*Updated* Ultimate Pet Guide

Thanks guy. That's all I need. I just need 100th and 101th time to make sure that spider doesn't poison. Why did people spread this non-sense rumor!!!!! I almost bought into it last night. lol

Ah...the mother of all questions!

I think the reason has to be found in careless observations. There is also a very stubborn rumor on minions degenerating faster when you heal them (NOT true!).
I expect this rumor was born after someone healed his minions over and over, and saw that he couldn't keep up with the healing. From this, he made the conclusion the reason was that he healed them. After all, undead minions and healing? That doesn't make sense in a rpg way.
Fact is that the degen is cumulative, but not affected by healing. Wether or not healing is applied is irrelevant. The initial observation was incorrect, and people recognised something in the (wrong) assesment of the case: 'Like omg. My minions seem to die faster to when I heal them! This must be true!'.

I expect the same happend here. They saw a green glow around the spider from a petskill. Black Widows poison, that makes sense in a rpg way.
And then the false assumption spreads. Like poison, ironicly.

~ makkert

Just want to bring up that according to Jenosavel and Epinephrine's latest research, pet armor goes by 3*Level+20, not 4*Level as the OP as this guide currently indicate. And since this one is called the "*Updated* Ultimate Pet Guide" and still on page 1 of the forums, while their guide is just "a guide to pets", new people coming here might decide this guide is more authoritative than the other one, and insist/convince all their friends that pet armor is 4*level.

Just want to bring that to your attention (-:

Another correction:
This is only correct at Level 20. Research over at GuildWiki currently indicates the threshold of 12 is actually:
Level/2 +2

Thus, if a character is at level 19, weapon mastery after 11 (well, 11.5 to be exact) has diminished returns.

To calculate the actual percentage relative to Level 20 rank 12, use the following rules for Baseline:

For every rank under the threshold, +5
For every rank above the threshold, +2

Then to figure out the fractional power relative to Level 20 rank 12, use the follwing formula:

2^((Baseline - 60)/40)

of course, now you no longer have a pretty table, so the other alternative is to keep your table, but say it is only fully accurate at Level 20.

And the spider doesn't have higher dmg right? lol Just want to make sure. I keep hearing people say spider does a bit more dmg. I think that's because when they did the testing, it was Dire spider, since Elder has proven to give no damage/health bonus/penalty.

Read the newest guide. All information in it was rigorously and carefully tested. It says all pets deal the same damage per strike, and this includes the spider. If you manage to read the whole thing, I doubt you will have many questions left, and I can guarantee you won't have such basic ones.

This thread may be called the "ultimate" pet guide, but I can assure you that the guide I linked to has much more thorough information. It also includes all methods used in testing, for those skeptical of the results.

thank u for clearing this up. but, then what ur saying is that elder is useless, no boost to health or attack, just back to plain old pet. however i am prepared to beleive, and tbh that suits me more. much prefer extra dmg over a pet which is better at sitting there and not dieing as quickly

It's not a "plain old pet"; you have elder that has less of an attack than dire but more HP than dire and also more attack than hearty but less HP.

So, for attack: dire>elder>hearty
For HP: hearty>elder>dire

It's like rock/paper/scissors. The evolutions aren't inherantly better or worse.

I'm going to have to disagree that pets dont go through evolutions at level 20. I capped a Dire Black Widow on my Necro/Ranger and used to take it with me on quests and missions but put no points in beast mastery and no other BM skills besides Charm Animal. Just wanted to show it off. After a few weeks, the spider evolved from a Dire to a Hearty. After a couple days I was curious why it evolved since no one knew for sure what caused pets to evolve. I figured that it became a Hearty because I never used any attack skills. So I put some points into BM, (only about 9 or 10) and started bringing pet attack skills. I made sure to use the pet attack skills during each fight. After spending some time questing with the pet attack skills my spider eventually evolved back to Dire. Alot of you say that this can't happen, but in my own personal experience it can and did to me.

That's interesting - I've heard other people talk about similar things, with spiders. Never witnessed it, but it is possible that they might change I guess. Spiders may be the most likely pet to have a change, as you don't have 20 levels of accumulated tendencies. If that were the case though any dire pet should be able to change into a hearty, just by allowing it to die like crazy.

It is worth looking at certainly, I've never seen it happen, but that doesn't mean it can't.

I've seen Dire Wolves in the wild before, how come no guide tells you about those?

Ill find one after I finish my homework

I've never seen a Dire Wolf in the wild. Either they are Elder and south of Granite Citadel (there are a couple near Thul the Bull), or they are just generic snow wolves. If you have a screenshot that can prove me wrong, I'd love to see it.

Maybe it still happens at every 5 "levels"? Just that most people don't alter their play-style that much after pet is lv20, AND it's harder to farm exp points at lv20 (since quests and missions don't give pet exp).

To complicate things even more, character "level ups" beyond lv20 used to take progressive more exp points to acheive. While later updates has made the requirement flat (so easier to gain skill point for PvP unlocking purposes), it could be possible that pet "level ups" are still progressively harder after lv20.

It'll take quite a lot of patience and time to test this out indeed!

My pet is level 11 but it didn't evole, how's that possible? :s (I did reset the name)

Did it level when dead a lot? Did it not get involved in combat really? Did you speed level it?

A pet needs to do things to "earn" and evolution. Merely being on the bar doesn't guarantee anything. SInce it seems to move toward aggressive by dealing damage, and toward playful by taking damage it is important that it do these things. If you want playful/hearty let it run into combat and take damage frequently - even dying. If you want it to go aggressive you should tank, soaking the damage yourself while allowing it to kill your enemies (not necessary, but a good way to ensure it suffers minimal damage while dealing a lot).

Lower level opponents give it more damage dealing opportunities as it levels - the damage/experience ratio is better vs lower level foes, so it has a chance to accumulate more damage dealt and/or received vs foes that are lower level than vs high level foes.

now it has evolved but at level 13, little weird..

My pet is lvl 15 now, but still Playful, maybe they changed it in the last update.

although the first evolution was at level 13, the second evolution was a normal one at level 15 (turned into an elder )

If I were to cap a black widow as an Elder, how could i stop it from changing to hearty etc. when it evolves???

EDIT: nvm now i found answer on different thread!

The Wolf And Snow wolf are identicle in appearance.

May Bone Animations be charmed?

Do you really mean to tell me that you were unable to find post 2 of this thread, starting with the heading "Available Pets:"? The answer to your question is 'No'.

Was hoping that nobody had tried yet Sorry boss.

Oh its very interesting. Could you provide me more information ?

[email protected]

[email protected]

Great guide to petting. It gave me the idea to grow myself a hard-hitting dire lizard.

My only issue with the guide is this: How long did it take you to get your pet from level 5 (or so) to level 15 fighting ONLY the mergoyles? Good crap it took me forever just to get to lvl 11. It felt like I was never going to get 15.

So, here are my suggestions for those of you wanting a good high lvl pet (dire, hearty, or elder). Keep in mind that Valerius' guide is greatand this is not a replacement, just an additional resource, and I understand why Valerius wanted to have as few variables as possible. Again, great job to Valerius.

*Disclaimer* This stuff may not work for elder or hearty but it does for dire... still it is worth a try

For Elder pet

It may be easier to do the hearty 'path' first (up to lvl 11) and then the aggressive 'path' (up to lvl 15). My reasoning for this is that at lvl 6 a pet has a hard time killing anything, but at lvl 12 it is much easier so you are playing to the strengths of the natural progression.

Start in Gates of Kryta and do what Valerius says about the Hearty Path.

After the evolution to hearty, start the Aggressive Path.

When your pet is somewhere between lvl 11-13 you should begin fighting somewhere other than outside Gates of Kryta and continue this until it is at lvl 15. Your pet is stronger now and can more easily take out the rockshot devourers outside Augury Rock, and eventually groups of minotaurs. Be sure to bring Symbiotic bond Call of Protection, and something to heal yourself.

For Dire pet

Start in Gates of Kryta and kill the Mergoyles. Let your pet do all the dmg (I was using a wand that did about 6 dmg per hit). At approximately lvl 12 switch to rockshot/minotaur hunting outside Augury Rock. As with elder, make sure to bring something to heal yourself AND Symbiotic bond AND Call of Protection.

For Hearty Pet
Go where ever you want. As long as you do the most dmg you should be fine.




Evolution side notes:

I don't think that healing/death has anything to do with your pet's evolution. I healed my pet MANY times and it died MANY times (I was testing this part of the evolution assumption), and it still evolved Aggressive then Dire just like I wanted it to evolve.

I think the evolution is based primarily on dmg output (possibly ratios). I used the same wand, which did about 4-9 dmg, while my lizard did anywhere up to 70+ per hit (with skills) on mergoyles and 50+ against Minos and rockshots.

I also let my pet take A LOT of dmg because my character is a mesmer and can't take any. I just used the call of prot and symbiotic bond (for the hlth regen and half dmg to me) and then just healed myself as much as possible.

Other side notes:

You may want to stick with mergoyles and that is ok, just realize that it will take a LONG time to lvl your pet. At lvl 20 my character still gets 100 xp from the rockshots and minotaurs, my pet got even more than that. It only took me a few trips out hunting to get my pet from lvl 12 to lvl 15.

Lizards do start at lvl 5.

My lizard is named Lizzy and now follows me everywhere.

Like at least one other person here I believe that an Elder Black Widow CAN evolve into a Hearty Black Widow. I'm sure this is what happened to mine. I refrained from naming pets for a long time because I wanted to see their evolutions, so I didn't just 'assume' it was an Elder widow.
I will try and verify this some day and report my findings.

If you have a real pet and treat it wonderfully it will behave differently than if you treat it badly: it will 'evolve' into a different personality of animal. I don't see why this should be beyond possibility in GW..(yes, of course it's a game and not reality, but it's coded by humans ).
An Elder pet has a certain amount of health and a hearty has 60 more, by findings. A hearty is this way because it needs to be: you've not looked after it that well so it adapts to better look after itself. Following this idea, it should be possible for an Elder to turn into a Hearty if you're not the most 'affectionate' master..

I now have yet another thing on my GW 'to do' list.. meh

Im sorry im a little ticked...
I have followed ur guide to the letter as far as how to train a dire pet. I started with a 10 bm all bm skills except troll ungent and then let the animal rush a murder everything as i sat back and kept him from dieing. He did nt die once and at lvl 11 he was playful. I tired again more aggressive bm skills for attack boosted my bm to 13. Let him murder everything he did not die once and at lvl 11 he was playful. On my third one i bossted bm to 16 nothing but attacks skills for pet except troll ungent. He devoured everything I didn't even get the chance to fight complete massacre to all the enemies, he did not die once and he became playful. What am i doing wrong that i am not getting an aggressive pet?

Ok so i was wrong u cant charm em i thought you could because they were green but ya, try and charm but when you do it says not an animal that brings up an interesting question then on how u can charm the uw spider but not the pre searing one.... pre searing ( cant because not animal) after searing uw spider sure will just call it an animal *wink*wink*

I have Searched Everywhere And So Far All I Can Find Are Some Rumors About the Real Reason You Cant Tame A Moss Spider Is beacause Of One Crucial Point That I Believe No One Person Has Thought Of And If they Have Im Sorry, I Believe You Cant Tame The Pre-searing Moss Spiders Because Of The Simple fact that you havent Acended yet lol, Happy hunting

--Your Friendly Neighborhood Retard

It's not just about dying. To be aggressive/dire it can not take a lot of damage either.

Just use the protective skills...

Call of Protection - Shout
For 120 seconds, your animal companions have a 1-11 base damage reduction.

and...

Symbiotic Bond - Shout
For 120-264 seconds, your animal companion gains +1-3 Health regeneration, and half of any physical damage dealt to your animal companion is redirected to you.

and if you like (it helps alot at low lvls)...

Otyugh's Cry - Shout
All animals in the area become hostile to your target and gain +20 armor for 30 seconds. Otyugh's Cry cannot turn charmed animals against their masters or their master's allies. (50% chance of failure with Beast Mastery 4 or less.)

...to keep it from taking so much damage.

Let the pet do the majority of the damage (I let mine do like 80% or more just to be sure) and it should be smooth sailing.

My Wolf evolved to Aggressive like I wanted it to, but then it didn't evolve to either Dire or Elder at L20. What gives? Suits me just fine, but I didn't think it was possible. Was trying for Dire.
Started as a L5 Snow Wolf from the N. Shiverpeaks, by the way.

Align, it was discussed briefly in the other pet guide thread. While this used to be unheard of, it suddenly started happening. There hasn't yet been any testing done on what exactly causes it to happen, however the people reporting that it happened to their pets admited to getting loose with their pet training towards level 15. Allowing some things to slip prior to the second stage may not move your pet far enough towards Dire to actually achieve Dire, and thus you're stuck at Aggressive.

The level 20 Aggressive was tested to have 450 hp at level 20, which is right in line with where you would expect it to be. Therefore, while no damage tests have been done with the level 20 Aggressive, it's safe to assume that its damage will be approximately 17-41 +5%. The modifier, unfortunately, would only be +5% rather than the Dire's +15% modifier.

In other words, for 30 extra health, you lose +10% damage. It's up to you whether or not that's an acceptable trade-off. If it's not, then all I can suggest for your next time around is to be more vigilant in where and how you level your pet. Things that could previously slip under the radar are now causing people trouble. If you haven't taken a look at the other pet guide, you'll want to read its section on evolution and take those things to heart.

Allright, I caught a Snow wolf. Using my Ranger lvl 17 (my 8th character existing presently)
I jacked up her beast mastery, dropped her marks.
Took the wolf to Ice Tooth Cave.
Used an Icy bow, did 5-7 damage per hit, while the wolf did 35-45 with predators pounce and feral lunge. Using Symbiotic Bond and Mending on the Wolf until symbiotic bond was enough to keep him alive alone.
By lvl 10 the wolf was taking them down FAST, I was SURE it would be agressive, It probably died a total of 4 times, early on. After that it hardly lost any health at all.
At lvl 11 it turned into a Playful Wolf!!

The evolution depends on how much damage your pet takes. Mending may have kept it alive, but it regenerated life, not reduce it. When I leveled my Dire Wolf with my R/W, I used Symbiotic Bond and armor buffs. I had maxed Beast Mastery and split the rest of the points into Tactics and Wilderness Survival. I also equipped a shield and a weapon with added armor and went up front to try to take some of the damage.

I have a question. Does anyone know if the Dune Lizard grows any larger at lvl 15 if it changes to Dire or Hearty? Or does it stay the same size.

I got a question...Does anyone know if the Black Moa Bird from one of the Kurzick quests is charmable???

Yes, It was.

wow nice....the first thing i'll do is charm one *yayness*
it look damn cool^^

Call of Protection - Shout
For 120 seconds, your animal companions have a 1-11 base damage reduction.

and

Call of Haste

and

Ogyuts Cry

all seem to suggest all animals in your party are effected by the shouts. However after some testing of CoH and OC I noticed that only your own pet is affected. Why is it stated in plural animal companions if it only works on your own pet. Because Im pretty damn sure, it aint possible to have more than one pet. Anyone else noticed this?

You probably could have more than one in beta, and I bet they didn't carry over between maps. I know Bone Fiends used to. Only time I tried PvP in E3 for everyone, we went up against a team with asiatic names and 592318592476 bone fiends. That wasnt fun.

I'm 99.99% certain that CoP only works on your own pet too..
About time they changed the descriptions..