Having given up on getting access to Mage Tower, I have started a pet focus article on Fanra's. https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Pet_Focus If you have the time, it would be great if you could add, comment, or give feedback. The intention is to describe what pet focus does, in which scenarios it is most useful (solo/group), and which pet foci are available at which levels. But maybe there should be other info as well? Thanks in advance.
Just put in the wiki that a couple of years ago a single warrior went on a quest to ruin pet's in the game of Everquest so as far as pet focus goes it's really not a huge factor anymore.
Well for a grouping/leveling mage, it is a huge factor, in my personal experience. The level component of the pet focus is indeed _very_ significant for its ability to tank in groups, so I must say I disagree strongly that pets are ruined, speaking from my point of view. We do not have a tank class in my group, so we would not be able to play without the mage pet and its Pet Focs. What I suspect is that pets do not scale well, so that when the mage hit 105, and start raking in end game gear and top level AA, then the pet can no longer tank relevant content, nor hold aggro. I do not know this, because I have not experienced it myself. I think that if Mr. Vdidar could put some more words on the state of pets in the end game in the 3 contexts: Solo/Group/Raid, then I would be happy to write a paragraph in the article that balances the two perspectives.
An unfortunate side effect of the CotF pet nerfs was pet foci being completely neutered. There is still a significant difference between a focused and unfocused pet, but the difference between focus levels is essentially nonexistant. I don't know for certain this is true for pets before RoF, but it is true for RoF and TDS (level 96-105) pets. Specifically, there is no parse-able difference in mitigation or avoidance; a pet with an EM 15 focus takes just as much damage as a pet with an EM 23 focus. There is a slight difference in HP levels, <1% per focus rank, but that isn't going to make much of a difference. In other words, pets don't scale with gear. AAs do help, but going from a bazaar focus to a max raid focus nets you all of 5-6% HP and nothing else.
I wrote this paragraph: A discussion regarding the usefulness of pet foci[edit] Everquest was originally balanced around a concept where mobs 5+ levels higher than the player would hit close to maximum every time, and mobs 5+ levels lower would hit closer to minimum every time. Pets have historically almost always been lower levels than the players, meaning that an even con mob would hit a pet quite hard. Pets over the years increased in ability to tank, going from a very low point around when the game came out (mages would often step in and tank for the pet), to a high point around 2013 where mage pets where some times being used as raid tanks over players. In the end, a balancing effort from the game developers reduced the efficiency of pet tanking, to the level where we are today (fall 2016). Another change that happened over the years was that mobs in the game increased levels. In the group, and especially in the solo game for non-raiders, fighting against light blue and green mobs was quite common early on, where the solo/group game today is to a much higher degree oriented towards even con and up. A perceived consequence is that after a certain point, the increase in pet focus power has almost no effect on game play, especially from the point of view of the player base with the best gear, most AA, and strongest skills. The pet DPS pales when the players DPS increase as much as it does with better gear and more AA, and the stronger players almost always face mobs that are 5+ levels above, meaning that no matter what, the mob will be hitting close to maximum on each hit, all things equal. Going from EM XVI to XXIII does not yield the improvements that a end game player would expect, the pet DPS and tanking ability falls significantly behind. The conclusion is: Pet Focus is very good for the leveling/grouping/soloing players, but leaves a lot to be desired in the End Game
The lack of change between focus levels has nothing to do with high end players fighting mobs 5+ levels beyond their own, which is fairly uncommon. It's also very untrue that mobs 5 levels above a pet's level will be hitting close to maximum on each hit. In general, level has a very small impact on incoming damage. It doesn't matter if you're fighting a blue con, a yellow con, or a red con, pet foci simply won't change the DI distribution or avoidance, and, by extension, pets will take the same amount of damage. I think it's misleading to claim that pet foci have a large impact for grouping/solo players when, based on dozens of hours of actual parses, they don't. For reference, when TDS first came out I took 30 min parses with both our level 96 and 101 air pets on a yellow con parrot IIRC in Brother Island. Here were the distributions: Shard of Air: Buffs: Burnout XI Rk. III, Surety Rk. II Puksu (Sancus) - vs - An eyepecker squawker Real Hits: 2969/3715 - 79.92% 1974: 1313/2969 - 44.22% 2469: 113/2969 - 3.81% 2963: 110/2969 - 3.7% ----------- 11366: 63/2969 - 2.12% Convocation of Air: Buffs: Burnout XII Rk. I, Surety Rk. II Puksu (Sancus) - vs - An eyepecker squawker Real Hits: 2855/3689 - 77.39% 1974: 1298/2855 - 45.46% 2469: 97/2855 - 3.4% 2963: 95/2855 - 3.33% ----------- 11366: 47/2855 - 1.65% This is the impact of a whole new pet spell, with my pet's level increasing by four. The new pet had a whole 1% increased chance to receive DI1, and that was more likely attributable to the RNG. That should illustrate how little level matters with regards to incoming damage. And here's data regarding different pet foci on a blue con (also taken at TDS launch): DI Distribution: EM 21: Puksu (Sancus) - vs - A twisted treespirit Real Hits: 2455/3290 - 74.62% 2298: 1329/2455 - 54.13% 2874: 90/2455 - 3.67% 3450: 75/2455 - 3.05% ----------- 13242: 3/2455 - 0.12% EM 20: Puksu (Sancus) - vs - A twisted treespirit Real Hits: 2436/3231 - 75.39% 2298: 1295/2436 - 53.16% 2874: 68/2436 - 2.79% 3450: 87/2436 - 3.57% ----------- 13242: 5/2436 - 0.21% EM 15: Puksu (Sancus) - vs - A twisted treespirit Real Hits: 2423/3294 - 73.56% 2298: 1272/2423 - 52.5% 2874: 95/2423 - 3.92% 3450: 86/2423 - 3.55% ----------- 13242: 3/2423 - 0.12% All of those numbers are within the margin of error. In other words, pet foci really don't do anything other than very small increases in HP. This is true for end game mages, and it's true for soloing mages.
New paragraph: A discussion regarding the usefulness of pet foci[edit] Defensive: In general, level has a very small impact on incoming damage. It doesn't matter whether the pet is fighting a blue con, a yellow con, or a red con, pet foci won't change the DI distribution or avoidance, and, by extension, pets will take the same amount of damage. (This has been demonstrated by parses made by Sancus, see Discussion page for details) Offensive: Starting with Empires of Kunark, developers have made a change, in order to not only increase pets base accuracy, but also the effect foci has on accuracy. The effects of these changes are still unknown.
So. With the changes to pets, and the fact that there has not been an increased pet Foci in 3 expansions now, are they discontinuing EM upgrades because it is not doing what it used to? There was a time when I switched from Enchanter to Mage because of how great pets are. Is gear for better spell casts much better now?
How are mages/pets looking in beta in general? Third expansion using the same pets (which have been nerfed to heck (thanks warriors)). Can they tank a xp mob? Can they even look at a group named without a real cleric behind them constantly freaking out?
I made an EM XXIII mage in beta, duoed with my shammy boddy, and boxed a bard. We encountered some open world nameds, tanking was not an issue. (As you might have heatd, they have an insane amount of HP) Since EM have very little effect on mitigation, I expect the grouping game to function still with a mage pet as group tank, while a real tank is still far superior, as it should be. Kills are slow, because of mob HP, and pet aggro generation needs to be focused on with AA, etc. Not sure how it looks in a group without a slower.
If I should speculate, then it is that they are holding back, until the tank population is way better than TBM-levels with the new EoK-gear. Giving a pet tanking upgrade with EM ruffles a lot of feathers, and because it is the only way currently besides AA to develop the pet (no persistent gear), then it is a single-item-total-upgrade, which is not so smart. My personal favorite here is pet gear persistence taking the center stage over the strong focus on EM. Pets already benefit from gear, so it would not break the game, and it would make pet upgrades slow and distributed over time and effort, especially if it goes beyond chase items. Pet gear persistence would strengthen the grouping game the most with some added AC and HP (and stats?) (pet dps will never keep pace with development in player dps, I am afraid, too dificult to balance) But I speculate and dream .
The impression I get is that they don't want to put in the time to upgrade EM, and the lack of any discernible impact may very well be a factor. EM 24 items were present in beta, but they were removed because the EM 24 pet templates simply do not exist. If you're asking if gear has a large impact now, the answer is no. Most of our upgrades this expansion were DPS related, meaning pets haven't changed much tanking wise. They did receive new ranks of Companion's Agility and Companion's Sturdiness, but it doesn't even make up for the shielding loss they took a few months ago. For reference, here's an EM 23 Earth pet before and after the new AAs (taken a few weeks ago when the AAs were first added): Before: Tanking summary for: Puksu (Sancus) -- Total Melee -- Damage: 11826233 -- Avg hit: 6681 -- Attempts: 2070 -- Riposted: 37/2070 [1.79%] -- Parried: 24/2033 [1.18%] -- Dodged: 21/2009 [1.05%] -- Blocked: 81/1988 [4.07%] -- Defended: 163/2070 [7.87%] -- Missed: 137/1907 [7.18%] -- Hits: 1770/2070 [85.51%] -- Real Hits: 1770/2070 [85.51%] After: Tanking summary for: Puksu (Sancus) -- Total Melee -- Damage: 10611215 -- Avg hit: 6482 -- Attempts: 1962 -- Riposted: 36/1962 [1.83%] -- Parried: 38/1926 [1.97%] -- Dodged: 29/1888 [1.54%] -- Blocked: 89/1859 [4.79%] -- Defended: 192/1962 [9.79%] -- Missed: 133/1770 [7.51%] -- Hits: 1637/1962 [83.44%] -- Real Hits: 1637/1962 [83.44%] That's a 3% decrease in average hit and a 2% decrease in incoming hits, some of which is likely attributable to the RNG. It's something, but it's certainly doesn't make up for three expansions of stagnation. As far as general ability, they can tank depending on what you're trying to do. EoK mobs don't hit that hard (though there have been changes recently apparently), so tanking a single XP mob with a pet is manageable. If you use an RS pet as an off tank, two mobs is fairly doable, though I've noticed RS dying before I can recast them fairly frequently. Past that it gets very dicey at best. The biggest issue with soloing isn't pets, it's mercs. Mercs also haven't received upgrades in three expansions, and they're at the point where they're struggling to cover the incoming damage of a single mob.
It's necro centric I guess but I have had a compiled list over here: http://necrotalk.com/showthread.php?t=5835
I didn't see very much when I clicked the link, you guys said a warrior edited and destroyed the wiki?
New link: https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Pet_focus Fanra changed the spelling (Pet Focus -> Pet focus)
I have an Oozing Bone Spike which is Enhanced Minion XII. Allakhazam ( http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=17181 ) and EQResources ( http://spells.eqresource.com/spells.php?id=17181 ) agree on the pet spell level range to be 76-100 (your chart says 76-95 - which Alla said a month ago so I'm guessing they fixed their spell parser). I equiped it at 75 and was looking forward to my soon to be awesome pets. My Level 77 Spell Warrior pet was summoned un-focused (lower con than my friend using a muchg lower EM item). My Level 80 Spell Rogue pet was summoned un-focused (lower con than my friend using a muchg lower EM item). My Level 82 Spell Warrior pet was a red /con to me beast that suddenly needed no healing while tanking things. As I understand how pet focus items work there is not a "power percentage" applied to the base pet, but rather there are specific pet mobs dev crafted in a table (including equiped gear). So I think that EMXII is missing the 77 and 80 Necro Pets in said table (at least). Is there anyway to review the table directly (is it in the game files)? I'm semi capable to figure it out (software developer for 40 years, 8-bit assembly -> web stuff, I'm used to figuring out arcane code/data structures with no documentation or prior knowledge) and semi volunteering if someone can show me the table. I'm not sure there is any (realistic) way to test this broadly. Once I'm 105, I'd being willing to cast each pet spell with each pet focus that I have equiped (and I have about a ten collected.. I play games to shop .. but you also need people of the correct levels to /con each pet as they are summoned to detect the changes. TL/DR - EMXII is not 76-95 for Necros, it's 81-?
Em 23 focus pet hits for max crit 8540 no buff no given items . water pet lvl 102 spell used No Focus hits for max crit 6573 no buffs no given items .water pet lvl 102 spell If anyone wants to add different level focus here using just a summoned pet with no buffs or items I thank you for your time .... Yi Min
