Mage pet chain summoning on Blue is broken
 

Hello all,

I know this subject has already been discussed, but it really needs adressing.

55 magician here, I was trying to get some Thurg faction in Kael a few of days ago, and I had to zone to WL after pulling a single Frost Giant Berzerker that conned GREEN to me.

I tested this with the same mob a couple times. I used max or next to max level Vocarate: Air, Vocarate: Earth or focused Greater Conjuration: Earth pets buffed with Burnout IV and Shield of Lava before the mob was pulled

The only spell I cast on that mob was a Wrath of the Elements DoT, so it's not like I'd tried to debuff it half a dozen times with Malosi. I cast no nuke, no pet heal, no DS, nothing else during the fight. Not only did that mob kill my pet with about 50% hp left but the 2nd pet I summoned would not get aggro and the mob kept chasing me and hitting me.

At the moment, the only way us mages have in theory to take on mobs that will require more than 1 pet to kill is broken. I'm not going to turn this into a class envy post & bitch about some other class being able to solo just about any mob in the game, I don't care, more power to them. I would just like to be able to play my mage the way I could on live: Chain summon and send pet after pet on a mob until it is down to 20ish% hp before I would start nuking it.

Any of the tougher mobs in the Hole are impossible to solo for a magician since chain summoning & pet aggro is broken:
golems, rats, ghosts or named elemental or any 2 dark blue cons at the same time are a big no no. This sucks when you're soloing while LFG there, like I often do.

This is just not right. I've had absolutely 0 problem with aggro pulling mobs with wrath of the Elements / Scars of Sigil, I know my pet will get aggro the second it lands a hit on a mob, but when chain summoning, unless I use an earth pet AND earth pet root lands and lasts long enough I know there is now way I can make it even if I cast next to nothing on a mob.

Wrath of Elements (DoT) is a higher aggro mechanism than pet melee. WoE is also not very mana efficient and isn't really worth your mana to cast, you'd be better off summoning a 3rd pet if it came to that.

If I had to guess what's wrong, perhaps pet taunt isn't putting the pet ahead on the hate list above the mage for the second pet?

WotR 800 dmg,/ 265 mana : 3.01DPM
Char: 702 dmg /260 mana : 2.7 DPM
Scars of Sigil: 450 dmg/ 175 mana: 2,57 DPM
Exile Summoned dmg 725/ mana 250: 2n9 DPM

Unless I suck at maths, it's better than all the nukes I could use at my level, plus it draws way less aggro

As to summoning another pet instead of casting WotE, depending on mobs, I'm not sure a pet will cause 800 dmg before it dies

If you're using a DoT you're not helping yourself. Second pet has to succeed at taunt every 6 seconds in the case that its melee doesn't generate enough aggro to outdo the hate of 90dmg of your DoT.

Try chain-petting without nuking or DoTing. Can the second pet taunt it off you?

Roll a necro. A mage is like a gimped necro, really.

No your doing this all wrong, if you cast ANY debuff,dot,DD during the fight you get on the aggro table, then once your first pet dies you then get ALL the aggro the old pet had, to chain pets you can only chain pets. Only nuke once monster is going to be killed by your final pet.

Agreed,

But if you read again my initial message, I think I wrote I also got the same aggro transfer issue and mob chasing me without my casting a single spell on it or casting any buff on my first pet

Will try again with a DDD and geonids or any mob in WL


Thanks guys

OP is not doing anything wrong. Chain petting doesn't work the way some people think it should. I have also tried it in Kedge on a 50 mage, casting absolutely no spells, and the mob beelined for me until I gated or died. I didn't cast offensive spells on the target and I didn't buff or heal the pet before summoning a second one.

From http://wiki.project1999.com/Magician#Chain_Casting
I believe the mage is being kept at the same aggro level as the pet 100% of the time and the only reason the mob doesn't come for the mage is that the pet is already in melee range. People think the mage should have minimal aggro, but that's not happening. If this tactic is, in fact, classic, then the mechanics that enable it are not in effect on P99.

Bump