Bonedancer Pets = Optimal Level Configuration for RvR or PvE

I've been playing around with various configurations of pets for my BD (47 sup/26 dark at the moment, but may change), and have been struggling to determine what the best configuration of pets is for PvE farming or for RvR. Based on the maximum of 75 pet levels and on the level of pets summoned by the various spells, summoning two pets of the highest level (of different types) such as my best healer and best buffer/melee give me:
1x48 spell = level 37 pet
1x45 spell = level 37 pet

For 74 total levels of pet. The healer gives me the best heals, the pet does decent damage and has good buffs. But I could also do something like

1x30 buffer/melee = level 27 pet
2x27 healer = 2 level 24 pets

for a total of 75 pet levels. Or

1x39 buffer/melee = level 33
1x24 healer = level 22
1x21 debuffer = level 20

also for a total of 75 levels.

I haven't been able to determine most effective in farming reds/purples: fewer high-level pets? A set of mid-level support types? One high-level and two lower-level support? I was able to solo Kelic in Raumarik for my epic, and for that case it took the highest-level healer and buffer and about 6 iterations of running away and re-summoning pets, because I have no ranged pets to speak of. But that was more effective than having 3 lower-level healers for my commander. On the other hand, for farming WWs in Malm, I found that having the lower-level support was plenty because my own damage contributes a lot.

And for RvR, I see most people running with two of the top-level ranged pets of their spec (warmages for dark, archers for BA). For a sup spec I'm thinking that maybe 2 healers would make me hard to kill, but then again I could respec to go for damage instead.

Any thoughts or discussion appreciated, particularly about whether lower-level damage pets are worth anything at all in RVR due to resists. I haven't seen that Mastery of Focus affects pet resists at all (I tested it pretty comprehensively).

Mon 15 Apr 2019 5:26 PM by Vkejai

Hi, I have played around with a lot of different set ups and all I can say is if you are going solo stay sup and run the two best healer pets . If you going the group and zerg type route then I would change to dark 46 and run the two warmages .

Mon 15 Apr 2019 5:38 PM by Tool73

warmages damage was reduced by 40% today, mabye more on stronger mobs then yellow ( i tested), so i would assume, useless in group vs red/purple mobs now.

Mon 15 Apr 2019 5:58 PM by Dariussdars

Tool73 wrote: ↑
Mon 15 Apr 2019 5:38 PM
warmages damage was reduced by 40% today, mabye more on stronger mobs then yellow ( i tested), so i would assume, useless in group vs red/purple mobs now.

Was there a patch note for the damage nerf?

Mon 15 Apr 2019 6:07 PM by Tool73

yes, they reduced spelldamage from exponential to linear de/increase vs different mob lvl, that means, your green lvl 36 warmages hit now for less on everything higher lvl 36 then before. tested before on lvl 50 puppet: with bodydebuff was 200-240 the first dd they do, now after nerf is 120-160. without debuff arround 60 -100 damage. maybe enough to do some pvp, but u still have 30% resist chance on player, 10% resist chance for your debuff, and still no demezz for the pets ;-))

Mon 15 Apr 2019 6:10 PM by Dariussdars

Tool73 wrote: ↑
Mon 15 Apr 2019 6:07 PM
yes, they reduced spelldamage from exponential to linear de/increase vs different mob lvl, that means, your green lvl 36 warmages hit now for less on everything higher lvl 36 then before. tested before on lvl 50 puppet: with bodydebuff was 200-240 the first dd they do, now after nerf is 120-160. without debuff arround 60 -100 damage. maybe enough to do some pvp, but u still have 30% resist chance on player, 10% resist chance for your debuff, and still no demezz for the pets ;-))

Interesting, curious as to what their damage is on level 50 players now.

Mon 15 Apr 2019 8:30 PM by Tool73

damage on debuffed player per warmage is now arround 100.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 1:13 AM by Lanfear

This is something like the reasons why i left daoc, if this is true.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 8:12 AM by Hailie

Can this be confirmed by other BDs?

Tue 16 Apr 2019 9:48 AM by Dariussdars

Hailie wrote: ↑
Tue 16 Apr 2019 8:12 AM
Can this be confirmed by other BDs?

Had my two 45 war mages rooted in Uppland last night, then I got rooted myself. Bard who rooted us ran by the mage pets, and they were nuking him for 50-60 damage.

Speccing for the highest mage pets in darkness and they hit for 50-60 damage without the debuff.

Necro on the other hand was still nuking me for 400 damage or so, while I hit him with my baseline 179 delve dark spell for 230 or so (46+14 dark). Nice pet balance.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:06 PM by NegativeX

Dariussdars wrote: ↑
Tue 16 Apr 2019 9:48 AM
Hailie wrote: ↑
Tue 16 Apr 2019 8:12 AM
Can this be confirmed by other BDs?

Had my two 45 war mages rooted in Uppland last night, then I got rooted myself. Bard who rooted us ran by the mage pets, and they were nuking him for 50-60 damage.

Speccing for the highest mage pets in darkness and they hit for 50-60 damage without the debuff.

Necro on the other hand was still nuking me for 400 damage or so, while I hit him with my baseline 179 delve dark spell for 230 or so (46+14 dark). Nice pet balance.

If this is true... that is probably one of the biggest nerfs I've ever seen. What in the hell.

BD's are going to hit like a wet paper bag in RVR now. Our pets already drop like a rock in any serious engagement.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:14 PM by kratoxin

i think someone said last night that they nerfed them by 40% dmg wise.... which is HUGE.. should of at least nerfed them by like 10-15% at the most and seen how that would work if it was such a big deal.

i think they said Animist, enchanter pets were effected as well but im not sure.. i haven't seen a post about these nerfs yet.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:21 PM by NegativeX

Just tested on orange/yellow con axehands in Malmou and the damage is unchanged.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:27 PM by kratoxin

maybe it was a bug? or a troll? lol idk if dmg is unchanged then thats good to hear.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:30 PM by NegativeX

kratoxin wrote: ↑
Tue 16 Apr 2019 3:27 PM
maybe it was a bug? or a troll? lol idk if dmg is unchanged then thats good to hear.

Well, the patch notes do say that outgoing damage and pet scaling will remain the same in PVE. So whomever earlier in this thread said damage in PVE was nerfed I think was mistaken.

The change applied today only applies to RVR/PVP, per the patch notes.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 6:19 PM by Ketoman

Warmages hit for 150-160 with red debuff on level 50 mob in pve(I farmed for hours ion my bd today). The latest patch is a flat 30 to 40% dmg nerf to bonedancers.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 6:32 PM by alusnova415

The change is system wide not a BD nerf only. They affect minstrel pets for example and yes is for rvr should be close to 35-40% dmg drop.

Recently focus dmg was also nerfed 35%ish , assassins (the class I play) was nerfed with the poison application, etc after the initial shock you adjust , you'll be fine.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 6:49 PM by Ketoman

40% dmg nerf is insane and it was not supposed to impact pve. Yet even after the follow up patch to correct the pve dmg it still is not fixed.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 6:56 PM by cere2

Why are they nerfing any classes ability in PVE...Like anything was so broken? Is someone is making way too much money killing mobs and it's effecting RVR?

And then to give the excuse, these are the values in patch 1.65 blah blah..like everything here is anything like 1.65?

Tue 16 Apr 2019 8:33 PM by Andryah

Delegator wrote: ↑
Mon 15 Apr 2019 3:32 PM
I've been playing around with various configurations of pets for my BD (47 sup/26 dark at the moment, but may change), and have been struggling to determine what the best configuration of pets is for PvE farming or for RvR. Based on the maximum of 75 pet levels and on the level of pets summoned by the various spells, summoning two pets of the highest level (of different types) such as my best healer and best buffer/melee give me:
1x48 spell = level 37 pet
1x45 spell = level 37 pet

For 74 total levels of pet. The healer gives me the best heals, the pet does decent damage and has good buffs. But I could also do something like

1x30 buffer/melee = level 27 pet
2x27 healer = 2 level 24 pets

for a total of 75 pet levels. Or

1x39 buffer/melee = level 33
1x24 healer = level 22
1x21 debuffer = level 20

also for a total of 75 levels.

I haven't been able to determine most effective in farming reds/purples: fewer high-level pets? A set of mid-level support types? One high-level and two lower-level support? I was able to solo Kelic in Raumarik for my epic, and for that case it took the highest-level healer and buffer and about 6 iterations of running away and re-summoning pets, because I have no ranged pets to speak of. But that was more effective than having 3 lower-level healers for my commander. On the other hand, for farming WWs in Malm, I found that having the lower-level support was plenty because my own damage contributes a lot.

And for RvR, I see most people running with two of the top-level ranged pets of their spec (warmages for dark, archers for BA). For a sup spec I'm thinking that maybe 2 healers would make me hard to kill, but then again I could respec to go for damage instead.

Any thoughts or discussion appreciated, particularly about whether lower-level damage pets are worth anything at all in RVR due to resists. I haven't seen that Mastery of Focus affects pet resists at all (I tested it pretty comprehensively).

I only use my BD for PvE farming. I tried several different specs and finally settled on 44BA 18SUP 25Dark. I am historically a Suppression spec BD player.. so to end up on BA was new for me, but pleasant enough. I roll on the WWs in Malm with the Bone Master, a 42 cast level BoneBurster and a pair of 18 Healers and toss both DoTs on the target after the Master engages. It seems to provide the most consistent results for me personally, and I can farm non-stop without going mana-dry on Pruple/Red/Orange WWs. On the reds and purples I also debuf str and dex just to reduce the burden on the healers. Maybe once every couple dozen WWs... I get trolled by RNG on resists and will have to toss the Master a heal to help the healers some. I tried a spec with casters and just was not impressed by it... so I stick with melees+healers.

But at the end of the day... BDs can be speced and played so many different ways in PvE .. so just go with whatever spec and playstyle you most enjoy.

As for RvR.... meh... no comment.

Tue 16 Apr 2019 9:04 PM by Vkejai

After checking out this pet nerf , I would change to supp / dark instead of going 46 dark. All classes affected should be given a free respec imo.

Thu 18 Apr 2019 3:51 PM by Svekt

someone died to a bd and cried lol
one of the biggest nerfs I have seen hands down.

Sat 20 Apr 2019 11:01 AM by Vennedra

As a lvl 47 BD, i made some test BEFORE and AFTER the patch on training dummy ouside of Vindsaul Faste (with 26% resist).
I was spec 46 Dark 19 Supp

Warmage Pet
Without darkness debuff :
* Before pacth : Average dmg : 97 (values : 78 122 72 86 111 93 119 )
* AFTER patch : Average dmg : 75 (values : 66 79 91 82 66 92 73 58 81 60 68 76 88 69 )
--> 22% damage NERF

With lvl 46 darkness body debuff :
* Before pacth : Average dmg : 170 (75% dmg raise with debuff) (values : 166 148 201 184 213 137 179 134 )
* AFTER patch : Average dmg : 140 (values : 137 124 150 108 165 111 152 167 151)
--> 18% damage NERF

I dont know if dummy is supposed to apply the rules of PvE or RvR ?
And remember i was only lvl 47.

At this point, as a PvP player, i'm a bit lost with what spec to choose.
* 47 Sup 25 Ba 87 Da ? Nice farming spec, but for RvR, only the huge drain seems interesting
* 38 Dark 38 Sup ? still usable ? the lvl 33 warlock will do a ridiculous small amount of dmg, so only dedicated to interrupt ?

Sat 20 Apr 2019 6:12 PM by Lanfear

Pick another class.

Sun 7 Jul 2019 3:37 PM by Torye

What spec did you decide to play?

Tue 9 Jul 2019 2:00 PM by dstrmberg

For solo:

2x low healer pet
1x jinxer

Extra casted interrupts (ASD and disease) Bring so much utility. End of discussion!

Sat 26 Oct 2019 4:11 PM by Atum

hi,

so the fotm/current meta for solo 47/25/8 suppr bd spec is 1x jinxer (24), 1x healer (36) and 1x fixer (24), right?

thanks!

Sat 26 Oct 2019 7:24 PM by gotwqqd

Atum wrote: ↑
Sat 26 Oct 2019 4:11 PM
hi,

so the fotm/current meta for solo 47/25/8 suppr bd spec is 1x jinxer (24), 1x healer (36) and 1x fixer (24), right?

thanks!

Some go higher Supp with 2 highest pets allowed

Sat 26 Oct 2019 9:44 PM by Vkejai

I normally run the two high healers , find the grey ones die way to fast. Depends on situations tho.

Sun 27 Oct 2019 7:14 AM by Atum

if you run 2x boneknitter then you wont have enough lvl for casting the asd/disease jinxer pet

Tue 29 Oct 2019 2:40 PM by Siouxsie

Incredible that this class got nerfed so much, yet Necros can consistently hit for 200-400, while my hunter shoots arrows at th pet and hits for just 70.

So horribly broken. I doubt class balances will ever get addressed here.

Tue 29 Oct 2019 3:26 PM by Neso

That's nice. Although class balance and hunter damage vs a necro, has nothing to do with Bonedancer pet setup.

Mon 18 Nov 2019 8:05 PM by Voidedtransaction

For Solo BD in rvr.

2 level 30 bonebuilder healers
1 level 18 Bonebreaker Disease/Debuffer

Congrats you win.

The disease pet also applies a 30% ASR so hes worth his weight in gold.

Tue 19 Nov 2019 1:49 AM by gotwqqd

Voidedtransaction wrote: ↑
Mon 18 Nov 2019 8:05 PM
For Solo BD in rvr.

2 level 30 bonebuilder healers
1 level 18 Bonebreaker Disease/Debuffer

Congrats you win.

The disease pet also applies a 30% ASR so hes worth his weight in gold.

I thought the disease caster was a jinxet

Tue 19 Nov 2019 6:33 AM by Voidedtransaction

gotwqqd wrote: ↑
Tue 19 Nov 2019 1:49 AM
Voidedtransaction wrote: ↑
Mon 18 Nov 2019 8:05 PM
For Solo BD in rvr.

2 level 30 bonebuilder healers
1 level 18 Bonebreaker Disease/Debuffer

Congrats you win.

The disease pet also applies a 30% ASR so hes worth his weight in gold.
I thought the disease caster was a jinxet

You cant do a Jinxer with the Builders...
Jinxers 22 Pet level
Builders are 27 Pet level
27+27+22=76
Hence why you gotta do the 18 Bonebreaker. Same delve spells just slightly lower level so fits into 75 level cap.

Mon 1 Jun 2020 10:39 AM by Relidar

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but i didn't want to create a new one on the same topic.

How have the pet setups changed for Bonedancers lately? What's your pet setup as 46/28 or 39/37(38/38)?

Thu 15 Oct 2020 10:16 AM by Majeric

Relidar wrote: Sorry for bumping an old thread, but i didn't want to create a new one on the same topic.

How have the pet setups changed for Bonedancers lately? What's your pet setup as 46/28 or 39/37(38/38)?

Hey,

still depends on your playstyle focus. For solo and 8vs8 most run a sup heavy spec with 34/38/17 or 39/37 with 2 x bonebuilder(heal) + bonebreaker(debuff) or bonecaster(dd) for solo and warlock(dd) + shaman(dd) + jinxer(debuff) for 8vs8.

With the change that DD caster pets use their own level for damage calculation the damage of the casters in the lower levels is negigible and they are purely used as interrupter and snare.

For 16+ vs any i still recommend the 46/24/14 with 2 x warmages(dd). If you want to run solo with this setup you have to run something like Warmage(dd) + 2 x bonepatcher(heal) or 2 x bonefixer(heal) + bonebeguiler(debuff) or 3 x bonefixer(heal) streight away. You can also combine the 50% body debuff with a body dot charge or body DD charge.