Yet another pet skill advice thread

SallyJ - Heavens Tear
SallyJ - Heavens Tear Posts: 4 Arc User
edited March 2010 in Venomancer
1. Do Threaten and Slow work on bosses? I don't have any with either, ATM. I was under the impression that shriek didn't but I can't confirm for any of them with the web resources I have bookmarked.

More importantly, and not as easy to find out; to help decide the long-term worth of Boost, Threaten, and Slow:

2. Do aggro-generating debuff skills take time to cast? IoW, if a skill as a 10s cooldown (both of the above skill, IIRC), and is set as default, does it cycle every 10 seconds, or [10 + attack time] seconds?

I know, FI, that Boost and Tough appear to take an attack animation to complete, but I'm not sure if it is exactly that amount of time, if it works within that time (firing instead of an attack if activated in the middle of an attack), or if it is an illusion based on using visual game queues as observations.
Post edited by SallyJ - Heavens Tear on

Comments

  • Havilah - Sanctuary
    Havilah - Sanctuary Posts: 212 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    The buffs skill and boot don't create agro. Tough is nice for luring or if you want to use nature grace, for example, while tanking something you know don't need to hold the heal button down. Boost, nice at lower lv when your pet heal is still not as strong or you're a HA veno. I found not much use when solo tanking boss.

    Debuffs generate agro, but since boss are immune to slowing, cannot say if agro is gained there. Threaten can be a little tricky, since barb got a similar debuff, same with howl with cleric. Pierce...stay with ironwood, work much better(outside of melee veno of course). Shriek, barely played with that one on a bad pet I had for a few day. Tricky to time right and only lv5 is 100% to interrup on a 10sec cooldown. It's ever harder for a veno, since you cannot really see if the boss is channeling same time, so let's not talk about for instant cast(if you know the boss well and got a better multitasking/attention span than me, go for it if you wish, but you have to time in the pet's attack too).

    And yes, after the initial skill attack when starting a fight, every time you click a skill, there is a little delay. In part because the pet is doing a normal attack at that moment and the time it take to apply the skill(wish once again, doesn't help shriek).
  • SallyJ - Heavens Tear
    SallyJ - Heavens Tear Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    TY for the reply. Sorry for wording, there. I was making it more concise, and I guess I missed quite a bit in proof-reading. I had more to ask about at first, but was able to search and find answers to other bits, eventually. I should have removed any mention of aggro with the skill timing question.
    Tough is nice for luring or if you want to use nature grace, for example, while tanking something you know don't need to hold the heal button down.
    The unexpected and undesired happen. Tough makes those situations easier to get out of. Sometimes, it makes them possible to get out of. Other times, it reduces the amount of heals, which indirectly becomes more damage dealt. On top of that, it's equally effective in practice, regardless of how squishy or hardy the pet is. I consider the cost of Tough part of giving any pet a fair chance, at this point.

    If bosses don't get the Slow effect, Boost, of all skills, actually starts looking alright, as a defensive addition to Tough...
  • Vitenka - Dreamweaver
    Vitenka - Dreamweaver Posts: 4,125 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Slow only reduces runspeed anyway.

    And yes, most bosses are immune to it, which makes pulling them, if you're used to using slow-pull, interesting to say the least.

    I'm pretty sure that debuffs which get resisted still draw aggro though. Slow is an odd-duck for aggro anyway though, since it doesn't transfer to the veno when you unsummon the pet.

    Edit:
    I'm not sure I've seen a boss be immune to threaten, but I don't use it much anyway. Try asking in the barb forum? They have an equivalent, better, skill.

Categories