Best cat/wolf pet

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Hello, I a newcomer on this forum and in the game too. I have read many threads on the forum, but still didn't get really accurate reply for my question about the pets.
First, I am on level 17.
Second, I am searching a nice pet for this level and this moment of the game.
Third, I have understood the advantages of Glacial Walker and of Crystalline Walker, but.. it is of course a question of taste, but they're rather.. big and ugly

As I am not intending to get to the level 100 and want only play for fun, I want a more nice-looking pet. This is the luxe I am according to myself

So the question is : what good pets can you recommand me from the family of Minkii, Wolfkin, Kitten, Lynxus, Sable, Wolfling, Wolf (all "kitten" and "wolf" likes) ? Is there any which really is worth playing and which can accompany me in my PW adventures?
Thank you for your advices!!

Desdi - Sanctuary · November 2010

Hello and welcome! ^^
Most of the great pets come after ~lvl20 so you'll have to be patient. I will provide you with links from the PWdatabase where you can see their stats as well as their location. Remember that lower pets will have better stats than higher level ones if you train them. It's a common saying in the Venomancer forum that "You can buy skills but you can't buy stats".

Wolf family
Darkbreed Wolfkin
This used to be a very popular pet choice and is still popular among the Venomancers who decide to stick with a wolf pet. It has decent stats and it can be used as the all-situation pet (debuff, DPS, luring).

Heartless Wolf
This is not so popular but it was one pet I had tamed and used for several levels. I really liked the appearance and the size.

Treeline Wolfkin
This was also a pet I saw being used quite often during my early levels.

Grottoden Wolfmaster
I've never used it but it looks quite pretty.

Lynxus Family
Most lynxus are low levels and you've probably seen them so I won't recommend anything in particular. I only used one for a couple of levels. I don't have any real experience with them.

Kitten Family
Tabby Plumdrop
This is a rare pet that spawns every 12 hours. If you don't have the patience to tame it you can buy it from the Auction House. I'm not aware of the current prices but it should be around 300,000-500,000 coins. The kitty is not very popular anymore but it's still a decent pet. It's good for luring because it has a good speed and its small size will be very convenient in many situations.

Minkii Family
Same as the lynxus family. You've most likely seen most of them. I never tamed any of them so I have no expenrience.

Other pets
Shaodu Cub
Another rare pet that spawns every 12 hours. This one sells for ~800,000 - 1,000,000 in the Auction House but it's worth it if you're going to keep it until the end. It's a very popular choice for a Tank pet if the Glacial Walker and the Crystalline Magmite doesn't attract you. It also comes with Pounce, a rare pet skill that stuns the target. This was my pet of choice for the tanking job until I bought the Legendary Pet Hercules. If you're not interested in investing into legendary pets, I highly recommend it as an alternative of the Glacial Walker/Crystalline Magmite.

Varicose Scorpion
One of the best DPS that currently exists. Equipping it with several attack skills and/or debuffs will result in a very useful pet for the squad and yourself.

Shadow Ranger
One of the best DPS pets as well. This pet has become a very popular choice because it also has decent defences (unlike the scoprion).

Frogling
Another rare pet that spawns every 12 hours. This one is quite cheap and usually people don't camp for it. You should be able to tame it yourself with no competition. The froggy was once a very popular pet and I still find it decent. It has nice defences and good attack.

I tried to find pets of the lvl9-25 range and these are pretty much the most popular/used pets. As you level up you'll come across many, many tameable pets. Don't hesitate to experiment with them!

Here are a few useful links:
http://www.pwdatabase.com/pwi/
For any item, monster, weapon, pet etc. you need, their statistics, their location and so on.
http://pwi-wiki.perfectworld.com/index.php/Main_Page
Great guides and great information about almost anything. Do take time to read the Venomancer guides. You'll find some very useful tricks and will make you enjoy the class even more

http://www.ecatomb.net/
For skills, pet statistics/pictures, fashion pictures and many other things.

MANray_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

They're all worth it if you're comitted to keeping such a pet and well aware of the downsides. I would ask you exactly what characteristics are important for you in a pet. Do you want a solid tanker or better dps? Are size or speed important to you? Are you willing to invest much on skilling? Which of the pets you've mentioned are you more interested in?

Finding the pet that's the better match for you may take some time, we really need to know a bit more about you and what you like in order to suggest a couple of good choices.

Edit; Ninja'd by Desdi... Now, that's a very good starting point, great post.

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Desdi, MANray - thank you very much for your replies and for all the work put in the replies (Desdi!!). b:thanks I am feeling less strange now with my weakness towards big cats and wolves family b:pleased
Now, the choices seem very waste thanks to this fantastic list!
Personally, I had started with Sharptooth Wolfling which was quite a good companion, but then my curiosity pushed me to experiment with the Superior Minkii which I changed then very stupidly for the Lynxus.. the beginning was very bad, but I gave him some more levels and well.. I learned to run fast if you know what I mean

Generally, I was trying to make more an Arcane Venomancer, but then I get stuck at level 16-17 - then decided to allocate more points on vitality to avoid deaths.
My great problem would be then lack of HP than of MP and so the great need will be to alleviate this problem.
The size doesn't matter as much, but it's true that oversized companions can be really painful when they cover all the horizon

) Maybe it's really because I'm a newcomer in this type of games, but sometimes I need some moments to find finally this awful beast which attacks me, so big friend will only increase the problem

)
Thank you for your patience and fantastic help!!

Desdi - Sanctuary · November 2010

Bluelita - Archosaur wrote: »

Desdi, MANray - thank you very much for your replies and for all the work put in the replies (Desdi!!). b:thanks

I'm glad I could be helpful b:victory
I do recommend for you to add some Vit points. At early levels you cannot put good shards on your equipment and refining it is totally silly. Ornaments doesn't provide you with incredible bonuses so you end up with a small pool of HP. Since you have the pet, this won't really matter but once you hit lvl40 and get introduced to the BH system you'll realise that having HP is essential for your survival. The 'BH' system is short of 'Bounty Hunter' where you'll have to team up with others and kill bosses in instances so as you can see, you will need survivability, especially at bosses with AoE skills (Area of Effect, can hit multiple players at long distances). You can reset your points later and add more to mag as you level up.

For example at level 70 I had 70 Vit points. At level 80 I had 50 Vit points and right now I have 30 vit points ( +55 from the equipment). I may as well restat and go for a pure mag build (only 5 Vit) in the future if the next equipment provides me with the HP I want.

As for the Sharptooth Wolfing, some Venomancers do stick with it for most of the game. I didn't keep mine long enough however so I don't know the stat difference between Sharptooth and Darkbreed. The first probably has better stats but the growth chart might get better over time. Either way, if you like it keep it.

Segreta - Sanctuary · November 2010

Yeah I wonder where's the sharptooth wolfling?(The one which starts at lv.3 not the other one,don't remember the name).

Long long time ago I compared the Darkbreed and the Wolfling and the Wolfling had better stats,don't known about the grow chart.

And yes an high level version of these for comparison would be cool.

MANray_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

I would recommend the Darkbreed for you. It's a level 17 if i remember correctly, and will already be skilled with lvl 2 Ream and Howl, meaning you won't need to worry about leveling your main aggro skill until lvl 40 and you'll be getting the best pet debuff. It's high phys res will almost make it seem like a tank compared to your previous pets and the damage is pretty decent. The downside is this a very difficult tame at your range so you'll likely have to buy one at archo (they probably go for around 10-15k) or ask a higher level veno to help you out... If you can't find any just make sure there's a veno on your fb19 squad and ask politely.

The Sharptooth isn't quite as ressilient but it should hold out fine, and eventually should get the best dps out of all wolf types. Bringing it up to your level is certainly worth it if you're interested in it. As Desdi pointed out, and you seem to have discovered on your own, Vit is likely your best choice when it comes to endurance, although you should try to work on aggro management. An easy way to work around this is to send your pet in first and allow it to build some aggro before you start casting. Another good idea is to skill your pet with a second aggro skill such as Bash (you can do this at the Mrs. Zoologist npc in Archosaur) although this might be an expensive choice at your level.

Lenley - Dreamweaver · November 2010

Bluelita - Archosaur wrote: »

The size doesn't matter as much, but it's true that oversized companions can be really painful when they cover all the horizon ) Maybe it's really because I'm a newcomer in this type of games, but sometimes I need some moments to find finally this awful beast which attacks me, so big friend will only increase the problem )

I'd like to comment on this, as I see it being stated commonly as a reason for not using the Glacial Walker or the golems. I never have a problem seeing the monsters behind my GW, and you can press shift and click to go right through and target something behind him, or you can press tab to target the closest mob to you (which if you're panicking probably means it's the one you want).

Your choice to not use him on looks, while not something I care about, is yours to make, however. Just note that there are a couple of ways to get around the size issue, pun unintended.

MANray_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

Lenley - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Just note that there are a couple of ways to get around the size issue, pun unintended.

I lol'd. b:chuckle

On the serious side, yes there's shift clicking and tab targeting, you're right, size can be worked around. However this does depend a lot on a veno's style and there are some inconveniences. Shift clicking can land you running towards a group of mobs, which can in turn lead to trouble if you don't catch it fast enough. Tabbing does sometimes fail, you may have to go through many other mobs in the dungeon before you can deal with the one you're after. Do keep in mind that is not just that venos need to change targets often (when sparking through a boss fight for instance) but that this handicap does aply to every single member in the squad.

Situational awareness is not the sole advantage a small pet brings, there's also aggro footprint. This is easy to notice while sneaking in 51, while you would have to stow a Walker to get through certain groups of mobs, a small pet can be ready by your side at all times. Overall it may be a very small advantage, i'll admit, but it does decrease the chances your pet will accidentally aggro a mob you didn't mean to fight.

Overall size is difficult to quantify but it certainly provides an advantage. Whether enough to factor in as a consideration when choosing a pet is your call to make.

Lenley - Dreamweaver · November 2010

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Shift clicking can land you running towards a group of mobs, which can in turn lead to trouble if you don't catch it fast enough.

Regular clicking can too, so that's kind of a moot point.

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Situational awareness is not the sole advantage a small pet brings, there's also aggro footprint. This is easy to notice while sneaking in 51, while you would have to stow a Walker to get through certain groups of mobs, a small pet can be ready by your side at all times. Overall it may be a very small advantage, i'll admit, but it does decrease the chances your pet will accidentally aggro a mob you didn't mean to fight.

Is there any evidence that a smaller pet has a smaller aggro bubble, or can fit in places a larger pet can't? From a technical viewpoint, I can easily see the dev team using the same aggro radius and pathing AI for all pets, as minor variations in these things aren't very noticeable as you said, and requires a bit of extra work to implement. I'd like to think that they went through the trouble of adding these nice little extras, but I'm not sure.

I don't use any small pets, so I don't have any experience in this regard, but I can think of a few times I barely snuck past a group of mobs without stowing my GW and he followed behind without grabbing any. The only time it was an issue was because of his slow speed, not his size, and that is where a small pet could seem better with the size being unrelated; it's just that most small pets are rather quick. Again, no experience or technical insight here though.

MANray_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

Lenley - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Regular clicking can too, so that's kind of a moot point.

Unlike regular clicking you can't really look what you're selecting shift clicking however...

Is there any evidence that a smaller pet has a smaller aggro bubble, or can fit in places a larger pet can't? From a technical viewpoint, I can easily see the dev team using the same aggro radius and pathing AI for all pets, as minor variations in these things aren't very noticeable as you said, and requires a bit of extra work to implement. I'd like to think that they went through the trouble of adding these nice little extras, but I'm not sure.

I don't use any small pets, so I don't have any experience in this regard, but I can think of a few times I barely snuck past a group of mobs without stowing my GW and he followed behind without grabbing any. The only time it was an issue was because of his slow speed, not his size, and that is where a small pet could seem better with the size being unrelated; it's just that most small pets are rather quick. Again, no experience or technical insight here though.

I very much agree is not likely a smaller aggro "bubble" in itself, but i think that a small pet's radius overlaps more with a veno's since graphical considerations allow for it to stand much closer. As for evidence i can only speak from experience. The next to last group of mobs before Wyvern on 51 will attack a herc, mag or walker like clockwork if they're not stowed before sneaking past them. I have done that run countless time and my tabby was never attacked.

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

I actually haven't noticed any difference in the aggro bubble between large and small pets. My herc will aggro the last 6 mobs in 51 at roughly the same percentage as will my small pets.

I don't have hard numbers on this, but there hasn't been enough of a difference to be noticable to merit checking.

Lenley - Dreamweaver · November 2010

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Unlike regular clicking you can't really look what you're selecting shift clicking however...

Again, I've never been in a situation where a slight camera angle change wasn't enough to see a mob behind my GW, when taking into account that monsters become highlighted and their name appears above them when you've got your mouse hovering over them - whether trying to shift click through a pet or not. As for the aggro-drawing issue, it seems the size of the pet creates either a negligible difference or no difference at all, so I'll stay by what I said: having a large pet is not a handicap to your gameplay.

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

Lenley - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Again, I've never been in a situation where a slight camera angle change wasn't enough to see a mob behind my GW, when taking into account that monsters become highlighted and their name appears above them when you've got your mouse hovering over them - whether trying to shift click through a pet or not. As for the aggro-drawing issue, it seems the size of the pet creates either a negligible difference or no difference at all, so I'll stay by what I said: having a large pet is not a handicap to your gameplay.

Not for all, but it can be for some. For one, hardware can become an issue here, particularly your monitor size. I was limited to playing on a netbook for awhile and during that time, seeing past walkers/hercs and even my eldergoth was a challenge.

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

Mauntille - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I don't have hard numbers on this, but there hasn't been enough of a difference to be noticable to merit checking.

Curiosity and boredom got the better of me. I just snuck past the last 6 mobs in 51 with different sized pets to test this. For consistency, I hugged the walls, paused at corners to let pets catch up, and ran at 7.3 m/s each pass. I used the Frogling, Snow Hare, Cuddly Pup, Tabby Plumdrop, Shadou Cub as "small pets" and the Baby Hercules, Glacial Walker, Eldergoth Marksman, and Nivastok Shieldbearer as "large pets". The mobs didn't aggro on any of the test passes that I made.

Just for the hell of it, I ran a bonus pass with the shadou running at a constant 11.3 m/s and not pausing at the corners. As expected, the cub aggro'd all 6 of the mobs. However, this is due to the fact that he couldn't keep up with me and ended up running through the mobs and not along the path that I took.

It's safe to take any pet as long as you watch your route and don't let your critter fall too far behind.

This holds for 51. There are other places where you will want to stow your pet for sure when sneaking because the terrain will force them to follow an unsafe route. (For example, sneaking across brindges in SoT where you have to jump over the railing to avoid mobs.

Desdi - Sanctuary · November 2010

Concerning the "clicking through the pets" issue, smaller pets do have an advantage. Take into consideration that not everybody is playing on big screens, though I don't have this problem. I play on my laptop which has 17 inches screen and I play the game in Window Mode.

Big pets do make your life harder in selecting mobs, really. I saw the difference when I acquired a Hercules. Until that point I had a Shaodu Cub as my tank pet. I never never had any problems selecting mobs or bosses (unless the mobs were small and running). However, while having the Hercules around I've clicked the pet instead of the mob many times and that caused me to lose some precious seconds. And no, tab cannot be trusted anytime and certainly not when you Solo/Duo a TT with no Cleric around or when you are in a FCC. I've seen people attack wrong group of mobs or even the boss because tab gave them the wrong mob. This has made me lose my trust for tab so I use it with care, sometimes selecting the mob yourself will be much faster than waiting for tab to "find" it.

On a side note, the big size of the tank pet may help another Venomancer to select it faster and spam heal it if, let's say, your Barbarian just died at a TT boss. That could be considered an advantage for the big size. For this thing I've just mentioned I usually click the Venomancer >> pet icon >> spam heal, however, because there have been times at which I was unable to select the pet even though it was big.

In other words, pretty much, both problems can be solved in various ways but those ways may not work for everyone so we should all take the the pet we're most convenient with so that we can do our best in squads.

Concerning the aggro issue, I don't have any knowledge on this. Perhaps, having a small sized pet makes you feel safer than having a big buddha or rock following you around. Personally my Hercules has never aggro'd those mobs in FB51 (I usually have it out because other players tend to aggro them accidentally....). We would need some extensive research, trying out things in different places with different pets to find whether the aggro radius is the same for every pet but I kinda assume it is...

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Thank you very much for all your replies. I admit I have learned a lot - much more than I expected, in fact - and certainly this thread has been useful to many anonymous readers.
In my next etapes of PWI adventure I will surely try the shift and tab thing too!!
Concerning big pets : my ecran is a big-sized one (1440X900) and it really sometimes doesn't permit me to see better (this in general b:chuckle); sometimesa little bit as Desdi mentioned, I need more time to find my attacker than I would like.. especially when I see my HP running low. Therefore I try to limit this handicap..
BTW. is there any method to distance the general view? In some cases the scroll on my mouse is not working until I move what really doesn't help...
Thanks to your advices I have visited the Island of Broken Dreams and got a nice Nazgul.. ups sorry, a nice Dark Wanderer b:laugh Visiting a country permitted me to finally convince me that maybe the GW is not so so bad.. but soon I will go to the research of the Darkbreed.
En passant one question araised in my mind. Generally, at my level we receive quests always in the same regions, which results in figting against many monsters which are nearly the same (graphically) or come from the same families. But travelling through Raging Tides one can see many monsters on his level, which never appear in his quests. Is there any hint to receive quests from another parts of the world on the correct level? It may sound stupid, but at least I tried

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

Bluelita - Archosaur wrote: »

En passant one question araised in my mind. Generally, at my level we receive quests always in the same regions, which results in figting against many monsters which are nearly the same (graphically) or come from the same families. But travelling through Raging Tides one can see many monsters on his level, which never appear in his quests. Is there any hint to receive quests from another parts of the world on the correct level? It may sound stupid, but at least I tried

Each race has quests in their own starter lands, so you won't receive quests for low leveled mobs unless you are of that race.

If you ever want to see what quests you have available, hit q to open your quest log and click the find quest button. This will show a majority of the quests you are elligable for.

MANray_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

Mauntille - Heavens Tear wrote: »

It's safe to take any pet as long as you watch your route and don't let your critter fall too far behind.

I won't say i'm not surprised by the results, but thank you for going out of your way to test this. I could have sworn my own experience contradicted this, but perhaps this was only a result of most unexperienced venos i made the run with using the larger sized cookie cutters.

For argument's sake, if a pet's aggro radius is centered on the model there should be some discrepancy as thinking back on pets i used they did not always seem to stand at the same distance from the venomancer. Even Shaodu seems to stand a small bit further away than the tabby, although perhaps this doesn't affect the actual aggro radius... I'll admit size may not be the factor here, wolves always seem to stand between a venomancer's legs...

Although i'll be conducting my own tests later on i'll whitdraw my claim for the time being and offer my apologies to any posters i may have misled with this assumption, it was an honest mistake as this theory did conform to my observations.

This will have to wait until after the weekend however, there are still a couple of costume parties i've been invited to, and it is my experience that the sexier women dress the more confident they act. b:sin

I hope no one proves me wrong on this. b:sweat

Thanks again for going through the trouble Mauntille. b:thanks

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

I won't say i'm not surprised by the results, but thank you for going out of your way to test this. I could have sworn my own experience contradicted this, but perhaps this was only a result of most unexperienced venos i made the run with using the larger sized cookie cutters.

For argument's sake, if a pet's aggro radius is centered on the model there should be some discrepancy as thinking back on pets i used they did not always seem to stand at the same distance from the venomancer. Even Shaodu seems to stand a small bit further away than the tabby, although perhaps this doesn't affect the actual aggro radius... I'll admit size may not be the factor here, wolves always seem to stand between a venomancer's legs...

I've been wondering about this as well, but I haven't come up with a good way to test it. Being able to defy physics and occupy the same physical location as your pet makes it a little tougher. Some pets do seem to stay closer to you, but I don't know of a good metric to measure this with.

Thanks again for going through the trouble Mauntille. b:thanks

Lol, np. My plans got cancelled due to a sick boyfriend and my alt had unfinished business with wyvern anyway, so it wasn't too far out of my way.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver · November 2010

Mauntille - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Each race has quests in their own starter lands, so you won't receive quests for low leveled mobs unless you are of that race.

One exception to this: one man armies for levels 6-20 are available to any race that travels to the appropriate human/untamed/elf NPCs to pick them up (there are no tideborn region one man army quests.) Of course, one man armies never show up in the quest finder, so many may not be aware of this.

Segreta - Sanctuary · November 2010

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

I'll admit size may not be the factor here, wolves always seem to stand between a venomancer's legs...

b:shy b:embarrass b:chuckle

Melindasa - Raging Tide · November 2010

Bluelita - Archosaur wrote: »

Hello, I a newcomer on this forum and in the game too. I have read many threads on the forum, but still didn't get really accurate reply for my question about the pets.
First, I am on level 17.
Second, I am searching a nice pet for this level and this moment of the game.
Third, I have understood the advantages of Glacial Walker and of Crystalline Walker, but.. it is of course a question of taste, but they're rather.. big and ugly
As I am not intending to get to the level 100 and want only play for fun, I want a more nice-looking pet. This is the luxe I am according to myself
So the question is : what good pets can you recommand me from the family of Minkii, Wolfkin, Kitten, Lynxus, Sable, Wolfling, Wolf (all "kitten" and "wolf" likes) ? Is there any which really is worth playing and which can accompany me in my PW adventures?
Thank you for your advices!!

why don't u keep a darkbreed wolf till lvl 40 and then u can get a tabby plumbdrop or till 60 if u want a kowlin http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v22/LunaMoon/cristo98qx.jpg

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Mayfly - Dreamweaver wrote: »

One exception to this: one man armies for levels 6-20 are available to any race that travels to the appropriate human/untamed/elf NPCs to pick them up (there are no tideborn region one man army quests.) Of course, one man armies never show up in the quest finder, so many may not be aware of this.

Fantastic, thank you a very good hint b:pleased ; it also confirms my strange impression that some quests were not findeable via the search quest interface..
It can be also a good idea for the players of lower levels (just like me) to make the one-man-army in another localization if they get stuck on some level and need to improve their exp points..

Zahlee - Lost City · November 2010

Originally Posted by MANray_ - Sanctuary
I'll admit size may not be the factor here, wolves always seem to stand between a venomancer's legs...

Segreta - Sanctuary wrote: »

b:shy b:embarrass b:chuckle

Hmmm yes, those wolves do tend to get rather "friendly"....Especially when your in foxform

I think i'm going to have to get mine neutered b:quiet

Edit* I thought i better contribute something kind-of useful lol.

Obviously as you can see, I chose a darkbreed and i have found him to be a really good all-rounder pet. He has only now (in the level 70's) just outlived his tanking capabilities, but i still find that he is quite good for general questing etc. With a fully leveled howl and flesh ream, he goes through mobs pretty quickly, and besides i also just like the look of us running around as a pack while i'm in foxform....when he's not trying to get kinky anyway :P

Just have fun experimenting and good luck in finding the pet that is right for you

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Well I was reading a little bit the PWpedia and I found there reference to a certain "greymalkin" (http://pwi-wiki.perfectworld.com/index.php/Venomancer_Luring, last part of the text). It araised my curiosity because I cannot find it on any available ressource.
What animal can it be, as I suppose the name has changed?

Mauntille - Heavens Tear · November 2010

You're probably looking for one of the gimalkins. These are generally considered the common version of the kowlin.

Bluelita - Archosaur · November 2010

Oh thank you very much for this reply. It is true that the prononciation of the version I found was identical to the original, but impossible to find so the pet.
Many thanks!!

Best cat/wolf pet

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