Compensating Pets For Death Penalty

[Ray Of Light]

In case you are unaware : Animal Companions now gain DP in PvP, and the intent is for them to soon gain DP in PvE too. This is part of the ongoing agenda of making DP universal - for consistency and logic I imagine.

The DPing of Animal Companions has not been very warmly received, because using Animal Companions for anything other than dying is not exactly well respected at the moment ( though it is quite fun ) - and DP will certainly not reverse this state.

So, given that DP for Animal Companions in PvE is inevitable & pet controls are not being introduced any time soon, I am starting this thread for suggestions as to how battling Animal Companions can be compensated for the introduction of DP.

Natural Resistance

This is what Prophecies bosses possess, which reduces the duration of Conditions and Hexes on them by half.
I think that Animal Companions also warrant this because :
* They are at the front of combat and thus exposed to these hazards.
* Beast Mastery has zero skills to remove Conditions and Hexes from Animal Companions.
* They are not affected by party-wide healing e.g. Extinguish.
* Lack of pet controls leaves them hugely vulnerable to Disease, AoE Hexes and ' each attack ' Hexes.
* As beasts, they could logically be hardier than Humans.

Environmental Resistance

I just made this term up, to refer to the quality which monsters possess that makes them immune to Environmental Effects e.g. Cathedral Collapse, Spiked Coral.
I think that Animal Companions also warrant this because :
* They are at the front of combat and thus exposed to these hazards.
* They are not affected by party-wide healing, so forced damage ( e.g. swamp water, lava ) is much harsher to them.
* Lack of pet controls causes them to wander blithely through such hazards.
* As beasts, they should logically be better suited to their environment than Humans.

Party Animal

It would be quite the change, but I do not see why Animal Companions could not be promoted from Ally status to Party status ( maybe give them a Companion section below Party health bars ).
The benefits of doing this would be :
* They would be affected by " all party member " spells such as Aegis.
* They would be equally affected by Binding Rituals ( I do not think that they currently are ).
* They could be resurrected by any party member ( this would certainly make Beast Mastery much more appealing ).

I think that this could be justified, because :
* Comfort Animal would still be an appealing heal and an infinte res.
* Revive Animal would still retain its niche appeal ( well it could hardly become less popular ).
* They are already unique as Allies-who-can-be-resurrected, it is simply that the introduction of DP turns this from a quirk to a solid negative.

[Stretch]

All good points, i do not see that dp for pets really doing anything besides just making them cannon fodder/iway fodder faster. Which causes the problems to grow instead of decrease

[Ray Of Light]

Hurrah :

Guys,

James Phinney took time today to write out some additional and more-detailed information about the Pet DP issue, and it's great to get his insight into this because there really is a lot of good news. First, I want to say, the times that James and I have had to discuss this issue have been very abbreviated. He's been in a ton of meetings or busy with design work; I've been swamped with community and website projects, so we've not had a chance to really get into the details of the matter. For any miscommunications that have occurred, I apologize deeply.

Let me tell you what James has said, specifically, about the issues of Pet DP:

According to James, the designers "are in no hurry to add Pet DP to PvE. If we took the current mechanics (especially lack of controls) and simply added DP, it would be horrible.” Therefore, it's not their intention to add DP in the near future. The recent addition to PvE truly was an accident, they did not forecast a quick timeline for the DP addition.

As you know, James had mentioned when we rolled the PvE DP back out that before it was added it would be going through internal testing. When he mentioned testing, he was looking at the possibility that it might take place over the course of several months. As he said, "PvE Beastmasters are far from overpowered. It benefits no one for us to nerf them. It doesn't hurt anything for us to take our time thinking about this potential change."

Parity between PvP and PvE is definitely a desire of the designers, but it's important to know that they are flexible and only consider it a reasonable goal if it impacts positively on both aspects of the game. James said, "It would be stupid to blindly insist that all things must be exactly the same in PvE and PvP. I think we've already shown a willingness to make exceptions where we have to. But I hope everyone can agree that it's better for things to be consistent when they can. If the rules for DP can be the same everywhere, we'll do that. Writing test code to give pets DP on the test servers was the first step in trying to see if it could work. That’s all it was."

Pet controls are coming, and those controls will make playing a Beastmaster much, much better. They're actually not that far down on the list of features that will greatly improve the game. James put it this way, "I said that pet controls should not be expected soon so we wouldn't get burned by making any false promises. As I have seen in the past, it is not safe for me to say that things are on the way unless I'm 99% sure of when they'll be done." However, the bottom line is that pet controls are coming, and everyone here believes that DP in PvE should not be rolled out until the controls are in place.

Thanks for all your thoughts, which you can be sure have been read by many of the designers. They share links and discuss threads on a daily basis; in fact, when I go into the designers' rooms, I usually see one or more screen opened to a fansite forum. Thanks for sharing your concerns, and for expressing so many excellent ideas about the profession and the attributes.

[harbinger]

PvE Beastmasters are far from overpowered
:cry: alas

It would be stupid to blindly insist that all things must be exactly the same in PvE and PvP
:) I thought I was the only Don Quixote to think that...

Pet controls are coming, and those controls will make playing a Beastmaster much, much better.
:roll: well, let's hope it will...

I said that pet controls should not be expected soon so we wouldn't get burned by making any false promises
"Ready when it's ready" we get the idea :wink: better latter than a botcher...

:roll: Nice to see someone up there cares about our pets #/hug his bear#

[I C U]

Woo Hoo, now Mrs. Kitty can come back out of hiding.

Controls will be a nice addition, when implamented.

Thanks to Gail for keeping us informed, and Ray for finding it and bringing it here.