Animal companion

Having an animal companion, or pet, is a Ranger skill:

Getting a Pet
Pets are character-specific. To obtain a pet you must use Charm animal on an animal.

Whenever a ranger has Charm Animal equipped, his pet will tag along when he is outside of cities and outposts.

Getting rid of your pet
It is not possible to charm a new animal while one already has a pet. The only way to get rid of a pet is to speak with Jarrel the Tamer (he can be found just outside post searing Ascalon City, or next to ranger Nente in Regent Valley (Pre-Searing)). The tamer may give a small amount of gold in exchange for an experienced pet (100 gold pieces for a level 20 pet). Giving up a pet at a tamer is final; there is no way to get it back.

Pet Rules

 * Pets are not affected by skills that affect the whole party. They are considered an ally and as such, things like Aegis will have no effect on them.
 * Pets are a type of creature according to Edge of Extinction and other skills that target creatures.
 * A pet will always attack the same foe as its owner (sometimes with a delay) at a rate of one attack every two seconds.
 * Pets can get Death Penalty and Morale Boost. (?)
 * Pets can not be ressurected with Monk Skills, only with Comfort Animal or Revive Animal.
 * When a pet dies, all of its owners' skills are disabled for 4 seconds.
 * When a pet dies, its location does not show as a grey dot on the compass.
 * If a pet isn't renamed (see below), its name may change as it levels up and evolves (i.e. a Melandru's Stalker may become a Playful Stalker).
 * Pets gain Experience and level up (with the max level being 20), just like its owner. A pet gains experience from combat at the same rate as a player of the same level. It will gain experience in this way even while dead.  However, it does not gain experience from quest rewards or mission completion.

Pet Evolution Stats

 * Hearty: -2 damage, +60 health
 * Playful: -1 damage, +30 health
 * Elder: -0 damage, +0 health
 * Agressive: + 1 damage, -30 health
 * Dire: +2 damage, -60 health

It is commonly believed that the Elder pet has a damage bonus of +3; however, attempts to validate this have shown that the Elder does indeed do less damage than the Dire by approximatly 2 damage points.

Training for a Specific Pet Evolution
Generally, the pet evolves at levels 11 and 15 only. However, in certain cases this has varied; such instances are rare and not fully understood. Other times the pet name does not update appropriately; in this case, name your pet, then reset the default name with /namepet. Which evolutionary path the pet takes is dependant on the play style of its master leading up to the pet's evolution and is easily testable. The main factors of play style which influence pet evolution seem to be ones that change the ratio of damage dealt by the pet vs. damage by its owner. The most important ones are the number of Pet Attack skills utilized, the number attribute points spent in Beast Mastery as opposed to other weapon attributes, and the number of times the pet dies. Healing is a factor only insofar as it is an indicator of a low Beastmastery stat, and the level of monsters fought has no bearing other than the speed at which the pet will level.


 * Playful/Hearty

A play style which focuses on the master's ability to deal damage will render the more defensive pet evolutions. Such a player may have 12 points in Beast Mastery, so long as they spend enough points in another weapon attribute or use player rather than pet skills so as to deal more damage than their pet. The level 11 defensive pet evolution has the prefix of Playful. The level 15 defensive pet evolution has the prefix of Hearty.


 * Aggressive/Dire

A play style which focuses on the pet's ability to deal damage will render the more offensive pet evolutions. Such a player does not need to have 12 to 16 points in Beast Mastery, so long as their points in other weapon attributes and number of non-pet attack skills are limited such that the pet unquestionably deals more damage than the player. The level 11 offensive pet evolution has the prefix of Aggressive, and the level 15 offensive pet evolution has the prefix of Dire.


 * Elder

At the second evolutionary change around level 15, a more balanced evolution is available. This Elder prefix evolution can be aquired by playing one of the above two play styles until the pet reaches its first evolution and then changing which play style one uses.

Pet Skills
It's also a good idea to bring along some other pet-related skills:
 * Disrupting Lunge,
 * Tiger's Fury,
 * Call of Haste,
 * Otyugh's Cry,
 * Ferocious Strike,
 * Symbiotic Bond,
 * Bestial Pounce,
 * Brutal Strike,
 * Melandru's Assault,
 * Predator's Pounce,
 * Scavenger Strike,
 * Maiming Strike,
 * Comfort Animal,
 * Feral Lunge,
 * Revive Animal,
 * Call of Protection,
 * Symbiosis

Pet attacks
A pet's damage is relative to the amount of attribute points invested in his owner's Beast Mastery attribute (the graph is slightly sigmoidal, with its highest ascension around 12 Beast Mastery).

Different types of pets do different types of physical damage. Slashing damage is dealt by Piercing damage is dealt by Blunt damage is dealt by
 * Black Bears
 * Lynxes
 * Moa Birds
 * Melandru's Stalkers
 * Wolves
 * Black Widows
 * Dune Lizards
 * Striders
 * Warthogs

Pet Armor
All pets have the same armor level based off of their current level. This armor can be modified via Otyugh's Cry.


 * Level 1: 4 AL
 * Level 2: 8 AL
 * Level 3: 12 AL
 * Level 4: 16 AL
 * Level 5: 20 AL
 * Level 6: 24 AL
 * Level 7: 28 AL
 * Level 8: 32 AL
 * Level 9: 36 AL
 * Level 10: 40 AL
 * Level 11: 44 AL
 * Level 12: 48 AL
 * Level 13: 52 AL
 * Level 14: 56 AL
 * Level 15: 60 AL
 * Level 16: 64 AL
 * Level 17: 68 AL
 * Level 18: 72 AL
 * Level 19: 76 AL
 * Level 20: 80 AL

Commands
A pet can be given an individual name with the commands "/namepet " or "/petname ". The /namepet command, when used without anything following it, will reset the pet's name to its default state. A pet's name can be up to 12 characters long. Note that an individual name will also carry over to a new pet.