Hey, im just curious to hear from people with expierience how difficult it is to lvl a hatchling so it can become a strider... i have a 54prophet that i can buff it and heal it with, im sure that makes it easier, but compared to lvling a normal toon, what is the xp like for the hatchling...
That depends on what type of hatchling you have. Twilight hatchlings can be leveled quite fast. With prophet buffs you can do it in about two to four weeks. Winds and Stars take longer but I haven't leveled them much.
I level them alongside my dwarfs. Ofcourse the hatchlings don't do much damage, but the extra damage they do helps me kill mobs faster, so I tend to duo with them. Also I've done this with wolves, which works pretty well once you practice and get the hang of keeping your pet from dieing!
Having hatchlings kill with prophet buffs is fine too though. Expecially using root and stars. Star hatchlings have that magic attack thing now so they can attack from more of a distance, which would reduce the threat of them dieing by mob by a lot. Wind hatchlings I believe make good tanks now. Though I can't say for sure because I haven't tried the winds yet, I'm simply going by what has been said by other players on the boards and in game.
I can verify that the Wind now makes a good melee fighter.
He's not so much of a Tank as he is a Fighter though....and I mean that in a Temple Knight Versus Destroyer way. Although he does get a Ultimate Defense skill, which I admit he has only used once so far in testing it. (Not up to the higher level areas yet where aggro will become more problematic.)
His new stun lands on maybe every 50th to 70th mob so far. (L37 Wind)
Defense is good, taking perhaps merely 2x as much damage as my L35 Scavenger against green/ white mobs. (Versus my Wolf which seems to take about 10x as much damage on the same level mobs.)
Attack is decent also. He doesn't do as much as a Wolf could, but it's a respectable and consistent amount. He does seem to have significantly more accuracy than the wolves though. Crit rate is about the same though. One spoil is enough to get aggro back even if he starts with the Stun skill as an opener, otherwise it takes a few blows. (I dont use SS on the dwarves...they are there to make money not spend it! Pots on the other hand....)
Food usage is pretty high though. Comparable to (old C3) crystal usage for Artisans Mechanical Golems. (My wolf still uses less food and its 10 levels higher.)
I think he makes a great companion to my 30ish Dwarves or other chars which have trouble keeping the wolf alive against aggro.