Improving pets: shared health

[droid327]

With the new DH archetype, its clear pets are still a playstyle element that the devs want to support. However, most players find that pets are too difficult to manage in meaningful difficulties because they just dont survive well. There's been some attempts to improve that with gear and pet enhancements, but those are limited in effect because there's only so much that can be done to make pets competitive on their own.

So a better solution might be to make them not fully independent from their owners. I think a shared health mechanic might greatly improve the utility of pet classes - both damage and healing partially pass through from one to the other, so a pet becomes more of an extension of the player's character.

I would say there should be some absorption mechanic, so its not just pure 50/50...maybe like damage done to one is reduced by 50%, but then 40% of that damage is applied to the other. That provides some innate defensive utility for pet use. Healing would pass through at an increased rate, maybe 100% for the target and 50% of it is passed through. Both would be affected by the target's mitigation/amplification before being passed. Damage would be further mitigated by your defensive stats when passed to the player, so that a squishy pet doesnt become a vulnerability for a tankier player.

I think that would turn pets into valuable tanks/damage sponges and let them better serve their intended role, without needing nearly as much babysitting in combat.

[Xgya]

I remember suggesting the EXACT opposite.

Make the pets unable to tank. They can't grab aggro unless they're alone, and any damage they deal is added to your own aggro generation.

Make them entirely invincible while within a certain distance of the player.
That's a damage pet. An extension of the player, slightly more independent than the Favored Soul Archon, but just as untargetable and directing its aggro towards the summoner exactly the same way.


If I instead wanted to make pets more resilient but serve as damage sponges, I'd go with scaling them off the player's stats, but indirectly.

Say, Wizard Skeletons are an Int-based pet. Their Strength is now equal to your Int, gain 10PRR per +1 Necromancy DCs you have, and 10MRR per +1 Enchantment, +a base for being tanks in heavy armor using a shield, all set when the pet is summoned (so temporary boosts can be used to get a tougher/stronger pet, but no more constant checks for stats while the pet is already out). They always have twice their Wizard's HP and HAmp.
Keep the bonus stats from Augment Summons the same, but of course getting more Con no longer affects the skeleton's HP. That feat becomes one of the good sources of Fortification for pets, so it definitely keeps its usefulness and niche.

THAT is a tanking pet. It can potentially have more PRR/MRR/HP than top tier tanks, but it still won't exactly have the damage to keep aggro even with the buff to aggro NPCs get, but that's already their current situation, so no real loss.

[Igrovin]

I'd say something more customizable over all would be the best way to go beyond just stat fixes. Since pets can only get so powerful and weapon/armor just isn't enough to fix their inherent weaknesses that just demolish them

Like being able to edit its behavior too. The DH for example, setting it up so if you go stealth, your pet goes stealth and follows. Or if you go stealth, the pet automatically goes stationary until you are not stealth, at which point it charges into combat.

[Yamani]

Every enhancement point spent into pet centered tree's: +1 attack, +.5 damage, 1 PRR/MRR. Every Core: +5% attack speed, 5% dodge, +100 hit points. Capstones or Tier 5 should give a massive regenerate determined by level of pet(when near player), and a vampirism that is not reduced by reaper.

Also more collars/pet gear if they do want to make them viable.