How come Conjurers don't get Water pets ?

[Edgr]

<div></div>We have earth, fire and air. We have a water illusion, no water pet though ? I used the search and never found a post about this. Anyone ever wonder why we don't have a water pet ?<div></div>

[XtremSummo]

<P>There are water swarm or dumbfire pets as they are called. It's the Aqueous line which gives fish and sharks as the pets, but works more like a sort of killable DoT.</P> <P>I'd guess that there aren't enough separate functions that could easily be separated off into 4 different full-blown pets. The three we have fill the major functional elements: Solo/Tank, Single Target DPS and Encounter DPS.</P> <P>X</P>

[Magu]

In summary, we do <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Raybour]

<div></div>As others have said, we do get water "dumb" pets.  That having been said, I too have wondered about water pets along the "not-so-dumb" line.  However, the other 3 are tank (earth), scout (air) and mage (fire) based pets.  What would water be?  Cleric?  Could SOE put together a healer pet?  Would we like to play them?  How?  I can see arguments for and against the idea, but am too lazy to write a 20-page paper on the subject...and I fear that's what it would take me.   So... Anyone else have thoughts? J Wellington Wells <div></div><p>Message Edited by Raybourne on <span class=date_text>12-25-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:09 PM</span>

[XtremSummo]

<DIV>I played AO for a long while as a Meta-Physicist, which was a caster class with three different types of pet: a damage pet, a single-target healing pet and a pet that could mez a single target. You could cast all three pets at the same time and use them together, with the damage pet tanking to a degree, the heal pet healing the damage pet or yourself (or others in a group) and the mez pet either reducing damage or controlling adds. It was a brilliant combination and great fun to play because you were controlling the different pets in very different ways. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When the game first came out, the Meta-Physicist could only cast one pet at a time - and it was a nightmare to balance it well. If they had made the heal pet good enough for it to be really useful, it would have been too good and would have stepped on the toes of the specialist healers. But if you made the heal pet too weak, then it was very, very rarely worth casting because casting a damage pet would usually help people stay alive better than the small healing ability that the heal pet would have.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The mez pet too suffered from similar issues really. If it had crowd control abilities good enough to make it work as the only pet cast, then it took too much away from the specialists. If it was weak enough not to infringe on the specialists... then it really wasn't worth casting.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Pets having a damage role works because all classes need to have some level of damage in order to contribute to groups. Since mages are supposed to be a high damage class too, they fit better in our template. I'd honestly doubt whether you could create a pet that was the only pet we cast, which would have a strong enough role to be useful without messing up class balance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There have been discussions recently focussed around trying to make the Earth pet better tanks for groups, which have the same sorts of issues. If you make the pet strong enough to tank well for groups, then you begin to usurp the role of the real tanks too much and at the same time push solo strength out of balance. The Earth pet is balanced to allow it to tank for the Conjuror where he needs to just hold the mob off himself, which gives it a use for soloing and perhaps small groups... but the moment it becomes stronger than that, we start to see class balance being an issue.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's hard to see how you could make a heal or crowd control pet that would really benefit the soloing Conjuror enough to make it worthwhile, without it also treading on the toes of other classes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>X</DIV><p>Message Edited by XtremSummons on <span class=date_text>12-26-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:06 AM</span>