Mob aggro behavior with necro pet while duoing

[tpgramlich]

So, I'm trying to figure out some really weird mob behavior I've been experiencing regarding aggro while duoing with my wife on my lowbie Iksar necro (now up to lvl 14)

The jist of it is this. We will pull a mob (usually either by me pinging it with lvl 1 lifetap or her with a bow), I'll send my pet in and apply a DoT (usually poison or darkness). The mob will aggro on my pet (pet taunt is on), but it will only remain on my pet if my wife stays out of melee range of the mob. If at any point my wife is close, the mob will run for me. If she's not within melee range, it will aggro back on my pet.

This results in very bizarre behavior where she tries to follow the mob and it ends up repeatedly turning back and forth as - she enters melee range, the mob runs for me, mob leaves melee range of my wife so then turns to my pet, she follows and enters melee range again, everything repeats. If she follows slowly, remaining right at the edge of melee, the process can happen so rapidly that the mob looks like it's freaking out just twitching back and forth as it slowly makes progress toward me.

This happens whether she is attacking the mob or not, she only has to be standing within melee range of the mob. We've experienced this when I tried to duo with both her monk in FoB or her rogue in S Karana.

The only way that I've found to be able to keep the mob aggroed on my pet while she's also within melee range is to simply not cast anything on the mob at all. In that case, I'm reduced to only being able to contribute by either healing my pet with mend bones or her with dark empathy (which doesn't create the same aggro issue).

I'm baffled by this behavior. The best I can figure is that mobs somehow determine aggro toward pets differently when there are other players within melee range, but I haven't been able to find any other references to behavior like that. Years back on live I'd played pet classes and don't remember ever dealing with anything like this before. I'm assuming lots of other folks have duoed with pet classes, so I figure we can't be the only ones to experience this. What gives? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Deathrydar]

It seems that player threat that was generated on the MOB does not take effect unless a player is within melee range. Then, the MOB realizes that you are highest on the threat list and goes after you. Then when your wife goes out of melee range, your pet taunt causes the MOB to not recognize you and your wife's threat anymore.

[bradsamma]

I've never seen this behavior before.