Hercules, aggro and skills

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Blancheneige - Heavens Tear
Blancheneige - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,494 Arc User
edited December 2008 in Venomancer
Is the "pounce" skill that comes with the Hercules enough for it to keep aggro? 60 seconds cooldown is a lot, and I'm afarid it will not keep aggro very well. Should it be replaced by a skill developping more aggro? Like bash for exemple.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Thanks Brit for the sig b:laugh
Post edited by Blancheneige - Heavens Tear on

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  • Tawonda - Heavens Tear
    Tawonda - Heavens Tear Posts: 55 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    The pounce skill I was a bit uncertain about in the beginning. I even tried to upgrade it but Mrs. Zoologist would not allow me to upgrade any skills on my Herc. Not sure why and I'm going to see if I can get an anser on that soon. However, my Herc has no problems what so ever holding aggro even when I go all out. Initially I was hitting every now and then trying to pace my damage but as I used him more and more I found I could just nuke as much as I wanted to. Archers however are aggro magnets and will pull aggro if they go all nutz on the mob the Herc is hitting on.

    Things to remember about Herc...

    1 - When summoned he his buffs are not initially up. However the Pounce skill still works fine. If you have the time after you summon hit the Refelect skill then soon as Herc has the mobs attention then use your PDef and MDef to finish his buffs.

    2- Give Herc a round or two to gain aggro. He has a harder time of building up aggro it seems than my Magmite but once he has it your all set.

    3- When soloing bosses like Silver <something> (Wolf in the Dismal room for the Generals Quest) your pretty much nuking now and then while you are healing so aggro is not an issue.

    4- I soloed Kimsa for a group yesterday and after Herc got aggro they went all out on him and Herc maintained aggro with little problems. I was also in a group with another Veno and we just healed Herc as we killed Kong. Herc had no problems at all keeping aggro in that group and Kong went down pretty darn fast.

    5- If an Archer does go all nutz on the mob your tanking and the mob decides he'd rather have Archer for lunch than your pet then I think the Archer got exactly what he wanted. People need to learn to pace themselves and if you do gain aggro, it may just be a good time to stop attacking so the tank can regain aggro.
  • Foxgodz - Heavens Tear
    Foxgodz - Heavens Tear Posts: 71 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    That was something I considered as well.Herc holds agro well with pounce but not as good as with bash.Though trowing the DooDo like stun from pounce away doesn't seem like a good idea,nor any of its other skills XD.

    The only time I have a problem on holding agro is when im fighting high level bosses with my herc lower level then it.If I use too much nukes I take over the agro.I think as it comes closer to my level he would hold agro a bit better.
  • Blancheneige - Heavens Tear
    Blancheneige - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,494 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    Tawonda - Heavens Tear wrote: »
    The pounce skill I was a bit uncertain about in the beginning. I even tried to upgrade it but Mrs. Zoologist would not allow me to upgrade any skills on my Herc. Not sure why and I'm going to see if I can get an anser on that soon.

    Thanks for your input on that.

    As for the lvel 2 Pounce, you cannot raise it more than that. Skill description state that the max level for this skill is 2.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Thanks Brit for the sig b:laugh
  • Mua - Lost City
    Mua - Lost City Posts: 546 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    http://i34.tinypic.com/1zj4gk.jpg

    9000 hours in MS Paint FTW

    The skills:

    1- Pounce Level 2 - 80% chance for 3 second stun
    2 - Strong Level 5 - 150% phy defense for an hour
    3- Protect Level 5- 150% mag defense for an hour
    4- Reflect Level 5 - Reflect 70% of melee damage for an hour

    The Herc is awesome, no worries about maxing skills, very little need for healing even on mobs several levels above him.. already I can see that he's worth the money and we haven't even started soloing FBs yet b:laugh

    EDIT:

    Level 26 and just tanked Farng with about 5 heals total. For any venos thinking about getting the Herc, imagine an elite mob/boss. Yansheng, Farng, Krixxix, Suzerix- tough battles, and usually ones where a PT is needed. Now imagine controlling the elite mob. That's how good this thing is! Seriously, I even started to watch heroes during the fight, Alt+Tabbed to throw on a few heals then let him get to work.
    Mua - 8x WF - Conqueror
  • Daji - Heavens Tear
    Daji - Heavens Tear Posts: 127 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    Switch out the Pounce skill for Bash or FB and level as your pet level, leave the rest of his skill unchange. It hold better aggro.

    I went with bash since it 8 sec cool down and does double of his attack. Holding aggro very well unless I criti.
  • Foxygoth - Heavens Tear
    Foxygoth - Heavens Tear Posts: 119 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    I opted to learn flesh ream which is now lvl 5 and it holds aggro perfectly now :)
    foxygoth-lvl92- arcane veno

    ElfyGoth-lvl 65-support cleric
  • Eredhel - Heavens Tear
    Eredhel - Heavens Tear Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    I swapped my Pounce skill out for Bash, so far my Herc has no problem holding aggro at all :-)

    Next question though, is it at all possible to rearrange pet skills on the skills bar? It doesn't seem possible (just end up moving the whole bar).
  • Mua - Lost City
    Mua - Lost City Posts: 546 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    Eredhel - Heavens Tear wrote: »
    Next question though, is it at all possible to rearrange pet skills on the skills bar? It doesn't seem possible (just end up moving the whole bar).

    I don't think so, and that is exactly why I'm hesitant to give my Herc the bash skill. I would like to just switch Pounce for that extra damage but the problem is that it would be last in the skill line up, and when summoned the default "auto-skill" would probably be the first buff.

    With my Shaodu Cub, changing the auto-skill to Bash cost me an extra second for luring and that usually gave the faster/ranged mobs a chance to hit me. b:surrender

    Of course in theory you can just send out the pet and then change the skill after it has successfully drawn aggro, but with my cub I found that the pounce skill almost always glitched so the pet kept on using it and ignored Bash unless I actually unsummoned it, re-summoned and set Bash to automatic use before it attacked again.
    Mua - 8x WF - Conqueror
  • Blancheneige - Heavens Tear
    Blancheneige - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,494 Arc User
    edited December 2008
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    Ok, so after a few days of testing, I've come to the conclusion that the poiunce skill is not very effective to keep aggro.

    There are no problem when the mobs are dealing purely physical damage. The attacks of the Herc + the damage reflected back is more than enough for it to keep aggro.

    The problem come with ranged/magic/mixed attack mobs. The attack + reflect simply dont deal enough damage to keep aggro.

    So.. I'm wondering what would be best to replace pounce with :

    1 - Bash (lvl 5) : +200% base physical damage to one attack, with a 8 secs cooldown

    0r

    2 - Pierce (level 5) : decrease physical defense of enemy by 36% for 15 seconds, with a cooldown of 30 seconds.

    Given the good attack speed of the Herc, I'm wondering if Pierce would not be a better alternative to develop more aggro vs a mob....
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Thanks Brit for the sig b:laugh

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