Is pet XP nerf really that bad?
 

So I just started not long ago.

Got a mage to level 4, necro to 8 so far. But after reading all this stuff about pets taking 50% XP, I gotta ask is it terrible for levelling? I saw that there was a trick with dismissing the pet, which seems like a pain.

I just would hate for the upper levels to take forever. It is hard to judge in the low levels, because XP is fast. But 50% sounds like every level is a hell level.:(

What do you think?

Pets only take 50% XP if they do more than half the damage over the course of a fight.

As a necro at least, once you're fear kiting its easy to pull the pet off when the mob is at 20-25% health and let the dots tick the mob down (chances of them having done 51% of damage if you've stacked dots early is almost impssible). Just dont put the pet's haste buff on!

Mages I think are in that horrible spot of either having to group/duo to alleviate the penalty or sacrifice the pet each fight.

You can always group or use the root pet and nuke away.

Grouping xp honestly isn't that bad as long as you have a solid group



That or duo with with something that meshes well with mage. Necro Is quite good as you guys can fear kite with double pet dps / dots / nukes

it was mentioned in a few other threads that eventually necro's will only use pets in groups.. since those buggers can out damage the dot's.

just xp in ZEM high zones, will balance out the xp!

Have the best of both worlds, pull the pet off at ~20% mob health, if you use Duxa UI chances are you'll know if you made the full XP, and if not, pull off at 25%, 30%...whatever fits.

After all, what are you going to be doing after the mob is dead? Meditating! Meditate while the mob is doing its final 20% in dot damage.

Look on the brightside, you'll still level faster than most and with a great deal of ease in comparison.

I love my mage and the penalty really doesn't phase me much, what other classes can sit down oom and still suck back some exp while medding? ;) That alone makes up for the penalty. I know at later levels that won't be as possible but you'll still chew up exp bars faster than most.

Once you get decent level as necro it's not really worth it soloing for xp anymore. Duoing is terrific xp in comparison esp with another pet class. Just regular groups is a lot easier and far better xp too.

xp nerf sucks. Way to turn a solo class into a grouping class. Of course it is classic eq. Even though SOE realized it was undesirable and removed it subsequently.

Dismissing the pet isn't a pain, it's easy. It just requires you to buy a lot of malachites (for your magician). As a necromancer there are better ways to do it than dismissing the pet, as users above have noted.

Estu, you have been on here longer than I have. What are you going to do with a Mage with NO pet when they don't get any Root, Snare or Fear. How many places can you hunt at that only have single mobs to pull??

I understand your point about getting full XP, but then you are hanging your ass out a lot of times with no pet up with a mob beating on you as a Mage and you can't cast a new pet, sounds like either death or gate hell all the time. The pet nerf just killed a Mage solo as far as I am concerned. I mean its not the end of the world but the ONLY thing a Mage has really going for them is their pet. And the Devs pretty much wiped out that that function on them.

There are things that can be done with a mage, including, but not limited to, ping ponging mobs, chain casting pets, and strategic use of bind/gate that allow mages to break up certain camps. Usually in larger outdoor areas. Would fear/root be helpful and easier? Certainly. But it can be done if you're creative.