So Owlux is the best pet?

[lordmilier]

Having finished the game I have yet to see any pets as good as an Owlux the cloest is a Phweromoth and that is only if you are aiming for a 90% dodge build. Seems a bit off that one of the first pets you can get is the best one the later pets are all either "meh" or outright bad.

[Kzc]

Kinda depends on your build and playstyle, but overal it might look like this is somewhat the case.

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by Kzc:

Kinda depends on your build and playstyle, but overal it might look like this is somewhat the case.

It is hard to beat that it gives you MS + flat % dmg not to mention you can get 10% chance for tripple dmg on a "god" rolled version of the Owlux.
The pets that are actually attacking have the same trash AI that the summons do in other words doggy poo poo AI and as you progress in the same you characrer can deal 10k+ dmg per hit while the pet is struggle to deal more than 1k dmg and it has like 0.5 attacks per second if even that is assuming the AI did not decide to go AFK on you and do nothng.

[Koumori]

The attack pets could be competitive if their AI was a bit more proactive and they benefited from more of the player's damage buffs than just the Wildwarden set and the aura from "The Smell of Food."

I'd still be stuck with Owlux, though, because I'm addicted to movement speed. Zoom!

[SCamp]

Melee pets are fine, dog is nice early-mid game because it has stun (I also used it during desert). Slightly outclassed once you get a ranged attack pet, but this is mainly area dependent.

Most attacking pets get outclassed in the endgame by buffing pets (Owlux/Pheromoth). But most of the time the buffs are terrible, so you're waiting on getting god roll buff pets.

The only endgame attacking pet that may matter is the one that gives mana on hit, but that's only for mage setups, is endgame and is also competing with buff pets. YMMV.

[Ratta]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Having finished the game I have yet to see any pets as good as an Owlux the cloest is a Phweromoth and that is only if you are aiming for a 90% dodge build. Seems a bit off that one of the first pets you can get is the best one the later pets are all either "meh" or outright bad.

as soon as u start stacking ANY dodge there is an argument that could be made that the pheromoth is far soperior then the owlux, because its usefullness increases drasticly with the amount of dodge u have before u use it.
- if u have 0 dodge and go pheromoth it will prevent 5% of all damage u take.
- if u have 50% dodge before counting the pheromoth it will prevent 10% of all damage u take.
- if ur at 85% dodge before counting the pheromoth it will prevent 33% of all damage u take

there is another argument that could be made that especially early game, lets say at least until u killed ur first boss after the wall opened, that any of the range pets, if they have 3-4 attackspeed skills to level will likely out dps ur character

[Zero]

Only one that really matters to be honest, for most of any build as it can provide attack speed (for either melee or range... with range helping magic btw), critical chance and move speed. Those are huge, especially attack speed since so many things only procc when you hit something, so the more you hit the more you procc. Crit chance is massively important for the only non garbage magic build that uses the arcane staff and crits to keep mana maxed out all the time (plus massive damage).
The attack pets are bad for one of the same reasons that summoner is bad, AI is terrible (Summoner is terrible for more reasons than just that though). Also they just aren't as good as you at dishing out damage, so you might as well use a pet that focuses on buffing you instead.
With chests filled with pets I am yet to switch away from an owlux that gives me crit chance and move speed (still didn't get a perfect roll on pure crit chance, but movespeed is incredibly important since bosses can melt you if you aren't a melee build, and even then you still want to move).

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by Zero:

Only one that really matters to be honest, for most of any build as it can provide attack speed (for either melee or range... with range helping magic btw), critical chance and move speed. Those are huge, especially attack speed since so many things only procc when you hit something, so the more you hit the more you procc. Crit chance is massively important for the only non garbage magic build that uses the arcane staff and crits to keep mana maxed out all the time (plus massive damage).

Crit chance is not important for Arcane Staff not as an actual stat on your gear as the ranged skills tree has a talent called weakness detection which allows you to gain 100% crit chance for about 8 seconds and due to the insanely fast attack speed of Arcane Staff you have a very high uptime on the buff.

The by far BEST pet passive is the one that grants chance for tripple dmg on hit as without any attack speed you are doing 3.3 attacks per second base with arcane staff. So unless you want more MS to avoid attacks easier you want x5 2% which is a 10% chance for tripple dmg.

Originally posted by Ratta:

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Having finished the game I have yet to see any pets as good as an Owlux the cloest is a Phweromoth and that is only if you are aiming for a 90% dodge build. Seems a bit off that one of the first pets you can get is the best one the later pets are all either "meh" or outright bad.

as soon as u start stacking ANY dodge there is an argument that could be made that the pheromoth is far soperior then the owlux, because its usefullness increases drasticly with the amount of dodge u have before u use it.
- if u have 0 dodge and go pheromoth it will prevent 5% of all damage u take.
- if u have 50% dodge before counting the pheromoth it will prevent 10% of all damage u take.
- if ur at 85% dodge before counting the pheromoth it will prevent 33% of all damage u take

there is another argument that could be made that especially early game, lets say at least until u killed ur first boss after the wall opened, that any of the range pets, if they have 3-4 attackspeed skills to level will likely out dps ur character

I did mention the moth pet and doge based build if you read properly.

[D.A.R.K.]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

So Owlux is the best pet?
Having finished the game I have yet to see any pets as good as an Owlux the cloest is a Phweromoth and that is only if you are aiming for a 90% dodge build. Seems a bit off that one of the first pets you can get is the best one the later pets are all either "meh" or outright bad.

The problem is that we have only two passive pets and 30 active pets, so if you want a pet that buffs you, you'll end up with Owlux or Pheromoth, but isn't about the pet, it's about the pet's skill pool, both Owlux and Pheromoth share almost all skill pool, the difference is that Owlux can give you Avian Run (+5% move speed), while Pheromoth can give you Winged Escape (-10% snare and stun duration).

So... If you aren't going for the move speed, or for the snare and stun reduced duration, both are the same thing. I usually build for critical chance, but having 10% chance of triple damage is pretty awesome, so I basically use anything that has 1-5 of Spirit of the Hawk or Triple Trouble. If I can find 5 Triple Trouble I'm fine, if I can find 5 Spirit of the Hawk I'm fine. Usually I find a mix between them, but the ideal scenario is 5 of one of those two.

[.:Jj:.]

+1

for more pets with passive buffs and no attack of its own.

[Jay Ren]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Crit chance is not important for Arcane Staff not as an actual stat on your gear as the ranged skills tree has a talent called weakness detection which allows you to gain 100% crit chance for about 8 seconds and due to the insanely fast attack speed of Arcane Staff you have a very high uptime on the buff.

The by far BEST pet passive is the one that grants chance for tripple dmg on hit as without any attack speed you are doing 3.3 attacks per second base with arcane staff. So unless you want more MS to avoid attacks easier you want x5 2% which is a 10% chance for tripple dmg.

...I think you might be seriously overvaluing a 10% chance for tripple damage. That's the same as a +20% damage buff on average... It's not bad, but it honestly might not outperform a combination of other damage stats.

(ofc big numbers are fun. And theres something to be said about 10% of the time instakilling a mob rather then 3 hitting it e.t.c, but that's less relivent for a fast firing weapon)

[Boiledteabag]

I'm just going to say it, the lack of mana potions and the only pet that can provide mana support is in the LAST BIOME OF THE GAME.

Its a breath of the wild bike dlc situation, you run around getting all the teleport points then the game goes "here have a fast bike to jet around with"

In core keeper you play mage, make your peace with the mana regen, go max mana or use the cookie cutter arcane staff build everyone and their mother talks about, only to get to the last biome and THEN get some mana support.....

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by OmegaJasam _ DGD _:

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Crit chance is not important for Arcane Staff not as an actual stat on your gear as the ranged skills tree has a talent called weakness detection which allows you to gain 100% crit chance for about 8 seconds and due to the insanely fast attack speed of Arcane Staff you have a very high uptime on the buff.

The by far BEST pet passive is the one that grants chance for tripple dmg on hit as without any attack speed you are doing 3.3 attacks per second base with arcane staff. So unless you want more MS to avoid attacks easier you want x5 2% which is a 10% chance for tripple dmg.

...I think you might be seriously overvaluing a 10% chance for tripple damage. That's the same as a +20% damage buff on average... It's not bad, but it honestly might not outperform a combination of other damage stats.

(ofc big numbers are fun. And theres something to be said about 10% of the time instakilling a mob rather then 3 hitting it e.t.c, but that's less relivent for a fast firing weapon)

Unless you are going full Grim set 20% avg + dmg is going to be better than crit dmg you get from the pet which is the only alternative that comes close. In fact the passive is great as it is a multiplier instead of being addative to the rest of the stats you can run. The issue with crit dmg is that the more of it you have the less in value you has and these are the only 2 options for dmg, if you want attack speed(ranged/magic) running minion accessories or are the best way to get it espcially for a magic build as each pet is 10% AS and 10% magic dmg + 75 barrier which is also another dmg buff for you.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by lordmilier:

Having finished the game I have yet to see any pets as good as an Owlux the cloest is a Phweromoth and that is only if you are aiming for a 90% dodge build. Seems a bit off that one of the first pets you can get is the best one the later pets are all either "meh" or outright bad.

Obviously, "buff" pets are ideal for those seeking those buffs for their build.

Damage/attack pets with special abilities, and the only one I've used specifically for that so far is the Fanhare (poison/-hp regain), are likely very "situational."

DPS pets should basically be considered a weapon that effects enemies more-or-less at random.

Bossfights probably have the most impact in regards to the choices the player makes.


But, something to consider - No Pet or Minion that I've used (just up to mid-game atm) draws "aggro." This is fairly significant in terms of comparing the use of pets and minions in Core Keeper to standard ARPG games. AFAIK, there aren't any "Tank" pets/minions and their behaviors and abilities seem to reflect that in how they're designed. (Since they don't have hit points, minions have Timers and Pets are basically a piece of gear that one equips to deliver buffs or RNG damage/status effects.)

Pets/Minions appear to select targets based on the player's target. There's a problem with that in that the player is going to be moving around a lot and targeting specific mobs can be problematic, especially on a controller. :) Pets have limited "stick-to-itiveness" while Minions have a tad bit more in terms of time-on-target. The problem there is that both sometimes spend much more time re-acquiring a new target than attacking anything at all...

With a Subterrier, if one is in a scrum with a bunch of cavelings, the Subterrier will often just stand there, waiting for the player to settle on one target for time(x) until attacking it. There doesn't appear to be much there in independent targeting.

Pets/Minions in disengage/engage loop behavior while the player is in a scrum with multiple targets... can sometimes be pretty problematic, making them a but useless at times. (Not a big complaint, just an observation. If I was playing a Minion build, I may be a bit more concerned about it.)

It's worth noting that it appears pets/minions depend on the status of the player in terms of whether or not they are being targeted by a hostile. But, and just by how it appears during play, a mob that targets the player, who then moves, then attempts to move-to-attack the player... will often not be attacked by the pet/minion.

There's definitely some weird, purposeful, behavior coded in there. I wouldn't quite truly call it "behavior," so I'll just say that their exhibited behavior seems to depend a lot on character-status, targeted/not-targeted, and engagement range.

Note: Ranged minions/pets seem to get sort of "sticky tagets." (Or, they don't easily drop targets) For instance, riding in a minecart with a bat minion active, it will fire at an aggressive target FAR offscreen when I get out of the minecart. The fanhare behaves similarly, too. As I move away, both will stop targeting that shroom on the other side of the world...