Currently there are only melee pets in the game, but what if
ranged pets were introduced? How would that affect the current pet system and
allow it to continue to grow? Some issues may come up with implementing ranged
pets, but their potential would likely exceed beyond anything we’ve yet seen in
terms of Pirate101 pets.
Melee Pets
Ever since the game was released, all pets have been melee.
At the time, this may have seemed a bit strange – pets would only come with one
epic talent, so why couldn’t ranged ones be added? If the system was left how
it was at the time, then perhaps ranged pets could be introduced much more
easily. It used to be as simple as a pet having Cheap Shot and that aspect
alone separating it from other pets that don’t have that epic talent.
Therefore, it’d be quite possible to have a pet that’d function similarly to a
Musketeer and have an epic talent like Parting Shot instead.
However, we never saw any pets like that. Why? The simplest
answer is that the Pirate101 team was planning ahead to this advanced pet
update where ranged pets wouldn’t really be possible. We’ll discuss more on
that later.
It is important to note that, with melee pets, you must walk
up to the enemy in order to hit. This would certainly put your pet in danger, even
if it has talents like Turn the Tide, First Strike, Vengeance Strike, etc.
Higher level enemies will rarely miss your pet, and, with their relatively low
health, it won’t take long for them to be defeated. You’ll want to hope that
they can make use of their melee powers as fast as possible when they engage in
close combat!
This is likely the greatest weakness of melee pets – their
vulnerability. In various cases you’ll likely find that they won’t even be able
to use all of their powers in time before they’re defeated. Especially if
you’re using ranged companions yourself, your pet will be one of the few units
out in the fight, making them the primary focus of the enemy. Perhaps this
isn’t so bad; it’s taking the heat off you,
allowing your pirate and your companions, who are the main heavy hitters in the
fight, to attack away at the enemy unscathed.
Ranged Pets
Ranged pets would have completely different purposes than
melee pets, mainly because they won’t be up close in the fight. This allows
them to survive longer, so they’d likely deal more damage to the enemy than a
melee pet could. Keep in mind that the existing pets in the game, who are all
melee, already don’t have such high dodge, and that’s generally an advantage of
melee classes over ranged ones. So, is there any case that ranged pets would
actually be weaker than melee ones? Stats-wise, probably not. To truly retain
the central aspects of the Musketeer class, they’d have to have high enough
accuracy that they’d barely be missing the enemy – this is a huge advantage
that melee pets won’t have.
What’s so different about ranged pets? If they won’t be in
the center of the fight, a ranged pet wouldn’t be able to draw the attention of
the enemy as well as a melee pet could. This shifts the focus over to your
melee companions, who are generally pretty fragile – something you wouldn’t
want. Therefore, there definitely are downsides to having a ranged pet. If you
like using a pet to keep the threat off of you and your companions, perhaps
you’d want to stick with a melee pet if ranged pets are ever introduced to the
game.
You also have to take into account that your pets are
auto-controlled, unlike your other units in the fight. What’s to say a ranged
pet won’t charge into the middle of the fight, attacking from only two square
away from the enemy instead of four? It’s a bit more unpredictable than melee
pets are, considering that they have to be adjacent to the enemy in order to
attack.
Associated Problems
Simply put, a ranged pet can’t just be added to the game
without taking any further measures. The pet on its own would be pretty cool,
being completely different than everything else we’ve seen so far – so why
can’t one just be added?
Just like in Wizard101, to get really good pets, you’re
going to need to hatch – or, in the case of Pirate101, morph. First generation
pets probably won’t have everything you’re looking for in their talent and
power pools, so you’ll have to move on to second generation ones, third
generation, fourth generation, etc.
Consider this. A ranged pet is introduced and it has a great
talent that you want to have on your main pet, so you decide to morph it with
one of your other pets. What would happen if you morph a melee pet with a
ranged pet?
The answer is that the hatch wouldn’t be able to be
completed without almost entirely duplicating one pet’s trait pool. If the
result is a ranged pet, no melee talents or powers could be on the offspring.
If it’s a melee pet, it couldn’t have any ranged talents. So are you really
morphing anything together, or will you just be getting the same melee/ranged
pet back? Perhaps some talents can be mixed – extra dodgy would work fine on a
melee or a ranged pet. But Repel Boarders or Riposte doesn’t work as nicely.
This is the main problem that will arise; of course there
are others, but they aren’t as severe. An entirely new set of ranged talents
and powers would have to be created, consuming much more time for the Pirate101
team that could be devoted to producing more playable content. More animations
would have to be created for melee-ranged hybrids, too – if the hybrid
resembles a melee pet, it couldn’t just take on its animations; instead, an
entirely new set would have to be created since it could be attacking from a
distance instead of right next to the enemy.
Possible Solutions
That shouldn’t rule out having ranged pets in the future,
though! There’s an easy, though restricting, solution – melee and ranged pets
can’t be hatched together. Only melee-melee and ranged-ranged morphs would be
allowed. At first, that might be a bit more frustrating considering that there
would be a very few number of ranged pets and not much to hatch them with.
However, as the game progresses and more ranged pets are introduced, there’d
soon be many more ranged combinations that could be made with.
Another solution that might be more difficult would be to
change epic talents to correspond with the pet being melee or ranged. For
example, suppose a melee pet that has Riposte is hatched with a ranged pet and
the offspring is ranged. The Riposte could simply be changed to Parting Shot,
though this could conflict with the ranged pets own epics – perhaps it already
has Parting Shot in its own talent pool. Instead, the Riposte could become
Stock Assault, which is essentially the same thing as Riposte, except for it
only being able to be used on a ranged unit. Not only does this allow for the
transfer of melee and ranged epics, it creates the opportunity for melee-ranged
morphing in general.
Stock Assault may currently be the only epic talent like
this that a companion can currently obtain, but more are coming, as confirmed
by Ratbeard. It would be very interesting to see these types of epic talents
available on pets, too.
Perhaps there simply wouldn’t be any ranged-only powers,
just ones with infinite range. That way melee and ranged pets could both use
them and these powers could be transferred on normally. Attacking from, say,
four squares away might be something that ranged pets would only do with their
normal attacks – powers could be set for infinite range, thus creating the
possibility for them to be used by both melee and ranged pets after these
powers are morphed out.
Conclusion
What’s your opinion on this? Could ranged pets work with the
current pet system that Pirate101 has? What solutions would you propose to
eliminate the above issues from occurring? We want to hear what you think!
In Wizard101, there are tons of pets to celebrate individual
holidays – the Friendship Festival, Halloween, Fourth of July, and lots more.
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up soon, it would be great to have some new pets
to celebrate.
Another interesting idea is being able to interact more with
our pets, rather than them simply following us around. For example, Avery
himself has a cool-looking pet that many pirates may want to get their hands
on… a pet parrot! Perhaps a parrot pet could ride on your shoulder instead of
trailing behind you – wear it with an eyepatch, and you’ll truly feel like a
pirate!
Pirate101 is known for its unique drops from bosses – there
are tons of cool items that they can give that you can’t find anywhere else.
However, you may have noticed that some boss sets come complete with hats,
outfits, boots, and weapons – but no pets!
