Does the Quetzal need some love?

[Kayin]

A little context:   I didn't have a Quetzal before the flyer nerf:

I'm a little torn.  I have 6 Quetzals now (4 bred) and have been trying to figure out the right balance but nothing seems right.

I try to level weight + stamina.   The result is the quetz cannot haul as much as an equivalent level argent.  Can't go as far without landing.   Takes longer.   Can't defend itself as good.
I try to level just weight.    I have to make frequent stops. Can't defend myself.  Can hold almost the same amount as an equal argent.  Takes longer.
I try to level just stamina.  I can't carry anything. I still can't defend myself. I still take forever. I can travel just about as far as an equal argent.   
I try to level health/melee.   I, interestinly, am still weaker than a Ptera with weaker stats.   I am completely outclassed by just about any Argent. 

The only real advantage is a platform saddle,  but I can't run, hide, or defend myself from anything and have to land far more than every other bird.   Even the Pelagornis outclasses the Quetzal with it's unique ability to swim - and swim fast. 

If I carry farm animals,  and just use it to transport the animals to/from,  it's actually more safe, faster, and I can haul more if I just have a train of Argents following me.   And Argents are faster / easier to tame and breed.

Basically,  I either can't get my formula right,  or Quetzals are just garbage?

-Kayin

[Vullet]

Personally, all flyers got nerfed way too hard. Quetz were fine back when they were faster/you could dismount for stam mid-air.

But I don't really WANT a quetz buff, because they pretty much single-handly ruined the game in early access

[dslick]

You are not using the Quetzal right, or you need a higher level Quetz. They are used for different purposes, mainly for transport and farming. Argies are more for longer distance hauling and battle.

I exclusively level up weight on my Quetz. Build a battle platform on your Quetz and you now have a killing machine, with the long neck action as side DPS

[AngrySaltire]

Quetzs deffinatly need some love. Had their wings clipped with the nerf. Could do with being faster. They are just too slow !

[Kayin]

1 minute ago, dslick said:

You are not using the Quetzal right, or you need a higher level Quetz. They are used for different purposes, mainly for transport and farming. Argies are more for longer distance hauling and battle.

I exclusively level up weight on my Quetz. Build a battle platform on your Quetz and you now have a killing machine, with the long neck action as side DPS

I play PvE and I live on Herbie Island.       Does that change the assessment? 

Perhaps if I lived in the North?

[ChargingParacerParacer]

Quetzals used to be worth using before the nerf. Maybe if you tame a high level one and put 50/50 into stam &weight they won't be garbage but I doubt it. I also preferred to just use a Argent train before I stopped playing because it's so much easier and 3 average Argents do the job of 'good' Quetzals now anyways. Are you playing official or unofficial?

[Olivar]

Quetzal's always need love.
This poor pack animals are often the victim of abuse and hard labor.

[dslick]

In PvE, their weight is the only valued stat, and all you can do with a high weight dino (6-7k).

[Palenor]

Quetzals are just fine right now, best beast of burden in the game.

What else can carry 6K plus weight and fly over everything?

2400-2500 Stam Quetz will get you from Obsidian Mountain to Red Ob area (loaded) with one stop on the top of Redwoods mountain. As in, unaccosted by anything.

For you coming from Herbi-Island, you just need to find one spot that is high up and use that for your landing area for Stamina. Like the top of Giga Mountain, top of Obsidian Mountain, top of Volcano, top of Blue Ob, top of... you get the picture. 

Choose your landing spots ahead of time and you do not get into tense situations.

If you play XBox PVE, I can hook you up (trade) with a Quetzal that is in this range, got 20 of them ready to go.

Send me an in-game message if you do.

[Brayn]

I've tamed a few level 130+ quetz' recently.  Aside from the one clunker at 1,800 stamina (9.6k HP tho...), they each started with over 2,100 stam, which is enough for me to get from my base to the metal without stopping, but needing to rest once I get there.  You can always make a custom stamina recipe out of 5 rare mushrooms and feed it to your quetz to give it a ton of extra effective stamina.

Quetz are just way, WAY too slow.  I can fill up on metal in 15 minutes... but it takes 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes to get back.  I want. to throw. my controller. at. the. wall.

 

But hey, the speed reduction got rid of render lag issues!

[Joebl0w13]

Ever since the flyer nerf, my Quetzs sit and collect dust. The only time I take them anywhere is to pick up a dino an Argie can't.

Too. Damn. Slow.

[Brayn]

1 minute ago, Joebl0w13 said:

Ever since the flyer nerf, my Quetzs sit and collect dust. The only time I take them anywhere is to pick up a dino an Argie can't.

Too. Damn. Slow.

Maybe a Tuso like timed speed boost that costs a bit of extra stamina?  Instead of shooting ink though it would honk a bunch and otherwise make generally annoying sounds?

[Bigphule]

Honestly, if you are having issues with stam and weight, your birds are too low level.  The real advantage for Quetzals is their farming ability.  I've got a rig with two fabricators, two chem benches, a gen and grinder.  I farm obsidian like mad and make Sparks Powder like it is going out style all while farming metal on my 800+ bred Anky.  

Sure the Quetz could use a little speed buff, but in all honesty it is a solid B+ as it is.  

[AngrySaltire]

5 minutes ago, Bigphule said:

Honestly, if you are having issues with stam and weight, your birds are too low level.  The real advantage for Quetzals is their farming ability.  I've got a rig with two fabricators, two chem benches, a gen and grinder.  I farm obsidian like mad and make Sparks Powder like it is going out style all while farming metal on my 800+ bred Anky.  

Sure the Quetz could use a little speed buff, but in all honesty it is a solid B+ as it is.  

Pretty much the only saving grace of quetzals is the platform saddle. Although I use a high weight wyvern over a quetz anyday now. Except for when a wyvern isnt big enough to transport a dino. Quetz needs a bit more speed.

[LouSpowells]

Personally, I'm glad to see Quetzals relegated to a utility role. I feel like the flyers are at a pretty good balance point now. As convenient as it was to have 2500 weight, 20k health, and 500+ melee on a massive bird with a platform saddle and 200%+ move speed, it was broken as hell. 

If it were left up to me, they would stay the way they are with a mild boost to stamina. It's a pretty unpopular opinion among players confusing "balance" for "convenience" though.

[UDGxKnight]

1 minute ago, LouSpowells said:

Personally, I'm glad to see Quetzals relegated to a utility role. I feel like the flyers are at a pretty good balance point now. As convenient as it was to have 2500 weight, 20k health, and 500+ melee on a massive bird with a platform saddle and 200%+ move speed, it was broken as hell. 

If it were left up to me, they would stay the way they are with a mild boost to stamina. It's a pretty unpopular opinion among players confusing "balance" for "convenience" though.

I don't see a problem with them having just a bit more speed though. Its really annoying to want to use them but they just are outpaced by every other flyer now. I understand they shouldnt be zooming around like fighter jets but still just a tad bit faster would be nice, even on par with the argy would be fine.

I personally would like to see more flyers though for variety... Another large flyer like the Quetz but unlike the Wyvern and in between of both power and utility or another large feathered bird like the argy that is more combat focused (but not the Griffin)

[Kayin]

2 minutes ago, LouSpowells said:

Personally, I'm glad to see Quetzals relegated to a utility role. I feel like the flyers are at a pretty good balance point now. As convenient as it was to have 2500 weight, 20k health, and 500+ melee on a massive bird with a platform saddle and 200%+ move speed, it was broken as hell. 

If it were left up to me, they would stay the way they are with a mild boost to stamina. It's a pretty unpopular opinion among players confusing "balance" for "convenience" though.

So, the reason I don't use my Quetz really is because I have multiple sets of argies that all have:  More survivability,  More Speed,  More Weight than a Quetz.  They're easier to tame and breed.  

It's not uncommon to have an Argie that can solo kill an alpha raptor and still have close to 1k weight and 2k stamina.      A utility leveled argie can't solo kill an alpha raptor, but 6 of them in a train still can.    And I can farm more and travel faster than the Quetz. 

Perhaps Argies are just OP then?

[Kayin]

Also this fun fact:     birds on follow don't run out of stamina.   So if I have a train of 6 argies with 2k weight each on follow with a wyvern with 700 stamina.  I can pull 12,000 lbs across the entire island without landing once... and even if I did, nothing could kill me. 

 

[LouSpowells]

Just now, Kayin said:

Perhaps Argies are just OP then?

Not really OP, just differently powered. It's a given you can carry more weight while farming with 6+ argies than you can with 1 quetzal...assuming of course you leave an anky at each farming spot you use. 

[Bruvas78]

We live on north Jungle (centre) and use two quetz for metal runs to lava. 6k carry weight each and 2.5k Stam mean that the speed difference to an argie over a short distance is negligible but the carry pay off is good. We also tandem smash the nodes carrying an Anky which is faster than walking around. Aside from this, they get little use now, but I will admit that they were the absolute go-to Dino before the nerf and they completely negated the need for most other fliers (on PvE certainly)

[ChargingParacerParacer]

1 hour ago, Bruvas78 said:

We live on north Jungle (centre) and use two quetz for metal runs to lava. 6k carry weight each and 2.5k Stam mean that the speed difference to an argie over a short distance is negligible but the carry pay off is good. We also tandem smash the nodes carrying an Anky which is faster than walking around. Aside from this, they get little use now, but I will admit that they were the absolute go-to Dino before the nerf and they completely negated the need for most other fliers (on PvE certainly)

Not true for me. They have never had the mobility of a nice Tapejara and have never been as good at getting fish meat, biotoxin, or organic polymer as good as a Pelagornis. They really only were betterr at Argents for their actual purpose outside of 'cheaty' pvp uses that people thought of but thanks to the nerf it's so much more cost effective and time efficient to tame groups of argies instead. If a player is on Ragnarok there is even less reason to need a quetz just put in work for a Wyvern instead.

[Sh4rk]

As with anything, its a matter of location. Herbi island is so far from anything worth a damn, that it makes it kind of a bad place to live. You may want to consider relocating, because even before the flyer nerf, it was a loooong trip anywhere from herbi island with a quetz. 

For example, if you live in redwoods on the center, a quetz is amazing to have without needing to worry about leveling stam. 

Side note, quetz can carry almost any creature in the game, wether it be on the platform or with its grasp.

[Pic1]

Q's are in bad shape right now. I normally use them only for hauling large dinos from one part of the map to the other. For luggage I use weight wyverns. Just add an x plant or two for pvp I guess, although I don't pvp and have no idea how effective they can be lol.

[ForzaProiettile]

Flyers in general need a nerf not a buff. The Quetzal is already too good at hauling large quantities of good with no risk. Why would anyone use a Bronto when they can use a Quetzal. 

[Joebl0w13]

1 minute ago, ForzaProiettile said:

Flyers in general need a nerf not a buff. The Quetzal is already too good at hauling large quantities of good with no risk. Why would anyone use a Bronto when they can use a Quetzal. 

Why would anybody in their right mind use a Bronto for that at all.