LM blue line level scaling

[Bromlin]

With the new update I'm planning on starting fresh with a human LM. I'm wondering if pet level scaling is really as broken as some comments in this forum claim. I'll be playing 99,9% of the time solo and the natural choice for me would be a blue line build. But if pets get useless damagewise and tankingwise halfway through levelling, I'd consider going into red line from the start instead to learn the mechanics early on. Would be sad though, as I love the unique idea of a wizard-type char accompanied by a strong pet. So, is blue line still viable at level 115+, or will I absolutely have to switch over to red to get my quests and missions done?

[Tralfazz]

My main is a Lore-master and I've played him in blue spec from the beginning which for me is a bit more than 2 years ago. He's 117 now.

After about Level 75, definitely by Level 85, pets no longer contribute as high a percentage of DPS. Their ability to hold aggro gradually vanishes except the bear and only if you give the bear a big head start before starting to do significant damage yourself or you use its taunt at just the right moments to take advantage of the threat level matching. By 95 the DPS contribution is fairly small and the pets are there primarily for their buffs and other special effects (stuns and whatnot). This is the case even with all the pet-boosting traits and traceries.

You do get the most powerful skill currently in the game: Murder of Crows. A cast of Murder of Crows defeats most on-level 3-person instance bosses all by itself. By Level 82 (with the new Class Trait Point bestowal system coming in u34) you can also have Lightning-storm. This is roughly what my character's trait trees looked like at that point, +/- a point or two based on whatever trait points I had earned from quests and deeds under the current system at that time.
https://ilovefriedorc.com/traits/loremaster-Level85Blue


Blue has a lot of survivability and can grind its way through typical landscape/questing mobs with no trouble. The character/pet balance takes getting used to as it begins to shift past Level 75 but I never feel underpowered; it does change the way you play, though. I enjoy managing the different pets and remaining alert for the triggered buffs to take best advantage of them. That said, red spec does more damage consistently and on demand with less reliance on pet management and triggered buffs. Red is fun, too!

I'd like to see pet DPS (including the damage from their skills) scale more in line with character DPS rather than dropping off at higher levels. Doing that might make blue Lore-masters more desirable for challenging group content. But blue is quite fun at least up to where I am with it now and works fine for all solo and landscape content. And let's face it: You're going to be yellow for challenging group content anyway, so... ¯\_(?)_/¯

[Vilan]

It's been a long time since I was at low levels so I can't really speak to how pets behave there these days. But at endgame, I play red line and I don't even bother summoning a pet. Occasionally there's a boss where I'll dust off my bear to tank it while I dps away, but that's about it. I guess the eagle self-rez can be handy once in a while too, and that's about to become blue-only. But the large majority of the time, red is better as you're doing way more damage than your pet. Often it's as simple as clicking a mob in a group, pressing Lightning Storm, and sorting through your loot while your pet didn't even realize you were in a fight.

[Bromlin]

Thanks for your answers, they were really helpful. Didn't make the decision easier, though. :-)

That leaves me with two thoughts:

1. Is the bear's tanking ability in any considerable way improved by going blue line? I fear the stat bonuses given are as insufficient at 140
as the dps is, so that a "red" bear is not dramatically weaker than a "blue" one at higher levels. Prove me wrong please.

2. Which brings me to the question if I really lose anything important by choosing red over blue. The blue trait bonusses seem rather unimpressive compared to red. "Tutelage of the Brown Wizard" looks great at first sight, but obviously doesn't do anything to prevent the bad pet scaling.

[Vilan]

Bear tanking just consists of pressing Roaring Challenge and pounding away on the bad guy. If the bear loses threat, unsummon him, summon a new bear, Roaring Challenge again, resume pounding. Makes no difference if you're red or blue or yellow. I guess your bear would live longer in blue with its extra morale, but it's easy enough to just summon a new bear.

You're certainly welcome to try blue out and see how you like it. Blue has some induction reduction traits, which is handy because LMs have lots of induction skills. And Murder of Crows is a pretty strong skill. Catmint gets used in endgame raids to boost the debuffs from raven and spirit pets. So it's not a hopeless trait tree. Just because it isn't necessarily "optimal" doesn't mean you can't have fun with it.

[Andaeil]

My problem with MoC is that it's underwhelming in every way except for dealing decent damage. On top of that, it's incredibly lazy - they just reused the The Lord of Pinions' bird shield animation and called it a day.

[wispsong]

My problem with MoC is that it's underwhelming in every way except for dealing decent damage. On top of that, it's incredibly lazy - they just reused the The Lord of Pinions' bird shield animation and called it a day.

I agree. LM loses uniqueness with every change they make. And for what? I started a red LM because pets have become basically useless.

[Mithithil]

I agree. LM loses uniqueness with every change they make. And for what? I started a red LM because pets have become basically useless.

The LM community has a terrible tendancy to outsmart content devs and especially instance devs and it is far less work to nerf a class?

[Mikalus]

Thanks for your answers, they were really helpful. Didn't make the decision easier, though. :-)

That leaves me with two thoughts:

1. Is the bear's tanking ability in any considerable way improved by going blue line? I fear the stat bonuses given are as insufficient at 140
as the dps is, so that a "red" bear is not dramatically weaker than a "blue" one at higher levels. Prove me wrong please.

2. Which brings me to the question if I really lose anything important by choosing red over blue. The blue trait bonusses seem rather unimpressive compared to red. "Tutelage of the Brown Wizard" looks great at first sight, but obviously doesn't do anything to prevent the bad pet scaling.

I pretty much stick to raven or bog guardian with the red line. One debuffs against range and one against fire. In terms of speed for solo play I don't think there's anything better. I occassionally switch out to yellow to ensure my muscle memory retains useful raid play.

Honestly, most on level enemies are dead after one debuff and an embers/wizard fire combo.

Blue line is fine but the solo speed isn't there. Same with yellow. Blue line needs the most love in my opinion. At least with yellow you csn go find groups of enemies or high level ones and use the excessive CC to challenge yourself.

[Plidak]

Their ability to hold aggro gradually vanishes except the bear and only if you give the bear a big head start before starting to do significant damage yourself or you use its taunt at just the right moments to take advantage of the threat level matching. B

Resumoning bear, reset her taunt cd.
Just to know...