Yep, for mages it's level 8 of Companion's Discipline. This gives you /pet swarm and /pet qswarm. I added /pet qswarm to my /pet attack key. I also have a separate /pet swarm key in case I want to send the swarm pets to a different target. (And Sancus beat me by a minute.)
Hello..just starting that, to find the right thread to post on. and i fall here. Pet command Focus...Mage pet is the only tank of my box actually. While pulling and sometime get a few adds im wondering if that would help to get aggro on few of those easier if i click off focus. Im kind of in trouble sometimes whan the adds start killing my healer mercs. At this point i try to send the pet on each of the 3 mobs manually, real quick, so i can save my healer's life. Ok to be precise my question is as i said before... If i remove focus/command on pet , will it help getting aggro on adds? I can do and test and watch but i want to make sure. I been out for years so noob questions poping again. And if you know a better thread for that stuff plz link. Thanks in advance i know this super cool community will help again. Last year many good mages got me back on track on those forums, I loved the help. I was completely lost on mage options. Now im doing good things i think. Zucc
Hi there, A barrier for boxing with a mage pet as tank is exactly what you describe; the inability to generate ae aggro. A workaround is to use the /xtar command to send other pets on other mobs, if you have other strong pets in the group. Just make sure that you use focus, and have a social macro that makes your pet aggro both mobs, but attacks xtar 2. However, it will never be really robust, you will need to be monitoring it and adjust for when it fails. You can also make social macro that have your pet attack xtar 2, and make it a little bit easier to have your pet shift target. You can combine elements from above, and use your RS pets to tank one, and main pet to tan another. And you have more tools on your AA-list. I got tired of the hazzle, and added a SK . I can still have the pets in the group take most of the damage, but with the sk using ae lifetaps, I am quite guaranteed that mob 2, 3, etc in camp will be hitting the sk, and not my soft toons.
/pet Qswarm is not a command to direct swarm pets to move immediately. /pet swarm is. Qswarm is a command to direct swarm pets to move AFTER the mob they are currently on is dead or becomes mez'd. /pet swarm is what you want to use, to make them move now. This is the exact problem with pet tanking, the lack of AE agro… Well, that, and the ridiculous mechanics that make pet tanking impossible for some mobs (dang dracoliches). And is also the reason I started and leveled up a SK with the free heroic toons we received. I am assuming you are using hotbar multibinding, if have done much research about Mage-ing… So, set different xtar targets for each hotbar social... As an example... Hotbar 1, set all buttons to keybind "1"... Button 1: Xtar1 social: /xtar 1 (change to /assist <playername> when assisting, and set assign MA's target as xtar 1, in case they're not on the 'natural' xtar 1 slot, so your xtar 2 and 3 hotbars to still work) /alt act 1041 {malo} /alt act 8800 {force} /alt act 1370 {spire} /alt act 174 {servant ro} Button 2: bring down pet attack button from pet window (multiple socials with commands in them DO NOT play well together, when on a multibind, so pull this down from pet window, don't make a separate /pet attack command social). Button 3: bring down pet swarm button from pet window Button 4: RS pet Button 5: twincast spell Button 6: of many / highest Spear (of many is preferred choice if going to average 7 or more pets on a mob, otherwise highest spear) Button 7: chaotic Button 8: highest spear not on bind already Button 9: of many (if not used on button 6), or 2nd highest spear if using of many as button 6 Button 10: Gather Button 11: Firebound Orb hotbutton copied from bag that it's dropped into Button 12: geomantra clicky Then do same type thing for 2 other hotbars. Set Xtar/hotbar 2 social to something like: /xtar 2 /alt act 2064 {wind of malo} /alt act 8342 {host in shell} /alt act 441 {aegis} /alt act 2066 {second wind ward} With same buttons for all but last couple, can change out clickies if wish, to robe clicky, CoPower clicky, whatever. Keep same pet attack and swarm buttons, if wish, or, can not add the pet attack, and just do the pet swarm command, to sic swarm pets on the add, only, if wish. hotbar 3 social could be something like: /xtar 3 /alt act 3707 {companion's fort} /alt act 265 {companion's shielding} /alt act 207 {host of elements} /alt act 3516 {companion of necessity} (if wish... this will occupy many mobs in it's ae range, til it dies or poofs. When it does die/poof though, you'll have to contend with agro reset of ALL mobs in it's area. Personally, I use when get a 3 mob pull, to get all their attention, and try and burn 1 down before Necessity dies) With, again, same attack and swarm buttons, spells cast, etc or could change however wish, best for you. Change out last couple buttons for whatever other clickies you'd like. So, if get a pull, and 2 mobs come, can just spam "1" for about 3-4 seconds, then swap to "2" for 3-4 seconds, then back to "1" until mob dead. If some other character begins to overcome pet/swarm pet's agro on mob 2, can switch again any time, mid fight, to keep agro on mob 2... For a 3 mob pull, is spamming each "1", "2", then "3" for three or four seconds each, then going back to xtar 1 til dead, etc. *** note: this is not exactly the 'best' cast order for sustained DPS, but it's the 'easiest' good one, to ensure 'of many' or highest spear is almost always the spell cast after RS pet, for synergy's proc. The 'best' is a fair bit more complicated, requiring much more attention, putting chaotic first, til get a twincast proc. But much more difficult, and multibinds will 'hang up' a lot more if put chaotic first, especially when it procs it's gem reset, or chaotic is fast enough recast, it sometimes casts again after RS pet, consuming synergy's proc, instead of 'of many' or spear doing so.
