Mage Pet: Tanking Analysis

[Snaggles]

I just got my air staff and decided to test how durable the pets are on a consistent target. Shady Swashbuckler spawns every 6 mins 40 seconds, is level 45, and has about 5300hps. He actually has pretty high AC. My pets will hit for max damage on Vindi but the highest I recall is 50 on him.

It’s not the best data, only 5 fights each and he runs. One nuke at 20% will almost kill him though so I did my best to keep his fleeing from impacting the logs.


60 hitting air pet, focused. 59dd stun, up to 75dmg kick 882 seconds parsed
Frontal Tank Test, Shady Swashbuckler: Pet did 31 dps burnout4 + Muzzle
Damage to Shady: 28,206 (no damage shield)

Average hit by NPC - 70
Total hits by NPC (and per second) - 3.7215 seconds per hit
Total Damage Taken by NPC: 14,791
DPS/taken per second: 16.76 dps
Hit to Miss ratio: .5761 (210 hit / 121 miss)


60 hitting water pet, focused. up to 118dd cold DD, up to 180dmg backstab. 687 seconds parsed
Frontal Tank Test, Shady Swashbuckler: Pet did 29 dps burnout4 + Muzzle (no backstabs)
Damage to Shady: 20,094 (no backstabs, no damage shield)

Average hit by NPC - 73
Total hits by NPC (and per second) - 2.898 seconds per hit
Total Damage Taken by NPC: 17,302
DPS/taken per second: 25.18 dps
Hit to Miss ratio: .7088 (237 hit / 168 miss)


60 hitting earth, un-focused. 59dd root, Bashes and occasionally kicks (1/3rd as frequently as bash). 788 seconds parsed
Frontal Tank Test, Shady Swashbuckler: Pet did 29 dps burnout4 + Muzzle
Damage to Shady: 22,925 (no damage shield)

Average hit by NPC - 73
Total hits by NPC (and per second) - 2.9513 seconds per hit
Total Damage Taken by NPC: 20,301
DPS/taken per second: 25.76 dps
Hit to Miss ratio: .6916 (267 hit / 182 miss)

It’s a bit tough to calculate pet hps in this way. They regen 30/tick and most the fights are a couple minutes. One 198hp heal gives a focused air or water 6-7%, the earth 5-6%. I expect he’s around 3300 hps at max level and they are closer in that 2800-2900 range.

A focused earth would be different. An epic would be a landslide difference. However for casual players/raiders the air and water is attainable. The stun happened 7-9 times a fight or so. Each one seemed to last 4-6 seconds.

The dps spread is greater than it appears. Spells can land full damage and the water’s 118dd hits above its weight class on an oddly high AC blue. The air would outshine the earth or water (unless it’s backstabbing).

In short:
* I forgot the earth bashes (physical interupt and occasionally kicks.
* They all take a hit pretty well. Most were only slightly falling behind the fight and no dmg shield or assist besides a few heals
* Air is a solid monk archetype and thus tanks well. Unless you need the root for control this would be my pick for that purpose. The stun is brilliant if it will land
* Water positioned well is a psycho. The test doesn’t show this but I’ve parsed it enough to know it will keep up or exceed more players than you would expect.
* Any of these will take two deadwoods but frankly I’m thinking stun whips would be better for stunnable stuff. Deadwoods for dps mainly.