I'm just curious, why should I or anyone bother with Monstrology? It doesn't seem to have any practical uses. Just looking at the other forums for hobbies... Crafting makes good gear which can supplement/replace dungeon farming. Fishing is needed for some crafting recipes. Pets are pretty obvious, no wizard should be without a good pet! Gardening feeds into pets via snacks and crafting via some reagents. PvP is a markedly different experience from PvE combat and provides an endgame to actually use all the good gear you farm. Admittedly this is for fun, but I honestly don't understand how someone could see repeatedly hitting a monster for animus over and over again as fun.
Monstrology, on the other hand, can do a few things. One is to make an expel TC. Of course, you'll likely spend far more time making the TC than just killing the monster itself, especially since you'll have to defeat several monsters just to make one. You can make a house guest... which just looks nice. Or you can make a summon TC, which is probably the only decent use of animus, and even then is likely to be a lot of trouble to go to for a single-use minion. You're probably better off summoning a henchman and doing FreeKI trivia to earn those crowns back, or just finding another wizard. You could put the summon TC into your Monstrodome to fight the monster it represents... sans the reward it would give you. On top of this, monstrology enchantments are actively bad in combat, since you won't be able to enchant your spell with another enchantment that boosts pierce or damage. Most combats follow a period of casting blades followed by a devastating hit from a single hitter that kills the enemies in one shot, which provides little chance for anyone to get animus from tougher bosses.
So why would anyone want to engage in Monstrology? It seems like a complete waste of time. I don't get anything of value out of it for the time and gold I put in.
I'm just curious, why should I or anyone bother with Monstrology? It doesn't seem to have any practical uses. Just looking at the other forums for hobbies... Crafting makes good gear which can supplement/replace dungeon farming. Fishing is needed for some crafting recipes. Pets are pretty obvious, no wizard should be without a good pet! Gardening feeds into pets via snacks and crafting via some reagents. PvP is a markedly different experience from PvE combat and provides an endgame to actually use all the good gear you farm. Admittedly this is for fun, but I honestly don't understand how someone could see repeatedly hitting a monster for animus over and over again as fun.
Monstrology, on the other hand, can do a few things. One is to make an expel TC. Of course, you'll likely spend far more time making the TC than just killing the monster itself, especially since you'll have to defeat several monsters just to make one. You can make a house guest... which just looks nice. Or you can make a summon TC, which is probably the only decent use of animus, and even then is likely to be a lot of trouble to go to for a single-use minion. You're probably better off summoning a henchman and doing FreeKI trivia to earn those crowns back, or just finding another wizard. You could put the summon TC into your Monstrodome to fight the monster it represents... sans the reward it would give you. On top of this, monstrology enchantments are actively bad in combat, since you won't be able to enchant your spell with another enchantment that boosts pierce or damage. Most combats follow a period of casting blades followed by a devastating hit from a single hitter that kills the enemies in one shot, which provides little chance for anyone to get animus from tougher bosses.
So why would anyone want to engage in Monstrology? It seems like a complete waste of time. I don't get anything of value out of it for the time and gold I put in.
Interesting thoughts!
I don't know the direction KI may be considering for Monstrology in future but as it stands I think you've summed it up quite accurately. It's a side activity with little use/need but it satifies a huge want for those of us who love it!
When the Ghulture Hoard pack came out everyone was desperate for the mounts...I was desperate for Binny Jezzerit housing guests! I absolutely love it, she's so pretty and a cat and blue and...and...and...I bought a ton of packs just to get a few lol
When monstrology came out I was so happy! I thoroughly enjoy collecting animus and making housing guests. I also enjoy making monstrodomes but I admit, it's the housing guests I adore the most.
I agree with your points and the only part we differ on is for you 'It seems like a complete waste of time. I don't get anything of value out of it for the time and gold I put in.' but for me it's fun and worth the time. Maybe KI will do similar with monstrology as they have with fishing and PvP - incorporating them into crafting to encourage us to give them a try. ATM though, the main value is aesthetic fun. Some of us love it and I can also see why some people don't see the point of choosing to spend so much time on it. You haven't missed some hidden benefit to it and if you don't enjoy it you don't need it for anything else
TLDR: I can make dragons for my house. What wizard doesn't want dragons?
I absolutely love it, she's so pretty and a cat and blue and...and...and...I bought a ton of packs just to get a few lol