Pet Aggro Inconsistencies

[xmaerx]

Was tempted to make this post in the "Bug Reports" forum, but I don't have more than personal observation and I'd like to hear some input from people who have been playing longer.

There are some weird stuff going on with pet aggro, in two pretty distinct situations which may be related:

1. On Pull

2. During Fight

On pull, pets seem to do some sneaky trick that I *thought* was taunt. Nearly anything cast before the pet engages is entirely ignored aggro-wise against whatever the pet does in the first instant of a fight. I can mez, tash, slow, and pet will instantly snap it. Even non-tank pets have this scenario going on. There seems to be some limit to this, since.. 4-5 slow resists will allow me to retain aggro occasionally, but this seems far beyond anything a player taunt might be able to accomplish, and it works without fail. I'm wondering if the hate list isn't being established until AFTER the mob has been engaged or something. Or if there is a separate hate list for pets and for players.

This leads me to the next and primary situation, using a duo as an example.

During a fight, a pet holds aggro extraordinarily well. Unless a player is engaged in melee range. A pet can beat a mob down 10% health and hold aggro from a mid-pull tash. A pet and a player in melee range can bring a mob down to 80% health, with the pet doing nearly twice as much total damage by that point, and the same tash will rip aggro without a doubt, from both the pet and the duo partner.

Seems explainable by the following

When a player is in aggro range of a mob and a pet is engaged, the mob actively chooses to consider player aggro OVER pet aggro, because a pet is not supposed to hold aggro off of a player within aggro range. That is intended. However, I suspect this mechanic is suspending the pet's ability to hold aggro at all, from anyone, as long as any player is engaged in melee range.

This results in a scenario where the pet's aggro is ignored entirely, the mob is ripped off the player in melee range by the other player, despite the pet having significantly more aggro than either player, and the mob will run to attack the pet's master. As soon as the mob leaves the range of the melee player, the next hit by the pet will THEN allow the pet's aggro to be considered against the pet's master, (sometimes?) until a player in melee range generates threat again.

This results in some ping-pong bullshit, despite the pet having more aggro than both players combined.

TL;DR People at range should not be able to rip aggro off of a pet with MORE AGGRO. Other players being in melee range should not disable pet aggro against anyone not in melee range. Telling melee not to engage so pet can hold aggro from people at range doesn't seem classic to me.

Not sure what the best solution should be math wise, but it probably involves adding the pet's aggro to anyone in melee range, minus the player in melee range's original aggro or something.