Brawler's Guild: Pet Threat

[Equeon]

I'm having a serious problem with my pets in the Brawler's Guild Arena.

1.) My pet doesn't generate enough threat on the boss.
2.) My pet dies way too fast.
3.) Even when taunts are turned off and specced into ferocity, the pet generates too MUCH threat.

The first one is OK for bosses that don't hit hard, as I will just kite the mob around. The second one was OK for mobs that I can kite, like Blat and that devilsaur one.
But the third one is a serious issue. As is all three of these at once.

Right now I'm stuck on Ixx, because he 5-shots my pet, even with Last Stand and Spirit Mend, and then either murders me instantly with his Devastating Strike or a little over time with his 30k hits.

I have an ilvl of 482, and yet I can say that my pet died on every single successful boss fight thus far except for two.
This is even with alternating between resilient tank pet and "damage while I take threat" pet.

What do I do? How is this a legitimate challenge, to make the hunters' pet die so they have to only rely on themselves? If we get a buff to compensate, or our pets take 50% less damage from Brawler's Arena bosses... that would be ok.

[Kalliope]

What do I do? How is this a legitimate challenge, to make the hunters' pet die so they have to only rely on themselves? If we get a buff to compensate, or our pets take 50% less damage from Brawler's Arena bosses... that would be ok.

This is when you learn to kite. Pet classes don't get a free pass in the Brawler's Guild; you can't just have your pet tank while you wail away on the target.

In Ixx's case, all you have to do is get out of his cone attack. That's it. Use all (and I do mean ALL) healing available to you while you burst him down. If you're using exhilaration on top of everything else, you should be fine. If not, your damage isn't high enough. Your pet helps a lot on Ixx because s/he will do damage while you're avoiding the cone.

I've seen people kite Ixx, but I just stood in front of him (practically under him) and ran straight through on the cone. Once you stop worrying about your pet on this fight, either method will get easier.

[peanutbuttercup]

In Ixx's case, all you have to do is get out of his cone attack. That's it. Use all (and I do mean ALL) healing available to you while you burst him down. If you're using exhilaration on top of everything else, you should be fine. If not, your damage isn't high enough. Your pet helps a lot on Ixx because s/he will do damage while you're avoiding the cone.

I've seen people kite Ixx, but I just stood in front of him (practically under him) and ran straight through on the cone. Once you stop worrying about your pet on this fight, either method will get easier.

This. The easiest thing to do is stand as close as possible to the center of his hit box without turning him. You'll be inside him the entire fight, pretty much. As soon as he begins doing his cone attack, immediately run through (clear through, as the graphic doesn't seem big enough to cover the hit range, but not too far, because he will cleave again immediately if you get more than 10 yards or so), then reposition yourself on the other side as close as possible again and repeat. And of course bring pots or ask a warlock for healthstones if possible for heals, especially if you don't have Exhilaration.

Brawler's guild was a major reality check for me, because I was so used to just standing back and letting the pet tank, but I very quickly found that was impossible. So I not only learned to kite somewhat, but to react a lot faster to bad things on the ground as well.

[Equeon]

I figured about the whole pet-tanking thing.
I know how to kite, or I wouldn't have gotten this far, but it bothers me that my pet dies even when he's not tanking! It lowers my DPS, too, and sometimes I worry about hitting the enrage timer.

Still, thanks for the tips!

[Kalliope]

Your pet shouldn't be getting aggro or taking damage on these fights at all. Are you not generating enough threat? Do you have a forgotten misdirection macro? Are you using distracting shot to regain aggro when needed?

[Neilaren]

I actually had serious pet aggro issues when I did Brawler's Guild. Basically, even if I went out of my way to spam Arcane Shot on opener, not send my pet in at all for at least 10 seconds, or what have you, as soon as I started my cooldowns and the first Kill Command happened the mob would just stick to my pet like glue.

Now, see, I'd attribute this to being a well-geared Beast Mastery hunter who stacks Mastery stat, but it's not like my pet pulls mobs so easily off me while questing. I felt like something else was going on, but my pet usually didn't die (I'd use Exhilaration) and the fights I've done haven't lasted for more than 30 seconds thanks to burst, so... I never really bothered to look into it. I just assumed it was an annoyance I would have to deal with; that my pet will pull aggro as soon as it starts attacking in a Brawler's Guild match and here's not much I can do about it.

And no, I don't have Growl on or Misdirect to it.

[Kalliope]

That's really odd; I ran the gamut as BM and never had an issue. :/

[Ziarre]

I've also found the third one to be a real issue. Ferocity specced and Growl off, and my pet still yanks aggro more often than not. And now I'm stuck on Dark Summoner because my pet yanks aggro on the ghosts so fast that it doesn't stand a chance.

[Neilaren]

I wonder if it's an inconsistent issue with how I know some pets would growl in Stampede despite them all being turned off or whatever... never happened to me but I wasn't about to dispel doubts that it was buggy.

I'm still probably just going to go with "I stack way too much mastery for raiding for really smooth Brawler's Guilding", we'll see what happens when I get to any fights that favor Survival or something.

I forget where I even left off in BG... Dominika the Illusionist I think. Oh, there we go then, that's a fight I'd offspec for. I did BG for like 3 nights and just forgot about it for a month there, whoops.

[Kalliope]

I've also found the third one to be a real issue. Ferocity specced and Growl off, and my pet still yanks aggro more often than not. And now I'm stuck on Dark Summoner because my pet yanks aggro on the ghosts so fast that it doesn't stand a chance.

That's not an aggro issue. That's the ghosts one-shotting anything in melee range.