Shaman Soloing With Kekn

[Estu]

So my shaman hit 34 yesterday and I got all my new spells, most notably my pet (frendz 4 lyfe). Up until now, I've been root-dotting (at least, since level 14), and now I have a lot of options available to me for soloing. Here's the list, as far as I can tell:

1) Keep root-dotting, only send Konaner in when he has the spare HP.
2) Have the pet tank full-time, keep it buffed up with all the buffs, debuff the monster with slow and possibly Listless Power. No dots. Meanwhile, I med and heal.
3) Split tanking between myself and the pet. No dots.
4) SoW kite with the pet: keep aggro on myself, have the pet beating on the mob while I run in circles. I've seen shamen doing this, I think, but I'm not entirely sure what the best way to actually keep aggro off the pet is.
5) Dot the mob while the pet tanks. Keep minimal buffs on the pet (haste, regen). Don't debuff the mob.

I've tried all of these except for SoW kiting, and I've found (5) to be the most efficient by a large margin. I hit the mob with affliction and sicken (I don't bother with scourge since it's got such a huge duration) and have the pet beat on it. I don't need to spend mana on roots since the pet can hold aggro over these two dots. For the mobs I've been working on, the dots get about 14 ticks in before the mob dies, which is close enough to their max duration to be very efficient, I think. Also, the mob dies fast enough through the combined efforts of Lobarer and the dots that I don't feel as though it's necessary to debuff it or go the full monty with buffing the pet.

Here's why I like option 5 and why I feel like it's better than the other options I have available to me right now. First, I don't need to manage aggro. If I'm going with something like option 2, it gets messy because the debuffs draw so much aggro; I'm then forced to root the mob, often multiple times, which is extra mana spent. Second, I can meditate. My weapon is not super-impressive (a gloomwater harpoon), and I feel like the mana I gain by medding is more worthwhile than the damage I do by meleeing. Three, it's fast. I've found this to be the overall fastest method right now, allowing me to hold down a camp of three dark blues around level 30 with only about 30 seconds between each kill and the next pop. It's actually been so effective that I've found myself full HP/mana sometimes; when this happens, I can head in and poke the monster a few times with the harpoon.

So my question is, as a shaman soloing with a pet, which option did you find to be most effective (keep in mind that I am pretty much just geared in totemic and banded - see my signature) and to what extent does the most effective strategy change as you level up from 34 to 50? Also, how heavy do you go with buffs? I'm just going with regen, sow, and quickness on the pet, and regen, quickness (for timing on the pet's buff duration), fury, and sow on myself. I tried going whole hog with buffs but it didn't seem to make much of a difference for the extra mana and time spent keeping them up. Right now, the pet is dark blue (when I get a good summon, anyway), which was really surprising to me. I assume that this is not the case with later pets? Also, what options do I have for powerful proccing weapons at 50 as an ogre?

[ransom16]

I generally slow the mob on pull, then root it. I let my pet beat on it, and I sit at maxed ranged and stand up to hit a few times between mana ticks. Works great for me. If I fall behind I canni, and regen. 0 downtime!

[quellren]

A max lvl summon pet is surprisingly durable. more-so than what I remember from live. I was totally prepared to have an SK-type pet but that wasn't the case.

My usual MO is to buff the pet up with Talisman and dex and sometimes haste and regen. If its a tough target like even con or yellow, I send the lil guy in, and after he's made a few rounds and get a feel for how the fight is gonna go I Lay on a Slow. This will pull the mob to me, so I use the low lvl root and DoT it up. When the pet gets too beat up I'll either toss him a heal or pull him off and go back to root-rotting. It's pretty effective to split tanking between me and him by rooting and stepping in and out to change who's closest and thus has aggro.

If its blue, I put the pet on it, root it and dot it up, then I sit and watch.

Essentially I use the wolf pet as an off tank, and a DoT that doesn't wear off.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by quellren [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A max lvl summon pet is surprisingly durable. more-so than what I remember from live. I was totally prepared to have an SK-type pet but that wasn't the case.

The consensus on this server seems to be that all pets are overpowered. I've heard talk that encs can also solo unusually well with their pets.

[quellren]

I'm sure my perception is a bit skewed because on live I didn't use my pet much until I was soloing in Kunark. I remember pretty much everything in Dreadlands and EJ ROFLstomping the lil guy.
Pets are OP here, for sure. I've sat and watched as my lvl 26 pet with the full stack of bufffs completely soloed a saltwater croc at the Ancient Croc camp. Zero help from me. I was simply too lazy to get up and Jabeker ended the fight with like 18% hp.
A lvl 26 pet soloing a lvl 27 or 28 mob is pretty sick.

[geom]

just slow/dot then root and tank bounce between you and your pet. root will make the mob attack whatever is standing closest

[Pyrocat]

I've found found a lot of success with this strategy:

Keep myself and the pet SoWed, and always keep a STR and Haste buff on the pet. Start fight by:

a) debuffing mob with quick cast disease debuff
2) run, cast root
3) run to max range, cast disease dot, cast poison dot
4) send in pet when root breaks
5) run, stopping to canni or root and med for a bit if needed.

If pet gains aggro, just /sit to get the mob within casting distance, then /stand and the mob will re-aggro your pet, then cast some more dots / disease debuff.

The thing that really makes this work is the disease debuff. It's low mana cost, very quick cast time, and huge aggro, plus it makes sure your long lasting disease dots don't get wasted. I soloed specs and SGs in Oasis when they were still red to me with this, but I wouldn't recommend it now that the exp bonuses on dungeons have been fixed.

Honestly the pet tank strategy doesn't work very well as your pet isn't meant to be a tank. You'll end up waiting a long time for your pet to regen hitpoints via chloro, or waste a lot of mana on your inefficient heals.