Spells: Flaming Sword of Xuzl pet

[Jimjam]

This pet was notoriously bad, so much so people would really hyperbolise how bad it was.


The pet on p99 matches the hyperbole than it actually performed, double attacking for just 22 per round and barely more than zero health. Classic sources however reveal the pet should be hitting for 52 per round, and have somewhere around 100-150 health.

The fact it is reported to typically hit in the 50s means either it has a 'high' base damage (so it hits for 50-52 damage) or simply had very high attack, so it was hitting close to max on pretty much any target. It is reported to do over 800 total damage in a fight and useful for kiting (so I suppose it doesn't effectively taunt).

I seem to recall reports that the flaming sword doesn't actually appear to flame, but I don't currently have evidence to substantiate that claim.

I copy this information found in the discussion on the wiki page, which in turn links to classes sources for these claims.



Damage per hit:

According to this archived post, the typical hit of this pet should be around 50, not 22 max.

Max health:

Same archive, hp should be around 100, not 1.


https://web.archive.org/web/20010208.../050989-7.html

posted 01-24-2001 accessed 01-18-2023


Further evidence from CRGaming:

HERES EXACTLY THE PET STATUS, By Azarod kurai'jinja (1/28/2001)

Heres what ive experienced! 1- Takes 700mana to summon( No components) 2- Pet doubles for 52, and has around 150hp 3- Pet CAN NOT be buffed or healed. 4- Pet will die as SOON as current target is dead. So overall this pet is extremly useful in duels, and very useful when kiting an important mob. It is very mana efficient since ive seen it do above 800 dmg.

But i still dont appreciate the fact that it dies after.

https://web.archive.org/web/20011217...ell.asp?Id=665

posted 01-28-2001 accessed 01-18-2023

[Rygar]

I recall there was an uber guild (one of the main ones back in the day) where their wizard's pets were actually parsing very high damage due to these pets on high HP mobs. Think it was those brownies in PoG if I recall

[Jimjam]

I tested this spell in game in p99 today and have found it does a max hit of 28, not the 52 which the above classic sources state.

I have also found the sword pet is bugged in that buffs can land on it, which is something the above sources claim shouldn't be the case. As I understand it by 2001 it was immune to spells (so it wouldn't be useless against dragons?)

[magnetaress]

I was there. It did like Jimjam says. Gonna say I saw a 62 dmg hit every once in awhile but that was rare.

Definitely useful to finish quads if u get hit by any of the mobs. Sword will agro them all and stick around to fight.

It did not ever taunt. U could also get use of it in a grp if you could get hit.

[Vamael]

This spell had 2 functions. raid fight on a boss that doesnt AOE. PVP to interrupt casters.

[Jimjam]

Checked in game, the pet health is very low, at most 9. As evidenced above from an in era source and collaborated shortly after its max health should be in the realm of 100-150.

"USES, By Onigami (1/28/2001)

This spell is a fancy DoT spell.
It melees like a pet for 700mana, but doesn't tank. The only HP it has, is probably to absorb damage shields."

As we can see here, the pet shouldn't be getting insta killed by low level damage shields.

I feel this is corroborated by a later post, which acknowledges the pet is mainly a toy, but also insinuates the pet can stand up to the wizard DS which is cast on most frogs in Seb:

"NOT AT ALL USEFUL...MERELY A TOY, By Meself of tarew marr (1/28/2001)

This spell is only useful as a toy. It does approximatly 700 damage vs. a 52+ mob in Sebilis, making it extremely mana-inefficient.
Interestingly, though, the cleric's hammer is smart enough to move on to the next mob when one falls, whereas this one just dies when the mob it's working on dies over."

As it stands the pet doesn't really have a shot to do anything more than one underpowered hit to anything with even a basic DS, let alone 700+ damage to something returning 2dmg/hit.



Edit: further evidence xuzl pet should have 100+ hp

"Taroo
Station Member posted 01-24-2001 08:00 AM

+ Flaming Sword of Xuzl:
At level 8, a magician gets a pet for 80 mana which will stay more than 1 fight, has over 200 hit points and will root the target. At level 59, wizards have a 700 mana 200 hitpoint pet which DEFINITELY won't last more than 1 fight. Perhaps you could lower the casting cost to 40-60 for the spell?"

[Jimjam]

The p99 pet can treble attack, kick and bash. Most resources seem to mention it only double attacking. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be treble attacking. Not so sure about kick/bash.

Possible pet AI issue:

The flaming sword will switch to other targets if the target it was cast on flees, but there are other mobs in range attacking it's master. I haven't seen any posts supporting it being able to do this, but then again I haven't seen any posts testing this on live and reporting it unreplicatable.


Experimenting with current live implementation is something I am considering. Contemporary posts on zam mention an average hit of 50-52, which is strangely in alignment to what 2001-2003 posts give as hit values, but place max hit at 70-90. Possibly the pet has been tweaked over the years - certainly the cast value has been lowered on modern live. A later post on the same page is more contemporary to p99 (2003) and says he usually hits 40ish. I suggest this being a place holder the typical hit, with 52 being the max until further information can be found. The same post also confirms an hp of around 150.

[Rygar]

I seem to recall reports that the flaming sword doesn't actually appear to flame

@OP, what do you mean by this. Are you talking appearance? Is the P99 pet on fire or something?

Should be scimitar + shiny brass shield look if I recall correctly

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by Rygar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

@OP, what do you mean by this. Are you talking appearance? Is the P99 pet on fire or something?

Should be scimitar + shiny brass shield look if I recall correctly

on p99 it appears as a flaming two hander. very cool.

For live I found this quote:

Sleinad
Station Member posted 01-23-2001 10:26 PM

"the mana cost of this spell is way to high for the life expectancy of this non-flaming Flaming Sword. One riposte or AE and its toast. "

It looks like it was just a non-flaming sword. Perhaps this guy just had the particles turned off though.

(note the context of this quote is for fighting uber mobs, suggesting it can survive DSes but not a big 200 hp / 400 hp riposte / aoe typical of velious mobs - further evidence it should have more than 1hp!)

[Jimjam]

further evidence that the sword shouldn't be flaming and should have 150 hp, very slightly post era, from Dolalin's archives:


"Newsgroups: alt.games.everquest
Subject: Flaming Sword of Xuzl?
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Hi everyone:

I have always found a positive way of using my spells, but for the life of
me I have to wonder why Wizards are given a level *59* spell that to all
intents and purposes has very, very little use. From what I can see the
Flaming Sword of Xuzl costs 700 mana to cast, it cannot be cast whilst my
Familiar is with me, the Flaming Sword has 150 hit points, dies after the
mob is dead and has a one minute recast time.

Can someone give me some pointers as to why this spell is worth casting?
Yes, in a raid situation where the mob has very high resists it *might* be
useful, but the puny 150 hit points it has isn't enough to keep it alive for
long enough to warrant 700 mana. Am I missing something obvious with this
spell? Gee, it doesn't even *look* like a Flaming Sword .. LOL .. I cetainly
feel cheesed off at a 59 spell being so useless ..

Would have been nice to have cast this and have the *pet* kill a Hill Giant
in Rathe Mountains .. /shrug ..

As always, thank you, and safe hunting to you all ..

Stevie."