Thread: The Group Pets.

Hello.
Of recent I have been playing with and as a Lore-Master, and when playing with one, they are confused as to what pet they should have. So, here is a little thing to say what pets I think the persons should have in certain situations. This is merely my opinion, so please comment if you agree or disagree.
This is based on the LMs I have been playing with, mostly level 30+.

1, soloing. When soloing, any pet is good. A bear has most powerful auto-attacks, and highest defence, so it is good if you want to avoid getting stuck by the enemy, as you can make the bear force the enemy onto him. A lynx has Surprise attack, which is utterly brilliant for starting a fight, and will allow you to kill the enemy much much faster, however, the lynx is weakest of morale and auto-attacks, even weaker than the Raven. A raven has moderate auto-attack dmg, and moderate morale. It is no attacker, however. Unlike the bear and lynx (Or perhaps all other pets, I'm not sure) it doesn't have any actual attack, unless you count Distraction (has a weak light dmg DoT) as one. The good thing about the raven, however, is it can debuff the enemy, making it much easier to kill quickly. Raven is also a good choice for soloing against higher level foes, and foes with higher morale, as it has higher flanking chance than the bear or lynx. Lynx is greater than the bear at flanking.
2: duo. When playing a duo, best thing to do is note your ally. If he/she is a Captain, Champion, Guardian, or Warden, a Raven or Lynx would be the best choice. A Raven can debuff the enemy so the more DPS roles (Champion, overpowered Guardian, Recklass Warden) can kill quicker. Lynx is more DPS with surprise attack, so can, once again, kill the enemy more quickly. A bear wouldn't be too good choice, because it is more of a tank, and each of the classes above can pass as tanks. When fighting with a Burglar, Hunter, Minstrel, or Rune-Keeper, perhaps the best choice would be a bear. The bear can draw easy aggro, and none of these classes want aggro. Hunter, Minstrel and Rune-Keeper are strongest at range, so if bear can hold enemies off, and these classes can range the enemy, they'll be better. Burglar, meanwhile, required being behind the enemy, so could easily sneak up behind the enemy if it concerntrates on the bear. Burglar can also Prevoke the enemy while it fights the bear. If playing with another LM, any pet is good, but I do not recommend having 2 of the same pets, as 2 bears using forced attacks will be useless, raven debuffs won't stack, and when 1 Lynx enters combat, the other will come out of sneaking. A word of advice: when playing with another LM, Rune-Keeper, Hunter, or Warden, a raven is often good choice, because of the Fire-dmg debuff the raven has. With a hunter or warden using fire oils, you can deal a heck of a lot of damage.
3: Groups. In groups, best choice is probably Raven or Bear. When in groups, there is likely to be 3 class roles: healer, tank, and dps. A tank (aka Guardian, Champion, Warden) will force the enemy onto them, and will lead the change, so Lynx won't be able to use Surprise Attack, because when it enters combat (If another player enters combat, Lynx does as well), he can't sneak. Raven is best choice, because it can debuff the enemy, making them easier for the tank and dps to kill. Bear is also a good choice, because of Shattered Arms, which will make enemy much easier, and not only for the tactical classes. Bear is also a good choice, because it can easily protect a healer. Raven is good choice because it can flank much more often, thus you will not die so easily (Using Wizard's Fire on flanks).
This is my advice, and you can do as you please with it. I have done some Skirmishs where people use a bear while I am a warden, and Lynx while I am a Rune-Keeper, so thought I would make the effort to give my advice.
Good luck to you all. See you in-game.
Signed:
Count Azinbah Hambel Batlord.

Originally Posted by CountBatlord

2: duo. When playing a duo, best thing to do is note your ally....If playing with another LM, any pet is good, but I do not recommend having 2 of the same pets, as 2 bears using forced attacks will be useless,

Overall, this is not bad advice. You make an excellent point about the raven's benefit for fire-using classes, such as RKs. I would suggest, however, that LMs first note their enemies. So first decide which pet is best against an enemy, then consider which pet is most synergistic with your allies.

Regarding 2 LM pets, it's true that raven debuffs don't stack. Yet , you can have their benediction work on different targets or have one used while the other is on cooldown. You still might want two ravens for places where there are lots of archers, or where you both want flanks. It is a little waste because the aura of protection doesn't stack, but overall, it doesn't matter too much either way. Having 2 people flank is far better than worrying about non-stacking aura of protections (and really, the aura doesn't help that much since incoming tactical damage is minimal for most of the landscape quests. Where you really need the aura is in 6 and 12 person content).

There isn't any major drawback to having 2 bears. Just don't use their roaring challenge at the same time - you can have one roar while the other is on cooldown.

Of course, some of these considerations will change as you level and gain new skills and pets. It is really good, however, that you gave some solid advice for mid-level content. Most of the discussion is geared toward end-game, which really isn't so helpful for people who are still leveling. I'll share your post as a point of debate with some of my kinmates.

for single enemy the linx is the best pet ... a lot of damage at start else saber is really better.
Bear have debuf for mele/ranged attack ...
Eagle is another good pet if you need a res or fear or some other ...

In pvp only raven win the other pet are a really fail ...

The most important problem of every pet is easy ... the are too much slow and stupid ...
For start attak an enemy you need to click butto ( or have up defence or follow target etc .... ) pet turn on the enemy and tell: oh this is my target ? Ok !!! After that your pet decide to start moving on the enemy ... hi cant move like you cause your pet is more slow ... and more stupid .... it's only a pet ...

Really pet need an upgrade

Only think I can add with a level 37 LM. Lynx has a pretty nice AOE frontal arc attack it gains and becomes a bit better of a DPSer
With the LARGE burst damage at the start tends to be a good pet option to STALL mobs by keeping aggro allowing you 2 or 3 hits in before the mob finally comes at you in solo play and then you can use a stun like light of the rising dawn to stall more and then slow.

Lynx is also THE pet to use if you need to move around without aggroing everything and its brother thanks to the stealth the zig zagging patching wont cause an issue.

Originally Posted by anteku

you can have their benediction work on different targets or have one used while the other is on cooldown.

Benediction is up before the CD is off ( 10 sec CD , 30 sec debuff ) .

Also , benediction is not a single target skill . It will hit everything in a 5 m radius .

I have all the pets including the legendary ones except the glowy thing and here is my take:

raven - tact mit buff and fire debuff are great for groups, also its ability to shut down ranged mobs helps a lot in places like the grand stair when you have archers to "tank" every now and then

bear - mehh solid auto attack dps and forced taunt is occasionally nice, probably my least favorite pet

lynx - solid damage and great upfront damage, doesnt get in the way while talking to npcs, doesnt draw aggro while dodging mobs, probably my most used solo pet (for easy stuff)

saber cat - AoE auto attacks are sweet, great survivability (some seem to disagree), good for blowing through duo skirms by myself with a warrior, good for working with 3 or 4 mobs at a time

eagle - fear is pretty good but hard to remember to use, the rez is a life saver , pretty sturdy especially with its self heal, lots of flanks makes it my favorite for difficult content

bog lurker - best pet by far, great special attacks, FM procs quite often, ranged auto attacks let you kite if you need to, super super sturdy, flanks about as much as the eagle at range and flanks very very much in melee range, simply awesome but not sure if its always worth traiting blue for (maybe in some instances when you need to heal and buff)

Sabretooth is pretty worthless. All other advice I saw in here was pretty solid, though I wouldn't fully agree with some of it.

Limrafn is a good one if your group needs a bit of extra heals and you're focusing on DPSing.

The Bear gets Shatter Arms. DPS classes love this one, coupled with a well timed Roaring Challenge resets the aggor if its gone tilt, allows 15s of unload from any dpser and gives the tank time to get his life back in order (including returning to it). Bear Hug is also another stun/interrupt.
Bog Guardian gets a ranged critical debuff, just the thing for Hunters and Wardens and can also proc a conjunction on a 20% chance per minute (I usually have this on auto as a freebie)
Sabre tooth is superfically attractive but brings almost nothing of value in most stuation except deeding in a low level area where you can set it to aggressive and go for a beer.
Raven is the business when you have tactical dpsers, LG dailies with minstrel and RK are a breeze, or if you are in full MONF build. I find it flanks a lot less than I expect these days but can also be easily used for an initial pull into BE range whereupon its debuff means the BE hits hard.
I rarely use the Lynx these days, the stealth hit on a 6k mob just never seems to be enough compared to a tactical damage debuff.
The Eagle will be great again if its upgraded for L75 users, at present its not an open world choice, mops up a legendary slot that is better used elsewhere. But in instances its another story, it stops raid wipes with its res, interrupts mobs and even trickles a little power to the group. The fear effectdesperately needs attention as its proced from something that then fouls it up a few seconds later!

Here is my take on the pets.

Raven: Very good in groups or solo, especially against undead mobs. The mitigations are really nice. The Fan the Flames skill is great if you are traited for all reds and you use the sticky gourd hotspot. I love using raven in the moors in pvp.

Bear: Good all around pet in solo runs or in groups without a tank. The flanking is really nice.

Lynx: One of my least used pets. It does damage but can't really take it. Sometimes I use it in the moors for the stealth.

Sabretooth: I like this pet when doing skirms because of the aoe attacks. Very nice frost damage, which is useful against mobs that are sensitive to frost.

Eagle: I feel this pet could use some great improvement. It is slow and usually dies before I do, but the will buff is nice.

Boglurker: One of my favorites, but I had to give it up to slot red line. I wish you didnt have to put in in a legendary spot. (Same with eagle).

Spirit pet: Looks cool, but I still can't get it to work. Most of the time it just sits there like a giant night light.

Originally Posted by Tribulation

Spirit pet: Looks cool, but I still can't get it to work. Most of the time it just sits there like a giant night light.

That's all it's supposed to do, it has no autoattacks, only the skills on its bar.

Spirit pet, based on checking the combat logs in Acid Wing was healing the entire raid, not just my FS. The heals are not bad as a topup on the efforts of the minstrels/captains and certainly eases their load a little. With some tinkering with traits it can probably be boosted a little more, ignoring the group flank helas which are not quite so easily obtained.

The spirit raven looks the business, has anyone any factual information on the rumoured spirit eagle skin?

Originally Posted by CountBatlord

so Lynx won't be able to use Surprise Attack, because when it enters combat (If another player enters combat, Lynx does as well), he can't sneak.

This is not true. If you enter combat, it will stay in stealth mode. There are 2 options, how it can't sneak more:
1. it makes some kind of attack,
2. it gets hit.

In groups inis, there are often AoE attacks, this can be reason, why it comes out of stealth mode.

Originally Posted by Mithithil

Spirit pet, based on checking the combat logs in Acid Wing was healing the entire raid, not just my FS. The heals are not bad as a topup on the efforts of the minstrels/captains and certainly eases their load a little. With some tinkering with traits it can probably be boosted a little more, ignoring the group flank helas which are not quite so easily obtained.

The spirit raven looks the business, has anyone any factual information on the rumoured spirit eagle skin?

You are correct on it healing the full raid, and although it doesn't matter for things like that, it'll actually heal everyone in the area. Fellowship, raid, random person standing near you, doesn't matter. They get healed. That's mostly a nice thing to know for the Moors, when everyone may not actually be grouped up, even if you're all working together.

The only spirit pets I know of anyone having are the raven, bear, lynx, sabretooth, bear cub, and boar.

Originally Posted by Tribulation

Here is my take on the pets.

Raven: ... The Fan the Flames skill is great if you are traited for all reds and you use the sticky gourd hotspot.

Fan the Flames is an Eagle skill just to be clear, it fears a target with burning embers dot on it. the dot of course breaks the fear moments later but hey that makes sense right

Originally Posted by TinDragon

You are correct on it healing the full raid, and although it doesn't matter for things like that, it'll actually heal everyone in the area. Fellowship, raid, random person standing near you, doesn't matter. They get healed. That's mostly a nice thing to know for the Moors, when everyone may not actually be grouped up, even if you're all working together.

The only spirit pets I know of anyone having are the raven, bear, lynx, sabretooth, bear cub, and boar.

I've seen an aurochs spirit.

Originally Posted by Torellin

I've seen an aurochs spirit.

Sorry, but pics or it didn't happen. Nobody's posted pictures or anything relating to it in my GLFF, or in the LM forums, so I'm not gonna believe that at this point without some hard proof.

Originally Posted by TinDragon

Sorry, but pics or it didn't happen. Nobody's posted pictures or anything relating to it in my GLFF, or in the LM forums, so I'm not gonna believe that at this point without some hard proof.

No need for pics , just open the lotro store .

Originally Posted by Louvre

No need for pics , just open the lotro store .

Good enough proof for me! Aaand 350 TP spent.