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.

[Satyriasys]

There are also capstones for your pet if you choose the corresponding enhancements. Evasion for the rogue path and doublestrike i think for the fighter path. You will have to check the wikki to see the prerequisites as there is no information given in the pets enhancement tree.

[Vallar]

There are also capstones for your pet if you choose the corresponding enhancements. Evasion for the rogue path and doublestrike i think for the fighter path. You will have to check the wikki to see the prerequisites as there is no information given in the pets enhancement tree.

Yeah, I wish they would do the pet's enhancement system same as the player's. This old system is really messy with you toggling between "All Enhancements" and "Those that you can use now" kind of thing.

I have been after Evasion as I kind of think doublestrike is easy to get with armor/collar. Yet, the question is, does this pet Evasion work as in like "dodge" where it would help with normal weapon hits too or same as rogue's evasion where it is towards traps and AoE spells? If the latter, I kind of guess it is a bit pointless.

[smeggy1384]

Yeah, I wish they would do the pet's enhancement system same as the player's. This old system is really messy with you toggling between "All Enhancements" and "Those that you can use now" kind of thing.

I have been after Evasion as I kind of think doublestrike is easy to get with armor/collar. Yet, the question is, does this pet Evasion work as in like "dodge" where it would help with normal weapon hits too or same as rogue's evasion where it is towards traps and AoE spells? If the latter, I kind of guess it is a bit pointless.

Just like rogues evasion. I tried it on one arti life one year or so ago.. even with augment summons i don't think the dog has enough reflex save to bother. Maybe with 3 druid past lives for the stat boost (which my arti actually has, but is just level 12 right now) as well as augment summon it would be semi useful. Really though with ship buffs and i believe artis can use mass protection from elements is it needed? Also of note is you cannot get all of the tank type stuff and Evasion for the pet, so its either a gimp rogue with evasion or a tank.

I found evasion to be decent on my Druid dog, that thing makes a decent rogue type, and is miles behind an arti dog for tanking.

[Vallar]

Just like rogues evasion...

I had evasion on my druid pet and I have to say while it didn't save his life most of the time, it did make him survivable specially with his damage and rage. In all he could pull his weight with some trash mobs but not when surrounded; he is dead at that point.

However, what I noticed so far (and I am only a level 12 arti) is that the arti pet is kind of a tad better, with all the armor/HP/stat boosts he gets he might be a decent tank (not quite the DPS). So I am going the full tank route with a "splash" sneak attack whenever I have extra points. Not sure how good would that setup be.

[Damiarch]

Long as the dog stops them from getting to me...im fine..and most often he does fine.Though I am going back and filling out favor now @level 16.
Got my dog set as an evasive tank.only a 23 or so base reflex but man is the character starting to become my favorite.

[Paleus]

I had evasion on my druid pet and I have to say while it didn't save his life most of the time, it did make him survivable specially with his damage and rage. In all he could pull his weight with some trash mobs but not when surrounded; he is dead at that point.

However, what I noticed so far (and I am only a level 12 arti) is that the arti pet is kind of a tad better, with all the armor/HP/stat boosts he gets he might be a decent tank (not quite the DPS). So I am going the full tank route with a "splash" sneak attack whenever I have extra points. Not sure how good would that setup be.

I noticed the same issue having both an artificer and a druid. Both pets started with a fairly similar setup, but had noticeably different survival rates. They both are quite useful, but I'm more willing to fire the Artificer pet off and let it hold its own tripping and tanking mobs than the Druid pet. With the druid pet I'm much more likely to take the aggro myself or let party members take it and then send in the pet to add dps and start tripping. I even revised it towards reduced aggro.

[Vallar]

Yeah, the pet is far better than the druid one in my opinion. I just wish they fix the bugs so I don't have to dismiss and summon him every 5 minutes or past every ladder. The sight of the dog standing there doing nothing (and even if you give him orders, he won't do it) is just so annoying and frustrating.