Voidwalker... *sigh*Follow

I just need to make sure what's happening to me recently is normal.

Quick history. I've been Afflic from the moment I could place talent points. I drain tank and use Imp as a battery. Typical spec and play style. Up till recently I haven't needed to use my pet as a shield but lately I haven't been able to tank or fear some elites so I brought the voidy.

I really did not expect it to be so terrible. I can literally cast one DoT and NOTHING else and watch my threat go from 0-79% almost instantly. I'm sure I have all my void's taunt talents turned on and he does use them but it's like he generates no threat...

I've tried throwing a couple DoTs on and hitting Soulshatter once my threat goes up but it really doesn't help. I have been able to solo stuff but I have to alternate between Siphon Life and Health Funnel for about 10 min to kill a nasty.

I know I am not Demo spec and don't expect to have the same abilities but this seems ridiculous. Anyway, thanks for any advice or to just confirm this is the way things are.

-Shrub

Edited, Nov 4th 2008 11:42am by Shrubbry

Only using CoA, SL, or Corr(and never all at once). Only other spell I have to cast is funnel. Usually start ramping up a lot of threat at that point. One DoT ticking and health funnel and I'm done lol. If I don't have to keep health funneling non-stop I can make it. Just takes a long time to kill stuff.

I just tried that rock guy on top of warmaul hill in Nagrand earlier today a few times. The one you need 7 skulls to summon. I could not keep from getting threat. Stood back and cast nothing but SL and health funnel. Hit soulshatter once and still got threat a minute later. At that point nothing can get the mob off me. I try to wait it out for my Void to get threat back while popping pots and stones but no dice...

On a good note. I enslaved some demons and beat the snot out of all the other group quests I could pull him near :P

He already said he has it on auto.

Even if he doesnt, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when you consider how hard it is for Hunters to peel aggro off their pet. It seems without the up-front damage the Felguard gives you, the Voidwalker is a bit crap these days.

The reason being, his Taunt seems to scale abominably with spelldmg, if it even does at all.

did you train your VW's taunt as you were leveling?

Wait a second, do we even need to train our demons/pets anymore (to be honest I just picked up my lock again after ~year so I may have missed something)

Thanks for the responses guys. I definitely kept all of my pets, even the ones I don't use, current on skills.

ALTHOUGH!

I have not messed with their abilities since 3.0. I had just assumed since all their abilities were right where I left them before the patch, and are now auto-learned as they lvl from what I understand, they would all be the same. I thank you for kicking my brain into action. I will make sure my pet abilities are the highest rank available. I know on my hunter I got to mess around with my pet abilities a lot but didn't even think of it on my lock. I always have Imp out so all I worry about is my +hp.

If taunt is max lvl we will go with Sinstralis that the Void's taunt does not scale properly. It really seems silly that the taunt would be so weak that one DoT and Health Funnel overcome it.

BTW I can kill stuff one DoT at a time lol. I solo'd all the Nestingway bosses last night with Void, SL, and beating with my staff(el o el). I did cast some SB and huant right at the end though. At 10% or less to finish off. Maybe the occasional Corr but only 1 DoT at a time.

Thanks,
-Shrub

no clue then. I can cast corruption, SL, curse of agony without pulling off of my VW. What is your spell damage? Granted mine is only ~750ish but if your spell damage is higher then they should die soon anyway and wouldn't be that much of a problem.

Haunt isn't a DoT, by the way. It's direct damage, with a debuff that does almost exactly what the old ISB used to do, just with DoTs. Leading with that will cause a lot of threat.

Taunt is on for sure. I watch it go off. And I don't have huge +spell. I just hit 70 last night and am in mostly greens save for a few blue quest rewards.

Now to be clear, I'm not talking about average mobs here. Just the elites from 2-3man group quests. Regular mobs give me no trouble. If they have a chance to turn towards me they are already dead. My guess would be that the Void does such poor dps it can not compare to my DoTs and Health Funnel.

Edited, Nov 4th 2008 11:43am by Shrubbry

My suggestion would be to send in the void, throw up SL or CoElements, wait a few seconds to let the voidy build threat, hit suffering, then unload with all your dots, with the high-threat spells coming last. If a mob does break off it should be when they're around 1/3 health, so at that point fear/DC and either SB or redot as they run away.

Good luck.

Lose the VW, get a Felguard.

Agreed, if it's just the tougher elites that you're VW is having problems with, chances are they are being resisted or are outright immune to them. Kudos to you for taking a shot at them solo, though! Good luck.

You might want to consider putting a few more points into him - the VW has been upgraded in the xpac beyond my wildest dreams (disclaimer, I am full demo) but even then, some of the first and second level tallents are wonderful.

Are you giving him enough time to even get agro? Try opening up with a shadowbolt or something so he's got enough time to sink his tallons in first.

Shadowbolt? A high aggro spell? Are you sure? Even though there is a cast time, the VW won't be able to keep aggro against a high-damage spell like that. On the other hand, I'm an afflic drain hunter and don't fool around with demo, so I have no idea whatsoever on the talents you have that reduce shadowbolt's aggro.