Pet nerf too much

Me and my wolf could always handle the world bosses before. Now, my greater wolf gets killed by the scorpion world boss. He was level 10 and full health at the start and was dead in no time at all. What is the point of letting us have pets if they can’t survive a single boss fight? I understand if he was level 1, but by level 10 he should have been able to survive a lot more than that. Always could before 3.0.

I don’t want a thrall following me around, I want my wolf. You’ve made them tissue paper. Between this and the overpriced Bazaar, I’m quickly losing my love for this game. I have tolerated the endless glitches in this game since it first went EA. They’re annoying, but tolerable. What isn’t tolerable is bad decision making.

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Sorry to say, but just prior to 3.0, your wolf would have likely been taken out by the Scorpion King if it was only level 10. Without taking agro for significant amounts of time during the fight, the poison would have killed your wolf quite easily.

Try getting them to level 20 and using some content appropriate armor on yourself.

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Yeah I feel your frustration on this issue St.Michael. There was not one single pet in this game in a state powerful enough to warrant a nerf, and I fail to see ANY pet in this game that needs even the slightest amount of downward adjustment. The best pets are not even in the same ball park as an average thrall, and have been substantially behind thralls in the follower department every step of the way. A pet cannot be equipped with a better set of armor or a stronger weapon to raise its combat prowess. You also cannot put a gas mask on a pet or equip it with a truncheon. And I hate to say it, but coming from someone who actually likes pets way more than thralls, as I am a sucker for cats, pets are inferior to thralls in every conceiveable way. So giving cats and canines up to a further 40% nerf was HUGE and unwarranted.

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Not long agp, I lost a level 20 greater wolf to the Arena Champion in only a single combo (he was on passive, so wasn’t even pulling agro. Not sure why she suddenly turned on him).

But I know before 3.0 I’ve taken the scorpion king out with my wolf at less than 20. Because I level them to about 5, then I take them to Shattered Springs to level a bit, then kill the scorpion king on my way to UC where I level them to 20.

But I would like to take this opportunity to say I may have been a bit harsh in my first post, having posted it right after losing him. But I don’t believe I was wrong. I think they were nerfed too much (and I definitely believe the bazaar is overpriced).

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I don’t believe you’re wrong either. I think I’m on Mr. Fuzzycuddles XII since I’ve lost so many greater bears.

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I know, you are not usually an angry guy. We have been interacting with each other on the forum for years, and to rhe best of my recollection, this is the most cross I have ever seen you, so it was also kind of surprising. And hey just for the record: you can always tweek and edit your original post, you aren’t bound to it by blood buddy.:wink:

But I have noticed the changes too. And as it stands now, I am even too hesitant to take my highest levelled pet, my 19.5 Tiger to battle even a World Boss (easy), because he just feels too frail.

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Yeah I’m really hoping they 8ncrease pets up because the only pets I take into the wild anymore are the defunct legionnaires.

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It is most unfortunate.
But the powers that be have spoken.
Their vision of pets in this game is as mid level fluff.

If you are trying to use Pets for world bosses and late game content, instead of using human slaves, you are playing the game contrary to the developer’s stated intent.

Whether this one agrees or disagrees that such an intent is a good idea is immaterial. Which is, for the record, this one is not able to articulate how much they despise that intent while still remaining civil. In a perverse way, your specific case demonstrates the game is working as they intend.

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I’ve been levelling a few of the new dogs and wolves up to 20 recently, and while they are definitely not as strong as they used to be, they still can do quite a bit of damage per bite! My main issue is the low armour makes them incredibly susceptible to any high damage output enemy, they especially don’t like being hit by Rotbranch!

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Done. Lol

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Yea, Rotbranch can do some serious damage, especially that attack where he goes low and sprouts branches out all around. Not long ago I almost lost a wolf and horse to him. I was able to run away and barely kept them alive. He’s one world boss I avoid until my pet and horse are level 20.

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Wait!? You name your Bears after my middle name? I’m touched!

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One of the issues that Wolves and Dogs have is even with Taunt turned off, they can rip agro due to status effects. They can sunder which does quite a bit of agro. If you plan on using them, make sure to equip a weapon that can put status effects on demand so when you see sunder stacks come on, you can put your own effects to mitigate the agro.

Dogs and Wolves don’t have a lot of armor so get squishy no matter what their health is.

Good to know. But when fighting the Arena Champion, I put them on “Attack Nothing” before I even enter the room. He never touched her.

I had messed up my combo letting her get in a couple hits, so I backed off just a bit to drink a potion real quick. That’s when she turned on my innocent little Panzer and took him out with one combo. R.I.P.

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Considering that pets are predestined to be worth less than human thralls, may they simply work like zombies? Just making them instantly level 20 wouldn’t hurt anything, seriously, it wouldn’t.

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I disagree, pets are still the cheap option, thralls require knocking them out, giving them armor and weapons while pets can be picked up while passing by and deployed right after taming.
Heck I even think zombies still are way too strong right from start, yes I know they have a short life, but they kinda make thralls not really useful, especially in purges where you can deploy them when needed having them fight tough enemies without any levelling, I wouldn’t be surprised if we would see several nerfs/balancing to zombies in future updates, in my opinion they are just too easy an option :slight_smile:

I’m not really sure what the perfect balance is for pets, but to me it kinda feels a bit better now, especially the fact that thralls feels more worth the time and resources you invest in them.

Maybe let pets have limited life sort of like zombies, but with a twist where the levelling is much faster than now and their life span depending on how much they are fighting, sort of like a timer that ticks down every time they fight something, letting the speed they degrade depend on the target xp, this way they would still be useful and also work as mostly a decoration in base, and we could even consider it their well deserved retirement :slight_smile:
Heck maybe even offer a 1 piece armor slot for them to make them less squishy, sort of like the saddle system for horses, but it probably would require some work :slight_smile:

But saying that making pets like zombies wouldn’t hurt anything… I can think of pvp and other balance issues as well, I definitely do not think it is a good solution… At the end of the day, I mainly just want to see pets as a viable solution in some situations, but thralls should still be the strongest follower, and thank god the zoo’s have become less with the follower limits and pet balancing, I really hated passing these bases or even living next to them :grin:

No thankyou. That just pushes them further down the long slide into complete and utter redundancy. It also guarantees Pet enthusiasts their loss and posits the animal kingdom in a state of genetic decline.

Disagree with this point also. I would agrgue although neither task is difficult per se, it is far, and I do mean far easier to capture a Relic Hunter at lower levels than to run the gauntlet at Eyelet Lake or in Midnight Grove dungeon to capture say a Sabretooth. Not to mention that pets also (ideally) require shadespiced foods to increase their chances of becoming a Greater, and the Animal Pen does not have a Taskmaster to reduce its incubation times.

Now that I could get behind, and I have often secretly longed for some protection for my Tiger.

I can agree with that too. But they should also be a viable choice for upper level content such as dungeons and World Bosses. Not just smashing Exile camps and the weakest denizens on the map.

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This is because the reduced timers are baked into the higher tier pens with the t3 animal pen cutting times in half. Would be nice if they added t2 and t3 of the small pen for the same benefits though. Other than this I 100% agree on all your points.

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Not everything should be obtainable at low level, that said there is a small cave with a sabretooth and I believe 3 small kittens as a guaranteed spawn below the Vulcano in Icespire Chasm, it is not easy at low level, but I have gotten kittens from there being below level 30 with little to no problem, so while Eyelet Lake and Midnight Grove dungeon :slight_smile:
Also I am a bit lazy so I never go for shadespiced food to improve their chances and still I get a decent amount of Greater pets with just the next best food, maybe I am just lucky, don’t know.

It was mainly a balance thought to the suggestion about making pets insta level 20 like zombies, in my opinion that would definitely make them overpowered compared to thralls simply because they out of the box would be way stronger than any newly placed thrall :slight_smile:

It is a noble name that communicates power, ferocity, and awesomeness in one package. It is an honor for my Greater Bears to bear your title into battle!

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