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Is it because they die too quickly? Does their AI suck?
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Bit of both, probably more the former though. Often times they die early on, or survive but their contribution kinda gets lost in all the stuff you and your team are doing.
These aspects are all amplified by the long recharge though - they'd probably not be skipped so often if, when they do die early on in their life, you didn't have such a long wait before they were available again.
They're ok for a boost against hard targets (well, if the hard target doesn't aoe a lot), but for general use they're just not up often enough to compensate for their fragile and generally mediocre nature.
I really think it depends on play style.
Large groups...I can get the feeling that they wouldn't be useful.
Solo or duo- I love my pet on my Bane, and know my wife feels the same about her Brute. Often we are surprised by what the pets survive.
Hm, well I'm playing a Night Widow which can provide a good 23% defense on top of the Blood Widow's inherent 5%, for a not great, but still pretty decent 28% defense total. On top of that I'll have Aid Other. That's probably good enough support to keep it alive without too much worry, isn't it? And maybe it wouldn't be too useful in large teams, but when I'm in a big group that usually means I'm on a TF with people I know and we're steamrolling anyway. I just really like the flavor of being an Arachnos grunt who has the ability to call for other Arachnos grunts to come help.
The thing that really worries me though is its travel abilities, really. By the time I get patron powers I'll probably be spending only a few seconds on each spawn, and if the pet is still chasing after me by the time I'm finishing off that last lieutenant, I can see how it might be limited in use.
with my crab i plan on cycling thru the pets no need to have all out at once all pets ive used so far have been worth it from fluffy to sparky thier all helpfull when slotted
I keep hearing about how much they suck, and that they're only good as set mules, but I looked up the Blood Widow's powers on City of Data and it looks like she does a solid 40 DPS, unenhanced. And with set bonuses and recharge enhancements, she's up at least half of the time. That is a considerable boost to anyone's total damage. Is it because they die too quickly? Does their AI suck? The numbers look really good to me but I've had no experience, so could somebody tell me if I'm overlooking something?