Pet Aggro Questions

[Mirakk82]

I believe the problem we're seeing, and reason it's not as we all remember it being, is because at this stage in the game, TAUNT blows. It will continue to blow until it gets patched later to actually work worth a damn.

Taunt undisputedly sucks for all classes, and I believe pets are suffering for it as well. It does not function on mobs higher than your level, which leaves your pet shit out of luck in most cases. It also doesn't work on 50+ mobs.

Given the lack of GM comment about such a widespread problem, I can only assume it IS working as intended. This theory is the only thing I've though of that makes any sense to me thus far.

Another interesting idea was that DoTs are incorrectly applying all their hate at the front end of the spell, instead of on the ticks like they're supposed to. But I cannot confirm/deny this obviously.

[Saiene]

Originally Posted by Mirakk82 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I believe the problem we're seeing, and reason it's not as we all remember it being, is because at this stage in the game, TAUNT blows. It will continue to blow until it gets patched later to actually work worth a damn.

Taunt undisputedly sucks for all classes, and I believe pets are suffering for it as well. It does not function on mobs higher than your level, which leaves your pet shit out of luck in most cases. It also doesn't work on 50+ mobs.

Given the lack of GM comment about such a widespread problem, I can only assume it IS working as intended. This theory is the only thing I've though of that makes any sense to me thus far.

Another interesting idea was that DoTs are incorrectly applying all their hate at the front end of the spell, instead of on the ticks like they're supposed to. But I cannot confirm/deny this obviously.

No idea what it is, but its pretty horrible. On live, I'd just wait until the pet damaged the mob down to 92-95 percent, and then I could stack as many dots as I wanted without agro (standing up). Here, I get agro sometimes when I dot the mob after pet beats it down to 20 percent. Its a joke, I feel like I'm playing a beastlord, but without any tanking abilities, and no good gear or weapon.
Doubt this will ever be fixed, would think this far into the server, it would be the first thing addressed considering how many gazillions of pet soloing classes there are. Also, am surprised there aren't more complaints, maybe not many people remember live?
To add, it certainly is fixable, because on tz/vz pvp/emu server, this problem didn't exist.

[Lucia Moonglow]

It is definitely broken. My necro is only level 5, and yet a single crappy lifetap generates so much agro that I can practically pet kite after landing one.

[Stormhowl]

Even ignoring the example where I used Shallow Breath (which someone said is a DoT, but has no DoT component to it), what about the times where I did significantly less melee damage than the pet and it couldn't pull off me? Or how about how it couldn't pull sitting aggro off me because I got smacked by a wandered while medding?

There's clearly an issue with pet melee generation and their taunt if it can't out aggro a MISS.

[Galanteer]

As an enchanter (26th atm), when I solo with the animation, I always root the critter.

[Ostros]

Originally Posted by Stormhowl [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Even ignoring the example where I used Shallow Breath (which someone said is a DoT, but has no DoT component to it), what about the times where I did significantly less melee damage than the pet and it couldn't pull off me? Or how about how it couldn't pull sitting aggro off me because I got smacked by a wandered while medding?

There's clearly an issue with pet melee generation and their taunt if it can't out aggro a MISS.

Aggro is more fickle than you think. If you got an add while sitting, no pet short of an Earth pet with a successful snare is going to be able to peel a sitting-aggro add, or maybe a rogue necro pet with a backstab.

We seem to have been informed that taunt is broken, so we know that. You do of course know that a mob will ALWAYS prioritize the pet's owner if he is in melee ranger correct? (Figured I should ask, you never know).

I've grouped with a mage in Warsliks before and he never seemed to have much trouble with the pet keeping aggro, even when casting heal after sitting, and then sitting back down. So it does work as expected, or at least the way I expect it to work. Playing my Necro so far (level 29), I've noticed nothing terribly wrong with pet aggro. Pets were never really meant to be a replacement for a warrior, so you're going to have a little trouble, especially as an Enchanter, since Enc pets don't really function like normal pets anyway.

I suspect that once taunt gets it's fix, things will be ok again. As far as everything else about pet aggro, I believe it's working as intended.

[baalzy]

Pets get better at holding agro in later levels. Low levels they generate an absurdly low amount of agro. I personally feel that pet agro is messed up and they generate far less than they should.

[Ostros]

Originally Posted by Galanteer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As an enchanter (26th atm), when I solo with the animation, I always root the critter.

What he said. If you're pet tanking, then root the sumbitch. Play smart.

[etplante]

Originally Posted by Saiene [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Also, am surprised there aren't more complaints, maybe not many people remember live? To add, it certainly is fixable, because on tz/vz pvp/emu server, this problem didn't exist.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=27881

It's not that there haven't been complaints about pet agro. It's that posting didn't get any results and people probably got tired and just adapted. This has been going on at least as far back as February.

Pet agro at lower levels is really horrendous. It gets slightly better at higher levels. While I was leveling up it didn't matter so much playing a necro as I used the weak pet agro to my advantage to agro kite. But since the dot damage nerf on moving mobs went in I imagine it's quite a bit tougher on lower level necros.

[Mirakk82]

And quite a bit harder on ones too low level to kite. I was planning on being a necro from the start on this server since I enjoyed it so much on live (I was a necro from 99-2005). However, I stopped playing my noob necro here because the pet aggro was totally borked. I started playing again and am going to tough it out the best I can no matter what.

Post 14-16 it seems to improve from what I've heard from other folks, but post 12 is basically all kiting anyway, so that really doesn't mean pet aggro gets better, it just means you get other options instead. Which I'm fine with I guess. I didn't come here to get EZ mode.

But, this is still something worth looking at. I'm surprised there hasn't been any form of dev response on this. They probably want it to be messed up so that there aren't 8,000 necros and 6,000 mages on the server. Not that there aren't already...so I guess that point is moot.


-Sincerely,

One confused-ass necromancer