Pet tanking to level 125

[Jakuamano]

I recall someone saying pet tanking becomes unviable at later levels, is that true pet users? The reason I ask is our tank has a beast lord leveled to 85 and would like to play him but as he is our tank, we always need him as a warrior. I was thinking we could have a 2nd alternate pet tanking group and level that on the side but I am concerned a pet tanking group would hit a wall. We have several mages we had leveled to get coh, so it would be easy to just group the beast lord with several mages and let the pets tank. Would this likely work? Would we be better off having a real tank? Back in Kunark release I had a lot of fun with an all pet group with a monk pulling for us.

Possible group would be:
Beast lord
Mage x2
Necro
Bard/monk
Healer

I guess beast lord has slow? Is that correct?

 

[Roxas MM]

it's actually the other way round, pet tanking becomes better later in the game.
i did a lot of progression work with a group containing of myself ( beast lord as you spell it ), rogue, druid and boxed magi cian.
pet tanking works for all 3 main pet classes too, the beast lord, magi cian and even the necro mancer.
apart from your main pet, your swarm pets will be able to offtank adds if needed as well.
the only problem you will run into is at higher levels in some missions the named sometimes ignores the pets and goes for the casters.
on your second question, both the beast lord and the ba rd have a slow ( and the necro mancer can cast undead slow even ), but at high end, a slow is not really needed with seeing how strong pet tanks are.

 

[Xyroff-cazic.]

I recall someone saying pet tanking becomes unviable at later levels, is that true pet users?

I guess beast lord has slow? Is that correct?

Pet tanks are completely viable for general xp grinding, partisan/mercenary tasks, hunter kills, etc. Basically anything in open world.

For hero achievement group missions from Broken Mirror through Laurion's Song - pets cannot hold aggro if a player is within melee range. For whatever reason, this restriction was removed for Outer Brood hero missions, and pets tank just fine there.

For those anti-pet tank missions, you'd need to either:

a) tank them on the monk/beastlord or
b) have the monk just hang out and cheer you on while the pets tank (and also not melee on the beastlord)

fwiw I've done all of those missions with a monk as a tank. If they cycle their defensive cooldowns well it's definitely doable.

Yes, beastlords get slow. It's not as relevant as it used to be in old content.

 

[Mehdisin Mahn]

We have several mages we had leveled to get coh, so it would be easy to just group the beast lord with several mages and let the pets tank. Would this likely work? Would we be better off having a real tank? Back in Kunark release I had a lot of fun with an all pet group with a monk pulling for us.

Pet tanks work just fine in the group game. This is to the point that shaman pets are viable tanks for most content even without the benefit of a pet earring/focus. Using a shaman pet I was able to do all the merc/partisan progression in ToB (there were a few spots where I pulled out a healer merc and once where I let someone else kill a named that was in the way that I wasn't camping anyways).

Hero missions would NOT be fun with just pet tanks imo but that's your biggest limitation.

 

[Jakuamano]

it's actually the other way round, pet tanking becomes better later in the game.
i did a lot of progression work with a group containing of myself ( beast lord as you spell it ), rogue, druid and boxed magi cian.
pet tanking works for all 3 main pet classes too, the beast lord, magi cian and even the necro mancer.
apart from your main pet, your swarm pets will be able to offtank adds if needed as well.
the only problem you will run into is at higher levels in some missions the named sometimes ignores the pets and goes for the casters.
on your second question, both the beast lord and the ba rd have a slow ( and the necro mancer can cast undead slow even ), but at high end, a slow is not really needed with seeing how strong pet tanks are.

Heh, nice humor. You mock me but the reason I spell beastlord as beast lord is spelling correction as I am posting on my iPhone and it auto corrects and puts a space in. Thanks for the info though. I guess it will be viable afterall.

 

[Jakuamano]

Pet tanks work just fine in the group game. This is to the point that shaman pets are viable tanks for most content even without the benefit of a pet earring/focus. Using a shaman pet I was able to do all the merc/partisan progression in ToB (there were a few spots where I pulled out a healer merc and once where I let someone else kill a named that was in the way that I wasn't camping anyways).

Hero missions would NOT be fun with just pet tanks imo but that's your biggest limitation.

Well considering this wouldn’t be his main and probably will be just to have as a pocket buffer, not having heroic missions will probably be ok. Thanks.

 

[Jakuamano]

Pet tanks are completely viable for general xp grinding, partisan/mercenary tasks, hunter kills, etc. Basically anything in open world.

For hero achievement group missions from Broken Mirror through Laurion's Song - pets cannot hold aggro if a player is within melee range. For whatever reason, this restriction was removed for Outer Brood hero missions, and pets tank just fine there.

For those anti-pet tank missions, you'd need to either:

a) tank them on the monk/beastlord or
b) have the monk just hang out and cheer you on while the pets tank (and also not melee on the beastlord)

fwiw I've done all of those missions with a monk as a tank. If they cycle their defensive cooldowns well it's definitely doable.

Yes, beastlords get slow. It's not as relevant as it used to be in old content.

Ah, thank you. Good to know which missions are a problem area but yet still viable. It’s crazy how good monk dps is, be the premier puller and still tank in a pinch. I am surprised I don’t hear more people saying monk x4 for dps plus shaman and bard. Would a tank merc work for heroic missions? I guess I need to level them up nowadays to make them effective?

 

[Xyroff-cazic.]

Ah, thank you. Good to know which missions are a problem area but yet still viable. It’s crazy how good monk dps is, be the premier puller and still tank in a pinch. I am surprised I don’t hear more people saying monk x4 for dps plus shaman and bard. Would a tank merc work for heroic missions? I guess I need to level them up nowadays to make them effective?

Monk x4 is... workable, especially for someone that's just boxing all 6 characters themselves. It simplifies things. But it's important to keep in mind in modern EQ that having aDPS abilities from various classes is going to increase the group's overall power. It's not really all about the individual's contribution.

I've done all the modern hero missions with a monk tank, with pet tanks, and also with a tank merc. The tank merc is easily the most challenging of those setups, and my tank merc is completely capped on AA, has the best gear, and I'm maining a cleric so (I like to think anyway) that we have pretty solid healing in the group.

 

[Mysl]

Pet tanks are completely viable for general xp grinding, partisan/mercenary tasks, hunter kills, etc. Basically anything in open world.

For hero achievement group missions from Broken Mirror through Laurion's Song - pets cannot hold aggro if a player is within melee range. For whatever reason, this restriction was removed for Outer Brood hero missions, and pets tank just fine there.

...

Actually, for Laurion's Song's missions. I prefer an all pets group, it is also doable to get all achievements in those missions.

 

[Mehdisin Mahn]

Ah, thank you. Good to know which missions are a problem area but yet still viable. It’s crazy how good monk dps is, be the premier puller and still tank in a pinch. I am surprised I don’t hear more people saying monk x4 for dps plus shaman and bard. Would a tank merc work for heroic missions? I guess I need to level them up nowadays to make them effective?

monk x4 leaves a lot of dps on the table compared to say, Monk x2 Zerker Bst Shm Brd. but if you're boxing then simpler (more of 1 class) is probably better.

 

[Kaelwyse]

It’s crazy how good monk dps is, be the premier puller and still tank in a pinch.

Fighting words here. Bard is the premier puller.

Repeatable fade, lull, mez, snare, highsun, ultra fast run speed, instant double invis, swarm pets for non-line of sight pulls, knock back mem wipes, etc, etc. Their pulling toolkit is unmatched.

 

[Conq]

Fighting words here. Bard is the premier puller.

Repeatable fade, lull, mez, snare, highsun, ultra fast run speed, instant double invis, swarm pets for non-line of sight pulls, knock back mem wipes, etc, etc. Their pulling toolkit is unmatched.

Just that bards have to learn to pull and never get hit, cause they splat. While a monk can mend on his way back from a pull.
Conq

 

[Jakuamano]

Fighting words here. Bard is the premier puller.

Repeatable fade, lull, mez, snare, highsun, ultra fast run speed, instant double invis, swarm pets for non-line of sight pulls, knock back mem wipes, etc, etc. Their pulling toolkit is unmatched.

Bard fade is level limited, FD is not. Raid pulling is typically done by monks.