Herc vs Harpy Pet

Benefits of the Harpy:
- AOE stun/attack (monsters only).
- AOE skill (if you have a target you can have the Harpy have a "permanent AOE" like Wizard's DB etc.).
- Generally great DPS and DD, in my opinion the best.
- Doesn't need to auto-attack (spam-able skills), can take full advantage of mood skills like Wraithslayer that increases skill damage.
- Range (27m), in certain situations she can reach places no other pets can because of it.
- Can replace your pulling pet to free a pet bag slot (although we'll get a pet bag expansion fix eventually).
- Ranged-tanking.
- Great for grinding due to its DD abilities (most notice-able after evolution).

Drawbacks:
- PvE only.
- Can't tank melee bosses, generally physical damage (unless she out-levels them, eg. lvl100 Harpy tanking FB89 boss).
- If not careful, can steal aggro easily and die.

Note: You can remove Claw and teach her something like Strong to increase her physical defence, but I wouldn't recommend it. You might as well use her for her DD power than try to use her for things she doesn't excel at.



Benefits of the Hercules:
- Best tank pet in game.
- Upon evolution it can get good aggro skills.
- Can be built defensively (high defensive inherit, bless) or offensively (high attack inherit, claw) to be the ultimate tank or a tanky pet with decent DD.
- Allows you to tank and solo many bosses.
- Good for farming things like TT.
- Can save squad in certain situations by being able to tank things.

Drawbacks:
- A little slow (running speed).
- Not particularly useful in PvP.
- DD pets will out-perform it in the DD department.

Note: Even with its status as the best tank pet, it still can't tank a number of endgame bosses, keep that in mind.


Well, since you have a Monkey King, the PvP drawbacks don't matter in your case. Argue-ably, the DD performance of these pets isn't a huge deal as the Monkey King is a pretty decent DD pet itself.

So, what do you want to do with your Venomancer? What are you planning to do with her? What kind of PvE activities do you mostly do with her?

It really does depend on what you want to do. If you have a monkey i will assume you are somewhat into pvp (at least nation wars) and have decentish gear. In that case i kind of feel that the herc is somewhat outdated. PVE is already so nerfed because of how OP our toons can get that its not really always necessary to have a tank so I feel that is a point against the herc. Added to that that even when players get very OP there are still some bosses the herc cannot tank (if you have good gear thats going to be the same ones you cant tank) so i find it limiting for the cost.
If you have access to base buffs, farming them is a great option to have a really great tank pet without the cash shop cost. I have a walker with all base buffs and he can out tank my husbands herc on a lot of bosses.
If for example youre not tanking level 100 instance bosses every day i would go for the harpy just because the aoe mob control is so handy and the attack is so great, and having a ranged magic tank really rounds out a pet bag with a decent farmed tank like the walker. If base buffs are not an option though and you couldnt get a decent physical tank pet otherwise i personally would go herc just because that will open up a lot of options for you as you will be able to take a lot of the magic bosses if you have decent gear but perhaps not a physical dd boss. b:cute

Desdi, as always provides excellent technical data. Here's my anecdotal experience.

Harpy is the best utility pet in the game, bar none. I use her for all my level-100+ dailies and never have to use mana to kill mobs - I just let her do the attacking. For Primal quests, l often park her in the air, with her set to Defend mode, then I fall to the ground in foxform, aggro the mobs and let her dispatch them. I'm also a big-time herb gatherer, and there's nothing like having Rebeaka (my Harpy) on standby overhead to keep mobs off me. Just a great companion. Harpies are also great in the Bridge Battles in NW because they're unaffected by tower stuns and seals.

That said, it's great parking my beefed up HP Herc on a head in a Warsong pavilion and one- or two-shotting mobs as they come within range. This particular Herc has 12.5K HP and he's easy to keep healed in a FWS pavilion.

I've played venos since 2009 and have put my three Hercs on my current account (robbed from my other venos). One is a vanilla herc, with fleshream; another has the Claw skill and no instant aggro skill--setup for DD in places like FSP; my super HP herc has Nubian Bless (from fac base) and was built for tougher challenges. He tanks all the bosses in WS. I should also mention that I have a Glacial Walker, with fleshream and the three Herc skills on him--he's a fun toy to get out when I'm doing neuma runs in FB-79. This particular GW also punishes many Hercs because of his superior DD and inherited HP.

My least-used pet is the Avatar of War (evolved Monkey King). He's been useful in NW, but dies quickly in TW. I rarely use him in PvE unless I'm experimenting or just horsing around. In 1v1 PvP he's sometimes an okay meat shield at range and does have some handy stuns. As with any pet in these situations, he's a one-shot kill for most opponents.

Love my Harpy and Hercs, but the Harpy is definitely my all-round favorite for 90% of my adventuring.

Do enjoy whatever you decide upon.

Adding to what I wrote above -- and I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere -- a HUGE advantage of having a Harpy is not needing to go into PK mode to benefit from the Lycaeum quest.

Harpy has a marvelous AOE skill, which I activate upon entering Lycaeum, along with setting her to Defend mode. Move just in front of the black horsemen, which will then attack, Harpy activates AOE and the mobs begin arriving.

I think most of us AFK during Lycaeum anyway, and I've been completely happy with this little trick, as I hate doing my Morai and Primal dailies in PK mode.

jyzero1 wrote: »

Kind of a newbie question here, but does anyone know the highest level Herc-soloable TT is (unevolved, for simplicity sakes)?

With unevolved TT3-2 might be fully doable, even TT3-3 if rumours about pro venos of the past are true.b:shocked

Kitty hasn't used her sage AA-veno's Herc too much yet(2 days from evolving it atm), but Kitty was able to tank easier TT3-1 bosses on it with DD/Pet-heal macro if that tells anything.b:sad

Kitty had to specify which veno-build for Kitty has 4 venos.b:surrender