So tank pet is still worthless?

[Dorai]

<p>I was trying to duo a ^^heroic 2 levels higher than my Defiler (I mentored down) and it nomed right through my tank pet despite all the heals both could put out. I was around back when someone had the brilliant idea of making NPCs have 0 mitigation and it made tank pets, our defensive stance, and pet heals totally worthless, and this seems not to have changed. </p><p>On the flip side, I've read stuff about people healing their pets to full from 5% with one conj/nec based pet heal. Is the disconnect L90/DoV gear, or are tank pets/stances/pet heals still worthless?</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>What mob <em>specifically</em> were you trying to take down? What level is your Conjuror and Defiler? Are your AA choices selected properly, or are they fairly random?</p><p>Back in the Sentinel's Fate days I had very little problem romping through the Contested Hole on my Conjuror with a boxed Warden using the tank pet, taking down yellow cons. Just about every named in the zone was fair game, minus a few troublesome ones. Heck, back when level 80 was the cap, it was possible to solo Terror and Dracoliche in the Shard of Fear (and they're both level 75+ epic x2 mobs).</p><p>Some of it is gear based, but the vast majority of it is your AA selection and whether you have a full array of Mastered out spells or not. Having a Master tank pet makes a <em>gigantic</em> difference.</p>

[Dorai]

<p>"The Sky Watcher"</p><p>He was easily kitable with WoV, and went down like a chump with Plane Shift. (Killed him a number of times now.) Pet is Expert but seemed to have no mitigation. Conj is a fairly standard DPS build but does not have a lot of AAs (I started when the game came out so he was at the level cap with a ton of quests done when AAs came out, mutter.) Defiler is just an alt so he has even less. Also, apparently KoS raid gear didn't make out too well in the revamp... Only have a pathetic 71 (mentored) ability mod. Also I'm just getting used to the game again so I probably was operating at maybe 50% effectiveness. >.<</p><p>Main question was just do tank pets have mitigation again or are they just HP sponges still?</p><p>Also:  good to see you're still out and about Xal.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Xalmat]

<p>The tank pet does have <em>some </em>mitigation, but it's defenses definitely don't hold up well against higher level mobs. You REALLY need to be on the ball when tackling mobs higher level than you, or otherwise very difficult mobs.</p><p>The Master tank pet makes a <em>major</em> difference defensive wise, as does mastered Defensive Haven. The proper AAs also dramatically boost pet survivability.</p><p>AAs are ludicrously easy to get. Do quests, hunt down named (both low level and higher level), do lots of missions (the Chronomagi daily missions are an excellent source of both AA from the mission itself as well as the many named you come across), explore everywhere. Participate in world event and holiday quests, they are an excellent source of AA. If you really want to grind you can also set your AA bar to 100% and just mass slaughter (although I recommend level 90 first imo).</p>

[Banditman]

<p>It sounds like you are still (basically) a KoS leveled / AA'ed Conjuror trying to solo a named, heroic, KoS mob.  It was hard back then.  Really hard.  Not everyone could do it.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Interesting to note that the latest batch of AA changes on Test allows us to give our pets 1710 mitigation to all damage.</p>

[Zephanor]

<p>I fought the Skywatcher at level 63 today and it took five tries.  So far I'm only finding the mage pet to be worth much and that's what I used but with the tankish pet AA to up it's defensive ability.  I have 100 AA currently assigned (wanna get those levels then will grind AA, heheh) with mastercrafted and crafted gear.  I found that the adds caused me trouble as did the named stifle so I killed the honor guards, stoneskined my pet on pull, unloaded my heavy stuff, survived the first stifle, healed pet, second stoneskin and burned him down as quickly as I could cast anything with damage.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>That's just being a Conjuror.  You aren't looking to last a long time against any mob.  Your best bet, always, is to kill it quickly.  Yes, there are things you can do, specifically with very high levels of AA and gear, which allow you to extend some fights, but the general rule for a Conjuror is to kill it before it kills you.</p>

[Zephanor]

<p>I meant to respond to this awhile ago... lol!  The strat you mention is the same for most everyone right?  Heheh, kill it quickly before it kills you.</p><p>In any event I'm greatly enjoying playing a conjuror.  I've hit 90, got 210 AA along with my ER buff.  Thanks to the gear unattune she inherited all of the SF armor and x2/EM DOV gear from my illy.  Soloing overland is crazy easy now (haven't hit DOV just yet but will very soon, just finished the SF timeline.)</p><p>Now I'm studying proper AA assignment, which is a work in progress since GU61 I understand, along with spell priority.  I have all master/expert mix (all pets mastered of course) and so far it looks like I'm averaging 40-60k on named in ToS (no bard and only a coercer so no illy TW.)  I know I can do better though my test pool is limited.</p><p>Lots of good information here though, thanks!</p>