Necromancers ooze crawler?

[Caerana]

<p>Im not finding much info on the ooze crawler.</p><p>What exactly does the ooze crawler AA ability do?  is it a perminant pet like your primary pet... or is it instead of your primary pet? the description makes it sound like its not a fire and forget like the swarm of rats.</p><p> and is it worth using for primarily soloing/grouping and POSSIBLY pug raids (never major raids)</p><p>Also unrelated necro question  since im not doing major raids is the assasin ok for small groups and such for a DPS pet if built up with AA's?</p>

[TheSpin]

Not a necro, but I do know the ooze crawler is a primary pet...in other words it takes the place of your primary pet.  Thats about all I'm completely sure about though.

[Spangles]

<p>Yes, it is a primary pet, giving you a fourth option to choose - Fighter, Mage, Scout, Debuffer.</p><p>It is a totally weak pet and no use for soloing; its debuffs are AoE, so you need to be careful where you use it, and it dies too easily.  I have seen it used on a raid before but can't really comment on how effective it was.  After I saw how useless it was for soloing I respecced to go for Lifeburn and doubt I will pick it up again.</p>

[Catodon]

The only place the ooze crawler is truly useful is certain situations in raiding where extra debuffs are needed, although I've occasionally used it in groups where the tank/healers were having trouble.What its debuff does (at level 70, it gains its abilities as it levels with you) (from memory so not 100% accurate):Reduces: melee/casting skills (crush/slash/disruption etc.)                Spell/combat art resistability                Spell/combat art damage                 AOE radius                Double Attack % (if the mob has double attack ability, very few that I know of do)                DPS                Haste                Movement speed    All by 5-10% or soMost of these things will be heavily debuffed by other raid members so the void beast won't add much; aoe radius reduction and -double attack are unique effects so far as I know. Raids that are strong enough that the raid force is unlikely to wipe due to mob damage output don't need additional debuffs- a necro in that situation would focus on dps.  The places where the ooze crawler really shines are where you're taking on targets that are challenging enough that your tank or healers are being overwhelmed and need more defensive support, or in a few wonky cases where the other debuffers in the raid aren't able to maintain their spells due to mobs dispelling or reflecting things.The other question: assassin pet works just fine in solo/group situations, and can make life easier if you are grouping with enchanters who want to mez since it doesn't have any aoes.  It's not till you get into major raiding that the mage pet pulls way ahead in dps.               

[Mew]

<p>I have used the Ooze Crawler pretty extensively in KoS raid zones.  It is definitely a raiding pet. The primary function of the OC is to debuff the mob's (or group of mobs'<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> offensive capabilities. However, I find its usefulness limited in EOF zones.  By the time your guild is good enough to handle EOF content the Ooze Crawler becomes redundant.  Most of the class debuffs from the raid members do the job just fine.</p><p> The times I use the OC is when debuffing classes (particularly offensive ability debuffers) are few or just not present in the raid force.  Even though the debuff effect is AOE (encounter only) the range is limited so the pet needs to enter melee with the mob or group of mobs to be effective.  This makes it highly vulnerable to AOE attacks.  So, using it in conjunction with Blood Pact AA ability is very handy.  Typically, I will throw the pet defensive buff and the noxious debuff proc spells on it so it has extra health and can debuff the mobs poison/disease resists. </p><p> Several patches ago the OC's point blank AOE that was always on was changed to an encounter only AOE effect.  So, wandering OC's don't draw unwanted attention anymore.</p><p>The big downside to the OC is that it's dps stinks.  Expect your necro's dps output to drop 30 to 40% when using the OC. </p>

[Za]

<p>Its a debuff only pet... It's a really good chunk of debuffs, but that is all. It can't kill a L1 snake on its own... no joke, no exageration. It does 0 DPS.</p><p>So, your overall DPS will drop by 50%+ when compared to what you normally would do with a DPS pet out... or 30-40% compared to even your tank pet. </p><p>That said... the debuffs would make up for that loss of DPS in most raid situations IF the pet could only live long enough...</p><p>My grief with the dumb think is that it has 0 hpts (slight exageration) and no AoE immunity. So it dies like nothing... and on top if that, those debuffs wrack up ALOT of hate! So as soon as it does... guess who's coming next.</p><p>IF they gave it indirect AoE immunity, it'd be a really nice substitute for a DPS pet!</p>

[Davngr1]

<p>you will lose about 30% or your dps by using the ooze crawler unless your part of a guild and they ask you to use it i would not use it.</p><p> you can use the assasin pet, the mage pet will give you better dps but nothing wrong with using the pet you like best.  if you decide to use the scout pet i would recomend you spec for agi  and wis or  agi and str.  agi and wis will give your scout pet the best possible build. agi and str will give you and your scout pet a nice boost.      </p><p>  btw  when i say agi, str and wis im am refering to your AA line, the sumoner one.  the necro aa your ok tanking grave calling(ooze pet line) and i would take rotting if your looking to max out dps.</p>

[TuinalOfTheNexus]

<p>Very good thing to spend the 20 extra AAs in RoK on, to help with debuffing the new raid content.</p><p>Currently not worth the AAs.</p>

[Za]

<cite>TuinalOfTheNexus wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Very good thing to spend the 20 extra AAs in RoK on, to help with debuffing the new raid content.</p><p>Currently not worth the AAs.</p></blockquote>No its not... you're still losing your primary pet's dps. It's no stronger an AA line now than it was before...

[Mew]

There are occassions, albeit rare, that a necromancer has to stop looking at itself as exclusively a dps character and see him/herself as a utility class.  There are times when you need to forgo the necro dps on a raid and bring out the ooze crawler in order to keep the MT group alive.  Believe it or not there are times when even the best healers cannot keep up with the mobs damage output.  That little extra debuff could be just enough.  This is especially true when raiding a new zone where few if anyone in the raid knows the mob.  So, get the oozy pets ready for Kunark. You may need them for a little while.  You may not.  We have no way of knowing.  There is alway "respec".<span style="font-size: xx-small;font-family: sans-serif;">2</span>

[Za]

<cite>Mewse wrote:</cite><blockquote>There are occassions, albeit rare, that a necromancer has to stop looking at itself as exclusively a dps character and see him/herself as a utility class.  There are times when you need to forgo the necro dps on a raid and bring out the ooze crawler in order to keep the MT group alive.  Believe it or not there are times when even the best healers cannot keep up with the mobs damage output.  That little extra debuff could be just enough.  This is especially true when raiding a new zone where few if anyone in the raid knows the mob.  So, get the oozy pets ready for Kunark. You may need them for a little while.  You may not.  We have no way of knowing.  There is alway "respec".<span style="font-size: xx-small;font-family: sans-serif;">2</span></blockquote><p>I've been in situations where the ooze crawler is an AWESOME contribution to the overall raid. Yes, it COULD be a benefit to the raid's incoming damage management strategy. Esp in cases where your're healer poor, and DPS heavy... taking out 1 necro pet and replacing it with what essentially is an extra damage mitigation  source would be GREAT. The problem is on in how the pet is implemented vs how the game tends to play in those high level situations. </p><p>Any mob encounter that would be helped by the ooze crawler's benefits, will have at least some form of AoE... in most cases, unavoidble AoE... which even if its a small 100 damage AoE every 10 seconds... your ooze will not live long enough to be effective...</p><p>I didn't do any raiding in Beta... so I can't say this did or did not change with RoK... but if it didn't, then ooze crawler is still not all that useful in raids... I will say... I've used it in small groups and done places like SoF and Unrest without a traditional healer... thats fun. We had me (necro) 2 wizards, 1 troub, 1 Pali (MT), and I wanna say a rogue... don't remember which variety... But we did Unrest in like 2 hours... I covered some healing, but the Pali healed himself and tanked... Accept for the few times the ooze got killed, the mobs were EXTREMELY easy once the ooze got to em. </p><p>Anyway... my point... Give the ooze crawler a naturaly immunity to indirect AoE's and its a very viable strategy choice for a utility oriented necro. 100% absolutely a viable choice... But as things stand, its extremely situational and even in situations where it would be advantagious... it's difficult to impossible to get it to work right.</p>

[Nivmizzet]

Ooze pet stinks.  Put your AA into LB and Bloodpact.