[Poll] Phase 2 Suggestion: Multiple pets

Borderlands 3 FL4K the Beastmaster
#1

Hi everybody.

With phase 2 of Mayhem 2.0 in the works, I thought it’d be fun to brainstorm ideas for something that has been a constant plea from FL4K players: having access to our entire pack! For as much as FL4K talks about “the P4CK”, we only ever see them in game with one beast at a time. A lot of us have questioned why, and unless told otherwise we can only speculate. Personally, I doubt it has anything to do with game stability since last gen consoles could handle 2 Doppelgangers with 4 total clones and constant nova explosions. I also doubt it has to do with balance, since the pets have consistently been the worst summonable in BL3 bar none. I think there are ways to integrate more pets into FL4K’s game play in a way that actually builds upon the themes and strength of the character.

What about you all? How would you feel specifically about getting a way to summon multiple pets?

  • I would like to see FL4K have multiple pets out at once
  • I’m indifferent to FL4K having multiple pets out at once
  • I don’t want FL4K to have multiple pets out at once

0 voters

2 Likes
#2

My thought for how it could be implemented.

Dominance: FL4K can now access all pets that are unlocked within a given tier. The additional pets will spawn with 50% health, deal 50% damage, and give 50% of their passive buffs. The pet that FL4K selects will spawn with full health, full damage, and full bonuses.
Tier 1 pets include Spiderant Centurion, Guard Skag, and Sidekick Jabber
Tier 2 pets include Spiderant Scorcher, Great Horned Skag, and Beefcake Jabber
Tier 3 pets include Spiderant Countess, Eridian Skag, and Gunslinger Jabber

In the past I’ve been against having multiple pets, especially multiple weaker pets, because the one we had was fairly weak and having more weak bodies didn’t seem helpful. But once pets scale, and with the introduction of action skill gear, they may be powerful enough on their own for this to be a net positive.

Now onto the math section. Usually when the idea of having multiple pets is brought up, the person doing so expresses apprehension that it may be OP. We’ll take a look at both pet damage and passive stats to see whether this would be game-breakingly powerful.

Pet Damage

Having 2 pets spawn dealing 50% of the damage of the original would essentially mean that, given every pet attacking the same target, the pets should deal 100% more damage overall. As a quick example, assuming the same level 57 damage outlined here, and assuming a skag as the selected pet, we would have with full pet bonuses from this build

Skag: 2222 * 3.45 = 7666
Additional pets
Scorcher: 1111* 1.75 * 3.45 = 6708
Beefcake: 1426 * 3.45 = 5127

Total pet DPS = 19501

Sounds simple, right? Now is where we apply a bit of balance, or Borderlands logic, whichever works best.

The additional pets will scale with the same damage, health, and health regen bonuses as the selected pet, but they cannot stack bonuses themselves. That means the additional pets don’t stack Frenzy or WRW. No pet except for the selected pet can revive FL4K. Only the selected pet can perform attack commands. Only the selected pet can be effected by Gamma Burst and it’s bonuses. Essentially, the additional pets can only interaction with FL4K is to provide additional bonuses and damage. I’ll get to why this makes sense later.

Passive bonuses

Assuming Barbaric Yawp at 5/5, this iteration of Dominance would provide FL4K with 2 out of the following 3 bonuses:

  1. 2% Health regen and 15% elemental damage
  2. 8% bonus damage and 15% gun damage
  3. 8% movement speed and 15% max health

I think it’s fair to say that, while this iteration of Dominance would provide far more useful bonuses to FL4K, this is still far from OP by any stretch of the imagination. Assuming the skag being equipped, Dominance would FL4K with 2% health regen, 15% elemental damage, 8% movespeed, and 15% max health. For a capstone that is still pretty underwhelming compared to most others.

However, where it would get interesting is with the Friendbot class mod. Friendbot (once it’s fixed eventually) provides the pets with 20% increased damage, allows you to second wind for them, and buffs Barbaric Yawp. Taking the earlier example with horned skag into account, let’s compare Red Fang Dominance to Friendbot dominance

Red Fang

5/5 BY
Skag - 15% bonus damage, 30% gun damage
Scorcher - 2% Health regen, 15% elemental damage
Beefcake - 8% Movespeed, 15% max health

Friendbot

10/5 BY
Skag - 25% bonus damage, 50% gun damage
Scorcher - 3% health regen, 30% elemental damage
Beefcake - 15% movespeed, 30% max health

Does the latter not look capstone worthy? Sure, you could toss Dominance onto a Red Fang and have OK bonuses, but you are also locked into Gamma Burst, which only effects your selected pet. With Friendbot, you could actually combine the master tree with other action skills and COMs and have your pets be an effective part of the build.

When we take everything together, pet DPS with Gamma Burst and the passives buffed by Friendbot BY, we would have

(7666 * 1.75) + 6708 + 5127 = 25251 Total pet DPS on a single enemy
Skag - 25% bonus damage, 50% gun damage
Scorcher - 3% health regen, 30% elemental damage
Beefcake - 15% movespeed, 30% max health

I think this would be an interesting direction for the master tree for several reasons. For starters, it would allow for some major build diversity. The Power Inside is a great capstone and plays very well with crit builds, but Dominance on top of a bounty hunter or Cosmic Stalker could provide some fierce competition as well. It would also give FL4K that P4ck feeling we’ve been looking for since launch. There are other thematic reasons, but let’s just say I feel like this would be a great addition to the game.

3 Likes
#3

I will throw a vote in the yes category. It could be a possible step in the right direction.

1 Like
#4

I voted indifferent not because I actually am indifferent. I guess I am indifferent at the present time.

I think multiple pets could be really cool, depending on how it is implemented. I would love to see a pet Stalker (a badass stalker like Henry), for example. But I kind of feel like we need to see what GBX is doing with Thursday’s balancing patch before we start talking about adding more pets.

#5

I’m banking on the combination of AS scaling and AS oriented gear being enough to finally make the pets powerful, making this more attractive. I’m still OK with GB just adding some buff to Dominance, but it’s still clunky regardless and I’d prefer to just go and ask for this.

1 Like