And today's tip of the day goes to....

[spoof2424]

No this isn't a tip from a port or some corpse retrieval in the pits of Permafrost.

I'm looking at my port to go from NK to WC to fix my pet "issues". A 51 mage with a new earth should have none by the way.

After staring the druid down, I realize there is a second member in the group. All the while I have been / magician all the way up from 51 and hit 54 to realize again that this mage is a 54. I ask him oh sweet one what is the option for a pet at 52 for a mage. My recent level is hoping to give me somethign that doesn't lose HPs so quickly. And he tells me my recently acquired shovel is only good when using my below lv 50 pets. I say oh, tell my porter to go 'f' off and hop back into Ice Giant land. The realization (yes I've typed real) that the 49 pet is better because of shovel of the ponz is mind boggling but also distorting my ideal image of leveling in a rpg.

Same pet image, same pet outcome (minus a dmg root), yet this 51 Vocarate elemental blows big ones.

Anyway thank you for telling me, level 54 mage, to use the other pet..now I can sleep.

[Vexenu]

While it's true that it doesn't have more hit points, a max level 51 Earth will tank noticeably better than a max level focused 49 pet simply by virtue of having 4 levels on it. Higher level = gets hit less often and for less damage. It's worth using the 51 Earth if you are grouping and want to keep a max level pet around.

That being said, if you are chain petting you are better off using 49 Earth or Fire until you get 56 Dyzil's Deafening Decoy due to the mana savings.

[Swish]

In the world of necromancers the monk pet was always highly anticipated for me and a huge letdown...save the hype for the spectre as you level through the 50s :p