cleric disciple companion getting all the aggro

cohrock

I am level 51 Rogue, generally using a level 15 cleric disciple companion. The problem is that the companion seems to get the lion's share of the aggro even though the rogue is doing 95% of the damage. My Bait and Switch double doesn't seem to change the aggro she gets, and the Smoke Bomb power doesn't either. How can I have the rogue maintain most of the aggro during soloing?

It's doubly frustrating because the rogue is basically a melee fighter while the cleric tries to move away from foes, and the foes chase her. That means that I'm constantly chasing the foes around the battle area instead of usually being able to focus on them where they are.

pitshade

As far as I can tell, rogues generate less threat than expected as some sort of hidden class feature. This is completely separate from the Heroic and Executioner feats. My main rogue used to have those, I got rid of them and the problem didn't really go away. In party content, if you are just attacking one elite you will get aggro from them generally because the damage you're doing builds up higher (solo strength mobs would be dead by the point that they focus entirely on you.)

The other side of the coin is that the cleric disciple in particular and companions in general seem to draw a lot of aggro (I've had my dire wolf get aggro despite doing poor damage) The cleric is worse because her healing generates threat significantly faster than a striker companion's damage as the healing is much higher quality. Pre Mod 2, a rogue could use this to her advantage by stacking HP and regen on the cleric and using them as a tank. (Hello combat advantage) but now they've changed the Cleric's AI. Previously, she would try to facetank everything and stand still. Now, since she moves around so much, it can be pretty frustrating trying to chase down stuff (not to mention the CD aggroing other mobs).

At your level, my advice would be to find another companion and stack life steal and/or regen. Using only Green Gear, you can get really high levels of either without sacrificing damage much. Use dazing strike, smoke bomb and/or shadowstrike to avoid damage as much as you can and let your passive healing handle what's left. If you don't have better quality companions, go for the 2gp tanks (man-at-arms, shieldmaiden) and stack them with HP and regen. If you can get a mimic that would be even better. If you don't mind buying Zen, the Galeb Duhr is supposed to be really good.