Let our gear affect our pets

[tawek]

<DIV><U>Let illusionists to alter the strengths of their pet by their equip</U></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One of the fun things in the game is getting rare and useful items, like heritage items.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Unfortunately, for mages, many of these items are not much use (eg the haste effect on Flowing Black Silk Sash).  This gear does not affect Illusionist pets, changed gear just changes cosmetic appearance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If pets had the benefits (and drawbacks) of what an illusionist wore, it would add a whole new tactical choice.  Should we wear strength/agility/stamina items?  Or should we go for intelligence gear?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If our pets also had the same skills in piercing and crush, it would give us a strong incentive to improve these skills: which would add to the game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This would be <STRONG>**fun**</STRONG>.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What would not be fun is if we had to carry two sets of gear, and before we summon a pet we have to swap gear, then reswap after.  That could get tedious.  So I suggest that the gear used by the pet should be what is currently worn ... and not at the time of casting.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If this change made pets more powerful, then the general power of the pet might have to be adjusted to compensate, and so be it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And if there were no ideal choices for pet gear, all the better.  What I'd like to see is:</DIV> <UL> <LI>Some illusionists might go for int gear to maximise the damage of their spells, with a slightly weaker pet used as a meat shield to cast certain spells through.</LI> <LI>Some go for agility and stamina, to maximise the longevity of the pet while tanking, especially when tanking heroics.</LI> <LI>Others might go for melee damage, especially when fighting mobs with strong magic resists.</LI> <LI>With some monsters, they would switch between crushing and piercing, where the monster had better defences against the other.</LI></UL> <P>If the best policy varied against different types of monsters and in different zones, or with different allies ... so much the better ... the class will then be even more interesting.</P> <DIV>...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think that'd make an interesting class even more interesting.  What do the rest of you think?</DIV>

[Manyak]

<DIV>I personally think that the pet is a waste, whether it was implemented like this or not.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000 size=1>If pets had the benefits (and drawbacks) of what an illusionist wore, it would add a whole new tactical choice.  Should we wear strength/agility/stamina items?  Or should we go for intelligence gear?</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV>No matter what, we always wear VLA (Very Light Armor), so the real tanking ability of the pet won't be affected that much no matter what we choose. Even if we go full AGI to give it the best avoidance possible, its still going to be dieing pretty quick. Besides, with the amount of aggro we draw since we are one of the few classes that cast anything on mobs the tank of the group *isnt* taunting (especially when we have to cast mezz several times because of resists), its already a question whether we should go all-out on INT or go for some AGI/STA/WIS to stop us from taking damage.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000 size=1>If our pets also had the same skills in piercing and crush, it would give us a strong incentive to improve these skills: which would add to the game.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>In my opinion, we already have an incentive to improve these skills. This incentive is Prismatic Havoc (or Strife/Discord, depending what level you are). When soloing solo mobs, i ofter turn on autoattack and use this spell. It is our most damaging spell, and helps take out solo mobs quick. That gives me about 1500 or so damage, plus another possible 800 or so from the dynamism procs that can happen on any of the 3 havoc procs. Another incentive would be the fact that we can actually run oop now after the revamp. On long [expletive haxx0red by Raiscript] raids, especially when it comes down to the point that you are just about to kill a mob but people are starting to die or run oop as well, running up with the scouts and turning on autoattack still helps. Plus, if you are placed in a group that consists of nothing but mages and/or healers, then chances are that you are the only person who you are going to be able to cast Prismatic Havoc on since no-one will be running up and attacking it.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>Anyway, when u are at 60 and cant level up any more, and if you get into the whole raiding scene (if you are not in it already) then a good idea would be to go for INT/WIS....INT for power/damage and WIS for resistance against AOEs. Thats of course, if you dont already have seperate sets of gear to concentrate on different resist types. The pet is 100% useless in raids.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>Really though, i dont think that having the pet's stats affected by your gear would have much affect on the game. I mean, if you are going ASI/STA at teh cost of INT to bring up your pet's taking ablity, then you will be doing less damage, which means that the pet can still easily die before you manage to kill the mob its tanking. Plus, the pet does so little DPS since it only casts T2 spells, its not worthit to keep it alive slightly longer on heroic mobs at the cost of your own DPS.</FONT></DIV></DIV>

[Manyak]

<DIV>bah sorry about all the different font sizes i messed up and im too lazy to go back and fix it :/</DIV>

[tawek]

Thanks for the reply, DaMutation, <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I've understood you correctly, you think the idea is worthless because you think the pet-as-tank is worthless.  That it just doesn't live long enough to be any use.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You are obviously right in a group situation, where a pet is a waste of concentration slots, and even more so in a raid.  But this isn't my experience when soloing or duoing, up to lev 49.  A ^^^ heroic of my level will chew through the pet in no time, but a ^ mob, or even a ^^ mob will take some time, especially if I stun and debuff, and distract it with the construct.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I tend not to go into the fight myself, because if I get hit, I'll have less health to convert into power, and am more likely to lose ... and also, a full health bar is my safety net if things go wrong, or an unnoticed add jumps me.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As to whether letting gear affect the pets will make much difference ... well no, it won't nor should it.  If it made too much difference it would be unfair on players who chose a mage class because they don't enjoy seeking out good gear.  It should only make a marginal difference.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But it should make some difference.  A +15% haste with the Flowing Black Silk Sash and an occasional proc of Lambent Imbued won't make the pet absurdly overpowered.  For a pet whose main job is to take damage, rather than deal it, it might make it 3% better, but that is enough to give a sense of accomplishment to obtaining those items.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As for avoidance ... well I know it makes a difference.  I have relatively balanced stats, and when I get agro, I really notice my 36% avoidance and hit points which are respectable for a caster.  Again ... I wouldn't want these stats to massively over-power the pet ... just give it a slight edge.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And if I spend my time raiding ... well of course the strategy is different.  But then the whole pet idea is redundant anyway, and this discussion irrelevant.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><EM>(What prompted the idea is that ... it's initially what I thought they had implemented.  And I thought: "how amazingly cool, unlike the other mages, I have a reason to get the FBSS, the Crook, and other items ... I have a reason to bring up my combat skills.  This makes the illusionist even more fun".  Then I discovered I had been duped by appearances ... which is a bit humiliating for an illusionist.  The duplicate was just an illusion hiding an ordinary boring pet.  But why should it remain so?)</EM></DIV>

[Mongowth]

<P>I don't use the pet either in all honesty, it's a waste of conc slots and I manage to take out equal lvl single encounters ^^^ without much a problem at all... My Uber fairy pet of doom seems to kick butt enough o/</P> <P>I found this out by accident as was mining in DoF and got too close to a lvl 50 <^^^> (this was when I was still lvl 49) and I killed it within about 3 mins if that. It went down surprisingly fast although not sure whether this was purely coincidence that he had less resistance to my dmg type but he did die very quickly considering he was a lvl 50 <^^^> and all :smileywink:</P> <P> </P>

[Tuleri]

<DIV>I find the pet is great for true solo encounters.  The keep agro off of you for a bit, add DPS from their own hits, act as a Pris Striffe machine.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Against Heroics I shelve the pet for more mana/resist buff.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>About gear effecting the persona..ehhh. I refer to the thread about Halloween masks on pets as the best idea on this topic..</DIV><p>Message Edited by Tulerine on <span class=date_text>10-25-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:23 AM</span>

[Legionus1]

Not to sound mean but if you starved me and threw me in a cage and cast perminate mental retardation on my character you can get my persona...There is not much saving them I say let them turn into what ever they are fighting instead of them having our constant cosmetics let them constantly switch into mobs while fighting them...they will still have the fixed amont of maxium health and power, however it will work equal to the charm spell of the coercer in the sense  that the pet will slightly take the abbilities/combat style of the thing its fighting after the fight is over it switches back to our illusion...PLus it makes our pet illusions have more sense in the fact that they are an illusion...Kinda lika a mob double ganger...You can also turn our fairys into the light kinghts we get at mastery one I mean is one thing having a rainbowy cast its another thing to give us fairies to protect us now your messing with my characters manhood!!!! <div></div>