Pets in Raids

[Midnight]

Hello all

I'm now starting to get to the level where I'm spending less time solo and more time in groups and raids. I'm lucky to have lots of other Warlocks in the guild to watch and learn from, however I don't want to bother them with every single question etc. Figured this was the best place to come.

I have used / am using my Voidwalker for most of my soloing as I feel a lot safer with him, especially in places where mobs wander and I can end up with trying to kill lots at once. Occasionally I have used my Succubus or Imp, but generally big blue. I'm wondering though;

1) What pet is used to the most in instances, for example Sunken Temple, Strat, Scholo etc. and

2) What pet is generally brought out on large scale raids like MC?

I really don't want to go into high end instances and raiding with as much knowledge as I can, and from what I have seen, Imp's tend to be out more than other pets in places like MC or BWL. For grouped instances (either 5 man or 10), I assume it will most likely be a result of the group make up, however apart from the Infernal and Doomguard, are there some pet's that you just don't bring out in an instance?

Basically I'm after as much info as possible on what pet's the higher level players / raiders use in what area's and why.

Thanks

[Soni]

If you're doing an instance with a lot of humanoids (Scholo/Scarlet Strath) and no/few Mages, Succubus is a good choice for Seduce.

Imp is always the fallback, for Blood Pact (and good for Dark Pact if you're Aff)

Felhunter doesn't really see a lot of use...I suppose if you needed counterspell and had no mage. Although you can just Curse of Recklessness the mob and then Fear them and it does the same thing. I wonder when they'll get around to fixing/addressing that.

Voidwalker is good as an off-tank if needed, but I never use him.

[Maestrodomus]

Are you Demonology? If you're getting Master Demonologist buffs and your pets are all buffed up with talents then you could be switching quite a bit:

At 60 I use the Voidwalker in Sunken Temple because he can tank, if we have a tank I go with a Succubus and Soul Link for 13% Damage buff and switch out some +Damage Gear.

In Scholo I use a Felhunter and switch out for Resistance gear and utilize Shadow Ward alot, you can draw agro from those casters and wipe em.

Same with Strat Undead. Go with Sucubus for Humans in Live or Imp if your group seems to be struggling.

Ubrs I usually start with a Felhunter to keep pressure off the healer by resisting a lot of the fire AoE attacks or with an Imp if the group is undermatched or playing poorly.

Plus with talents your pets, at least the Succubus, Felhunter, and Imp, will be doing some damage so they'll be useful.

[Midnight]

Thankyou for the replies...

I am looking at going into a heavy Demonology build (put up some questions here) which is why I want to try to find just how useful my pet's are going to me. I'm surprised to see just how much variation there is when it comes to our pets, coming from using just my epic pet in EQ and a Hunter were I really only had one pet, it's nice to see that we can swap it around a lot as a Warlock.

I guess from what I'm reading here it's a "judge per situation" kind of thing? Each group situation might call for a different pet?

[dopesoap]

in high-end raids you will use an imp more than often, with aoe's from mobs and hard hitting mobs you will constantly have to recast your succubus/felhunter/voidwalker....well succubus could live if invis and provide you with the MD buff but imp is more beneficial for the raid as a whole, instead of a caster being taken out in 1 hit he might have some health left after getting hit and mob has to waste another action to finish them giving both the tank and healers more time to get things back on track again....Bosses in high end raids are immune to pet utility spells like seduce and spelllock im not sure if these are partial such as spell lock could be interrupting boss spells but immune is due to immunity to spell lock/counterspell?

In low level instances like scholo/strat/ubrs/dm you can go with a choice pet and what the posts before me stated its based on the situation so different pets for different occasion, i never used a VW in an instance tho as i always have a tank available, well more like they drag me with them but thats another story.

I think in high-end raids pets become practically useless, i get more use out of my eye of kilrogg in those places, especially when im tired and stealth detection mobs are nearby its a good way to end the raid...lol im kidding but becareful if you happen to be within spell range and your eye aggro's you get the aggro next after eye dies, eye is treated as a seperate entity to you but its considered a party member so if you aggro and mobs are not far they come after you.

As far as your build, i agree demo has no burst dps in comparison to destruction warlock but i picked my build for pvp not just raiding, you might also consider demonic sacrifice VW and going without pet in high-end boss fights as you will run out of mana if you dont tap/drain or dark pact, i miss this talent severely in our ZG raids where mobs can have in vicinity of 400k hp's. We plan to hit MC soon just need couple extra members as we dont want pug's on guild raids except couple of guild friends that are usuals on all our raids or most anyway. Anyway back to your build, in ZG on bosses i find myself casting ShadowBolt mainly as dots can mess up my aggro if i happen to get couple of crits in a row with shadowbolt or mob does something to reset aggro or when tank gets feared or if ghaz'ranka sends everyone flying into the air...anyways what im getting at is in higher instances if you have decent +spell damage you should still finish towards the top of the damage meters, i only get outdps'd by certain rogues in guild and hunters but the latter overaggro constantly and fd to reset....dont ask me why guild allows this, it really messes up aggro and boss starts running around instead of beating up on the tank. Maybe im missing something but i remember from EQ stealing aggro from tank no matter what class you were was not a good thing esp. when fighting RZtw (after 17 failed attempts i had the pleasure of seeing him die 3 times in a row) ....best damn encounter ever...not...im not jelous of fd warlocks fd despite having a 30min cooldown works well enough if i ever bothered to cast the thing on myself....its called soulstone...lol