PvE Pets

Xaeria - Dreamweaver · June 2010

Hi all!

I realize this topic has been done to death, but I've looked and looked and basically got nowhere. I'm after information on non-legendary PvE pets. I have a Glacial Walker and a Petite Sawfly right now, and I'm wondering if I even need a flying pet for PvE purposes? The Sawfly is good for PvP, but is it the best for PvE? The skills are pretty expensive, so I want a balance between stats and starting skills.

Also, how many pets should I train at a time? I still have to expand my pet bag for the first time, so I guess the maximum is three in the near future for me.

Thanks in advance for your help.

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear · June 2010

up through the late 2x levels, i've yet to need a flying pet. it's possible one might be handy, but it's certain you can do without --- at least until you get the first quest that requires you to kill an air mob/boss, which i've seen in quest guides is supposed to happen around level 33.

expand your pet bag, pronto. you're already a bit too high level to grind hay from horned carapests, but you can handle antelope pups easily enough. at lvl 28 myself, i badly need to take the time to grind fruit off of something or other for my second pet bag expansion.

why? so you can experiment with different pets and find the answers to questions like "what pet's best for me"/"is such-and-such any good a pet" yourself. b:laugh also, any spare hay you get while grinding is good money when sold.

besides, occasionally you'll get some quest that requires a non-standard pet and you'll want a free slot for it. like that elder tortoise outside Archo, i had to egg a perfectly good dark wanderer so i could tame a water pet just to finish that quest.

bare minimum, you need a puller and a tank. without a tank, you're a greasy spot on the ground; without a puller, you're juggling aggro with your tank alone and wondering how best to get the mob you need out of the huddle of mobs you'd rather not fight right now. sure, you might be able to pull with your tank, but that glacial walker makes an awfully slow puller, and the sawfly can't be used in FBs. i'm really glad i kept my sharptooth wolfling all these levels; it's fast enough (~7 m/s) and tough enough for pulling most mobs.

anything beyond those can be experiments to see what works, or what might work better than what you've got, or special-purpose once-offs, or just goofing off to see what you like the looks of. or dedicated damage-dealer pets for when someone else is doing the tanking. or, quite frankly, spares for when your main tank dies and you need to sacrifice something else while you run away yourself. (that dark wanderer of mine's pretty good in the last two roles.)

Yindra - Sanctuary · June 2010

Yes, until lvl 30 there is no actual need for a flying pet. I still recommend levelling one alongside the golem, though, just so that it's ready.

I did use the fly to tank the big turtle, though. I have, occasionally, seen newbie Venomancers trying the "shoot turtles from the beach" thing for that early (lvl 5?) turtle quest --- which doesn't work. You need an air pet to be able to do stuff like that :-)

As for the pet bag slots, I'm currently working on the last free slot, which would be #5. I have my Magmite, the Sawfly, a mount and a turtle sitting in those 4 slots; currently no idea what I might use the 5th slot for. It appears that some bosses are better tanked from afar, but I don't know yet whether there's a suitable pet for that... or I could just make myself a baby pet to have active when I don't need a combat pet (baby pets don't fight, but on the positive side they don't need water either).

Especially since the turtle probably wasn't a good idea, as it's basically impossible to keep a water pet levelled with you --- so far, I only got her from 51 to 58 (although I think that might be wrong... sounds a bit high. Anyway, nowhere near my level). I did all the water quests with the fly, but picked up the turtle eventually when I had to get tons and tons of violet glass.

I almost always get the Magmite and the Sawfly to 100% long before I get anywhere close to that. I still haven't discarded the currently active DQ61, so there's still a need for even more violet glass, but essentially the turtle has no real job.

As for "what's it good for": the main use for a flying pet is, obviously, versus flying monsters. However, I occasionally find it useful to be able to stay airborne while attacking ground targets --- either because it's too crowded, so it's good to be able to work with the 3rd dimension, or because the terrain is just terrible (like swamps, where groundpets tend to unsummon a lot). I also use her as a bodyguard when picking up a single mine, so I don't have to dismount the skate. Depends a bit on the monsters, but for a larger bunch of mines I tend to touch down in a safe location, summon the golem, then go for the mines on foot.

Basically, while the fly is a lot squishier than the golem, I find her to be quite useful simply because she's not limited to just air combat, like the golem is restricted to ground combat (unless you're doing some really dangerous and time-consuming luring to get a melee bird to the ground. I don't think you can get a fish close enough to the ground).

I have no idea about the skills, though. Last time I checked there were no useful skills outside the cash shop, so I just stayed with the Bash.

Waterfal - Sanctuary · June 2010

Yindra - Sanctuary wrote: »

It appears that some bosses are better tanked from afar, but I don't know yet whether there's a suitable pet for that...the eldergoth marksman is a ranged pet, you just have to turn off it's skills, so it'll be a terrible agro holder.

Especially since the turtle probably wasn't a good idea, as it's basically impossible to keep a water pet levelled with you --- so far, I only got her from 51 to 58 (although I think that might be wrong... sounds a bit high. Anyway, nowhere near my level). I did all the water quests with the fly, but picked up the turtle eventually when I had to get tons and tons of violet glass.

At lvl 80 you'll get to tame a plumpfish. Most people just stick with that one

I have no idea about the skills, though. Last time I checked there were no useful skills outside the cash shop, so I just stayed with the Bash.
Bash is a good agro skill, do mind, two agro skills keep better agro then one. Together with a skill like flesh ream it's harder to grab agro from your pets. Also howl is a great skill imo, since it lowers the magic defense from mobs. (also usefull in pvp btw)

The magmite and sawfly are a fine choice

The dark wanderer seems to be a good DD just like the scorpion you find around city of the lost. DD-pets are usefull when you're not tanking bosses

Xaeria - Dreamweaver · June 2010

Thanks so much for the information, guys! I've grinded some hay and got a DW. So far so good, except I don't have the coins to teach him bash yet, so he's terrible at holding aggro.

Quick question about water pets--everyone says that you pretty much catch one near your level until 80 ish, but when do you first need one? My next pet bag slot needs fruits, which only drop from 50+ mobs, so it'll be a while until I can get it, and I don't want to keep egging whichever pet I don't need at the time so I can get a water pet.

RouIette - Lost City · June 2010

The 55 Death Dancers or Mermaidens are good as water pets, since you have to kill some sharks and some water mobs in 4x-5x. You won't get very many after that, and the next batch of water quests would come at around 77, basically hold off of those quests until 80 so you can catch a fugly little Celestial Plumpfish to take care of those 7x quests. It's a -hell- of a lot easier just waiting until 8x for those 7x water quests, level up a death dancer 20 or so levels sounds easy but it's painstaking.

Verminatrix - Raging Tide · June 2010

I've realized that the advise "don't train your air pet till level 3x cause you don't need it before that" is a BAD advice. My ground pet spend much of the time being ready to level up as soon as I level up and kill one more monster. Basically it was NOT gaining experience while waiting for me to level up. This time MUST be used to level your air pet AND THEN SOME!

Xaeria - Dreamweaver · June 2010

Thanks for the info about the water pet, RouIette. I'll have to work on fruits as soon as possible and not worry about the water pet, then.

As for keeping pets leveled, I haven't been having too much trouble with two pets (in part 'cause of the grinding for the hay), but I guess we'll see with three of 'em. I wish someone told me how expensive venos starting off are, what's with the skills you have to teach pets before mobs start wailing on the veno as soon as you hit them.

Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly! It's been a great help.

P.S. Yindra--your bit about tanking the turtle with an air pet is genius! I was worried about that quest, until I tried it out with the Sawfly and it worked like a charm. I noticed that the Sawfly didn't seem to be taking any damage at all from the Elder Tortoise. Is this is the standard for water mobs hitting air mobs?

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