Artificer Pet Attacks

[Vallar]

Hello guys,

I have recently bought the Artificer class and made a level 10 Drow Arti that is a blast to play. However, I am confused when it comes to the pet since I couldn't find information about the below questions:

1- I see my dog sparingly sprouting fire every now and then. Not sure however if that is a skill or spell and how is the damage calculated on that one? Is it possible to increase the damage on the spell he uses? When does he use it?

2- Sometimes I also see the dog sprouting acid instead of fire; well what is the rule here? When does it do the acid thing and when does it do the fire thing? I deduced it isn't related to the weapon buff I put on him since I would buff him with acid and he still does fire sprouting thingy (Burning Hands, I guess?)

3- Color of the dog's body; previously when I saw arti pets moving around I used to see the purple, green, red and some other colors (I think). When I asked back then (pre-U19 at least) people mentioned it is related to the docent the pet is using at the time. Well, I have put about 10 docents on that pet and it never changed its color over the varied levels (yes, I resummoned pet when I changed the docents). It stays on the red one.

4- There are two lines on the dog enhancements; both for alignment. Good vs Evil and Lawful vs Chaotic; when I chose the Good alignment (since most mobs are evil aligned in DDO) the damage the pet does never shows the "good part" which if I recall correctly showed on screen with a white leaf like symbol hovering next to the damage amount, does that mean it isn't working? Or is it working but not showing?

5- The Lawful vs Chaotic; at the beginning I chose the Chaotic alignment for the dog to destroy barrels; unfortunately, what happened is that the dog would walk up to the barrel/box/breakable and stand there starring at it doing nothing. Then when it entered normal combat against other foes, it would do the same thing; it would never attack. Is that a normal bug? Or is it just me and I should report it?

Sorry for the too many questions and long post, I tried to find the answer myself (through 10 levels of playing and testing as well as forum searching) but I didn't reach conclusive answers.

Thank you very much.

[CaptnB]

If I may add a 6th question:

6- There're enhancements for the pet sneak attacks. How do i know if the pet has sneak attacks at all?

[smeggy1384]

For #1 and #2 its more or less random... like the Iron Defenders from enhancements or various monsters. Doubt anything increased the damage.

#3 I've seen a few docents change my puppy color recently, perhaps you just got unlucky on your docents. I go with named ones.. the one from house D sentinals pack, then the one that can proc a stoneskin on the mutt, then one from Inspired quarter or druids deep for more fort.

#4 Pet alignment doesn't change its damage type, what it does is bypass the umd requirements for equipping the different collars for DR. As an arti you have DR breaker spells anyway, use the enhancement points elsewhere.

#5 Dog staring blankly at various things is a bug.. it usually breaks when it tries to climb a ladder, manages to get on top of breakables rather than breaking them. Dismiss and resummon (sucks if you ship buffed it) to fix the bug. Not related to alignment, though more common when its more active (like going for breakables).

#6 Its like when a rogue sneak attacks, you see it after the physical part of the damage. Personally i built my iron dog as a tank then picked up the sneak attack damage and bluff at higher levels, when it had nothing else tank like to grab. Why? If it doesn't have somethings attention that extra damage can help it get the attention.. and when it does have a bosses attention it can bluff and sneak attack anyway.

[Vallar]

Thank you for answering the questions... can I ask what do you mean by the tank lines? Are you referring to the line where it adds to armor?

[smeggy1384]

For me the tanking pet has the Dr/AC, Intimidate, bonus Hate generation, Hitpoints, Trip, Sunder enhancements. I think i also grabbed the enhancement with a boost to saves vs traps and +1 ac per rank, every bit helps. The DR/ac one is top priority, followed by Intimidate, hitpoints, Hate generation in that order. Fill in with trip, sunder or the saves vs traps when no new rank of the others is available.

[Vallar]

I see thank you very much for the clarification. I have heard that arti pets can tank really good coupled with their buffs and the turret and I wanted to have that kind of setup (always wanted to play a real pet class in DDO). I have just reset the enhancement on my pet to go with your setup with a bit of tweak.

I am just a bit disappointed that there are a lot of random things with pet spells/abilities and I'd rather if we can control that. Maybe something along the lines of Dragon Age's team combat system where you define the pets actions according to the situation.

Thank you for the information though, it is quite helpful.