What lore pet should I go for?
By
Big_Soto,
Posted on: 2011-07-29 03:28 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Quote:
Phantoms look like Phantom Army. The support pet will cast Adrenalin Boost twice during it's summon period. That gives 150s of the buff every 15 minutes or 16.7% up time on +400% Rec, +250% Reg, +50% Rech and 40% Slow Res. It also has Heal Other. That makes it a nice pet for an SR Scrapper.|
Originally Posted by Leese
It's time for my MA/SR to pick a lore pet, but I want to pick one that fits my character's theme. That limits my choices to...
Longbow Vanguard Phantoms (at a pinch) ... but Longbow are boring and I don't want them. All the pet comparisons I've seen focus purely on DPS, and Vanguard is poor at that apparently, but do they have other qualities that make up for that? ... and do the Phantoms look just like the ghosts in Croatoa? |
The Vanguard buff pet runs a weak version of Assault and uses Twilight's Grasp, making it a good buff pet for large teams. The Boss has a self-heal, is a pure ranged fighter and has 2 targeted AoEs (but neither is great). I'm not crazy about the offensive Lts, since they melee. I don't think Vanguard are a great choice for a Scrapper. They're better for something that can multiply the value of the AoE heal.
Kosmos
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People focus on the DPS comparisons because they figure you will be taking the Core Line powers, which well are designed to be focused on strength.
I would say go with Phantasms, they look like Phantom Army. If you do pick the Radial Line they have Adrenaline Boost, which like Kosmos said - they can use twice per summoning period. Also - Phantasms fly. They are fairly useful on Keyes trial when you are jumping between reactors because they can just fly and keep up with you.. Plus they deal more DPS than the other two lore choices you offered, but you don't care for that :-p
@War-Nugget
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Originally Posted by Wavicle
CoH players are stupid and incompetent compared to WoW players.
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Well, DPS is great, I just don't think it's the entire picture.
Disappointed that the Phantoms aren't the ghost-style phantoms, but PA phantoms would be good too. I think I'll go for them. Also, flying nicely fits my own travel power. Thanks for the help.
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Quote:
I don't think it's the entire picture either.|
Originally Posted by Leese
Well, DPS is great, I just don't think it's the entire picture.
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My goal with the pylon tests was really just to get a clearer picturer on the easiest aspect of pets to quantify.
I've taken quite a large variety of pets on live and I will say I'm never disappointed when I use one of the top tier DPS pets.
My NW for example has both T3 Core Phantasma & T3 Core Storm Elementals.
I find I am consistently satisfied with the phantasms over the elementals on the escapee phase of BAF.
In practice the high ST damage attacks of the phatasms wins out over the AoE of the elementals as the goal is to kill escapees as quickly as possible and the pet AI limitations makes the AoEs not as useful simply because the pets are not smart enough to maximize their use.
Hey Deus_Otiosus,
I seen your sig and the DPS from the Lore's. Do you happen to have a list of buffs provided by all the Lore pets?
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Quote:
Unfortunately I didn't take a good look at the support trees.|
Originally Posted by Big_Soto
Hey Deus_Otiosus,
I seen your sig and the DPS from the Lore's. Do you happen to have a list of buffs provided by all the Lore pets? |
You can see their powers in game, without being crafted, but that is a bit of a hassle if your goal is to compare them.
I only have experience with Vanguard Core. The boss pet, while not doing superior ST dps, stays at range almost 99% of the time and she has decent aoe damage and a self heal. She can REALLY survive on her own. She does elemental damage.
I am not sure what your epic powers are but if you think you need more aoe damage (which is what MA is lacking), Vanguard Sorcerer is not bad at all.
Now the lieut pet is interesting. He has two range and one melee. The Bayonet attack actually reduces target's Lethal resistance (which fits my Ninja/FF). I didn't know about the lethal resistance debuff until I took it. I can't remember if it debuffs Smashing damage which your MA has.
Of all the range-only pets, I believe Sorcerer is the only one that truly stays at LONG range. Clockwork boss has a power that only has 60' range and that causes him to go forward a bit. Drones' cone only has 60 or 40 range. I can't remember which.
Seer boss pet stays at long range too but she doesn't do any aoe damage at all. I can't remember which boss pet that truly stays at range. I just know Sorcerer always stays at range. In fact, sometimes she stays so far back and I need to lure her closer.
Basically if you are looking for a Boss pet that doesn't run in and survives well, Sorcerer is a great choice.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
One thing I want to mention:
My Mastermind took Tactics but it is still not good enough for Lore pets when I fight against +3. Both Vanguard pets miss pretty often against certain mobs, like Ritki Drones.
On my Fortunata who has Tactics and Mind Link and uses Clockwork, the lore pets rarely miss because I believe their attacks have pretty strong -defense.
So if you are a Scrapper and you have no -defense (like Martial Arts), then Clockwork may be a better choice. I've always thought that if you are melee and you don't have support powers for your pets, it is better to use range-only pets so they don't die. A dead pet does zero damage. I haven't found one instance where Sorcerer runs close to melee range. Clockwork boss has. However, the most satisfying thing about Clockwork is that Chest Beam. It does a lot of range burst damage.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Quote:
Radial got a buff where the recharge of tiers 3 and 4 was reduced to 10 minutes. This means you would get 150 seconds of Adrenaline boost every 10 minutes, and for a 15 minute window you would recieve 300 seconds given the second casting of the power. |
Originally Posted by Kosmos
That gives 150s of the buff every 15 minutes or 16.7% up time on +400% Rec, +250% Reg, +50% Rech and 40% Slow Res. It also has Heal Other. That makes it a nice pet for an SR Scrapper.
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I like to have one Radial and one Core on most of my characters, giving the option for DPS or Support.
As for the OP:
Vanguard is highly underrated. It offers solid AoE damage from the boss pet, who also has a self heal, exotic damage types, and a unique support pet with a potent AoE heal and single target debuff (Twilight Grasp). Vanguard Core or Radial is perfectly viable, and will offer more AoE damage than Cimmerorans or Warworks.
Paragonwiki has a page for the lore slot abilities, with links to what the lore pets are/can do/etc.
If you're interested, here it is:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Lore_Slot_Abilities
(while there is no quoted post, this is mostly directed at the poster who asked for what abilities the support pets had, rather than the OP -nevertheless, I thought it'd be good idea to throw it out here in case others may be interested too).
I'm using the storm elementals. Great damage, decent AoE....I took the offensive path and they do more damage than my own attacks so it's a good thing.
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I went from Seers to Phantoms but went radial on both all the way to tier 4. Granted, phantoms do a huge amount of damage compared to Seers (I think greater ice sword does a whopping 700+ damage) but my Seer buff pet has perma fortitude (weaker version) vs temporary adrenaline boost from Phantoms.
...also if I do a demon farm the phantom pet buffs their invincibility as he goes into melee range way more often than the seer boss and I play a scrapper.
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Quote:
Vanguard are bottom of the barrel for single-target DPS, but they're very AoE-heavy (the boss has 2 TAoE attacks, the Lt 1) and pack a wide variety of damage types. Unlike storm elementals, who have broadly comparable AoE, they do not tend to run themselves out of endurance.|
Originally Posted by Leese
All the pet comparisons I've seen focus purely on DPS, and Vanguard is poor at that apparently, but do they have other qualities that make up for that?
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The Lt likes to go into melee and get itself killed so you will have to babysit it.
It's time for my MA/SR to pick a lore pet, but I want to pick one that fits my character's theme. That limits my choices to...
Longbow
Vanguard
Phantoms (at a pinch)
... but Longbow are boring and I don't want them.
All the pet comparisons I've seen focus purely on DPS, and Vanguard is poor at that apparently, but do they have other qualities that make up for that?
... and do the Phantoms look just like the ghosts in Croatoa?
"The Hamidon is a what what of what?" - Brian the mission guy.