Stayed out of this for the most part because of the respect I have for both posters and their vast contributions to the game but after testing the triton I really do not see a big advantage to over capped wrestling. Certainly not enough to make it my primary pet. Which is unfortunate bevause with it being a reward it should have been the top end pet. Which in it's current state, it is not.
It is still a top-tier pet, this just furthers the point that people pass judgement without actually testing things.
This is a chart of the top 20 current tamables, sorted by Max Intensity
including any Innate Magical abilities.
Notice that the Release 3 Triton bests everything except Shadow Wyrms (which cannot be trained and come with double magicals), and the Legacy Dragon (which cannot be trained anymore as it slot jumps).
This is just pure intensity. Add in the fact that the Triton has innate Healing and is a fully magical blank slate pet just adds to the power of it.
Now find the current version of the Triton on the chart. It is directly behind all Legacy pets.
Now look at how many pets on the top 20 chart have no innate magicals (4 including both Tritons).
Now look at how many have no innate magicals and are fully magical capable (2, both Tritons).
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Now lets sort the chart in another manner, by the "Intensity Without Innates" column. This will give us the intensity of the pets if we ignore the cost of their innate magicals (such as Magery and Necromancy), since the majority of the time those are overridden by something else (like Chiv).
Now suddenly these blank slate
healing pets are #1 and #2 on the chart.
Now let's look at everything that falls behind the Tritons... Reptalons and Lesser Hiryus are the closest fully magical capable pets, coming in at ~300 intensity less than the current Triton (or 900 less than the R3 Triton). These pets are ridable yes, but they also come pre-loaded with 2 abilities (Dragon Breath/Paralyze, and Grasping Claw/Dismount), which severely limits their build potential.
We have to go way down the chart to ~650+ less intensity than the current Triton (~1250 less intensity than the R3 Triton) to find the next Magical pets.
Whether you understand Intensity, or just think it is made up hocus pocus, the fact is that the developers use pet intensity for the animal training system. Short of them re-working the entire system (which I don't see happening), we have to play within the system they have created.
Oh and BTW... if the Triton's stats were not adjusted, you would be be getting a 3-slot Triton around ~70% of the time when spawning one from a statuette. Just some more food for thought that I'm sure no one has bothered to think about.
Curious to how long that took. Also you receive 10 mil as opposed to 10,000 dubloons towards a pet that we have not even seen a price on yet. I would not be shocked at a 500k+ price tag on them which would be the equivilant of what your friend did to get to 500 mil. Now add rng for a good Pet (60-70%) and I can see that taking considerably longer than getting a regular spawning pet of the same intensity.
They didn't get one town to 500m, they got
every town to 500m and their own town to 1 billion. How long it took them, I don't know, but I do know they didn't
only do pirating as I routinely saw them doing Roof with the Alliance, or peerless encounters.
I also feel you are putting too much value on the 120 wrestling. Is it nice? Sure, but as far as damage and defense It's only the same difference as going from 110 to 120 which is fairly negligable.
You are severely undervaluing Wrestling. Wrestling is your pet's chance to hit and defend. Chance to hit being the most important thing for a pet. If your pet cannot hit, it doesn't matter what spec it is or how much Tactics/Anatomy it has, it is doing 0 damage. The more wrestling you can get, the better your pet will be, plain and simple. I'd argue that if you could only put 1 scroll on a pet, it should be Wrestling.
The difference between 120 Wrestling and 130 Wrestling (against a 120 combat skill target) is 50% vs 54%. You may look at that 4% and think it's negligible. Hop on over to the Warrior forums or ask some PvPers if they would rather have 41% chance to hit or 45% chance to hit.
Most people have already made up their mind about the Triton before it is even released, or without even testing it on Test Center. It is unfortunate, but I guess we will see what people think of it when it is released.
If people decide they do not like the Triton, it will most likely be because it is not mountable and/or its damage spread (which by the way, both those issues were given as feedback during the testing phase).