Is it worth buying any pet other than a Stone?

momaw · February 2014

So, I'm really loving how my Cleric is playing. I'm thinking of buying a pet for him. Was looking at blockers to replace my dwarf shield maiden since it's apparently fabulously more expensive to "upgrade" a pet than to just buy a new one. But nobody seems to know much about the Neverember Guard, everybody complains about the stone golem saying that his taunt cooldown is laughably long, and the bear is only a green quality so I can't imagine it's a massive improvement. Add to all of that confusion and sadness the fact that most people seem to say that pets become completely pointless in "end game" like level 60 dungeons and that the only pet worth owning is a Iouen Stone since it can't be killed and gives you a constant buff.

So...Thoughts?

silverkelt · February 2014

Any augment pet like stone is best for dungeons, you get stats and they don't die and screw up pulls or other fun loving weird stuff.

bioshrike · February 2014

Tank pets can be good, but you need to pay special attention to their powers - the shield maiden, man at arms, and ice chest mimic have taunts built into both their attacks. Others, like the bear or Neverember guard only have a taunt on one of their attacks. The Ioun stone of allure is good because it simply boosts your stats and cannot die. That being said, the stone cannot get enemy aggro off of you, nor can it distract enemies so you can get a little more breathing room.

wingedkagouti · February 2014

Another thing to consider when looking for a companion is the Active Bonus. Some will be more useful to you than others.

ulviel · February 2014

Sword Coast Adventures also is a factor here. If you like it and want to play epic sca dungeons, you'll need at least 3 purple companions.
Other than that - you don't really *need* any companion, but the stone is really useful, unlike the others. Some of them have a nice active bonus, yes, tho it doesn't make that much difference. Oh and if you play a cleric, I would recommend to dismiss your companion (unless it's a stone), it is very likely you'll find running solo easier that way.

adinosii · February 2014

My cleric switches between two active pets - stone for skirmishes and DD and the Galeb Duhr for any solo content. As a DC I don't have the highest damage around, and it is convenient to have something that keeps the aggro off me when fighting something like, say Celadine or the Knight Commander. I am, however, considering whether the shieldmaiden or the mimic would be better choices, as their active bonuses might be more useful - but is just a bit too expensive to improve them to purple quality.

todesfaelle · February 2014

Your pets can also help you via their Active Companion Bonus. So after you purchase a Stone, getting pets with ACB's that aid your playstyle/build will definitely give you more reasons to purchase pets. The Honey Badger and Pig's Bonuses in particular seems to work well for Clerics.

chuamishael · February 2014

the more pets in your active slot the better, the bonus applies even they are not summoned. don't buy companions/pet just for summoning them, always consider the ACTIVE slot and ACTIVE bonus of pets, The more variety of pets you have, the stronger your character is. if you can buy more ACTIVE Slot, the better it is.

and also consider the Gateway Dice Game for companions. don't under estimate these companions. most of them are useful now, after the updates on ACTIVE Bonus. which is most newbies didn't even notice. lol

adinosii · February 2014

Alternatively, you might want companions based just on their stat-booting bonuses - but once again, that depends on your gear and play style. For some, a +300 regeneration bonus from a purple quality cleric disciple would be very desirable - for others, some of the promo companions are ideal - the Mercenary (Power+CritStrike), renegade illusionist (LifeSteal+Deflect), Faithful Initiate (Recovery+Defense) or the Archmage Apprentice (LifeSteal+Power)....or even the Ioun Stone of Radiance (LifeSteal+Deflection).

Then of course there is the Angel of Protection (the 360 Ardent coin one) - I expect to see that become quite popular in a few months.

dominiq666 · February 2014

adinosii wrote: »

Alternatively, you might want companions based just on their stat-booting bonuses - but once again, that depends on your gear and play style. For some, a +300 regeneration bonus from a purple quality cleric disciple would be very desirable - for others, some of the promo companions are ideal - the Mercenary (Power+CritStrike), renegade illusionist (LifeSteal+Deflect), Faithful Initiate (Recovery+Defense) or the Archmage Apprentice (LifeSteal+Power)....or even the Ioun Stone of Radiance (LifeSteal+Deflection).

Then of course there is the Angel of Protection (the 360 Ardent coin one) - I expect to see that become quite popular in a few months.

How do you people know what stats purple quality, upgraded pets have ? I have yet to find a library with pet stats based on their upgrade level and the auction is incredibly difficult to filter or it simply does not have the desired rarity in stock.

?

tickdoff · February 2014

dominiq666 wrote: »

How do you people know what stats purple quality, upgraded pets have ? I have yet to find a library with pet stats based on their upgrade level and the auction is incredibly difficult to filter or it simply does not have the desired rarity in stock.

?

http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Companion

angrysprite · February 2014

adinosii wrote: »

My cleric switches between two active pets - stone for skirmishes and DD and the Galeb Duhr for any solo content. As a DC I don't have the highest damage around, and it is convenient to have something that keeps the aggro off me when fighting something like, say Celadine or the Knight Commander. I am, however, considering whether the shieldmaiden or the mimic would be better choices, as their active bonuses might be more useful - but is just a bit too expensive to improve them to purple quality.

^This. Full stop. Leveled a Cleric all the way to 60 and the Galeb Dhur saved my backside countless times in solo play, unnecessary in group play, that's where the stone comes in handily. As for active stats and the rest, I've considered them carefully for their active bonuses only. Rarely ever summon them, I train them up in SCA.

dominiq666 · February 2014

tickdoff wrote: »

http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Companion

How did I miss that ? ;-)

Thank you.

c00lmon · February 2014

I was wondering is companions get the benefits from items that are put on them that are red? Since they don't seem to have the same levels as users and not the same equipment do they get the benefit from an item that says level 30 on them even though they are only level 15?

warpet · February 2014

momaw wrote: »

So, I'm really loving how my Cleric is playing. I'm thinking of buying a pet for him. Was looking at blockers to replace my dwarf shield maiden since it's apparently fabulously more expensive to "upgrade" a pet than to just buy a new one. But nobody seems to know much about the Neverember Guard, everybody complains about the stone golem saying that his taunt cooldown is laughably long, and the bear is only a green quality so I can't imagine it's a massive improvement. Add to all of that confusion and sadness the fact that most people seem to say that pets become completely pointless in "end game" like level 60 dungeons and that the only pet worth owning is a Iouen Stone since it can't be killed and gives you a constant buff.

So...Thoughts?

stone is the best every other is useless for endgame dungeon only if u have maxed gear rank 10+perfect u can get some other pets for active bonusses

darkstarcrash · February 2014

warpet wrote: »

stone is the best every other is useless for endgame dungeon only if u have maxed gear rank 10+perfect u can get some other pets for active bonusses

Your 5 active pets do not need to be summoned to give you the active bonus, so you should choose 4 pets other than the stone to be in your active slots from the beginning.

I have pets with a mix of stats and non-stat bonuses on my characters. For instance, my GWF has a blacksmith, whose active bonus is "On damage taken, 15% chance to reflect 10% of damage taken. If same target is hit 4 times it will reflect 3 times damage taken." This damage reflection, which shows up as "Forge Fire", procs all the time on my GWF. She also has the Renegade Illusionist in her stable, for the 55 Deflect/55 Lifesteal bonus. It's not much, but it's free stats.

warpet · February 2014

darkstarcrash wrote: »

Your 5 active pets do not need to be summoned to give you the active bonus, so you should choose 4 pets other than the stone to be in your active slots from the beginning.

I have pets with a mix of stats and non-stat bonuses on my characters. For instance, my GWF has a blacksmith, whose active bonus is "On damage taken, 15% chance to reflect 10% of damage taken. If same target is hit 4 times it will reflect 3 times damage taken." This damage reflection, which shows up as "Forge Fire", procs all the time on my GWF. She also has the Renegade Illusionist in her stable, for the 55 Deflect/55 Lifesteal bonus. It's not much, but it's free stats.

yes but u cant get this bonusses in pvp while u can carry perfect+rank 10 on yourself so this still should be the main goal

reiwulf · February 2014

Am I the only one who thinks that group dungeons shouldn't allow companions anyway?
To me companions are made to help you when soloing, so when in a group dungeon, I think companions should be disabled, like in pvp.
Obviously that would mean dungeons need to be made a bit easier too, to accomodate.

sarfinau · February 2014

I can't post new thread so I hijack this one instead.

I consider buying an ioun stone of allure from Zen market but when I compare it with the on in AH, I find the ones in AH show 4 stats: Hit Points 10, Power 11, Critical 11, Recovery 11. However, the one in Zen market shows only 1 stat: Hit Points 10, no Power, no Critical, no Recovery.

Is this normal or they just removed three stats from ioun stone in Zen market? If so, I wouldn't buy it from Zen market. Or the other three stats will show up after I buy it? Anyone purchased this before? Please let me know.

dadanddragons · February 2014

My Neverember Guard works well soloing with my cleric. He holds aggro better than the regular tank guy, and seems not to make too many errors of judgement. I bought the bear for my HR, and he's great too, because not only does he hold aggro, he can dish quite a bit of pain too. I'd say they're both good for the early to mid-game PvE experience. Probably the guard (blue) will scale up better than the bear (green) at later levels.

dadanddragons · February 2014

reiwulf wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks that group dungeons shouldn't allow companions anyway?
To me companions are made to help you when soloing, so when in a group dungeon, I think companions should be disabled, like in pvp.
Obviously that would mean dungeons need to be made a bit easier too, to accomodate.

I might agree there. It does get a bit crowded and zergy when everyone's got their companions out. Sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm looking at a cleric companion or a slim player cleric. But sometimes it's nice to have a big swirl of people around you, even if half of them are AI.

angrysprite · February 2014

Wrong thread I think - deeleet

angrysprite · February 2014

sarfinau wrote: »

I can't post new thread so I hijack this one instead.

I consider buying an ioun stone of allure from Zen market but when I compare it with the on in AH, I find the ones in AH show 4 stats: Hit Points 10, Power 11, Critical 11, Recovery 11. However, the one in Zen market shows only 1 stat: Hit Points 10, no Power, no Critical, no Recovery.

Is this normal or they just removed three stats from ioun stone in Zen market? If so, I wouldn't buy it from Zen market. Or the other three stats will show up after I buy it? Anyone purchased this before? Please let me know.

Equipped:

Image%202014-02-18%20at%208.30.58%20AM.png

Original Topic: I'll reiterate that I believe the Galeb Dhur is the best tank companion, awesome for soloing (Trickster Rogue and Cleric, the other classes can hold their own quite well). The Ioune Stone is great for all-around boost and especially in group play. The Tank companion is most helpful during any solo-based boss-fights.

However, if I had only the money to buy ONE: It would be the stone. If I can buy both, then I'd go with Stone and Galeb. Hands-down, full stop. (Note: saying this from a Devoted Cleric/Trickster Rogue perspective).

As for in-game freebies: Man-At-Arms and Sheild Maiden are your two best bets (for a tanking/protective Companion that is not a Cleric). Just my own too-sense, everyone else's mileage will vary.

sarfinau · February 2014

Thanks for response, angrysprite. I decided to attach the root of my question here so people would understand what I was trying to say.

The stone from Zen market, when you hovering the mouse over it, shows only HP stat, while the one in AH shows all four stats. In the end I found out they are the same, only that the information shown in Zen market is not fully disclosed.

I strongly suggest NWN PerfectWorld correct this kind of misleading information towards buyers immediately, because right now buyers do not know what they get or not get from this kind of misleading information.

angrysprite · February 2014

sarfinau wrote: »

Thanks for response, angrysprite. I decided to attach the root of my question here so people would understand what I was trying to say.

The stone from Zen market, when you hovering the mouse over it, shows only HP stat, while the one in AH shows all four stats. In the end I found out they are the same, only that the information shown in Zen market is not fully disclosed.

I strongly suggest NWN PerfectWorld correct this kind of misleading information towards buyers immediately, because right now buyers do not know what they get or not get from this kind of misleading information.

Okay, gotcha!
Here's a SNAFU you'll really like: look at Zen store on Gateway: you get contextual (sales-pitch) description only when viewing what's for sale: zero stats whatsoever are displayed. LOL Gateway Z Store is good for browsing, but not for shopping unless you already know exactly what you want.

rashylewizz · February 2014

If you have tons of extra diamonds lying around and you want to min-max your 16k gs character's stats, then yes. Otherwise, just buy the stone its really simple. Don't overcomplicate things

ikuruyo · February 2014

angrysprite wrote: »

Okay, gotcha!
Here's a SNAFU you'll really like: look at Zen store on Gateway: you get contextual (sales-pitch) description only when viewing what's for sale: zero stats whatsoever are displayed. LOL Gateway Z Store is good for browsing, but not for shopping unless you already know exactly what you want.

You can see the full stats of anything in the ZStore on the Gateway. Under the item is a little "More Info" link. When you click it you get the same panel as is in the bottom of the Z Store in game. There you can hover over the item to get the full info for it.

You can also click on the icon in the Zstore on gateway to get the same screen and the full stats of the item.

acciobong · February 2014

I have a question about the Acolyte of K-something(don't know the exact name) , the elf priest healer companion, can anybody tell me if her active bonus (3% incoming heals) applies to all classes and stats regarding heals in any way? does it work with life steal? or a GWF's ability to heal himself for a small amount using unstoppable?

thanks

stercogburn · February 2014

For Sword Coast Adventurers, a range of diverse companions upgraded to purple is a must if you want the best chance of succeeding.

For dungeons actually in game, still not found anything as useful as Ioun Stones. Other companions are much better than they used to be but I don't find them much use other than on trash. For boss fights its back to the Ioun Stone. Companions are still not that great at staying out of AoE and since many boss fights the ground is covered in red they still die faster than redshirts in Star Trek. The greatest abilities in the world are zero use on a dead companion.

I also don't like the lack of control. A tank can taunt pull and that's the only thing that doesn't set off his companion from going nuts when you want to corner-pull or bring back mobs to the group rather than blundering in and agro'ing everything in an area. If even one mob uses a ranged attack on the tank, the companion goes to war and messes up the pull.

Even a simple [P]assive/[A]gressive/[D]efensive toggle would be a massive leap forward in companion control in this game, something I pretty much took for granted over a decade ago in other games.

But anyway, SCA:

1 thief type companion - Slyblade Kobold or such. The wolf pets from the Guardian pack do almost as well at this in most situations unless you hit 9 keys in an encounter.

1 tank type companion - Galeb Duhr etc. Again, Wolf pet almost as good as a pure tank and I have no trouble doing the encounters that are up to 27 shields.

1 caster type companion - Healer of Lillend is great for this. Ioun Stones are not so great as they struggle when there are a lot of magic dice needed. If you get 8+ magic dice in an encounter Ioun Stones really struggle but such as the Lillend companion need some really bad luck to fail.

1 generalist - panther is good. Basically you're looking at any encounter that is heavy on perception and a mix of the others. Ioun Stone actually does quite well in these so long as there aren't too many shield dice needed.

I play SCA maybe a couple of times each day as a 'break time' type game. I don't generally fail unless I get unlucky with the dice. On one toon companions I use are: Wolf, Panther, Ioun Stone, Slyblade Kobold. On another toon I use Ioun Stone, Wolf, Panther, Healer Of Lillend.

All the above mentioned companions are rank 30.

The latter team actually tends to have an easier time of it.

Hope this is helpful

chemboy613 · February 2014

I mean, it's simple here -

1) Buy agument. I like cat over stone for casters, and probably stone of might for TR/HR, and allure stone for IV classes (can proc trample, pretty nice)

2) Deck out in endgame gear

3) Buy other companions for their active bonuses.

Solo content in this game is very easy, you don't need an active companion for it

Group content, your active companion will likely a) run up to the mob b) hit it 3 times for no damage c) die quickly

If you have a lv 30 companion, it will fair better, not die, and maybe do some cool effects, but will be nowhere near as effective as your augment.

So until your gear is sitting pretty (i'd say rank 7s, SF, good weapon enchant, 3 epic artifacts), i wouldn't spend AD on companions - it's inefficient.

adinosii · February 2014

chemboy613 wrote: »

Solo content in this game is very easy, you don't need an active companion for it

You might not *need* it, but it can make life a lot easier. In particular if you are a "squishy" class, it can be a great help to have a tank companion. Also, if you cannot easily heal yourself, it can be a great help to have e healer companion.

Not required, true....just makes things easier.

Then again - companions can make things too easy - you can have a new character get 5 green "free" companions at level 4 - and although you can only use 3 of them at the beginning they make the initial levels trivially easy.

Is it worth buying any pet other than a Stone?

Comments