I love my pet

This post is about pets!

First, a bit of background. My first character, sole 50 and true joy in City of X is a Gravity/Ice dominator, created before the dominator damage buff went through. I joined along with a few friends, and they began to swiftly outpace me around level 12, becoming more and more 'super' while I struggled with anything above the difficulty floor. Elite bosses below my level proved impossible to face alone, and a group of four minions would drive me to hit-and-run tactics. My friends were not sympathetic, convinced that I simply did not understand the concept of active defenses. How I envied their toggles and AoE knockup.

As level 30 approached, I thought very seriously about simply quitting. I am naturally disinclined toward repeating content in games (I absolutely hate re-plays until about a year has passed), so it wasn't until Going Rogue that I considered making a villian alt. People told me that Singularity was a good power, though, so I figured I'd hang on for two more levels.

"I doubt it'll really make a difference", I thought, "But I like black holes, so I'd like to see it. I'll quit after that."

Then I got Singularity, and it made absolutely everything better.

It held, it drew aggro, it immunized me from the melee attacks of charging beasties. It tanked bosses and elite bosses, and summoning it was like dropping a hilarious physics bomb in the middle of spawns, sending ragdolls flying. Although Dominators cannot name their pets in-game, I called it Slurpy (get it? Black holes suck things in!), and it became my favorite thing in the game.

I love my Singularity. I love the way debris orbit it in dynamic fashions, distorting as I run through it. I love the way huge mobs will run towards it, then bounce away again and again. I love how it can hold entire spawns, doing my job for me, and stack holds with me until hold-resistant Elite Bosses are floating helplessly in midair. I love how it flies across maps after me, undaunted by heights, and I love how it knocks unwary Arachnos off The Web in Grandville as it passes, aggroing huge mobs and sending them flying to the ground below.

Singularity is always there to help me. It's never held, it's never knocked away, it's never stunned. If I Power Boost a Wormhole and plop a group next to it, my Singularity will mez all of them before they recover from the disorient. Singularity blocks doors and tanks psychic Heroes, blissfully ignorant of the massive damage it isn't taking. Even if it is eventually overwhelmed, it reappears at my call, completely refreshed. It never grabs unwanted aggro, and never has trouble with doors (except portals, which it doesn't seem to understand- well, it is a gravitational phenominon, after all). Without Singularity, I could never have fought Lord Recluse (the Elite Boss, not the AV). He did not complain as he distracted Recluse's endless army of Bane Spider Executioners, allowing me to land the deathblow.

I love you, Singularity. Without you, I could never, never play this character.

Does anyone else have a pet they adore?

I love my invincible Phantom Army, but your post motivates me to make a Gravity something.

Seriously great post. Thanks for the inspiration!

I'm rolling Gravity when I get home now. Thanks for posting

Singy is one of the pets that you cast and just forget about it because it is extremely durable and it doesn't really "chase" (yes, I am looking at you Imps and Gremlins). I wonder how sturdy Singy is with four pet uniques. lol Just two +resistance will push Singy to 70% resistance to all or pet's resistance is capped at 65%?

I like Singy a lot but I don't like Gravity much. I hate Dimension Shift and mostly for its position in the set. Wormhole is a neat power but some really hate it on a team and it comes a bit too "late".


As for the pet I love the most... I have to say Fly Trap. It just looks so freaking cool. It's like a Plant/Spider looking thing. I love it when it bites.

My grav/kin was my first lvl 50. I love sings and especially when I could have 3 at one time, and before their resistance was nerfed!

Singy is awesome. Laura, the name I arbitrarily gave to my Grav/TA's Singy, allows me to perma-hold upwards to four bosses or more with just single target holds. Part of it is Overpower, hold procs, and Ice Arrow, but it's still nice being able to mez that many hard targets without much effort.

Jack Frost is the only control pet I've had the bittersweet opportunity of summoning personally, but he's definitely begun to grow on me.

First time I summoned him, I saw that he had more hit points than I (Dominator), and the damage he was capable of dealing with his attacks were on par with my own, as I essentially had the same attacks. To me, that spelled out a sweet source of secondary aggro. In practice, it's a sweet source of secondary aggro.

And then I noticed you could slot him for Hold. Sweet, sweet hold.

Jack has a habit of blasting anything within targeting range, but since Ice/Icy is so control-heavy to begin with, it's not usually a problem. It's just from time to time I say to myself, "Well, Jack says it's time to go, so it's time to go!"

Jack's Chilling Embrace, plus my Chilling Embrace... and Arctic Air... and Shiver... and my ten -Recharge procs strewn throughout various powers in the build... Fights against large spawns eventually boil down to them standing there staring at me while I hit them; unable to fight back and unable to run away.

And his damage, it's better than I expected. It's not uncommon for me to cast Ice Slick and Shiver and Sleet and Frost Breath and whatever else before moving in for the kill against big groups, only to find that many of the enemies are nearly dead to begin with thanks to Jack running around poking them.

There's also the whole matter of Domination + Power Boost + Glacier + Sleet combo, but this is a thread about the pets, so I won't get into that.

*Raises glass* Here's to you, Jack Frost, you crazy aggressive starved-for-attention animated ice cube, you!

Oh yeah, the good old Jack. He is good too. I have to say the new Stone pet is decent too.


Has any of you fell in love with patron pets?

My Dual Blade Stalker took Mace Three Spiderlings pet. Do you know each of them has more health than my Stalker's base health?!!!! That's kinda sad. Anyway, I used them quite a bit when I tried to lvl my db stalker to 50. They actually deal pretty impressive damage.

One thing I've noticed that you can slot -Defense Set in Patron Spiderlings but not in Crab's Spiderlings, which makes sense because the patron spiderlings are a lot more stronger. They are just a bit too aggressive!



PS: For concept reasons, some of the patron pets are quite good but why do they have put duration on it. The recharge is already long enough. I mean there are way more powerful powers than patron pets.

I must admit to having a lot more luck with my Dominators when it comes to locking down foes and surviving them, but Singy on my Gravity/Electric Dom is so useful I've gotten pretty attached to him. In fact, I'm seriously considering whether or not I will like remaking him as a Elec/Elec Dom better. The ability to fling things with Propel and Singy's tossing people about fits a Magnetic theme, to me, a lot better than the way Electric Control turned out.

The other thing I like is that he isn't a damage dealer. He's a tank, pure and simple, and it's my job to deal the damage. Plus, a little customized color alteration, and he makes a cool looking duo with my Voltaic Sentinel.

I've taken on EBs prior to getting him, but it's a lot easier with him. In fact, one in particular (Sister Psyche, I think) kept knocking me on my butt so many times, even with Domination running, that I regretted the choice to try and fight her without him. I was trying to pull her, and didn't want Singy going off on his own. I went ahead and summoned him, though, and gave up on the pulling idea, and it went off without a hitch. I even dealt with the adds without a problem.

My favorite pet is Demon Prince He has the uber cold aura damage/slow. Everything he does add more slow, and if he gets really frisky, he pulls out that big friggin ice sword out of his pants and whacks everything around him. I like him better than fluffy and assault bot. I guess it's because he's so original. Perhaps Jack Frost does a lot like him, too. Don't get me wrong; I do love the fluffy. If all fluffy did was twilight grasp and chill of the night, he would be a super pet, but he does a whole lot more than that

The singularity has strong psionic resistance?

How did I not know this until now?

Psionics are my most hated enemy power!

Demon Prince.

He can hold bosses without any assistance. He can tank with Chilling Embrace. He does AoE damage with Frozen Aura. He slows the crap out of the mobs with stuff like Shiver. He does great single target damage.

And since EVERY single attack has a slow component, he can slot the Slow damage Proc, for even more damage awesomeness.

I'm pretty fond of all of my crew's pets... My Dark/Archery Defeneder's Dark Servant, Bloo (Yes, named after the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends character- XD), is a particular favorite. Adding his powers to Lan's own makes for a great dark-all-over-everything-in-sight good time.

My second DB Stalker's Mu is another favorite. Kestrel is my only dedicated role-playing character, and having her Adept partner around has turned out to be an important part of her concept. Given that, I ended up investing a lot in Kes' enhancements to get as close to wrapping Cardinal's Summon as I could (Their current "down time" is right around 2 minutes. It'll be just under that once her Hecatomb set is finished-), and specificly adjusting a few things in her build with an eye towards helping his survivability. Beyond any RP considerations, the guy's control-type powers have proven to be very useful, and aside from a few AI weirdnesses, Kes is definitely a much stronger character for having him around.

I have a 35 grav/ff I can't bring myself to play anymore. Grav is just too weak and broken compared to the other sets imo.

That said you have inspired me to finally go ahead and finish the last troller/dominator set on my list: Ice, it's the only thing I don't have.

I keep deleting my ice doms and trollers in the teens for some reason. Just gonna tough it out.

How is Voltaic Sentinel? Is it a decent pet for dps and holding aggro? What level does it become available?

Thanks!

I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from playing Grav/, but the levelling is pretty harsh. Life as a Grav/ dominator is a misery until you get Singularity. My friends tell other teammates that I'm his pet.

Power Boost + Wormhole is pretty hilarious, mind you!

Anyway, yes, Singularity is very, very useful for tanking psychic or toxic characters. Sure, slot him to 70% resists and he's a good tank for nearly anything, but he really shines when you drop him in the middle of the Fonts of Power in Mako's missions and watch them chip away worthlessly at his health.

The best part about Grav is getting to level 50, slotting KB into Lift, and using it on level 1 Hellions. With some luring, practice, and lots of luck, I might be able to toss one onto the AE balcony from the street.