Sorcerer Pet Changes

Jura23 · February 2016

RoyJade wrote: »

I just asking myself one thing : does their special abilities also have a cast time ? If not, sorc will get both a great self heal (tank especially) and a very good healing spell.

Just hope their damage will now scale on both magicka and stamina, and we will able to de-summon them (or they become totally invisible even with detect pot in pvp).

I can see it having cast time, but the pet should be casting, not you. Also I can see that ebilities having a cooldown.

Magdalina · February 2016

Jura23 wrote: »

RoyJade wrote: »

I just asking myself one thing : does their special abilities also have a cast time ? If not, sorc will get both a great self heal (tank especially) and a very good healing spell.

Just hope their damage will now scale on both magicka and stamina, and we will able to de-summon them (or they become totally invisible even with detect pot in pvp).

I can see it having cast time, but the pet should be casting, not you. Also I can see that ebilities having a cooldown.

If they cost 6k magicka they can do without a cooldown. Darn, wish I could test>.< Wtb 40 more GB space on my SSD for PTS lol

CirithValaria · February 2016

It appears that their "special attacks" can be used as often and long as u have magicka. (cost is around the same as base skill). Also to make them disappear - hold the skill for 4 seconds or so.

ArvenAldmeri · February 2016

No matter what they do with pets they are not gonna force me to use them. Too little space on ability bar.

hrothbern · February 2016

Magdalina wrote: »

Jura23 wrote: »

RoyJade wrote: »

I just asking myself one thing : does their special abilities also have a cast time ? If not, sorc will get both a great self heal (tank especially) and a very good healing spell.

Just hope their damage will now scale on both magicka and stamina, and we will able to de-summon them (or they become totally invisible even with detect pot in pvp).

I can see it having cast time, but the pet should be casting, not you. Also I can see that ebilities having a cooldown.

If they cost 6k magicka they can do without a cooldown. Darn, wish I could test>.< Wtb 40 more GB space on my SSD for PTS lol

There is indeed no Cool Down. I tested that.
But you need unbuffed with Magicka Cost savings 6577 Magicka per special ability cast, double the summoning costs.

olsborg · February 2016

I dont understand why they still require us to have the pet on both bars, I mean, its like putting a sign on a goat saying its a sheep, its still just a goat.

Either make it 1 slot, or atleast give it a duration of like 15 secs if you dont have it slotted, wich resets once you switches back to the bar where you have it slotted.

Digiman · February 2016

The requirement for them being on both bars needs to be removed. Even if ZoS decided to make them DPS dealing demons it would be unbalanced for other classes who now on top of having to deal with the Sorcerer and his damage and wards but a pet tearing them the hell apart.

This is bad because it means ZoS will have to spend more time finding balance in an obviously broken system.

Remove the requirement, make them temporary like in the ES games. Pet classes for this game just don't work, and trying to buff them to make them appealing isn't going to make them viable if every Sorcerer has to effectively put them on every weapon bar to prevent them from de-summoning.

What's worse is all this pet focus is detracting attention from the areas sorcerers need attention in.

BurtFreeman · February 2016

sorc, my favorite class, already have the 3th ability bar with energy overload.
if you permanently summon pets on a single bar, means you going to have another 2 free slot in one bar (i use 2 pet always):
i think is too much for an already overpowered and dominating class.

edit: anyway, my favorite skills with pets are:
bar1: Empowered Ward or Harness Magika, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Endless Fury, degeneration -- Energy Overload
bar2: Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Shattering Prison or daedric minefield, Crystal Fragments -- Shooting Star or Greater Storm Atronach if i use Empowered Ward
Energy Overload bar3: Boundless Storm, Streak, Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, degeneration

Armann · February 2016

I love summoners, that's why I rolled a sorc in the first place. I am probably in the minority here but I love these changes which makes active skill use a requirement to make the most out of pets. The Twilight Matriarch looks good for sorc healers which is something I was hoping they would look into improving.

daemonios · February 2016

BurtFreeman wrote: »

sorc, my favorite class, already have the 3th ability bar with energy overload.
if you permanently summon pets on a single bar, means you going to have another 2 free slot in one bar (i use 2 pet always):
i think is too much for an already overpowered and dominating class.

edit: anyway, my favorite skills with pets are:
bar1: Empowered Ward or Harness Magika, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Endless Fury, degeneration -- Energy Overload
bar2: Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Shattering Prison or daedric minefield, Crystal Fragments -- Shooting Star or Greater Storm Atronach if i use Empowered Ward
Energy Overload bar3: Boundless Storm, Streak, Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, degeneration

Do you run vICP or vWGT with that setup?

SmalltalkJava · February 2016

It will be interesting, with spamming crystal blast, my gtaoe, and now pet active abilities. There are a lot of possibilities. Strong fps, and a spam heal. I'm liking it.

Now we can have pets and breath of life!!!!

I just need them to stealth.

Caff32 · February 2016

Mojmir wrote: »

can you also run with pets on an overload bar?

Yes. On boss fights, you can put Matriarch (or both pets even) on your overload bar to summon them pre-fight, go into battle with your overload spams. When the pets died, you got the benefits of them dying and didn't bother to recast them. It was a great way to start a fight, actually. I'm not sure how much these changes will actually change that.

Fallen_Ray · February 2016

So what do sorcerers think about these changes? Do they make pet builds more viable?

As a sorcerer I'd say it does give us a few more options which is not bad but there's still room for improvement

Mush55 · February 2016

Yay another ability to have on both bars hope my heavy attack gets a buff , because at this rate im not going to have any room for actual dps abilities

kraxammer · February 2016

olsborg wrote: »

I dont understand why they still require us to have the pet on both bars, I mean, its like putting a sign on a goat saying its a sheep, its still just a goat.

Either make it 1 slot, or atleast give it a duration of like 15 secs if you dont have it slotted, wich resets once you switches back to the bar where you have it slotted.

what am i missing. . .people keeping saying "both bars?" I only have ONE bar. abilities 1-5 and an ultimate. What am I missing,there is another bar for abilities? I have a newbie Sorc I'm playing and there is only one bar. Please elaborate on the additional bar I'm reading about.

daemonios · February 2016

kraxammer wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

I dont understand why they still require us to have the pet on both bars, I mean, its like putting a sign on a goat saying its a sheep, its still just a goat.

Either make it 1 slot, or atleast give it a duration of like 15 secs if you dont have it slotted, wich resets once you switches back to the bar where you have it slotted.

what am i missing. . .people keeping saying "both bars?" I only have ONE bar. abilities 1-5 and an ultimate. What am I missing,there is another bar for abilities? I have a newbie Sorc I'm playing and there is only one bar. Please elaborate on the additional bar I'm reading about.

You joined the forums in April 2014 and are asking about the second bar? Please convince me you're not trolling. Just in the remote chance you're not: at level 15 you can equip a new weapon and get a second bar with 5 skills and 1 ultimate slot.

kraxammer · February 2016

daemonios wrote: »

kraxammer wrote: »

olsborg wrote: »

I dont understand why they still require us to have the pet on both bars, I mean, its like putting a sign on a goat saying its a sheep, its still just a goat.

Either make it 1 slot, or atleast give it a duration of like 15 secs if you dont have it slotted, wich resets once you switches back to the bar where you have it slotted.

what am i missing. . .people keeping saying "both bars?" I only have ONE bar. abilities 1-5 and an ultimate. What am I missing,there is another bar for abilities? I have a newbie Sorc I'm playing and there is only one bar. Please elaborate on the additional bar I'm reading about.

You joined the forums in April 2014 and are asking about the second bar? Please convince me you're not trolling. Just in the remote chance you're not: at level 15 you can equip a new weapon and get a second bar with 5 skills and 1 ultimate slot.

[snip] I played for 5 minutes in 2014, and just started back again last week. [snip] But at least you answered my question, thanks.

[Edited to remove inappropriate content]

Waffennacht · February 2016

Matriarch heals for 20% hp or clannfear heals for 35%, as most sorcs never go above 20k health, that makes the larger clannfear heal approx 8k...

You do realize blessing of restoration heals for more right? Is instant and only takes one slot, and costs far less magicka?

So as is: You pay for your Pet and Pay for their ability, that's a massive cost increase.

Everyone here Im guessing does not play Pets Endgame or they would know exactly how important even 1second is in cast time or survivability.

These changes will make Pets less effective in Endgame. Increase in cost, increase in time, and added decast time = death for solo play.

The Adjudicator does not like giving you cast time.

ajwest927 · February 2016

I feel like if zoe really want us sorcerer to have group healing abilities they should just tweak dark exchange by
1. Make it an heal over time ability
2. Heal nearest 1 or 2 allies
3. If allies want stamina instead of magicka or vice versa depending on the morph they can exchange it by using synergy.

Tankqull · February 2016

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

No matter what they do with pets they are not gonna force me to use them. Too little space on ability bar.

especially when you still have to sacrifice two slots for the no longer toggle called toggle skill ^^

HebrewHatchet · February 2016

I don't see a problem with this. It's not the way many people want it to be, but it's still going to be fun! I enjoy tanking and healing PUG vet dungeons on my sorc more than DPSing because it's challenging, and these new pets give sorcs more options for tanking and healing!

The way I see it, I'll probably slot the Twilight Matriarch on my resto bar only for healing. When I switch to DPS, I will lose her, but that's just a penalty for switching. I can eat that 1.5 second cast time when I switch back to healing, it's not a huge deal. For fights that need a lot of healing, the Twilight Matriarch will probably be out nearly the whole time because it may be hard to find time to DPS, given the 1.5 second penalty.

This is not terrible, it's just a new mechanic for healing with sorcs!

Similar arguments can be made for the utility of tanking with a pet as a sorc.

UrQuan · February 2016

After playing around with the Twilight Matriarch a little bit, I'm not particularly impressed. I feel like the magicka cost to use the Twilight's ability is too high to really let it compete with resto staff abilities for a sorc healer. If you only had to have it on one bar and it otherwise remained the same cost and effect then I think it would be a useful addition for a sorc healer. As is, though, I'm unconvinced that it's worth using.

That's just initial impressions, though.

Waffennacht · February 2016

Any experienced player will tell you that Pets are really a pain in groups.

You cannot group mobs up with Pets making DPS characters hate you for ruining their burn
Tanks hate you because they make mobs leave the area needed
Healers hate you because you are wasting space for subpar heals and no dps.
You cannot dps anywhere near any dps build

Pets are not synergistic with group play. Most pet sorcs get kicked out of groups for the above reasons.

The abilities having a cost is bad, now you pay for cast and ability.

From what I gather the PTS is intended to slow the game down a bit more.

I want to hear someone trying the new pets in vMA or solo Nunatak, that opinion ill listen to.

Imo its bad, really bad

Khaos_Bane · February 2016

BurtFreeman wrote: »

sorc, my favorite class, already have the 3th ability bar with energy overload.
if you permanently summon pets on a single bar, means you going to have another 2 free slot in one bar (i use 2 pet always):
i think is too much for an already overpowered and dominating class.

edit: anyway, my favorite skills with pets are:
bar1: Empowered Ward or Harness Magika, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Endless Fury, degeneration -- Energy Overload
bar2: Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Shattering Prison or daedric minefield, Crystal Fragments -- Shooting Star or Greater Storm Atronach if i use Empowered Ward
Energy Overload bar3: Boundless Storm, Streak, Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, degeneration

LOL. If you always use two pets you are not overpowered or dominating.

Makkir · February 2016

Magdalina wrote: »

I'm still confused as for how this is supposed to work. Cast #1 summons pet, cast #2 makes pet do its thing, cast #3 does what? Make it do its special thing again? Is there a cooldown if so? Or does it just desummon the pet? Or if it doesn't desummon it, HOW would you desummon the pets then?._. You NEED them off sometimes, have to stop them doing damage beyond certain health % for certain bosses' mechanics.

yes it becomes a spammable ability that costs you it's magicka cost

olsborg · February 2016

I just tried the volatile familiar thingy in cyrodiil, its underwhelming. The pulsing dmg is low, even with a 34k magicka 3k spelldmg build. All the pets special abilities cost too much magicka to keep up at a reasonable pace.

jessikajayne · February 2016

They should give pets a time limit and remove the need for them to be on both bars.
(they were better as toggles so u just needed to switch weapons for the heal as a tank)

Waffennacht · February 2016

The familiar was subpar as an instant AoE at 7k dmg. That was 7k dps that was bad...

Now over the course of 4 seconds, it's dps becomes a pathetic 1800 dps... in a far more limited range.

Tested out Clannfear as if he was new.... he died 4 times all of which would have prevented me from getting any advantage to using his new ability. At least the old version gave me some hp when he died.

Matriarch, 50% more dps on a single target with 50% or more health... ok she did roughly 2.5k per attack or 1.25k dps (pathetic) and so she now (under conditions) do a whole 4k or 2k dps... (Pathetic!!! For a mana costing ability!)

Her heal sucks compared to any other in game heal.

Atronach acts more like he always should, but still how the heck can you get me to run him over overload and/or unreflectable stat boosting Ice Comet? You can't, that's how!

Pets were barely viable when their abilities were "free" let alone this massive cost increase, time increase, and pain to desummon.

BurtFreeman · February 2016

Khaos_Bane wrote: »

BurtFreeman wrote: »

sorc, my favorite class, already have the 3th ability bar with energy overload.
if you permanently summon pets on a single bar, means you going to have another 2 free slot in one bar (i use 2 pet always):
i think is too much for an already overpowered and dominating class.

edit: anyway, my favorite skills with pets are:
bar1: Empowered Ward or Harness Magika, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Endless Fury, degeneration -- Energy Overload
bar2: Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Shattering Prison or daedric minefield, Crystal Fragments -- Shooting Star or Greater Storm Atronach if i use Empowered Ward
Energy Overload bar3: Boundless Storm, Streak, Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, degeneration

LOL. If you always use two pets you are not overpowered or dominating.

i do not say my sorc dominate. i say the sorc is overpowered and dominating class.

anyway try to think a group with 2 or 3 or 4 sorc... running in the same time degeneration + Empowered Ward + Unstable Clannfear + Twilight Matriarch + Greater Storm Atronach and spamming cfrag (Endless Fury as executioner).

it's a devastating power, and any one more sorc with the same exact cast in sinergy will make the mage fury even better.

Waffennacht · February 2016

BurtFreeman wrote: »

Khaos_Bane wrote: »

BurtFreeman wrote: »

sorc, my favorite class, already have the 3th ability bar with energy overload.
if you permanently summon pets on a single bar, means you going to have another 2 free slot in one bar (i use 2 pet always):
i think is too much for an already overpowered and dominating class.

edit: anyway, my favorite skills with pets are:
bar1: Empowered Ward or Harness Magika, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Endless Fury, degeneration -- Energy Overload
bar2: Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Twilight Matriarch, Shattering Prison or daedric minefield, Crystal Fragments -- Shooting Star or Greater Storm Atronach if i use Empowered Ward
Energy Overload bar3: Boundless Storm, Streak, Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, degeneration

LOL. If you always use two pets you are not overpowered or dominating.

i do not say my sorc dominate. i say the sorc is overpowered and dominating class.

anyway try to think a group with 2 or 3 or 4 sorc... running in the same time degeneration + Empowered Ward + Unstable Clannfear + Twilight Matriarch + Greater Storm Atronach and spamming cfrag (Endless Fury as executioner).

it's a devastating power, and any one more sorc with the same exact cast in sinergy will make the mage fury even better.

Really? Really? Are you joking? No dedicated heals? No tank, no mob grouping for DPS maximizing... no AoEs...

I disagree that, a group of 3 pet users will not be more effective than the already proven dungeon running groups.