Another patch has come, and for the umpteenth time in a row Magdens will be bottom tier DPS in PVE. When it was announced that the every single ability in the game was getting looked at and adjusted I was cautiously optimistic. I had hoped against all common sense that finally the people in charge of balancing combat would make changes, tweaks, adjustments anything to make my favourite class and the ONLY class that I spent additional money for viable at the highest level. And surprise surprise I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Reading the patch notes the biggest bone PVE Magdens were thrown was the increase in major expedition from Bird of Prey. That was the most impactful change they thought they could have made. That is insulting. There are so many skills in the Magden's toolkit that are underwhelming at best and downright pathetic at worst.

Today's post will be about the Animal Companion's skill line. Others will follow via edits or new threads.

I'll start with the class spammable screaming cliff racer. Recently it got changed so depending on how far away from the target you are the attack gains a buff of up to 15%. The problem with this is that the game is largely spent playing in melee range so your class spammable is never used to it's full potential. VAS+2 is the only time you'd really be away from the boss. In VCR, VMOL, VHOF and VSS you are in melee range unless you're playing mechanics. The amount of dps added here is so miniscule you are better of saving your skill point and keeping the base ability.
How I'd improve it: I'd actually take the effect from Fetcher Infection apply it to the class spammable. So keep the spammable at the same strength as the base ability but have it be 50% stronger on every other cast. This makes a lot more sense than having every other cast of an expensive and lengthy DoT like fetcher Infection be buffed with every other cast.

Secondly let's look at Fetcher Infection and it's sister morph Growing Swarm. Both of them have effects which are puzzling. As I already mentioned every second cast of Fetcher Infection gives it a 50% increase in strength. As I mentioned before 10 seconds is a long time to wait to benefit from additional damage and double tapping the skill for an instant boost is both costly and not at all effective.
How I'd improve it: I'd give Fetcher Infection minor vulnerability for the duration of its effect. Thematically it would fit the move as being infected makes something prone to taking more damage. More importantly it would give a group a serious reason to bring a Magden in the raid as this would free a healer up from wearing Infal and they would be able to run another buff or debuff set.

As for Growing Swarm I'd completely rework this skill or make it a morph for Stamdens. Currently when the duration of Growing Swarm ends the fetcherflies spread to six nearby enemies and start the DoT all over again. I get that this was intended to give Magdens a little more AoE damage bit really and truly it's not necessary. Between Deep Fissure, Winter's Revenge and Wall of Elements Magden's cleave is is ridiculously effective. There is no need for another AoE ability in the rotation.
How I'd improve it: As I said this morph could be something for Stamdens or perhaps it could be given execute damage. This would lead to interesting trade-offs where you could have a Magden deciding whether or not to give up personal DPS by slotting the minor vulnerability morph to help the group or deciding to go "selfish" and deal more damage during the dangerous execute phase.

The last skill that I am going to touch on in the Animal Companions Skill line is the Bear. Put plainly, in a trial there is ZERO utility to be had from the effect of the Bear respawning for free once a minute as pets no longer take damage in group content. And as for overland or solo content there is nothing stopping you from healing the bear just as you would yourself.
How I'd improve it: If the whole Eternal Guardian theme is to be kept why not make it interesting? Once every however long any attack that would kill you instead despawns the bear and fills up your pools. It would really capture the essence of the class with the bear as a first line of offence and last line of defence.