Pet Menagerie – The Lynx

And we’re back! Today’s edition centers around the cute furry cuddly wuddly pet, the Lynx!

The Lynx is the straight up DPS pet. Its stats and abilities are all based on damage output, with little room for anything else. We will be looking at just how viable the Lynx’s DPS really is, and in particular whether it’s enough to make it a good choice above more varied pets.

 

Damage – Burst

 

When examining the damage potential, we must look at both burst and sustained DPS. The Lynx comes equipped with a number of skills to aid in doing solid burst damage. The first of these is called Surprise Attack. As you’d expect from the name, this skill is used only from stealth. Yes, stealth. Unlike any other pet, the Lynx exists in a permanent state of stealth when out of combat. Upon directing it to attack an opponent, the Lynx will open it’s assault with this move. It does a good amount of damage, about 600-800 at level cap, and does even more in terms of percentage at lower levels(I had it knock off a good 30-50% from a normal mob with a good hit), and has a high crit multiplier. On criticals it can hit upwards of 1.7k.

The downside of this skill is that it serves no purpose once the pet has left stealth and entered combat, meaning it can only be used once per fight. It is very much advised to keep this skill toggled on autofire at all times, else you miss out on the damage this skill can do. A final note about this skill is that it works just like certain Burglar and Warg skills, in that it does more damage when attacking from behind. So when you’re preparing to take on a tougher opponent, get behind it and send your Lynx in first to get some good damage in from the start.

The second skill available to the Lynx is Feral Strike. This skill does exactly the same amount of damage as Surprise Attack, with a number of differences. Firstly, it has a two minute cooldown instead of one. Second, this skill can be used out of stealth. And thirdly, it is an AOE skill that hits up to three targets. As a simple damage skill, using it as often as possible is recommended, but be aware of the AOE effect that has the potential to break CC.

The third and final skill Slashing Claws(Spridra would like this one). This is a two hit skill that does roughly the same damage as the previous two. Just like Feral Strike it is also an AOE skill, but it can hit up to 5 opponents instead of 3 and has a one minute shorter cooldown. Just like the previous skill frequent use is better, at least for solo questing.

Overall the Lynx’s burst capability is pretty decent by pet standards, and were you to save the latter two skills you could feasibly use them to go for a quick finish on a weaker mob.

 

Damage – Sustained

 

Alas, here is where the Lynx loses its shine. After conducting a few tests I can make a general observation that this pet actually struggles to out-damage the Bear when you take the burst skills out of the equation. One interesting thing to note though is that the lynx has an innate ability in a similar vein to the Raven’s debuff proc. Upon achieving a critical hit with an autoattack, the Lynx will apply a short duration bleed on the target, ticking ever five seconds for ten seconds. The damage isn’t much, but with a boosted crit chance your pet can keep this up almost indefinitely. Of course, where there’s bleeds there’s the danger of breaking CC, which means it’s probably a good idea to have the Lynx attack something that cannot be CCed, either by immunity or by it being a primary target of your group.

Even with this ability the sustained damage just isn’t there, so for bigger mobs that may take longer to bring down, you may be better placed to run with the Raven or Bear, as both provide more utility in the long run.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, the Lynx is quite viable for use in general questing. Indeed, it’s likely the quickest one to run with, with the possible exception of the Raven with its Fire Mit debuff. Similar to the Bear it does not have much of any utility, and even worse in the fact that it is very fragile, making it not very helpful as a distraction. If you’re confident in your own survivability, using the Lynx is definitely a good option. However, if you’re more worried about dying, the Raven or Bear may be a safer choice.

Thanks for reading folks. Leave your comments, thoughts and disagreements below as always and I’ll see you next time when we’ll be covering the, eugh…

Sabertooth. -_-