I am doing dps for a group in RoF tier 2 content. I am wondering which pet will be the most beneficial. I believe the water pet to be the best dps .. but I'm wondering if the air pet will stun the trash mobs? I might be willing to trade off some water pet dps for less damage to our tank if the air pet stuns amount to anything. Thanks for the advice.
Air pet will stun any mob that is lvl 100 or lower, presuming that the mob can actually be stunned Having said that, if I am in a group I am using water pet to maximize DPS. Stun is unreliable, and I prefer the pet that does most damage rather than the pet that could possibly potentially stun a mob
I had heard there were problems with air's stuns not getting updated; has that been fixed?, just for RoF? will 91 air stun up to 95? I've been leveling up my team of 4 mages; beastlord, cleric merc...
Air pet stuns work up to the PC max level for the tier of the pet... IE 91 air pet stuns up to level 95 mobs, 96 air pet up to level 100 mobs, if they are stunnable. That being said, IMO, the air pet works fine as a tank for almost all content and provides more dps than the earth pet. Also, the fire pet is about equivalent dps as a water pet and possibly a bit more if only mag/merc buffs are available to the pets, especially if you can put the fire pet in melee range, as well.
Throughout the history of EQ the highest level air pet would always stun mobs up to five levels over the expansion level cap. Beginning with House of Thule expansion, air pets were nerfed to only stun mobs up to the level cap. Example: When EQ player level maxed at level 85, the level 81 air pet would stun mobs up to level 90. (5 levels over expansion cap). This means that for RoF expansion, the level 96 air pet will only stun mobs up to level 100, instead of up to level 105. As a result, for the last two expansions you see mages utilizing earth pets when in zones containing mobs over the current expansion's level cap
If the bulk of the mobs you are fighting are yellow to you at lvl 100, you are doing dps only, go water. If the bulk of the mobs you fight are blue or even to you at lvl 100, air pet can really help mitigate damage on a tank especially if the tank sub par. T1 I've been using air just because the dps the tank takes in is noticeable less. T2 mobs are probably average yellow cons? so water probably better, though I personally havent done much in T2 zones yet. I tank and box a mage and on T1 mobs you can see how much the pet stuns if you move around as you fight.
If the bulk of the mobs are blue, I'm killing more than one at a time, limiting the effectiveness of air's stuns. So I've been using Earth mostly. When fighting 2-4 mobs nuking with our new rain more than 4 I use beam. I was thinking I should use Air vs. single yellows, but I guess I'll stick with Earth. Only my main mage account has RoF, so I've been XP'ing in VoA with cleric and shaman defensive proc buffs (Lethargy/Shining Armor) Shaman short duration HP buff and Cleric HP/mitigation auras.
Depends on the situation, but no, not if the magician is using FBO every time it's available, water will be more dps than fire. 10 minute parse with just mag buffs, EM16 water pet, using FBO for 3 min of every 10 min on a parse dummy, is about 8300 dps, if the water pet is at the parse dummy's back. Fire pet, not in melee range of a parse dummy, using FBO same way, is only about 4200 dps. And that is not using Virulent Talon for either one. Of course, adding most any other toon with any other type buffs, almost exclusively helps water more than fire. Of course, there will be situations where fire pet will out dps a water, but generally, no, water is better is almost all situations.
Guess you have to be within a certain timeframe to edit, wasn't able to parse with fire pet in melee range to check for sure, had to head to work... Fire pet, 10 min parse, with FBO on for 3 min, meleeing the back of the parse dummy's back, same buffs as water pet I parsed at 8068 dps. So, even if have fire pet in melee range of every mob, water should still be a bit more damage, but close, if only using just mag buffs. Frankly, because of our limited, and time consuming requirements about moving the fire pet, in my experience the fire pet rarely is within melee range in group content.
