User:Zesbeer/Projects/Animal companion

An Animal companion or 'Pet' is a creature that fights alongside a Ranger (primary or secondary) who has captured a charmable animal via the skill Charm Animal. Pets have simple AI that allows them to attack alongside their owners, as well as use Pet Attack skills. In many cases a pet acts very much like a necromancer's minions, with the exception that they are not burdened with inherent health degeneration and have a wide range of skills (you also don't need a corpse to create them). The damage pets do and the efficiency of their attack skills is linked to the Ranger attribute Beast Mastery as well as the level of the pet.

Although pets have various appearances, your pet will behave identically with other pets of the same level and evolution, with two exceptions:
 * Black Bears also possess Brutal Mauling (which slows their effective rate of attack due the skills long activation time);
 * Most pets deliver slashing damage, but some animals pierce their victims.

Pets grow larger when they both gain levels and evolve; unevolved pets remain the same size. Pets have the same maximum level as player characters: 20.

Acquisition
Lists of Charmable Animals To acquire a pet on a PvE character or Hero, the character must have the skill Charm Animal equipped and not currently have a pet. The player must then locate an untamed charmable animal in eather a explorable area or from the players Zaishen Menagerie and activate the skill Charm Animal while targeting it. Use the Hero Control Panel to 'force' a hero to Charm Animal. Provided that the skill's activation is completed while the animal is alive, the player will have a new pet. The pet is bound to the character, and will accompany them whenever they equip Charm Animal.
 * By Capture Location
 * By Campaign
 * By Damage Type

To prevent heroes and henchmen from killing the animal, flag them away while attempting to charm a pet. or place them on avoid.

Any PvP character who equips Charm Animal will be given a level 20 Elder Wolf.

Pets can also be unlocked a for a account at the Zaishen Menagerie, with Balthazar Faction or Zaishen Coins, and buying the Pet Unlock Pack will unlock all common pets in the Zaishen Menagerie.

Changing &amp; retraining pets
Characters (and their heroes) can change their pets by giving their current pet to a Pet tamer then charming a new one. PvP characters can exchange there default level 20 Elder Wolf for a pet that they may have unlocked in there Zaishen Menagerie

Pets can be retrained; once they are fully evolved and at level 20, Only if they are given to Emryd the Tamer in the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds. Then speak to Wynn (Zaishen Training Captain) and she will spawn you any pet you have traded in through Emryd the Tamer Or unlocked though Helena (Zaishen Keeper).

The Zaishen Menagerie
It is possible to unlock evolutions for specific pet types by talking to a Tamer in the Menagerie Grounds. Unlocks are account wide, and specific to a pet type, unlocking each tier also unlocks all lower tiers. For example a level 20 Dire Phoenix would unlock both tier 7 Phoenixes (level 20 Dire and level 20 Hearty), the tier 6 Phoenix (level 20 Elder) and all lower Phoenix tiers, but it wouldn't unlock any tiers for other animals. Animals which share a skin are unlocked together, for example unlocking a tier with a Strider will also unlock the same tier for Moa Birds, but it will not unlock any tiers for White Moas because they have a different skin, or for Black Moas because they have a different skin and model.


 * 1 Aggressive, Dire, Hearty and Playful

Pets can also be unlocked with Balthazar Faction or Zaishen Coins, and buying the Pet Unlock Pack will unlock all common pets.

Controls
The Pet Control panel allows a player to have rudimentary control over their animal companion. The panel is available by selecting the number beside the pet in the Party Window.

The panel shows a small image of your pet, the three attack modes, the pet's health and any skills which are currently active on it. While the pet interface is similar to the hero control interface you cannot control your pet using the compass flags.

There are three modes for a pet; "Attack", "Guard" and "Heel".

Attack mode
To enter attack mode you must have a foe selected and within aggro range. The pet is locked onto that target, will immediately attack and will continue to attack that target until it is killed, or you change the mode. If the target is killed the pet switches to the mode it was in prior to entering Attack mode.

Guard mode
The pet will attack the target you are attacking in its own time. It does not respond to target calls, unless you are also going in to attack.

Heel mode
The pet will immediately stop attacking and returns to your side. It will not attack even if you are attacking.

Pet name
The pets of a character can be renamed via the /petname  special command. However, heroes' pets cannot be renamed. Using /petname without specifying a name will reset the pet's name to its evolution (see below) and type, for example, "Hearty Rainbow Pheonix".

Basic mechanics and behavior
Animal companions are allies; they are not considered party members, so effects that target party members do not affect animal companions. In addition, title skills have no effect on them.

An animal companion will attack the target that its owner is attacking, although there may be a delay before the target switch for the animal companion occurs. An animal companion can be directed to attack a particular foe using the "lock target" command found through the pet control panel.

Animal companions will also earn experience during combat, even when dead and far from the party. Like player characters, their level is capped at level 20. The experience bonus for completing missions and quests, and any effect from experience scrolls, do not apply to animal companions. It has already been reported that the experience gained by a pet is affected proportionately by the number of animal companion allies there are.

Armor and health
Animals have base armor of level*3+20 and base Health of level*20+80. Thus all level 20 pets have 80 AL. Elder pets have 480 HP and no damage bonus, Hearty Pets have 540 HP (480+60) but deal reduced damage, while Dire Pets have only 420 HP (480-60) but deal increased damage.

Animals are infused against the Mursaat's Spectral Agony

Evolution
Unofficial


 * 1) Evolving an aggressive pet into an elder pet is difficult, and evolving a playful pet into an elder pet is nearly impossible.
 * 2) Extensive research into level 11+ unevolved pets has not been done. However, some reports indicate that it is possible to evolve mid-level pets into Dire and Elder pets.
 * It is possible to evolve a pet to agressive or playful with level 20. It is not known whether this is intentional or not.
 * It is also possible to evolve Hero pets
 * Recently, there has been evidence that the damage dealt to the player may affect the evolution as well.
 * The easiest way to obtain a level 20 Aggressive, Dire, Elder or Playful pet is to unlock tier 7 with a Hearty Pet and then see Wynn in the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds.

Amount of damage
Unlike weapons, critical hits inflicted by pets do not inflict maximum damage before the multiplier. The damage multiplier for an animal companion's critical hits is not known, but is suspected to be approximately &radic;2 before rounding.


 * 1) Average damage is based on the data in this thread.
 * Note: Damage is calculated for 12 Beast Mastery and a level 20 animal companion

Types of damage
Most pets cause slashing damage, but some cause piercing. The following presents the various types of pets organized by the type of damage they deal. As noted above, the amount of damage dealt by a pet depends solely on their level and evolution (and does not depend on their species).

Death
Animal companions die when reduced to zero health. Each death earns them death penalty in PvP, but not in PvE. Unlike other NPC deaths, an allied animal companion does not leave an exploitable corpse and will not show up as a grey dot on the compass.

Animal companion owners should be aware that at the instant the animal companion dies, all of the owners skills will be temporarily disabled (from 10 to 3 seconds, depending on attribute points in Beast Mastery). The one exception to this rule is if your character is yet to choose a secondary profession, and has the temporary Ranger skills given by trainers (Ascalon (pre-Searing)), headmasters(Shing Jea) or experts (Istan) NPCs.

The following skills can be used to resurrect animal companions:
 * (Elite)
 * (Elite)
 * (Elite)

Party wipe will also resurrect any dead animal companions at the resurrection shrine.