<p>Playing the defiler i notice the pet just seems to eat up my group wards.</p><p>Even with that "aoe" protection, if they get hit once, there goes my group ward.</p><p>So should i just give up with the pet and put the AAs into something else?</p>

<p>Check you ACT, pets do more than you think.  My pet rarely dies in raid.</p>

<p>In a raid setting, my pet almost never dies.  The times it might die is in a joust situation where the main NPC becomes rooted until the joust is over with (during which he might directly target and waylay my pet if I don't pull him off first).  </p><p>In heroic encounters, it's really hit or miss due to the overuse of AOE autoattack that is on everything.  Usually I'm able to keep the dog alive just fine on heroic content but he is more of a liability there.  Malicious Spirits goes a long way to alleviate that.</p><p>Either way, the dog line is one of the best investments for AA you can make.  You can avoid all of the deaths and wasted wards by simply paying attention to where you position the dog on an encounter--make sure he's always behind and he won't get hit by any AOE autoattacks.  He'll still die now and again, but he is immensely useful when up and attacking.</p>

<p><cite>Koinoo@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>In a raid setting, my pet almost never dies.  The times it might die is in a joust situation where the main NPC becomes rooted until the joust is over with (during which he might directly target and waylay my pet if I don't pull him off first).  </p><p>In heroic encounters, it's really hit or miss due to the overuse of AOE autoattack that is on everything.  Usually I'm able to keep the dog alive just fine on heroic content but he is more of a liability there.  Malicious Spirits goes a long way to alleviate that.</p><p>Either way, the dog line is one of the best investments for AA you can make.  You can avoid all of the deaths and wasted wards by simply paying attention to where you position the dog on an encounter--make sure he's always behind and he won't get hit by any AOE autoattacks.  He'll still die now and again, but he is immensely useful when up and attacking.</p></blockquote><p>Agree here.  Even though you have to pay attention and back Dogdog out for most AoE's, he offers a lot of useful abilities.   If the Dog is soaking up your entire group ward, I'd revisit either your spell quality, your AA's and/or your gear vs. the content you are doing.    </p><p>I'm a medium/decent Defiler who is also medium/decently geared, and I don't have any trouble with the Dog taking up 'all' my group wards and/or dying.   In raids where we know when the AoE is going to hit, I just have his attack and back off buttons on my hotbar, and I joust him away at the same time I go (just a click you can do running).    In heroics, it's situational, but my wards and heals are usually more than enough to cover the fights.</p><p>He's not really a 'set and forget' pet - he's more like an ability you have to decide when best to use ...at least for this expansion. </p>

<p>Dog dog is awesome, the only people who don't understand its value are those who don't know how to use it properly.</p>