by Vipers » December 22nd, 2014, 12:28 pm
Ore Eater = SS
This pet seems a little bit stuck with its own abilities. Using Acid Touch + Body Slam forces you into Shell Armor, which in and on itself isn't as great as it looks. The rest of his spells are either redundant or impractical. There isn't much to say, other than PP will be almost always at least one round behind the SS.
Frostfur Rat = SS
You won't find competition to rabbits very easily, especially when they are disguised as pseudo-sweepers with terrible synergy. Sneak Attack forces you into Call Darkness (keep in mind that blindness reduces his accuracy as well) Call Darkness forces you into Crouch, hurting both effects. Critters cannot pull PP without any sort of speed buff or something to hit very hard, especially when there's a 10% accuracy debuff in play. He is 'situational' at best.
Golden Dawnfeather = PP
He wants to be Singing Sunflower but he doesn't know how health percentages work for flying pets. Quills will often be a disappointment, especially with the amount of shell shields floating out there, making peck almost mandatory. Truth is, he won't live long enough to make good use of Reckless Strike, weather you like this reality or not, which leaves you with Peck, Love potion and Hawk Eye... Hey! Did you know that Axebeak Hatchling has Rain Dance and Lift-Off? Just throwing that out here for no reason.
Brilliant Bloodfeather = PP
Slow is a great word to describe this one, slow as in speed and in tempo. Chances are you are going to be playing catch up every time you send in one of those guys into a fight and, unless you can pull a couple of crits pretty quickly, you will not live long enough to see it happening. He can make use of quills with a SS breed, but keep in mind that reducing the number of steps you walk does not make the road any shorter, SS hits are way lower and you can't count on Hawk Eye to help you out on that. Drain blood will merely delay the inevitable.
Thicket Skitterer, Mossbite Skitterer, and Icespine Hatchling = Any
Here's an example of something designed to be used against players on wild encounters only. Gnaw with a top speed of 289 is formidable to kill your lvl 15 leveling pet on the first slot, and that's about it. Body Slam with reduced self damage would be OK if it was not sharing the same slot with Ravage, which is probably the only reason this pet could ever be considered viable. Puncture Wound and Takedown without self-synergy closes the case on this awful, awful, awful example of a purposely bad designed pet.
Parched Lizard = Any
The problem with him is that he has everything and nothing at the same time. He has SS, one of the best breeds in the game, Conflagrate, one of the best elemental spells in the game, Ravage, one of the best spells for grinding, and Claw, an OK filler, and none of these things make him a complete and useful pet. Theoretically, the idea behind him is to create a beast that can counter mechanicals, but we all know you need more than just damage bonus to effectively counter another type.
Flat-tooth Calf, Mudback Calf, & Albino River Calf = HP
This rises a debate much bigger than just bite vs water jet, the debate between HH and HP. To sum up, I tend to keep in mind that power creates bigger shields, and since he can't heal himself his shield is pretty much the only defense he has. That's the only argument I would ever use in defense of HP over HH here. Stoneskin + Headbutt + Filler is boring, his breeds are boring, and everything else about this pet seems to be missplaced. 289 speed is too low for the combo Clobber+Takedown to be viable in pvp.
Forest Sproutling = SS
Refuge + Sons of the Root will make some people roll their eyes during the fight, especially if you have an Unborn Val'kyr or a Crawling Claw to back him off. The great thing about him is that he can make use of Leech Seed, which is a surprisingly difficult spell to combine with anything, but it goes great with Sons of the Root. Slower breeds aren't as effective though.
Nightshade Sproutling = SS
Blinding Poison + Call Darkness could make this guy pretty annoying when paired with his elemental advantage on Darkness, either Lash or Poison Lash have similar usefulness and neither should be blindly (pun not intended) dismissed. Although, this formidable pet suffers the same problem as Flayer Youngling, he's useless if not in his prime breed and with 8 breeds available, be ready to spend some money if you want to get the best out of him.
Sun Sproutling = PP
He is bad against the only thing he counters. His spells are all over the place, and nothing make sense combined with anything. You will have to create an entire team around this guy in order to make him useful, and Blossoming Ancient already excels at the things Sun Sproutling tries to do very poorly. If you ever have the balls to create an entire team to support this pet, then PP is the best way to go, and not even by far. You shouldn't expect much from him.
Firewing = PB
Very unremarkable to say the least. His too obvious combos (Scorched Earth + Murder + Deep Burn / Sunlight + Healing Flame + Alpha Strike) hurt his actions more than help, the fact that he doesn't counter aquatic pets properly makes me uncomfortable and Scorched Earth simply doesn't do enough to justify the damage he takes. Other than that he could be useful in PvE in some very specific situations. Definitely not a pet you should sweat on to get the best of his breeds, and chances are he will be forgotten faster than Phoenix Hatchling was.
Last edited by
Vipers on January 6th, 2015, 2:03 pm, edited 4 times in total.
What do you do with a pen that only works 90% of the time?