How does necro aggro work?

[luckynclover]

Trying to figure out how aggro works with necros in relation to when i cast spells and aggro from my pet? So say i attack a yellow con mob ill send in my pet. About when can i actually start applying my dots to said mob without ripping aggro from my skelli? Seems like anytime i cast a spell before 75% i get instant rippage?

Can someone give me a quick how to of when to apply spells so that i dont rip aggro from my pet? thank you!

[stonebeard22]

Um, if you cast anything really before 80% you will pull agro, you should be either fear kiting in an open area or reverse kiting with pet taunt off and disease cloud.

It's pretty rare that you wont pull agro on your pet.

[tristantio]

The pre-level 12 DOT set (Poison bolt, clinging darkness, disease cloud) will typically not pull agro from your pet as long as you let pet get mob down to 80% or so.

If you sit you are more likely to be attacked, so if you plan to sit (after dots) make sure you let pet do a little more damage.

At level 12 you get strong DOTS and I think you should let pet get mob to 50 or 60% to avoid agro (just test with trial and error).

At level 16 you get Feign Death which means you can go nuts on dots and just periodically FD to wipe agro (unless FD mechanics are different than on live/what I remember).

[luckynclover]

ok good advice all thank you so so far im getting dont spell till mininum 80% use fd when i get it and reverse kite sounds good thank you

[baalzy]

What level are you? if you're 20 or less, your pet regens HP pretty fast and its worthwhile to just let it do a lot of the tanking and then drop a DoT or two to finish it off once your pet has melee'd it to 60% or so.

Otherwise, if you're in a wide open area, agro kiting works (I found fear to not be as effective as it should be until lvl 25+ and this was before the recent funkiness with resist rates)

[canardvc]

It also depends on the level of your pet. I noticed that if I had the lower level pet (of my max level pet spell that is) and would send it to attack a mob and sit, it would be sufficient to grab aggro, even if it did like 10% damage on the mob.

Then having max level pet is VERY important, also depending on your level give him 2 weapons so he can dual wield (gnoll hide lariat - stun proc weapons - are fun toys). Pets start dual wielding at what, level 20 ?

At level 29 with max level 29 (pet spell) pet, I 'd be able to land my highest fire based DOT on a mob with 90% HP with no problem. If I needed to burst DPS, i'd land my highest darkness line DOT and would FD, sitting immediately after that : Pet keeps aggro.

[luckynclover]

oh im only level 5 atm i just wanted to learn this early so i get it understood before i start moving on to bigger badder things

[quellren]

Trying to figure out how aggro works with necros in relation to when i cast spells and aggro from my pet? So say i attack a yellow con mob ill send in my pet. About when can i actually start applying my dots to said mob without ripping aggro from my skelli? Seems like anytime i cast a spell before 75% i get instant rippage?

Can someone give me a quick how to of when to apply spells so that i dont rip aggro from my pet? thank you!

Here's the rule of thumb I go by: If your DoT's outdmg your pet, you pull aggro. Spells that snare, or Lifetap get a '3x' modifier. I err on the side of caution. Simple math in your head will set you on your way to a solid gut-feel by your early 30's.
For example, If your pet can hit for 20, and your intended opening Darkness does 20/tick, then I'd let my pet get in about 80 damage before I cast, when it hits the pet has done 100 dmg and I should be safe. Just don't sit down immediately after you cast.
I generally open with Darkness so even if it does pull aggro hes comin' slow and I can FD.
I'd estimate I use FD at some point in 90% of encounters.