General Pet Guide

The purpose of this guide is to help you use and plan your pets!

Pet Quests

There are several compulsory and optional pet-related quests described on the Venomancer Pet Quests page. These give you your pet skills and additional space in your pet bag.

Accessing Pets

• Main Article: Pet Bag
  

When you first acquire your pet it will be in the form of an egg. Eggs can be hatched (and pets can be reverted to eggs) by a Pet Manager or Pet Skill Trainer for a nominal fee. Once hatched, your pet resides in your pet bag until reverted.

To open the pet bag press the 'P' key on your keyboard.

Loyalty

100%

100%

To find out how loyal your pet is, hover over its Icon in your pet window (see image at right). The pertinent information for this section is circled in red.

There are 4 tiers of loyalty for your pet:

Name	Loyalty	Dmg	EXP
Savage	0 - 50	60%	10%
Wild	51 - 150	80%	50%
Tame	151 - 500	100%	100%
Loyal	501+	120%	150%

Food

Just like real pets, PWI pets want to be regularly fed. To feed your pet, simply right click the appropriate food in your inventory (as an alternative, food can be hotkeyed).

Pets list the food they like to eat, and each category has various foods with different loyalty values. The hunger level of your pet determines how much of the loyalty value of the food you feed it is received. In addition, if you neglect to feed your pet for five minutes, its loyalty will decrease (again based on its level of hunger).

To visually indicate your pet's hunger level, the icon in your Pet Window will be shaded a different color.

Icon	Description	Food Loyalty Mod	Unfed Loss
File:Cactopod Full.png	Full	100%	0
File:Cactopod Satisfied.png	Satisfied	100%	1
File:Cactopod Peckish.png	Peckish	95%	5
File:Cactopod Hungry.png	Hungry	80%	15
File:Cactopod Starving.png	Starving	60%	50

Tomes

Tomes prevent your pet from getting hungry, in addition to their stats. This means that you don't need to be constantly feeding your pet (which is nice when you get to picky eaters who won't take Pure Water). Tomes are crafted using a Nature Forge in Archosaur or Thousand Streams, but require cash shop items. They can also be acquired from other players, so keep an eye on the Auction House and Cat Shops.

Death

When your pet dies, it loses 10% of its current Loyalty. For pets with picky diets, this can get to be expensive, which is where your tome comes in. You can keep Loyalty loss from deaths down by not over feeding your pets and only have to feed them when they die; and if managed properly, only have to feed them once.

Pet Control

This section demonstrates the interface for controlling your pet. This is especially critical for luring/pulling, taming or backing your pet off from someone else's kill.

Pet Skill Bar

File:Pet Bar.png

This window provides a visual interface to your pet's actions.

Auto Behavior Buttons :
This group of buttons lets you decide how your pet should react in the absence of direct commands.

File:Manual Icon.png	Manual : your pet will do nothing without being given commands.
File:Defend Icon.png	Defend : your pet will attack any enemies who attack it or you, but will not attack a target simply because you are doing so.
File:Auto Icon.png	Auto : your pet will attack anything you do, in addition to targets attacking it or you.

Movement Buttons :
This group tells your pet whether or not it should follow you as you move around.

File:Hold Icon.png	Hold : Your pet will stay where it is, regardless of your movements. Getting too far away will cause your pet will stow itself. Pressing this button will cause your pet to stop attacking, however it will resume attacks based on its Auto Behavior.
File:Follow Icon.png	Follow : This tells your pet to follow you around as you move. Getting too far away will cause your pet will warp to catch up. As with Hold, pressing this button will cause your pet to stop attacking, however it will resume attacks based on its Auto Behavior.
File:Attack Icon.png	Attack : Your pet will move to your target and attack. Unlike Hold and Follow, this button is not persistent. Unlike the Skill Buttons, this command will execute if your pet is currently moving, however it will finish its current skill command before executing this one. Alt+1 will send this command to your pet.

File:Pet Skill Autocast Moved.png

Skill Buttons :

These button use your pets skills and as such, the icons and their order will likely be different for your pet. If your pet is moving when the command is issued, it will finish moving before answering the new command.
Skills can also be activated by pressing Alt+2 through Alt+5 for skills 1 - 4 respectively.

Auto-Skill :
The yellow border around the second skill (image to the right) denotes that it will automatically be used when it is available. To set which skill to use automatically, simply right click the skill (defaults to the first skill when the pet is summoned). This change is NOT persistent and will need to be set every time you summon your pet.

In general, if your pet has a bash-line skill, it's best to use that as your auto-skill (Bash being ideal, elemental versions being an alternative) as they are the fastest reuse and will get the most out of auto-skilling. If you would rather not have your pet use an auto-skill at all, simply right click the current auto-skill to deselect it.

There is currently a bug involving pet buffs as auto-skills which can cause your auto-skill to fail. To remedy the situation, re-assign your auto-skill.

Pet Groups

Pet Groups are denoted visually by the pet's icon in the Pet Bag. All pets within the same group have the same Growth Chart and therefore get the same increases from level to level (with the possible exception of Physical Attack). Within a group, pets with a lower base level will end up with better combat stats as they progress, those with a higher base level will end up with a higher movement speed and start with more skills.

Pet Stats

Stat	Description
HP	Hitpoints Current/Maximum. When your pet reaches 0 HP it dies and loses 10% of its Loyalty.
Loyalty	Provides bonuses and penalties to your pet's Physical Attack and EXP gains.
EXP	Experience Points Current/Maximum. When your pet's EXP reaches its Maximum it will gain a level if your level is greater than its current level; otherwise it will stop earning EXP until you advance a level. Your pet will only advance its level when it is active for an EXP-giving kill. Pet's base EXP gain is 10-(PetLevel-TargetLevel) with a maximum of 15 and minimum of 0.
Physical Attack or Attack	This is the amount of damage (before mitigation) done with the pet's auto attack. The value displayed in the Battle Pet Window reflects modification by Loyalty and therefore does not reflect the Base Physical Attack unless there is no Loyalty bonus.
Physical Defense or Physical Resist	This is the value used to determine the pet's mitigation of Physical attacks. The %age mitigated depends on the levels of both the pet and its attacker.
Magical Defense or Magic(al) Resist	This is the value used to determine the pet's mitigation of Magic attacks (Earth, Fire, Metal, Water, Wood). The %age mitigated depends on the levels of both the pet and its attacker.
Damage or Accuracy	This is the value used to determine whether or not your pet hits with its auto attack.
Evade or Dodge	This is the value used to determine whether or not an opponent misses with its auto attack.
Movement Speed	The speed at which the pet moves.

Growth Tiers

File:Baby Hercules Growth Chart.png

Growth Tiers are represented visually on your pet's Growth Chart. This can be misleading, however, because the charts aren't symmetrical and only the first 7 levels are readily distinguishable. In addition, some tiers look very similar for some stats, while for others they are easily distinguished without close examination.

Each stat appears to have 10 tiers of growth rate:

Tier	HP	Def	Evade	Accuracy	Regen	Move	Attack
1	22.50	60.00	10.00	15.00	(?)	(?)	(?)
2	25.00	66.67	11.11	16.67	(?)	(?)	(?)
3	27.50	73.33	12.22	18.33	(?)	(?)	(?)
4	30.00	80.00	13.33	20.00	(?)	(?)	(?)
5	32.50	86.67	14.44	21.67	(?)	(?)	(?)
6	35.00	93.33	15.56	23.33	(?)	(?)	(?)
7	37.50	100.00	16.67	25.00	(?)	(?)	(?)
8	40.00	106.67	17.78	26.66	(?)	(?)	(?)
9	42.50	113.33	18.89	28.33	(?)	(?)	(?)
10	45.00	120.00	20.00	30.00	(?)	(?)	(?)

Some of the values have been interpolated. Movement increases every x levels, where x is NOT linear, however x gets larger and smaller in some cases (likely caused by rounding). Data on regeneration are too sparse at the moment to make any conclusions. The change in attack scores each level is not linear but quadratic (source).

Pet Skills

Below is a listing of all of the skills a pet can learn. Skills can be learned taking the appropriate Skill Scrolls to a Pet Manager. Skills can be upgraded by using a Tame Book, purchased from Mrs. Zoologist or Zoologist Yin in Archosaur, when the pet has reached the appropriate level.

Most Skill Scrolls can be purchased from Mrs. Zoologist or Zoologist Yin, while others must be acquired from either the Auction House or other sources such as Dragon Temple.

Each skill has the following information listed:

Levels	The levels at which your pet can learn/upgrade the skill.
Effects	Type of effect: Formula and description. SL is the Skill Level (1 - 5).
Type	The mitigation check used by the pet's target on "Damage:" effects.

As an example, Bash's information shows that the skill can be learned at level 1, upgraded by one skill level when your pet reaches levels 20, 40, 60 and 80. It also shows that at skill level 1 it deals 140% of the pet's base damage, which is then mitigated by the target's Physical Defense. For every skill level, the damage increases by 15% and caps at 200% for skill level 5.

8 Second Reuse

These are your "bash" type skills. They're very useful as your auto-skill because their quick reuse generates a lot of aggro (which represents your pet's ability to keep itself as the target).

Bash

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Physical

Fireball

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Fire

Icicle

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Water

Sandblow

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Earth

Thunderbolt

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Metal

Toxic Mist

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(125 + 15 * SL)% of pet's base damage.
Type	Wood

10 Second Reuse

These skills are general purpose and have reasonably quick reuse times.

Boost

Levels	10, 20, 30
Heal	(6 + 2 * SL)% of pet's base damage.

Shrill

Levels	10, 20, 30
Interrupt	(50 + 10 * SL)% chance to interrupt target's channeling.

Slow

Levels	10, 20, 30
Slow	(25 + 5 * SL)% decrease to target's movement speed.

15 Second Reuse

Flesh Ream (Currently does full damage in PvP)

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Damage	(100 + 20 * SL)% of pet's base damage over 9 seconds.
Type	Physical

Roar

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Taunt	Puts pet on top of the target's hate list. Higher level skill puts the pet farther ahead of the next highest on the hate list.

30 Second Reuse

The reuse time on these skills makes their seemingly great effects often less desirable than they would appear at first glance (Bash will do more damage than Sacrifice, for example).

Bloodthirst

Levels	40, 60, 80.
Lifetap	(10 + 5 * SL)% of Pet's max HP drained from opponent's HP to heal pet.

Bloodhunger (Requires Bloodthirst 3)

Levels	80.
Lifetap	(Max_HP - Current_HP)*0.50 drained from opponent's HP to heal pet.

Consume

Levels	40, 60, 80.
Lifetap	(10 + 5 * SL)% of Pet's max HP drained from opponent's Mana to heal pet.

Devour (Requires Consume 3)

Levels	80.
Lifetap	(Max_HP - Current_HP)*0.50 drained from opponent's Mana to heal pet.

Howl

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Debuff	(16 + 4 * SL)% Magic Defense reduction for 15s.

Penetrate

Levels	30, 45, 60, 75, 90.
Damage	(200 * SL) damage immune to mitigation for SL < 4. (200 * SL + (3 - SL) * 100) damage immune to mitigation for SL >=4.

Pierce

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Debuff	(16 + 4 * SL)% Physical Defense reduction for 15s.

Sacrifice

Levels	80.
Damage	400% of pet's base damage to target (75% of pet's current HP lost).
Type	Physical

Threaten

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Debuff	(16 + 4 * SL)% Physical Attack reduction for 15s.

60 Second Reuse

These skills have exceptionally long reuse timers (for normal mobs, they'll be used at most once per fight). This makes them very situational and of questionable usefulness.

Pounce (The in-game description incorrectly states that the attack rate increase depends on the success of the stun)

Levels	20, 80.
Stun & Buff	80% chance to stun enemy for 3s; (5 + 10 * SL)% increased attack rate for 15 seconds.

Tough

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(25 + 5 * SL)% incoming damage reduction for 15s.

Buff Skills

These are the only buffs which will affect your pet. They are all quite useful and are therefore very expensive to acquire through the auction house.

Blessing of the Pack

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(5 + 5 * SL)% increase to pet's Max HP for 1 hour.

Claw

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(5 + 5 * SL)% increase to pet's base physical damage for 1 hour. Additive with bonus/penalty from Loyalty (confirmation needed).

Protect

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(30 * SL)% increase to pet's Magic Defense for 1 hour.

Reflect

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(20 + 10 * SL)% of melee damage deflected for 1 hour. As with other deflection buffs, this is applied before mitigation.

Strong

Levels	1, 20, 40, 60, 80.
Buff	(30 * SL)% increase to pet's Physical Defense for 1 hour.

Which Pet To Chose

Pets come in different forms and shapes. They also have different abilities. It's important to use the right pet for the right job.

Physical Tanking

Air pets are not, in general, strong physical tanks. None of the categories have good growth for this type of situation. If you plan on doing a lot of air-based tanking, look for a Windwalking Piggy, a Baby Blazing Phoenix, a Harpy or a Monkey King. The last three are legendary pets and the Monkey is a PvP oriented pet, moreso than the Phoenix, so if your budget is low you may want to simply stick to the Piggy.

On the ground, Magmites and Glacial Walkers have very good Physical Defense and Attack growth, allowing them to keep the mob's attention while mitigation much of the damage; magic defense is, however, quite weak. For pure physical, these really are the best choice without going for a legendary pet. The Shaodu Cub and the Armored Bear are quite good at tanking as well but the Walker is the slightly better option. The Baby Hercules is the ultimate tank but it's a legendary pet.

In the water, Turtles make the best pets for a physical tanking job until the Plumpfish at level 80 or the evolved Baby Hercules (Celestial Giant) at level 100.

Magic Tanking

For the air, the Gray Waspkin group does the best but the Windwalking Piggy is also decent. The Baby Blazing Phoenix, the Monkey King and the Harpy are also good, with the Harpy having the edge.

Carapests, Antelopes and the Frogling have the best Magical Defense on the ground, though Carapests have slightly more HP and Antelopes deal significantly more damage. It's still worth mentioning the Baby Hercules since its buffs will enable it to tank magic quite well too. The Monkey is also decent. The Harpy is overall the better choice though.

Frost Undines have the best Magic Defense in the water. The Monkey is a decent choice while the Harpy is the overall better choice.

Note that the majority of monsters and bosses that deal magic damage at range will resort to using physical attacks at melee range therefore magic tanking isn't really so important or necessary. Players usually pick a good physical tank pet (Glacial Walker or Baby Hercules) and stick with that.

Damage Dealing

The Blue Waspkin group provide the best attack increases of the common air pets. They all have Bash and Toxic Mist, which provide frequent DPS additions to their auto attack. The Petite Sawfly is the slightly superior one in terms of stats and it can also evolve at level 100. The Cloud Skatefish is a good option too but it cannot evolve. The Monkey King, Baby Blazing Phoenix and Harpy are all great choice as DD pets with the Harpy having the edge in damage and DPS.

Magmites, Glacial Walkers, Scorpions have all got good offensive growth and you may already be using one or two of these as tanks. Scorpions have the advantage of starting out at level and being able to evolve as well. One of the most popular choices is the Dark Wanderer pet which can also evolve and it has decent physical defence too. At level 101 the Derjan's Hatchling is available. It is able to evolve and it's considered the best non-legendary DD pet. The evolved Baby Blazing Phoenix, the Monkey and the Harpy are amazing DD pets with the Harpy, once again, being the best choice.

There's no winner in the water as far as free pets are concerned; stick with a Turtle or Water Undine. Turtles have better survivability, but move more slowly and tend to block your view. Evolved Baby Hercules, evolved Baby Blazing Phoenix, the Monkey King or the Harpy are great choices too. The evolved Baby Hercules is the superior one though.

Ranged Tanking

There are pets that are able to deal ranged damage which makes them ideal for pulling/luring and range tanking, among other things. Monsters and bosses will sometimes deal less damage at range and in some situations ranged tanking has the simple advantage of being...ranged.

Popular pets for ranged tanking are the Eldergoth Marksman and/or the Eldergoth Sharpshooter. Any kind of cancti pets are also ranged but they are other used as pulling/luring pets than actual tanks. Higher level cacti pets Celestial Sting and Ethereal Inamorato are also able to evolve.

Keep in mind that the above mentioned pets only use range when they are auto-attacking so you have to make sure their skills are turned off. If you want to them to use a skill attack, they'll run into melee range. These pets are also available for the ground combat only.

The legendary pet Harpy is another ranged pet which, unlike the ones mentioned previously, she can deal ranged damage with both auto-attacks and skill attacks. The Harpy has no melee skills. She's also able to swim and fly so she has the advantage of being an all-terrain pet as well.

Luring/Pulling

There are pets that are able to deal ranged damage which makes them ideal for pulling/luring and range tanking, among other things. Monsters and bosses will sometimes deal less damage at range and in some situations ranged tanking has the simple advantage of being...ranged.

Popular pets for ranged tanking are the Eldergoth Marksman and/or the Eldergoth Sharpshooter. Any kind of cancti pets are also ranged but they are other used as pulling/luring pets than actual tanks. Higher level cacti pets Celestial Sting and Ethereal Inamorato are also able to evolve.

Keep in mind that the above mentioned pets only use range when they are auto-attacking so you have to make sure their skills are turned off. If you want to them to use a skill attack, they'll run into melee range. These pets are also available for the ground combat only.

The legendary pet Harpy is another ranged pet which, unlike the ones mentioned previously, she can deal ranged damage with both auto-attacks and skill attacks. The Harpy has no melee skills. She's also able to swim and fly so she has the advantage of being an all-terrain pet as well.

Debuffer/Support

Any of the tanking pets will be a good choice here due to their ability to survive, but DD oriented pets are also great choices.

Situations requiring debuffs will also generally be in instances or on the ground, so don't fill your pet bag slots with air/water utility pets, especially not if you're able to get any of the legendary pets. The Baby Hercules and Baby Blazing Phoenix become all-terrain pets after evolution. The Harpy and the Monkey King don't count since they have exclusive skills which once erased, they can no longer be obtained/taught again.

Debuff/Support pet skills include Howl, Pierce, Shriek, Threaten and Pounce. All of them, except for Pounce, can be obtained at the Zoologist NPCs.

PvP

Nowadays most free pets cannot survive well enough to be worth using in PvP. Perhaps the evolved Windwalking Piggy, evolved Petite Sawfly, evolved Dark Wanderer and evolved Darjan's Hatchling may be worth checking out but don't except too much from them.

The choice will usually boil down to the Baby Blazing Phoenix or the Monkey King. The Phoenix is a lot cheaper than the Monkey so most people will opt for that but those who are more serious about PvP or have the ability to spend the coin, will go for the Monkey.

While both pets are decent, the Monkey has superior Inherit stats after evolution and it also comes with a more useful skill set for PvP compared to the Phoenix.

Note that both of them might need buff skills like Protect and/or Strong to increase their survivablity and there's certain Mood skills that come into play. You can find more about it in the pet evolution guide.

Additional Resources

Some of the information for this guide was gathered and confirmed through the following sources:
PW Database
Ecatomb's fansite