Hunter vs Marksman.

[Valorius]

NOTE: -THESE POSTS WERE MOVED FROM ANOTHER THREAD-

I used pets for a couple months back before they nerfed them all, and tried many, many configurations with them. I also tested all the "best" pets after the update too. They simply don't measure up. No pets for me.

I do extremely well vs lvl 19 pet users in 1 vs 1's. I'm pretty sure my 1 on 1 winning % vs all classes is highest against pet using hunters.

Even back when you could get a great sabertooth doing 200dmg fast attacks, pets and their masters were weak. Bug prone, and no more than cannon fodder in fort battles. Once rid of his pet a hunter with all those points in pets disciplines is a limp wristed sissy mary. Honestly, not even excessive resists usually save pet hunters against me.

For me the real choice is between confuse and pets, and confuse wins that contest by a cool mile.

When a 'ninja' hunter goes to battle he has all 45 power points with him til death do he part, and with dirty fighting, sudden strike, and a really good bow, the damage you can deal in the new ensnare era is immense. Barring evades, with the equipment my char has now i can literally kill a lvl 50 hunter with 3 piggy back attacks using Sudden strike and DF. Ensnare arrow 5 will do over 1000dmg if you toss a death sentence in on top.

Marksman are far more difficult than hunters with pets, but still entirely manageable if you confuse them early, and have good equipment. Ninja hunters are harder than both. In both these cases evades are often the pivotal factor. When i used to use pets marksmen were a little easier, but we had way better pets back then. There is no pet in the game even close to as good as the great sabertooth used to be dmg wise. With beastial 5 you could see 400+ fast attack crits (and IIRC vs mages way up in the 500+ range).

The hardest class for me, by far, is Barbarians. Barbarians can -and do- kill pets in one shot, ive had it done to my own pets dozens and dozens of times when i used to use them.

Knights are almost impossible to kill anymore because they block everything, but fighting them is optional, so in reality they're irrelevant.

My setup is:

Scout 19(Lvl 5 ensnare, lvl 5 passive speed), LB 15 (passive dmg lvl 4), SB 11(lvl 3 dual shot, lvl 3 dex), Tricks 17(lvl 4 confuse and dirty fighting), Evasion 19(24 points total), Pets 3.

That's how much value i place in pets. None. Honestly, even if i had 4 more power points that NGD came to me and said "These are for you Valorius", i still wouldnt put them in pets. I'd either add them to a DoT or i'd add them to stunfist. Or escapist. But not to pets.

The setup you describe gives you no confuse. I can tell you right now that if i land first attack confuse on a hunter w/ pet 9 times out of 10 they're dead. No matter what pet setup they're using.