Chanter Pet vs. Necro Pet?

[Ruinous]

I'm leveling a necro with a friend of mine who plays an enchanter. We are both currently level 16. I've noticed that with every new spell level, his pet is always hitting for harder than my skeleton. This doesn't seem accurate to me, anyone verify if that's how it was or not?

Our 16 pet spells for example:

My max level summon seems to hit for 18 at most and double attack.
His always comes out hitting for 20 and double attacks.

It's been like this every spell level so far. His always comes out ahead of mine on damage somehow. I've also noticed that giving my skeleton a rusty 2-hander actually reduced his DMG at lower levels, whereas it significantly boosted the chanter's pet.

Didn't want to post this in bugs because I am not sure that it is one.

[maegi]

a 16 necro pet's max level is 16 and hits for 20 and can double attack. I play a mage and a necro. A mage necro and chanter can all get a 16 level pet at 16 that hits for 20

[Myrkskog]

Necro pet ends up much stronger.

[maegi]

Forgot to mention, you as a necro can tell your pet when and what to attack, to back off, ie. pull with your pet, pet sit when it gets injured, and aggro kite cuz necros have clinging and engulfing....the chanter has to get hit for his "pet" to do anything. I use the word pet loosely here because it's not a pet, it's an animation. He can't tell it to attack or back off or rest, it's a mindless lil robot that only defends and will always break mezes you didn't want broken when trying to CC.

[DevGrousis]

I've also noticed that giving my skeleton a rusty 2-hander actually reduced his DMG at lower levels, whereas it significantly boosted the chanter's pet.

Didn't want to post this in bugs because I am not sure that it is one.

can you actually change the chanter pets dmg by giving it certain weapons?

[Messianic]

IIRC, Chanter pets are actually really good damage - they just have crap for hp, and they're uncontrollable.

Their uncontrollable nature makes it annoying when you get adds - it just makes it more difficult to CC, since pets tend to bounce targets when two mobs are attacking them - they won't focus. The way I found to refocus with pet classes is to "pet back off" then "pet attack." The pet then resumes attacking the correct target (for a little while).

Chanter pets are kind of loose cannons. Luckily, they're cheap. But dual wielding and having a bunch of haste actually makes them pretty decent dps.

[Ruinous]

Yeah I finally summoned the max level skelly and it was hitting for the same as his. Just seemed goofy to me. He's either really lucky with his pet summons or enchanter pets dont have a level variance.

It also didnt make sense to me about the 2 handed weapons making his hit harder yet making mine hit lower. Oh wells, I can't complain. His pet makes for a nice boost of DPS while we duo.

[Messianic]

Yeah I finally summoned the max level skelly and it was hitting for the same as his. Just seemed goofy to me. He's either really lucky with his pet summons or enchanter pets dont have a level variance.

It also didnt make sense to me about the 2 handed weapons making his hit harder yet making mine hit lower. Oh wells, I can't complain. His pet makes for a nice boost of DPS while we duo.

Your pet's fist has an innate "damage" value. If you give him a weapon with a lower damage value, the pet does less damage...

[quellren]

Your pet's fist has an innate "damage" value. If you give him a weapon with a lower damage value, the pet does less damage...

That's not true. I gave my pet (both necro and shaman pets actually) rusty weapons to force dual wield until they could innately do it and they never lowered the max hit. That's how pet classes determine what lvl summon the pet is.

[Omnimorph]

Weapon's never affected the damage to my knowledge, only the delay, that's why necro's used to give their pets FS daggers (3/19?) to make them hit much faster. Giving your pet a 2 hander weapon will loser it's dps if it can dual wield.

[Messianic]

That's not true. I gave my pet (both necro and shaman pets actually) rusty weapons to force dual wield until they could innately do it and they never lowered the max hit. That's how pet classes determine what lvl summon the pet is.

It might just be for twohanders. I know what you said is the case with one-handed weapons...I was able to lower the max hit on a pet when I gave it a twohander out of curiosity once - but obviously, I have no documented proof.

Maybe i'll try it again later on the same level pet I did it before (level 8 or 12 necro pet), and provide logs...

[Ruinous]

I was almost positive that I was able to boost low level pet max hits with 2-handed rusty weapons, so that was the only type I tried giving him. And I'm "almost" positive that it made him hit for less rather than harder - whereas the enchanter pet, given the same rusty weapon, hit harder than it was without it.

Like the guy above me, I have no hard evidence. But I'll be happy to parse the scenario one of these days with my buddy to show it, if that is indeed a bug.

[Duma]

On live if you gave your pet a weapon with a higher damage value than it's fists then it would use the weapons damage. If the weapon was lower it would still use the pets base damage. Your pet would also attack with the delay of whatever weapon you gave it, making FS daggers overpowered.

[odizzido]

Yeah when live was first out I would give my pet a rusty halberd at level one to hit for 20, and then when his normal attack got to about 20 I switched to mage daggers.

On this server though I think the only reason to give weapons is to force dual wield at certain levels. They seem to have no other effect(one handed weapons).

As to pet power, the necro pet will annihilate the enc pet at higher levels. They are still pretty good DPS though.

edit----------

oh on live they nerfed the weapon speed thing for pets. I am sure it would be nerfed already here if it were to follow live. The level one pet hitting for 20 should still be in though.

[DevGrousis]

On live if you gave your pet a weapon with a higher damage value than it's fists then it would use the weapons damage. If the weapon was lower it would still use the pets base damage. Your pet would also attack with the delay of whatever weapon you gave it, making FS daggers overpowered.

oh dang i remember that! FS Daggers were way OP. but if they have been nerfed like above said, i'd definitely understand..

any DEVS out there want to comment on this?

[Messianic]

oh dang i remember that! FS Daggers were way OP. but if they have been nerfed like above said, i'd definitely understand..

any DEVS out there want to comment on this?

It was pre-nerfed because it was too powerful...they've probably already commented on it a couple times (or a ton), although obviously it wouldn't bother me if they mentioned it here as well.

[DevGrousis]

although obviously it wouldn't bother me if they mentioned it here as well.

orly! :D

[Gorgetrapper]

I'm not sure if you guys remembered, but if you ever gave your lvl 1 pet a 2handed weapon, it would hit for 20 or 24 max, I forget which. But that's how it worked. Delay also played a part in it, but not on p99 it doesn't.

[Bubbles]

oh dang i remember that! FS Daggers were way OP. but if they have been nerfed like above said, i'd definitely understand..

any DEVS out there want to comment on this?

Oh its not like it was on live.

I'll comment for the Devs on this one:

They are not currently spending time and energy on ways to improve the effectiveness of pet classes on p99. lol.

[maegi]

Oh its not like it was on live.

I'll comment for the Devs on this one:

They are not currently spending time and energy on ways to improve the effectiveness of pet classes on p99. lol.

Something you wanna share with us Bubbles? Did you secretly join the dev team when we weren't looking? ;P