Flesh Ream or Bash?

WritersBlock - Sanctuary

Flesh Ream or Bash? Which pet skill hold aggro better? b:surrender

I'll been looking at other threads which say that bash holds aggro better, however there was a fairly recent time in TT (I believe it was 1-1): A lvl 90 plus barb was tanking so I decided to pull out my loveable kowlin to help debuff...

I have bash, flesh ream, pierce, and howl on Flufkins. Bash is the my auto-attack and I usually hit flesh ream after it has cooled down. Bashing was fine, but when I went to hit flesh ream...b:bye Flufkins. She stole aggro from the barb.

Now I know that damage gets nerfed in there but pet damage does not.

And I've run TT's before with my buddy, a lvl 100 barb, but NEVER, ever has my pet stolen aggro from the barb. And I usually used my glacial walker which also has flesh ream (icicle on auto). And I always spammed that once it cooled down.

That was before I had my kowlin though...and I was lvl 50ish when I did those TT runs. I am and was lvl 69 when Flufkins did the whoopsie aggro steal b:surrender.

Oh and, I keep my pets all leveled too.

Help please b:surrender

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear

the difference between a level-50 pet and a level-69 one is considerable, especially if you keep their skills leveled up too. level-4 bashes do a lot more than level-3 ones.

as well, the difference between bash on its own and bash+ream may be enough to tip the aggro balance from barely-on-the-barb to over-on-the-pet. bash DOES generate more aggro than ream if spammed --- but not very much more; it's a small difference. large enough to be significant, but not large enough to be called huge, and it's mostly because of bash having a shorter cooldown giving higher DPS.

WritersBlock - Sanctuary

b:thanks thank you

XxXJaneXxX - Raging Tide

Flesh Ream generates more Aggro overtime as it is considered a DOT which does more dmg than Bash. Bash is more commonly used to snatch aggro due to the instant dmg it caused which increased the aggro generated instantly. (Taking into consideration both are level 4)

You would have noticed the difference while grinding as most mob (same or lower level than yourself) should not last 10 secs against you. In this case, Flesh Ream had not run its full aggro generation and the mob is dead. Bash would have generated enough aggro for your pet to be tanking and you killing it before you over-aggroed.

In your scenario where you mentioned Bash & Flesh Ream was both used, though most barb should not have their aggro stolen, it can still be a case where your pet over-aggro.

I had been to TT with some barbs that I cannot even activate Bash (they are level 90+ too)... Hence, it may not be your fault for overaggroing. b:chuckle

You just so happened to meet a failed barb. b:shutup

Desdi - Sanctuary

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear wrote: »

the difference between a level-50 pet and a level-69 one is considerable, especially if you keep their skills leveled up too. level-4 bashes do a lot more than level-3 ones.

as well, the difference between bash on its own and bash+ream may be enough to tip the aggro balance from barely-on-the-barb to over-on-the-pet. bash DOES generate more aggro than ream if spammed --- but not very much more; it's a small difference. large enough to be significant, but not large enough to be called huge, and it's mostly because of bash having a shorter cooldown giving higher DPS.

Just to add a few more information.

It has been proven in the past by Solandri that all the pet attack skills generate the same amount of aggro. I trust Solandri's numbers very much as they have been proven to be correct most of the time, if not all the time.

Bash can be used more often than Flesh Ream and I don't know if the DoT of Flesh Ream generates aggro. I strongly believe it does but it's probably a minor amount and thus it doesn't surpass Bash as the overall aggro generating skill (if we were to compare both skills for 1 whole minute during a boss fight).

Using Bash and Flesh Ream, the latter right after the first generates quite a lot of aggro. On a [?] boss at least, were there is not damage penatly for the pets, it will often result in aggro stealing from Barbarians even at higher levels.

My Kowlin was able to steal aggro from FCC bosses even with very good Barbarians tanking of lvl95+. In my case though, it was a Kowlin with Claw using Flesh Ream. Sometimes I see Claw as Bash, in a way.
During another FCC, I was tanking the bishop boss with my Hercules and we had another Venomancer who was using Glacial Walker. The Walker stole aggro in the end by using Icecle and Flesh Ream.

Phoenix_Eye - Heavens Tear

I strongly believe every Bleed Tick from flesh ream does build aggro , it was tested by me some months ago with my Dark wanderer , while the bleed effect was on , i stole aggro from pet with venomous ( it was earth mob , Mutinous Prisoner) , but after the bleed tick mob returned to my pet ( Pet didnt attack so it couldnt be a normal attack that made it to get mob's aggression)

Desdi - Sanctuary

Hm I see.
So my theory was right. I'm not good enough at maths to calculate the overall damage though.
I do remember preventing mobs from reseting during pulls due to Flesh Ream but I wasn't completely sure if the DoT aggro is good enough. Perhaps, this will remain a mystery XD