Howdy, as of late I've been thinking about how to improve the pets so that they have more uses beyond glorified lever pullers for most players. The changes back in U53 to auto grant all of the enhancement trees to pets have certainly helped. But there's some core problems to address and then additional actions to take.
The first and foremost problem with pets currently is the fact they are tied to the class level of the player. This effectively eliminates multiclass builds from using pets unless the split is something like 18/2 and even then, the pet is relatively unless until level cap for the additional 2 levels that allow them to equip the level 29 pet gear from Ravenloft. So the first suggestion is to do away with tying pet levels to class levels. This already partially exists given that the 10 epic levels and 2 legendary levels apply to the pet.
The second problem is the strange uncanny valley in pet durability and health. To this end I formally suggest changing the pets from Fighter and Ranger to Barbarian as their class. Assuming under the hood that the pets use underlying feats/codes available to players, changing their base class to barbarian will grant them a flat 9% damage reduction as well as increase their base HP by 2 per level for a net gain of +40HP at 20. I think this damage reduction would provide the most value as far as increasing the 'unless' or 'squishy' stereotype that most players associate with the pets in Elite and Reaper difficulties especially in epics/legendary content. If we wanted to expand this further; keep the current enhancement trees that the pets have but add the six cores from Occult Slayer to the pets: The additional 4% damage reduction, +350HP, +4 con, Magic Missle Immunity and more importantly the Spell Resistance based on their constitution scores will further enhance the survivability of pets by saving them from various CC spell effects.
Now speaking of Enhancements, let's break down some issues with the CLASS enhancements that improve the critter associated with the class.
Artificer: The chief issue with Artificer is the fact that Artificers haven't had a touch up to their enhancement trees in general in a hot minute. As a result all of the pet functions are in the Arcanotechnician tree, including the penultimate upgrade to this pet being in the T5. The goal is to redistribute and lower the tier investment on these similar to druids. Some of these can be given directly to the pet itself similar to the druid wolf during their revamp.
1. Artificer: Automatic Repairs should be given to the pet automatically as a part of their enhancement tree/level up process.
2. Artificer: Imbue Defender should be rolled into the Battle Engineer tree's Thundershock Imbue and similar to the Dark Hunter allow your iron defender to use your imbue stance.
3. Artificer: Arcane Engine can be dropped down to T2 now to replace the previous spot of Imbue Defender.
4. Artificer: Master Defender could either be autogranted to the pet while leveling or replace the old Automatic Repairs slot at T3.
Druid: The pet enhancements in druid are in my opinion pretty solid. They only need a few tweaks to mirror the functionality provided in the Dark Hunter line.
1. Druid: Ghost Wolf taking this should also grant your wolf ghost touch as well.
2. Druid: Ghost Wolf Pack taking this should grant your wolf access to any imbue you may be using. IE: Elemental druids and wolf upon casting Frostbite.
3. Druid: Frostbite Spell should be changed to be +3 imbue dice similar to the blightcaster's Blighted Bite. Grant Winter Wolf form an imbue stance to go along with this.
Dark Hunter: Dark Hunter is what got me really wanting to think about how to make pet builds work in the first place. Dark Hunter has positives and negatives, but brought the idea of letting imbues be shared between the player and their pet and that behavior will greatly benefit all pets given that currently on-hit effects from most collars do not work.
1. Ranger: Dark Wolf first and foremost, this needs to be changed to be an autogranted feat at level 1 similar to druids and artificers. The wolf is literally in the character creation screen but is held behind an enhancement unlock which also has issues such as not granting the revive feat. Change this to a feat and change the Enhancement to mirror Brother Wolf's auto heal feature from Nature's Warrior.
2. Ranger: Switch Lupine Instincts and Ferocity in their tier placements. This is more personal preference, but I think most people that are using the wolf aren't using it to search out traps, they want to try and make the 'beastmaster' fantasy work out.
Palemaster: Honestly, the skeleton is tried and true. Not great or bad, it's main flaw is a lack of damage mostly compounded by not having item slots.
1. Wizard: Grant the skeleton a full pet sheet similar to the other pets. Allow us to equip it with Armor, One Handed weapon, and Shield. If the weapon slot needs to be more restricted similar to the collars, then Longsword or Bastardsword is likely the most appropriate item.
2. Wizard: If Spellsword is taken allow the skeleton to benefit from the imbue stance.
Additionally; there is the warlock situation. Everyone who's ever looked at the Enlightened Spirit tree knows about the buffs to pets, summons, and hirelings there. However warlocks don't have a pet. I would suggest adding an appropriate celestial pet here: either of the Bralani or Ghaele eladrin models repurposed as a simple melee pet similar to the Palemaster Skeleton. Making use of their whirlwind or lantern archon visual forms to give them flair.
The first and foremost problem with pets currently is the fact they are tied to the class level of the player. This effectively eliminates multiclass builds from using pets unless the split is something like 18/2 and even then, the pet is relatively unless until level cap for the additional 2 levels that allow them to equip the level 29 pet gear from Ravenloft. So the first suggestion is to do away with tying pet levels to class levels. This already partially exists given that the 10 epic levels and 2 legendary levels apply to the pet.
The second problem is the strange uncanny valley in pet durability and health. To this end I formally suggest changing the pets from Fighter and Ranger to Barbarian as their class. Assuming under the hood that the pets use underlying feats/codes available to players, changing their base class to barbarian will grant them a flat 9% damage reduction as well as increase their base HP by 2 per level for a net gain of +40HP at 20. I think this damage reduction would provide the most value as far as increasing the 'unless' or 'squishy' stereotype that most players associate with the pets in Elite and Reaper difficulties especially in epics/legendary content. If we wanted to expand this further; keep the current enhancement trees that the pets have but add the six cores from Occult Slayer to the pets: The additional 4% damage reduction, +350HP, +4 con, Magic Missle Immunity and more importantly the Spell Resistance based on their constitution scores will further enhance the survivability of pets by saving them from various CC spell effects.
Now speaking of Enhancements, let's break down some issues with the CLASS enhancements that improve the critter associated with the class.
Artificer: The chief issue with Artificer is the fact that Artificers haven't had a touch up to their enhancement trees in general in a hot minute. As a result all of the pet functions are in the Arcanotechnician tree, including the penultimate upgrade to this pet being in the T5. The goal is to redistribute and lower the tier investment on these similar to druids. Some of these can be given directly to the pet itself similar to the druid wolf during their revamp.
1. Artificer: Automatic Repairs should be given to the pet automatically as a part of their enhancement tree/level up process.
2. Artificer: Imbue Defender should be rolled into the Battle Engineer tree's Thundershock Imbue and similar to the Dark Hunter allow your iron defender to use your imbue stance.
3. Artificer: Arcane Engine can be dropped down to T2 now to replace the previous spot of Imbue Defender.
4. Artificer: Master Defender could either be autogranted to the pet while leveling or replace the old Automatic Repairs slot at T3.
Druid: The pet enhancements in druid are in my opinion pretty solid. They only need a few tweaks to mirror the functionality provided in the Dark Hunter line.
1. Druid: Ghost Wolf taking this should also grant your wolf ghost touch as well.
2. Druid: Ghost Wolf Pack taking this should grant your wolf access to any imbue you may be using. IE: Elemental druids and wolf upon casting Frostbite.
3. Druid: Frostbite Spell should be changed to be +3 imbue dice similar to the blightcaster's Blighted Bite. Grant Winter Wolf form an imbue stance to go along with this.
Dark Hunter: Dark Hunter is what got me really wanting to think about how to make pet builds work in the first place. Dark Hunter has positives and negatives, but brought the idea of letting imbues be shared between the player and their pet and that behavior will greatly benefit all pets given that currently on-hit effects from most collars do not work.
1. Ranger: Dark Wolf first and foremost, this needs to be changed to be an autogranted feat at level 1 similar to druids and artificers. The wolf is literally in the character creation screen but is held behind an enhancement unlock which also has issues such as not granting the revive feat. Change this to a feat and change the Enhancement to mirror Brother Wolf's auto heal feature from Nature's Warrior.
2. Ranger: Switch Lupine Instincts and Ferocity in their tier placements. This is more personal preference, but I think most people that are using the wolf aren't using it to search out traps, they want to try and make the 'beastmaster' fantasy work out.
Palemaster: Honestly, the skeleton is tried and true. Not great or bad, it's main flaw is a lack of damage mostly compounded by not having item slots.
1. Wizard: Grant the skeleton a full pet sheet similar to the other pets. Allow us to equip it with Armor, One Handed weapon, and Shield. If the weapon slot needs to be more restricted similar to the collars, then Longsword or Bastardsword is likely the most appropriate item.
2. Wizard: If Spellsword is taken allow the skeleton to benefit from the imbue stance.
Additionally; there is the warlock situation. Everyone who's ever looked at the Enlightened Spirit tree knows about the buffs to pets, summons, and hirelings there. However warlocks don't have a pet. I would suggest adding an appropriate celestial pet here: either of the Bralani or Ghaele eladrin models repurposed as a simple melee pet similar to the Palemaster Skeleton. Making use of their whirlwind or lantern archon visual forms to give them flair.
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