50s pets

[Elen]

Hi folks, long time browser, first time poster here!

I recently started a Magician on Mayong (the 51/50 server) and although I am enjoying the class, I am a little confused about pre-61 pets. I am currently 55 and plan to stay 55 for a bit while farming archetype AAs and working on the LoY level 52 spell. As of yesterday, I have the two Staves of Elemental Mastery from Hate, so my level 51 Earth pet is now focused.

My questions are about focused level 51-60 pets:

1. Is my understanding correct that getting Minion of Darkness or Summoner’s Boon won't help me until I start casting level 59 pets (where 59 is the spell level)?

2. I know that at 61+ Air pets are preferred for day-to-day play, but as a level 55 Mage with a healer merc, would I be better off using a Fire pet with Kindle rather than my current Earth pet? According to Lucy, Kindle "Places your pet into a stance that prevents movement, but bestows a damage shield, a mana shield that will protect it from harm, and allows the pet to regenerate mana more quickly. This enhancement will only work on fire-based pets". It sounds like the spell may make the Fire pet a decent source of DPS as long as it's OK to have him rooted in one place. I have the Summon Companion AA, so I could always get him to where I need him quickly. I guess I could try it myself, but I'd hate to lose the summoned weapons on my Earth pet since the low level versions are not always easy to get on Mayong.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[svenalo]

Prior to 61 I lived on the epic pet which I got at 50ish - get that if you can. Otherwise if you are soloing the fire one back then seemed best and the water one for groups (better dps). Of course with the fire pet changes that went in, and I don't recall how far back down the line they went with em, the fire pet might not be best anymore - you will have to try it and see. If it sucks, then try air... Earth sucks regardless...

As for what focuses what, you can look up the items on Lucy and it will show it, or I think there is a post in the library forum that gives the ranges. The focus effect is based on the spell level and not the level the pet comes out at if that's what your question was.

[nako]

Welcome :o)

At 55 i was using 54 water for grouping (it was bloody expensive!), 51 earth for solo (reclaim chaining when pet ate 50% of the xp), or 49 fire for farming. I don't think the fire pet changes applied to 49 and lower fire pets. If i were 55 now and didn't have epic, i'd use 53 air (just for agro) probably... iirc 51 earth actually hits harder than any of the <57 pets so you might not rule it out just yet. With ooc regen your pet will be doing pretty paltry dps compared to your spell damage, so just go for whatever holds agro the best (air usually). Assuming you're not super twinked and can just tank stuff for water pet :D

Never used kindle or the higher version of it, so can't help you there sorry. Fire pets don't use mana any more, so I'm not sure if they even have a manapool now (to feed the damage absorb based on mana).

As for the merc, I would advise against using one unless you just have more fun with it. They eat 50% of your xp, so unless said merc allows you to double your dps/kill rate, chances are you'll get much, much better xp without it. Even if it means moving to slightly gimpier mobs.

-nako/saryrn

[Elen]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice!

A few points:

Prior to 61 I lived on the epic pet which I got at 50ish - get that if you can

Unfortunately, I don't think Epic 1.0 is in the cards given my late night schedule, the speed of leveling these days and server realities (Mayong). It would be a nice accomplishment, but I will be 61 long before I have any hope of finishing the quest. I'll probably try to solo Epic 1.5 at 85, which seems doable given enough AAs.

The focus effect is based on the spell level and not the level the pet comes out

Thanks, that's exactly what I was trying to confirm

If i were 55 now and didn't have epic, i'd use 53 air (just for agro) probably... go for whatever holds agro the best (air usually)

Agro has become more of a problem at 55 as XP mobs have more HP and require more nukes to take down. With the Earth pet, I have to stop nuking and wait for 10-20 seconds around 50% or else I get to be the tank. I'll investigate the air pet, thanks!

As for the merc, I would advise against using one unless you just have more fun with it. They eat 50% of your xp, so unless said merc allows you to double your dps/kill rate, chances are you'll get much, much better xp without it. Even if it means moving to slightly gimpier mobs.

It turns out that mercs follow PC rules for XP sharing, so they gobble up only 40% of mob XP, not quite as bad. Having said that, on light blue mobs, e.g. in Dulak's Harbor when farming gems for cash, I suspend the merc after getting Temperance since very little pet healing is required and multi-pulls are not an issue. On dark blue and especially on white and yellow mobs (e.g. in Grieg's End), keeping the pet up while nuking gets to be a chore and a mana drain and double pulls may force gating. With the merc out, XPing is much safer and more reliable as I can single/double pull yellows all day long and never get into trouble. It's nice to have the flexibility

Assuming you're not super twinked and can just tank stuff for water pet

My 55 mage is my highest character on Mayong, so I couldn't twink him even I wanted to On the other hand, my mix of Flawed and Intricate Defiant armor gives me 5K mana/HP with Temperance, so I could easily tank any XP mob with a merc if I felt like it. Unfortunately, it results in a lot of interrupts, so it's not very efficient, although I hadn't thought of using the Water pet. Good points, thanks!

[Merlaina]

Assuming you can find level 61 appropriate elementals, my suggestion would be push to 61. You'll get a new air pet and are able to purchase the first rank of theft of essence. I believe the discordlings in Harbinger's spire are level appropriate for a 61 and are considered summoned. Theft of essence (even just rank 1) should make it fairly easy to take these without the help of a merc. You might want to run in there and try dropping an anti-summoned nuke on one just to make sure it works before you commit to this plan though. And this is all assuming you're willing to go ahead and push to 61, which I can understand if you're reluctant to do so.

[Elen]

Thanks, that's good to know! Also, I suspect that from a purely XP/hour perspective, level 61 is a better place to be than level 55, but I am not in a hurry at the moment. I'll hang around at 55 for a bit and see if I can do a few things (like getting the LOY spell) that are at least moderately challenging at 55, but would be trivial at 61. After that I'll push to either 59 or 61. Time will tell