Dogdog

[Eaeaden]

<DIV>So I got my pet last night.  While he's neat looking, he wasn't gonna turn the tide in any dungeon battles.  I'm wondering if I shouldn't pursue another AA line for levelling purposes and then respec to the pet line once I have enough AAs to give him the good toys.  Thoughts?</DIV>

[Loral]

<P>You will have to define "pet line" as most of the lines have some goodies for the pet.</P> <P>Whatever the choices you pick, your dog will never tank. He will always have very low HP, and be 3 down arrows. To help his survivability, you can:</P> <UL> <LI>always press the petbackoff button as soon as you summon him;</LI> <LI>always send him to attack the back of mobs;</LI> <LI>never let him take aggro (when soloing for example);</LI></UL> <P>If you start raiding, the only way your pet can survive anything is with the final achievement of the STR line, that grants him AoE immunity. Other than this particular case, there is nothing that can help him live longuer other than careful management.</P> <P>Once you know how to keep him alive, you will see that some achievements, while not turning the tide of battle, can make your adventuring alot easier... warding, various DoTs, debuffs, group resistances, haste... All free of charge, as long as the pet attacks.</P>

[Eepop]

I would suggest going down agility until you have 25 points (enough to get the last ability in the strength line). Agility line helps a good bit on solo DPS...and having lots of melee crit is fun. <div></div>

[Eaeaden]

<P>Sorry, I should have been more specific.  I plan to take STR line all the way to the bottom eventually, I just wasn't sure if it was the best line to track while in the process of gaining enough AA points to buy the whole line.</P> <P>EDIT:</P> <P>"I would suggest going down agility until you have 25 points (enough to get the last ability in the strength line).<BR><BR>Agility line helps a good bit on solo DPS...and having lots of melee crit is fun."</P> <P>Thank you, I'll look into that.</P><p>Message Edited by Eaeaden on <span class=date_text>06-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:15 AM</span>

[trin ka]

<DIV>Foretelling work on increasing Dogdog's hp? No clue if it does or not..when I solo I drop it on him anyway. Seems like at m1 Foretelling could almost double his hitpoints.</DIV>

[Eepop]

I dont want to look for the posts, but basicly here's the gist... The pet doesnt take HP buffs properly (possibly other buffs too but they are harder to test). HP buffs have some effect but not all that they should. Both I and another mystic independantly tested and got this same result.  If you want to see the actual logs, i think Banditman put the stuff in one of the musing threads. <div></div>

[Eepop]

<blockquote><hr>Eepop wrote:I dont want to look for the posts, <div></div><hr></blockquote>I lied.... A copy paste from the musings thread ------------------------------------------------------- <i>Test 1I dropped every buff I had, summoned the pet, and dueled a ranger. I had the ranger take him down in health a bit, made sure he wasn't using any abilities with an effect (dot etc), and waited for the pet to tick on health regen. Then I cast healing ritual (the teens strong heal).My results:Unbuffed:239 Healed, 33% (39 to 72)239 x 100/33 = 724 HP on petForetelling on Pet (Should be +643 Max Health):215 Healed, 25% (52 to 77)215 x 100/25 = 860 HP on petUmbral Mettle on my group (should apply to me and pet? +321 Max Health):257 Healed, 32% (62 to 94)257 x 100/32 = 803 HP on petSpirit of the Mammoth on my group (+66 STA)215 Healed, 29% (63 to 92)215 x 100/29 = 741HP on petTest 2Ran out to PoF and tested the amount of damage required to kill Dogdog under these conditions:I subtracted last hit -1 from the total damage to get the minimum HP he had.No buffs: 514 - 653 HPAvatar only: 628 - 729 HPSpirit of Mammoth only: 578 - 707 HPUmbral Mettle only: 708 - 790 HPForetelling only: 644 - 776 HPAll buffs: 822 - 939 HPThis test was run by a L62 Mystic, his buffs as follows:Avatar, Master 1: +59 StaminaSpirit of Mammoth, Adept 3: +66 StaminaUmbral Mettle, Adept 1: +241 HPForetelling, Adept 1: +482 HPTotal buffs: +125 Stamina, +723 HPIn total, this Mystic should have been buffing in the ballpark of 1350 HP to his petAs you can see, it is only adding 286 to 308 HP.We assume that this bug also applies to buffs from other players which should have an effect on our pet.</i><div></div>

[Shagg]

Immunities also gives the pet 4200 to all resists in case you get hit with a group targeted spell. I went WIS line for increased healing until I had enough to finish off the STR line and give the little guy survivability. I'm very pleased with how well he survives on raids as long as there aren't any group targeted nasty dots or dd's. However going down the STA line for quicker cures might be a better interim plan.<div></div>

[trin ka]

Cool..so Foretelling does increase his hitpoints...maybe not as much as it could but at least its something<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I just finished the str aa line with 8 in aura and it does rule. That little ward icon is almost always up<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I've noticed over the last few weeks that I'm not casting dogdog as much because of his beefyness<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The next aa point I get I guess I'll have to read this board to see which line I will choose next.

[Eaeaden]

<P>Excellent info here.  Thanks for all of the feedback, gang!</P> <P>Planck, Mystic of Guk</P>

[Thunderthyze]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Loralor wrote:<BR> <P>always send him to attack the back of mobs;</P> <P>never let him take aggro (when soloing for example);</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>OK....noob question here....</P> <P>1. How do you specify the facing of the pet?</P> <P>2. With the Mystics well known offensive capability it is pretty difficult sometimes to remove the aggro...the only sure fire method I have used is to ensure you don't send the pet in until you have drawn the aggro in the first place.</P><p>Message Edited by Thunderthyze on <span class=date_text>06-09-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:48 AM</span>

[Banditman]

<div><blockquote><hr>Thunderthyze wrote:<div></div> <div></div><p>OK....noob question here....</p> <p>1. How do you specify the facing of the pet?</p><p><font color="#ff0000">You don't.  This is all about your tank.  Your tanks should always, always be turning the mob so it's back is to you.  Therefore, when you send in your pet, you are sending it at the back of the mob.  If your tank isn't doing this, then it's up to you to take care of it.  In certain cases you can tell your pet to "stay here" in a location where he will get the back of the mob by default.  Just dont forget to tell him to follow again when you move on.</font></p> <p>2. With the Mystics well known offensive capability it is pretty difficult sometimes to remove the aggro...the only sure fire method I have used is to ensure you don't send the pet in until you have drawn the aggro in the first place.</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Yep.</font></p><p>Message Edited by Thunderthyze on <span class="date_text">06-09-2006</span> <span class="time_text">10:48 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote></div>

[Loral]

<DIV>My own Mystic is only 32 (wife has one at 70), but I can manage to keep my dog alive in all situations, short of raiding (not much AAs yet). Having lv70 Conjuror experience does tend to help.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. Solo: when the mob is on you, and your pet is attacking, move back a little to put the mob between you and the pet. The pet will be facing the back of the mob. In groups, intelligent tanks turn to mob around so all the group are at its back. Same for raids.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. Solo, I pull with a nuke or a debuff, cast another debuff as soon as I can, turn on autoattack and send the pet. If I do constant damage/healing/debuffing, the mob will never turn on the pet. In groups, should not be a problem, because yourself will probably take aggro before your pet if you have a decent tank.</DIV>

[Xebed]

after reading this it just occured to me...im thinking its related to the down-arrows she has, think of it in terms of a monster, to keep things scaled properly a down-arrow mobs selfbuff would affect it less than a no-arrow and much less than a tripple up arrow.  kk that sounds a bit wooly - basically im think that her triple down arrow nature is a aplying a <1 multiplier to any buffs placed upon her, this would be consistant with the numbers you quoted, as well as fitting in with the scaled nature of encounters. <div></div>

[Banditman]

There are only three cases when solo'ing that I see my pet steal aggro.1.  I forget to turn off "protect me".  This is just dumb on my part.  It usually occurs after a zone, because I macro /pet backoff when summoning him.  I use /usea Summon Spirit Companion; /usea Spiritual Foresight; /pet backoff as my summon macro.2.  I chain pull a second mob with a debuff while my pet still has a Ward from Aura of Warding on me.  The mob walks up, whacks me and the Ward absorbs the hit, giving the pet more aggro than my debuff gave me.3.  I get adds and they see the pet "healing" his entire group.  Again, an Aura of Warding issue.<div></div>

[Nm]

<P>In the old EQ, all player pets were the horror of raids, because if you were unfocused at a moment and an AoE hit, then all pets would swarm in. Later, with some AA's, you could make your pet totally passive (if you remembered to hit your macro).</P> <P>While this is not the issue in EQ2, where you have the option to make your pet totally passive with two clicks, it still resets when you zone. I have yet to find a different way of handling this asside from clicking it off every time I zone - suggestions??</P>

[Banditman]

I've taken to adding a second macro for my AA's.  Aura of Haste and Immunities both need to be recast after every zone, so I moved my /pet backoff to a macro with those two and it has helped me a little.<div></div>