Using Swarm Pets

Karanus · 06-28-2007, 06:21 PM

I have been working to up my raid DPS, playing with act and casting order etc. I have all but removed swarm pets from my rotation except on really long fights and have found my DPS goes way up if I just don't cast them at all on most mobs. Is this normal? Do most of you use your swarm pets? Both are master btw and I apologize if this has already been covered, just seems odd to not use them. I have been reading alot and am doing all the usual things, blaze/SM/FA at top of parse with proc from troub if one is in group, pre-casting BA and chaining whole fight. Any thoughts would be great.

Kahna · 06-28-2007, 07:12 PM

Swarm pets at the very start before any debuffs land or not until you have significant downtime in your spell chain casting 1-2s of nothing up. Casting 2 & 3s cast time swarm pets makes you miss the damage of a hostile spell and any proc's you might trigger.

Ravenne · 06-28-2007, 08:33 PM

I pretty much don't cast swarm pets unless my robe of al kabor has procc'd which means my casting time is reduced (only for non AA line spells) by 50%. That's the only way the cast time of swarm pets becomes small enough to work them into rotation. Even still, I wont cast them if something like seismic, shattered, snapping, or deluge is up.

that robe proc is really hot for casting blazing avatar and calcify though. happy in the pants and stuff.

Karanus · 06-28-2007, 08:57 PM

Cool, thanks guys!

Kahna · 06-28-2007, 09:32 PM

Yeah it's hard to work them in. I rarely use them at all, usually just Aqueous Horde on some pulls (in progress) before anyone else starts dps and Pyromancy only on longer AE fights. The rest of the time, something is almost always up and ready to be casted. The longest delay in my rotation is like 1-1.5s every 15-20s (I'm just guessing on that part) and factor in a .5s recovery time, they're just not worth it.

Ishbu · 06-29-2007, 01:39 AM

I pretty much pull with pyromancy when its up, literally. Rarely the tank doesnt get it in time and im fucked, but if he is doing his job it all works out and i have it out there for the whole duration of the fight.

Kahna · 06-29-2007, 01:51 AM

Yeah, they generate so little aggro on the cast and use their own hate list while up, it's not real risk to us. Like I said, I hit one or the other on incoming depending on the encounter but rarely during the fight.

aeeron · 06-29-2007, 03:36 AM

generally i cast them as our tank is putting mobs into posistion or if the rare event my pet dies i will cast both then start rebuffing pet with exsaperate/unbate

Kahna · 06-29-2007, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aeeron

generally i cast them as our tank is putting mobs into posistion or if the rare event my pet dies i will cast both then start rebuffing pet with exsaperate/unbate

That will kill your dps even more though. It takes 10 seconds to recast the primary pet (with the normal raid spec) and 5 seconds to cast the swarm pets, plus the rebuffing, you're looking at almost 20 seconds of rock bottom dps.

With the INT line being permanent now, just take the 10s to get the pet back up and then continue spamming (because the mob's already debuffed enough Unabate won't matter much) and hit Exasperate after you've gotten SM/FA off at least.

Laodaron · 06-29-2007, 11:39 AM

Someone please raid with the Scout pet, and the new Agi line. I'm so damn curious how much DPS (if any) is gained by the instant recast of the scout pet, without waiting the 10 seconds.(and no, I'm not talking about top end raiding, I'm talking about people who actually have issues with their pet dying anyway)