Pet owners and pet power focus effects

[zeiksz]

That's not good >< I guess the old focus effect gave a higher dps increase even with it only increasing power by 1?

To help you compare - the original code gave the following (for 10 pet power effect and for 30 too - so there was no scaling, but static increase if ANY scaling effect there):
- HP was 120% of normal (now: 100+power%. yes, can be lower then 20%)
- AC was 120% of normal (now: 100+(power/2)%)
- level increased by 1 (now: +1 level each 10 power - so it is rounded down)
- damage was increased by 10% - so 110% (now: 100+(power/10)%)
- size was set to 115% (now: +(power/10))

[Jameus]

I agree Khal. I know all to well what happens to my poor gonerer. He becomes true to his name and is all too often GONE lol.

It would be amazing if the cleric epic worked to heal pets also.. provided the pet owner has Pet Affinity!

[Zilar]

That's not good >< I guess the old focus effect gave a higher dps increase even with it only increasing power by 1?

To help you compare - the original code gave the following (for 10 pet power effect and for 30 too - so there was no scaling, but static increase if ANY scaling effect there):

- damage was increased by 10% - so 110% (now: 100+(power/10)%)
- size was set to 115% (now: +(power/10))

Right, so now instead of having 110% damage addition to our pets we have between 103% to 104% (haven't seen any focus higher than +40 for pet power, may be wrong though). So pet damage got nerfed, while other stats got nice boosts. Just wanted to make sure that was intended is all..

Edit: There is another focus called True Minion that I did not see, which increases pet power by 50. So that would make 105% pet power the highest possible atm.

[zeiksz]

No nerf was intended, simply did not wanted to have pet owners just sit back and watch while pet does the job - with other words, I did not wanted to overpower the pets.

However this is a discussion: so your suggestions will be used to make final fix/balancing.

So far it seems, I will have to
- lower size instead of making things larger (may be better "reward" peeps using pets) - because of Tiny Companion spell I may ignore this request.
- increase the scale of damage from (power/10) to (power/2) - so power 30 item will give 15% more damage.
- increase the regeneration rate of pets

[khaliss]

I agree with Zeik, it's not a nerf when pets are given so much more HP & AC, a rounded level increase, regen, etc. with a very minor decrease in damage output... it's called balancing & scaling. Can't expect pet classes to just sit there eat popcorn and drinking their favorite soda while the pet pumps out AAs for them lol.

[Jameus]

The Replenish stuff gets in tomorrow. It's already in but we reloaded 1 min too early for this.

I think if this is tuned right our pets will be just fine. Timing the use of AA's during a raid encounter so your pet doesn't die is part of the fun! Perhaps a very small increase in regen might be in order but nothing drastic. As for the dps it was only very slightly reduced. The increase in level helped narrow that gap.

Currently using (100+(power/10)%), I wouldn't go any further than (100+(power/5)%). I feel this would bring the dps to roughly what it was before, MAYBE a small increase but nothing drastic what so ever.

Overall I'm really happy with what's been done here

[fael]

Holy cow it look like my warder want to have me for lunch, I know size matter but common, sometime big is too big.

[Zilar]

Currently, pets make up for a little less than half of a mages total dps. So, if a mage were to just sit back and do nothing, they would do less than half of their potential DPS. My point is, we obviously don't want pets to be like SoA, but at the same time I don't feel that pets before did too much damage.

So while I can see what you're saying Khaliss, at the same time I don't feel that a DPS nerf is/was even needed for pets. It isn't like pets do 2/3 of a mages damage, they do less than half. Having a slight buff over what the pets were at before would not be overpowering.

Making pet foci increase its damage by, say, 5% per 10 pet power, will help the pet keep up with other DPS classes who gain drastic weapon upgrades from 1 tier to the next. Having the focus work as it is right now, you gain 1% more dmg going from a Seb focus to a Kael focus; 1% more damage going from a kael focus to a pofire focus; and finally 1% more damage going from PoFire to PoAir. That's a fairly insignificant number...

Edit: After thinking about my last parse, I realized my pet actually only did 1/3 of my total dps. The only reason that my pet did eventually catch up to me is because I ran oom. During the first 2 minutes of my 3 minutes parse, I was doing 2k DPS myself, pet was doing 1k. After I ran oom and time kept ticking, my dps showed as about 1.2k.

Point is, a mage who only sends his pet will not do well. While it may be possible to kill light blues without nuking, you will not get anywhere fast. A pet on his own does not do nearly enough dmg to make it worthwhile, so arguments which focus on mages "Sitting back and eating popcorn" should not apply.

[khaliss]

My understanding of most pet classes is that when soloing, you use your pet to tank... while you do the real work (ie. DPS). With this much boost to HP/AC and level, you will come out way ahead vs. before this change. Overtime, you will be doing a LOT more damage cuz you won't have to drain your mana by healing your pet as much as before, instead you will be using that mana to do even more damage.

In a raid situation, your pet will be the other half of your dps, now that it just got a huge boost in HP/AC, again, you won't be healing it as much, and you can concentrate your do more nukes & stuff. Those AEs/ramps that ate your pet before won't be much of a problem now, right? That's the reason why dps classes should also put much emphasis on hp/ac, not just upgrading their weapons. The longer you live (or the pet in this case), the more damage you dish out over time.

It doesn't make sense to me to compare your own dps to your pet... cuz however you wanna look at it, the recent changes gave your class a considerable buff.

[Zilar]

My understanding of most pet classes is that when soloing, you use your pet to tank... while you do the real work (ie. DPS). With this much boost to HP/AC and level, you will come out way ahead vs. before this change. Overtime, you will be doing a LOT more damage cuz you won't have to drain your mana by healing your pet as much as before, instead you will be using that mana to do even more damage.

In a raid situation, your pet will be the other half of your dps, now that it just got a huge boost in HP/AC, again, you won't be healing it as much, and you can concentrate your do more nukes & stuff.

It doesn't make sense to me to compare your own dps to your pet... cuz however you wanna look at it, the recent changes gave your class a considerable buff.

On the contrary, I have to heal the same amount. The only difference is he will have a slight HP boost so I will have to heal him more than I did before to get him back up to full. This is part of my reasoning for asking for a regen boost.

As for raids, my pet doesn't get hit by AE spells as he is immune to spell damage. Even still, he receives group heals with pet affinity. In a raid situation a mage shouldn't have to heal his pet, because there will be a cleric (or paladin) casting group heals.