I give up on them, use to love them, they did better then most thralls. Now the have been nerfed to being ornamental.
So far I have lost most every pet; except that glutton coward horse, before they got to level 2. Quite a few first time out. Got a black rhino; cool, died to hyenas first time out. Had a Greater panther parked next to my base, along with my keep guards. Lost him to a wandering treasure hunter; a very small camp, one wanders around. It’s not like he was fighting alone.
Lost Suitcase; regular gator 4th level, to a regular gator. Figured he could take one one to one, nope.
I am so done with pets. They used to be great, then they were good, now they are pretty well ornamental. Like the cat and the rabbit.
I have been running around with Brutus
With a low level maybe 15 character killing crocodile hyenas so far doing alright. Yes I got Brutus with
My alternate character that place is too tough fo low r level character was actually looking for dancers. @DeaconElie
I can’t say what they were like before, as I wasn’t playing then (so maybe it’s the ‘don’t know what I’m missing aspect’) but they don’t seem too bad to me. Maybe not thrall level good but I don’t seem to have as bad of luck as it seems you’ve had.
My first pet in Exiled Lands was a wolf; she lived quite some time and I took her pretty much everywhere with me. Made the unfortunate decision to enter the Warmaker’s Sanctuary and go up against what I would later realize was The Arena Champion (I was playing through without looking stuff up so I was not ready for that fight, lol). Wolf gave a good fight and made it possible for me to survive (when she died, I realized it was a losing battle and ran for my life through the wee little crevice).
I’m fairly cautious when having any pets or thralls and tend to try to take the bulk of the damage/fighting myself until they’re at least level 10 though.
I have had success with greater rocknoses. The ones I place are 80-100% Grit advancement and around 60% vitality with 40%ish in both strength and agility. They are essentially tanks and just 40-80 armor points per level. This leaves them about 3500-4000 hp 1200-1600 armor and damage about 120-150%. If you go well-trained, it just gets nuts and the thing just obliterates mobs.
Oh yeah. They eat rocks. Meaning something you can stack to 1000 and doesn’t decay
Yeah, dungeons are essentially the exclusive domain of thralls, aside from the Dregs and Witch Queen. And Arena Champion eats thralls for lunch. It’s best if you have them sit her out while you take a katana or daggers to her.
My Greater pets all seem to be quite strong, especially at level 20. But I do agree that in the lower levels they are wayyyyy too squishy, especially with the prevalence of the “Lost Connection” issue. My Aesir Wolf had like 780 health to start, when he follows me that jumps up to like 2000hp or more, making him quite strong and capable. But the moment I get kicked, he’s in a real tough situation! I almost lost him three times over the last few days just fighting a few Wight’s.
I don’t let them fight when they are under 10 now. Same with fighters.
I set their follow distance to max, attack nothing, irrtate perk off (if I specced into that), and just kill myself until they got strong enough to win a 1v1 against a gazelle.
For the most part, they are ornaments.
Not unlike the new bunny and kittens.
There are a few exceptions.
Whether they are worth the supreme hassle vs just grabbing a Treasure Hunter or 'Zerker…
No, not at all. Get the guaranteed low hanging fruit, don’t waste one of your finite followers slots on dead weight.
Unless you just wish to flex how little you need followers and how many spare feat points you have.