Necro Pet TankingFollow

I am lvl 46 and I have a 80 hp HOT (takes my hp though). It only costs 10 mana. I have yet to get any more pet heals thanks to freakin research I can't find it. My only pet heal is the 30 hp lvl 8 one and that hardly helps.

I am sure you have a heal of time that is better then my 80 hp, not sure where you would get it though. Im sure its a pop spell and probably in bazaar.

Come on Miss Mandie , of course I know how to heal the pet. I am asking if there is a spell that reduces my HP whilst transferring it to my pet automatically.

Ok. Here's the skinny: Necro pet tanking is only viable at certain times in certain areas. The necro pet is generally considered the weakest or least versatile of the three pet classes. You'll be fighting undead, of course, so you can slow them.

Necros get a few different heals. There is a line of instant-HP transfer that can be used on any friendly target (player or pet). Then the Shadowbond line, which is a slower life transfer over time, also player/pet. Then there's the pet heal, which has an annoyingly broad gap between levels 29 and 63, I think.

But, you're in luck - another tool now at your disposal is Soul Orb, which is a Direct Damage that stores the enemy HP into a stackable, potion-belt enabled, no-rent Orb. It's like nuking for heal potions. Nuke up a few stacks (of five), use them on your pet, or yourself, or a player.

Healing foci and the Theft of Life AAs, which give crits on lifetaps, will work on all the instant heals, including the Soul Orb.

For successful pet tanking, especially at the higher levels, you may have to combine a few of these options to keep the pet alive. Pre-buffing is recommended, of course. You'll still need to DoT up the mob for damage. There are also ward spells for the pet that act sort of like a Rune, which can help with harmtouching mobs. Pet tanking in general is not very effective at these levels (60+) but will work well in Charasis (Howling Stones) and some parts of Veksar. Remember to use your warrior (or possibly monk) pet instead of the rogue pet.

Debalic,
Excellent info, will help my baby Necro a great deal.

Edited, Jun 23rd 2006 at 3:01pm EDT by alwayslost

Also be sure you're using one of the warrior pets as opposed to the rogues. Rogue pets are best used for kiting, where they can utilize their backstab abilities. For lower level necromancers the level 48 pet (a warrior) makes a great tank in The Hole killing off the entrance elementals and even tanking some against the Massive Constructs.

by level 61 if you do not know how to use your spells to transfer hp from target to you to pet/group then i am thinking there might be something screwy going on here.

here is how i used to do it, but as stated there are times it is just not workable and others it is rather easy.

i was not able to successfully do this until i started messing with the clops in OOT and was hunting for gems to fill my bank account with along with the great xp soloing there as long as no wiz/druid came running by ruining my fun.

anyways, i would pull with dark, then hit with tap line. i always had lich line up, then send in pet, root mob. hit with my biggest DoT, and then HoT pet. tap/hot combo worked great on the clops.

in Veksar i was able to add the undead DD as well as the undead slows to my line of spells to make my pet even better.

a great investment is to make very good friends with your local mage for their pet toys. i seldom paid for buffs for my pet as the necro line of pet buffs are rather good so far as haste and HP/AC+ are concerned. yes a nice virt, or temp, or what ever floats your boat is not bad either.

also as stated rogue pets are pathetic at this, but all of the warrior pets are great. at 61, you at least have EoT he is a very good tank, and you can go to veksar and pet tank very easy. heck at 61, you can own the entire entrance area (up the ramp past the gobbies and into the undead area) including the named when he pops with pet tanking.

the necro is the MASTER of making hp and mana flow smoothly. a good necro will almost NEVER be out of mana, and will seldom be at full health. managing the flow of mana and HP, yours, your pets, and your targets is the key to being a good necro. to be a master necro you also have to master CC skills along with group healing and the other many over looked tools a necro brings to the table.

Debalic Said:


Yep. Every now and then. More often than not I just lurk and look at zones to check out.

Wow very nice, couldnt had said it any better myself. Would like to add:
Keep in touch and practice fear kiting, pet tanking, and the run like hell method (agro kiting). Hey and bro take your time, enjoy the game and ill see you on the combine....ill be a DE Necro, name is Surln.\

Yup. At the higher levels, tap-tanking become much more efficient than pet tanking. Your defensive skills will get better than your pets' and your lifetaps/leaches are much more powerful than pet healing.