Which is the best pet and why is it Spellhound ?

[Ragnaman]

I love this doggo.

[MrBall]

Early game Spell hound is fantastic but ultimately the missing profit modifiers cripple him.

Asthetically yeah spellhound is unmatched but mechanically I have to give it to Anima construct Incantation efficiency is too good!

[Ragnaman]

I dont even have attributes yet,
I have found that Necro + Devourer does wonders on total mana.
Are all the bonuses multiplicative not additive ?

[MrBall]

yeah everything is multiplicitive

[BlueGlass]

Even in mid-game (pre Realms and T3 pets) Spellhound can be extremely useful for the purpose of stacking up spellcasts. Really, all the pets have their own uses, and which one is best depends on the situation. It's what I love about this game, how each class is so different with different requirements for hot to play effectively.

[MrBall]

Yeah my only issue is LATE game things can start to get samey. (40k Memories and e705 Mysteries)

The T3 classes require quite a bit of effort to get working right and its not fun to spend 3+ days giving a class time to build just to find out it doesn't compete with the class you know and just wasted 3 days

[Raywhisper]

The bestest magic boi

[Mahaveez -WRITE mode-]

The Hounds are indescribably useful throughout your plays for winding up spellcasts--but ultimately, you'll want to go with something else when you're closing out your run and swinging for the mana fences. Bank up a few casts of your favorite expensive spell, switch to something with stronger benefits to your mana output, level it up, and go to town! Eventually, you will start to work in one or more "pre-burst" phases to maximize that final play, to take advantage of things like Void Mana and charging spells. Until you reach T3 pets (and also in the case of two certain classes), the game is built rather heavily around pet-swapping to maximize your potential. Good luck making your pet plays work!

[Ragnaman]

Yeah, this bursting and switching pets was taught by using Demonologist, nice game design, it sort of teaches you these intricate mechanics by giving you classes that each specialise in an aspect of "style of play" to teach various synergies.

[Trick Question]

For long-term use, Tier I is Interrogator and Tier II is Anima Construct. In both cases it's not even a contest (except for highly specific classes, like Umbramancer which really needs Shadow Stalker and Ebonsand Behemoth).

For short-term use, every pet can be very useful except Demon, Pit Lord, Golem, Devourer, and Hungerer. Pixie, Ent, Zombie, and Risen Giant are only useful early in the game and for specific challenges. The rest all have important uses, frequently in the same Exile.

I usually switch pets repeatedly early in an Exile, especially Homunculus, Simulacrum, Anima Construct, Spellhound (sometimes), Voidfiend, Voidterror, Interrogator, Archivist, Geode, Ley Keeper, Shadow Stalker, and Ebonsand Behemoth. Once I have the ability to get all the stuff I'd normally use those pets for, I'll settle down with Anima Construct long-term.

The Tier 3 pets all appear to be awesome but I'm not quite there yet.

[MrBall]

Don't dismiss pixie :D She's key to the character level paragon challenges. Her autoclicks continue through time warps on Temporalist allowing you to earn quadrillions of autoclicks. Without her those challenge would suck :D

[Trick Question]

I mentioned Pixie is useful in challenges.

[MrBall]

True but in general she's useful for temporalist as a method of getting free levels to boost its power

[Trick Question]

Sorry. I probably shouldn't have contributed here. I really, really, really do not want hints.

[Arkhne]

Originally posted by Trick Question:

For long-term use, Tier I is Interrogator and Tier II is Anima Construct. In both cases it's not even a contest (except for highly specific classes, like Umbramancer which really needs Shadow Stalker and Ebonsand Behemoth).

For short-term use, every pet can be very useful except Demon, Pit Lord, Golem, Devourer, and Hungerer. Pixie, Ent, Zombie, and Risen Giant are only useful early in the game and for specific challenges. The rest all have important uses, frequently in the same Exile.

I usually switch pets repeatedly early in an Exile, especially Homunculus, Simulacrum, Anima Construct, Spellhound (sometimes), Voidfiend, Voidterror, Interrogator, Archivist, Geode, Ley Keeper, Shadow Stalker, and Ebonsand Behemoth. Once I have the ability to get all the stuff I'd normally use those pets for, I'll settle down with Anima Construct long-term.

The Tier 3 pets all appear to be awesome but I'm not quite there yet.

Don't diss Golem :(

He's the best "pure" Mana per second boost in T1. His boost outstripes Homunculus, and non-Necromancer Zombie (and in any reasonable T1 run length, even on necromancer, Golem will have a higher bonus).

This is not to say that it's the best pet, if you're cooking up an arcane storm, making profits from Evocations, Interrogator is clearly going to be better. And IF you can sustainably feed it (or feed it EXP through spells) Devourer is shockingly potent.

The only true competition in GENERAL profits is Voidfiend.

[Trick Question]

Voidfiend/Voidterror becomes almost useless once you have enough incantation boost to support Void Radiance charging as a strategy, provided your class has access to Void Radiance.

Even if you don't have the boost you need, it's generally better to Voidfiend/Voidterror to charge up void mana then switch to Interrogator/Archivist or Anima Construct (or in rare cases, Arcanaworg). This is a more active style of play, however, and not as useful if you rely on bonuses to pet time.