I was reading through one of Grizzled Dwarflord's builds and he explained that he wanted to take at least 28 levels in Ranger to get the most out of his pet. He suggested that there was some sort of diminishing returns on pets but he could't recall exactly what the cutoff was. He guessed at level 28.

So does anyone else know anything about this? It was the only place I've seen it mentioned.

Here's the link to his build... Brood II...Ranger28/Bard2/RDD10 I don't know anything about it, may be that after that level the Animal Companion stops improving or improves slower, but IIRC with my Druid Animal Companion (which is the same) it keeps improving up to level 40. Take in account that's a post from May 2005 and there could be some changes with the new versions, you might want to ask Grizzled_Dwarflord directly.

Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 12/16/06 22:37

Maybe griz just had had too many ales?
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Star Wreck yea, grizz is implying that after 30 levels of ranger, the pet is not going to improve all that much. But before that, each of those ranger levels is needed to improve the poor little creature.
i would highly recommend buffing your pet to get the most out of it. any item that grants the ability to perform minor buffs (aid, bless, endurance, ghostly visage, bull's strength, etc.) is a big help, since the only real buffs that a ranger can give to their pet are cat's grace, magic fangs/greater magic fangs, resist elemenets/protection from elements. Don't get me wrong, these are good buffs, but the more the merrier. if you have boots of the gargoyle, considering using them to buff your pet, for example. the buff goes a long way for your pet, especially in battles with hordes of minor threats.
just my two cents.

-cs OK thanks for the info guys. Seems like the pets just keep getting better the higher their level without any diminishing returns. Thanks for the clarification.