Disappointed with Roar pet skill... advice??

Posts: 7 Arc User
edited June 2009 in Venomancer
My hope was.... send golem into a crowd of mobs, ROAR to draw AOE aggro, then heal/DMG [noxious gas] for multiple kills - ie solo AOE grinding.

I'm lvl 64 with lvl 7 pet heal, lvl 7 Noxious Gas, and lvl 64 Crystalline Magmite which has lvl 4 Roar. All testing was done on Mythical Wolfkins (phys mobs with lots of HP for testing) with Bash turned off.

These tests were done several times, but I list them this way to show my conclusions....

1- Pet attacks mob #1 once, pet attacks mob #2 once, pet is left to keep attacking mob #3.
- If i spam heal, all 3 mobs stick to the pet until the target mob moves, then 1 or both of the others will run at me.
- If I cast noxious gas, then mobs will attack me immediately

2- Same as test 1, but I spam Roar on the target mob.
- When I spam heal, mobs seem to stick to pet even when target mob moves.
- HERE's the SURPRISE..... when I cast Noxious Gas, both secondary mobs attack me immediately.
CONCLUSION: Roar has minimal if any AOE aggro holding power.

3- 2 mobs are close together. I send pet to attack one with Roar. I cast Noxious Gas right away. The target mob who is "Roared" sticks to pet while the other immediately attacks me.
CONCLUSION: Roar has minimal if any AOE aggro Pulling power.

I spent 665,000 coins to add Roar and lvl it to 4, only to have it do nothing that I had hoped!! At best, i am able to cycle through the mobs and have pet Bash/Roar alternately and thus keep aggro well, while I spam heal and AOE dmg as I can.

BUT, I wanted Roar to PULL multiple mobs, then HOLD those mobs while I AOE them and heal pet.

Question: Can Roar not do this?

Questions 2: Can a different pet skill do this?

Ug.... I'm pretty disappointed with this skill. What a waste of coins!
Post edited by BlaqueSheep - Dreamweaver on

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Comments

  • Posts: 118 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    welcome to veno aoe. Your right, roar is b:surrender but better than nothing when **** hits the fan.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Posts: 2,327 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    My understanding with Roar is that it's a targeted ability, not an AoE ability.


    Only Reflect + pet hitting each mob once has the ability to hold aggro against Noxious Gas.


    If there is more than one mob I usually have the pet hit the first one, switch to the next, and repeat until all mobs are aggroed to the pet, and then single target nuke them down + healing, or just burn the first one down as fast as possible, and then switch to the next while healing the pet.

    My Eldergoth Marksman has Roar, and I always feel like it would be better to replace it with a damage dealing skill, or something other than Roar.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Posts: 389 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    No pet skill is AOE. Roar only affects the target mob. The only skill that can hold multiple mobs is Reflect and that only works on melee mobs. Plus, the damage/aggro generated from Reflect alone is only enough to let you heal your pet. If you start attacking mobs your pet hasn't attack, they will come after you.

    No skill can pull multiple mobs. You have to let your pet attack each mob at least once before you start AOEing so he has generated enough aggro to keep the mobs on him.

    Roar is used when your pet does not have aggro and needs it immediately. Like if you're in a run and the tank dies. You need your pet to grab aggro immediately so the Cleric can res the tank. Never in any situation spam Roar. That actually hurts you. Roar resets the target's aggro level to a hidden value. The higher the skill level the higher the value. So when you use Roar, if say an Archer crits right after and does more damage than that value they can and will steal aggro. Everytime you use Roar, aggro gets reset. So by spamming Roar you are not building aggro and are actually putting the squad at risk.
  • Posts: 2,843 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    Others have pretty accurately explained what Roar does so I'll just add:

    If you're thinking of adding a regular skill (i.e. not from Dragon Temple) to a primary pet, use one of the pet sites and find a regular pet which has the skill you're interested in. Go and tame that pet and try out the skill before you sink a few 100k into putting it on your golem or cub or whatever.

    Roar also has one other use which I've outgrown so I'll reveal. You can use it to have your pet tank a mob while a low-level alt or friend kills it. Because the skill does no damage, the low-level player will get the kill and the exp. I'll leave it up to the reader to come up with creative uses for that. To whet your appetite: the best use I came up with made me a pretty good amount of money before I started cat shopping. b:chuckle No way I would ever take it off my golem.
  • Posts: 1,430 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    You're thinking of what Roar does for a Barbarian, although our pet skill shares the same name with the Barb skill it doesn't do the same thing. It's still a decent skill though.

    The closest you're going to get to ae aggro is reflect either on a herc, or buying the scroll and putting it on a pet and that's not all that much aggro.
  • Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    My gas is level 3, I still steal aggro sometime. so I am sure level 7 will steal aggro everytime. lol, 2 friends says I am a failed veno because my AoE level is too low. but most of the time I play AoE solo, so my gas will be level 3 for a long time.
  • Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    Wow - thanks for all the great feedback.

    Ug, I'm more disappointed than ever now. No AOE aggro pet skill.... b:cry

    The reson this all came up is for TT60, actually. I got tired of trying to pull every mob through doorways. So, I wanted to send golem through the door, pull AOE aggro, and i could heal/DMG as needed. Looks like that won't work.

    Sounds like Herc's reflect would do that better..... and I was kind'a saving for a herc with those coins too..... b:sad

    Anyway, thx again for all the great replies!
  • Posts: 26 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    No pet skill is AOE. Roar only affects the target mob. The only skill that can hold multiple mobs is Reflect and that only works on melee mobs. Plus, the damage/aggro generated from Reflect alone is only enough to let you heal your pet. If you start attacking mobs your pet hasn't attack, they will come after you.

    No skill can pull multiple mobs. You have to let your pet attack each mob at least once before you start AOEing so he has generated enough aggro to keep the mobs on him.

    Roar is used when your pet does not have aggro and needs it immediately. Like if you're in a run and the tank dies. You need your pet to grab aggro immediately so the Cleric can res the tank. Never in any situation spam Roar. That actually hurts you. Roar resets the target's aggro level to a hidden value. The higher the skill level the higher the value. So when you use Roar, if say an Archer crits right after and does more damage than that value they can and will steal aggro. Everytime you use Roar, aggro gets reset. So by spamming Roar you are not building aggro and are actually putting the squad at risk.

    i thought nix bleed was aoe
  • Posts: 4,206 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    i thought nix bleed was aoe

    Just looks like that.... Same with fireball... which made me sad when i found it did not shoot fireballs....... (long long ago)
    Too often we loose sight of life's simple pleasures. Remember, when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, BUT, it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and slap that mother#$@%#^! upside the head.
  • Posts: 389 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    i thought nix bleed was aoe

    LOL. If Nix bleed was AOE, the whole PWI population would've been up in arms a long time ago. There would be so many more QQ threads than there there already is now.
  • Posts: 406 Arc User
    edited June 2009
    Roar is useful to grab Aggro from one creature in order to keep it off you or your friends (VERY USEFUL IN FB's). It is not meant to do what you are trying to do with it. It really does not need more than one level TBH though...

    Holding Aggro requires that you have either done more damage to the creature than anyone else hitting it or that you inflict a particularly aggravating status ailment (like stun). It is a tricky thing and it is what makes Barbs more of a Tank than ANY pet you will EVER have (even Herc).

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