The elemental pets make up four of the six types of pets available to magicians (with the other two being the less frequently used monster summoning pet and charmed summoned creature). There are four types of elementals: fire, water, air, and earth. Although the elementals are arguably the most powerful permanent pets in the game, each has strengths and weaknesses relative to the others, and skilled magician players will consider their situation and needs before choosing which element to summon.
Fire Elementals[]
Fire elemental pets function in one of two very different ways, depending on the level of Fire Elemental summoning spell that is used.
Low-level fire elemental pets[]
For the level 47 "Greater Conjuration: Fire" and below, the fire pet is a relatively squishy melee fighter who controls the same way as the other three elemetal pets. Setting it apart are its two abilities:
| Ability Name | Description | Recast |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Elemental Aura |
Self-only damage shield buff with permanent duration. Deals (level+2) damage to melee attackers for each incoming hit. Does not stack with the Magician's Shield of Fire buff line. |
12 sec |
| Fire Elemental Attack |
Single-target direct damage spell with an instant cast time and 50 range. Deals (level+1) damage to the target. Checks against the enemy's fire resistance. |
6 sec |
(As with all pet abilities, these are level scaled based on the level of the pet NPC that is summoned, not the level of the magician or the level of the spell being used.)
With these two abilities, the low level fire pet is basically a more aggressive version of the water pet, trading a little more survivability for better retributive damage in the form of "Fire Elemental Aura."
Later fire elemental pets[]
For the level 52 "Vocarate: Fire" and above, the Fire pet functions more like a spellcaster or ranged attacker, and uses a unique AI pattern not seen on any other permanent pet.
Any time this kind of fire pet hates an entity, the pet will immediately cease all movement (behaving similarly to a perma-rooted boss monster) and start using an instant-cast direct damage ability (Fire Elemental Bolt) on its target. The pet will recast this ability at what appear to be semi-random intervals (sometimes firing it off three times in short succession, but other times delaying for seven seconds more more between casts), until either all creatures that the pet hates are dead or the pet is given a "back" command to clear its hate list.
Note that as long as its combat AI is active, a later-level fire pet will never move - not even to pursue creatures that it hates. Even the Companion's Relocation AA will not fling the pet while it is immobilized in this way. Issuing a /pet regroup order to pause the pet's hate list will not work to restore this pet's movement, either. Only /pet back (or its corresponding pet window button) will work to restore the pet's movement once it has joined a fight. There is sometimes a moment's delay between using /pet back and the pet regaining its movement, so toggling on /pet hold while trying to get the pet to move again is recommended.
As such, the magician needs to take care to make sure this pet remains positioned correctly during battle, as it will not position itself at all, and the only method available to reposition it manually can cost the pet some DPS.
Different tiers of fire pet use differing ranks of Fire Elemental Bolt, each of which has a separate entry in the EverQuest spell file. The recast time of all ranks of Fire Elemental Bolt is given as 5 seconds, although as noted above, the pet seems to violate this in practice. (Expecting an average of about one recast per five seconds is probably still accurate, but more testing is needed.) Most other parameters of the ability also appear to be the same across all ranks, but the damage varies. The following table lists the damage dealt by each rank of Fire Elemental Bolt, along with which pet uses each rank.
| Ability Name | Damage per cast* | Name of Pet Spell | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Elemental Bolt I | 486 | Vocarate: Fire | 52 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt II | 629 | Greater Vocaration: Fire | 58 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt II** | 765 | Child of Ro | 63 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt IV | 1053 | Child of Fire | 68 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt V | 2041 | Essence of Fire | 73 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt VI | ~2325 | Core of Fire | 78 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt VII | ~3125 | Aspect of Fire | 83 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt VIII | ~6246 | Construct of Fire | 88 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt IX | ~11354 | Facet of Fire | 93 |
| Fire Elemental Bolt X | ~16748 | Shard of Fire | 98 |
-*Assumes that no pet focus item is equipped. Numbers will increase slightly if an appropriate pet focus is worn, due to the focus increasing the level of the NPC pet that is summoned, and due to the Fire Elememntal Bolt spells scaling somewhat with the level of NPC casting them. For example, the 2041 of rank 5 became 2061 in one in-game test when a focus item was added (an increase of about 1% for that ability). Values with a tilde (~) indicate that no in-game test has yet been performed for the wiki to confirm the value. Updates to these values for unfocused pets are welcome.
-**This is not a typo. For whatever reason, the Child of Ro pet uses the same rank of Fire Elemental Bolt as the Greater Vocaration: Fire pet does, and then a rank is skipped for the level 68 Child of Fire.
All ranks of Fire Elemental Bolt require line of sight, a fact which can render a ranged fire pet harmless if the magician does not take care with positioning. In a group setting, taking a moment, each time the party moves, to make sure the pet is positioned so its line of sight is not blocked can be very important, particularly in indoor areas with tight corners, doors, and other obstacles. Likewise, even though the spell is named "Fire Elemental Bolt," it is not actually a "bolt" (moving projectile) type of spell, and obeys strict line of sight rules the same way that most instant-effect damage spells in the game do.
Range is also important to keep in mind, but is fairly forgiving: the range of all ranks of Fire Elemental Bolt is listed as 300 in the spell file, the same base range as the magician's Flame Bolt line of spell. This long range ensures that the pet can be used to snipe foes from a comfortable distance. in open areas were mobs do not summon using a fire pet to pull can be very afficent
Lastly, resistance can be an issue when trying to make the most out Fire Elemental Bolt DPS. The ability checks against the target's fire resistance and can be partially or fully resisted like any other direct damage fire spell, which will effectively cripple the fire pet's overall DPS against highly flame-resistant enemies. Against foes with only moderate resistance, the pet may be able to achieve effective DPS if the magician uses a Malo type of spell to lower the target's fire resistance.
Although Fire Elemental Bolt ability makes up the majority of a ranged fire pet's damage output, the pet is also capable of modest melee DPS if the mob that it is targeting is pulled next to it. Giving this kind of elemental some pet weapons, Burnout, and melee proc buffs is therefore not necessarily a waste, although it requires some coordination to put to effective use.
Additionally, the ranged fire pet retains the Fire Elemental Aura from its lower-level cousins, although the buff's usefulness is more limited in this incarnation. Since this kind of fire pet is generally too squishy to tank any creature that is not trivial, trying to force it into that role in order get DPS from its shield is not advised. Furthermore, as the magician continues to grow in levels, his or her own Shield of Fire buff line will eventually grow strong enough that it overwrites the fire pet's self-buff anyway.
Fire elemental bolt in the higher levels generates a very large ammount of agro to the point that if its used to pull a wizard mercenary set to burn rarely if ever pull agro as long as the first hit was from the fire pet.
(Stub note: add a section comparing the relative pros and cons of Fire Pet and Water Pet DPS, somewhere in the article.)
Water Elementals[]
Water pets offer solid, predictable offense in the form of heavy melee damage, and have somewhat better survivability than a fire pet, though their tanking ability is much poorer than that of air or earth. At higher levels they are generally regarded as a DPS pet.
All water pets, regardless of level, have the ability to cast a small cold-based damage spell on their current target. The spell has no cast time and serves mainly to augment the pet's DPS, while also having situational uses as a pulling tool.
Any water pet summoned by the level 54 spell "Vocarate Water" or higher is a Rogue-class NPC with the ability to use Backstab. Backstab now works regardless of the pets orientation around its target.
wile backstab no longer requires the water pet to be behind the target Issuing a Guard order somewhere in front of the party's campsite (if killing in a stationary spot) and then issuing Attack commands from there and using companions relocation will help keep your dps oriented pets from taking riposte damage.
Being the most oriented to melee DPS among the four elemental pets, the water pet benefits greatly from AAs that boost pet melee offense (e.g. Elemental Alacrity and Elemental Fury), which gives these AAs a higher than usual build priority for grouping-oriented magicians who prefer this pet.
Air Elementals[]
With the most well-balanced abilities among the pet types, air pets offer effective tanking, fair DPS, and an excellent ability to stun opponents. Indeed, their stun is one of the most reliable in the game due to its high effective level limit, good duration (three seconds), and fast reuse time (twelve seconds).
For solo/molo play, the air pet is the magician's bread-and-butter pet, offering adequate DPS for the circumstances, efficient tanking, and a stun that can be used to defend itself as much as it can be used to peel an add off its master. A typical setup has the air pet tanking, a cleric merc healing, and the magician casting damage spells, with the trio carving their way to a relatively quick victory over mobs that cannot deal damage in large enough bursts to make the air pet die before a heal lands.
In group play, the air pet excels as a buddy to player tanks, reducing incoming damage with its stun and offtanking adds when necessary. The pet's strong hate generation can also provide player tanks with an easy way to stay above the other players on the hate list through frequent taunt against the pet's hate. The air pet thus provides the magician with a way to help undergeared tanks survive fights easier while also simplifying the job of aggro management. When adds come, an air pet is usually quite capable of offtanking one or more of them, provided that it gets healing and an appropriate amount of pet management from its master.
For groups consisting entirely of classes who fight well at range, an air pet can also serve as the main tank of the party, and is among the very few pets in the game that have the potential to do so successfully even in the most difficult group content.
(Stub.)
Earth Elementals[]
Made of earthen stone, with the defenses to match, these elementals are the dedicated tanks of the magician's arsenal, blending a warrior-like passion for durability with wizard-like rooting capabilities, at the price of dealing noticeably less DPS than the other types. When soloing or moloing, earth elementals are ideal as tanks for the hardest-hitting named mobs--fights in which an air pet's durability is not sufficient to allow it to be reliably healed. In a group setting, these pets make helpful offtanks, particularly for parties that lack effective crowd control otherwise. They may also work well as the "main tank" for certain kinds of pet groups and can assist with root rotting strategies if handled properly.
An earth pet will periodically attempt to cast a root-type spell on foes on its hatelist. This root is fairly reliable as roots go, and the pet can recast it frequently, allowing it to keep one (or potentially a few) mobs rooted at a time. Magicians who have invested in the Pet Discipline AA line can use this ability in conjunction with the "regroup" pet command to have their pet lock a target in place and then pull the pet back out of the mob's melee range, which allows the mob in question to be parked without the pet needing to tank it continuously. (Toggling "regroup" on and then using a command like "stop" or "back" to clear the pet's hatelist is better for this than trying to use "back" and "follow," since the latter tends to result in the pet getting hit before it can move far enough away which causes the pet to resume attacking whatever enemy just struck it.)
Like most pets with a ranged ability, the earth pet tends to cast its root spell before running all the way up to its target and starting to attack in melee, if line of sight (and the ability's reuse timer) permits. Careful manipulation of the pet using the "attack" and "back" (or "regroup") commands can sometimes convince it to root a target from a distance. This has applications for pet pulling and for dealing with foes who hit so hard that putting the pet in melee range at all is a bit of a risk.
Due to their high maximum health, earth pets usually can avoid being spiked to death even when their HP is running low. This makes them very likely to get to use their pet enrage before dying, which adds to their tanking appeal. Furthermore, their lack of a stun in comparison to the air pets helps ensure that any foes being tanked will keep hurting themselves via enrage instead of spending part of the time unable to swing.
It is worth noting however that earth pets have the lowest average DPS of the four elemental pet types. Furthermore, while their tanking ability overall is solid and their max health is high, they have a tendency to take more damage on average than an air pet does, since the air pet can use its stun to reduce the rate of incoming damage and and may also have a higher rate of melee damage avoidance than the earth does.
Likewise, in some situations, the quirky effects root has on mob AI may make it highly impractical to use one of these pets. (The second rank of the Advanced Pet Discipline AA allows a "no cast" command to be given to prevent such problems, although there is still an opportunity cost involved in continuing to use an earth pet if its root is unwanted, when other types of pets are available.)
Note that if an earth pet is attacking a mob in melee while equipped with pet toys that grant a direct damage proc, there is a chance the pet will end up breaking its own root spells. This is also true of the direct damage procs that come from the magician's "Iceflame Guard" line of pet buffs, and of various bard or shaman proc buffs that the pet may receive through the Pet Affinity AA. The latter kinds of buffs can easily be put on the pet's list of blocked spells if maintaining root is a higher priority than the pet dealing extra damage, but the "Iceflame Guard" line is a larger conundrum, since its damaging procs also provide the pet with a Prism Skin buff that blocks the next two incoming hits, which is desirable for reducing incoming damage. Ultimately, if crowd control is truly this pet's highest priority in a given situation, choosing not to give it an "Iceflame Guard" buff may be beneficial, provided that the healing available is sufficient for keeping the pet alive.
Pet Comparisons[]
(Introduction stub.)
DPS Pets: Fire versus Water[]
At lower levels, these two pets are remarkably similar in both function and power, with the fire pet winning out on potential damage dealt to mobs (particularly when its max health is being buffed by an outside source, such as a high-level cleric) while the water pet offers better base survivability but slightly less damage, due to lacking the FireElementalAura self-buff, although the magician can largely remedy that deficiency by simply casting a damage shield buff on the pet.
For the Vocarate tier of spells and above, things change remarkably. The fire pet becomes the DPS pet of long range, strong base damage, and poor scaling; while the water pet becomes the DPS pet of melee range, modest base damage, and strong scaling. Despite both pets being oriented to DPS, the two have distinct niches.
The fire pet's damage output becomes almost entirely tied up in the base damage of its Fire Elemental Bolt spell, which gains power improvements only from pet focus items (and even then, only very minor ones due to the summoned pet being of a higher level than normal) and can be made more reliable only by debuffing the target's fire resistance. Pet crit and flurry AAs do literally nothing for the DPS of fire pets unless they are allowed into melee range, and even then, their melee DPS is modest at best. However, the base damage output from Fire Elemental Bolt is usually somewhere between decent and quite good, depending on the level of the summoning spell in question, which gives the pet its aforementioned strong base damage, despite its lack of scaling with buffs and AAs. Totally unbuffed, it still packs a respectable punch. frenzied burnout allows higher level fire pets to cast a much larger fire spelled Frenzied Elemental Bolt that behave similar to a proc on casting of emelental bolt not going off with every cast but regularly enuf to make a noticeable impact on total dps.
Because of this strong base damage, the fire pet has a distinct edge in crisis situations where either (1) the magician has recently died and been rezed and needs a low-maintenance DPS pet out on the field immediately to continue burning down a boss or (2) the magician's existing water pet got killed and there isn't time or mana available for properly preparing a new one. The fire pet's long range and stationary combat AI is also a natural countermeasure against bosses with small-radius, high-damage AoEs, allowing the pet to survive without attention from its either its master or the party's healer(s), while still piling on damage.
Grouping-oriented magicians with minimal or no AA investment in pet offense may find the fire pet to be their ideal DPS companion in a larger variety of circumstances, particularly when the party's composition lacks the bard, shaman, or enchanter buffs that water pets require in order to reach the pinnacle of their power. This also depends on the magician's current range, as the fire pet's power relative to an unbuffed water pet does seem to vary from one level range to another.
In contrast, a water pet's damage output starts off only decent but scales well with every kind of advantage the players around it can provide: pet focus, pet equipment, melee buffs, auras, pet crit and flurry AAs. When backed by all of these benefits, a water pet will basically always outperform a fire pet of the same level range. This higher DPS potential makes the water pet an obvious pick in situations where the flexibility of the fire pet's range is not really that helpful (or even potentially problematic due to subtle line of sight issues), and in almost all situations in which numerous buffs are available that enhance the pet's melee DPS.
Tanking Pets: Air versus Earth[]
(Section stub. Integrate earlier section comparative information here.)