Pets & their skills

[Xcolibri]

I just imagine exploring maggot lair or place like this with a huge spiders blocking movement of others minions with its eight long legs.

I think that this problem won't exist for any pet. Minion collisions are removed as far as I know (in D2X, that is).

[*Astalion*]

Xcolibri: The minion collision thing is only for players moving through pets, nothing else.

[Xcolibri]

Aoh, okay.
Guess, I should play the Necro some more...

[Joel]

Astalion is utterly true

Well, some Hawk skills idea. Note that a hireling could only have 6 skills BUT we have 2 variations per difficulty.

So Skills :

Common :

1. Scout : aka Inner Sight with gfx and straight -AC instead of -AC%
2. Peek : a Jab like attack (peek-peek-peek)
3. Steel Talon : Critical Strike (if passive works on merc)
4.

Variation 1 :

5. ?
6. ?

Variation 2 :
7. ?
8. ?

[Xcolibri]

I repeat some of my suggestions, in case you like them

I would vote for an (area) fire attack, if the last hawk transform is the phoenix.
An aura (did I already say I like them? ^^) would be great, too, avoid or dodge would be my skills of choice, but increased run speed and faster hit recovery are okay, too.
Also, a blinding skill would be great, maybe cast on hit?

How far can the variaton change go? In LoD, for example, you have act 2 mercs with different auras, that's quite a change, same for the act 3 mercs.
On the other side, fire and cold missiles are not that different.
So will a variation aim at e.g. elemental damage change or can be farer than that?

[Mathiu Silverburg]

It was probably said already, but I belive that phoenix would need some healing powers...

- Mathiu Silverburg

[Joel]

Just to be clear, the skills I'm listing here are JUST for the hawk
We'll have 6 others skills for the griffin adn 6 others for the phoenix

[Xcolibri]

Wow, that's a difference
How is that? Don't we have 30 (Amazon skill slots) divided by six (pets) = 5?

Anyway, great to hear. Although it won't be easy to find 18 skills for one pet. I'd say, better take some skills to let them spawn as %hit/struck/attack only, some of them for pets but also some for characters.
Some of the skills are fine for each difficulty anyway.

I extend your hawk skill tree a bit, if you don't mind
By now, I don't care so much about the skill names since you won't see them later.

Common (Hawk) :

1. Scout : aka Inner Sight with gfx and straight -AC instead of -AC%
2. Peek : a Jab like attack (peek-peek-peek)
3. Steel Talon : Critical Strike (if passive works on merc)
4. Aura: Increase run/walk speed
5. Resist: 20% lightning
6. Caution Strike: Uninterruptable, raise defense by 200%

Variation 2 (for 4.):
4a. Aura: Faster Attack Speed
4b. Aura: Faster Hit Recovery

Variation 1 (for 5.):
5a. Resist: 30% fire
5b. Resist: 40% cold

You can balance the auras by giving them different radiuses (radii ?^^)

Common (Griffon):
Skills to keep from the hawk
1. Peek
2. Steel Talon
3. Inner Sight, but upgrade to %
New ones:
4. Gold Eyes: %MF + %Gold
5. Pick out eyes: Blind enemy
6. Aura: Dodge
7. Change resist to absorb but divide the value. So LR20% -> Absorb lightning 10% (or even lower)
8. beak blow: ITD, %open wounds

Variations (for 6.):
6a. Aura: Evade
6b. Aura: Avoid

Variations (for 7.):
7a. absorb fire 15%
7b. absorb cold 20%

Common (Phoenix):
Skills to keep from griffon:
1. Steel Talon
2. Gold Eyes
3. Inner Sight
4. the three defensive auras
New skills:
5. Castable Holy Fire
6. Create fire under attacked enemy/enemies
7. Castable Prayer
8. 100% immune to fire

Variations (Suggestion a)
8a. immune to cold
8b. immune to lightning
That would follow the resist scheme but isn't that phoenix like.

Variations (Suggestion b)
5a. Castable Holy Shock
5b. Castable Holy Freeze
I like that idea better.

Also, I still would like to see that one skill is granted by the quest reward like I explained before. That reward cubed with a pet item grant a special skill then.

[Joel]

Wow, that's a difference
How is that? Don't we have 30 (Amazon skill slots) divided by six (pets) = 5?

Yes basically ... buty I can also give pets monsters or player skills.

Anyway, great to hear. Although it won't be easy to find 18 skills for one pet. I'd say, better take some skills to let them spawn as %hit/struck/attack only, some of them for pets but also some for characters.
Some of the skills are fine for each difficulty anyway.

See below

I extend your hawk skill tree a bit, if you don't mind
By now, I don't care so much about the skill names since you won't see them later.

of course.

Common (Hawk) :

1. Scout : aka Inner Sight with gfx and straight -AC instead of -AC%
2. Peek : a Jab like attack (peek-peek-peek)
3. Steel Talon : Critical Strike (if passive works on merc)
4. Aura: Increase run/walk speed
5. Resist: 20% lightning
6. Caution Strike: Uninterruptable, raise defense by 200%

Variation 2 (for 4.):
4a. Aura: Faster Attack Speed
4b. Aura: Faster Hit Recovery

Variation 1 (for 5.):
5a. Resist: 30% fire
5b. Resist: 40% cold

You can balance the auras by giving them different radiuses (radii ?^^)

They're nice, not too fond of such resist but the overall is nice.

Common (Griffon):
Skills to keep from the hawk
1. Peek
2. Steel Talon
3. Inner Sight, but upgrade to %
New ones:
4. Gold Eyes: %MF + %Gold
5. Pick out eyes: Blind enemy
6. Aura: Dodge
7. Change resist to absorb but divide the value. So LR20% -> Absorb lightning 10% (or even lower)
8. beak blow: ITD, %open wounds

Variations (for 6.):
6a. Aura: Evade
6b. Aura: Avoid

Variations (for 7.):
7a. absorb fire 15%
7b. absorb cold 20%

yes but open Wounds and the like can't be used as skills sorry
On item yes but i dunno how to assign such effect yet to skills.

Common (Phoenix):
Skills to keep from griffon:
1. Steel Talon
2. Gold Eyes
3. Inner Sight
4. the three defensive auras
New skills:
5. Castable Holy Fire
6. Create fire under attacked enemy/enemies
7. Castable Prayer
8. 100% immune to fire

Variations (Suggestion a)
8a. immune to cold
8b. immune to lightning
That would follow the resist scheme but isn't that phoenix like.

Variations (Suggestion b)
5a. Castable Holy Shock
5b. Castable Holy Freeze
I like that idea better.

I prefer a) personnaly.


Justa global note now :
Each pets have 6 skills. No more no less.
Each pets have 2-3 'flavor' (variations).

What I want to do is for a given pet, have a fixed amount of common skills(3-4) and some that change between variation. And as you see your idea overwhelm this hardcoded scheme

But I think some of these stuff will ahve to be put on pets items instead of skills.

[Xcolibri]

Hmm, okay. I counted the skills total and it was below 18 but you're right, I forgot to split them for the three difficulties

They're nice, not too fond of such resist but the overall is nice.

Actually, I didn't like the resists too much, neither. I only struggled for some kind of variation.

Okay, to go with the skill limit of 6:
griffon:
a) remove beak blow from griffon, but upgrade the peek attack with ITD
b) maybe remove the blinding attack? I like the idea very much, but I don't know if it works, since blinded enemies can attack the pet if it stays next it.

phoenix:
a) kill one of the fire attack, probably holy fire
b) remove suggestion 5a,b then, too. There are still two variations cause of the auras. Is it even possible to melt two auras (e.g. holy fire + avoid) together?
c) remove Steel Talon. The damage of the phoenix wont be that high anyway, also it will deal the main damage now by the fire attack.

Or just give the resist/absorb to items.

I know what you mean with the variations but I find it hard to create any good ones

[Aedeon]

for the pheonix it would be cool if it had a modified version of the holy fire aura that also made any enemies attacking it take fire damage.

also would be better if there were more variety between the hawk and the gryphon, hawk should get smaller stuff like the peck and blind skill, the gryphon should get something like a swooping strike and a powerfull knockback/stun attack, the the pheonix could be more of a caster with fire absorb and some healing spells.

The hawk and the gryphon could also have some windlike skills, say the hawk riding a blast of wind through a group of enemies or casting twisters or the gryphon flapping to create a large wind blast or a tornado, or maybe even a hurricane skill.

[Joel]

I think Aedeon get the right stuff

What about :

Hawk :
1. Steel talon : +% critical strike.
2. Peek : Jab like attack
3. Scout : Inner sight
4. Flyby : add +% faster walk

Griffin :
1. Charge : the name say it all, + add knockback
2. Wind Slap : cast out a tornado.
3. Howl : something taht boost defense maybe or stun enemy
4. Luck : +mag% Aura

Phoenix :
1. Blast : a short range fire explosion.
2. Holy Fire : like the Aura
3. Prayer : castable healing spell
4. Fire Brethern : Aura +res-fire or +abs-fire ?

EDIT : added some aura as XColibri sugegsted.
I think we could stick with 4 skills now and see what come sout after this one.

[Xcolibri]

Never thought about the wind idea, but they are brilliant

However, I still would include the defensive auras. At least a minor one (faster hit recovery, run speed).

Edit: Yes, the skill trees are very good

In fact, 4 skills are enough, giving a nice and big enough difference in each difficulty.
However, there are no variations yet.

For Howl, I would take the stun attack. People use to be more content, if they actually see the effect of their pet

For the fire resist/absorb aura: Absorb is probably overpowered when the player has already 75% resist to fire, while just resist is not so special.
What about an aura, that raises a nice chunk of resist (like 25-50%), but also raises the max-fire resist by 10 percent? That would be desirable to have, but not heal the character like absorb could do.

[Joel]

Ok, for the variations ...
I really dunno what to do.

Sidenotes : what the english names for the various pets items we will need ?

[Joel]

Some ideas for pets items I got from MR&C :

Hawk & like : Falconner Hood (head), Steel Talon (weapons)
Golem : for the clay one, various body part in various stone.
Each stone gives particular bonus

granite => AC
lava => dmg-fire
etc ...

For the iron one, body part with mechanical bonus :
Spiked Body => Thorn
Mace Arm => +dmg, stun
Spiked Head => +dmg% etc ...

What do you think of these ??

[Xcolibri]

The golem constructing sounds very interesting, I love to agree with that.
If one of the golems was crystal like, you could also use gems (aquamarine, lapislazuli, onyx,...).

And for the helmets: Giving pets helmets is, of course, somewhat unusual.
Instead you could give them magic leashs to create the impression that the character controls them (but give the pets magic abilities in exchange).

For some pets (spider, ethereal pet) a helmet makes even less sense.
Then we could treat the helmet slot as another one. The spider, for example, would have use for leg equipment

And if it's too hard to go for somewhat logic equipment, you can still use some tattoos / branding to enhance the pet's power. Maybe even invisible armor with sockets?

However, the helmets don't need to be logical
Interesting enough, the LoD druid's helmets fit quite well the pets. First the falcon one but also the wolf head.
And the barbarian's one, well, it also is kind of a cage for the head
I don't see its immediate use, though

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Unfortunatelly my mind don't have any ideas lately so I can only say if I do like sth or not.
Customizable golem - great idea.
Pet's helmet - collar maybe?

- Mathiu Silverburg

[Dezdrehel]

We could use necklace for the pets helm. It'll stand perfectly for headgear on animal type pets.

[Joel]

yes indeed, collar/necklace and hood for animals could be nice.
For the pixies, it could use some little circlet ?

For the phoenix, can I give it a inferno like attack ??

[Dezdrehel]

For the phoenix, can I give it a inferno like attack ??

hmmm, i dunno, sound like dragon attack ...

I think fire claw would be more situable.

For the pixies, it could use some little circlet ?

Circlet or amulette would be nice.

[Joel]

hmmm, i dunno, sound like dragon attack ...

I think fire claw would be more situable.

like the Druid one ? well why not ...

Circlet or amulette would be nice.

Noted !

So, considering the hawk pet familly almost done, can we hope onto the others ?

Tiger skills, Golem skills & pixies skills ?

[ChaoticDeath]

how about giving the Phoenix the ability to cast Firestorm? it beats its wings for the animation and fire comes . Just a thought .

[Brother Laz]

In 1.10 or with extra.dll...

A melee skill that causes fire explosions that follow the target around and do damage to itself and other nearby enemies. ('Claws of Inferno'?)

[Dezdrehel]

Hi,

Made some works on the pixit class skills.

I've taken into account the two variations.
One which cause havoc and chaos into enemy rank, good for ranged attacker
The other more specialised on ranged killing power, good for meleeing char.


The Pixit

1. Dart (physical dam)
2. Cold arrow
3. Slow missile
4. Weaken

Variation 1
5. Taunt
6. Confusion

Variation 2
5. Blade sentinel
6. Charged bolt sentry


The Mephit

1. Stun bolt
2. meteor
3. battle cry
4. iron Maiden

Var 1
5. Conversion missile (like the pally skill, but missile)
6. Attract

Var 2
5. Wake of fire
6. Blade fury

The Faery dragon

1. Freezing arrow
2. Bone spear/spirit (dunno which one to choose, must see how the game balance)
3. Decrepify
4. Battle command

Var 1
5. Psychic hammer
6. Lower resistance

Var 2
5. Death sentry
6. Diablo's lightning breath

Of course, suggestions are welcome.

[Mathiu Silverburg]

Imo Fairy Dragon ( I believe it's what you meant ) shouldn't have attacks based on lightening - it could be replaced with inferno + he should have attacks based on the light ( or holy ) "element" such as paladins aura gaisnt undead...

- Mathiu Silverburg

P.S. But in such case we have second fire-based pet.