Upgrading Shadou Cub Skill

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear

I got a Shadou Cub this weekend and love using it over the huge Golems I have. This is both because it seems to tank almost as well but also because it is so much more fun to play with. It looks cute, is faster and small.

I do notice it being bad at holding aggro and I have read all kinds of conflicting advice. It seems like Bash is the most recommended skill. Should I replace Pierce or Tough. Is it worth upgrading Bash, Pounce and/or Flesh Ream?

I am a new to this game and am a casual player. I like having a pleasant time during the few hours I play so I don't mind spending a little cash to make it more entertaining with less downtime. Cheaper than going to the movies IMHO. b:laugh

I will prob do mostly PvE but might want to do a bit of PvP or dueling once in a while. I don't expect to get to a very high level my main goal ATM is to reach LVL 30 so I can fly. (^_~)

I am leaning towards replacing Tough with Bash as I don't seem to ever use it then upgrading Bash.

Any advice that takes into account my playing style would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. b:thanks

Rosewhite - Sanctuary

Personally I think u should keep tough. If you did a little search about this, you would find out that pierce generally doesn't attack enough times a minute to really keep agro. If you planning on mostly doing pvp, I would suggest you get bash, because that is one of the best skills for keeping agro next to Flesh Ream. As far as the pvp question, I'll will hand that part to someone who pvps because I don't.

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear

Thanks Rosewhite,
I decided to take your advice and swap out Pierce for Bash.

It isn't a huge deal... but for anyone wondering, the new learned skill goes in the last slot. So it is basically impossible(i think) to make Bash (or any other) the default auto skill unless you unlearn all of the skills and re-learn the in the order you want with the auto default learned first. Obviously this is not financially feasible. LOL.

I'll repost when I have some experience with this setup.

Does anyone have ideas on how Tough should be used?
I am guessing set Bash as auto skill, send pet in with Flesh Ream, Pounce, then Tough. Then start nuking. Assuming it is a tough mob that won't go down in just a few nukes.

Toxic - Dreamweaver

If you want your pet use a different skill as the auto skill, right click it, and it will use it as the default skill. The order does not matter, AFAIK. I just got my Shaodu cub this weekend as well and noticed how much I pull aggro from it, so am planning to replace Pierce with Bash...once I can afford to. :P

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear

This does seem to work quite well. Replacing Pierce with Bash and making it the default auto skill makes my Shadou Bear feel much like using my Golem in terms of aggro holding, but way more fun. The way it dashes about is so cute.

I really noticed the difference when I forgot to right click to make Bash the default after switching pets. It wasn't holding aggro as well with Flesh Ream as the default.

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Does anyone have ideas on how Tough should be used?
I am guessing set Bash as auto skill, send pet in with Flesh Ream, Pounce, then Tough. Then start nuking. Assuming it is a tough mob that won't go down in just a few nukes.

Tough has a 60 sec cooldown, so I usually save it for emergencies. If your pet gets jumped by an extra mob when it's fighting and at low hp, healing it will cause the extra mob to attack you. It usually takes a few seconds to switch your target to the new mob, order your pet to attack it, then for the pet to actually attack so it's safe to heal. So I'll fire off Tough then to help the pet survive those few seconds until I can get all that done and heal it.

It's also handy against bosses when you're spam-healing. Maybe your heals have fallen behind and you need some breathing room to catch up, or maybe you just want a little extra time to fire off a DD in between the heals. Tough can allow you to do that, instead of only being able to spam heal and pray.

Exploding mobs with sacrificial assault also do additional damage when they explode. In FB39 in my 40s and low 50s, they would almost always kill my golem when they exploded. But with the cub I could fire off Tough just before the mob died, and it'd usually be enough to let the cub survive the explosion.

Note that Pounce also speeds up your pet's attacks slightly. So unless you're fighting a runner or a caster where you want to save the stun, I would fire it off as it recycles for the extra pet damage and aggro.

Toxic - Dreamweaver wrote: »

If you want your pet use a different skill as the auto skill, right click it, and it will use it as the default skill. The order does not matter, AFAIK.

The first skill on the list is automatically selected when you summon your pet. That's why people were hoping there was a way to put bash into the first slot. It's silly really. If I were programming the game, I'd just make the started selected skill whatever the selected skill was when the pet was unsummoned...

Rosewhite - Sanctuary

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Thanks Rosewhite,
I decided to take your advice and swap out Pierce for Bash.

It isn't a huge deal... but for anyone wondering, the new learned skill goes in the last slot. So it is basically impossible(i think) to make Bash (or any other) the default auto skill unless you unlearn all of the skills and re-learn the in the order you want with the auto default learned first. Obviously this is not financially feasible. LOL.

I'll repost when I have some experience with this setup.

Does anyone have ideas on how Tough should be used?
I am guessing set Bash as auto skill, send pet in with Flesh Ream, Pounce, then Tough. Then start nuking. Assuming it is a tough mob that won't go down in just a few nukes.

I'm glad its working for you. Solandri is right about the way you should use Tough. That's generally the way I use it on my golem.

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear

Wow, thanks for the tip about Tough as an emergency measure. I hadn't thought about using it like that before.

Doesn't that make the Volcanic Golem a much better choice than the Crystalline? I have both but am having a hard time keeping my growing menagerie of pets leveled and all the threads I have read so far never extol the virtues of Toughen they just talk about the slightly better stats of the Crystalline.

So I was thinking to just work on the Shadou, 1 Golem, Sawfly and the Killer Bunny b:laugh I plan to get (for fun).

Also, I notice that people spend tons to upgrade their equipment but I don't hear much about upgrading pet skills. Wouldn't a Petite Sawfly with a Flesh Ream skill added be low end, poor persons substitute for the Phoenix? Apart from slower speed what skills and stats that cannot be bought make the Sawfly so much worse? (I'm primarily talking about how PvPers just run scared of the Phoenix. Is a maxed skillset Sawfly even in contention?)

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Wow, thanks for the tip about Tough as an emergency measure. I hadn't thought about using it like that before.

Well, the alternative is to heal, have the second mob attack you, and you tank it (or hit Summer Sprint and kite it by running in circles) while getting your pet to change targets. It's not like the Tough strategy I outlined is the only way out of the situation.

Doesn't that make the Volcanic Golem a much better choice than the Crystalline? I have both but am having a hard time keeping my growing menagerie of pets leveled and all the threads I have read so far never extol the virtues of Toughen they just talk about the slightly better stats of the Crystalline.

The Crystalline starts with Bash 2, Sandblow 1. To get it to Bash 2, Sandblow 1, Tough 1 requires 300k (buy Tough).

The Volcanic starts with Bash 1, Sandblow 1, Tough 1. To get it to Bash 2, Sandblow 1, Tough 1 requires 200k (upgrade Bash).

So in the long run the Volcanic will only save you 100k. The question is more how long you want to go without investing money in pet skills, and whether you prefer the higher Bash or having Tough. Personally I'm recommending the Volcanic to new venos now. The only caveat is that the Volcanic is an elite mob - there's no way you're going to be able to tame one yourself at level 18 unless you first get a Crystalline.

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear

Thanks Solandri,
I had not noticed that the Crystalline has Lvl 2 Bash vs Lvl 1 on the Volcanic. LOL.

So in theory if you plan on spending coin upgrading and adding skills, the Crystalline is actually the best Golem if you don't take into account the 100K difference.

On the other hand I have seen Volcanic Eggs go for as low as 2-4K. I was actually given mine by a nice high lvl player when I was too low to even use it. So it is much more affordable for NewBs that don't want to spend RL cash.

For now I think I will stick with my Volcanic as my Tank backup as I don't really want to spend any coin on it, my favorite is my Shadou Cub by far.

What about flying pets? Much as I "drool" over the Phoenix, I can't justify the farming time or the RL $ to get it for my casual gaming. My Petite Sawfly is ok but boring. I have been thinking about the Piggy? Is that a good one to get and level instead of the Sawfly?

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Viper_girl - Heavens Tear wrote: »

On the other hand I have seen Volcanic Eggs go for as low as 2-4K. I was actually given mine by a nice high lvl player when I was too low to even use it. So it is much more affordable for NewBs that don't want to spend RL cash.

Every now and then I'll tame a bunch of golems, then drop the eggs in City of the Lost around the veno skill trainer. Happily, most players seem content to grab one egg for themselves and that's it. I've only had one case where someone ran around trying to pick up all the eggs.

What about flying pets? Much as I "drool" over the Phoenix, I can't justify the farming time or the RL $ to get it for my casual gaming. My Petite Sawfly is ok but boring. I have been thinking about the Piggy? Is that a good one to get and level instead of the Sawfly?

IMHO the pig is the best rare to get for PvE. I use it to fight air mobs, land mobs, even water mobs. Its defensive stats are better than the cub's, and its offensive stats are negligibly worse. There must be some sort of ground-to-air damage reduction too because often the pig will take less damage from a mob than the golem (which has higher p.def). If it weren't for the bug with air pets getting stuck on the ground, I would almost always use it instead of my golem or cub outdoors.

Aside from the phoenix and pig, the air mobs are all rather fragile. Using them in PvE, you end up healing them pretty frequently, which slows down the rate you're inflicting damage. The pig doesn't have this problem - it can get through almost any non-boss fight without needing to be healed until after the fight.

For PvP, you want to emphasize offense, so the petite sawfly is probably the best.

Here are some threads on air pets:
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=202732
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=56872

And here's a short blurb I wrote on taming the pig. Fortunately it's probably the easiest rare to catch. I've seen as few as 4 venos trying to catch it (including me):

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=175722

andyuk

Best for pet for keeping aggro = varicose scorpion, never let me down, ive got him to lvl 37 ^^ + he has good attack power

IceJazmin - Heavens Tear

Holy pimpled batman on a pogo stick! The undead are back, the undead are back.

Leave dead threads dead.... GMs and MODs tend to get cranky if they are taken away from their donuts and have to put on their Undead fighting gear to beat the necroed threads back.