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My Pack Instinct Experience

SouthPaw

Lore Master
I've been wanting to try out pack instinct for a long time, so I finally have.

I chose 5 wolf spiders. Wolf spiders are a good choice because they can spawn with 150 stamina and over capped Dex, they have poison and are poison immune. On the down side, they have low HP ~185 and low resists ~35 except 100 poison resist.

First impression was these guys can kill a single target faster than any single pet I've ever used before. I compared them to a Chiv/AI Cu, no I didn't have a stop watch out, but they were obviously faster than the cu, and the cu has 115 wrestling and other overcapped skills, whereas the spiders had ~75 wrestling/tactics and no parry.

Whatever they're fighting will be poisoned most of the time unless it's poison immune.

I use EC and made 2 macros, one that vets the most damaged pet and one that casts greater heal on the most damaged pet. Both macros work great unless one of the spiders die-the vet macro still works and will attempt to rez the dead spider, but the greater heal macro still casts on the dead pet, which obviously does nothing.

Biggest problem came when multiple mobs were attacking at the same time. Even with good macros setup it can be hard to heal multiple pets at the same time, especially pets with low HP total. This would be a nightmare at a champ spawn.

As someone pointed out in another thread, the mobs will often target the first pet you take out of the stable, but this is not true 100% of the time, especially with multiple monsters attacking your spiders. Even when they targeted a single mob it would sometimes switch targets-this may have something to do with poisoning.

You can use the taming mastery "As One" however the mana drain on it is really high, not sure why the devs made it so high, it's not like I see a ton of people running around with 5 pets in tow. The good news is these pets kill really fast so you can toggle it off after the mob is dead.

This experiment will continue and I'll update this thread, I need to get them all skilled up to GM skills. I imagine with GM Wrestling/Tactics/Parry/Anat/Poison they'll kill even faster.

*I've considered trying something like this with 5, 1 slot lesser hiryu's. To be clear hiryu's DO NOT get pack instinct, however I imagine with 5 of them attacking the grasping claw debuff would be on the mob nearly the whole time. Plus you can ride one. Lessers also have much better resists and slightly higher HP's, but they spawn with max 135 stamina, so slower hit speed than spiders, and no poison.
 

Khaelor

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
First impression was these guys can kill a single target faster than any single pet I've ever used before. I compared them to a Chiv/AI Cu, no I didn't have a stop watch out, but they were obviously faster than the cu, and the cu has 115 wrestling and other overcapped skills, whereas the spiders had ~75 wrestling/tactics and no parry..
Yes, the right pact instinct animals can and will outdamage Chiv/Ai 5 slotters on the right targets, which I've mentioned before. I'm guessing though if a tamer has a problem keeping a 600-700 health pet alive with resists, the wolf spider would be more challenging.

Lessers won't achieve nearly the dps of a 5 pack wolf spiders.
 

SouthPaw

Lore Master
Yes, the right pact instinct animals can and will outdamage Chiv/Ai 5 slotters on the right targets, which I've mentioned before. I'm guessing though if a tamer has a problem keeping a 600-700 health pet alive with resists, the wolf spider would be more challenging.

Lessers won't achieve nearly the dps of a 5 pack wolf spiders.
It's not too bad as long as there's only 1 or 2 mobs at a time, more than that and it gets crazy. This could be offset by a tamer with Peacemaking.
 

Specialist

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I used to have a 5 pack of predator hellcats back before the pet training update. I was able to kill dragons with them but it was just too much work tring to keep them all alive and managing 5 health bars and commanding 5 different animals. Heaven forbid u accidentally close one of the health bars during combat tring to reselect it is a hassle. I eventually released them to free up stable space. I wonder now that there peacemaking mastery songs how much that would help keep them alive. I almost could be interested in retring it if not for the horrible flashbacks of tring to manage that mess.
 

SouthPaw

Lore Master
I think I'm going to try making a 2 slot leader that has resists/regens/HP. As I get more experience trying this out, it's hard to keep them all alive, whichever one is taking the beating-I've noticed it's stamina drop to around 60-70, sometimes even less, so his swing speed is garbage. Only having 4 means 75% damage bonus instead of 100%, but if I can't keep them alive then what's the point? Plus, if I only have 4 it'll be easier to keep track of them and keep them healed up. Most likely there's a reason I've never seen anyone else run with a pack in game. Btw, I tried running consume damage, the one that has agro still takes a beating/stamina loss.

*edit*
I got 1 of them up to 2 slots, set resists, regens, added HP, and gave him armor ignore to help make up for the damage difference. I think it works better, doesn't kill as fast, but they stay alive.

On a side note, if you need to level up a 1 slot pet, I highly recommend using dread pirates. Spider didn't die once and I didn't have to use another animal to tank for it. Definitely faster and easier than using the crazed mage.
 
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Keven2002

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
This would aboviously require two tamers but I wonder if that 5 pet pack instinct strategy would pair well with a tamer that is using a cu or triton to tank??
 

SouthPaw

Lore Master
This would aboviously require two tamers but I wonder if that 5 pet pack instinct strategy would pair well with a tamer that is using a cu or triton to tank??
I'm sure it would, but yes, you need 2 tamers. I would recommend a beetle with RC or some other pet with discord.
 

PlayerSkillFTW

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
This would aboviously require two tamers but I wonder if that 5 pet pack instinct strategy would pair well with a tamer that is using a cu or triton to tank??
Would also pair well with a Bard running Provo Masteries in party. Inspire would ramp up the damage output by a lot, and Invigorate would help heal the pack, especially if the Tamer with the pack is running "As One".
 

railshot

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I use EC and made 2 macros, one that vets the most damaged pet and one that casts greater heal on the most damaged pet.
Did the heal most damaged pet get fixed? I remember complaining about it not working a few years ago but was ignored.
 
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