Better pet than a Walker?

losstarot

In my 5x, I often find myself stealing aggro (or hitting so much in my opening shot that my pet can't take aggro) and he's just too slow to retake aggro most of the time; worse is that he doesn't recognize commands easily, so it's difficult for him to use roar (usually he has to run back to me, wait, then he does it).

I would really love the Herc, but are there any other pets that could help with this? The Cub seems overshadowed by the Walker and a DPS pet doesn't really have the defense for everyday grinding.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary

The walker should work as like the C-Mag everyone used that for all this time.It was some venos only land battle pet.You could get an undergrowth marksman or lunar lupin.It depends on how much rooms you got in your pet bag.

There could be some bugs in walker pet commands but it should be doing the jop that a mag can do.It is either that or get mag.

What lvl is your heal pet at as it affects range and get the walker as loyal as possible>

losstarot

Heal's where it shoul be and Marksman and Lupin are specialized and not really grinding pets.

rinuruc

i find a scorpion very well at the everyday grinding,... has good magicdef,... so vs earthmobs it works very nice,... keeps agro as it should, while i do wood-dmg to get quick kills,... ;-)
works as it should be, even though the scorp is five levels below me and has bash and 3 element bashes at level one coz im too poor to level em up,... (and i already steal agro as hell in TT so dont see the need to levelup the skills XD)

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

Yup - at 5x you start to steal aggro from a magmite.

Add an extra bash-like skill on there and make sure you trigger it, or use roar to recover aggro when you steal.

losstarot

Possibly..

Also, how do kitties/puppies fair overall compared to a Walker? Would they be worth investing until a Herc?

rinuruc

losstarot wrote: »

Possibly..

Also, how do kitties/puppies fair overall compared to a Walker? Would they be worth investing until a Herc?

as far as i know,... the combination of a walker and a scorpion does fine till level 79 (reached that level yesterday evening),... ;-) and walker is level 62 and scorp 74,... (worldquest, bh, cs, TT,... that doesnt help leveling pets XD but it does help me level,... ;-) )

and i think at level 80 ill swap the walker for an armoured bear,... but the scorpion thats one that will never go away from my petbag again,... and i didnt invest in any petskills on the walker,... and on the scorpion i have got bash level one, (that was on it when tamed at level two of the pet), and i put sandblow on it for vs water element mobs/bosses, i also have thunderbolt (or whatever its called,... the metal-bash), since its great vs wood bosses, since on the woodbosses venodamage sucks bigtime,... and i think i also put the fire-bash on it, so i can kill metalmobs easier,... so that way i got metal, fire, earth, phys bashes on pet,... and i do wood-dmg myself, so the only type of bosses that im not that great against, is fire,... but thats not much of a problem,... the scorpion really is great,... it has decent magic defenses, and hits very hard,... even though the skills are only left at level one,... that way i already steal agro enough in TT,...
and i suggest getting bash,... (the walker has roar,... but the agro your pet builds up, resets when roar is used,... but if you plan on swapping the walker for an armoured bear at level 80 (like i will), than i suggest maybe getting the shikou valorian in fb59,... its a bit weaker than a walker,... but has bash level five on it when u tame it,... and thats kinda great for keeping agro,...

i really suggest a scorpion coz im very fond of it,... but you wont be able to aoe-grind with it,... but if you plan on aoe-grinding,... than the walker should be your best bet (if you put bash on it) till level 80 where the armoured bear becomes available, (bear has good skills, and runs faster than walker, so if you steal pets agro, pet gets faster to it,...)

edit: damn i think i kinda said the same thing over and over again XD

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

losstarot wrote: »

Also, how do kitties/puppies fare overall compared to a Walker? Would they be worth investing until a Herc?

I don't really think so. They hit hard, and they're fast, but they don't really defend all that well.
On t'other hand, they're cheap and look pretty.

losstarot

Isn't the Bear even worse than the Cub?

Also, the Scorpion seems too squishy and is not that much faster than a Walker.

rinuruc

losstarot wrote: »

Isn't the Bear even worse than the Cub?

Also, the Scorpion seems too squishy and is not that much faster than a Walker.

at level 80 its worse than cub,... but its diffrent growth chart,... by level 90 its better than the cub,... (and i like the skills of the bear,...)
n scorpion keeps the agro,... so it doesnt have to chase the mobs,... ;-) but yeah its slightly squishier,... but has decent magic defense,... and kills faster than the walker,...

Lenn_ - Sanctuary

stop attacking first for one, spamming venomous is going to kill you. let your pet hit first to get aggro, then start attacking. the walker shouldnt be losing aggro, its just you being inexperienced in how to manage DD.

tweakz

losstarot wrote: »

Heal's where it shoul be and Marksman and Lupin are specialized and not really grinding pets.

Maybe not at your level.

Lady_Sam - Lost City

losstarot wrote: »

In my 5x, I often find myself stealing aggro (or hitting so much in my opening shot that my pet can't take aggro) and he's just too slow to retake aggro most of the time; worse is that he doesn't recognize commands easily, so it's difficult for him to use roar (usually he has to run back to me, wait, then he does it).

I would really love the Herc, but are there any other pets that could help with this? The Cub seems overshadowed by the Walker and a DPS pet doesn't really have the defense for everyday grinding.

Have you taught him bash? Thats an aggro holding skill and if you keep it well-levelled, you should have no trouble.

Waterfal - Sanctuary

two agro skills would work perfectly fine ^^
one agro skill is automatic, just click the other skill to make it attack the mob. both agro skills will follow eachother up without a normal attack in between.
this should keep agro pretty well
2 low lvl agro skills keep more agro then 1 high lvld

Mhikan - Heavens Tear

Managing your damage rate together with your pet is a good thing.

I can say this because I am an archer with decent amount of crit rate.

Letting your pet hit First is a good way to start with, let it hit for a couple of times, use your VS once or twice then heal pet up to max hp, use Ironwood scarab for pet to deal more damage then manage if you need to heal your pet or attack VS. Do that kind of job then your pet will retain aggro longer than you imagine.

Walker got 2 aggro skill, manage to use roar when icicle is at mid charging state (note that roar and icicle got short skill delay period). That being said, you will have more options to manage your DD while your pet is keeping aggro.

Lastly, spamming your skill will only make things worst, you know at higher levels your damage is quite far from your pet. You may kill the boss faster if you do, risking yourself to take aggro or take time managing the DD amount of yourself and your pet, surely it will gonna take a while but safer is better than faster.

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

Ok - roar is a VERY special case. Used wrongly it will decrease the amount of aggro the pet has.

Very worthwhile learning it though.

Havilah - Sanctuary

My own walker is at early 60, I taugh it lv1 bash(missing money to raise it further currently). I put his bash to auto, and send it using icicle, I don't steal often from my current earth mobs grinding while using a macro.

And yeah, roar is mostly for when you need the pet to (re)take agro.

tweakz

Skills that don't do any direct damage still generate aggro. Not sure why some call Bash an aggro skill. I think of Roar as the only aggro skill. On lighter hitting pets, I'd prefer something like Howl, or Threaten. Though the cool down on them isn't favorable., they can be alternated in use.

losstarot

I tend not to spam skills, but I do like opening with Ironwood, but it usually causes too much spike damage for my pet to handle.

Also, sending my pet in first seems it will make more time to kill a mob while grinding/questing, especially if it's a walker.

Vitenka - Dreamweaver

Well,that's the tradeoff you have to make - more damage at the start and tank yourself, or the pet hits first and you wait a moment, and the pet gets to tank.

Some things that can help are to leave your pet hurt after a fight - your first spell in each new fight is then a pet heal (which isn't wasting time, since you do have to cast it) and then you've got aggro on the pet so you can cast as normal.
An alternative is to open with amplify damage - which usually seems like overkill to me, but does work well on elites.

Or, of course, you can attack with any spike you like - THEN trigger roar, which will instantly put aggro back on the pet. (Well, the mob will finish their current attack, which is a bit sucky if it was an archer) after which icicle should hold it.

But for really solid aggro, nothing beats having at least two bash-like attacks to alternate between.

Marista - Lost City

I disagree with those who say that attacking first is a bad idea. In my experience, using ironwood after the initial bash is worse for agro. Usually--though I admit none of my pets are as slow as magmites or walkers, but even then, it shouldn't matter since the mob is coming right at you--I'll throw ironwood, it'll hit just before pet gets there, the mob will run toward me, then bash is used while I don't hit again for a few seconds. Bash easily takes back agro, and the damage component is of course higher, as well as each successive hit. Throw a venomous or two, heal pet if needed, then ironwood again as soon as its out of cooldown. Is your ironwood maxed yet? If not, I suggest getting it maxed asap, and if you're still pulling agro, use less venomous or get pet more agro skills.

Btw, I believe the designation comes from the fact that it adds -more- agro than most skills because of skill agro plus damage too. And the fast cooldown. It's not that the others don't get it, it's just that that's obviously what bash and the elemental versions excel at.

AngelOfLies - Heavens Tear

srry venos was too bored to read the rest of the txt :P but if u have a glacial walker use the skill "roar" it retakes aggro instanly, plus its lvl 2, it'd cost u 350k to get it to roar and get it to lvl 2 on a normal c. mag

losstarot

A walker's too slow and buggy (with it running back to me first or stopping for a few seconds before it accepts the command) for Roar to really be useful.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary

losstarot wrote: »

Heal's where it shoul be and Marksman and Lupin are specialized and not really grinding pets.

Where is heal at though and no Marksman is not specialized?

Havilah - Sanctuary

losstarot wrote: »

A walker's too slow and buggy (with it running back to me first or stopping for a few seconds before it accepts the command) for Roar to really be useful.

It was the same thing with my previous magmite. If the pet is running to you and you want it to immediatly attack an another mob, simply click auto-attack(alt+1).

losstarot

...Heal is six and it even has trouble recognizing that command a lot.