HI hi everyone! I am a new player to EQ2. Well sort of, I played for about a month at launch, but that's about it. I came back last week to play with an old old friend, and so far I've been having a great time! I just hit 30 on my beast, and now I have the ability to level up my pets. My question is are there certain pets that I will most often use that I can focus on leveling, or should I take the time to level each of the pets I have? Maybe there is a go-to pet for soloing, one for DPS in group, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime I will just start leveling them all. Thanks in advance everyone! Jojo
Each one you level up unlocks an ability, so eventually you want to do them all, but I would do canine, cat, avian, bear, bat, frog and boar first while under level 81. Those would give enough abilities to cover most of what are looking for.
Don't do them all right away. You're going to slit your wrists and give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome/arthritis trying to fully master them all. There's some useless ones. I raided, pvp'd, and did challenge mode stuff with these on my BL. Learn these first, then do the rest if you want. Avian, Bat, (Bear for the pet for solo tanking), Canine, Dire, Drake, Feline, Mystical I also have Bear, Bovid, Rodent, Insect. Bear is weak ability, but pet is good. Rodent & Bovid are weak. Anyway, if you're bored, feel free to complete the rest. BLs are being looked at for the next expansion. Maybe the weak/pointless ones will be scaled better.
Best to level warders up on orange+ mobs, heroics, epic raid mobs as you level along. Those that have issues with leveling warders just don't understand the basics. Warder has to connect a hit on the mob, then the Beastlord uses an Advantage (1 through 4). • Once Advantage #1 pops up, the warder has connected a hit. Hit 1 asap. • Then either kill the mob or let the warder get more connected hits in before killing it. ¤ If the warder does not connect a hit, no advantages will appear. If you kill the mob, the warder gets 0 experience. Warders will level up on anything that gives you experience, though more difficult mobs give far more experience. Before taking on more challenging mobs it should be at least level 4. EQ2Wire has an excellent guide on Beastlords & their Warders.
Thanks everyone for the replies, they are much appreciated. So after I do an advantage and allow my pet to get a hit in, is it advantageous to let him get more hits in? Will he get more exp the more hits he gets, or does he gain a set amount just for landing a hit on the mob?
Unless they changed it since DoV, it only gets 1 point of affinity per kill. As your pet's affinity reaches toward the max 1000 affinity, it takes more kills per affinity point. About 2-3 kills in the last 300 or 100, iirc.
Thanks, Jrel. Although I must admit I'm a little bit more confused now. You are saying the warder gets 1 point per kill, but Idaho says killing more difficult mobs provides more exp. So I'm not sure if i should blow through normal mobs making sure to get affinity for each, or if I should be killing heroics. Thanks again to both of you! Jojo
Use "pooka beastlord affinity pet window" to see the affinity amount and see how much affinity you're getting heroic versus solo. I thought it was just 1 point per kill only unless it has been changed after DoV. Idaho might be correct. I only finished leveling my warders primarily in Dungeon Finder since it was significantly faster and easier due to availability of mobs. XP Bliss was the dungeon I think. http://www.eq2interface.com/downloads/info5084-pookabeastlordwarderaffinitypetwindow.html
For leveling the warder, you need to use an advantage, then use a regular combat art or autoattack. I think a primal will also work but I'm not sure. You'll know you did it right if it says you gained affinity with your warder in your log. Therefore, you want to fight mobs which offer a little resistance and avoid stuff that dies before you can do the above. I just like to go through dungeons and kill heroics. Fighting yellow heroics with a merc should do it. Likewise fighting in spiritual stance (since it does less damage). As for which warders to level that depends on what abilities you want. I'd suggest taking the time to inspect each one and ask yourself if you'd use the ability it gives you. Some abilities require attacking from stealth and some from flanking or behind. What works for one person may not work for another. For example, I give low priority to abilities which require striking from stealth but other people apparently like them from the responses above. I don't think I have a bat warder above level 1 on any of my beastlords and I haven't missed it. But other warders I max as fast as I can when I get them (such as the drake when I get tame exotic -- LOVE that .AoE) You have to decide what you like and it will probably be different from what some others playing beastlords like. Also, don't forget that your warders have AAs too and the endline will give you another ability you can use when you have that warder up. The abilities you get for maxing out a warder are nicer since you don't have to have that particular warder up to use the ability it gave; but still more abilities can be nice. I don't try to powerlevel warders. Talk about giving yourself pain. Instead I just go about my business and whenever one warder maxes out I put it away and start with another. I do try to spend a lot of time in dungeons or any other places where the mobs don't die too quickly. Make sure you get at least one defensive warder early on such as the bear. If your warder dies you're kinda SOL until you can get it back up. There's a line of AA abilities on the beastlord tree which includes a death save for your warder. There's a quest in Butcherblock which will give you a potion which will instantly grandmaster whatever warder you have out when you take it. Think very carefully about which warder you want to use it on. On my last beastlord (I have 4 including 2-95s) I held onto it until I got exotic warders and used it on the mystical (the defensive exotic warder). You can get tame exotic warder at 80 if you do your AAs right. EQ2i has a very nice section on beastlords and beastlord warders and categorizes all the warders between offensive and defensive. As I mentioned, make sure you get at least one defensive early on. Also, there's a quest to learn tame insect warder which you might want to do.
