Charm kiting animals as a druid

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Vladesch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

give charmed pet 2 rusty daggers. (they sell them at hallards in e fp)
snare target mob. send in pet. Cast flame lick repeatedly to keep agro.
Pet takes no damage and has the advantage of striking the mob from behind.
You will only get 50% xp because pet does most of the damage, but it will still be great xp. not worth trying to do over 50% damage.

I gotta disagree with this. Eating 50% EXP penalty is just not worth it. Wanna get full EXP with a method similar to this with very little additional mana investment? When your uberpet's about to finish off a monster, hide/invis to break charm, finish the monster yourself, and recharm. If you're outdoors, there is no danger to this, and you end up casting two additional spells: 1) whatever weak damage spell you're using to finish the mob, whether a DoT or nuke, 2) charm. What is the benefit? You double the EXP you're gaining. Really don't see why anyone would ever eat the EXP penalty.

Even with that method, you're running the disadvantage of not getting to kill your pet as well as the other mob, so it's probably slower EXP if you're in a zone with a lot of animals. It's a good method if you're in a zone like EJ where only half (or fewer) of the mobs are charmable, though.

[Fiyero]

Originally Posted by iruinedyourday [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Also if you have a REALLY good cleric with you, they will have a stun ready and stun that thing before it even hits you once.. Fiyero knows what I'm talking about [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A call out post! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Skinned]

Reading this thread makes me want to start a druid. Maybe a druid alt is in my future [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been trying a wizard out, and he is 23, and I'm just not finding my groove.

I never played a druid before, my main is a shaman I thought it might be redundant, but I see druids running around in wolf form and get envious.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Skinned [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Reading this thread makes me want to start a druid. Maybe a druid alt is in my future [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been trying a wizard out, and he is 23, and I'm just not finding my groove.

I never played a druid before, my main is a shaman I thought it might be redundant, but I see druids running around in wolf form and get envious.

Not redundant at all. Very different classes. Wolf form is kind of annoying though because it fades on zone/log. But nice if you're going to be in one zone for a while.

Druid is definitely a very fun and versatile class especially if you're willing to experiment with charming.

[Vladesch]

Originally Posted by Estu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Really don't see why anyone would ever eat the EXP penalty.

Because I can kill over twice as many mobs in the time it takes you to invis, crowd control your ex-pet, finish off the monster, recharm and med up the mana you used.

A dual wielding pet can probably kill another 2 mobs in the time it takes you to do all that.

YMMV though I guess. Worked for me.

Originally Posted by Estu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

you're running the disadvantage of not getting to kill your pet

disadvantage? I get to keep my pet with 2 weapons. Get a couple of summoned weapons and see how much advantage killing your pet is.

Originally Posted by Estu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Druid is definitely a very fun and versatile class especially if you're willing to experiment with charming.

Yeah, but most druids will opt for quad kiting at 34. It may indeed be possible to get faster xp with charm, but quadding requires so much less input and time on your pc. Most of the time you can go afk while you're medding up an entire mana bar, and then it's like 4 mins work and repeat the cycle. Doesnt require any thinking either.

[rafaone]

disadvantage? I get to keep my pet with 2 weapons. Get a couple of summoned weapons and see how much advantage killing your pet is.

No matter how hasted/Weaponed/Cybered your pet is, having a pet kill other mob and then finish both with a low level nuke will 99% give you more xp/time than having 1 pet over time from my experience. And if you're good enough and have the appropiate items (mostly ES Vambs, Lummy staff works wonders outdoors), the only 2 real spell you need to have memorized is your charm and your root. So there's no downsides to this method, and you can basically repeat it non-stop, gettig full xp check every time.

Yeah, but most druids will opt for quad kiting at 34. It may indeed be possible to get faster xp with charm, but quadding requires so much less input and time on your pc. Most of the time you can go afk while you're medding up an entire mana bar, and then it's like 4 mins work and repeat the cycle. Doesnt require any thinking either.

I quadded a lot when levelling my druid. I can tell you that having 4 social aggro mobs on your tail, specially when they are packed or when you trying to pull them it's not easy. I died quite a lot quadding, specially at raptors and 5-6 times in TD. There are a lot of things that can go wrong quadding, and normally an average levelling druid have exactly the mana to finish a quad (if not less), so you don't have the extra mana to root adds or add extra ensnares. That means death, if you don't have a zone nearby, or you don't have the skills to sit every six seconds to regain mana while running.

Normally when charming you have a lot of mana to deal with unforeseen events, because you only need your root/charm if you do it properly.

So basically I disagree with your methods/thinking [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Gav

[Stormlight]

Ideally my pet and target will both end up with low health. However, it's not uncommon for one or the other to be as high as half health when the other is nearly dead. Here's how I'm dealing with those situations, and I'm curious to see if there are any tips for improvement.

1. Pet at half: Pet back off, pet sit, break charm, root/rot pet and kill target.
2. Target at half: Pet back off, root/rot target, break charm, kill pet.

Would it be better to keep using a ~50% animal for charm?

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Vladesch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A dual wielding pet can probably kill another 2 mobs in the time it takes you to do all that.

Sorry but this is absurd hyperbole unless your pet is level 30 and you are killing level 1 mobs. Anyway, to each his own.

Originally Posted by Vladesch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, but most druids will opt for quad kiting at 34. It may indeed be possible to get faster xp with charm, but quadding requires so much less input and time on your pc. Most of the time you can go afk while you're medding up an entire mana bar, and then it's like 4 mins work and repeat the cycle. Doesnt require any thinking either.

It's true, quadding is easier. But it's slower EXP and it's a lot more boring IMO. I know not everyone cares about how fast EXP they're getting because so many people do things like the friggin bard diet to level up, but I can't fathom that mindset. For me personally, the fastest EXP method with the most activity required from the player is the most fun. Why play a game if your goal is to do as little as possible? Just don't play the game at all - there, saved you all the work [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[rafaone]

Would it be better to keep using a ~50% animal for charm?

If your pet is 50% or higuer when a fight is finished then you're probably sending it against the wrong targets. Anyway, if you want to get full xp for both of the MoBs you're using (your pet and the one it's fighting) the only way is the one you show in your point number 1.

Pet at half: Pet back off, pet sit, break charm, root/rot pet and kill target.

Cheers !!

[Estu]

Originally Posted by rafaone [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If your pet is 50% or higuer when a fight is finished then you're probably sending it against the wrong targets. Anyway, if you want to get full xp for both of the MoBs you're using (your pet and the one it's fighting) the only way is the one you show in your point number 1.



Cheers !!

Alternatively, you could just send your weakened pet after another mob, then break charm when pet is almost dead and charm the second mob. When you're charming animals you should be doing as little damage yourself as possible since it's way more efficient to make the mobs do the damage for you. Of course, this assumes that there are plenty of animals around to fight, and not that you're sending animals to attack non-animals. If you're doing that, the way to avoid this scenario is to send the pet at monsters which are higher-level than it, and use flame lick + ensnare to manage aggro so both die at the same time.