Loki - The overlooked pet for Rogues

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The past couple of weeks, I have been doing some testing with various pets for quickest Elite Forest runs.

In my testing, I have used Malison, Wrathjaw, Kettle and Loki as my pets.

Interestingly enough, I have determined that Loki, in this case is the superior pet for quickest SOLO Elite Forest runs.

My best timed runs with Malison and Kettle are roughly similar, about 4:00 solo with no elixirs; however, the surprise came when, after numerous runs, my main pets were hungry, so on a whim I tried Loki. Much to my surprise, I easily completed the map in under 4:00, about 3:50 (give or take). Additional runs to confirm whether this was an anomaly (as I had though) proved that I came in consistently under 3:45....occasionally at 3:30.

Now, I was intrigued and decided to do some number crunching.

Kettle is generally my preferred pet for timed runs, mostly due to his +10% DMG bonus and speed boost.

Loki however, provides a +15% DMG bonus, along with a +20 DEX arcane ability.

Here are my base DMG stats fully equipped with my main three pets, Malison, Kettle and Loki (keep in mind, I don't own any mythic or arcane items):

Malison: 285.3
Kettle: 282.3
Loki: 273.3

Now, to calculate your potential maximum DMG given the arcane and happiness bonuses:

Malison: 285.3 - No change, arcane ability provides +15% Dodge
Kettle: 310.53 - +10% DMG from happiness bonus
Loki: 326.37 - +20 DEX from arcane ability (yields +10.5 DMG = 283.8), +15% DMG from happiness bonus

To keep the calculation simple, lets imagine that there is no armor reduction, no critical strikes, and that each hit is equal to your current DMG stat. Given this scenario, Loki provides an overall increase of 5.1% versus Kettle, and a 14.4% increase versus Malison.

Over the course of 20 successful hits, Loki provides the equivalent damage output of 21 strikes when Kettle is equipped, and nearly 23 strikes when Malison is equipped! Extrapolating this out over the course of several hundred strikes to complete the map, Loki yields an obvious and very tangible benefit.

Adding in the potential for critical strikes only magnifies this damage disparity and tilts the calculations further in favor of Loki, as the +250% Crit bonus on Aimed Shot winds up being generating DMG 12.5% higher on Loki versus Kettle and 37.5% higher versus Malison!

Now, the obvious downsides, pot consumption with Loki is noticeably higher - both because he provides no dodge bonus (as is the case with Malison), and because his non-DMG stat boost is meager.

The stat screen does not reflect percent increase in DMG bonus from pets, so most folks see a relatively low number on their stat screen with Loki and assume he is a mediocre pet. The reality is, when you run the calculations to determine actual DMG values, Loki is superior in many ways.

Obviously, this is anecdotal evidence - I haven't created a spreadsheet which records the damage inflicted when running Elite Forest with each pet, which would provide more tangible evidence. I can only go by what is probably 100+ solo runs and what I "feel" is most effective, backed up by some basic number crunching.

So, lesson of the story here is do not underestimate Loki.