The Magician's Tower

Chances are I'm remembering things wrong but I thought water pets would automatically backstab and do full dps from any direction and didn't have to be on the mobs back?

If the pets have weapons they should be backstabbing from any direction. W/o weapons they only backstab from the back of the mob.

As to the Code issue, I am sure there is an issue there. I am also sure if there was not an issue SOE would not implement it for pets either. It would be entirely too easy for us, especially when you consider SOE sees our pets as free DPS. It would absolutely be nice, but it is not really necessary imho and it is highly doubtful it would ever get done.

If I remember right from the testing I did, the pets do indeed backstab from any direction, but they will do more overall DPS from the mobs back. Just like any other pet / pc does. A backstab from the back is more mdg than a backstab from the front, hit for hit.

Savil

Well rats, in that case I might need to pay attention to where my pet is when playing.

Not to discredit your testing but how long was your parse and were you testing while actually playing or did you use a dummy? The sk in me (you can thank the guys at evilgamer.net for this) likes to see comparative parses over a long duration (like hours); eyeballing things during a lesson burn doesn't hold much water with me.

pets backstab from any position, but most mobs lose their AC bonuses if being hit from the rear, therefore the mob will mitigate less damage if being hit from the rear

Tests were done using HOURS of parsing on raids + a few hours on test.. Its like dorfilya said tho, mobs lose their AC bonus from behind so the pet will do more dmg. If I remember right rogues get AA's that let them backstab from any direction yet they always want to be at the mobs back for the very same reason.

Savil