Friendly Pet Changes Coming Soon

[Tadenea]

ok I need some info here, what really needs fixing for Steeltrap Jaws?,
I can suggest Friendly pet to be made into a group heal but do you want it as a group heal for pet owner or group heal for your pets Target Target

Also heard they are some new stacking issues with recent patch on Test Server. Could I get some info on that as well

[Sharrien]

Well, Steetrap/Fellgrip isn't every beastlord's favorite line of spells.  I do like them.  My biggest problem with them looks like it is being addressed in the Test update:

- Steeltrap Jaws, Lockfang Jaws, and Fellgrip Jaws have been reworked to only be limited by their own triggered effects and not other spells cast by the pet.

Right now the myriad of other procs from our warders would count against the 10 for Steeltrap/Fellgrip thus wasting a lot of it's potential.  Looks like this fix will make it a lot better.

My biggest remaining gripe is stacking issues.  The Test notes say that Fellgrip now shares a stacking slot with Friendly Pet (guessing slot 4) and that line has always conflicted with Hobble of Spirits.  So now it appears that the intention is to have to choose Hobble or Friendly or Fellgrip.  I know a lot of folks use Hobble all the time (one of the main reasons many don't like to use Fellgrip), so aren't going to be happy that they would have to give up Hobble if Friendly prooves to be useful after the changes.  You could say that we just have to choose what to use based on the situation, but healing is ALWAYS in demand, so the other two choices would always be a distant 2nd place and would rarely be used.  Choosing between Hobble's snare or Fellgrip's slow/dps depends on group makeup and what it needed, but choosing between either of those and some free (since the buff can be cast before combat) group or tank heals?  No contest, heals win hands down.

I suggest that Friendly Pet be moved back to slot 6 so that it would not conflict with Hobble/Fellgrip in slot 4.

As for the Friendly Pet Heal, both a group heal and target's target heal would be very useful, depending on the situation.  Personally, I would prefer a group heal, but it should be the pet owner's group.

[Tadenea]

I sent a PM to Rytan with link to this post so he can take a look at the issues with stacking and Friendly Pet

[Sharrien]

Could we also get him to add a leg-humping animation when Friendly Pet procs?  :-o

[Sikkem]

Could we also get him to add a leg-humping animation when Friendly Pet procs?  :-o

Lol that would be funny :-D but considering the last time they touched the warder graphics they screwed up the iksar warder and still haven't fixed it I vote no  :roll:

Yeah the problem with the Jaws line is as stated, anyproc would count as a Jaws proc. The original spell had only 3 procs from memory and thus would wear of our warder before it had even procced once. The additional procs were added as a bandaid fix not long after the original spell came out.

The original is a level 75 spell (TSS) and we have had 2 upgrades to it since then. You can see why we want a bandaid fix to be as good as a "real" spell because we are likely to be wearing the bandaid for a fair few years..

My vote for the bandaid would be the group heal. Obviously the pet owners group as isn't it the ToT the reason we are having a bandaid?

[Umlat]

Myself, I use hobble almost exclusively. It doesn't take a spell gem, it doesn't have charges, it will almost always land during a combat and it has some advantages over other snares. It can be used to help break up a couple of mobs or give you a bit of a head start on the few occasions you get to run. Main use in soloing or grouping is to keep mobs from getting far enough to cause adds before Finishing Blow lets me take them down. It can also be used to provide more time on events where a mob needs to move from one spot to another; Pallorax is an example. This can be good or bad, depending on the exact circumstances - If I forget to drop Hobble and Pallorax gets snared, it's apparently the end of the world, judging by the whining from guildmates.  :?

The upgraded versions of the spell have a problem in that Shaman/Enchanter slows will block the entire effect, so it's not even an option on a raid, where the extra DPS would help. Fiixing that problem would make it more useful. Given the line only has a base duration of 10 minutes, you could probably take the charges retriction off of it without causing some kind of massive imbalance.

Removing the spells completely and replacing them with an AA line, with both Hobble and Lockfang AAs having their recast timers set at 30 seconds or so would be really useful, since it would be possible to swap between them in combat as needed by overwriting each other as you move through targets.

For Friendly Pet, my vote is for a group heal as well, especially if it can be made to proc sympathetically with our main pet DD proc so it's not competing with the other procs. Regardless, it needs to be able to stack with existing proc buffs.

[Grbage]

Personally I almost exclusively use hobble, fellgrip only gets pulled out when I know a named we are about to pull likes to resist my slow. Fixing the procs is only part of my issue with that spell line. The other issue, while soloing or a group leader without inspect buffs you have no clue when the slow lands (it is fairly reliable) and even worse no idea when it wears off. Since the pet actually proc'd the slow we wont get a worn off message. Yeah yeah yeah you can set an audible alert then start a timer but I don't play the game that way.

As for friendly pet, if the heal is worthwhile (doubt it) then I would like it to be for target of target. If it's only going to be a couple hundred hp's then it might as well be group and will be basically useless in current content but ok for soloing LB's...

[Zunar]

Cadmael's Mending Rk. III
Increase Hitpoints by 1934 (L82) to 1964 (L85)
With a decent heal focus, and maxed heal AAs, 10K heal crits are fairly common.
And with a cast time of around 2 seconds.

Friendly Pet Heal III
Slot Description
1:  Increase Hitpoints by 3020 (L83) to 3500 (L163) 

I don't know....but if Friendly pet is going to be useful, imo it needs to
A) Totally remove the charges...as this would be a consistent small amount of heals.
Not alot of heal power.....but nice, since it'd be an added fire and forget bonus heal for a longer duration. 

B) Leave the charges in, but increase the heal to proc atleast 5-6000Hp heals, to be considered of any use for current content.
I doubt it'd proc fast enough as needed anyways, so just chaining our regular heal spell (Cadmael's Mending Rk. III) would outperform even a 5000Hp proc if heals if what we need to be doing, because it'd need to proc consistently every 2-3 seconds to be considered even a situational use over our regular heal spell.

My 2cp

[Kanan]

good presentation of apples to apples for existing spell Zunar :)

I've tried casting Friendly Pet occasionally, but don't do it often.  If I'm doing one of our utility procs, it is almost always Hobble.

Another reason besides those stated above is that the 5% difference on the slow, with the slow mitigation now in the game, is negligible.  All it used to do is to serve to annoy chanters by not allowing their slow to land.

I've given back copies of the pet proc slow spell line when handed them by guildies, bcs I find it so relatively useless.  It requires too much attention to be of good use to me.  Hobble I find far more useful than the slows.

Now, if the Friendly pet can be fixed to be a group heal (tbh, on ToT's group or on our group, I'm ambivalent towards).  If it can be given a set, short duration, it would be more useful.  Give it a shm hot duration, or something of that ilk, and it would be better.  But charges are a pita.  I've never liked that aspect in frankly any game.  Charges when it's hard to monitor are worse.

[Zunar]

Taken from todays patch notes:

*** SPELLS ***

- Beastlord - Steeltrap Jaws, Lockfang Jaws, and Fellgrip Jaws have been reworked to only be limited by their own triggered effects and not other spells cast by the pet.
- Beastlord - Friendly pet is now a contact ability that shares a stacking slot with steeltrap jaws and other similar spells. It will fire up to 6 times per cast and has an increased chance to proc.


What I wonder is if this will stack with snare proc hobble of spirits or not.
I'm guessing not....which will be bad, since hobble of spirits has a cooldown timer, which will in certain situations, mainly in group play basically kill this spell or hobble.

For example in a zone like Volska's Husk you'll want to be using hobble of spirits imo, because some mobs seem to resist normal snares.

If this heal overwrites snare, the snare will be on cooldown timer, and not able to be switched back on when the heals have procced, thus forcing us to choose one of the above away.

[Blarp]

did they really need to change  the slot it toook, it stacked with all i tryed b4 patch SoE= FUcked tarded

[Sharrien]

Hmmm, did they change Friendly to be slot 4 (conflicting with Hobble and Fellgrip) or did they change the Fellgrip line to be slot 6?  If it's the latter then we might still be able to use Hobble along with Friendly.

[kharthai]

Can't use hobble with friendly pet or slow proc, can't use friendly pet or slow proc with each other.  Heals warder only as expected, over all pretty lame.  Friendly pet even has a cooldown timer when you load it in a spellset, lol.

[Razimir]

Can't use hobble with friendly pet or slow proc, can't use friendly pet or slow proc with each other.  Heals warder only as expected, over all pretty lame.  Friendly pet even has a cooldown timer when you load it in a spellset, lol.

Another spell book filler, one would never even mem. There would be some usages for HoTT heal if there was no charges, but I dont see anyone keeping this spell memmed at current stage.

-Raz

[Zunar]

Bah, even the spell description was changed to heal pet only....how lame.
I sure hope it won't stay this way....hardly worth losing snare proc for this.