Peter's Blog

Pet Levelling

When she was 64 Maevyn experimented with Warp Hunters and such before realising that as Tiddles was still 62 she really ought to concentrate on levelling her, Tiddles being the favourite. Since then she has not run any other pet. It was only ten minutes before Maevyn dinged 67 that Tiddles dinged 66. I shudder to think what could have happened if I hadn't concentrated on levelling Tiddles: it is probably not realistic to level two pets at the same rate as the character, especially when always running with rest bonus (which I don't think applies to pets). You really don't want your pet struggling to hold agro at these levels.

Cats may not be the absolute best pets compared to warp stalkers (warp/tanking), ravagers (dps), boars (charge) but Tiddles is good enough. A level 70 Ghost Sabre is a rare and exclusive pet and one day she will be one.

Spec Tweek

I decided to tweek Maes talents a tad. Here it is. It is intended as a soloing/grinding/levelling spec. I can summarise the changes as:

Out went:

• all points out of Catlike Reflexes an increased chance for Tiddles to dodge: not regarded as a good talent, maybe 1% less damage to the pet
• a point out of animal handler
• all points out of 'Go For the Throat': I still have 'Bestial Discipline' which should be enough

In went:

• three points in Improved Aspect of the Hawk for a tad more dps and to dump some points somewhere
• Bestial Swiftness: when dash is on cooldown Tiddles is too slow into a fight. A point here should fix this. The alternative is levelling a Boar or a Warp Stalker.
• Solid point investment in both Improved Hunters Mark and Efficiency

For reasons even I don't understand I have buffed up the Aspect of the Hawk even though I tend to run with Aspect of the Viper for the mana efficiency. I have picked up some other mana saving talents as I hate stopping for a drink. Part of my emphasis here is grinding speed: beast fast into fight, kill mob, get on with next fight without sitting around for 20 seconds slurping dranaei water. Save the mana pots for emergencies as they are worth a couple of gold a pop (or send them to Pooky who needs them MUCH more).

'Feroscious Inspiration' is a highly regarded group buff but I don't think it's worth it for a soloing build like mine.

I kept Aimed shot although I never use it as it is a requirement for 'Mortal Shots'. I still spent umpteen gold buying the remaining ranks of Aimed Shot: if I do use it I would prefer it to be as effective as possible.

When Mae hits 70 I will be very tempted to bin 'The Beast Within' in favour of 'Shatter Shot'. I will see what life is like at 70 first though.

Question: the 'Rapid Killing' tooltip says something about after killing an opponent your next aimed, arcane or auto shot gives 10% more damage. Does this only apply after using Rapid Fire (which I very rarely use) or does it apply to every kill? If it applied to every kill I would like to try starting my fights with an aimed shot as 10% on top of 870 is not to be sneezed at.

Maybe I should respec again and find out? It's only play money.