Attuneable Gear -- Focused Pet -- Some Tests

[Mendoros07]

I decided to test some theories out for myself in regards to gear and our pets. I have read so much info but at the end of the day I wanted to prove to myself one major thing -- that essentially I don't need to add anything to my pet when I summon a fresh one OTHER than weapons, as long as I have a good focus (not testing focus types, just that I have a focus).

I made a fresh earth pet (level 84 aspect of earth). I had NO focus on me at casting -- focus EM4 was in my bags. I cast NO buffs on pet. No armor was given to the pet. I am 85 and have max pet aa's (all defensive and offensive).
I went to Sunderock Springs and decided on "a high desert basilisk" as my target mob (level 70/70).

Again a totally stripped down earth pet, no focus, buffs or armor, the mob would hit streams of 196 HP vs my pet. This was the most common hit -- not accounting for the crits etc the mob would hit my pet for. My pet was getting chewed up by these light blue cons. The earth pet would in turn hit the mob with regular melee damage and with a common 90 HP of non melee damage which I assume is its native proc.
I did this 3 more times to make sure of the 196 common hit.

I then added to the same pet ONE item of attuneable gear - elegant defiant plate greaves. This item has of interest: 2 shielding, avoidance 2 and damage shield of 2, not to mention the AC 74.
Attacked another high desert basilisk and now the "stream" of 196 was now streams of 195. I did not see ANY damage shield message whatsoever from the +2 DS noted on the item. The pet still hit for the same normal amounts and was still getting chewed.

Then gave my pet a Gorget of Ferocity -- neck (this and all following items are attuneable), and a felmight fetish - range item that has shielding and avoidance. Attacked the next basilisk and now the "streams" of hits was for 189. Thus at least I could conclude that these items do in fact get used. I was not sure if pet would take a range item for one thing.

I then pocketed pet and then popped him back on and engaged another mob. The stream of hits were STILL 189.

I zoned with pet not pocketed and then zoned back on and engaged yet another mob. The stream of hits was still 189.

I then pocked pet and logged out completely. Made coffee and logged back in. Attacked next mob and streams were STILL 189. That made me happy.

Now I killed the pet and put the focus back on. Summoned a new fresh pet. Again no buffs or armor that I physically gave to it just the fact it now was a focused EM4 earth pet.
Sent the pet in and now the "stream" of damage on the pet was natively 147 which is very nice and his own non melee damage proc was 94 -- not a huge dif but increase nevertheless. My next test was "adding" attuneable gear to the focused pet thinking that attuneable gear would be better than the summoned gear that we have established the focus pet comes with.

No amount of attuneable gear, from an elegant defiant plate chest and legs and arms, along with another range item and ear changed the "stream" of 147. Nothing -- nada. At one point the pet had each slot completely upgraded to some soft of attuneable gear (except back and charm of course).

I did not parse but I looked at the "typical" hits from the mobs on my pet and after doing this for quite some time, I honestly cannot advocate adding any sort of gear whatsoever to our focused pet. I really thought the AC alone from the attuneable gear would alone account for something but again, at least on that level mob it made no difference.

From this can I presume that the focus back item that the pet must come with has already maxed it out on the MOD2's so that no amount of shielding or avoidance does anything for the pet?

Thoughts?

[Tweelis]

Try running your logs through gameparse. Simply watching what you percieve to be normal numbers can be very misleading. i did that a few times then decided to run a full set of logs through gameparse and the numbers really spoke for themselves.

[Dadani]

Interesting information and we always appreciate information discovered along the way.

But as Tweelis says, ya really need to parse it.

You are missing avoidance information which is key. Tanks worry about Combat Agility (avoidance) as avoiding a 5k hit does more help then just reducing the amount of damage taken.

Take it from a tank class (errr...retired), unless you are tanking 10+ mobs, mitigation is not as important as avoidance and that stat is missed in the way you are observing your data.

[Mendoros07]

Good stuff and well stated both of you. Will parse then. Gona do it this week when I have more time. At the end of the day anything that is conclusive and determined is a certain bonus for us all.

[Jaytee]

Looking forward to this parse, if you are short of time consider posting the raw log here and let others parse it.