The Daily Grind: What's the best pet class?

When a fierce and unrelenting enemy stares you down from across the battlefield, sometimes having a faithful companion at your side makes all the difference. While some people deride pet class users as playing "easy mode" or relying too much on what they see as a gimmick, we pet class players know better. We know that there is power in the assistance of a friend, there is comfort in a creature loyally plodding by your side through thick and thin, and there is a singular joy in sending them to their doom -- over and over again -- as you laugh maniacally at the awesome power from it all.

So for those of us who always drift over to the pet classes on the character selection screen, which ones do you think are the best? Perhaps it's the tried-and-true World of Warcraft Hunter, or the old-school Anarchy Online Bureaucrat, or the quirky Lord of the Rings Online Lore-master that gets you all peppy in the morning? Maybe City of Villains' Mastermind is all the pet class you'll ever need, or you delight in anything that begins with the letters "Necro-" for your gaming fix. Which pet class is the best, and why?

Reader Comments (53)

Tamer skill in UO.

Mastermind, by far.

Creature Handler / Bio-Engineer combo from pre-NGE SWG.

Obtaining DNA samples from rancor to make an insanely dangerous creature of death in the body of a cute little bunny thing? Surely no other pet class has come close to that level of awesomeness?

Kind of sounds like Megaten Imagine's demon system.

It's a little time consuming, but with the right combo of demons and elemental fusions you can make any creature in the game you want into death incarnate, with stat growths and skills of your choosing, to boot.

Beastlord from EQ.

There aren't too many melee pet classes, it was really neat fighting side by side with your pet. It was also the first pet class I can remember where (lore-wise) you are summoning the same pet instead of random elementals, skeletons, animals, whatever. The 5 races that could be beastlords each having a unique warder was really cool at the time, too.

Still

Seconded. Beasty in EQ ^_^.

Very much agreed. I still have no desire to return to EQ, but if some other MMO had a similar pet class, I would try it in a heartbeat.

Although I suspect that part of my love for the original Beastlord was the ease in which I could both solo in a notoriously-unfriendly-to-soloers game, and get groups because of my Slow ability (shared with Enchanters and Shaman, of course, but they were often rare). Also, having a speed buff, an invisibility spell, and "kitty crack" (less-powerful version of CEI) made the class very well-rounded. I doubt any other game would capture the same overall flavor of all the abilities.

I really enjoyed being able to tank in certain zones/dungeons though. The only time I've ever tanked in an MMO was on a class that wasn't supposed to. But with Slow and some of my poison DoTs, and dual-wielding two self-healing claws, I could really keep crazy aggro. And while my armor wasn't very good, I had a great dodge/parry rate (and I was self-healing quite a lot because of my gear). Sure, I gave healers heart attacks in tougher content, but unconventional groups can be the most fun.

Atrox Metaphysisist

Can tank and dps, can have his pet tank or dps, his second pet heal him or his pet whichever is tanking, and his third pet constantly stun the target he is fighting.

Oh and they can also fly and/also use a bow/cast damage spells.

I would have to agree that the pre-NGE CH/BE was the most powerful, sadly not in existence anymore and likely one of the primary reasons behind the NGE as they were an army unto themselves. Close second would be the CoV Mastermind who is actually the villain side tank (the Brute was dps and not designed as the main tank).

Definitely CoV's Mastermind. Though it effectively lacks an actual "pet" power set, nothing beats ordering your personal ninja clan / mob / mercenary squad / robot horde / zombie pack around.

SWG Creature Handler was really cool, combined with Bio Engineer was one of the most fun imo.

(I know its pretty weak but i always had fun on my old dwarf huntard in wow too)

Guild Wars Necromancer: 6 flavors of minion, battling for resources, can heal them/detonate them/trap them/super charge them/steal their health/pass conditions to them/etc.

I'd say in sophistication & attachment City Of Heroes' Mastermind is supreme, but sadly a big heap of negative for the ever tedious litany of actions required when entering each map - cannot even macro them with animation delays!

I'll never understand why it's set up so poorly when both minions and their upgrades have unlimited duration; just make upgrades automatic or stick in an automated (out fo combat) button that runs through the whole sequence.

One of the recent patches made it so now a MM's pets not only follow him across different maps, but they retain the upgrades as well.

Also, they changed the upgrade powers to an AoE effect, so instead of twelve clicks to fully upgrade all pets, you only need two.

Before they nerfed it, the old Animist from DAoC, talk about a class that would irritate everyone, friend or foe. And my lock from WoW. :)

Conceptually the World of Warcraft hunter because it lets you tame and use a wide variety of pets, though the execution leaves something to be desired.

My only other experience with pets in an MMO that I enjoyed was Shin Megami Tensei Imagine, which has the best and most customizable "pet" system of any video game I've ever played that also allows the owner to do something, but seeing as it's at the core of the gameplay I suppose it doesn't really count.

I agree with you, Raze. WoW does a nice job with hunter pets (less so with Warlock pets, since you cannot customize their appearance), and these pets function reasonably well. The hunter in Guild Wars and the captain/lore-master pet classes are absolutely TERRIBLE in comparison, imo.

The Heroes in Guild Wars, however -- which you really also have to consider pets -- were pretty great, though. Best I've come across, in fact. Being able to choose, control, and customize your party members by class, armor, and skills, as Guild Wars does, is the best of all possible worlds (for me, anyway).

I meant to say "… the captain/lore-master in LOTRO pet classes" by the way. :(

I am really liking my new Captain in LotRO. It is a very different pet class, since your pet is an squire, herald, standard bearer. The class is different in that a lot of the skills are short combat buffs that benefit an entire party including your pet. It's like having a party member following you around at all times. I currently have a big fat bald dude that looks like friar tuck.

Mastermind from CoV. They have the best control set by far. The pet controls in LotRO are a complete joke in comparison.

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The Daily Grind: What's the best pet class?

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 8:43AM bartillo said

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