[htabdoolb]

So I hit level 54 on my cleric a little while ago and got my new spells. One that I thought my be interesting was Unswerving Hammer of Faith, since from the description in the wiki it seemed like it was some kind of pet. Neat! I wondered how strong it might be or what level it even is? I waited until I was 55 to test it out though, because I'm lazy.. but now is the time!

So I scribed it, memorized it, and then cast it.. and it promptly died. Before I even had a chance to target it.

Strange.. okay, well the wiki says that it lasts as long as its opponent does, so maybe I need to target something? Let's try it out!

I rooted an icky old dar ghoul knight, backed off and cast the spell, and then watched my new pet rush forward to do battle! ..only to die on the first hit. And it didn't even get a single swing of its own in first.. what the heck!?

Okay, my new pet is literally a one hit point wonder.. am I supposed to tank for my pet, then? That seems backwards! But I suppose I can try it out.

I attacked another dar ghoul knight, fighting it face to face this time, and cast my (slow as heck) pet.. Loner appeared by my side! To battle!

Ow.. Okay, taking stock post battle.. my valiant pet did 461 points of damage to the foul ghoul before he was slain by a simple riposte.. while in the mean time I took over 850 points of damage from face tanking something that was more than ten levels below me. Those 461 points of damage cost me 600 points of mana, which is.. bad. For comparison, 600 points of mana will buy me over 1500 points of direct damage with my normal undead nukes, especially the nifty new one I've gotten at 55.

Plus I had to heal myself afterward, which I wouldn't have had to do if I hadn't been tanking for my pet.. who did /con dark blue to me, at least. Though his max hit was only 38 damage, which seems pretty pathetic for a pet received at level 54.

For another point of comparison, a shaman wandered by not long after with his own pet in tow. He too fought a dar ghoul knight. Said shaman as able to easily face tank his slowed opponent, while his pet nipped at its undead heels. Said green /con pet hit far harder than my own had, topping out at 47 points of damage per bite.

So, to recap. 600 mana to cast my fragile pet, who managed to deal a measly 460 points of damage before dying pathetically. 600 mana, which would have bought me far, far more damage if spent on nukes. 600 mana, which is equal to one and a half complete heals.. is there ever, ever a situation where this "pet" is useful? Not even in groups, as even assuming I managed to summon the pet facing a mob's back so it wouldn't die to ripostes, groups typically churn through mobs fast enough that I may as well spend the mana on a nuke instead, since the pet seems to evaporate if not aggrod on something. Or spend that mana on healing the tank, as a cleric should be doing anyway. Arg!