What criteria do you use?

[gandolfofaol]

What is a keeper in your mind for any given pet? I recently decided to use a 90% rule. I add up the following max stats and resists and in the case of pets that can have > GM in a skill I include those as well.

hit points
dex
int
str

physical resist
fire resist
cold resist
poison resit
energy resist

note I only include a stat if it can be greater than 125.

Once I have a total from stratics I multiply that total by .9 This gives me a new total to shoot for when trying to find a new companion.

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

What is a keeper in your mind for any given pet? I recently decided to use a 90% rule. I add up the following max stats and resists and in the case of pets that can have > GM in a skill I include those as well.

hit points
dex
int
str

physical resist
fire resist
cold resist
poison resit
energy resist

note I only include a stat if it can be greater than 125.

Once I have a total from stratics I multiply that total by .9 This gives me a new total to shoot for when trying to find a new companion.

This is how I did it. I picked the number 100 (could be 100, 10000 etc). I must spend those points exactly,as a total across the entire set of attributes. This tends to allow one to define the attributes that are important and just how important they are. Then one can apply the number to the attributes of individual pets and make a determination of value.

I will use 0 on the following for some attributes, only because in my case the pets will all have the same value for that attribute.

hit points (10)
dex (0)
int (2)
str (10)

physical resist (12)
fire resist (12)
cold resist (9)
poison resit (12)
energy resist (9)

wrestling (10)
tactics (10)
resisting spells (2)
anatomy (0)

magic (2)
evalint (0)
meditation (0)

The above should add up to 100 and should reflect my relative value for each attribute.

 

[Zodiac19]

Resists are my primary than i'll look at HP and lastly skills. I usually have a couple of the same type of pets in the stable while i'm farming for a great pet and switch out as I find better ones.

 

[Sarphus]

I use different criteria for every type of creature I tame and the criteria change based on the function I use the pet for.

If the pet is a tank, the absolute most important thing for me is how high the resists are. For example, I have a greater dragon that's 7 off max possible resists. Even though this dragon has only 700's hp, I would choose it over a 900+ hp dragon with 15 off max resists.

If a pet is intended to be a high dmg pet I hit the spreadsheet to figure out the impact strength will have on the pet's damage. For example, the difference between a max str and min str cu is only 1 point dmg per hit on avg. I don't even look at str on cu sidhe... On the other end of the spectrum, I won't tame a frenzied ostard with < 161 str. The reason is that a 161 str frenzie with a 5 pack will hit for 3 more dmg per hit on avg, which means if you have a pack of 5, you added 15 dmg per round on avg. It took me a month to build a pack with decent resists, good hp and high str, but they hit SOOOOO hard. Also, you can bless them to jump to the next dmg threshold.

The last thing I consider when farming a pet is what that pet should specialize in.

White wyrms are excellent for tanking cold and physical damage, so I won't tame a WW that doesn't have near 90 cold and near 70 phys resist. Also, WW have such a small range in every resist that it just makes sense to farm them for one that's near max resists.

Rune beetles are the kings of tanking poison dmg, so you really want to get high poison resist on them. A properly picked rune beetle can tank putrifier.

Bake Kitsune are the kings of fire resist and overall resist cap. I won't tame a bake unless it has at least 55 in every resist and near 90 fire resist. They are an excellent overall tanking pet and can fill in as the tank when you want to use another pet to strike. For Example, if you farm for a strong striking beetle (high str, int, eval, etc) and pair it with a tanking bake, you can really kill some stuff fast.

Well anyway... Pet selection is a very complicated topic. People have written books on less complicated subjects.

 

[Nenime]

I just finished writing when I saw Sarphus post. I agree with him and my jadda-jadda is quite the same. But I cannot withhold this precious pearl of wisdom from you so here it is anyway:

I don't apply an over-all rating sytem. Primary to me is the strength which determines melee damage output and health points. Also the physical resistance which for me has to be as high as for this pet possible. The other resistances only in relation of the prospective usage. So the cold resistance of a Greater Dragon is secondary to me alike the fire resistance of a Cu Sidhe. Although it is good when these are high as well, sure.
As for the pets which have above-GM skills I try to get these as high as possible. On Rune Beetle their poisoning skill of course, on Greater Dragons mainly Wrestling and Magery. But also in this case I first check strength and phys. resist, then the others. When all these are good, I also check the pet's intelligene if it's a spellcaster. For Dex I don't care cause it will work up to 125 anyway. I heard about pets with higher Dex but I never found one myself. I would prefer that like strength because it determines the attacking speed.

 

[Sarphus]

There are so many good ways to rate pets

On greater dragons I won't even look at the rest if they are < 160 bard difficulty. On most pets, you can filter out all the weak ones by picking a high threshold on bard difficulty, because bard difficulty is calculated based on how high the stats and skills are. Resists don't go into that calculation, though. I also don't look at dragons with < 800 hp anymore (though my best dragon has 700's hp and outperforms dragons with 900+ hp)

My personal preference for greater dragons is to prioritize like this
First resists in this order...
Physical resist
Fire Resist
Energy Resist
Cold Resist
Poison Resist

Then I look at str (HUGE impact with a pet with such high base dmg)

Then I look at hp

Then I look at skills with the preference in this order
Wrestling
Tactics
Magery
Resist

The reason I prioritize like this is that I use my dragon as a tank and a damage engine.

Focusing on resists first ensures that nothing should be able to drop the dragon really fast. Focusing on str and tactics buffs his dmg significantly. Just to put things in perspective, the difference between a min str greater dragon and a max str greater dragon is more than 20 dmg per hit.