Advanced Pets: Pirate101

Hi, all! Brave Sam Laveer here and today I wanted to discuss the possibilities for ADV Pirate101 pets and how to avoid pets from becoming overpowered.


First off, for this let's assume that Pirate101 decides to go a similar route to Wizard101 pets. Each pet has a predetermined sets of skills that can benefit the pet or the player. There are levels to this Baby, Teen, Adult, Ancient, Epic. 

It's no surprise of course to those who have come from Wizard101 that pets no longer are the cute fashion statements they were in 2008 to 2010. Pets now are an essential part of a character's build whether you PVP or not. Resist, Dmg, Extra healing, all these have made pets better.....and worse for the players of the game. Thankfully Pirate101 can learn from it and make pets a viable option but not so overpowered they become a required "gear item". 

No 1. Don't make Epics available to the player.
By this I mean if a pet like the Golden Stingtail has Cheap Shot and "manifests" at adult Relentless that Epic ability/power shouldn't be available to the player. This will maintain a balance so that a melee character like a Buccaneer with a Stingtail with Cheap Shot and Relentless isn't benefiting from it. The epics should only apply to the pet. This help turn your pet into a more powerful "Ally" for those who don't know Allies are units that help you during combat but that you do not have direct control over like your companion units. 

No 2. Stats talents work in Pirate101!
The worst nightmare for some people in Wizard101 is getting a stat boosting talent or a "passive" as it is known as in the community. What's another man's bane is another's salvation. Talents that boost Will, Agility, Strength, Intellect, and Power. The way I'd like to see it work is let's say we have 2 Will talents manifested on an Ebon Spectre pet. Ebon Spectres fight using Will. Now for the sake of this we will call Talent 1, Wisdom (+5 Will) and Talent 2, Persevere (+10 Will). Now if this was W101 that's an additional +15 Will to the player. In the hands of a Witchdoctor most who have 80-100+ Will already this is a terrible sight.
But I have a two-fold solution. 

1. Stat boosting talents that are applied to a Pirate's stats are half their value. Meaning that that +15 Will becomes +8 Will for the player. Much more fair, not too overpowered, and still an extra viable source of stat boosting. Meaning that instead of +3% more dmg (Every +5 of a stat equals +1 dmg) it's almost +2.

2. The pet since they have such a lower attack range benefit from the stat boosting talents 100%.  So your Lv 70 Ebon Spectre with 80 Will gets up to 95 Will. Let's say that the average dmg is 100-150 with the +15 it would become 100-153.

3. Now moving on where do Intellect and Power come into this? Well those stats are the ones that affect talents that deal in Accuracy, Dodge, and Health. But there is a catch.

No 3. Put caps on certain talents to prevent them from being too overpowered.
When we left off at 2 I was talking about Accuracy, Dodge, and Health. Power and Intellect would govern these. But these stats are a little more different than a little extra damage. +10 Dodge and Accuracy or later on when more talents are introduced +15 Dodge (Snipers and Dealers in Wizard101, anyone?) is a downright scary thought. I suggest a cap of 5, yes 5 is sufficient enough. That means a Dodge and Accuracy talent couldn't get above +5. An Armor and Resist talent +5 only as well. +5 DMG. For health it's not as big an issue as with Dodge, Acc, Armor, and Resist. But I think a range of the Talent Health Bounty in Wizard101 would be appropriate, that is +150 Health MAX. The reason for this is to maintain balance in PVE and of course PVP (should it expand) in Pirate101.

Let's look at a mock pet in Wizard101 and Pirate101.

W101 Epic Pet -
+6% DMG
+5% Resist
+10% Resist
+Additional healing (Spritely)
+6% DMG, 15% Resist in addition to any gear bonuses

P101 Epic Pet -
Cheap Shot (start, only affects pet)(Baby)
Relentless (again only works for pet)(Teen)
+5 Armor (Adult)
+5 Dodge (Ancient)
+150 Health (to player) (Epic)

Which pet looks more overpowered to you?

A Lv 1 Wizard can have free healing, +15% resist, and +6% DMG right out of the door. That's extremely beneficial and yet it IS overpowered. Pets play the long game. When that Wizard is Lv 90. He can have over 50% resist. 60+% DMG etc etc.

A Lv 1 Pirate has a more useful ally, A little cushion for physical attacks, can dodge a bit better, and gets a nice free bonus of +150 Health. Now let's go to Lv 65. I'll use my own Privateer for this.

Brave Sam has 103 Armor, 36 Resist, 2,951 Health, 111 Acc, 121 Dodge
With his pet he has 108 Armor, 126 Dodge, and 3,101 Health.

Are my stats overpowered by my pet? But are they enough to be beneficial? I think so.

So in conclusion, I am sure whatever the folks Pirate101 do there will be folks who love or hate it. Being a pet fanatic I am sure I will love it no matter what. But I think it's a good idea to consider these ideas as a way to power up the pet as an Ally and benefit the player without them being so overpowered they are required to thoroughly enjoy the game. To maintain the balance between PVE and of course PVP.

Like my ideas? Hate them? Wanna tweak them? Sound off in the comments section!

Signed,
Captain Sam Laveer, Privateer
Alric Ravensinger, The Petnome Project
"Privateers will rule the Spiral, and it will be beautiful!"