pet more uber than a toon.Follow

I am a level 91 heroic mage, I started off at 85 now 91. Ok the situation is a level 94 SK was looking for group so I invited him while fighting in the valley. I can solo with 89 earth pet or 91 air pet. I at the time was using the 89 earth pet. The SK had warrior merc on the first mob SK merc dies so does the sk himself. I guess he got upset and left the group. Mob was yellow con so I am wondering did someone power level, not have the right aa or gear or is mage pet that good.

Mage pet is extremely strong but there are several possible reasons for this occurring. As mentioned, it could be the rank of the merc in question, it could be the player choosing to do things the traditional way and not take the autogrant of AA, subpar gear, or any combination of factors. Honestly, with how strong Mage pets are, I can't see why a Mage concerned with efficiency would bother adding anything other than a ranged dps class (or a force multiplier like Bard or Shaman) to a group if they're moloing. The pet is strong enough to get the job done without as much support as a PC tank would require. Keep that in mind for future interactions. But there are plenty of reasons you'd want to add a PC to your group and just deal with any inefficiencies that may result.

Yeah. Hard to say. Still something to be aware of though. Lots of mages don't realize that the earth pet procs root, and when mobs are rooted, they always attack the nearest opponent, not the one with the most agro. There are also some interesting bugs with regard to melee characters versus melee mercs with this regard. My experiences in a group with some guildmates was that if someone rooted the mob, it would *always* attack the PCs in melee in preference to the tank merc, no matter what settings were in place. It's like somehow in order to make the merc melee code work, they cheated with the range calculation. Ironically, there also seems to be a size component to this distance calculation, which I'm sure is why my dwarf could not ever get close enough to do melee damage to a rooted mob without it picking him as a target.

So yeah, don't *ever* cast root on a mob that your group is meleeing. That's a fast track to dead characters. Agree that it's unclear if this was the problem in this case, but given that the OP is using an heroic character (yeah heroic hate, whatever!), it's quite possible that he's just not aware of this potential problem.



Which kinda suggests the SK was grossly undergeared or something. Actually, even that doesn't make much sense. I have all of the merc types available on my paladin (cause I decided to spend the SC on this at some point, which only coincidentally happened to be one freaking week before Sony sent me an email saying I was to be awarded with a free extra slot *sigh*). In any case, I basically *never* use any merc other than the healer. If I'm fighting content that I can't handle with my own healing, it's always better to use a healer while I tank, than use a tank and have me try to heal (cause if I can't keep myself alive, I'm not going to be able to keep the tank alive either). If I'm fighting content I can handle with my own healing, I'm either going to not use a merc at all (cause why split experience, right?), or I'll use a caster (or melee dps) for the extra damage. I've used all three types, but honestly never even popped the tank. I'm having a hard time thinking of even a group situation where that would be useful, doubly so if I'm grouped with a mage (who basically has an extra tank right off the bat).

I have to assume the SKs options are even more limited (cause his ability to heal a merc tank is basically nil). So yeah, makes pretty much zero sense. It's possible that this was someone used to PLing, or usually worked in a group where he used his merc tank, and the other person used their merc healer? No clue. I do know that for the first 60 levels or so, the merc tank is the way to go all the time cause he can handle stuff by himself and regens pretty fast. It's only later on that this becomes less effective, so maybe this guy just hadn't updated his merc?

I agree it sounds to me like a clueless HC SK. No way a level 91 mage pet should out-perform a competently handled 94 player SK, IMO.

Also, someone said many mages don't know earth pets proc root? Maybe many HC mages LOL. If a mage doesn't know that about his own pet I ain't inviting him to my group... ever!

Yeah, sounds like more dumping on heroic characters but jeez louise this is all basic stuff...

Edited, May 16th 2014 11:38am by Sippin

First off... never use Earth Pet in a group setting. Evah. The root proc just messes too much with aggro mechanics.

Second off... in a group setting use the water pet for backstab damage.

Third... Always use the Air Pet as your tank when solo. The stuns are way better than the earth pet's root proc. The earth pet has slightly more HP than the air pet, but a cleric merc isn't going to notice the difference... stun..stun..stun. I have killed nearly every named in the group game with my air pet. There has been only one named where I used the earth pet instead of air, but after killing the named once I went back and did it with my air pet as well.