The moment everyone read this, the rest of your post was irrelevant. You argue that it was for pet walls but why create multiple AAs and rework pets? Just for pet walling? I think not.
For the same reason they reason nerf AAs just sell them again every expansion. Furthermore, the AAs bring agro nowhere near what it was before the nerf. I am sorry, but I should be able to cast more than a few nukes before I am summoned and mauled. To sum it up, they gutted the mage class in order to sell you a halfed baked version of pet taunt for cash. If you cannot understand, then I don't no what to tell you.
After Playing my Mage/Bst for a few more days here ,I can see they need to turn up pet agro by about 100 percent on Provocative Demeanor ....this is not just hitting Mages this is hitting all the pets classes.... Yi Min
Can we stop making guesses as to what arbitrary VALUE they should be increasing the Aggro level, PLEASE?!! Simply adjust the Provactive AA such that it returns the aggro levels on the main pet (at least) to the levels prior to the introduction of the AA. From the Patch notes, this seems to have been the intention all along, and we are clearly not there.
Just undo the changes to just before they allowed pets to tank for melee. Then we don't have to guess what the agro should be.
You guys are completely wrong why the changes were done servants are not even a thing yet on Tlp which is what this change hit the most. And pet classes have asked for years and years for pets to tank while allowing melee classes to be able to actually play in that type of group. They finally did it and they are not just going to reverse the changes 100% Normal pets and host swarm pets have never been an issue . Upping the buff is not going to fix the problem they need to up the swing hate by at least 50% or undo 50% of the nerf they did plus they need to make the demeanor's auto cast on all summoned pets to give you guys a cc tool back with your servants. This will also give you more control of your aggro of all your pets on raids. Also Matari it must of been a slow boring life from the time you started until planes of power because tanks are the cornerstone of a good group yo.
Pet classes have never "asked for pets to tank for melee for years and years," judging by posts on forums, and that's understandable because pet classes are primarily played by people who prefer to solo/molo/play in small groups, where they're able to avoid having melee classes in the first place. But it could be that people in game, who never visit the forums, have asked "years and years" for it. But in that case, we'd have to ask: why wait 15+ years to implement a change people wanted for that long? It's not though it matters now. These are the last days of Everquest.
I have seen many people ask for it over the years if you are saying you never seen it brought up over the last 5 years even , then you are not being honest. But you are mad I see and you want to argue . It's cool I didn't make the change though.
You're not getting it. Allowing pets to tank for melees was never a class community issue for any pet class except for beastlords, and they got over it years ago. No recent threads on the forums have been about getting pets to tank for melee because it's long been accepted that this is a cost to using pets. The change came out of no where, with no discussion. That's why I don't believe the goal was to improve pet classes.
It's always been a topic of debate. It's EQs pandora's box. However, yesterday's news is yesterday. I challenge you to go out do the research. The majority of mages, last year prior to December, wouldn't have choosen pets tank for melee. While I cannot say for certain (did not do the research) - intuition and the current temperature suggest my theory is highly plausible. We have been asking to be more useful for raid throughout the majority of 2015. No where do I see a giant discussion asking about pets tanking for melee prior to the change in 2015. If I am wrong please link the discussion. The idea that the developers opened pandora's box to simply make a few classes group options more viable is ludicrous.
IF they did do these changes to JUST stop pet walling, as you are saying, then they would have made the change for TLP servers only, as we don't pet wall on live. Like the mitigation nerf you're talking about. That wasn't done on the live pet code, for a reason. Also, saying you played in 99 like it's some badge of honor is hilarious. Most of us have played EQ from the old days to the new days..We didn't stop at PoP and jump ship to p99, like most of you TLPers did. So you can disagree with my post all you like, that doesn't stop it from being right and you being wrong though . On another subject, look at that! Me and Benzarden agreeing on something...It must be Christmas.
Personally I wish they would just revert both the changes: pet aggro nerfs and allowing pets to hold aggro over PC's. It's beyond ridiculous that a single tic of a dot or at most 2 tics from a single dot is enough to steal aggro from any pet now. And thats with pet taunt and companions provocative demeanor on main pets.
It comes up constantly when pet tanking power is discussed on these forums (hint: a ton over the last few years). Allow me to illustrate one such example: Devs: pets need tuning, this is silly. They're taking damage better than raid geared warriors for...reasons. Pet classes: I've played since 1974, if you change my pets I'm wrist cut cancelling my 27 gold accounts. Don't do it! I'll scream! Tanks: oh yeah! Them pets are too strong, they took er jebs! I just got replaced by a water pet and it has nothing to do with user error, I'm seriously! Pet classes: look bubba, pets are perfectly fine as is, I shouldn't have to look at pet hp with my trusty, powerful healer merc up! Tanks: but you can molo the entire game while afk that's not fair! You took er jerbs! Pet classes: uh, pets are vastly inferior: my pet can't tank for melee, disc, or AE aggro, even if it mitigates better a player should almost always be superior, unless you totally suck and playing the game. Tanks: they......took........errr........jerrrrrrrbs! (Derkaderrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!) Devs: Uhhh, pets are getting changed because (math), but they absolutely will remain viable. Pet users: ok, what is the corporate office address so I can mail you guys a bag of (phallic) objects after I finish cancelling my 27 gold accounts and filing a lawsuit for ruining my enjoyment for the service I paid for. <changes take place, are tested and changed half a dozen more times until finalized, resulting in pets behaving a bit more sanely but player tanking remaining vastly superior in most cases> Pet users: man, this having to watch my pets hp bar sucks. Remember the good ol days? Tanks: wait, I'm still not getting a group invite. Maybe it's because I haven't showered in 6 weeks, or made the epic failure mistake of rolling a male Barbarian or Ogre warrior? If you didn't see the above scenario repeatedly, you haven't been reading the boards much.
Please link the discussion to the forum, or qoute or leave a link. Also, pet walling isn't just a problem on TLP, it's a problem on live to lesser extent. It doesn't take a rocket to see that 4 air pets, a wizard and a shaman steam roll most of the content.
Pet walling means that you are constantly throwing pets at a mob as soon as they die..On live you aren't not doing this and if you are, you are bad..Plain and simple. That is a TLP problem, no matter what way you try to look at it. IF the changes were meant to curb that, they wouldn't not be on live right now. Again, you are incorrect in your assumption. IF devs wanted to stop that then they would just implement a powar type of mechanism. Oh haha, I forget..The TLPer's don't know about Plane of War.
Knights were where it's at back in PoP, but if you wanted the best experience outside of chanter charms you wanted a ranger tank. The mob comes into the group snared, 30% dead and can be dropped off to go pull more. We just ping pong it until the next mob arrives. You also have understand before SoV mobs had less than 33k hps. If a mob was lucky, it got 3 to 4 rounds in before it croaked. Oh and those AoE seb groups were the bomb, literally Certainly, if I wanted to farm Juggs, I grabbed a tank, but for regular exp it slowed ya down.
I played a warrior in PoP I also tanked in aoe seb and lower guk groups. And chain pulled in every zone you mentioned. As a warrior I even lead daily pog farming raids that cleared mobs for gems and armor. Rangers wouldn't even go there 2 group raids on Xenemech in poi Rangers would of had fun tanking that ) I also parsed in the top 10 above rangers up until pop when they became ubah with a bow. But none of this has anything to do with pet tanking or soloing as a mage which is what this whole topic is about. And the best exp in pop was multiple warriors shaker paging in pofire.
I still use a ranger tank for gribbles. Bit harder with the new inflated hps, but still doable. Pet walls are still great for back farming old raid content with a sub par group. Sucks to get the mob to 5% only to come up short. Finished off a few targets chaining pets.
I've been playing Everquest since 2016, has anyone debated the merits of a pet tank vs. a merc tank? Nevermind, I'll just make a post in the Veteran's Lounge and see if anyone has any opinions on it.
