hard mode raids and conjurer pets

[Masuma]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>Is it true that hard mode encounters are very difficult / frustrating for conjurers because it is almost impossible to keep the pet alive?</p><p>I am guessing it is probably also skill dependend (cures & deathsave used at the right time, positioning etc)?</p><p>What is people's experience?</p><p>Thx.</p>

[JenoJeno]

<p>I have a bit of trouble on fights like "Vaclaz hardmode" but other than that, most fights go smooth</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Can't speak for Underfoot Depths, but my experience everywhere else is that you simply need to pay a bit more attention to your pet, and not much else. Waansu you do have to position your pet correctly though, or it will die to that one AE.</p><p>In general: use your heal spell to keep your pet healed and cured (if your healer's group cures don't cure it for whatever reason), use an Iilsaad's Control Rod if you're struggling, and just pay attention to your pet like you would on any other fight. Hard mode fights tend to get easier once they become farm status.</p>

[Faeydien]

<p>Holy Cow... I just looked up that Iilsaad's Control Rod on LootDB. Man, that would be a sweet item to solo with. Would make my tank pet a BEAST <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" /></p>

[JenoJeno]

<p>I've tested it, it doesn't do much tbh...</p><p>at least for me</p>

[Faeydien]

<p><cite>Oonej@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've tested it, it doesn't do much tbh...</p><p>at least for me</p></blockquote><p>Even with a mastered T9 tank pet with a complete SOLO AA build?</p>

[Masuma]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Can't speak for Underfoot Depths, but my experience everywhere else is that you simply need to pay a bit more attention to your pet, and not much else. Waansu you do have to position your pet correctly though, or it will die to that one AE.</p><p>In general: use your heal spell to keep your pet healed and cured (if your healer's group cures don't cure it for whatever reason), use an Iilsaad's Control Rod if you're struggling, and just pay attention to your pet like you would on any other fight. Hard mode fights tend to get easier once they become farm status.</p></blockquote><p>thank you, that sounds good <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Banditman]

<p>Iilsaad's Control Rod is a nice tool, but it isn't going to enable your pet to strait tank something it couldn't before.</p>

[Alfeo]

<p>Pet does die on occasion but most of the time its not a problem. If you have decent healers it'll usually be okay with just group cures/heals. Don't have decent healers? Well then its also np because you'll have died to the hard mode AE with the rest of your group and/or raid before you have the time to worry about your pet.</p><p>Some fights are easier than others, and I'd definitely make good use of dimensional storage since that'll help.</p><p>Granite avatar sounds attractive but every item that has it also has a Destructive forces item that can go in that slot and so I probably wouldn't use any Granite Avatar crap.</p><p>And Yes, Vaclaz is one of the more annoying fights for the pet <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[JenoJeno]

<p><cite>Aaen@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Oonej@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've tested it, it doesn't do much tbh...</p><p>at least for me</p></blockquote><p>Even with a mastered T9 tank pet with a complete SOLO AA build?</p></blockquote><p>Well since i dont run around with my tank pet since it dps's like a lvl 1 conj, I would much rather just gear towards max dps and just kite sh*t around with my mage pet... works more effectively for me</p>

[Riggly]

The Rod has a poor ward refresh rate. You really have to root/snare joust to solo some thing, but its pretty nice.

[Masuma]

<p>So I have been raiding with a new guild for the last 2 months. So far I did not have real problems with the survivability of my pet. It dies sometimes but I learned to love death saves and often squeeze them into the timewarp period.</p><p>What I find very annoying is that SOE designs encounters where we can not use our mage pet (refering to Vaclaz easy mode where killing the adds that belong to the same encounter as the named would trigger hard mode) but fail to make the scout pet a viable choice. It takes a lot of focus to keep the scout pet alive and even if it does not die, my DPS is really bad in this fight. Luckily, Vaclaz easy mode does not have many hitpoints and unless stuff goes wrong, it is a quick fight. I seriously considered not sending in my pet at all, so I can focus on personal dps and the raid and me can benefit from the pet's buffs rather than on taking care of the fragile scout pet.</p><p>People said before in this thread that the the vaclaz fight was tricky for us (when it comes to pet survivability). I wonder, did you refer to easy or hard mode? We did not kill hard mode yet, did try it once though and from what I have seen so far, it is not a very difficult fight?</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Vaclaz Released and Energized Taehric Construct can both be pretty tricky to keep a pet alive on.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>You can use your Mage pet on Vaclaz easy if your guild does enough single target DPS to strait burn him before the AE's kill the adds.  When learning the encounter, what I found helpful was to have an Aery Hunter in Dimensional Storage and start out with a Mage pet.  When the adds get to about 50% health, kill the Mage pet and use the Hunter in combination with Iilsaad's Control Rod.</p>

[Masuma]

<p>thanks for the tips <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Think Vaclaz HM will be one of our next targets so hopefully we will not have to deal with easymode too often anymore.</p>