I have never been a subscriber. I haven't gotten the earlier pets either. Is this worth subscribing for the first time?

It's cool, but it would be better if it wasn't the exact same level as the Onyx Panther and only a few levels higher than the heroic Owlbear.  Would rather have seen it placed higher into epics.  Where we have fewer solid hirelings.  I am guessing they placed it here because:

A)  It is just a reskined Onyx Panther and
B)  Level 20 hireling summonable at level 18 is something that people can use in both late heroics and early epics.  So it fits a wider player segment.

Not trying to compain about free stuff, btw.

They are handy to group initial aggro for you in heroics.  Hirelings in general anyway.  They seem to pull/get seen sooner than my characters are.  What I find annoying is summoning the lvl 18 when you are lvl16 and you don't get bb anymore.

Asheras wrote on Jan 28^th, 2017 at 12:08pm:


The Lvl 25 Owlbear is a Joke already, The Lvl 26 Fighter Hireling: Kieran is a joke already.
What is the point in adding another joke Melee Hireling at a level where they cannot possibly contribute due to not doing anything like enough DPS and having Player Character lvl HPs rather than Mob Lvl HPs?

If it was a Divine or Rogue hireling then yes, by all means have it be Lvl 30 because that'd be actually useful!
But it's a Melee Hire and really Melee Hires don't scale into Epics well enough to be worth using {actually they don't scale into Heroic Elite enough to be worth using!}.

Lvl 14/15 would be the OPTIMUM point to put a new Permenent Melee hireling.
A Lvl where it wouldn't break BB for Iconics starting out even if they do as many do and start with Lordsmarch/Invaders/Relic and Sands {so they don't break streak by not running EE}.

The Owlbears are pretty bad at levers too - They don't like using them, the Panther is much better.
Literally the only thing the Owlbears get pulled out for is Burning Heart/Xorian stand here!

A Lioness at Lvl 15 would be perfect - And if you're only going to use it for levers/runes etc. anyway why does it have to be Epic ready? Mikayl isn't Epic Ready, It doesn't stop you from calling him in Epics when you need a DDoor and you can't self cast it!

Asheras wrote on Jan 29^th, 2017 at 9:52am:


Lol - Have you actually ever used it?

It can't even own the Panther in the kill count!

And I'm the guy who got Wyoh top of the Kill count in a full Eye of the Titan group - I'd be very very happy if the Owlbear could own me in the killcount, My problem is it CAN'T!

me happy >_<

Lhynn wrote on Jan 29^th, 2017 at 2:35pm:

Didn't you see the part where it goes into the hireling folder?  Shouldn't add any extra space.

Asheras wrote on Jan 29^th, 2017 at 3:06pm:

Do i look like im rich enough to buy one of them fancy hireling folders?

Ps. You can get tp for free in game as well.  Also since you only get it with a VIP sub, you can afford that so this isn't much more especially since you get 500 tp anyways each month.

I believe I own all the permanent hirelings.

The Onyx Panther was a bit of beast when it was first released. IIRC it was during one of the hireling trap dancing eras. However, eventually the AI for hirelings was "fixed" and the panther started sucking, while other hirelings got less stupid. With the level increase and burgerking crowns added, the panther lost alot of its luster, since it could originally hold it's own in the lower to mid-Epics.

The owlbears outright sucked coming out of the gate. I think they Devs had to fuck around with their stats at least twice because they had no DR and did no damage. After the fixes, the owlbears went from worthless to ok. They still suck though. And a major complaint from people was that they could get stuck in doors and stop following players.

The best permanent hireling was the level 3 cleric from the Starter Pack. Unfortunately, unlike ALL other permanent and Gold seal hirelings, this one cannot be used 2 levels below its level; so you have to wait until level 3 to use it.

If you need a lever puller, the permanent hires are great. Although the owlbears are a special breed of retarded with levers.

What's needed is a level 15 healer hireling . Or a level 15 Kobold Shaman hireling. Yes, I went there! a kobold hireling!

I remember being bored in some low level epics and respec'ing my cleric to run an aura, popping all the hire's (panther, both owls, and then either a melee or rogue hire depending on the quest) and just piking the entire things. I didn't really like the cleric lives so I just piked EH's one life while the hires killed everything. Took forever, the cat died half the time and needed rez'd, but it worked. So basically, the hires are about as good as most PUG's.

I had an email, shockingly, it was in my spam folder.  The link from the email worked.
https://www.ddo.com/en/vipfreegift  looks the same as above.