Arming and Equiping pets.. worth it?
 

I recently started a necromancer, and am having a whole lot of fun with her. One of the things I've noticed is that giving my low level pet specific weapons, such as a tarnished halberd, will significantly improve their damage. My level five pet went from hitting for 10 to hitting for 23 when I gave it a rusty old halberd that I'd sharpened up, at apparently the same delay as when unarmed. Even double hitting occasionally, too, which was unexpected but nice.

Would giving my pets armor similarly increase their survivability? I've tried giving my level 9 pet cloth armor and patchwork armor, and I think it is a bit tougher, but I'm not sure. Has anyone done any tests? The wiki says that pets will wear armor, but do they actually gain AC from it? A fullish suit of patchwork/tattered is pretty easy to put together, and would give 30+ AC.. which is pretty significant at lower levels.

Are there more tips for making pets tougher and/or better damage dealers? Any knowledge from more experienced pet users would be appreciated!

If you know you’re gonna have a long session of leveling in the same zone invest in high damage cheap weapons. Baton of faith and the such, once you pass I think it’s 50-60 delay pets can’t use them anymore

I always think the key to pets are to see their damage and make sure you have a max pet for your level.

yah I sometimes give my pet ringmail when its too heavy for me to carry

it does increase their ac

but its not anything crazy

On my 52 mage I use my fire pet a lot to farm stuff. Like if I know I am going to be in Lguk for a certain camp for awhile I buy a suit of leather armor from a vendor and use some agrolike mainhand such as a gnoll whip or an obsidian shard. offhand if you want but doesnt proc much

The 2h weapon damage increase for pets stops around level 12 or 16. At level 20 or so its time to carry around a bag of torches so it can dual wield

Make sure you got a max level pet before equipping it tho. wiki has max hits for pets

Once you start charming all you need are torches.

You'll never go back to summoned pets again.

Torches? Does giving a pet a torch allow it to dual wield somehow?

Not looking up the numbers but there's a range of levels somewhere between 20 and 40 where your pets will only duel wield if given two weapons. You can look them up on the mage and necro pages. During that range you will definately want to give your pet two cheap weapons.

Additionally, like you said, at the lowest levels pets will take advantage of the higher level damage on the weapon, but I think that peters out after level 12 or so.

Armor does help, but not much. Regardless, when I'm just killing stuff and something drops a piece of armor that otherwise I'd let rot, I just pick it up and give it to my pet. Usually doesn't happen in a circumstance where it's going to make much difference (fear kiting, faction farming, etc).

Enchanters are fond of giving their charmed pets -MR items to lower their magic resists, as charm has a chance of breaking every tick.

the summoned pets can wear 1 of each armor slot . they will only wear 1 bracelet and 1 ring/earring though I read. I think charmed pets will wear both rings and earrings / bracelets

I'm curious too why charmers put a torch as an off hand weapon on charmed pets.