They're good in solo PVE, but they're bad in PVP, group dungeons, and the like. Personally, all of my lower level sorcerers (30ish and below) have tended to be squishy, and in solo play have benefited greatly from the somewhat tanky Clannfear to draw some aggro. At higher levels in solo play I find there's less need for this, but the utility of the Restoring Twilight is handy.

True they are very functional in many situations, but to me they look stupid which of course is just my personal take on it. I'm sure my setup looks stupid to plenty others. If you like them and can be successful with them, doesn't really matter what others think.

As a sorc main, I agree with the above points, and would like to elaborate on the bad AI and why pets aren't as good as they could be.

ESO combat is highly active, meaning that blocking heavy attacks, interrupting casts and dodging AOEs is crucial for success, especially during boss fights (even a normal dungeon boss). Pets can do NONE of these. Their AI is simply programmed to attack until either the target or they themselves die. (in the case of bosses, usually the latter) Every time a pet eats an uppercut or a knockdown charge from a mob, that's an extra few seconds that the pet is disabled and doing nothing.

To warrant a skill slot (or two) pets need to have more "abilities" other than plain damage dealing, which many other skills do better. Allowing the pets to have their NPC conterpart's abilities in addition to their abilities now would be one improvement. For example,

Familiar/Banekin morph:
- The familiar summons a ball of lightning around itself, doing X shock damage over Y seconds to all enemies within Z radius. (this is an NPC skill)

Clannfear morph:

- Clannfear can perform a charge/tail swipe every X seconds that knocks all enemies within Y radius down for Z seconds. (NPC skill)

Winged Twilight and morphs:

- Twilight can perform a frontal cone scream that disorients all enemies in front of it for X seconds. (NPC skill)
- Twilight can perform a heavy wing clip that does X damage to all enemies within Y radius of itself. (NPC skill)
- Twilight's ranged lightning attack now arcs to X nearby targets.

etc.

All of these would improve the viability of pets greatly. For example, the pet's CC can disable mobs, preventing casts and heavy attacks. The AOE damage reduction is a step in the right direction, but many more improvements can be made.

Just my 2 cents.

Contraptions wrote: »

As a sorc main, I agree with the above points, and would like to elaborate on the bad AI and why pets aren't as good as they could be.

ESO combat is highly active, meaning that blocking heavy attacks, interrupting casts and dodging AOEs is crucial for success, especially during boss fights (even a normal dungeon boss). Pets can do NONE of these. Their AI is simply programmed to attack until either the target or they themselves die. (in the case of bosses, usually the latter) Every time a pet eats an uppercut or a knockdown charge from a mob, that's an extra few seconds that the pet is disabled and doing nothing.

To warrant a skill slot (or two) pets need to have more "abilities" other than plain damage dealing, which many other skills do better. Allowing the pets to have their NPC conterpart's abilities in addition to their abilities now would be one improvement. For example,

Familiar/Banekin morph:
- The familiar summons a ball of lightning around itself, doing X shock damage over Y seconds to all enemies within Z radius. (this is an NPC skill)

Clannfear morph:

- Clannfear can perform a charge/tail swipe every X seconds that knocks all enemies within Y radius down for Z seconds. (NPC skill)

Winged Twilight and morphs:

- Twilight can perform a frontal cone scream that disorients all enemies in front of it for X seconds. (NPC skill)
- Twilight can perform a heavy wing clip that does X damage to all enemies within Y radius of itself. (NPC skill)
- Twilight's ranged lightning attack now arcs to X nearby targets.

etc.

All of these would improve the viability of pets greatly. For example, the pet's CC can disable mobs, preventing casts and heavy attacks. The AOE damage reduction is a step in the right direction, but many more improvements can be made.

Just my 2 cents.

I like the sugestions. But for me, I think it would be nice to have more active control over the pets and any additional abilities. This could either come from a key-combination (direct active control) , or class skill synergy (you cast X and the pet does X).

I think it's lazy to use your pets. Imo it feels like you have less control, it's more satisfying to destroy something on your own. And pets inside of the banks just bother me, especially when you're trying to loot containers.
Say no to pets

Strychnox wrote: »

I think it's lazy to use your pets. Imo it feels like you have less control, it's more satisfying to destroy something on your own. And pets inside of the banks just bother me, especially when you're trying to loot containers.
Say no to pets

Yes, pets should be auto-dismissed inside buildings in towns, there is zero need for them to be there and some Sorcs seem to delight in placing them in the most bloody annoying locations just to *** off others.

Kragorn wrote: »

Strychnox wrote: »

I think it's lazy to use your pets. Imo it feels like you have less control, it's more satisfying to destroy something on your own. And pets inside of the banks just bother me, especially when you're trying to loot containers.
Say no to pets

Yes, pets should be auto-dismissed inside buildings in towns, there is zero need for them to be there and some Sorcs seem to delight in placing them in the most bloody annoying locations just to *** off others.

Kragorn wrote: »

Strychnox wrote: »

I think it's lazy to use your pets. Imo it feels like you have less control, it's more satisfying to destroy something on your own. And pets inside of the banks just bother me, especially when you're trying to loot containers.
Say no to pets

Yes, pets should be auto-dismissed inside buildings in towns, there is zero need for them to be there and some Sorcs seem to delight in placing them in the most bloody annoying locations just to *** off others.

I agree they should not be allowed in any buildings that are not quest related.

Honestly my biggest "problem" with pets is that there are only 3 of them...and they're boring. I want proper Necromancer pets! I want to raise skeletons and zombies and even bloodfiends! I'd like a Wyress who can summon various animals. And I'd like more Daedric pets like, you know, a wise-cracking Daedra who is constantly telling me what horrible things they are going to do to me when they finally break free of my control.

The real and glaring issue with pets is that they trigger boss mechanics. For example say a boss has a targeted AOE on a group member and when he starts to cast it you need the group to spread out so the AOE is out of the way. Well there is no 'move over there pet' command and therefore your pet can really screw this up. Also there are certain mechanics where if too many people are bunched up it triggers extra boss dmg and GUESS WHAT??? PET'S TRIGGER THAT TOO! It is ridiculous of ZOS to even suggest we use pets in high level content when this is the case.

Iago wrote: »

Why don't people like the Daedric Summoning line? Personally I find the pets rather useful. Is there something I am missing about this that I havent encountered? I only just rolled my sorcerer a few days ago and am only level 26

I play a healing, summoning sorceress and really enjoy it and hope that the improvements with 1.6 will enhance that experience.

That said, those who complain are mostly raiders and they see a lack in damage compared to other classes. While that damage is not low, its still "low" enough to be "removed" from any premade content.

But also boss mechanics can cause issues. The pets might pull additional adds, trigger AOE stuns, might even lower the FPS at some peoples machines etc. ZO should start with making pets immune to any of those triggers and give the whole group a damage buff when active. This however would need to be a non stacking buff, else everyone would only invite sorceress into their groups.

In my opinion is the fear of not being wanted anymore in groups, the sole reason for the complaints. We all know how selective the current generation of gamers can be, if you do 1% less damage you are already OUT!

Gorthax wrote: »

Audigy wrote: »

Iago wrote: »

Why don't people like the Daedric Summoning line? Personally I find the pets rather useful. Is there something I am missing about this that I havent encountered? I only just rolled my sorcerer a few days ago and am only level 26

I play a healing, summoning sorceress and really enjoy it and hope that the improvements with 1.6 will enhance that experience.

That said, those who complain are mostly raiders and they see a lack in damage compared to other classes. While that damage is not low, its still "low" enough to be "removed" from any premade content.

But also boss mechanics can cause issues. The pets might pull additional adds, trigger AOE stuns, might even lower the FPS at some peoples machines etc. ZO should start with making pets immune to any of those triggers and give the whole group a damage buff when active. This however would need to be a non stacking buff, else everyone would only invite sorceress into their groups.

In my opinion is the fear of not being wanted anymore in groups, the sole reason for the complaints. We all know how selective the current generation of gamers can be, if you do 1% less damage you are already OUT!

just...no...giving everyone a damage buff while having pets active would not help sorcs at all lol it would make everyone better than sorcs by much more lol not a good idea. They need to redo like 80% of the skills or adjust damage numbers and cost to be competitive

Why?

If a sorceress gives the group a buff, then if you don't take a sorceress then you simply put wont have access to it.

If ZO would do what you want then nothing would change. One class or spec will always be a tiny bit weaker, we should all have learned that lesson from the game we don't speak of

One month no pallys are allowed in raids, the next month its all full of Druids ... Not really a solution ZO cant change the mind of its players and as long they min / max and exclude others who don't, nothing will change.

Audigy wrote: »

Iago wrote: »

Why don't people like the Daedric Summoning line? Personally I find the pets rather useful. Is there something I am missing about this that I havent encountered? I only just rolled my sorcerer a few days ago and am only level 26

I play a healing, summoning sorceress and really enjoy it and hope that the improvements with 1.6 will enhance that experience.

That said, those who complain are mostly raiders and they see a lack in damage compared to other classes. While that damage is not low, its still "low" enough to be "removed" from any premade content.

But also boss mechanics can cause issues. The pets might pull additional adds, trigger AOE stuns, might even lower the FPS at some peoples machines etc. ZO should start with making pets immune to any of those triggers and give the whole group a damage buff when active. This however would need to be a non stacking buff, else everyone would only invite sorceress into their groups.

In my opinion is the fear of not being wanted anymore in groups, the sole reason for the complaints. We all know how selective the current generation of gamers can be, if you do 1% less damage you are already OUT!

Instead of two pets though I wish you could trade both of them in fr a bigger daedra like an ogrim or something. As it stands the pets seem to be great in PvE especially for dolmens / world bosses