Necro Pet Tanking?

[TOoSmOotH]

Can necro pets tank or is it just a fear and stab kind of deal?

[Vicatin]

Yes

[Kawhi]

Depends.

What level are you? What are you killing?

[alphys]

The skeleton can definitely take a few hits. Its a balancing act between pet HP and when to fear. Generally if you can avoid either you, or your pet taking damage its best.

[Gumbo]

I bet once you hit 40 plus, your pet will have more HP than you so you can use him to tank and just keep rehealing him.

[Ando]

Anything "can" tank. Whether it is good is another question.

[Izmael]

A level 1 necro pet will tank AoW fine. Just not for very long.

Seriously though, past level 20-30, your skele pet will get eaten alive (!) by the mobs who give you exp if you let him tank as your main strategy. At the very least, it's not an optimal approach.

Fear kiting, charm killing, root rotting will all be more efficient ways to kill stuff.

[Bristlebaner]

Using a necro pet to tank is rather frustrating. It's just too wimpy. The 49/59 are good for farming low level stuff, but other than that, you'll want to pull your hair out.

[b_rob242]

Consider him another DoT. At level 40, I usually let him run in and take enough hits to keep aggro while I set up my fear kite. Then it's snare, darkness, Lifetap, beer, rinse, repeat. At least with outdoor mobs. I usually back off the pet toward the end to let other DoTs run mob's life out.

[koros]

Pet can tank low end blues fine at all levels, if you keep your HoT on it.

[Pyrion]

I think the turning point is somewhere between 20 and 30. Until then the pet can tank fine, but after 30 pet tanking is not really a strategy anymore (unless you have somebody to slow mobs). Its even weaker than a shaman pet, had the comparison at level 34... skel would get owned very fast while doggy stood its ground pretty good. Skel did a bit more damage though.

[Kawhi]

Necro heals are a real thing. Pet tanking doesn't have to mean that you just let mobs blast your pet while you dot them down.

That said, if you are in an area where you can fear kite, that will pretty much always be better. In dungeons though this may not be possible, and pet tank with your heals can be an effective strategy (faster than straight root rotting) even at 60.

[Aesop]

pet tanked fine for me with necro heals up until like 50ish on the stuff i was doing.

[koros]

If soloing while pet tanking, and this works all the way up to 60, the strategy is to support your pet with heals and dots on the mob while keeping the mob rooted. Back off pet if it takes too much damage, and let the HoT heal pet while the dot ticks the mob down. Then send the pet back in again once it's hp is back up.

Could solo summoners this way using the monk pet at only 56. It's pretty damn effective.

[NegaStoat]

For solo leveling as explained above, your pet is perfectly fine in tanking a single pull while tossing a heat blood line dot, a darkness dot, a fear and then a third damage spell of your choice - even if a resist happens. A lot of players will just go with 3 damage spells first and then a fear for maximum efficiency of damage vs time vs mana spent, but that resist tossed at you every so often means your pet ends up tanking more than it should beyond what you would like if you go straight up with 3 attack spells first.

The level 44 and then 49 pet are beastly. The Emissary is straight up badass for his bulky health total over the others. When I leveled my necro I primarily used my summoned pets, but deep in my heart I know for certain that Charming undead is the way to go. I was just lazy.

Edit - exchange Splurt for the heat spell as the first one cast in the lineup the moment you get it. Splurt is so damned amazing for what it does.

[LethClaypool]

There have been a few instances on my 43 necro leveling up where my pet tanking has been more efficient than fearing (especially indoors).

Sic your pet, hit them with your lifetap dot, hit pet with heal over time, then drop a poison dot (34) and root. Pet can usually handle it from there depending on the mob and level. It works best with old world stuff but that's how I did the guards in WC as well as rangers as rings in WC. Sometimes I'd have to back pet off to let him heal but it was much more efficient than dropping snare and fear on the mob and it was a nice little switch up.

Even though I fear kite in Oggok now sometimes I'll get a wild hair up my rear and do it that way again. I'm not sure how it works as mobs HPs scale up (I'm sure it doesn't), but it is an option.

It's just like with groups. Provided you aren't taking on extremely tough stuff, prior to 50 you could be a rather efficient backup healer while dishing out damage as a necro.

It's an option if you get bored of playing one way or the other.