I'm not a big pet class player, and am wondering is there still a benefit to summoning weapons for your mage / necro pets? Or giving them other non-summoned weapons? If I remember correctly from way back in the day, if you gave a weapon to the pet, it would now use the delay of that weapon, but not the damage. Therefore it was great to give pets FS daggers or any other low delay weapon. Is this still the case? Maybe I'm not remembering correctly though...perhaps this removed fixed a LONG time ago? If that is still the case, then in theory it would be better to give your summoned pet a Summoned Dagger vs. Summoned Fang. It's lower delay. But the dmg/delay ratio on the Fang is better. But a FS dagger would be even better yet. Also, do you even still have to give mage pets summoned weapons anymore? Somebody in game the other day was saying that a mage pet automatically has the capabilities of any summoned weapon up to that level of the pet. Is that true? And if it is true, can you still improve it by giving it non-summoned weapons? Thanks in advance for any info on this...
I'm not sure about the delay; I suspect that it has been fixed. There is some advantage to giving pets in certain (low) level ranges two weapons so that they dual wield; I believe that is still in effect. But the main reasons to give pets weapons are two: procs, and stats That's why we always give pets summoned weapons at the higher levels, and some looted weapons, when they drop. A pet can equip Fists of Ixiblat from level 10, which is the most useful low level mage summoned weapon (mages can summon them at 61-65 somewhere).
What Borek said, plus as I recall: Mage pets have different rules compared to necro/bst pets, which again differ from Shm/dru/enc pets due to the focus items. Mage pets over level 70 which are focused will come with a full set of current armor but not weapons. Many of the mage summoned pet toys significantly boost a low level pet by the stats, and many higher level summoned armor have no level restrictions. the weapon delay determines which weapon is used when the pet has multiple options. If you give it a faster weapon than it has, it will use it. For the most part, the Twinking pets thread at NecroTalk is the best place for this sort of info, and it appears to still be reasonably current since people continue to post to it. People even posted that the pet items can be augmented on FV server since most items are tradeable.
I'm pretty bad: If it isn't going to make me rich, I drop it on the pet. Seems to work for Defiant armor and the pet will chose what weapon to use. I still have a lot of leftover junk from the old days, stuff like a bag of Wakizashi of the Frozen Skies. I'll put it on my to do list to check if they dual wield and dual process.
My druid dropped two Wakizashi on a mage level 61 air pet. Both showed up with a nice oriental sword graphic. With dual wielding it was just a constant stream of sparkles and frost damage. Frost spells was doing 78 points of damage compared to 61-83 for slash. Short test, slashes and kicks 14, Frost Rift 1. Moved on to a tougher monster two pull. Seem like process was going off right and left. There was much rejoicing as it seemed monster health was dropping much faster. Then gladness turned to sadness "You have been disconnected." "You already have a character logged in. Would you like us to remove them from the world?" I click yes and try to log back in. Lost group which meant the tank and healer mercs were not in sync, druid died, elemental died, mage gated out, Wakizashi gone. Still rusty, takes me too long to figure out what is going on.
This thread may be of interest to you: http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3947 What others have said about lower level pets and summoned weapons is true, the stats and procs can help quite a bit. Higher level (level 90+) pets will still get a benefit from summoned weapons but it won't be as noticeable. Mage water pets will backstab from any position if they have weapons but have to be behind a mob to backstab if they don't have weapons. As for the delay thing, it's mostly irrelevant these days. For a more in depth education regarding pets, gear, weapons, etc. look through these threads: http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5
Well, I used to think that, until I looked at the stats on the pet toys mages can summon... IF you get the right set, you can boost your pet's health by 1600? hitpoints easily, and add some DPS on the procs as low as level 10 on the pet... for low levels, get a mage summoned "Folded pack of spectral plate"... that's a click to open bag, but it has some plate armor, and a Summoned: Spectral Belt (AC: 35 - STR: +50 - DEX: +50 - STA: +50 - AGI: +50 - HP: +1600 Shielding: +4% Spell Shield: +4%) if you get any newer, you'll have to have a level 65 pet (or higher all depends on the requirements for that set of armor (weapons too))for it to wear it... all of the spectral plate should still be with no level on it... then the pet toys... they start with Summoned: Hand of Ixiblat.. Skill: Hand to Hand Atk Delay: 20 - DMG: 10 - DMG: 3 - HP: +50 - procs a 22 (level 1) to 220 (level 100) nuke on it at level 10 or higher on the pet... the pet procs do get stronger, next toy is like level 40, then to the 50s and soon it's 65+ but by the time one can summon a level 90 pet, some of the mage summoned weapons have procs that are hitting 900+ when they proc... but at that end, they also have procs for adding or removing some hate instead of just a nuke... and combine it with the mask for haste, which starts not bad, the top one currently for pet levels 70+ not only adds 23percent worn haste to add to the pet's spell buff haste (if any), it also adds attack, some regen, some hit points, strength, accuracy and armor class... still, it's personal preference... but I made friends with a mage real quick, until I decided to make my own, aka raise a mage... oh yeah, they're all temporary (no rent in old terms) but one can store them in a house or guild hall (weapons only, and have to be placed individually...) or all of the summoned pet toys can be kept in a house's closet... one can get a decent boost out of these, if your pet lives thru fights...
