10-01-2005, 06:25 PM
I found early on that there was a world of difference in the pet grabbing the aggro depending on if I lead the pull with a Concussion Shot versus any other type of shot. What appears to me to be happening in the other cases is that without the slowing effect of the Concussion Shot the pet would move to where the mob was at in its closing with me, then stop and start its attack. Unfortunately though this usually meant that the mob was still closing and ended up moving out of range of the attack (or Growl) before it actually executed; making this appear as though the pet missed or had a resisted Growl (energy expended without effect). By leading with the Concussion Shot, the mob is moving slow enough at the point of interception that it is still in range of the attack when it goes off and allows the pet to snag the aggro even if it was a new pet that had no trained skills on it including Growl.
The problem of the pet holding the aggro after that point was a matter of it having enough skills that are up to date compared to where my skills and equipment are at at that point in the game. There was often a rough period when I had just picked up an up to date weapon and had just leveled while the pet was still one or two levels from being able to get its next ranks of special attacks or Growl. At those time it was the most accute for needing to do things to regulate the sustained damage output or the shots would unintentionally pull aggro off the pet part into the fight. This situation got very bad for Taunshu and Orion at around level 50 that just running autoshot with no special attacks was starting to pull aggro off if I got as many as 2 crits in the first 6 shots. At that point the only practical way to lower my own DPS enough for a time was to stop using the ammo bags and quivers to boost my firing rate. This had the side benefit of allowing the space being freed from using up ammo to then be used to hold items picked up on that run. With the newer pet abilities and talents, I can likely go back to using those quivers and pouches now.
The problem of the pet holding the aggro after that point was a matter of it having enough skills that are up to date compared to where my skills and equipment are at at that point in the game. There was often a rough period when I had just picked up an up to date weapon and had just leveled while the pet was still one or two levels from being able to get its next ranks of special attacks or Growl. At those time it was the most accute for needing to do things to regulate the sustained damage output or the shots would unintentionally pull aggro off the pet part into the fight. This situation got very bad for Taunshu and Orion at around level 50 that just running autoshot with no special attacks was starting to pull aggro off if I got as many as 2 crits in the first 6 shots. At that point the only practical way to lower my own DPS enough for a time was to stop using the ammo bags and quivers to boost my firing rate. This had the side benefit of allowing the space being freed from using up ammo to then be used to hold items picked up on that run. With the newer pet abilities and talents, I can likely go back to using those quivers and pouches now.