Pet Elder Spider and piercing damage

I read from many sources the pet elder spider from UW is a cut above all other pets. Is this really true? How does it compare with say the elder wolf from the shiverpeaks?

It does piercing damage as opposed to slashing damage for the wolf. What difference does this make? Is piercing damage always superior to slashing damage?

all pets are equal in attack, health and AL

Elder Black Widow Spider = Elder Snow Wolf

so no... it's not true

i recently updated an old friends thread... it has tons of info on pets and i will be updating it as new information becomes available... find it here : http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=67761

What about the different damage type, slashing and piercing? Does that make a difference?

TIA

The only difference it makes is some armor's have a defensive bonus vs certain attack types.

For example Necromancer's Bonelace armor - this has +15 AL vs Piercing damage. Thus all weapons which deal piercing damage (ie bows w/o elemental strings as well as Spider pets) will deal less damage vs someone wearing Bonelace armor.

Thats why I'd say as a ranger it's best to have say a Wolf, Strider, Lynx or Boar - because of different damage types, thus if you come across something with a bonus vs 1 of your types of damage, the other will still deal full damage.

In that case, isn't it best to get a Warthog, since it does blunt damage, which does extra damage to skeletons. Trouble is I don't know how to force it into an elder version.

The only readily available elder pets are the wolf(slashing) and spider(piercing).

Did someone say elder black widow? As far as I was aware the only widow is a dire widow. And since it comes at lvl 20 I don't think it can be evolved into an elder state.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Actually from what I've read, it can come out as hearty/dire/playful/elder.
Speaking of which, I'm beginning to think pet evolution is also random. If you're lucky your pet evolves to elder etc. If not, they most commonly end up as hearty.

A black widow spawns at every grenth statue after you finish the quest associated with it, different statues spawn a different evolution of spider.

I would suggest the more pet attack shouts to take with you while the pet levels the more likely it will end up dire and similarly if you only ever use charm/comfort (like 90% of rangers it will end up as hearty, elder being the middle ground.

Doesn't the Bear have blunt damage too?

It didn't work. I got a level 5 pet and only used pet shouts like Feral Lunge, Predatory Pounce...still ended up with playful at level 11. I never used comfort animal once.

No, it's slashing damage for bear.

Pets evolve starting at level 11 into hearty/dire/playful/elder in increments of 5.

If your pet is level 20 it has to level up by 5 again (like you do to gain extra skill points once you reach level 20) for it to become elder.

But that takes a Loooooooong time.
That's why you seldom see Elder Moa birds, Bears, Boars, Lynx and/or Stalkers with the Elder title. But you often see the Spider and the Wolf with it since you can charm/get them automatically with that title or people use them more often.
(i.e A PvP made Ranger automatically has a Elder wolf as a default pet)

Some pets just have the Elder acronyme starting off.

If what you're saying is true, a level 20 hearty pet is just one level away from elder, assuming it became hearty at level 16? From my experience though, the prefix never changes...my hearty stalker remained hearty...

Care to elaborate?

I thought you seldom see Elder Moa bird, Bears, Boars, Lynx or Stalkers because people don't know how to train an Elder. You don't have to go through Hearty/Dire to get to Elder and this is the first time I've seen someone claiming its possible. Also, the pet evolves at levels 11 and 15, not 11 and 16, so how does this play into your increments of 5 theory? Sometimes people miss their pet's evolution and thus guess incorrectly as to which level it evolved at because the name (and size in the case of the Hearty) does not auto-update. To see if your pet's name has changed you'll need to actually use a /namepet to force it to update. To see if your pet's appearance has changed you'll have to load a new map.

I have severe doubts as to your claim that pets can change evolutions after level 20. I solo on my beastmaster constantly and have gained many, many skill points while out alone with her, but my pet has never leveled up again after lvl 20. I couldn't have just missed it either, because according to your theory lvl 21 would be the next breaking point for evolution. I play a pure beastmaster with a Hearty variety pet, which would push me to Elder if and when my pet hit another evolutionary point. My Hearty, I'm happy to say, is still a Hearty, and thus I'm inclined to disregard your claims.

Moving towards Playful and eventually Hearty requires playing more of a bow ranger with the pet tagging along. Moving towards Dire needs you to play a full on beastmaster. Getting an Elder requires you to play one style until your pet hits its first evolution at lvl 11 and then play the other style until it hits its second evolution at lvl 15. I've tested this myself and leveled up several pets over a couple characters to do so. The problem most people run into is that they refuse to play a full-time beastmaster. They might use mostly beastmaster skills, but they'll still have points in Marks. If you play an even 50/50 Marks/Beast (which is common) you'll get the Hearty evolution. So if you're having problems and continuously getting a Hearty, dump Marks (and, of course, Marks skills) altogether.

Can you elaborate how to get an elder pet?
I have tried using only beastmaster (13),wilderness skills(10) and expertise(12) skills, wielding Flint's Fleshcleaver with no points in water magic.

Levelled the pet until level 11 and what do you know, it hasn't even acquired a prefix. Do I need to /namepet to force it to show its prefix? Don't remember having to do that when I was experimenting with the other pet.

well yeah... u either have to rezone or just type in /namepet to reset ur pets name to default

it should have evolved at level 11 to either Aggressive or Playful... if ur wanting Elder... just train ur pet the complete opposite of wat u get at level 11

I rezoned and it still didn't show the prefix. Guess it's a late bloomer. Have yet to try the /namepet command though I doubt it will change any.

not true. The elder black widow is marginally better than all pets.

Akimb0 - What makes you say the Elder Black Widow is better than every other pet when every pet has approx same attack speeds, damage rating, etc?

Provide proof.