What is a good second special move for a Giant Beetle?

[Basara]

I've got him back up to 3 slots, maxed his resists, maxed DPI, raised Dex, Stam, Str (to 350) and HP (400), and given him armor ignore. I've also used a 120 Wrestling, 115 Tactics and 115 Anatomy on him. He's going to be a Trammie pet so no need for PvP (though, when I work on another beetle for my miner that I'm gonna add taming to, that will be another story)

Which second special move should I pick with my last 100 points?

Mortal Strike
Bleed
Paralyze
Concussion Blow
Crushing Blow

are the 5 I'm looking at.

 

[BeaIank]

Out of those I am more partial to Mortal Strike since it hinders magical foes the ability to heal themselves when low on health.

 

[Basara]

Beetle's now up to 4 slots.... It's evil, I tell you....

AI
Mortal
Poisoning
Rune Corruption

509 HP
600 STR
20 HPR
max DPS

120 Wrestling
115 Tactics
115 Anatomy
100 Parrying (gonna have to get a scroll for the last slot)
75 Resist, currently (training as I write this)
35 Poisoning, currently

when I started today, was still shy of 100 on the first 3 skills, and was around 70 parry, 50 resist, and 20 poisoning.

The numbers above are after TWO Crazed in Shame (one at a time).

He can solo them in 40 minutes if I disco them - WITHOUT REQUIRING ANY HEALING WHATSOEVER.

 

[BeaIank]

That sounds absolutely evil. :O
I need to get myself one to train.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I would've left Mortal Strike off. Without Mortal Strike, it would use AI and Rune Corruption more often. More consistent damage output then.

 

[Basara]

I would've left Mortal Strike off. Without Mortal Strike, it would use AI and Rune Corruption more often. More consistent damage output then.

Yes, but against creatures that spam-heal when they get low, the AI and Rune corruption benefits alone tend to get offset by the healing. it's a trade off. My testing against crazed mages in shame indicate the mobs drop about 3-5 minutes faster with mortal than without, because the additional damage from an AI or multiple attacks done during corruption is easily offset by a Greater Heal spell (singular) from the mage. With the target healing, It's little different than if he wasn't healing, but no special moves were being made. I might lose a few AIs or corruptions attempted, but I gain several attacks that don't get healed back as soon as I do them.

If I was routinely fighting non-mage targets, then yes it would be better - but how many high-end mobs are there, anymore, without the ability to heal?

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Yes, but against creatures that spam-heal when they get low, the AI and Rune corruption benefits alone tend to get offset by the healing. it's a trade off. My testing against crazed mages in shame indicate the mobs drop about 3-5 minutes faster with mortal than without, because the additional damage from an AI or multiple attacks done during corruption is easily offset by a Greater Heal spell (singular) from the mage. With the target healing, It's little different than if he wasn't healing, but no special moves were being made. I might lose a few AIs or corruptions attempted, but I gain several attacks that don't get healed back as soon as I do them.

If I was routinely fighting non-mage targets, then yes it would be better - but how many high-end mobs are there, anymore, without the ability to heal?

If you're fighting a boss with a group, the lowered Resists from the more frequent Rune Corruptions easily offsets the Healing. The more people/pets attacking the boss, the more that the more frequent Rune Corruptions pull ahead of the healing prevented from Mortal Strike.

 

[Heimi]

Can fire beetles learn Rune Corruption or do they get Dragon Breath instead?

 

[Drowy]

Fire Beetles can learn Rune Corruption.

 

[TheDrAJ]

I am interested what you mainly fought to go from
1->2
2->3
3->4

????

 

[BeaIank]

I am interested what you mainly fought to go from
1->2
2->3
3->4

????

In my case, wind elementals from 1 to 3, then crazed mages from 3 to 5.
But for the mages you better bring another tamer with a pet that can actually kill it, or you will be stuck there for a long, LONG time. A single crazed mage brought my pet from 0 to 52% on 3 to 4 slots, though.

 

[Pawain]

I am interested what you mainly fought to go from
1->2
2->3
3->4

????

Kill some things to get wrestling up. We use navrey on LS we have an easy hole and someone always has a higher pet they are training or skilling.

I'm running a 1 slot beetle and a 2 slot nightmare right now. While posting.

 

[BeaIank]

Kill some things to get wrestling up. We use navrey on LS we have an easy hole and someone always has a higher pet they are training or skilling.

I'm running a 1 slot beetle and a 2 slot nightmare right now. While posting.

Winds are good for that too. They have wrestling around 68 and 78ish. Discorded they are great to train a pet who has wrestling in the high 40s, lower 50s.
I usually manage to bring my pets wrestling up to 85, 86 there, and that is enough for them to keep gaining wrestling on discorded crazed mages.

 

[Pawain]

Winds are good for that too. They have wrestling around 68 and 78ish. Discorded they are great to train a pet who has wrestling in the high 40s, lower 50s.
I usually manage to bring my pets wrestling up to 85, 86 there, and that is enough for them to keep gaining wrestling on discorded crazed mages.

I went to the EV things during community hunt. Someone brought some mages over. It was a big mess for the tamers. Pets got gains. I like to just stand and heal.

 

[BeaIank]

I went to the EV things during community hunt. Someone brought some mages over. It was a big mess for the tamers. Pets got gains. I like to just stand and heal.

Getting mages and uevs together is asking for trouble.
They already take too long to kill on their own.

 

[Jibbed]

1-2 & 2-3 I have found the rat spawn in Stygian abyss dungeon is effective. Depending on the pet I'm training I will take something tanker with it to help clear the waves to get the boss to spawn. The boss gives reasonable gains without it doing much damage.

The waves and the boss tend to give good skill gains too given that at tht slot level their skills are usually fairly low.

2-3, 3-4, 4-5 I use navery. I only take a 2 slot there if I have a 3 I'm training or someone else is there with me. 2 slots don't gain as much but the fact you can get some gains while doing a 3 slot is handy

 

[MalagAste]

I been using crazed mages and wind elementals. When the crazed stops giving gains I bring down my archer and kill him as my pet keeps tanking.

 

[Pawain]

1-2 & 2-3 I have found the rat spawn in Stygian abyss dungeon is effective. Depending on the pet I'm training I will take something tanker with it to help clear the waves to get the boss to spawn. The boss gives reasonable gains without it doing much damage.

The waves and the boss tend to give good skill gains too given that at tht slot level their skills are usually fairly low.

2-3, 3-4, 4-5 I use navery. I only take a 2 slot there if I have a 3 I'm training or someone else is there with me. 2 slots don't gain as much but the fact you can get some gains while doing a 3 slot is handy

The rat bosses give fairly gains and you don't need to interact much.

 

[Basara]

When mine was 1-slot, I had a 3 or 4 slot Rune Beetle out with him, and let the rune tank Swoop for him. Or, if a friend was doing the Crazed mages in Shame, I'd let their pet tank.

When he hit 2 slots, and his resists, DPS, and HP had been raised, I had him fight the elementals and golems on level 2 of Shame for combat skill gains initially, then switched to just letting him go hog-wild in an orc fort in Malas (which got him Resist Magic gains). As his combat skills got close to 90-100, I took him back to train on the crazed mages with friends.

At 3 slots, more orc time when no one else was on, Crazed when I had help.

At 4 slots, I used my scrolls, and the Giant beetle was now the one TANKING at the Crazed mages.

At 5 slots, he could solo a Crazed mage over 30-40 minutes, and was getting decent gains (especially Resist spells) on the few skills left to train, finally reaching 115 Parry, Anatomy, and tactics and 120 Wrestling.