Which special ability for a Dread Spider meant to teleport onto Orc ships and nothing else?

[Silent Singer]

Hey folks,

The pirate ship discussion got me interested in revisiting the Dread Spider. Someone reported that taking the Necromage magic would allow the DS to teleport to an enemy ship as if it had the Magery Mastery. So I want to try Necromage. But what special ability should I choose? Someone also said that if Poison was trained to 100 before selecting Necromage, when the DS died his poison skill could be retrained if the correct AoE is chosen in training? Any experience with this? If this info is all correct I wanted to try a DS with Necromage, either Poison Breath or Aura of Nausea, and one of the following: Life Leech, Repel, Vicious Bite.

Anyone already gone down this road? And again, this is solely for ship to ship shenanigans.

Thanks!

 

[Nicnivin]

Although I never trained a Dread Spider, I can confirm that Necromage pets do teleport (tested with a nightmare).
Regarding the poisoning training: I know that the special ability Venomous Bite does raise the poisoning skill, even after the initial Poisoning ability has been replaced by another magical ability. An early test pet also did gain skill from using Poison Breath. In ship battles Poison Breath sounds like a good choice, because it damages the crew even before the pet teleports.

 

[Silent Singer]

Although I never trained a Dread Spider, I can confirm that Necromage pets do teleport (tested with a nightmare).
Regarding the poisoning training: I know that the special ability Venomous Bite does raise the poisoning skill, even after the initial Poisoning ability has been replaced by another magical ability. An early test pet also did gain skill from using Poison Breath. In ship battles Poison Breath sounds like a good choice, because it damages the crew even before the pet teleports.

Thank you Nicnivin, this is good enough for me!

 

[gwen]

Necromage pet do teleport. This and using mastery (useless but good looking one) is what it will do most of times.
You can also try nightmare or Lesser Hiryu (can mount it) or Stygian Drake (have mage mastery on taming).

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Necromage Dread Spider with Poison Breath. That used to be the highest AoE damage pet prior to the discovery of FWW+PB Najasaurus. Yes, Necromage Dread Spiders will Teleport like crazy. Once you swap the Dread Spider over to Necromage, they'll lose the Poisoning Magical Ability (no more inflicting Poison status on melee attack), but retain any points in Poisoning skill (which will affect their chance to inflict Poison status with Poison Strike spell, 9% chance to inflict DP with GM Poisoning). You'll want to train them to GM Poison skill first before swapping them to Necromage, then also give them Poison Breath so they can re-gain Poisoning skill if they die (plus the added damage from Poison Breath inflicting Lethal Poison on multiple foes at once).

Life Leech Special Ability has a chance to proc on any melee attack, heals the pet for a % of damage dealt (so scales with their damage output), and consume 5 Mana every time it procs, it can be a mana hog. Necromage pets will occasionally cast Curse Weapon if their Health starts to dip, which is pretty potent self healing when they use it.

 

[Silent Singer]

Necromage Dread Spider with Poison Breath. That used to be the highest AoE damage pet prior to the discovery of FWW+PB Najasaurus. Yes, Necromage Dread Spiders will Teleport like crazy. Once you swap the Dread Spider over to Necromage, they'll lose the Poisoning Magical Ability (no more inflicting Poison status on melee attack), but retain any points in Poisoning skill (which will affect their chance to inflict Poison status with Poison Strike spell, 9% chance to inflict DP with GM Poisoning). You'll want to train them to GM Poison skill first before swapping them to Necromage, then also give them Poison Breath so they can re-gain Poisoning skill if they die (plus the added damage from Poison Breath inflicting Lethal Poison on multiple foes at once).

Life Leech Special Ability has a chance to proc on any melee attack, heals the pet for a % of damage dealt (so scales with their damage output), and consume 5 Mana every time it procs, it can be a mana hog. Necromage pets will occasionally cast Curse Weapon if their Health starts to dip, which is pretty potent self healing when they use it.

So has your experience been that Life Leech is a better choice than Vicious Bite? Or should I skip a special and just have Necromage with Poison Breath?

 

[Anon McDougle]

Will all necromage pets (my ram) teleport?? Runs to test

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

So has your experience been that Life Leech is a better choice than Vicious Bite? Or should I skip a special and just have Necromage with Poison Breath?

Yes, Life Leech is much better than Vicious Bite. Vicious Bite flat out sucks.
Just did some testing, and it looks like they nerfed Curse Weapon for pets. Only the next attack leeches life for them then, instead of all melee attacks for the next 30 seconds :/

 

[Silent Singer]

Yes, Life Leech is much better than Vicious Bite. Vicious Bite flat out sucks.
Just did some testing, and it looks like they nerfed Curse Weapon for pets. Only the next attack leeches life for them then, instead of all melee attacks for the next 30 seconds :/

Roger that, thanks!

 

[Anon McDougle]

My necromage ram is in fact a fantastic pirating pet !!

 

[Pawain]

My necromage ram is in fact a fantastic pirating pet !!

Since the crew on a pirate ship is easy to kill with any pet.

This proves the point that if you use something that is fun for you, it is the correct thing to use for your entertainment. That is why we play.

 

[Max Blackoak]

My necromage ram is in fact a fantastic pirating pet !!

isn't that a bit counter productive since the ram does 50% physical and 25% cold damage and those two resists get increased on the target when it casts corpse skin?

 

[Anon McDougle]

isn't that a bit counter productive since the ram does 50% physical and 25% cold damage and those two resists get increased on the target when it casts corpse skin?

Completely and necromagey is so broken in so many ways but for killin orcs it's totally fine

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

isn't that a bit counter productive since the ram does 50% physical and 25% cold damage and those two resists get increased on the target when it casts corpse skin?

Pets that deal most of their damage through Physical/Cold damage don't cast Corpse Skin anymore. That was patched.

 

[Max Blackoak]

Pets that deal most of their damage through Physical/Cold damage don't cast Corpse Skin anymore. That was patched.

I see, so a dread spider would still cast corpse skin because it only does 20% physical dmg. I forgot about that patch.

 

[gwen]

I see, so a dread spider would still cast corpse skin because it only does 20% physical dmg. I forgot about that patch.

it casts mastery spell very often. Which is useless for character. Pet does it randomly, Even fighting one target.
So what it usually do is just waste mana and die.
There is no AI supplied with pet. This is why most are choosing Chivalry. Only one self- harmful spell (Eoo) there .
Bushido, Necro, Magery are broken. When pet is trying to bless opponent is bearable. When it is using Honorable kill on boss with 10%HP left is imminent death.