Effective Combat Familiar Use

[Sinkhan]

How do I use combat familiars to max DPS in combat? I'm only 97 atm so my best familiars are still Iron/Geyser Titan, but I'll get Steel with DXP.

 

I'm mostly looking for combat during slayer and not bossing if that's relevant. Full manual as well.

 

 

[Arceus]

Since no one has answered this yet: from what I gather, Geyser Titan is your best bet, along with a Boil Scroll I guess.

[Sinkhan]

What's the actual process in using it? Do I just load up scrolls into my hat and spam specials at any and all enemies? Is there any way to force familiars to aggro onto my targets quicker or do I have to manually force them to attack each time? With really fast kills the extra help from familiars seems marginal.

 

Do people even use combat familiars these days or are they still too weak after the EoC nerf?

[Steph]

Unsure if I'm 100% sure but I think scrolls imbued in helmets can only be randomly autocast by your familiar so you don't have to. Otherwise you can manually cast the special with scrolls in your inventory.

[Wkw]

For slayer, you are going to want to start combat, and then press the "attack" button on summoning icon so it starts to attack what you are attacking; otherwise they tend to do nothing until a few rounds of combat.

 

The best familars are either the nihils or iron/steel titans

 

The way scrolls in your helm work.. at random, they will trigger and your familar will do their special. It does not require summoning special to use, but it requires energy to trigger. So, steel titan scroll uses 18 points, if I have 18, it can trigger and happen, but wont charge me my points. If I don't have 18, it says your bar is too low and the scroll is not used.

[Sinkhan]

Ok good to know. So for slayer is it worth manually scrolling as well or are the random procs sufficient?

 

I also never knew that simply pressing Attack made your familiar attack your current target. I was under the impression you had to click Attack and then a specific target.

 

Do people use combat familiars while bossing or is Yak/Uni still dominant?

[Arceus]

I think Yak is preferred to hold the extra food/boosts.

[stonewall337]

I think Yak is preferred to hold the extra food/boosts.

 

For some, ye. For tasks where you don't need a yak, use a titan. 

[Blutters]

I use Nihil for everything; their normal attacks are quick and deal good damage, and the combat boosts are generally invaluable.

You can drag the Summoning icon onto your action bar. Doing so allows you to activate it just like you would activate an ability. If you have your familiar action set to "Attack", your follower will attack the most recent thing you did.

I find this is best when using Nihil.

 

However, if using a Steel Titan (eventually), spamming scrolls on a separate target probably does more damage relatively, so you would want the familiar interface open, click the claw marks button (attack) to manually target an enemy while in combat yourself, and have your action bar familiar action set to "Special Move", with plenty of Steel of Legends Scrolls and a few Summoning Flasks at least.

[Sinkhan]

How much better at AAing would you say Nihils are compared to Iron/Steel titans? They seem to have a pretty steep cost and are hard to buy.