Which Pet?

[Clave Dark 5]

So I'm trying to plan out a build for a Thermal/Energy Blast Defender and was thinking of getting the pet, following some advice I saw here.  The advice said that a Patron Pool pet was a good bet because with the Thermal buffering a pet can be made pretty strong, but I have zero experience with PP pets, so which one would be best for this?  Any advice on that pet's slotting too?

 

This also leads into a second question: I'm assuming having a good buffed pet might be more a soloing tactic, but I don't actually solo all that much, so would a pet under these circumstances even be the best thing to go with and should I consider another avenue and skip a pet?

[SableShrike]

Heh.  “PP pets...”

 

But I digress!  What are you hoping to do, man?

 

My experience is mostly with the coralax, but from what I’ve seen the Mu and Arachnobot play at range.  Fortunatas fight at range with mostly Psi damage.

 

Coralax seems to have the most melee.  Fortunata, Mu, and Disruptor have mez with damage types being the main differences.

 

Unless you want the Coralax Punch and Haymaker, I’d pick based on the other Patron powers in each pool and theme.

[Dahkness]

With how fast pace the end game is at this moment PP pets can’t really keep up. I would skip PP pets right now. IMO all pets are useless unless you’re a themed player. I can solo just fine without a pet. Only pet worth getting is the OP incarnate pets. Just stick with that. Save your slots for something worth wild.

 

Are you looking to bring more damage to a team? What is your goal on your current character that makes you think you need a pet? What do you want to do? Again I’d skip the pet. Save your money and time on theory crafting.

 

Hopefully HC has a plan for what the old devs left them to fix. Tell then Just ride the train tell the nerf bat hits and things change. At the current state of the game it’s keep up or be my perma veng. It’s the truth.

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by Hops

[SableShrike]

They can be handy when solo, I’ve found. Basically doubled my FF/Sonic’s singletarget damage when I have Coralax out.

 

But yeah, steamroll teams overshadow a lot of things right now.

[DreadShinobi]

The patron pets cannot be controlled so are often not going to be attacking what is relevant. Other mastery pools have much stronger options, such as procced dominate from psi mastery or perma soul drain in dark mastery, both of which will add alot more damage to your rotations, especially as you said you are more preferential to teaming over soloing. If youre teaming you are better off casting Forge on a team member over your pet, and if you want a strong pet you can always grab Shivans from Bloody Bay.

[Clave Dark 5]

I know they're not as controllable as say an MM pet, but with some stealth one can always drag a pet through a group of foes to tank for you, ha ha.  But yeah, that's a rather solo tactic.  I've never taken a Patrol Pool pet and was sort of thinking to just for the experience, but the point made about speed of teams does have me thinking it might be better to just just buff everyone around me and skip the pet.  Now I'm wondering which AT would work best with a pet at all.

[Carnifax]

My Time / Sonic defender has the Fort pet, pretty much perma. Works well for him but the only reason I picked a Fort was simply that Power Boost is in the same set. 

 

But given the buffs I can give her (softcap, and some extra damage & -resists on whatever we're attacking) its a nice additional damage source I just throw out then don't worry about. 

[SableShrike]

21 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

But given the buffs I can give her (softcap, and some extra damage & -resists on whatever we're attacking) its a nice additional damage source I just throw out then don't worry about. 

Bingo!  It’s just additional damage and, if you can cap them, something to draw hate and mez a bit.  On teams they may not add tons, but make no mistake they do still add some.

 

You don’t have to babysit them; all the while they’re fighting you can ignore them and do your thing as you normally would.  And, again, when soloing the damage they bring can be nice.

 

The only real cost if you’re set up to max buff already is the power pick and a few slots.

 

You can max them in just four slots for damage and recharge by boosting the following Soulbound Allegiance purples to +5:  AccDamRech, AccRech, DamRech, and DamEnd.  If you can spare a 5th slot, you can fit in the Soulbound +Build Up.

 

It’s really not a lot of effort for a lot of potential damage.  You summon them once, and that’s it.  If you can keep them alive they’ll fight nonstop for four minutes.

[Onlyasandwich]

I think they are a very reasonable choice if you already have a good attack chain worked out. Otherwise, the hold power from most pools might be worth a good look at first for strong single target proc potential.

 

The biggest advantage is as carnifax and sable said - damage that doesn't require your input and attention. This works well in a set that can properly buff their defenses to make them independent.

 

If your build is already heavy recharge, all the better! Though unfocused, they add a surprisingly large amount of damage, and most of them throw out solid aoe.

 

I do sometimes wish I were a kin so I could speed boost them to catch up more easily, but they truck along well enough to stay mostly in the game even on a team.

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by Onlyasandwich