Incarnate Lore Pets

[Techwright]

I probably see more Banished Pantheon lore pets in action than anything else, and indeed, I build these for my 50's.  I'd like to hear from those who chose other pets instead.  What did you choose and why did you choose it?  Was it a concept decision or a combat decision? Do you make several, either spread over multiple 50 characters, or several on one character so that you can select before each mission? 

 

Think of this as if you're trying to show me (and others) a strong reason to have another choice other than a Banished Pantheon pet.

[Blackbird71]

Concept.  I always pick the pets I feel best suit the character in question.

[DoctorDitko]

Agreed. Concept wins.

 

I took the Phantasm pets so I can have the old-school Dormammu's Demons-style ghosties as well as the newfangled "Clone me, Doctor Memory" self-duplicates.

[TraumaTrain]

Concept here as well. 

[Carnifax]

Concept and not being giant annoying things with irritating SFX.

 

Carni has Phantasms because she's illusion and it went with the theme.

 

A few have Cimorians. My Time/Sonic Troll DJ defender has them essentially as "guests at a themed DJ night". They also do decent single target damage and aren't massive.

 

My plant/stormie has Polar Lights. Could have gone elementals but pets with hurricane is a bad idea and they're a bit big.

 

My Bio/Spines tank is one of the few with Banished because they are most like "weird deep sea creatures" like him (he's basically a merman, if you replaced "fish" with "sea urchin").

 

My Steampunk Ice/Traps has Nemmies.

 

 

[Miss Magical]

I was impressed with Banished Pantheon lore pets... until I read the fine print that Lore pet DPS was measured by testing how fast they could kill a Rikti pylon. I believe Pylons always count as even-level (+0) enemies, and therefore suffer full effects from the -Res debuffs that the Banished Pantheon pets do. In real combat conditions against +3 and +4 AV's, the kind of enemies you want Lore pets to kill and which would resist -Res debuffs, I suspect they are still good, just not 33% more DPS than the next-highest contender good.

 

When you look at minmax metrics people throw around, you have to bear in mind all the little caveats and gotchas hidden in the data. For example, the common statement that softcapped defense mitigates 95% of incoming damage, because enemy hit chance is floored at 5%? The fine print that few people mention is that this only applies to +0 minions. Enemies gain accuracy bonuses for relative rank and level. A +3 boss with its hit chance floored still has 8.45% chance to hit you instead of the expected 5%, and this rises to 10.5% for a +4 AV. In other words, under real combat conditions against challenging enemies - where mitigation might actually matter - incoming damage is nearly twice of what you might be led to expect. (Not that softcapped defense isn't good, mind you; it's completely overpowered.)

[Uun]

Definitely concept. I haven't tried them all, but as of now I've got 15 different ones. Other than BP, the ones that impressed me enough to repeat are Carnies, Knives and Talons. Polar Lights and Robotic Drones are good for AoE and are also quite small.

 

40 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

Could have gone elementals but pets with hurricane is a bad idea

Only Radial has the hurricane.

[Coyotedancer]

Put me in the "concept" camp as well... That's why so many of mine have the Demons (and why I'd love to see a Circle Mages counterpart set made at some point-). If I don;t have a firm conceptual reason for making a choice, I tend to go with Polars (They're the most unobtrusive), full Core Storm Elementals (No hurricane-) or the Knives or Talons (They're stylish-).  

[Apparition]

I almost always go with Longbow.  Big red mech for the win.  On my farmers though, I go with Knives of Vengeance.  None of my characters used Banished Pantheon anymore because A. I'm sick of looking at 'em, and B. they're still too good and probably due for another nerf at some point.

[Snarky]

I like Polar Lights because they are small.  Great for my Ice Blaster too,  My Dark Blaster uses Storm, but I wish I could recolor them darker.  Like all black.  Also....you can get behind the cloud and not be able to see.  

[Greycat]

Almost entirely concept. PBs tend to get Polar Lights, WS might be lights or elementals, etc.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Concept: Dark Ring Mistresses have nice butts.

[Lusiphur Malache]

I have one concept lore pet, demons, that worked well with a look.  Thankfully demons do good single target damage.  All my other toons I pick randomly and no two are the same pick.  Knives, Tsoo, Warworks, Longbow, got a few 50s that i haven't picked for yet.

[TombTyrant]

Concept. If my character doesn't have a resonant concept for me, there's no chance I will stick with them for the ride to 50, much less unlocked lore pets.

[Mezmera]

I typically will play "squishy" characters more often than not that will already have capped defenses so when I go the buff pet route I see Carnies as the best option.  The pocket healer gives forge which the +dmg/tohitt will always be useful and the Mistress hits real hard and it is psi damage which bypasses targets godmodes for strong consistent damage. 

 

I guess it's a little bit of concept since I don't really like those big hulking pets following me around.  But on my more impervious characters I sometimes take the usual Pantheons or Longbow.  

Edited August 9, 2021 by Mezmera

[JasperStone]

Concept for sure.

I do lean towards Carnies as they can be a pain and want them working for me for a change

 

[Icono04]

Convenience. I used BP early on, but changed to Storm or Polar on all chars, because (a) the BP pets take up a lot of screenspace and are annoyingly noisy with that stomping sound, and (b) having a pet that can fly is useful against flying enemies.

[roleki]

I don't always pick the same Lore Pets, but I DO always go Radial because the best buff in the game is an undefeatable friend who effectively increases my aggro cap 🙂  I am particularly fond of Seers Radial (constant Fortitude buff) and Warworks Radial (a little debuff out of the beatstick, some decent buffs out of the Shield Drone), but Knives Radial is pretty strong as well; when they're ON the buffs are comparatively massive but the timing is uneven.  

 

I only ever went with theme once, on my Demons/EA MM, and it was a disappointment because the Demon lore pets don't look like they come from the same circle of hell as the MM demons.  

[merrypessimist]

I go with incarnate pets that fit the character's theme.  Like my praetorian mind control cult characters?  All Seers.  Holy avengers?  The Knives of Vengeance pets with the wings.  Magicians without peer?  Well that means elemental pets.  Techie types? Warworks.  

 

My reasoning is that they're all "eh, close enough" in power especially with a high end main character so it's more important to fill the theme and occasionally elicit a laugh from their names.

[TheZag]

BP used to be bugged to ignore level differences so they were doing damage to a lvl 54 as if they were lvl 54 and their AoE was capped at 255 targets so it gave them a massive damage advantage.  This has been fixed so now they are only the highest damage by a small amount but still the highest (last i checked anyway).

 

That said,  i like longbow because that mech looks awesome and comes with a -500% regen attack. 

 

Just need them to add PPD so i can have a giant blue mech also.  Or let me change my robots MM to giant mechs.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'll be honest.  I don't play my 50s often and when I do they certainly don't need Lore pets in order to work.  Or if they do, the pets are sorely lacking.

 

So I slot for the incarnate shift, and I pick the type by whatever I can reconcile in my head first, then try to avoid pet KB second.

[Techwright]

On 8/9/2021 at 3:44 AM, Mezmera said:

I typically will play "squishy" characters more often than not that will already have capped defenses so when I go the buff pet route I see Carnies as the best option.  The pocket healer gives forge which the +dmg/tohitt will always be useful and the Mistress hits real hard and it is psi damage which bypasses targets godmodes for strong consistent damage. 

 

I guess it's a little bit of concept since I don't really like those big hulking pets following me around.  But on my more impervious characters I sometimes take the usual Pantheons or Longbow.  

I'd not thought the Carnies through previously, but having psi hit my enemies for a change sounds pretty inviting.

[ZorkNemesis]

Put me in with the concept group, though I still take Polar Lights most often.  Polar Lights are easy to mesh with a number of concepts.  Among my characters that use them, an empathetic fairy (she's a Thermal Defender, so the light balls turn into fireballs when given shields), a magician specializing in colorful magic, a flaming valkyrie, and a forest guardian spirit.

 

I take other Lores though.  My succubus themed character uses Demons, my time wielding mutant uses Cimerorans, my weather wielding mad scientist uses Storm Elementals.  It's all about the concept, performance is just a bonus to me.

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by ZorkNemesis

[Mezmera]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

I'd not thought the Carnies through previously, but having psi hit my enemies for a change sounds pretty inviting.

 

If they are as fun for your enemies to fight as they are for when you are fighting them then they aught to be good right?

 

Fighting Reichsman and seeing 300pt orange numbers when he's in his godmode then you hit him with your best shot for 5pts then you realize its your Dark Mistress doing that damage that hussy.