Summoner Help PleaseFollow

Greetings all

Just got my mage alt to summoner with her new pet and decided to work on some quests out in Oakmyst. I was very excited, convinced that with a pet, I'd easily be able to take on some of the mobs I had struggled with before.

Not so...

Now I realize that this is just the first pet, and pets are always weaker (being an EQ vet, i've played pet classes before), but to me this was rediculous. We were battling oakmyst spiderlings which attack 2 at a time. I sicked my bettle on one (spiders are green to me so I fugred he'd be OK until I got over there) and I nuked the other. When I got over to the 2nd, my beetle was nearly dead and the spider was nearly full health. I preceeded to watch him die three more times before getting kicked off by the server and coming here to post.

In addition, he doesn't seem to have any taunt ability at all.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the first pet just THAT weak? He seems to be doing very little damage.

Thanks!

I was in a group with a shaman (me), druid, and summoner the other day. We were waiting for a tank and dps so we decided to fight somne green and blue group mobs. I was very impressed that the pet held aggro the whole time. I was even testing it by throwing out some high aggro type spells (group wards, heals, etc.). It was better than some tanks I've seen.

Seems that they do get much better, just upgrade it to Adept I or Adept III and I'm sure you'll see a huge difference.

Edited, Sat Dec 11 10:51:53 2004 by subvert

Thanks for the advice. I'll give that a shot.
I figured things would have to get better. I need to pull up the summoner spell database and see when the next pet is. I assumed it wouldn't be long so I hadn't gotten around to upgrading this one (just completed quest last night) but I will give that a shot.

My original reason for wanting to play a summoner was because I understood them to be great soloers. My cleric, at level 20, can solo up to yellows. I hope that at that level, summoners can solo yellows or even oranges.

I'm not going to say that I am an expert on the Summoner class- I'm far from it- but I can give you the perspective of someone who's played a Summoner until he's reached Necromancer (20th level) status.

From what I've seen so far, the pets are markedly weaker than they were in EQ1. I'd guess they are roughly 60% as effective. I'd LOVE to have my EQ1 Necropet with me instead of the bag of bones I have now. I think he does have some taunt ability but it is extraordinarily easy for me to toss off even a small nuke or to apply more than one dot and get aggro from my pet and the pet then cannot get aggro back from me. The best explanation of the situation I've gotten from anyone told me to consider my pet as a minor DoT and nothing more.

I do have some suggestions, including one major one: keep your pet summon spell at App3 or Adept if at all possible. If you're staying with the App1 version of your spell, you essentially have a lesser green pet. Taking it to App2 gives you a lesser blue pet and App3 gives you an even-con pet (until level 19 when the pet goes lesser blue to you). That really does help. At 20, unfortunately, you get a totally new summoning spell that makes the pet lesser blue to you again- and the App3 version of the spell costs almost 2gp! No chance of me affording that anytime soon so I'll have to go with the weaker pet. And yes I consider that a huge disadvantage for the class.

As the poster pointed out above, be very careful when conning your enemies. A ^green mob group mob is tougher than a yellow solo mob. Yes, it's a pain to constnatly have to find solo mobs but it's far safer. Let your pet beat on the mob and get beaten on by the mob for several turns before you do anything at all- pets seem to build aggro far slower than players do- and go with your DoTs first (nukes almost instantly get you aggro). Be ready to toss a pet heal spell if the pet takes damage sufficient to go into the yellow or orange (interestingly, Sooth Servant is one spell that doesn't need upgrading. I did upgrade to App3 and found that, whenever I cast it, I get aggro now). Once the mob is less than 50%, you can nuke it down and -probably- not get aggro or, if you do, you can -probably- kill it before it kills you.

Playing the Summoner in EQ2 means that you have to unlearn alot of things from playing a pet class in EQ1. Kiting is a thing of the past. Sitting down and watching your pet take down an enemy is a thing of the past. Root Bombing >does< work. But, honestly, the best advice I can give when it comes to soloing is Don't Do It. It's a game almost totally geared toward grouping and away from efficient soloing- unless you like a steady diet of greens and blues. You do have some group-friendly spells (Gift Of The Magi, Earthly Brand and others), so try your best to group up whenever possible.

Whenever I use my pet to attack one mob while i engage another way my pet and the mob start jumping all over the place. While fighting they'll go down and back up cliffs, underwater and on the surface of water, they even battle up a canyon wall and end up on the other side. I can't even make him disengage cause he's so far away. By the time the fight is over my pet comes back in the red after a good 20 secs or so of waiting for it to return(or it just takes awhile before to game will just warp it back to me).

Vs solo blues the pet works fine. My pet knocks the mobs down constantly so they are usually on their backs and can't attack him anyway:)

One thing I hate is when they are on their butts knocked down and they slide over to me on their butts when I get aggro. THEY ARE KNOCKED DOWN!! IF I WAS KNOCKED DOWN I COULDN'T SLIDE AWAY!!!

Try various things.

Like one poster said, don't forget about spells like root. You can take on a lot of weaker "two member groups" using root to keep the other one at bay. I'd open the fight w/ root and sic the pet as the non-rooted one charges (sic pet on the charging one) - but time it right so the rooted one can't do anything. Note - learn what gnolls are casters - don't root them - they can still hurt you from range.

App 3 upgrades aren't hard to get from the player market, and adept 1's drop at an okay enough rate to where you can eventually find one for a good price - again from players.

Ignore people who say not to solo (well, I don't mean to disrespect them - they do have a point - but there is more to consider imo). You *definitely* need to solo. Why? You can't always get a group. Even if you have a group, if you need money and have a bad run of lotto losses (other guys win all the good loot) - you might need to hunt something for loot.

Are you a hardcore artisan? You really need to solo. Why? To kill green ^^ mobs and get the rare books so you can get recipes for making rare items. Not an artisan but wanna make good money? Solo green ^^ mobs (they say group but there is only one of them in many cases - that's what u want - they drop chests muuuuch more often), sell the normal loot they drop to merchants - keep and sell the rare artisan books to players.

If you're like me you sometimes grow tired of other players - who break mez - won't HO - break your HOs - loot stuff they don't need but others do need - are annoying - go afk too long - die stupidly and share their debt w/ you - don't have upgrades and can't do jack - etc etc etc etc etc. When they drive you crazy - clearing your head w/ a little soloing is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.

So please do pay attention to htis issue - it's more important than u might think. And please pressure Sony to make soloing more interesting. If we all go post on their official boards and if we all /feedback in game, it will eventually force them to do something. The more of us who do it, the faster we might see some love here on htis issue. Thx much, GL all!