Which offensive pets are better?

Both are pretty good, but for grinding I'd go with Shadow Ranger / Dark Wanderer.

scorpie its cuter and old skool xD

theres a topic about this almost every week, and the answers will stay the same. ranger = faster, scorp=harder hits. they both are about the same over all. its really up to u, and which one u think looks better, or which starter skills u would rather have.

Here's what it comes down to really, and hopefully this is slightly more informative than faster vs harder hits.

A Dark Wanderer has better base damage output, the reason is because it appears to be a 7 on the growth chart although its chart only says it's a 6 (the chart being wrong isn't an isolated incident, so this is nothing new). For comparison a scorpion has a 6.

A scorpion on the other hand has higher damage output when you're using skills. The reason for this is that because of the way pet skill damage works, pets that have higher attack but slower attack rates gain more damage using a skill than a pet with the same damage output but a lower attack/faster attack rate would. In the case of a scorpion which attacks pretty slow and has a rather high attack, this is actually enough to make up for it having lower attack growth overall.

I can't say for sure that this holds true for all levels but when a scorpion/wanderer have been compared at level 100 the wanderer beats the scorpion in damage output by 11.21% when skills aren't being taken into account and by 3.02% when one skill is being accounted for. However if you're using more skills than that (and making sure you're using them as soon as their cooldowns are finished) the scorpion takes the lead with 2.98% more damage at two skills and 7.94% more damage with three skills. Four skills wasn't calculated but you could expect it to be around a 13% bonus in favor of a scorpion.

Something to keep in mind though is that skills generate aggro, and because of their relatively short cooldown+damage component bash and elemental bashes are a lot of aggro. If you want the pet to be high aggro so it can hold aggro on whatever comes along, a scorpion would be the better pet. On the other hand, if you want the pet to provide damage without generating more aggro than necessary a wanderer will work better for you.

My choice is a wanderer because in situations where I want to be using a DD pet, I'm not wanting others to be fighting my pet for aggro so the skills are turned off. Plus, venomancers aren't a class you can lazily play well, another factor I find in favor of the wanderer is it's a pet I can send at a mob and then forget about until it needs a heal. In order to get the most from a scorpion I would be sending it, firing off skills, unsummoning it, resummoning it to clear aggro, and having it attack again. In short it would add a lot more button clicks to playing, when well played venomancers (atleast the casters) are already ridiculously high on that to begin with.

There doesn't seem to be any significant difference although this is an issue that might be only settled when someone actually bothers to make a calculation of the dps for both pets. It's not that difficult really, although for most of us, being comitted to other pets, looking through threads for the pertinent info does seem a bit of a bother. Ecatomb was actually working on this really cool listing that would calculate dps for you and even took Bash into account but i'm not sure if the thing is up and running as it should at the moment.

He's still working on it. I just took a look at it when making this post actually, hoping it would save me searching for the old scorpion vs wanderer dps values or having to recalculate them but his dps calculations aren't working right yet.

VVarriorX - Harshlands wrote: »

Well I think i'll go with the scorpian. It auto uses bash so that isnt bad and i dont mind clicking a extra button for a skill. If it pulls agro im just gunna troll the fail tank lol. Also my 2nd question. Is the sawfly still the highest for pve dmg dealing or?

right click on any active pet skill you want to 'auto use' and it will automatically use it after cooldown. you dont have to click bash every single time if its a 2nd pet skill and not first

VVarriorX - Harshlands wrote: »

Well I think i'll go with the scorpian. It auto uses bash so that isnt bad and i dont mind clicking a extra button for a skill. If it pulls agro im just gunna troll the fail tank lol. Also my 2nd question. Is the sawfly still the highest for pve dmg dealing or?

if you're in HH and you leave bash on on your scorp and it dies, you asked for it. b/c just normal hits is enough to get agro from a barb with a pet unless you regulate the damage by stow+summon or just have the pet wait a bit.

maybe even on fb/world bosses, with bash on. scorpion makes alot of damage on its own and putting bash on there's like having an archer go buck wild with sparks and crits, or a bm go crazy with dragons, crits, and zerks.

you have to be smart playing veno. if you're not going to be, then stick to bm lol.

Cij - Harshlands wrote: »

Well Mr ? guy. I'm sorry but a Barb is posed to be a better agro holder. Arnt they the prime tank class? lol. Owell doesnt matter if i do i can just rez and turn off bash.

Actually, he's right. All characters get their damage reduced when going against (?) bosses, such as those in TT, but pets don't. This makes them great DD, but also poses a risk which is the reason why, unless you really do know what you're doing, the rule of thumb is to turn off your pet skills, as their relatively high dps combined with the hate produced by skill activation is likely to overwhelm even the most capable of tanks. While the most likely scenario is for the boss to simply stomp your pet, there certainly is always a risk element involved on the tank loosing aggro, and you'll be forcing DDs to somewhat gimp their damage for a bit. It is rude and inconsiderate to risk a wipe (however small the chance) only because you can't handle your pet's threat level.

DD is one of the roles for veno and, just as much as with other classes, this involves more than merely damage output.