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I have some questions about the pets. I read the pet guide on gamefaq, as ordered by The Moderator ( ), and I would like to ask two questions.

First, has anyone actually played trough the veteran level with a mature Dire Wolf? And if so, can the wolf keep up? I have a party of an oh-so-evil death mage and a shielded warrior, and our wolf is great for all the damage reflection. But he's not likely to get much better, no? Is it worth to keep him trough vet level? The pet guide says "swap with mythrilhorn at once", but that's not an option, period. Mythrilhorn is ugly .

And second, can someone please explain to a stupid not-speaking-english pole what does that mean?

"But! Before you overlook those 5 gold daggers available at the bargain
basement, they still count as ONE item if you give them to your pet.
So if you're worried about Wolfy eating too many rings and reagents,
just feed him many cheap melee weapons before his next growth stage
to ensure that he will get the right stats." (from the gamefaq pet guide)

Thanks in advance!

QuenGalad wrote:I have some questions about the pets. I read the pet guide on gamefaq, as ordered by The Moderator ( ), and I would like to ask two questions.

First, has anyone actually played trough the veteran level with a mature Dire Wolf? And if so, can the wolf keep up? I have a party of an oh-so-evil death mage and a shielded warrior, and our wolf is great for all the damage reflection. But he's not likely to get much better, no? Is it worth to keep him trough vet level? The pet guide says "swap with mythrilhorn at once", but that's not an option, period. Mythrilhorn is ugly .

And second, can someone please explain to a stupid not-speaking-english pole what does that mean?

...

When asking 'is it worth to keep' what other options would you consider?
In many cases a (humanoid) party member will be more versatile and support your party much better in veteran of elite mode, eg. keep in mind if all chars are dead a still living pet is not able to resurrect them and the game calls you defeated (specially in single player).

Now if you want at least one pet by any reasons then i would exchance the Dire Wolf probalby in your case - not because it's a bad pet but rather due to its aura.
Remember how damage reflection works - you must be hurt first before reflection a ratio of this damage.
So damage reflection is rather a bonus mage eg. for dual-wielder: moderate armor value, much life and mostly a good regeneration amount (or life steal).
Now your mage is probaly not really damage-resistant at all while your shielded char is maybe too armored/protected!?
Thus a Necro Litid is perhaps a better choice, supporting death mages and melee chars as well. However if you really like your Dire Wolf then i would maintain it - why exchange it for a disliked pet just for a slightly easier gameplay!?

About the Mythirlhorn, it's is a very special pet, recommanding it over other pets shouldn't be generalized due to it's impact in the gameplay.
In your case, on one hand your shielded char can provoke enemies too. On the other hand a melee char always have to run to the enemy the pet has provoked, this may be insatisfying since path-finding AI isn't very well in DS2.
Note that there is also a strange strength-independance for the Mythrilhorn's damage (as it seems at least).

QuenGalad wrote: "But! Before you overlook those 5 gold daggers available at the bargain
basement, they still count as ONE item if you give them to your pet.
So if you're worried about Wolfy eating too many rings and reagents,
just feed him many cheap melee weapons before his next growth stage
to ensure that he will get the right stats." (from the gamefaq pet guide)

The resulting bonus at the end of a feeding stage only depends of the type of items and their amount.
Now supposed you have feeded the wrong things then you can buy cheap items of the pleasant type to 'pull' the expected bonus.
Example: if your magical pet is expecting a 'misc bonus' then just buy/feed a lot of cheap spell to turn the expected misc bonus into a magical bonus.

Thanks, that clarifies a lot.

As to other options, well, there aren't many, true, but there is the dragon, supposed to give big bonuses to just about everything, and nectolithid sounds great for my baddie mage... But I have an impression that the wolf's aura is doing most of the job for me, combined with the other "reflecting" gear I'm wearing. The enemies just fall too fast for my warrior's damage to be the only cause of it. I'm just worried the wolf would become uneffective against more powerfull enemies, because he's not advancing anymore, and they are.

I did quite a bit of research on Dire Wolves as pets (see http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/dunge ... 89733.html)

As to the question of whether they can keep up in Vet; Yes. I'm currently going up the last stage of the game in Vet mode with 3 Dire Wolves and Deru. I do keep them stocked with Health potions and use them regularly, but this is the last line of defense for the bad guys. Lots of tough fights and lots of mob swarms.

I'm thinking to add Taar for a Nature Mage in my party to lower my need for Healing Potions once I start into Elite mode. The need for the healing is more for Deru than it is for the Dire Wolves:laugh:

The great thing about pets is that they advance along with you main character without a need to distribute skill points, and they don't soak up any of the XP. I used a pure party of Dire Wolves in Merc Mode and it made the game insanely easy. Vet mode is providing more of a challenge, and I expect Elite will be even more so (I'm hoping at least. I love the challenge)

I love the "look" of my wolf pack falling over enemies, but the damage aura doesn't stack, so one Dire Wolf is all you need. You can have more than one pet in the party, so a mix-match of pets might work better for some tactics.

The Mythralhorn is liked because it draws enemies to it. This puts all those little mob swarms in one spot to be covered by the Dire Wolf's aura, or to be grouped for mage's area spells:mischief:

With the mage-party you have, I'd personally shy from the pets that cast magic, but then again, that may free you to concentrate on the more damaging spells and let them take care of the lighter ones, like healing and buffs.

The idea of the Mage-Party is interesting though. Could you post what classes you're currently running with? I prolly will run my own in the future, but am building out the wolf-pack atm. Main-Pure Shield/Melee, Deru-Pure Ranged, Three Dire Wolves-all fed on purely ranged weapons.

~Jessy

Thanks, I was looking foward to a response from you I did see your topic on dire wolves, very interesting. Very... systematic . I have to say I like that pet a lot, and I would like to play it trough vet with my Karigaard

The party in question is not pure magic, it's an elven death mage and Lothar as shield fighter + the wolf. The wolf makes a nice pet for a necromancer, and that's why I don't want to change him for the mythrilhorn. But basically I was just wondering whether any pet just doesn't get too weak on vet level, due to it's achieved growth. From all I read, it is not so.

As to pure parties, I'm having great fun with my pure ranged party, The Dreadful Dryads . I have beaten all the merc lvl with a "no crossbows" obligation, and a ranged party was suprisingly powerfull. I think that, had I used crossbows, it would be too easy even for me, due to big damage they deal.

Yup, thought about the pure ranged myself, but good gawd, the damage they do is crazy.

They only recourse is that their armor really sucks :laugh: But with some doge skills it makes up for it enough because things die so blasted quick. I may still take this type of party through to Elite mode as I think that may prove more of a challenge.

The reason Deru gets hurt so much with my current party is she draws anything she hits right to her. Currently she's dealing out around 2000 damage per hit with her Aimed Shot smacking in for a shade over 10,000. (lvl 71). I've focused more on getting through Vet mode right now than picking up new equipment though. I plan on changing tactics on that when entering Elite mode.

I'm only "pure" on my characters for the moment. I actually plan to see if I can max level out every humanoid in the party. I've been unable to find conclusive data as to whether there's a max character level, or only a max class level. *shrugs* If you read my other thread, you know I'm a determined wench :laugh:

This actually pertains to the pets too, however. If they stop advancing at a max out class level, then they may get replaced by NPCs. If they continue to advance with a character level....:mischief:

Beating the game is truly not a challenge. I find more of a challenge to build my character(s) up to truly goddess-like status and discover all the items. The fun of exploring, treasure seeking and of self-advancement. No game I have every played poses a challenge after a few weeks to learn the interface. Until a true AI is created for the mobs, that will always remain true. No computer program can every out think a human mind. It can react faster upon pre-programed responses, but even with the biochemical reactions being slower from human mind to fingers, the human mind far outshines any computer.

Back on topic I'd say to stick with the Dire Wolf to help out Lothar, but I would consider the Mythralhorn to hold enemies in one spot for your mage and to keep Lothar from having to run all over the map

~Jessy