Shepherd's Crook & Herding¶
Herding is a tamer support skill. It makes your pets hit harder, earns your pets more XP and gives you more stable slots. The Shepherd's Crook adds its own bonus on top and carries special pet properties.
What Herding does¶
| Effect | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pet damage (melee and spells) | +Herding รท 8 % (15% at 120). Needs more than 50 Herding, and the pet within 16 tiles of you |
| Crook bonus | adds the crook's own bonus (below) to the same pet damage, if you hold a crook |
| Pet XP | +0.25% per point above 100 in Animal Taming, Animal Lore and Herding (up to +15% with all three at 120) |
| Stable slots | +1 at 40, +2 at 60, +3 at 80, +4 at 100, +5 at 120 Herding at the Animal Trainer |
- The damage bonus applies when your pets fight monsters (spells against any creature).
- Herding Efficiency (Unchained pet mastery) multiplies a pet's Herding bonus by +2.5% / +5% / +7.5% per tier. See Unchained Pets.
- Gaining Herding: you get a skill check each time one of your pets makes a melee attack while you hold a crook and stand within 12 tiles of it.
The crook bonus¶
Your crook's bonus (shown on it as Herding Maximum Damage Bonus, together with your Herding part):
| Source | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Damage level (loot crooks): Ruin / Might / Force / Power / Vanquishing | +2 / +4 / +6 / +8 / +10% |
| Wood: Oak / Ash / Yew / Heartwood / Bloodwood / Frostwood | +2 / +4 / +6 / +8 / +10 / +12% |
| Player-crafted Exceptional | +5% |
| Player-crafted Mastercrafted | +7% |
A Frostwood Mastercrafted crook gives +19%. With 120 Herding that's +34% pet damage in total. When you equip the crook you get a message showing your total.
Fighting with a crook¶
- With 50+ Animal Taming or Herding, the crook uses your Wrestling skill instead of Macing.
- The crook can't use weapon special moves. Many warrior bonuses (masteries, codex, Death rage) don't apply to it.
- Holding a crook blocks the Mage mastery ability.
- With Aero mastery, your pets get its attack speed bonus only while you hold a crook or fight bare-handed.
- Equipping a crook while shapeshifted ends your Druidic stance.
Crook properties¶
Crooks roll their own pet properties (creature spell, melee and ability damage, resistances, veterinary boost and more). See Gear Properties for the list and caps, and Enchanting & Crafting for crafting and Shepherd's Crook enhancement scrolls.
Durability¶
- When you damage a monster outside PvP, your crook has a chance to lose 1 durability (set by staff), at most once per cooldown (set by staff).
- Arms Lore protects it: 2% per 10 points. A Danger Zone Fortification bonus adds up to 15% more.
- With the Prevent Destruction option on, a crook at 1 durability is moved to your backpack instead of breaking.
- Crook properties wear down as your pets deal damage (see Enchanting & Crafting).
Crook styles¶
Equip a crook and use Change Style in its context menu.
- Unlock a style for 10 Platinum Coins. Random Transmog Deeds can also unlock one.
- The style applies to any crook you equip. It turns back to the normal look when you unequip it or enter PvP combat.
- The Disable Transmog option turns styles off.