Enc/mag with sometimes wiz, tanking/aggro problems

Discussion in 'Casters' started by Alqui, Nov 26, 2018.

  1. Alqui New Member

    Hey guys, so I've got a 96 enc and mag. The mage pet has been my tank. The last couple of levels have been really bad for aggro. Even if the wiz uses concussive blast, both the wiz and mage are pulling aggro. I've tried rage swords on air pet and earth pet. Taunt is on. mage has twitching snood pet focus.

    i do the lurch thing on the enchanter sometimes, but some mobs summon rendering it kinda meh. i still usually die on named.

    Am I doing anything wrong? Any pointers for mage pet tanking? Anything I can do better with my enchanter?

    I run into problems mostly in missions where there are mixtures of non-summoning and summoning mobs.
  2. Bobokatt07 Journeyman

    Hum... I normally never have any issues with my mage tanking. Naturally if I use say a wizard merc on burn that can get iffy. Anyhow, your enchanter has a darkened rune like you can buff the pet with which gives it more agro.

    You your mage could buff the pet with Maloseniac Eminence Rk. II instead of Iceflame as the pet's buff, and add Surge of Arcanum Rk. II which is a high damage shield for the pet... and make sure to have circle of embers as well. You could also add the buff Molten veil. Again you will need to reapply these, Surge and Molten quite often.

    Also on a side note, I have found my air pet to tank better with just damage swords rather than the rage swords. The damage procs seem to work better.
  3. Bobokatt07 Journeyman

    I meant to add, it goes without saying that on Named engage, obviously on the mage hit your pet aa's Fortify companion line, Frenzied Burnout and your robe click. Then blast away with 1st spire and Heart of Flames etc.
    One more thing, your Enchanter has a slew of runes that can help your group. From the DOT damage runes, to the spell damage runes, to physical damage runes (legion and auspice line), to the group AA rune (reactive rune) and Glyph Spray. Buy a crap load of peridots as they use those but they are worth it. They last a long time and really help in overall survival for the whole group on tough named or encounters. Also make sure to add chanter haste on the mage pet for extra DPS, critical hit, triple attack and critical damage etc.
  4. Rizzin Elder

    For my Necro Pet tanking, Ench haste and my Necro pet haste buff make a huge difference in agro. With a merc on burn, it will pull agro pretty quickly, so I need to be careful when to turn that on.
    GoneFission likes this.
  5. LordOmni New Member

    Simple question here but do you have Spell Casting Subtlety turned on? Typically I almost never have an issue with pet holding aggro. If you were higher level and casting Dicho I might say that was your issue but its not available at 96. It wont help you with bosses but if you are really having trouble with pet holding aggro you can at least test with fire pet. They generate huge amounts of aggro but are a lot squishier so make sure you have healing for it. If it is still losing aggro with the fire pet then there is a setting, AA or something missing.
    Brohg likes this.
  6. Alqui New Member

    Mag just dinged 96 actually, so will try maloseniac eminence and see if that helps. Interesting point on the dps swords + air pet vs. aggro swords.

    thank you guys for all the different things to check on here. I bet spell casting subtlety is disabled. will check when i get a chance to log in and report back.
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  7. IblisTheMage Augur

    I seem to remember that there was a phase when levelling where aggro was out of whack, until I got to 101 and started maxing out pet AA.... I used bazar bought aggro mask, not ideal. The problem went away with levels and maxed relevant AA...
    GoneFission likes this.
  8. GoneFission Augur

    My mage uses a tradeskill armored water pet as tank, with a pair of blade of eternal tempering. They have an aggro proc, though I’m not sure pets can activate procs like that. Some like to use a pair of TS batons with a stun proc. If I’m making a set of pet armor and weapons, I’m usually in a hurry and I have the eternal tempering pieces.

    Like Rizzin said, if I have any variation in the pet holding aggro, it’s usually an indication for a haste application. My best group is a mage, bard, and chanter with a merc wizard on burn. My second group is a nec with warrior pet tank, a shaman, a wizard and a merc wizard on burn. If I don’t engage the merc until everyone else is engaged, I don’t pull aggro from either pet.

    As Iblis says above, invest in pet AAs and choose armor and weapons and you should be golden.
  9. Alqui New Member

    man yeah, it seems it was really just spellcasting subtlety. been a while since I'd played them so i think maybe i had turned it off when i went to turn autogrant on again. got a lot of other good tips outta this thread, too. Thanks yall!
    Skewert likes this.