The rework of permanent bond has made it so builds built around a maximum number of wolves can’t use this node anymore if they use Tyrant’s Skull. That’s an unfortunate nerf if it wasn’t intended. One way to have our cake and it too would be to enable the new behaviour unless Safety in Numbers is taken (or the claw or the fang is equipped). That way we could have one extra companion for builds using one wolf and for builds using wolves/squirrels and a T-Rex.
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This is a very weird “limitation”:
I can still somewhat get 2 wolves and the T-rex (and in my case also a bear), but I would need to do the following every time I login:
A. remove the Tyrant’s Skull helmet (meaning I have no minions at this point)
B. Summon my 2 wolves
C. Now can summon other companions/minions (i.e., put back Tyrant’s Skull)
D. Since removing/restoring Tyrant’s Skull respeced my +3 minion skills I can now respec other minion skills (i.e., bear), but not wolf as if I allocate wolf skills points it will de-summon my second wolf.
I am not saying this a workaround/solution, only that it’s weird that it doesn’t actually limit you, just makes it very inconvenient.
EDIT: Additionally, as @DJSamhein pointed out below this is a problem if one of the wolves dies during combat.
BTW I had no issue with permanent bond pre-1.3.1. When I logged in and clicked on summon wolf I would get both wolves (I think I only needed to press it once, but not sure, in any case within a few seconds I would have 2 wolves, a bear and the T-rex). From this point on, pressing the summon wolf skill would always howl (or at least make a howling sound).
What was the issue with the pre-1.3.1 permanent bond behavior?
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The problem is that this only works for when you’re not in combat. If one wolf dies mid-fight, you have no way to resummon it.
The extra wolf was counting as a companion for the Anurok helmet, so it would summon one less frog.
Thanks, I didn’t think of that (no wolf has died for me in the little I played since the patch).
I see. Still, if they don’t want the extra wolf to count towards your companion limit (as it currently says in-game) then it simply shouldn’t, hence not effecting the frog count. And if it should count towards companion limit, but you want to have an extra frog instead of the extra wolf why have permanent bond specced at all? (or in other words won’t despecing it solve the problem?)
Also, if I understand correctly, in the current state I can’t have two wolves with the frog helmet (don’t have the helmet yet, so can’t test it myself).
Apparently I didn’t test this properly, lazing out on allocating the additional +3 points to the summon wolf skill for the zillionth time (the ones from re-equiping tyrant skull). When I allocate a point to wolf, my second wolf disappears. I edited the above post to reflect this.
At least for me, it’s down to one wolf for now (respecing the permanent bond elsewhere).
I expect that this is because the extra wolf is still coded as a companion, meaning it will howl and if downed it will have a revived period. It’s not a simple minion.
But yes, EHG should fix it so that it really doesn’t count for the total, which apparently it is. Either that, or simply increase it.
Because you only want a wolf so it will keep howling and buffing your frogs. Which you can have proc automatically. If you had this node, then you would have a single wolf running around, because you wouldn’t summon your “real” wolf. And you’d have full companion slots filled with frogs.
Both before this patch and now, you can have 2 wolves. You just need to summon them without having other minions and then the helmet will summon frogs to fill the rest of the companion slots.
This means that the frog build is now “fixed”. You can have you lone wolf that doesn’t count as a companion and he will auto-howl for buffs.
It’s the regular wolf builds that are now in a bad spot. Because if you use the catalyst that gives you a minion (it has good minion stats, after all) or the t-rex relic, now you can’t resummon your dead wolves.
So they fixed one issue and created a new one.
So the first wolf you summon doesn’t count towards your companion limit now (if you have permanent bond)?
On a side note, at the end when respeccing my wolf skill I managed to get Safety in Numbers, so now I actually have 3 wolves. Still, would be nice if we could have this + permanent bond for an additional wolf, exactly as the OP mentions.
Actaully the real problem it is this bit “the Summon Wolf ability will now always be replaced with Howl while at least one Wolf and one other non-Wolf minion are summoned.”
It should actaully be summon wolf replaced with howl when at wolf or companion limit and with at lest 1 wolf out.
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Since the update Permanent Bond is acting really bizarre.
I was leveling a Beast master when the update came in. Prior to to update, I had PB specced and would always get 2 wolves when I hit the summons at startup (I did NOT have Safety in Numbers.)
When I got Beast master activated, I added Raptor and I would get 2 wolves and my Raptor.
Then the update happened. I could only get one wolf and one raptor.
I specced into Safety in Numbers (as I also got the passive node +1 companion) and still only would get 1 wolf and 1 raptor.
I despecced PB and lo and behold I now get my multiple wolves and 1 raptor.
If I respec PB again I can only get 1 wolf period. Even with Safety in Numbers and the nodes for +1 companion.
You don’t summon him. That is the thing. With the node, you log in and immediately have your wolf. There’s no need to summon any other.
Without the node you start with 0 wolves and you summon 1. With the node you start with 1 and don’t summon any. Which works fine because you get the frogs and you get the howl ability.
The issue is with every build that actually uses wolves with other minions/companions.
That is how it worked before. If you didn’t have all your wolves out, it would stay as summon wolf. Once you had all wolves, it would switch to Howl. If a wolf died, it would go back to summon wolf.
It honestly seems like EHG tried to fix an issue and created a bunch more.
The solution seems simple:
Permanent bond shouldn’t count as a companion, either for the frog helmet or for multi-companion builds.
Summon wolf should go back to how it was. It was working properly. The only issue was permanent bond summoning one less frog.
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Yep, permanent bond is no longer one extra wolf, it’s now one extra frog.
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