LU24 Pet/buff changes patched to Test - What Changed

Okay, the one you've all been waiting for. Pet and pet buff changes, though not announced in the Test patch notes from overnight, seem to have been part of the build as well.

I've spent a good part of the wee-hours of the morning getting new screenshots of everything, doing comparisons to my old screenies, and preparing images on all the changes here for you all.

As always, these numbers are subject to change as they tweak the publish. General caveat.

I'll provide a general overview in this post, and follow up with seperate posts for each of the various sections that have changes. Makes it a bit easier to organize that way.


Overview of Necromancer Pet and Pet Buff Changes with LU24

Assassin Pet:
Most CAs damage reduced
Change made to description of CA stifle effects
Inherent pet DPS mod removed

Tank Pet:
Graven Frenzy damage reduced
Change made to description of CA stifle effects

Warlock Pet:
No changes

Pet Buffs:
Howl of the Damned (offensive buff) increase to Disruption, Subjugation and Focus bonus

General Commentary:

All comparisons were done from screenshots before and after the first LU24 patch to Test, as an ungrouped level 70 Necromancer. Pets were possessed, and CAs and Persona windows examined. No pet buffs were active, though my personal buffs (Magi's Shielding, Favor of the Infernal adept III, and Teachings of the Underworld master I) were present - I forgot to turn them off for the 'before' screenies, so just made sure they were active on the 'after' ones as well, to normalize comparisons.

Pets compared were Nightshade adept III, Grim Heretic adept I, and Undying Dreadnought adept III, before and after.
Pet buffs compared were Grisly Bulwark adept III, Howl of the Damned adept III, Necromantic Brand adept I, and Rending Fervor adept III, before and after.

Unilaterally, the changes to descriptions of pet CA stifle effects are in listing duration reductions and immunity periods for stifles against Epic targets, although each affected pet CA still labels it as not affecting Epic targets. My guess is that code adding descriptions of duration and immunity for Epic targets was simply flowed out to all stifle, stun, mez type abilities, and that these pet CAs do not now affect Epics, though I'll try to get a clarification from SOE QA on this.

Alright then, on to the screenies and specifics.

Out of interest our scout pet now does what sort of auto attack damage?

Assassin Pet Changes

CAs before and after:





Summary of CA changes:

Acidity:
Recast timer increased from 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds
Damage reduced from 229-382 every 4 seconds to 195-324 every 4 seconds

Unseen Blade:
Damage reduced from 572-954 to 501-835

Throat Gash:
Initial hit damage reduced from 286-477 to 214-357
DoT component damage reduced from 61 every 4 seconds to 57 every 4 seconds

Shadestrike:
Damage reduced from 1145-1908 to 858-1431

Shadowy Garrote:
Stifle duration reduced from 3.8 seconds to 3.5 seconds
Additional text regarding duration and immunity period vs. Epics added (though CA still states 'If Target is not Epic')

Poisoned Spike:
Initial hit damage reduced from 214-357 to 178-298
DoT component damage reduced from 76 every 3 seconds to 57 every 3 seconds.

Pet Stat Changes:



Pet Stats:
Native DPS mod removed. All other stats unaffected.

Assessment:

I think that most were assuming the assassin pet would be the hardest hit, and here it is. All damage reduced across the board on CAs, with the exception of Shadowy Garrote. Auto attack damage reduced with the removal of the DPS mod.

Those who parse regularly will be able to work up percentages of lost DPS, if interested. Others will notice the decline in groups or on raids by feel. But then, on the upside, raiding Necromancers using the Assassin pet may not need to have her stop attacking periodically to control her hate gains - trial and error will tell best there.

Since I knew you all would be chomping at the bit to get these changes posted here, I didn't take the time yet to get in game and try her out - just wanted to get the numbers and screenies posted as quickly as possible. I'll test her out in both solo and group, and should have a chance to watch her raid performance by the weekend.

Onward to Tank pet changes...

Message Edited by Deila on 05-11-2006 06:49 AM

Tank Pet Changes

Affected CAs, before and after:







Summary of CA changes:

Graven Frenzy:
Damage per hit reduced from 212-354 to 184-307

Graven Breath:
Additional text regarding duration and immunity period vs. Epics added (though CA still states 'If Target is not Epic')

Graven Assault:
Additional text regarding duration and immunity period vs. Epics added (though CA still states 'If Target is not Epic')

Assessment:

With our tank pets already being iffy on their ability to hold aggro, and seemingly random use of his CAs which have a taunt component, I'm very nervous about the damage reduction in Graven Frenzy. In my observations, his ability to hold aggro at all is a combination of occasional taunt-CA use coupled with Graven Frenzy - all too often, a mob will start to peel to me while soloing, and it's Graven Frenzy that snaps it back on my pet. When I was observing tank pet CA use during the period where our Rending line of buffs was flipping out, Graven Frenzy appeared to be his favorite attack - he used that more than any other CA, consistently.

I'm really going to be watching this one, to make sure that soloability is not affected. No one in their right mind can say that Necromancers were doing too much damage with out Tank pets - I don't see any reason why damage reductions should have occured at all with any of the tank CAs. The only possible outcome is lessened hate gains for the tank pet - and that's a step backward.




On next to buffs...

Hey Vyviel,
I'm a fairly new necromancer, my main is a Fury. But i have fallen in love with the class and don't think i'll be going back. But with that said, I have a question for you or anyone that is willing to answer.
Do you feel that we can make up for our pets lost DPS if we upgrade our spells to the max or as close as possible? I am really afraid that I will be virtually unable to solo since SOE tends to really overdue things. The thought that changes are coming worries me because of what they did to my ranger that I invested lots of time into. I don't understand why they feel the need to nerf us down to T2 dps, when they give us all T1 class dps pets. :smileysurprised:
Starting to see the bigger picture here,... All classes will soon be the same; just have different names...:smileysad:
I really hope this nerf cloud has a silver lining. :smileyindifferent:

Crysiz - 63 Fury/Isyz - 56 Ranger/Kiramon 43 Necromancer/ Mhotep - 32 Monk/ Joadai - 26 Coercer
Crushbone Server / Officer of The Realm of Solace
Message Edited by DarkzFlamez on 05-11-2006 07:10 AM

Pet Buff Changes
Affected Pet Buff, before and after:


Summary of Pet Buff Changes:
Howl of the Damned: The only change on any of our pet buffs is an increase in the Disruption, Subjugation and Focus bonus on the offensive stance, from 28 to 42.
Assessment:
Well, at least it's not a nerf. Slight increases in pet offensive skills may aid Necromancers fighting higher yellow and orange con mobs, though likely only a nominal advantage, and likely only showing any effect while grouped or raiding. I was pleasantly surprised to see that haste mods on Howl were unaffected, as were any of the Berserk effects from the Rending line - I actually expected to see reductions in haste and DPS there, but perhaps it was felt that was covered in the Assassin pet CAs' damage reduction sufficiently. My guess is that it's the Conjurors that are getting hit in the pet buff department.

hello,
i am new to necro class and am wondering how to go about checking my pet's info as you did. i am a L12 necro. do i need a certain spell? you mentioned "possesing" your pets, how is this done?

thanks

Well... here's the thing. Looking just at damage output, our primary damage dealer has normally been our pet (assassin or warlock), followed by dumbfire pets, and then finally our personal spell casting. Which makes perfect sense, since we're a pet class. You'll see that balance shift away from pet damage as primary if we're using our tank pets, since his role is to soak (eat) damage for us and hold the mob's attention. Even when using the tank pet for soloing, it's still a pretty close call between dumbfires and our other spells.
Upgrading the quality of your other spells will always increase your overall DPS, yes. It would before or after pet damage nerfs. If what you're asking is, 'can I get back to where I was damage-wise before the LU by upgrading my other spells?', that depends mostly on where your spells are now. If you'd be upgrading everything from apprentice level to masters, then yeah - good chance you'd even exceed where you were before. If it's more of an adept I to adept III upgrade.... well, it helps, but I'm not sure if it'd end up being as much or more than the pre-nerf assassin pet damage was. I just haven't had time to get out there and play with her yet with her reduced damage.
Mind you also - all of my comparisons posted here are based on being level 70, with end-line pets at adept III (adept I on the warlock pet). It's unknown if it was flat percentages of reductions applied across the board, since we don't have anything other than my example yet to look at. Lower tier pets (Shadowy Assassin or Stalker) may or may not have equivalent reductions, nor do we know yet if master pets and adept I pets follow a similar reduction progression. So... hard to say how lower level Necromancers will be affected. The data is limited.
In the end though, this is what I think. Anyone who rolled a Necromancer solely to be high-end DPS may find themselves disappointed after LU24. Anyone who rolled a Necromancer because they fell in love with the style of playing the class - pet use, flexibility in role, soloability, DoTing and using health to accomplish things - will be able to easily adapt to changes in damage output alone. After all, very little will change in the style of Necromancer gameplay - the top end of damage output has just been reduced. Those of us who remember Necromancy before LU13 know all-too-well what it's like to be weak as a class - but we still loved to play it. These changes do not have any resemblance to those poor old days (yet - I'm going to watch tank pet hate generation closely though, and badger devs if it affects soloability), so it's not going to be that bad, I don't think.
Not to mention - let's all remember that it's mostly our assassin pet that was hit. We have two other pets as well, and you never know what might happen with creative, flexible thinking. We might adjust our playstyles a bit, and shore up some shortcomings. Never can tell.
A bit rambly, yes, but... that's my style. Hope it helped a bit.

I have no idea. Haven't had a chance to play yet - been so busy getting all this data ready to show you all.
For the record, I've never been a parser, so I don't really know what the numbers were on her anyway. Assume that her auto attack damage will be around 75% of where it was, due to the removal of the 33% DPS mod (if my math is good at this hour in the morning, without enough coffee still... shudder...)

Possess Minion is the entry Achievement ability that Summoners get. If you have Kingdom of Sky registered, once you hit level 20 you can start earning Achievement XP in a variety of ways. Once you have reached Achievement Level 1, you spend your Achievement point to buy the skill.
Possess Minion allows you to.... well, possess your pet, for 30 seconds, during which time you control your pet directly. Pet combat abilities and spells appear on your hotbars in place of your own, which can then be examined like any other spell or item. Looking at the Persona window while possessing your pet will show its stats rather than yours.
That's how it's done.

so during the time my pet is possessed and i have his skills/spells i can cast them as if i were him? does my pet not cast/use CA's as soon as available? can i use my own spells during this 30 seconds? whats the recast timer on possession? can i cancel it? hmmmmm so much to learn!

thank you much

Well thanks for the information u are laying out for us Vyviel, at least it gives us a heads up on what to expect, rather than everyone speculating what will happen at least we have a better idea now thanks again.

Since I solo most the time with my Necro, it would be nice if they did something to improve the tank pets agro to offset the changes they are making. Btw, thanks for going through all the trouble and doing the comparison for everyone!!

Thank you for doing this Deila.

It doesnt look horrible, but I am concerned that they actually thought the tank pet was doing too much damage, but what can you do.

While possessing your pet, you can use their abilities as if you were him, yes.
In my observations, your pet does not always use their abilities whenever they are available. It seems to be random. Hard to tell though, I admit - I base that observation when I was digging through the combat spam with a Rotting Thrall back in my mid-40s for a couple of days analyzing his CA use. There were many fights where he simply never used an attack with a taunt component - since he hadn't used one, they clearly were ready to go, but were just never used. Why I think it's just random.
While possessing your pet, you cannot use your own spells. You're in their body for that time.
Reuse time on Possess MInion is 3 minutes, and it can be cancelled early by right-clicking the icon in your Effects window, and choosing Cancel, like any other sustained spell.

Thanks Vy. Your great :smileyvery-happy:

Good info and am quite relieved, not too bad a nerf for now even the tank pets CA change i doubt will cause a huge problem as the damage isnt that different.

Ya, I'm surprised on the tank pet changes. Mine seems to have a hard time finishing mobs off of equal level let alone do real damage... :smileyindifferent:

In a raid setting,

from current parses,

33% reduction in auto-attack damage + 25% reduction in shadestrike + 12-15% reduction in all other CA's works out to be a overall reduction of
25% in scout pet damage which is equivalent to 12.5% of total necromancer damage

Message Edited by prince_sd on 05-11-2006 08:05 AM

You're welcome.
Yeah, well... I'll be poking around on this tank CA thing to see what's up with it. As I said above, I really doubt anyone (anyone educated about Necromancers, that is) thought our tank pets were too powerful, so it's possible that this one could be reversed without too much trouble. Especially if I can show that it's reducing basic tank pet aggro generation for soloing, if it does indeed come to that.
Lockeye did say (well, okay, I'm paraphrasing) in his nerf warning post that soloability shouldn't be affected all that much. I'm still convinced that Graven Frenzy represents about half of our tank pet's aggro generation overall, and reducing that, for pet-tanking soloers (like myself), will hurt. Tank pets are already shaky on holding aggro, as we all know.
Take a look sometime through the combat spam after fights, and watch over the course of several. Let me know if you see the same things I have - Graven Frenzy seems to be one of el-Tanko's favorites. I've also noticed that very often when a mob starts thinking about peeling to me, but snaps back on the pet, it's that triple-hit of pet damage numbers from Graven Frenzy flying off the mob's head right when he snaps back around to my pet. Graven Frenzy's a very important CA, so long as the taunt-component CAs are not being used reliably.