[Dolalin]

I'll see if I can nail that down a bit better DMN.

For now, it's interesting to note that the trope of "necros giving their pets 2 fs daggers" is inaccurate. It was one fs dagger and one normal dagger or summoned dagger, due to the way this worked.

(oh and a nod to Verant's terrible testing in that Mage pets were always supposed to dual wield and it took them a year and a half to fix it...)

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....s/_7PLyKOVAxYJ

1/29/00

Lokari wrote:
>
> I've seen several people complain about the nerf to necros. I've read
> the 1/28 patch message several times, and I'm having trouble
> understanding how this constitutes a nerf (I don't play a necro, so
> perhaps that's why I don't understand).
>
> Could someone explain clearly why this is a nerf?
>
> --
> www.enteract.com/~lokari
> "No one of consequence"
Necromancer pets used to use the delay of the weapon, instead of their default
delay of 27 or 30. (I'm not sure which. It wasn't huge, but they weren't
speedy, either.) Thus, you could give a Necro a level 1 Summoned Dagger, with a
delay of 21, and speed them up a lot. This would then stack with the
Augument/Intinsify Death spells, which have a built-in Haste effect, as well as
any Enchanter speed buffs you could get. Thus, a skeleton pet with a steel and
fine steel dagger and Augument Death was a whiling engine of destruction, and
the same pet with Enchanter support became a rogue blender set on "Frappe."

As of the last patch, pets no longer use the delay of the weapon, only their own
default delay. This dramaticly reduces a skeleton pet's attack speed, even with
full buffs. Personally, I don't think they're totally crippled, they just
aren't as mind-bogglingly deadly as they used to be. However, they *are* less
powerful than they were on Thursday. At the same time, Magician pets can now
dual wield, which increases their effective damage potential. Since Magician
pets never could wield a weapon, they were never able to benefit from the double
dagger trick, so this to Magicians, this change is only for the good. Many
Necros see this as Magicians getting an upgrade, while Necros get screwed,
despite the fact that Elementals were *always* supposed to be able to dual
wield, and never have until now.

How this will all fall out eventually, remains to be seen. I doubt that
Magicians will lose the ability to summon weapons, but I wouldn't be totally
suprised if the Sword of Runes is changed. It currently procs Ward Summoned.
In the hands of a PC, it is an interesting, but mostly useless toy, just like
anything else a Magician can summon. However, in the hands of an NPC, including
pets, weapon procs will allegedly go off against any target, and at any level.
Supposedly, you can hand a Sword of Runes to a 1st level Necromancer pet, and it
will occaisionally proc it's 35 point DD against any target. Up till now, this
hasn't been a huge concern, because you still had to find a level 29 Magician
who had bothered to buy the spell, and who would give a 1st level character the
time of day, much less a summoned sword. However, in the hands of a high-level
dual wielding Elemental, the sword's proc may actually be something to reckon
with, especially if it really does go off against any target.

(Please note, that I say allegedly and supposedly because I've never been in a
situation to test it, not because it doesn't actually happen. The only proc'ing
weapons I've owned are a Water Crystal Staff, a Staff of Writhing, and several
Tentacle Whips, none of which are something you'd normally consider handing to a
pet.)

Marc Fuller