The Magician's Tower

I hate to keep bugging folks. Seems the mage community has the most informed or at least willing to help group of folks, so here goes.

Companion's Blessing AA: I have this maxed and also the reuse timer. It's fantastic. When all hell hits the fan I will cast still on my pet. I have also casted my promised rejuvenation Rank3 spell on pet at the same time. Do these two heals screw each other up? In other words, while the CB AA is firing off its recourse heals, I also stack PR on the pet hoping to also get a big boom of a heal. Was just worried that one would screw the other one up.

More info on heals... the only AA I see for Mages that has any relevance to help increase heals/or I should say get a crit heal is the Companion's Gift. I have this at 4/12 thus far in ranks thus far. I have NEVER ever seen any crit heals thus far from the promised rejuvenation line. Is that spell affected by that AA or just our one direct heal spell? Is the Companion's Gift worth to max out? Does it also affect the AA mentioned above... the Companions Blessing AA to get a chance to crit heal that too? Other than my 60% heal focus on my neck.. that's it for any sort of help on heals on pet correct (Chaotic Boon of course noted)?

Pets: Does ANYONE actually use anything other than our Air pet? I have never seen any mage with any other pet lying around in GL (other than possibly the Fire pet when on raids and you want to keep the pet away from mobs). When in UF, are you folks using the earth pet to tank the UF mobs or still the air pet? I have been grouping quite a bit in UF now and keep using my air pet with EM5. He has rarely an issue with any trash but will at times succumbs to the named (this is if I get the task of tanking with my pet and no tank is around). I really can't win since my group craps on me if I use the Earth pet as they tell me its DPS is smurf... but then if my air pet dies to a named or a lucky hit from trash, I get crapped on that too. I generically have my start down on named, Fortify Companion, use Earthen Stance spell.. when that goes down then Host in the shell, got Chaotic Boon to help in heals... as stated above, Promised Rejuvenation is also always running as it pops (god I hope this does not screw up Clerics or merc healers trying to heal him -- yet another question), and then as the named enrages I click our Divine Companion Aura... but that's at the very end since I obviously he cannot get healed while invulnerable. I also have a backup pet pocketed with full buffs, everything, including all AA's etc for the worse possible outcome.
Do any of you actually consider giving your pet an attunable shield in one hand and a weapon in another if its only duty is to tank in UF to get more AC (and you have enough DPS from group)?

Comp Blessing - I don't think they interfere with each other. However, I don't use Promised a whole lot since it does interfere with merc Promised, I believe they overwrite each other, so if one is counting down and the other it cast then the first one just poofs. Speaking of Promised, I don't think you will see it crit on your pet because it acts like a heal cast by your pet, therefore your AA don't matter. I see the merc promised spells crit on my beastlord often and you would see it crit if a merc cast it on your mage since the PCs have heal AAs, but I think that it will not crit on your pet. I haven't checked logs or anything, so I could easily be wrong.

Worth noting is that your heal AA will affect Replenish Companion as well as your direct heal.

Pets: I use air pet mostly. I might give earth a try since I've seen some really close calls on named with air, but the target dies quicker with air's higher dps, so I don't know which would be better. The only named that my air pet died against (EM8 focus, 2 cleric mercs in party) was the Confused Greken Pup...mob's innate dmg shield destroyed pet's runes/prism skin. I haven't been terribly successful actually finding named up, but I've easily taken out Hungry Earth, Death's Hand, Dwarven Stalwart and most of the progression mission named for T6-T8 (have not done Fire in the Hole yet) using my air pet to tank.

Block the merc promised rejuv and complete heals on pet.
I use our promised rejuv almost exclusively as a the main heal spell and it works great. Just have to get used to watchign the countdown timer as you might need to patch heal (rarely) if a mob gets a lucky round in.

I save the AA heals for absolute emergency situations due to the recast timer.

The rule on pets IMO for solo is if the named is stunable = air, not stunable = earth.
Grouping: if the group tank is strong then use water for DPS, if heals are an issue, use air for stuns. Earth and fire are generaly not good group pets.

Fire pet = just rezzed and need to pop a pet to do some dps, but since I always have spare weapons in my bags, an unbuffed water pet with our haste spell does more dps than fire pet. The water pet dps might still be more than fire pet even without the weapons, but i have not tested it.

Sued...

One huge benefit not mentioned regarding air pet, AGRO that pet have a huge agro, very other pet I tend to overtake agro. (and yes SCS is maxed).

I have used my water pet to tank most mobs. It even tanked a named in convo once. It all depends on group makeup. Stuns and slows go a long way. When on a named, I prefer air for stuns (if possible), and mitigation while still being able to dps. I generally don't hit promised because of global refresh but I will if the merc seems to be falling behind on heals. Hit companion's blessing early on to help the merc healer keep up if that's all you have. I'm not healing if there's a healer. Comp. blessing is all you should be doing. Chain RS pets as best you can and have a pet spell on your spellbar in case it goes down. An RS pet can stay up just long enough, and sometimes hold enough aggro, for you to cast another pet. Burnout is good for DPS but if you are worried about dmg, the OOW robe clicky is a better option if you have it. Go full burn at the beginning by casting Twincast, First Spire, and Fire Core (if available). Use LoH if pet health falls too low. Normally, if I'm hitting LoH, it's gonna be followed by companion's blessing because that's the cue the merc is behind on heals. Before the pull, you can cast our new chaotic boon spell to help out a bit on heals (it won't be stellar, but every little bit counts on a named).

If you have plenty of DPS in your group to the point you can skip out on dps, then heals are ok. Block promised on your pet and put merc on reactive to force it into quick heals (heals per second), hit PR when available and just spam our normal heal. Lead off with CB, hit PR, spam DD heal, and keep aegis up. Aegis should be up on pull, first aegis fail recast it, then when aegis fails, cast HITS, then aegis when that fails. Iceflame efflux should be on the pet as well to help out (even though you probably already knew that )

PR and companion's blessing don't interfere with each other. The early parts of comp blessing aren't great so I'll usually hit PR just after hitting comp to help out. PR is only boosted if the pet had healing aa's because PR counts as though the target cast the heal. That's where you get all those messages like this, "You have healed Voragath for 15,000 hps" or whatever. So the aa's, and our healing focus on the neck, that boost our pet healing only works on the direct heal and LoH as mentioned.

So, on the pull, I'm not gonna heal. Before pull, cast chaotic boon and FBO (FBO can be cast on incoming). On incoming, hit mala (and PR if possible). If I know for sure I'll need it, I'll cast CB, otherwise I'll save it. Cast RS just before sending pet in so RS takes initial damage letting heals get a head start. Hit Servant of Ro and swarm elementals. I'll smash TC, First Spire, Fire Core and start nuking and casting RS as it refreshes. If pet enrages or gets low, I'll use LoH followed by CB and PR. I'll use our normal heal ONLY if a cure is needed. Just before enrage, hit PR if pet health is low, then hit pet DA when mob enrages. In a pinch, you can cast companion of necessity to keep the mob busy while you cast a new pet but be warned that 90% of UF names are gonna rip right through that thing before you can cast but getting a pet out of pocket will work.

Both strategies I used are what I do but are flexible depending on mob health, dps, and group makeup. I rarely use aegis. Instead, I'll use HITS if I feel I need a little more mitigation on pet. If I expect it to be short, <30s, then I cast CB after casting RS and sending pet in and I'll not worry about PR or heals or cures and use LoH if pet gets too low on hps (about 10% health). LoH usually heals my pet to full and it's em 8 focus and has all the hp aa's; I also have all the ranks to companion's gift which gives crits quite a bit but never when I need them lol. If I expect it to be long, >1 min, I might lead with a PR and cast HITS once the mob turns it's attention to my pet.

About pets. Earth can be good but is rough on heals. The plus is that the damage is less spikey but the downside is that he's constantly taking large amounts of damage. Water is not too bad but requires a very close eye and fast action for those lucky quads. Air has been discussed. A shield plus weapon won't do you much good but if you have a way to always have one, why not? I wouldn't go out of my way though. Main thing to remember, regardless of what pet you use, when tanking you need to make sure the RS pet gets aggro first before sending your normal pet in to buy you some time. If you have the hasted aa's, BP extension, aa extension, you may be able to squeeze another off in time that will hold aggro for 1-3 seconds longer after the first RS pet dies. Chaotic boon heals the RS pet too so that's a good thing to have up to help keep that guy going.

I hope that gets all your questions and helps you out a little. =)

Edit: Changed water pet in the first paragraph to air as a poster below noted. Thanks, Zat! Also, I failed to mention Fortify Companion. This is a must have at max ranks for your level if you plan on tanking nameds.

Double post. TMT was acting funky and I checked, no double post. Come back today, a double post. /sigh

Fantastic folks. Thanks. Some really good info here. I will start using for suer the RS pet to get agro first. Makes total sense. So much more to test and try.

Voragath wrote: When on a named, I prefer water for stuns (if possible), and mitigation while still being able to dps.

Possible a misstype .. I thimg the aripet is the only one which stuns.

I haven't seen mentioned Aegis-Buff yet. For my feeling "Aegis of Kildrukaun" is the most importand tankbuff for the pet. Reaply it after each fight, you cannot see howmany hitcounts have been consumed on the last fight. If necessary and depending on the pull-frequence you might be able to rebuff it mid fight, if it fades.

Grounded stance I don't use anymore, I use the AA-Rune instead when named is on inc.

Already mentioned but the most important to keep your pet alive:
Throw RS-Pets at the mob as much as you can. They will disctract the mob and tank for quiet a while. All this time your mainpet won't take damage.