Comparison shopping for wolf pets

Otani - Dreamweaver
Otani - Dreamweaver Posts: 34 Arc User
edited May 2009 in Venomancer
OK I finally have some pets to compare, and have also seen the prices Mrs. Zoologist charges for new skills and skill upgrade books for pets. Yikes!

I have a Sharptooth Wolfing I've raised from 2 to 23, a Treeline Wolfkin that I pushed from 22 to 23 for comparison, and a White-eyed Wolfkin that is natively 23.

According to the wonderful PWI pets page
http://snowbloom.110mb.com/pi.htm
these belong to the pet lines Wolf 1, 3 and 2 respectively. Wolves seem to come in a series of ranges. Each has a slightly different growth graph...strengths and weaknesses.

I had read that pets gained at low level and raise up are going to have better stats than those captured at the higher level. Is that just within a given pet line? Because allowing for each of these to have slightly higher or lower graphs in things like Attack and Evasion and such...these 3 are not that much different, except the pets captured at the higher level have higher skills (instead of Flesh Ream 1, they have FR3 and Howl 1 in one case, and FR1 and Sandblow 3 in the other.)

So....is there much advantage to keeping the wolf raised from level 2 in the long run? Would it be appreciably better than the other two captured in the early twenties when all were...say 50? Or just different due to different wolf families, but otherwise similar? And of course there is the added expense of spending like 700k or so to raise Flesh Ream twice and add Howl 1 to the Sharptooth...

If the difference in "raising a low one is better than capturing a high one" is only within a given pet line/family, then should I drop the Sharptooth in favor of these better skilled wolves?

Scorpion by comparison, as a family, is listed as ranging from level 2 to 59...presumably with the same stat chart...and it might be more obvious that raising a scorp from 2 to 59 is going to yeild a stronger scorp than one captured at 59....or am I *completely* misunderstanding.
Post edited by Otani - Dreamweaver on

Comments

  • volst
    volst Posts: 180
    edited May 2009
    Using one from level 20s shouldnt be a big deal. Once they get to the higher levels the small difference is negligible since the level gap isn't that big.

    Example: Compare level 17/18 golems to the level 32 golem, the difference is only a 100 points per stat at level 90. The gap isn't big enough to cause any problems.

    And the growth rate applies to any similar pet. So even though the level 17 golem has a completely different name to the level 32 one, they still follow the same stats. Only rare pets are an exception.

    All it means is that the higher the starting level, the lower the starting stat because you don't have to work as much. You should only worry if there's a huge gap like the scorpions you listed.
  • vagrant0
    vagrant0 Posts: 290 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    What the graphs don't show is how a raised version of a lower level one compares to a higher level, fresh one. Most pets tamed after level 20 still have decent stats as far as health and defense, but tend to REALLY suck as far as damage goes. At level 43, a raised level 2 wolf does roughly 600 damage a hit, while a freshly tamed windstar wolf, although the graphs look similar, ends up doing about half that damage. Although you get higher skills, which can make the pet hold agro better, the pet itself is less able to add to your dps, or fend for itself. Generally, lower level pets which are raised tend to be stronger than pets that are gained from a higher level.

    As far as finding the best pet, you have to really sit down and consider the role that pet is meant to play.

    For pulling, damage isn't important, but speed, hp and defenses are. I usually suggest either an eldergoth (ranged attack), or a level 4 minkii (small rat things) for pulling since they're fast, and have decent hp/defense until people can afford a kowlin, as opposed to a wolf. Although the minkii might cost more to get the skills setup right, once leveled up with flesh ream, it can be a force to be reckoned with. Especially in TW due to its size and lethality.

    For tanking, you'll want either a herc (if you want to spend your rent money), golem, qingfu (requires reskilling), shadu cub, frog (also requires reskilling), or armored bear (if you can wait till 80, and have tons of money).

    For grinding, you can go with whatever you like the look of, just are usually best off with a rare pet, or a < 20 one.
  • Otani - Dreamweaver
    Otani - Dreamweaver Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    thanks! appreciate the guidance.

    I'm mostly soloing out in the field so far...I also have a Jaden Qingfu raised from level 1, but it's very slow moving and while it is sturdy, it really doesn't hold aggro much at all unless I wait for it to get the monster down to like 75% health.
  • vagrant0
    vagrant0 Posts: 290 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    thanks! appreciate the guidance.

    I'm mostly soloing out in the field so far...I also have a Jaden Qingfu raised from level 1, but it's very slow moving and while it is sturdy, it really doesn't hold aggro much at all unless I wait for it to get the monster down to like 75% health.

    Yep, you really need to remove the boost skill and teach it bash before it can really do any sort of tanking. Keeping boost in the first slot unfortunately ends up making it so that it can't tank until you've switched it to auto use another skill, so you really need to ditch it even if you intend to add it back later. I would suggest getting both bash and flesh ream on it eventually so that you can prevent getting heal agro if you happen to need to fight 2 things at once. If a arcane armor build, you should level both of these to atleast 2 by level 60 so that your magic damage doesn't draw agro. However, this is also the case with a level 17/18 golem, which is why some just tame a higher level golem, rather than spend the 400-600k in skills. Long term though, it's worth it.
  • Otani - Dreamweaver
    Otani - Dreamweaver Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    from the tooltip on the pet commands bar, it says Alt+2 to Alt+5 to attack with certain skills...is it important what order the skills are on the pet? Also not clear what Alt+1 in the tooltip means then...attack with whatever is highlighted skill? (I have a Logitech G11 keyboard and have these on the G keys....along with other annoyances like "Alt+B")
  • Rubles - Heavens Tear
    Rubles - Heavens Tear Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    vagrant0 wrote: »
    What the graphs don't show is how a raised version of a lower level one compares to a higher level, fresh one. Most pets tamed after level 20 still have decent stats as far as health and defense, but tend to REALLY suck as far as damage goes. At level 43, a raised level 2 wolf does roughly 600 damage a hit, while a freshly tamed windstar wolf, although the graphs look similar, ends up doing about half that damage. Although you get higher skills, which can make the pet hold agro better, the pet itself is less able to add to your dps, or fend for itself. Generally, lower level pets which are raised tend to be stronger than pets that are gained from a higher level. .

    i feel obligated to correct you. what you are comparing are 2 tottaly diffrent pet linages. there are different types of wolves that dont share the same stat growth at all.

    the wolf at lvl 2 is in the 'Wolf1' catagory. while the windstar wolf at lvl43 is a diffrent breed of wolf known as 'Wolf3'

    comparing their stats is the same as comparing a magmite to a frog, you have to consider the different breeds of wolves as diffrent species all together.

    be prepared lots of info, some useless and some usefull.

    "Wolf 1"
    Lv.2 Cruel Wolfling
    Lv.2 Mad Wolfling
    Lv.2 Sharptooth Wolfling
    Lv.9 Prairie Wolf
    Lv.9 Riding Wolf
    Lv.9 Wild Wolfling
    Lv.12 Bitter Wolf
    Lv.12 Furious Wolf
    Lv.12 Sharptooth Wolf
    Lv.12 Vicious Snaggletooth
    Lv.13 Snaggletooth Chief
    Lv.13 Vicious Snaggletooth
        Chief

    "Wolf 2"
    Lv.18 Darkbreed Wolfkin
    Lv.18 Forest Wolfkin
    Lv.19 Frozen Wolfkin
    Lv.19 Grottoden Wolfkin
    Lv.19 Wooden Wolfmaster
    Lv.20 Blackhive Wolfkin
    Lv.20 Frozen Wolfmaster
    Lv.20 Grottoden Wolfmaster
    Lv.21 Blackhive Wolfkin
        Premier
    Lv.22 Blackhive Snarl
    Lv.22 Heartless Wolf
    Lv.23 White-eyed Wolfkin

    "Wolf 3"
    Lv.22 Treeline Wolfkin
    Lv.27 Snakevalley Bloodwolf
    Lv.42 Wildstar Wolf
    Lv.43 Wildstar Wolf Lord
    Lv.48 Mythical Wolfkin

    "Wolf 4"
    Lv.45 Guardian Wolf
    Lv.48 Neolithic Wolf
    Lv.49 Lunar Lupin


    ********theres a chart listed here*******
    http://perfectworld.clanfree.net/familiergraphique.htm

    it completely shows you the diffrence in growth charts for each different wolf type.

    also information gained is from http://snowbloom.110mb.com/pi.htm

    so a lvl 2 wolfling will be better stat wise then a lvl13 because its int he same family of 'wolf1'

    but to compare a lvl2 wolfling (wolf1) to a lvl43 wildstar (wolf3) is bogus, because as you can see in the chart listed their attack rating is growing at diffrent paces.

    ****use the graphs, find the best growth chart that fits what you want a pet to do, then the lowest pet ONLY in that family will be the best pet 'stat wise' for that family.


    i hope this was all clear and not jumbled too much, its very late here. im just doing my best to help out with some pet confusion
  • vagrant0
    vagrant0 Posts: 290 Arc User
    edited May 2009

    I was aware, however was not talking about stats in a specific way, but instead of a generic. Although the two different types of wolves are different graphs, their attack portion is still reasonably close to eachother. The difference of 5 points to 4 points of attack should not be meaning 1/2 damage per hit, or more against the same target. You can even compare this within the same group. Although they might gain the same amount per level, their starting stats differ. The best example for this would probably be a scorpion or tauroc since they have the largest gap between highest tamed and lowest tamed, and are slightly more common than other unusual pets. The fresh scorpion ends up with much lower stats than the raised one even though they are of the same group. This is essentially why it is best to raise a pet from low level rather than tame a fresh one if possible.