You won't see it yet because you are still in the newbie area, but
there are areas where your pet will have trouble standing still. In places
like most dungeons (Unrest, Befallen, Cazic-Thule, etc) and a few open areas
your pet will... uhm... wander. Basically there's something where it
"paces" meaning it will move back and forth around you like a sick yoyo. In
some places the pathfinding paths are so bad you can move five feet to your
left and your skeleton will make this LONG circle to get to you, often
bringing back "presents" in the form of bloodmad mobs.
Want an example? Go to Befallen and summon a skeleton, the front is
relatively safe. You should see almost instantly what I mean. Want a
deadly example? If you somehow manage to get to the third floor at the
bottom of the stairs you'll fight and elf skeleton and see a long corridor.
If you go down it and go into the left door you will find the deadliest of
all pathfinding areas. You can step into the room, but if your pet is
playing catchup (and believe me it will be) when you decide to move left
near the broken up area, it will take a brutal turn to the right, go through
ANOTHER door, down a passageway, right by Gynok Moltar's room, UP another
passage, then come right back to you. And thus the MONSTER TRAIN OF
DOOM(tm) was born. When I was level 9 to 12 I would get pissed at 3rd floor
parties for dragging up trains that they couldn't handle. Its only now that
I realize that often its not their problem, its the game's. Many a time
I've seen my skeleton pet take a hundred foot detour and manage to dredge up
a dozen nasty undead and spellcasters and I've had to run to the exit,
believe me, Feigning Death is not an option on the 3rd floor. ;)
But off that tangent, its also useful if you want to scout ahead as
well or maybe you want your pet to guard an area and you drag monsters back
or whatever.
BE VERY CAREFUL IN ORDERing GUARD MODE. It applies to ALL NPCs.
Meaning if you are near a city entrance and you tell your pet to guard it
will most likely decide you meant the guard and get itself slaughtered.
also remember that HERE is a relative term, meaning that if it attacks
something and the victim tries to runaway, it will follow it then make a NEW
guard spot wherever the victim died. In my early days it was often I'd
bring back a wee beastie only to find my pet had chased a moss snake across
the zone, then picked a fight with a young kodiak or elite guard. After a
while if you see the "TAUNTING ATTACKER MASTER" message and you don't see a
skeleton it was often time to run to the zone.
Malark on Karana
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mata [mailto:mata_eq@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 7:34 AM
> To: EQ_Necromancer@onelist.com
> Subject: Re: [EQ_Necromancer] Pet Question . ..
>
>
> From: "Mata" <mata_eq@...>
>
> Thanks Peter . . . Does anyone know why I would want my
> skel to sit
> down? Does it give any advantage, like can I have him sit
> down if a guard
> is coming and I go invis and then have him stand up after the
> guard is gone?
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Peter Smith <jaded@...>
> To: <EQ_Necromancer@onelist.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 7:32 AM
> Subject: Re: [EQ_Necromancer] Pet Question . ..
>
>
> > From: "Peter Smith" <jaded@...>
> >
> > The level one pet spell is fairly useless. Basically you're
> summoning a
> decaying skeleton, and you know how easily they die, right?
> Push on to level
> 4 and you'll find your new pet much more useful.
> >
> >
> > *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
> >
> > On 5/18/99, at 7:27 AM, Mata wrote:
> >
> > >From: "Mata" <mata_eq@...>
> > >
> > >So I have a problem, every pet I have summoned has been
> L1! I made it
> to
> > >level 2 yesterday and I summoned 13 skeletons thus far and
> every single
> one
> > >was L1 (coned black while I was 1 and blue while I was 2)
> > >I read several places that at low lvls we should be able
> to summon a pet
> > >that could be above our lvl, I'd be happy w/ a Skel that
> WAS my lvl.
> > >
> > >Does it matter what type of bone chips are used to summon????
> > >
> > >
> >
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