Druid pet armor?

[Jontas]

I've put leather and hide armor on my dog, so I assume he has the same restrictions as druids. Chain medium armor did not work.

Something I've noted from both Arti and Druid: items with ! or X on them on your dog; they are based on whether YOU can use the items, not your pet.

Sadly, I have tried with my level 7 druid and +2 leather armor minlvl 2 that showed no yellow exclamation mark on my druid, did show one when on the wolf.

Non-proficiency?

When I tried to put robes and outfits on the wolf, I got told that was an incompatible slot. Of course, both can be worn fine by the druid themself.

[Jontas]

Any hints, which armours are supposed to fit the wolf?

[Trifikas]

I think just Leather and Hide. I have leather on mine. The yellow ! pops up when he equips it, but it doesn't seem to be penalizing him in any way.

[Deeds]

I was able to put a Keen edge +2 Collar on my wolf. The Leather Armour I added & the collar both show the yellow ! , but I can see the Armor value increase when I put it on him by watching the stats when you slot it.

My wolf can take a beating and dish it out too. I put a lot of points into strength for my weapons damage when I customized at startup. Not sure if that helps my pet or just me though.

[Sylvado]

Wolves are being tweaked in U15 but the only comment I've seen so far is that they will have 'reasonable' damage. My wolf was still near the top of the kill count in Weapons Shipment with me at 19 and a party of a 22 barb and a 20 Paladin. My concern is in what 'reasonable' is. I intend to run the rift which will take me to 20 then LR to tweak things, not sure if I should keep augment summoning.

[JasonJi72]

I too thought the wolf was inferior to the arty dog in the early mid levels, because he seemed to die a lot and/or require healing. While soloing the quest with the Dueregar in Ataraxia with an elite bravery bonus, I noticed something about my wolf. I was clearing out the trash during the boss fight, and my wolf decided to take on the boss by himself. I thought, oh well, he will die soon, but he did not die. Not only was I amazed at how little damage he took, but at how fast he killed the boss. From then on, wolfie was always welcome by my side.

The wolf also seems to be more survivable and does more damage than the arty dog at level 20. Currently, I think I am using a wounding collar and +5 studded with greater false life, and I am looking for better options.

In order to pull collars, you have to set your loot the be available by class. I am not sure if it is 100% true, but I went to 12 or 15 without ever pulling a collar until I switched to 'loot by class'. Now I pull them all the time.

Wolf power:

Early levels - Awesome
Early to Mid - Squishy
Mid to Late - Exceptional
Late - Very good

IMHO of course.

[deahamlet]

JasonJil: the druid pet is borked atm. he will get fixed on Monday ... no more uber DPS from the druid pet anymore!

[chance2000]

My Druid Simigtsix is level 20
My Dog wears the Parasitic Breast Plate. Think his ac is like 44
They can wear Hide, Leather, and Padded.
As for weapons, all Arti weapon mods have been changed to a collar.
Mine has a paralyzer on and I carry a smiter, disruptor, and banisher.

[Sylvado]

Jason, you can get almost any collar you need from handwraps in the AH.

[Cardoor]

JasonJil: the druid pet is borked atm. he will get fixed on Monday ... no more uber DPS from the druid pet anymore!

That is a shame, I ran him with the battlecat (panther) and they had similar kill counts. The only difference was that the wolf died more.

If they are just fixing a specific bug, that's ok, but his general damage should definitely not be nerfed.

My druid is now lvl 20 (was probably lvl 4 or so when i posted above). The exclamation point appeared on every armor my wolf could equip, but never seemed to cause a penalty.

[jsaving]

Wolf power:

Early levels - Awesome
Early to Mid - Squishy
Mid to Late - Exceptional
Late - Very good

IMHO of course.

I'm glad you've seen such strong benefits from the wolf. My experience hasn't been quite as favorable:

Early levels - Awesome, but not needed
Early to Mid - Solid, though only occasionally needed
Mid to Late - Mediocre
Late - Quite poor

Now, I tend to hit above-level content, so YMMV. But once I left Gianthold, I found the wolf dies so quickly that he's rarely worth calling -- and on the rare occasions when I do call him, it's only because his high melee DPS lets him potentially "spike" a tough foe before he perishes. If the devs do follow through on reducing his damage, I won't even use him for that, so he'll only make an appearance when it's time for lever/switch duty.

On the armor issue, leather/hide definitely works along with some named/crafted armor too. I believe I had one of the Gianthold turn-in armors equipped on my wolf for a while, for example. It's amazing how many druids in-game don't have their wolf wearing any armor at all, because they once tried chain or plate and it didn't work. (And you definitely do need armor on your wolf if he's to make a meaningful contribution in mid to late game.)

[Gadget2775]

Wolf definitely seems squishy at lower levels. Think there's something wrong with its fortification values that may be causing some of that. For example, equipping leathers with mod fort shows 0% on the pets character sheet. The Augment Summon feat combined mod fort shows 100%, but it still seems get 1 shot on a pretty regular basis.

[susiedupfer]

I crafted Life Shield of Invulnerability leather armor on both druid and wolf until level 16.

A side note about collars. Paralyzing collars are awesome. Put one on him ASAP.

[Havok.cry]

From what I understand the wolf can wear any armor not made of metal, other than pajamas.

[Wightscion]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the new armor prefixes that were introduced in the recent update. Like Skirmish, Feycraft, Celestial etc. These can all be crafted with higher ACs than there normal non-tagged cousins.

At level 13, my wolf is using some crafted +5 Feycraft Leather of Mobility. I have Augment Summon, and buff him to the gums with barkskin, bears endurance, bulls strength, resist, animal growth, and that one spell that increases fortification--the wolf pretty much rolls over everything for about 4 minutes until Animal Growth needs a recast. I do not know if this will change at higher levels, but for now it rocks.

I gave up on Hide on the wolf. It does not seem to give any Physical Resistance to the wolf. I do not know if this is due to the ranger levels or what, but I feel there is no point in him wearing it if he can't get Physical Resistance, gets higher ACs from the Feycraft (or whatever) Leathers, and can fill out the max dex of leather.

[Sylvado]

My wolf has spiritcrafted armor of stability, it allows for the 14 he gets from dex and another 2 for true neutral for a total of 51.

[hermespan]

Wolf definitely seems squishy at lower levels. Think there's something wrong with its fortification values that may be causing some of that. For example, equipping leathers with mod fort shows 0% on the pets character sheet. The Augment Summon feat combined mod fort shows 100%, but it still seems get 1 shot on a pretty regular basis.

Augment summons & ship buffs are all I've used... After reading this thread I'll put some armor on him :-p outside of trying to run elites that were 2 levels above me, he simply doesn't die. I easily blitz anything at level. It's actually comically easy. I soloed Shan to kor normal at level and he never fell below half hp. Even my non-companion summons rarely die.

Then again I'm only at level 5. I'll post my build tomorrow. He does have rage off the top of my head. His str/dex/con were @ 22 when raging at level 4. Even ogres haven't hurt him much. They die really fast. I'll post more details (build, gear etc) tomorrow after sleepies :-) its late... Time for bed. Also this toon is not a tr or twinked.

[hermespan]

Augment summons & ship buffs are all I've used... After reading this thread I'll put some armor on him :-p outside of trying to run elites that were 2 levels above me, he simply doesn't die. I easily blitz anything at level. It's actually comically easy. I soloed Shan to kor normal at level and he never fell below half hp. Even my non-companion summons rarely die.

Then again I'm only at level 5. I'll post my build tomorrow. He does have rage off the top of my head. His str/dex/con were @ 22 when raging at level 4. Even ogres haven't hurt him much. They die really fast. I'll post more details (build, gear etc) tomorrow after sleepies :-) its late... Time for bed. Also this toon is not a tr or twinked.

Edit Here's the build:
Today I twinked him a little. Had an Abishai set in bank. Got a moderate fort belt.
Helf w/Cleric Dilletante (will respec this, bad decision... switch to monk?)

With ship buffs...

Druid(5):
122 HP
324 SP
AC 18
DR 1/- (base, 3/- when intimidating)
30% elemental resists
Saves:
+14/+7/+12

75% Fort

Str 22
Dex 11 (dumped)
Con 22
Int 8 (dumped, no item)
Wis 22 (all level ups going here)
Cha 13

Feats:
Augment Summons
Call Wolf Companion
Wild Shape (wolf then bear)
Toughness

Enhancements:
Druid Aggravate I (When I Intimidate, adds DR)
Bestial Nature I (spelled wrong in description)
Druid Blood Moon Frenzy (no brainer)
Shifting Rake I & II (more on this and VH-I later)
Vengeful Hunter I
Elven Dex I
Helf Trip
Racial Toughness I
Druid Energy of the Locus I
Druid Strength
Druid Wisdom
Druid Toughness I

Spells
L1 Jump/Ram's Might/Magic Fang/Takedown
L2 Pack Presence/Resist/Barkskin
L3 Vigor/Cure Moderate

Companion...
Again with ship buffs

HP 116
SP 91
AC 24

Saves:
+11/+11/+5

0% Fort
30% elemental resists

STR 25
DEX 25
CON 25
INT 13
WIS 18
CHA 15

Enhancements:
Cunning Wolf II (-20% threat gen)
Wolfpack Tactics I(+2 to sneak attack to-hit, may be overkill)
Wolf Takedown I(trip)
Wolfpack Bite I(+3 sneak attack damage)
Raging Wolf I(+4 STR/CON, 30 seconds duration + Con duration bonus, fatigue on ending)



Playstyle:
Buff companion and summons w barkskin and magic fang. I run in, Normal intimidate, attack. Pets come in quickly behind me and sneak attack. If anything aggros the pets I helf intimidate (on separate timer). I've set up druid as intimidator, companion/summons as sneak attackers, so enhancement choices on druid and companion reflect this.

Companion out dps's me so I am maximizing his dps (with sneak attack) and minimizing the damage he takes. The Helf intimidate and normal intim are on 2 different timers. By the time I use them both, stuff is usually all dead. When I intimidate, my DR goes up which helps me tank. If it's a big fight I start Vigor on myself before running in. Since I'm the target, I really only need to worry about healing myself during fights. I heal the others afterwards, unless things get messy.

At higher level I'll need to see what will have to change but this works like gangbusters so far at low level. I'll naturally need to increase my AC or reverse the roles at some point.

Planned progression for prestige and enhancements is Nature's Warrior(not Warden!)/Harrier/Roar.

I had a pathfinders set for +2 attack bonus, but found I didn't need it so put on a full abishai set. That may change in the next few levels, but right now I have no issues with hitting stuff. I'm still able to solo normal at level. Just did Delera's part I on normal, solo (lvl 5) with no npcs. In a group I usually massively outkill the rest of the party. Right now I'm using the winter wolf summons usually, or the lioness against undead. I'm also going to be working tactics bonuses to get the trip DC as high as possible on druid and companion.

[jsaving]

Helf w/Cleric Dilletante (will respec this, bad decision... switch to monk?)

The best dilly option hands-down is rogue, due to the sneak attack bonus. None of the others are especially helpful, though I'd probably say fighter is second-best for the tactics enhancements.

Monk isn't the worst possible option, but do note that you lose the wisdom AC bonus unless you are centered, which would be a net loss as leather/shield would provide greater damage mitigation for you. So you'd really be taking monk dilly for the 20% healing amp.

[Teeaaa]

The wolf pets seem incredibly squishy much more so than the arti pets (although i haven't played my arti this side of mod 14 so they may be worse now) Mine seems to die in seconds if i'm not fully attentive of it. In fact the razor cat summon out lives him every time.

Seems like the only real way to go is some armour with heavy fort on it, maybe he may live for a little longer lol.

That's not in my situation.. my dog has more hp than me... (i have con of 0, probably should change that)
Not to metion he has the same armor as me (I got pratically the same +8 armor with 1d6 acid guard), and gotta love the vorpal collar! I'm starting to think he's more powerful than me...