| Gank My XP? Why I Oughtta... |
| This is one of those touchy subjects I have to deal with almost every time I log in. When I'm not playing with my friends, I have to find my own group. How often have one of you experienced cabalists been told, "Put your pet away." "Don't attack with the pet." "Your pet takes too much XP." ? How annoying is it for you all? How do you think your pet feels with such rejection? |
| This is something that has plagued my cabalists life. Now, I plan to lay facts down for anyone whom reads this mostly to educate and to give other young cabalists a base for retaliation to this ignorance. Most of the time, when you ask where they heard this, they respond with, "I have a level (insert one digit number here) Cabalist, I know." or "I heard it from my guild." When you fight with just your Cabalist and your faithful Golem, you will notice a significant decrease in the experience you receive when the golem stands in front of the monster the entire battle. This is simply due to the fact that he become a member of your little party. When a monster dies, your pet is entitled to those rewards as much as you are, and you simply do not learn through your pets eyes. The Golem "thinks" for himself in battle, he knows how to swing his arms, kick, and chase after. Unfortunately, I have learned his inability to understand the term, "Run for your life." So your pet will take a portion of the experience. This is highly dependent on how much damage you deal to the monster, or heal your pet, during that time. The experience is calculated the same if you and a friend were standing there fighting the same monster together but were not grouped. If you heal him, you will gain a portion of the experience, if you damage the mob, you will gain a portion of that xp as well. The most XP will go to you or your friend who does the most damage, the other person getting the rest. However, you will always get at least 50% of the experience when you fight with your golem, even if you let him kill the monster all by himself. You wouldn't get this if you stood around and simply let your friend fight the monster while not grouped. As a side note, Damage Shield from the matter specialization line that you cast on your pet will reduce that experience you receive even further, causing it to fall even below 50%. I have lost up to 80% of the total experience letting the golem fight, without my aid at all, except for the damage shield. Killing your pet by means of letting him die or unsummoning him for mana, or even by releasing him, will not gain you back the experience he was earning. The experience he was earning goes to the grave with him. Much like if you found a monster at half health right after someone died to him, you could kill that monster for a small portion of the experience, but definately not the full amount. This, however, is all for soloing. Rarely in a group will you use the Damage Shield, if you are forced to, you need a better tank. On to grouping now. |
| When in a group, experience is done a bit differently with the pet. Basically, if the group is doing their job and the pet is not tanking, the pet will take at most .5% of the experience from a kill. He does not swing as fast as any paladin, even with your buffs. The experience he gathers is received by how much damage he deals and takes. |
| Of course, when you are killing within a group and slaughtering monster after monster, that .5% is hardly noticable. Some people will complain about this, still, if they must. I will NEVER group with anyone who tells me how to play my character. I do not spend my time telling the tanks what to hit, the clerics when to heal/smite, the archers when to shoot/melee, I do not expect or want anyone telling me when and how to use my pet. I know I bring a lot to the group, whether it is transparent to them or not, I am an assett in any group, as any of your cabalists can be. Iphis |