.

So. Mythic devised the intercepting pet.

My feeling?

Its the first time in over a year my spec of Spirit Master has been viable in open field RvR.

Those of you calling for nerfs on SM pets really don't understand what 2 out of the 3 specline types of SM have had to suffer. I'm not expecting you to actually care but because of this, when there are blanket calls for nerfs after you got your ass handed to you because you thought that unthinking you could walk up to a cloth wearing class DESIGNED to be nasty up close and slap away at it and automatically win you get the nice white pointy cap with the Big D on the front. Get a stool, enjoy the view from the corner of the classroom.

Most players from other realms even if they've read this far in what is a long post even by my standards will disagree with much of this because of one thing and one thing only: they got beat in a fight and it tastes sour. Very few will have encountered anything but a Sup SM and pet buffed to the tits with MoC up and possibly WP combined with MoM.

Some history of SMs here mixed in with what I've seen gameplay wise.

And I wouldn't worry. The non-uber 2 of 3 speclines are getting fucked soon anyway.

And believe me, I do mean fucked.

Dark times for the few of us that don't play Suppression a-coming.

 

[Turamber]

Bump to an old-ish thread.

Had a long conversation/discussion (and then argument) on guild chat with an officer of my Mid guild on Merlin last night. The official line of the guild was that all spiritmasters in the guild should respec to Dark as "it is the only viable RvR spec".

To be honest I think that is ridiculous as my spiritmaster does very well with suppression spec, but even as I was arguing how unrealistic they were being I couldn't help but think how much Roo would like his appreciation for the Dark

His argument was along the lines of range being king in RvR and that all the high realm rank spiritmasters are dark spec. The simple fact that suppression has been a viable spec for far less time than dark seemed to be lost on him tho

 

[hiban]

SMs and Sorcs have the same instas in their most used specs and in baselines, so nothing to whine at there. (str and dex debuff in dark/supp/matter/body and ae str/con debuff in supp/mind spec)

Make sorc pets intercepting? you can already charm mobs that give yellow specbuffs str/con, dex/quick and stackable shieldbuff, ala cleric, tanks, nukers... A sorc can charm up to a lvl 50 mob if im not greatly mistaken (If this is so, you cant charm orange mobs, whoever said it). Spam charm until you get it, and run happily with your speed (!) without losing power from a ticking charm/risking to lose pet in the middle of a fight...

I have attacked a friend when he had his pet up. I can tell you that it intercepted more than 50%. Its more like 7-8 hits out of 10, or more. Ofc, sometimes your are lucky with the intercepts, sometimes you are not, just as everything else in this game. Can be quite effective, especially if the pet is buffed. (And from what ive heard, the pet can intercept arrows as well) I personally dont think this is making SMs overpowered.

Over and out, heading for the kitchen for some food and beer. Anyone wants?

 

[old.windforce]

SM is by FAR the best caster in all 3 realms (not including healers etc)

 

[hiban]

Hybrids are much better! please dont spam here if u fail to see it!

 

[uma_thurman]

Originally posted by hiban
Make sorc pets intercepting? you can already charm mobs that give yellow specbuffs str/con, dex/quick and stackable shieldbuff, ala cleric, tanks, nukers...

Name the pets then.

AFAIK they are:

isolationist cleric in pennines
some blue con in briefine

besides, these buffs wont stop the assist train. At least SMs have more chance against the assist train.

Albions primary mezzer needs something to compensate for cloth armour - givf insta mezz and reduce range of mezz, or make pet intercepting.