A guide to pets, by Jenosavel and Epinephrine
Linkusmax
Pet AI improvements indicated! hurrah!
Kalki
Wow excellent guide! Thank you both so very much Jenosavel and Epinephrine. I couldn't have dreamed of a better guide to pets. Now that I understand so well how pets work I'm definitely going to tame new pets for my characters.
I just have 1 question. Which pet type, evolution, and size comes with PvP characters? I would test this myself if I had a character slot left.
I just have 1 question. Which pet type, evolution, and size comes with PvP characters? I would test this myself if I had a character slot left.
Savio
When a PvP character puts Charm Animal on their skillbar, they get an Elder Wolf.
Jeremy_the_beard
i know it IS possible to get a bear pre searing, im sure of it, but does anyone have a position of a bear were its possible to use it on? i thought i found 1 but turns out i was wrong!
Kalki
Gah!
I've tried to create 2 Dire pets for my Ranger starting with level 5 snow wolves and both times I failed. Both pets became Agressive at level 11, and Elder at level 15. I guess I should keep trashing them and trying again. Is there any element of luck involved?
I used the following build on Minotaurs outside Ice Tooth Cave.
Ranger/Mesmer vs. Minotaurs
Beast Mastery: 12 (16 w/h helm and rune)
Expertise: 10 (11 w/h rune)
Wilderness Survival: 10 (11 w/h rune)
Ispiration Magic: 3
Ferocious Strike {E}
Feral Lunge
Disrupting Lunge
Symbiotic Bond
Call of Protection
Disrupting Lunge
Charm Animal
Troll Unguent
Physical Resistance
Both times I attempted to get a Dire pet it didn't die once. In almost every fight I was taking all the damage. I would charge into the groups to keep aggro on me. Most of the time my pet was doing ~20-50 damage per hit. I was timing my pet attack commands well. However I did auto-attack with my bow, which did about 7-10 damage per hit. Next time I try to get a Dire pet I won't attack with my bow at all, and see if that makes a difference.
I'm wondering if the bleeding damage I'm doing with Feral Lunge is getting credited to me or my pet. Also, I'd like to know if there's an element of luck involved.
I've tried to create 2 Dire pets for my Ranger starting with level 5 snow wolves and both times I failed. Both pets became Agressive at level 11, and Elder at level 15. I guess I should keep trashing them and trying again. Is there any element of luck involved?
I used the following build on Minotaurs outside Ice Tooth Cave.
Ranger/Mesmer vs. Minotaurs
Beast Mastery: 12 (16 w/h helm and rune)
Expertise: 10 (11 w/h rune)
Wilderness Survival: 10 (11 w/h rune)
Ispiration Magic: 3
Ferocious Strike {E}
Feral Lunge
Disrupting Lunge
Symbiotic Bond
Call of Protection
Disrupting Lunge
Charm Animal
Troll Unguent
Physical Resistance
Both times I attempted to get a Dire pet it didn't die once. In almost every fight I was taking all the damage. I would charge into the groups to keep aggro on me. Most of the time my pet was doing ~20-50 damage per hit. I was timing my pet attack commands well. However I did auto-attack with my bow, which did about 7-10 damage per hit. Next time I try to get a Dire pet I won't attack with my bow at all, and see if that makes a difference.
I'm wondering if the bleeding damage I'm doing with Feral Lunge is getting credited to me or my pet. Also, I'd like to know if there's an element of luck involved.
Jenosavel
Not auto-attacking will definitely make a difference. The minotaurs are warriors afterall, and this means that at low levels your pet will have issues penetrating their high armor. The difference between your damage and your pet's can still cause problems because the base damage of your bow is usually high while the base damage from your pet is low due to its low level. You can easily eliminate any trouble this might cause by simply not attacking.
My other suggestion would be to make sure that you run in ahead of your pet and let it attack the enemies in response to you getting hit rather than in response to you auto-attacking. While your build looks sound for Dire training, that nit-picky little positioning detail tends to make more of a difference than people would think.
My other suggestion would be to make sure that you run in ahead of your pet and let it attack the enemies in response to you getting hit rather than in response to you auto-attacking. While your build looks sound for Dire training, that nit-picky little positioning detail tends to make more of a difference than people would think.
JoDiamonds
The nitpicky details certainly seem important, and many players seem to miss the fact that the amount of damage you do is extremely important. It seems the best route (in my experience) has always been to absolutely minimize the damage you are doing as a player, and to prevent damage to the pet.
I usually choose to do no damage at all (just healing myself and turning off enemy damage; Troll Unguent, Throw Dirt, etc.), and using Call of Protection is required as far as I can tell (or at least makes it much, much easier).
Like everyone else, this is awesome. Thanks for all the help and input on the guide, everyone.
I usually choose to do no damage at all (just healing myself and turning off enemy damage; Troll Unguent, Throw Dirt, etc.), and using Call of Protection is required as far as I can tell (or at least makes it much, much easier).
Like everyone else, this is awesome. Thanks for all the help and input on the guide, everyone.
Kalki
I finally got a Dire pet on my 3rd attempt following the tips of the 2 posters above. The tip of not having my ranger attack had an additional benefit in regards to the pet aggro hierarchy, which was listed in the guide. Instead of the pet attacking the target I was attacking it would first attack anything attacking it thus lowering it's overall damage taken.
I also levelled a Dire pet on my warrior. I used a build with Healing Signet and Call of Haste in place of Physical Resistance and Troll Unguent. Thanks again and I can't wait to see what changes to pets Factions will bring.
I also levelled a Dire pet on my warrior. I used a build with Healing Signet and Call of Haste in place of Physical Resistance and Troll Unguent. Thanks again and I can't wait to see what changes to pets Factions will bring.
Ishmaeel
Thanks all for the outstanding work and contributions.
I recently gave my Lizard to that butcher and got myself a Moa Bird. She's level 19 now and remains unevolved (=elder w/o prefix?). Here's what I did:
Go outside Ice Tooth Cave with barrage, defensive stances, self healing and symbiotic bond. Walk near the minos without attacking - let them charge you. This way, they almost always target you and leave the pet alone. Beat the living tusks out of the minos myself, letting the birdy peck cutely at them with low BM. Use SB when one of the bulls get the idea to attack my precious chicken.
Level 11 : Pet only died once when I got careless and no evo. At that point, I upped the BM a bit and made room for one pet attack as I thought there could be a minimum damage that needs to be done by the pet to evolve. Did not change strategy much. Occasionally I let the bird kill small groups by itself. But overall, bulk of the work was done by me.
Level 15 : No evo still. Named her "Fresh Meat", got her to the Tombs with a B/P party, got her up to level 19 and renamed her "Unevolved".
I recently gave my Lizard to that butcher and got myself a Moa Bird. She's level 19 now and remains unevolved (=elder w/o prefix?). Here's what I did:
Go outside Ice Tooth Cave with barrage, defensive stances, self healing and symbiotic bond. Walk near the minos without attacking - let them charge you. This way, they almost always target you and leave the pet alone. Beat the living tusks out of the minos myself, letting the birdy peck cutely at them with low BM. Use SB when one of the bulls get the idea to attack my precious chicken.
Level 11 : Pet only died once when I got careless and no evo. At that point, I upped the BM a bit and made room for one pet attack as I thought there could be a minimum damage that needs to be done by the pet to evolve. Did not change strategy much. Occasionally I let the bird kill small groups by itself. But overall, bulk of the work was done by me.
Level 15 : No evo still. Named her "Fresh Meat", got her to the Tombs with a B/P party, got her up to level 19 and renamed her "Unevolved".
Pi_Numurian
cool ty
jv35jimbo
Amazing, a completely, totally awesome guide.
An incredible piece of work. I am most grateful for all the information.
An incredible piece of work. I am most grateful for all the information.
Makkert
http://photics.com/2006/04/20/guild-...der-pet-guide/
photics claims the spider is faster in speed then the other pets...
EDIT: pet --> spider to make the sentence logical. brainfart
photics claims the spider is faster in speed then the other pets...
EDIT: pet --> spider to make the sentence logical. brainfart
Epinephrine
His comment refers to the running speed, which I haven't specifically tested, perhaps we'll need to run a few quick tests w.r.t. running speed. I noticed that when Jenosavel and I were using our paired beastmasters that our pets would kill the last target and run back together, exactly in step with one another - a good way to test running speed I suspect - by staying at a long range from the last target you can ensure that the pet returns at its higher speed running rate.
I'm somewhat curious as to how the new pets will behave, but I imagine that they'll be in line with the old. The guide will of course need a bit of re-vamping when Factions comes out, but I've been pretty busy IRL and with preparation for Factions release (as you know Makkert
) so haven't been as active on it as I might be.
I'm somewhat curious as to how the new pets will behave, but I imagine that they'll be in line with the old. The guide will of course need a bit of re-vamping when Factions comes out, but I've been pretty busy IRL and with preparation for Factions release (as you know Makkert
) so haven't been as active on it as I might be.
zling
it is an excellent guide on pets which gave me all the information I needed, especially the fact that there is no real difference between the different pets, so my PvE ranger can stay with my melandru's stalker until level 20 and be as effective as all other pets 
also I wasnt aware of the whole evolution thing as my pet isnt level 11 yet...
however there is something that bothers me about keeping my pet until late game, it seems to require too many skills for not so much efficiency. charm animal is a slot wasted as it does nothing, but is a neccessity as without it you dont have a pet, comfort/revive are pretty neccessary as the pet tends to die rather often, and a pet attack skill and/or other pet affecting skill(such as call haste) so if I want to keep my pet I have to waste 3-4 skill slots on it and due to the horrible AI and low controlability it's effectiveness is in question.
so what do you guys say? is it worth to keep my pet for a PvE ranger primary? or should I stick to my bow skills and stuff, and if I do keep him, should I just use charm animal and comfort/revive or other skills as well and how many points should I invest in beastmastery(if any)?
also I wasnt aware of the whole evolution thing as my pet isnt level 11 yet...
however there is something that bothers me about keeping my pet until late game, it seems to require too many skills for not so much efficiency. charm animal is a slot wasted as it does nothing, but is a neccessity as without it you dont have a pet, comfort/revive are pretty neccessary as the pet tends to die rather often, and a pet attack skill and/or other pet affecting skill(such as call haste) so if I want to keep my pet I have to waste 3-4 skill slots on it and due to the horrible AI and low controlability it's effectiveness is in question.
so what do you guys say? is it worth to keep my pet for a PvE ranger primary? or should I stick to my bow skills and stuff, and if I do keep him, should I just use charm animal and comfort/revive or other skills as well and how many points should I invest in beastmastery(if any)?
GloryFox
I really want to thank you for doing the work on Pets. This data is eveidince that my Beast Master Build for FOW is not a n00b build. Pets are highly undervaluded. Beast Masters can be as you have shown quite deadly. Thank you again.
QQ
Is there a way ingame to tell what kind of Pet spider I have. I charmed it a long time ago and have no idea if its Elder Hearty or unevolved. Or did I miss somthing on an earlier post.
Is there a way ingame to tell what kind of Pet spider I have. I charmed it a long time ago and have no idea if its Elder Hearty or unevolved. Or did I miss somthing on an earlier post.
GloryFox
Quote:
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Originally Posted by GloryFox
I really want to thank you for doing the work on Pets. This data is eveidince that my Beast Master Build for FOW is not a n00b build. Pets are highly undervaluded. Beast Masters can be as you have shown quite deadly. Thank you again.
Is there a way ingame to tell what kind of Pet spider I have. I charmed it a long time ago and have no idea if its Elder Hearty or unevolved. Or did I miss somthing on an earlier post. |
Grubcat
Quote:
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Originally Posted by zling
.
however there is something that bothers me about keeping my pet until late game, it seems to require too many skills for not so much efficiency. charm animal is a slot wasted as it does nothing, but is a neccessity as without it you dont have a pet, comfort/revive are pretty neccessary as the pet tends to die rather often, and a pet attack skill and/or other pet affecting skill(such as call haste) so if I want to keep my pet I have to waste 3-4 skill slots on it and due to the horrible AI and low controlability it's effectiveness is in question. so what do you guys say? is it worth to keep my pet for a PvE ranger primary? or should I stick to my bow skills and stuff, and if I do keep him, should I just use charm animal and comfort/revive or other skills as well and how many points should I invest in beastmastery(if any)? |
I don't claim to be an expert, by any means, but I have just finished the missions with a beastmaster and my hearty lynx and really enjoyed it. You're right, you have to have points in beastmastery and use mostly animal skills. I usually took call of protection, predator's pounce, distracting lunge, comfort animal and charm animal, a heal and a rez. That left room for only one bow skill, so when Miss Kitty dies, I have just one skill to use until she's back up. She doesn't die too often now.
She's a great tank and holds aggro quite well. It takes some practice to learn how to pull a target without the pet charging in, but if you shoot, then run backwards, your pet will follow you, not the arrow. Same way you have to fool the henches, but I find it easier with my cat.
I've found that she will keep attacking an enemy for a certain amount of time, even if I switch targets to spread some poison around. I think I read that it's about every 6 seconds that the pet checks to see what it should be attacking? Usually though, I use a staff for extra energy and pet skills and switch to a bow if I need to.
When I got to the southern Shiverpeaks, Miss Kitty stayed home a lot while I learned to trap and interrupt, because I rarely used those skills earlier in the game.
Reading this excellent guide really helped a lot, though I certainly seem to be in the minority, prefering a hearty pet, rather than a dire one.
zling
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Grubcat
Reading this excellent guide really helped a lot, though I certainly seem to be in the minority, prefering a hearty pet, rather than a dire one.
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Pan Sola
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Makkert
http://photics.com/2006/04/20/guild-...der-pet-guide/
photics claims the spider is faster in speed then the other pets... EDIT: pet --> spider to make the sentence logical. brainfart |
Epinephrine
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Pan Sola
I just followed the link, and I do not see the claim on photics saying spider is faster than other pets...
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Linkusmax
Heres My Pet Pheonix Krijgsleider, probably not the best light to show off his plumage though.
Starsky-sama
anyone know how much each level of exp is needed.
-it seems like cantha pets take longer to lvl up now...hmmm...
(if it's the same. then it must be just in my head.
)
-it seems like cantha pets take longer to lvl up now...hmmm...
(if it's the same. then it must be just in my head.
)
burty
Anyone know if the black moa is dire ... it dosnt say he is when i capped him
Valerius
Quote:
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Originally Posted by burty
Anyone know if the black moa is dire ... it dosnt say he is when i capped him
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vncanadian
wow, many thanks
Turgon Windwalker
Good job , i was always wondering about the pet stats !
Lady Lozza
lol I've never bothered to look at this before because with my very first ranger I never had her using BM at all. Now my new factions ranger has a very cute, friendly tiger, Mr. Kitty, an I rather like to take him everywhere. The real question is, is a Dire or a Hearty pet of more use to a beast master? I understand the damage output etc. I was just wondering how the defence vs damage measured up, and if anyone had any experience in running both types of pets as a BM.
Good job on the guide!
Good job on the guide!
Jenosavel
I'm sure we said it somewhere in this thread, but stuff tends to get lost after the first so many pages...
From my experience, whether or not you have a Hearty pet plays relatively little into whether or not your pet dies. If your pet isn't being focus fired, then whether or not it dies usually depends on if you have a pet defense/heal on your bar. If it is being focus fired, it being Hearty is going to make it last a little bit longer, but not much. Add on top of this that Comfort Animal is such a fast, reliable res and that pets don't take DP, and you really have to ask yourself what the point of a Hearty pet is.
I say Dire all the way.
From my experience, whether or not you have a Hearty pet plays relatively little into whether or not your pet dies. If your pet isn't being focus fired, then whether or not it dies usually depends on if you have a pet defense/heal on your bar. If it is being focus fired, it being Hearty is going to make it last a little bit longer, but not much. Add on top of this that Comfort Animal is such a fast, reliable res and that pets don't take DP, and you really have to ask yourself what the point of a Hearty pet is.
I say Dire all the way.
Lady Lozza
Thanks Jenosavel, the question is whether or not it is possible to evolve my now Hearty Tiger to a Dire between lvl15 and lv20 :s or would it just be easier to start over?
Jenosavel
Hearty's a final evolution, so no you won't be able to make your Hearty Tiger Dire. Furthermore, if you had a Playful pet it would already be too late to get a Dire one later on. You'll need to get Aggressive as your pet's first evolution and then keep on doing what you were doing to get Dire.
Lady Lozza
kk thanks once again for the info time to get a new tiger I think...
Sagaris
Ok, question: currently I'm leveling an enemy White Tiger by letting it kill me. It started at lvl 5, now it's lvl 13. But it's still a lvl 13 White Tiger. Does this mean I'm screwed and got a pet that doesn't evolve? Or doesn't the evolution show on enemy pets names?
*edit! YAY! At lvl 15 I charmed it and it was a Dire White Tiger.
*edit! YAY! At lvl 15 I charmed it and it was a Dire White Tiger.
Shadowfox1125
Just wondering, but how long did that take you, Sagaris...?
Angelica
Wow! This is awesome, best guide to pets ever!
Thx very much appreciated.
Thx very much appreciated.
menelik_seth
Sagaris, I never thought of letting the pet kill me to evolve before capping. Thanks for sharing that, I'll consider it for my ranger in the future
Also, thanks for the insight Jenosavel. I kinda liked my Hearty Moa Bird beause of the size increase; and I thought the extra mana would help. But the way you put it, dire does seem the way to go. I'll start over right away, using the technique Sagaris use...
Pet Rant:
Gosh, I wish they changed the pet behavior so its more like henchies: Attacking called-target
My reason (now more than ever):
I created a Rt/R, and decided to level up a pet; just for kicks really. I realized that it wasn't going to work at all because I mostly spend my time in-battle summoning spirits. This means I don't attack, and my pet just sits down and watches the battle...
Occasionally she might attack if I get hammered enough.
I could work around this: Summon spirits, then switch to longbow and hit a target to sic' my pet on em. But it kinda breaks the flow of my build... I just wish pets would behave like henchies, would make em feel more "organic" y'know? Like your actually communicating with the pet...
Also, thanks for the insight Jenosavel. I kinda liked my Hearty Moa Bird beause of the size increase; and I thought the extra mana would help. But the way you put it, dire does seem the way to go. I'll start over right away, using the technique Sagaris use...
Pet Rant:
Gosh, I wish they changed the pet behavior so its more like henchies: Attacking called-target
My reason (now more than ever):
I created a Rt/R, and decided to level up a pet; just for kicks really. I realized that it wasn't going to work at all because I mostly spend my time in-battle summoning spirits. This means I don't attack, and my pet just sits down and watches the battle...
Occasionally she might attack if I get hammered enough.
I could work around this: Summon spirits, then switch to longbow and hit a target to sic' my pet on em. But it kinda breaks the flow of my build... I just wish pets would behave like henchies, would make em feel more "organic" y'know? Like your actually communicating with the pet...
inscribed
Just caught a phoenix, and was leveling it up to be a Dire by farming Minotaurs. I noticed that the minotaurs health bar seems to jump down at irregular intervals that don't coincide with my pet doing damage (for instance, he'd do 8 damage, and I'll see the health bar jump down a good bit more than 8 damage would justify). Now, I know the minotaurs have Endure Pain, and at first attributed the decrease in health to Endure Pain wearing off, but there have been a few times now, that the decrease will happen right after the minotaur uses Endure Pain, not allowing enough time for it to wear off.
So a question for the OP's, have you tested the phoenix at all for special attributes? Not to go starting rumors or anything, but it seemed like the phoenix was either knocking the minotaur out of stance, or causing a deep wound. I have no idea how to go about testing that, but I thought I would pass along the observation.
Of course, it might be something else completely trivial that I was just overlooking.
So a question for the OP's, have you tested the phoenix at all for special attributes? Not to go starting rumors or anything, but it seemed like the phoenix was either knocking the minotaur out of stance, or causing a deep wound. I have no idea how to go about testing that, but I thought I would pass along the observation.
Of course, it might be something else completely trivial that I was just overlooking.
Thorinfire
Any ideas for a Ranger/Monk build for leveling a Dire pet?
Jenosavel
Quote:
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Originally Posted by inscribed
Just caught a phoenix, and was leveling it up to be a Dire by farming Minotaurs. I noticed that the minotaurs health bar seems to jump down at irregular intervals that don't coincide with my pet doing damage (for instance, he'd do 8 damage, and I'll see the health bar jump down a good bit more than 8 damage would justify). Now, I know the minotaurs have Endure Pain, and at first attributed the decrease in health to Endure Pain wearing off, but there have been a few times now, that the decrease will happen right after the minotaur uses Endure Pain, not allowing enough time for it to wear off.
So a question for the OP's, have you tested the phoenix at all for special attributes? Not to go starting rumors or anything, but it seemed like the phoenix was either knocking the minotaur out of stance, or causing a deep wound. I have no idea how to go about testing that, but I thought I would pass along the observation. Of course, it might be something else completely trivial that I was just overlooking. |
Also, if it were deep wound inflicting, you'd be able to watch the status appear on the Mino (triangle on its health bar) in time with the Phoenix attacks. Thus, I don't think what you were seeing could be either of those things. What it was, I'm not sure.
T1Cybernetic
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sagaris
Ok, question: currently I'm leveling an enemy White Tiger by letting it kill me. It started at lvl 5, now it's lvl 13. But it's still a lvl 13 White Tiger. Does this mean I'm screwed and got a pet that doesn't evolve? Or doesn't the evolution show on enemy pets names?
*edit! YAY! At lvl 15 I charmed it and it was a Dire White Tiger. |
would this way actualy take? im in no rush but i dont fancy days and days
of countless deaths,
...