Beast Questions

Barendur

Im sure a lot of this has been answered somewhere or are help files, but i looked for both and found little. When riding got switched to beastmastery i never asked around or understood how the new system works. The skills are the main part, i got most of the feeding stuff answered already. The beast i plan on getting will be for hunting and pvp only, no influencing whatsoever. Also not interested in any of the "special" movement skills (diving, climbing, etc.), also dont want the curing skills (focus or player regen ones).

Questions:

1.) Does your beast using bodyguard actually take their health away when they get hit?

2.) Is aggression worth having? I know its not a must-have, but just wondering the number difference on this.

3.) If the answer to question one is yes, which im assuming it is, how necessary are armour and regeneration skills? Numbers on armour would be great.

4.) Which is the best beast to purchase in everyones opinion? The skills i (almost) know im going with for sure are: riding, battle, gallop, regen (health and mana), bodyguard, poison. Also, take looks out of this, i dont care alot about looks unless its a pink fairy princess rainbow elephant or something girlish like that.

5.) I know this will vary by what you feed it, but what are stats (health mana ego) levels for pets? 1k? 10k? less? more? And how much does regeneration tic for? and empath heal for?

6.) Trample used to be extremely good back in the day, but has since been down-graded. Is it still good to use. Im really talking about a more one vs. one situation. Is it good enough to warrant the 200 extra trains?

7.) I know there is a beast balance, but does this have anything to do with player balance at all? What hampers using beast powers? (balance, equilibrium, broken arms, ugly face, etc.) Also, do any beast powers use beast balance and player balance? Seems like trample did, but its been a long time since the change so im not sure.

8.) Is it wise to go half and half on health/mana for this beast or more mana or more health?

9.) Does hypnoticgaze paralyze or sleep? Im confused because of the hypnotic part of it, but basilisks have it, so im curious.

10.) Is swimming necessary? Very confused on this, if im on the beast and try to walk to the sea will it tell me i cant cause the mount, or will i just auto-lose it? Does waterwalk have any effect?

11.) How effective is beast blocking? I know blocking checks size, type of blocking used (firm or not) and probably other stuff now, so how is the steed considered?

12.) What other trains should i invest in? I know this is not a straight forward answer and it will vary from guild to guild and preference, just wondering what is the most useful and most used skills. weaknesses and strengths and such.

I know this is a lot, i tried to be as specific as possible. And i really appreciate any answers or feedback.

Xenthos

Barendur said:

Im sure a lot of this has been answered somewhere or are help files, but i looked for both and found little. When riding got switched to beastmastery i never asked around or understood how the new system works. The skills are the main part, i got most of the feeding stuff answered already. The beast i plan on getting will be for hunting and pvp only, no influencing whatsoever. Also not interested in any of the "special" movement skills (diving, climbing, etc.), also dont want the curing skills (focus or player regen ones).

Questions:

1.) Does your beast using bodyguard actually take their health away when they get hit?

2.) Is aggression worth having? I know its not a must-have, but just wondering the number difference on this.

3.) If the answer to question one is yes, which im assuming it is, how necessary are armour and regeneration skills? Numbers on armour would be great.

4.) Which is the best beast to purchase in everyones opinion? The skills i (almost) know im going with for sure are: riding, battle, gallop, regen (health and mana), bodyguard, poison. Also, take looks out of this, i dont care alot about looks unless its a pink fairy princess rainbow elephant or something girlish like that.

5.) I know this will vary by what you feed it, but what are stats (health mana ego) levels for pets? 1k? 10k? less? more? And how much does regeneration tic for? and empath heal for?

6.) Trample used to be extremely good back in the day, but has since been down-graded. Is it still good to use. Im really talking about a more one vs. one situation. Is it good enough to warrant the 200 extra trains?

7.) I know there is a beast balance, but does this have anything to do with player balance at all? What hampers using beast powers? (balance, equilibrium, broken arms, ugly face, etc.) Also, do any beast powers use beast balance and player balance? Seems like trample did, but its been a long time since the change so im not sure.

8.) Is it wise to go half and half on health/mana for this beast or more mana or more health?

9.) Does hypnoticgaze paralyze or sleep? Im confused because of the hypnotic part of it, but basilisks have it, so im curious.

10.) Is swimming necessary? Very confused on this, if im on the beast and try to walk to the sea will it tell me i cant cause the mount, or will i just auto-lose it? Does waterwalk have any effect?

11.) How effective is beast blocking? I know blocking checks size, type of blocking used (firm or not) and probably other stuff now, so how is the steed considered?

12.) What other trains should i invest in? I know this is not a straight forward answer and it will vary from guild to guild and preference, just wondering what is the most useful and most used skills. weaknesses and strengths and such.

I know this is a lot, i tried to be as specific as possible. And i really appreciate any answers or feedback.

a) Please mark questions as questions!
1) No.
2) Definitely worth having.  It doubles the beast's damage and allows the beast to break shields for you (upping your damage per second in two different ways!)
3) I like armour because it really makes the beasts tough to kill.  Without it, someone can kill your beast in a few hits and you've lost it for an hour.  Regeneration I picked for the same reason (to keep the beast alive longer).  They're not essential, unless you're a cavalier or having your beast by your side is a key part of your strategy.
4) Bodyguard is the best IMO.  Flight is great if you can't fly on your own, too.
5) Ilistala has 14,950 health base with 530 body trains, 11050 mana with 270 body trains, and 10750 ego with 250 spirit trains.  Should be able to do the math from there.
6) No, trample's pretty useless in a 1v1.
7) Beast balance has nothing to do with player balance really.  You have to be on balance in order to command the beast, but once the beast is ordered you can do whatever you'd like (except give it another order) until it gets balance back.
8) Depends entirely on what you're doing with the beast.  If it is doing a lot of healing, you want more ego.  If a lot of spellcasting, you want more mana.  Health is only useful in keeping it alive longer against angry players.
9) Hypnoticgaze does random mental afflictions, I believe.
10) If you have waterwalk the beast doesn't need to swim (because you don't need to swim).  However, if waterwalk isn't up and the beast can't swim, it will follow you but you cannot order it to swim (so you would have to dismount in order to swim first).
11) Not so great, since you can't block firm with it any more.
12) As you said, it varies greatly.

Enyalida

Flight, kicking, and trampling are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Also, the list for gaze is as follows (courtesy of Xiel's site):

Azure:    Dizziness

Cerulean: Confusion

Crimson:  Paralysis

Emerald:  Vertigo

Fuchsia:  Daydreaming

Lavender: Pacifism

Magenta:  Blindness

Mauve:    Vapors

Pink:     Hallucinations

Purple:   Blackout

Scarlet:  Fear

Sapphire: Dementia

Topaz:    Stupidity

Neos

Hypnotic Gaze usually gives 1-3 affs on use from the list posted above.

Barendur

Wow, some answers surprised me there. And has changed my mind on a few skills.

Now, you said beast balance doesnt have much to do with player balance, just that the player has to be on balance. So someone couldnt say attack an enemy with their sword then command beast to cast reflection on them after the fact? And, do any afflictions hinder using beast commands? Im sure stun and sleep would, but what about blind, paralyze, etc?

HypnoticGaze, does anyone know the list of random affs it does? Is it just one at a time, or two, and is this worth investing in?

And last, does aggression have a seperate command for breaking shields or just is just do it automatically if shield is up?

Enyalida

Beat me to it. 

Blind hinders beast attacks, as does anything that totally prevents commands being put in, but being prone does not.

Hypnoticgaze does one, with a chance of two (I think), and they are explicit... as in, systems will instantly know what they are hit with once they see the line. It's only good for a few tactics, for that reason.

Aggression just breaks shields automatically. Of course, it's bashing only!

Xenthos

Barendur said:

Wow, some answers surprised me there. And has changed my mind on a few skills.

Now, you said beast balance doesnt have much to do with player balance, just that the player has to be on balance. So someone couldnt say attack an enemy with their sword then command beast to cast reflection on them after the fact? And, do any afflictions hinder using beast commands? Im sure stun and sleep would, but what about blind, paralyze, etc?

HypnoticGaze, does anyone know the list of random affs it does? Is it just one at a time, or two, and is this worth investing in?

And last, does aggression have a seperate command for breaking shields or just is just do it automatically if shield is up?

If you attack with the sword you are off-balance (as per 7's answer), so you cannot command the beast.  It has to be the other way around- you have to order the beast first.

Some afflictions do hinder beast ordering.  For example, disloyalty; if afflicted with it your beast will ignore your commands.

Aggression does not have a separate command, it happens automatically if you order it to attack and the target has a shield up.

Karlach

Some abilities do consume player balance IIRC. Flight being one.

Barendur

What does daydreaming actually do?

Xenthos

Trample does too, but that's mostly why it's pretty useless in 1v1.  Most beast commands don't.  It would make sense that flight does, but "making sense" doesn't really dictate it.  Even some commands that you would think consume player balance (like Charging) do not.  It may very well be just Flight, Burrowing, and Trample.  I can't test Jumping.

Xenthos

Barendur said:

What does daydreaming actually do?

Knocks you off-eq on a periodic basis.

Barendur

I appreciate the feedback, that answered pretty much all of my questions. Thanks alot.

Barendur

Well, i thought i was done, ill probably pop in and out of here as i come across more, anyways...

is balancing necessary? What does it actually stop?

Xenthos

Balancing isn't "necessary".  All it does is increase your summoning / movement resistance (as observed on STAT in the Rooting column).  If you want to be harder to move, you should use it.  Otherwise, don't.

But it only works when mounted, so if you're not a Cavalier it's tough to take consistent advantage of it (except during standoffs).

Xenthos

/me tries setting this thing to not be in 'question' status any more.

Xenthos

/me blinks in surprise.

... what the heck did I just do there?

Xenthos

Help, help, I broke it? 

Neos

You emoted. It's when you use /me.

Xenthos

Neos said:

You emoted. It's when you use /me.

Yeah, I already tweeted that.

There's a character limit on it, too.  I wrote more but the emote ate it.

Llandros

/me wants everyone to know beast kick uses beast and player balance

Karlach

Llandros said:

/me wants everyone to know beast kick uses beast and player balance

We knew that, I think it's jumping we were unsure of.