Why "Pet Hold" on a Raid??

[Saetanis]

If it's not entirely obvious - I just got into a "raiding" guild. They 'require' Pet Hold, but have made an exception for me as I told them that I have the looks and charm of Cary Grant.

I keep hearing how necessary Pet Hold is for raiding, but I can't imagine why. Pet's don't break mez anymore, nor do they generate aggro on their own without causing damage.

I assume it's for AE type spells, then the pet goes in and takes a few swipes at the boss mob? But it's not like Boner is gonna pull aggro from the Boss... and a few "back offs" and no biggie, right?

I feel quite the fool for asking, but asking is the only cure to ignorance!

Thanks -

- Saetanis

[Xislaben]

The 'back off' isn't enough when the pet is getting hit over and over again. An extra second or two and you could have several mobs on you instead of the one, and that can be a wipe. If the pet gets to the mob first, then in many cases it's holding the mob where it is, which can be bad.

I understand when you get to end-game content most won't even bring a pet ad they don't survive the AE's anyways.

Until then your 100dps is nice and all provided it doesn't do anything you don't want it to.

[Aldmare]

Another things is, without pet hold, any mob that attacks you, boner is gonna try help you out and get himself killed if you dont have him on /pet hold. This is especially annoying if you get hit, try FD and your pet goes running off at the mob trying to whack it. Same thing applies to raids, ADD_01 AE's the raid, and boner is haulin ass over to the AEer, either committing suicide, getting aggro on you while pissing off the mezzers and offtanks. Then your looking like a toolbag spamming your /pet backoff hotkey, and spamming the raid with pet messages. My 2 cents.

[Rijak]

there are also many situations where push and positioning is an issue, having pet hold allows you stop your pet from pushing the mob the wrong way without having to destroy it or annoy everyone with spam

it's also great for pet pulling... i'd have gotten it at L62 if i knew how useful it was

[rukasak]

I am sure there are more reasons to have pet hold for raids i just cant think of any at this time.... not like my guild does a lot of high end raids....

but as Rijak said about pet pulling....


there are many situations, particularly in DoN, missions or not where having pet hold is 'the nuts'. Doesn't matter if i am talking about a 'lost soul' pet or a 'green' pet. Having the ability of telling your pet to completely ignore that ravenous werewolf, that is snapping apart your pet's legbones, so that you can position your mob to your advantage is priceless.


I have seen necros post that hey they really dont need to have their pet any longer cause who cares about the loss of 100 dps. My pet is an extension of my playstyle and I have learned a great deal how to effectively use him/her (hmmm.. how do you tell what sex they are?) and DPS is not a major role.. it is just an added benefit. The pet AA's sony has given us doubled, at least, my capacity for dealing death... hey and the change to invis sure helped us a lot.

Pet hold is just a step, amongst many other steps, along that path to a perfect kill. It is an important step though.

rukasak

[hoshisabi]

There are many situations where the puller is attempting to bring a boss mob into camp, single. If the boss mob tosses out an AE, your pet will rush out to defend itself and/or you. If the boss hasn't been split from the adds yet, you could end up bringing all the adds into camp along with the boss.

The other thing that can happen is that your pet can actually engage the boss before the main assist engages, which can mess up the rampage order, because it adds an unexpected variable to the equation. The same can be said for positioning in general.

It's all about control. Having your pet doing something that is out of your complete control will make raid leaders nervous, who meticulously plan who stands where and where things are engaged. It's better to keep your raid leader comfortable.

Pet hold is just cheap, anyhow. No reason to not buy it.

[Xelgadis]

Originally posted by Aldmare@Aug 4 2005, 02:28 PM
Then your looking like a toolbag spamming your /pet backoff hotkey, and spamming the raid with pet messages. My 2 cents.
That's not so much the case anymore. With like 1 or 2 exceptions, all pet messages are sent to the master only, so there is not longer that wonderful spam that made us want to kill all pet classes that didn't have that AA. This change to pet messages came about a few patches ago, don't recall which w/o looking it up.

[Zandramadass]

I can also verify what Xelgadis said is true they did just put it in during the last patch or 2 that only the master recieves the pet command msg's.

Positioning is the biggest reason why your raiding guild will likely insist you have this. There is a standing rule in my bst guild that if you dont have pet hold you dont have a pet up at anytime during the raid.

If your puller agroes a mob and he AE's before back to the group your pet will cause the mob to stop long enough to beat him down which throws your MT off while trying to get the mob positioned.

The resulting chaos means:

Your MT takes longer to lock down agro so the mob can be positioned, debuffed, and engaged by the rest of the raid *insert large mana pools of the healers being wasted here*

or

Your raid engages before the MT has time to position which usually results in his not effectively locking down agro and the mob turns on others who over agro and causing serious riposte dmg to anyone swinging at it while mob is facing them.

or

Your MT takes longer to lock down agro while the raid impatientally waits for him to get the mob in place. This results in a nice chunk of agro on your healers trying to keep him alive and if he drops the mob will be all over them because the rest of the raid was actually patient enough to wait for him to get it positioned before engaging. Not to mention the AE's the entire raid and other pets have been enduring while waiting for the call to rush in.

[aeriform]

Yet another reason. If you use hotkeys to pet back off, you can't use your hot keys while casting. With pet hold you /pet hold before casting without worrying that your pet is going to rush a mob if you get hit by an AE during a cast.

[Jebasiz]

The biggest single reason for pet hold on raids, is so pets don't attack early due to ae's. It's just a management tool. The other stuff really comes into play when grouping...

[UsulDaNeriak]

in my guild, the guildleader or raidleader wouldnt care.
we are no uber guild, you know?

but the oldest nec would tell ya on the 1st raid immediately to make NO PET or you get kicked out of the raid NOW.

and in my guild, thats me B)

such simple.

Usul

[Errelin]

/agree

[flishtaco]

Aye spam messages gone, pet messing up pull another reason, postioning next reason.

Even if the AE doesnt pull Jebober up to mess up the pull, he can during the fight (usually with help from other pets, notably BL and mage) lock a mob up in a unfavorable area like up a wall or near a drop or were a frontal AE is now on the backend people. Without hold you wont be able to get Jebobar to immeadiatly and guarenteed get away from the mob.

[FCseven]

Ive been on a raid where someones pet caused a total wipe.Whenever I raid I make it a point not to even have a pet up (or suspend him after he gets the uber mgb buffs :) ).

[Mallakith]

I dont got pet affinity so my pet dies so often on raids i rarely have him up cept for the big dudes an even then they more a token spectre so ppl think im doing something ;-)

Pet Hold is an awesome aa anyway raids just want to make sure that pets dont go after random mobs