2nd of all, the iron beetles mine ingot, stones, and gems for you...thats wat makes them so special...
I know that. But it is very occasionally that it 'mines' for you. Unless you are 'script-idling' in a house with a mining spot the mining results are not very exciting.
Ok well first of all, they cant fight crap...
Unfortunately I havent been diligent enough to get one for myself and some testing. Is it still 4 follower slots? If yes it should be at least en par with a skree or a reptalon when it comes to fighting. Thought it should be trained before.
but i dont know very many people who would mine all the time with gargoyle pickaxes anyways...one reason being so that you dont mine up any kinds of elementals so its just easier to make your own pickaxes or shovels...
The supply of garg picks is the problem. The drop rate on gargoyles is not that high and if you try via bods, you end up with way too many prospector tools. Btw the main reason to mine with gargoyle picks is to dig out elementals. 25 extra ores making a huge difference on coloured ore. If you simply want the ore upgrade from a garg pick mine in town and call for the guards everytime an ele shows up.
theres no reason for having to put taming on a miner because the only thing they do mine for you...so i think they should be able to own them without taming...
Indeed .... simply use 2 soulstones and put mining onto your tamer ....
The question still is: What makes an iron beetle that special? It needs 4 follower slots and has a good taming requirement. For a miner/mule there are the giant beetle (3 followers, ridable packy) and the fire beetle (3 followers, walking forge). Both are way more usefull for a miner.
I have very few ideas, that could make an iron beetle worth 4 followers ....
- If it could convert resources. Like eating ore and pooping granite of the same colour or upgrading ore/ingots/granite to its own colour.
- If it converts a mining spot into its own colour. (I heard those iron beetles exists in different ore colours.) It even could work the way that you have to somehow feed the beetle with one ore colour and it changes the colour of one ore spot to that colour.)
Either way ... if you want to have an iron beetle out while mining, I would suggest to have two accounts (or help from a friend). Soulstone mining onto a tamer, get your iron beetle and let a fire beetle be friended to that miner. (That you actually act like if you are out with a fire beetle for smelting and can test the iron beetle.)
