The Spirit Realm

Hey All...

Newbie level 36 shaman here, in case you haven't seen my other threads...

I recently took a short break from camping undead crusaders in Kurn's tower and headed to the Frontier Mountains to check out the goblin caves (that I'll need for a skull quest further down the road, Chardok faction, and a break from slaughtering greenies). I called up fido, buffed him and myself, and set to work, planning to mainly try things out and determine the spawn timer. No one else in zone to group with.

Everything was going pretty well... We plowed through a melee goblin and a shaman-ish goblin NP. Then I pulled a necro goblin out of the caves with slow to my fighting spot & Fido. The necro's spells hit harder than I expected, but I wasn't too concerned. I got a couple DoTs running on the necro-blin & whacked him a couple of times. Maybe 30 seconds had passed before I turned to assess the pet situation (I don't think it was even that long). Fido was tanking the necro pet, and died almost as soon as I turned to face them. Skellie at 94%. Between the necroDoT on me, some direct damage that hit me for 321, and now the skellie pet turning on me as well, I was forced to flee. Not a big deal. I figured that it would take me a while to figure out the caves. I was, however, very surpised at how quickly fido died. Fido Buffs: Talisman of Tnarq (HP & AC) , Nimble (AGI), Raging Strength, Regeneration, Health (STA), & Quickness.

Both the goblin necro & his pet were dark blue to me. Fido is light blue to me.

I have two questions about poor Fido:
1) Is this set of buffs "optimal" for fido? Anything that I don't need or that I should add to the list? (I don't have the lvl 35 STR buff yet -- need to get to Iceclad Ocean).

2) Why did poor Fido die so quickly? I didn't expect him to do much, but I certainly thought that he could hold off the pet long enough for me to get properly set up on the necro before I pulled the skellie aggro from him. I am one level away from a new and improved Fido... Is my lvl 32 pet just not tough enough for these goblins?

As always, thanks for your input.

I remember this transition. There is a point where mobs outgrow your pet. You'll need to do the tanking and use your pet as a dot for most encounters now.

Most higher level shaman joke about the pet being a speedbump, nothing more. And it's true. That said, I don't remember my pet being that weak that early though. Your buffs are alright, but you really need to fully slow a mob before your pet can tank effectively.

Usually, if you have two mobs, or like a mob and a mob pet, you'll want to root 1 to pull, slow the other one that charges, sick pet on him, and then dot up the rooted one and prepare for root to break, tanking that one if need be.

And do not forget . For a brief moment, get yourself a real pet

You never need to buff stamina on pet. It does nothing for him. If you're tanking for him, give him all the str you can and some haste and he's good to go.

Here's a couple threads on puppy use that may be helpful for you, if you haven't already read them. As usual, there's lots of high level info mixed in with general, you'll have to pick and choose what is relevent to you.

http://crucible.samanna.net/viewtopic.php?t=603

and about midpage on this page
http://samanna.net/sham.info/tips.shtml


dogdog becomes more useful again at higher levels (60+) when he gains enrage. On the off-chance he doesn't get one rounded, sometimes enraged dogdog will save you and your group with his few seconds of riposting.

Aye, root-splitting and slowing the mob for puppy to tank should help you much. May also want to debuff with Listless Power, and buff you and puppy with Spirit of Bih'Li for the extra attack.

For the record, tho, health(STA) has absolutely no effect on pets of any kind. It SHOULD boost their HP like it does for us, but it doesn't....an old, old "bug".

Don't give up yet on puppy tanking. I recall him taking on hill giants in RM. Especially now since pets can zone with you and keep all their buffs from other classes (clerics and rangers). On many mobs he may not be able to tank unattended, in which case you may need to spot heal him.

First, don't name the spirit dogs. It'll only make it harder on you when they inevitably die. Dogdog will do, or doggie.

The bigger issue I think you're discovering here is that /con "blue" means something different as you level up. At level four, blue meant monsters were as low as one quarter of your level. Now, at level 36, mobs can be 35/36ths of your level and still be "blue", or down to . That's the most extreme example, but boundary cases prove the rule. Now, you are a shaman, and as such have way more power than other characters of your level due to slowing spells. And you have major benefit from droppable gear that you've picked up cheap from much higher level characters in the Bazaar. But nearly all content above beginning levels is intended for groups (beginning meaning 1-10. even in the tutorial, it takes a group to finish the level 11+ quests). Melee-only mobs you can gimp out with slow, but casters at your same level are going to tear you up until your gear has way more resists on it.

You won't be able to Billy your pet. Is a group only spell, and until you have Pet Affinity AA, it won't sick on him (sucketh big time).