Is the new haste component slowing down our pet DPS? It seems like it might be, but I do not parse or anything.....
Yes, it was noted in this thread: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/test-update-09-11-2018-new-bugs-only.251383/ The Dev indicated in a reply it should be fixed next patch, meanwhile, pets will be slowed.
It really sucks that this went live. For now, I would heavily recommend blocking Theft of Essence (/blockspell add pet 49680). I appreciate that the devs were trying to add Haste to Theft of Eseence; it's something I've wanted for a while. However, pushing changes live that weren't on test is really bad, and that's how we ended up in this situation. The consequence is that most Mages and people grouping with Mages will have their pets perma-slowed for the next 4 weeks, as spells aren't hotfixable. Those that block Theft of Essence will lose its significant benefits, but it seems to be the lesser of two evils.
It is almost like there should be a server that we could log into (which we both did) to parse this type of thing... Literal entire purpose of Test is to weed out things like this, and it got completely bypassed. Takes all of 10 seconds to realize this is a giant slow. Bravo.
Well to be fair even if it was sent to test it would have still gone to live. Many many many many things reported on test over the years but still go live. It gets well documented and still goes live. The devs then act like it was a surprise and don't know how it wasn't caught with plenty of documentation. Many problems found in the patches on test are never fixed before live. I'm not blaming anyone, but it's why people don't bother to go test things. People only test to know what is really going on, but not to resolve the problems. For years now live has been the beta and test server
The issue is, this was clearly the opposite of what was intended. The intention was to increase pet haste, not decrease their haste by 75%. That gets fixed in about 10 seconds with just adjusting numbers. This was literally misinformation with the developers leading to a nerf. Not saying things do not get by, but this would have been adjusted before the patch hit today.
It is the opposite of what was intended but over the years many things were inadvertently done and we're documented and still failed yo get through. I don't have faith that if it was documented that a Damn thing would have been done about it until after the patch.
I sometimes think the purpose of Test is just to see whether a patch completely destroys the server and makes the game unplayable. As long as everything doesn't crash then the patch is good to go. Although, in this case I think it worked out rather well!