Why beast is bad?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

The biggest issue with melee pets is the AOE they are exposed to when they go into melee range. So they are more susceptible to huge damage spikes and all of them get hurt at the same time since they are all near the source of the damage. This is one of the reasons people say beasts are weak.

Well one of the Mastermind ATE sets provides a nice AoE defense aura which can help mitigate that.

[Galaxy Brain]

The biggest issue with melee pets is the AOE they are exposed to when they go into melee range. So they are more susceptible to huge damage spikes and all of them get hurt at the same time since they are all near the source of the damage. This is one of the reasons people say beasts are weak.

Well one of the Mastermind ATE sets provides a nice AoE defense aura which can help mitigate that.

 

While true, it is still a huge burden that is inherit to the melee pets

[Tankshock]

Right, which is why conversations like this always depend on how individuals play. If you are going to high end build them, squishiness is not an issue.  They can pretty easily have soft capped defense and 40-50% resist, not even counting debuffs.  And they certainly can deal damage.

[scran]

Aoes are less of an issue with special ios. In fact you WANT them to be aoes because thats the highest defense you will always have with the +25% defense from special ios.  With base 10% def thats 35% before maneuvers, any -to  hit (like a lot of secondaries have) or and def buffs.  Enemies with lethal cones are pretty screwed against mm pets.

[StrikerFox]

I've been doing some testing on Beast pets. I think they can excel vs a single target. When they're bunched together, buffing one another with Howl, Pack Mentality, and Growl applying debuffs on the lone enemy.

 

But during the testing, I see what people mean about slow attacks. I set the pets to aggressive and sent them into groups of enemies. Pets will attack, targets will flee in different directions, pets will chase, stop to Howl/Growl/Lick Wounds/Lion's Roar/Wild Charge, allowing the target to get further away. By the time they reach the target, their buff has pretty much worn off.

 

It was somewhat frustrating to watch as the enemies were 3-5 levels lower than my pets. If it were other pets, those runners would have been dead reasonably quick. Mercs/Thugs/Bots specialize in ranged damage. Ninjas would use Shuriken, Poison Dart, Caltrops to hit runners. Zombies with Gloom, Dark Blast, Projectile Vomit. Demons with Fire Blast, Fireball, Flares etc.

 

Here's the testing if anyone is interested. Achieved by opening a Pet window to see their action/damage info. Summoned pets, had them attack several groups. Took info on pet attacks. Did the T1 upgrade, repeat. Dismissed and summoned new pets. Then T2 upgrade and repeat again. I think the Dire Wolf's cold attacks are all AoE. The T1 Alpha Wolf doesn't seem much better than the regular wolves.

 

T1 Wolves - Basic

-Wild Charge - Boosts damage/movement speed

-Howl - Boost dam/tohit of nearby beast allies

-Vicious Bite (Lethal) - DoT bleed damage (Lethal)

 

T1 Wolves - Trained

-Maiming Bite (Lethal) - Reduce movement/defense

 

T1 Wolves - Tamed

-Feral Charge (Smashing) - Reduce defense

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T1 Alpha Wolf - Basic

-Wild Charge - Boosts damage/movement speed

-Vicious Bite (Lethal) - DoT bleed damage (Lethal)

 

T1 Alpha Wolf - Trained

-Maiming Bite (Lethal) - Reduce movement/defense

-Growl - Reduce dam/hit chance to target

 

T1 Alpha Wolf - Tamed

-Howl - Boost dam/tohit of nearby beast allies

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T2 Lions - Basic

-Wild Charge - Boosts damage/movement speed

-Vicious Bite (Lethal) - DoT bleed damage (Lethal)

-Claw Rake (Lethal) - DoT bleed damage (Lethal)

 

T2 Lions - Trained

-Lick Wounds - PBAoE(?) heal/+regen

-Lion's Roar - Boost def of nearby beast allies

 

T2 Lions - Tamed

-Claw Swipe (Lethal) - AoE cone

-Ferocious Growl - PBAoE stun

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T3 Dire Wolf - Basic

-Wild Charge - Boosts damage/movement speed

-Chilling Howl (Cold) - DoT, reduces movement/attack speed AoE?

-Vicious Bite (Lethal) - DoT bleed damage (Lethal)

 

T3 Dire Wolf - Trained

-Maiming Bite (Lethal) - Reduce movement/defense

-Freezing Roar (Cold) - DoT, reduces movement/attack speed AoE?

 

T3 Dire wolf - Tamed

-Terrible Howl (Cold) - DoT, reduces movement/attack speed AoE?

[Galaxy Brain]

It sounds like having the bite attacks slow down enemies would be nice for them

[Ragnar]

It sounds like having the bite attacks slow down enemies would be nice for them

 

Beast Attacks already have -Run (-15%) in them. But like every other Aspect with Beast it's mediocore.