Pet Tank

15 (11+3+1) beastmastery
11 (10+1) expertise
11 (10+1) marks

skills;

Enraging lunge (e), predatory pounce, predatory bond, symbiotic bond, call of protection, feral aggression, charm & comfort

This build uses a longbow, and the 'attack' feature of controlling pet to send it in ahead of the party and tank the enemies for group. With the massive damage reduce from symbiotic and call of protection, it stays alive, and monks heal you. Also to mitigate some damage, predatory bond is used to heal the damage to you (i was taking 4 dmg per snowball in HM snowmen, and so was pet i assume). I did die on the final boss due to massive damage spam (tons of them) but gave nukers enough time to get off their 4 searing heats and wipe out the group.

Feral aggression and the attack skills will deal awesome damage, much as you'd prob be doing with sloth hunters/savage at the least.

Right, well, this is in response to a post in the favorite pets thread, and my favorite is black moa cuz of the auto dire and level 20 (lazy). Rainbow phoenix i used awhile but im tired of the flapping and the huge body taking up most of my screen atm...and its getting a bit common lol (most of my current guild starting to get one)

Btw, if you keep dying to symbiotic bond, try going with the elite heal as one, and take out comfort for brutal strike on the damage. That should keep you alive long enough for monks to heal you.

Notes on getting pet to tank; you have to stand at just around longbow range and open the pet menu (like you would a hero's) then click the sword on the monster you want it to attack. Once it aggroes, call your target with the longbow to send in your heroes/hench. If you have allies (non party member friendlies) you might have to switch to shortbow range to get them into the fray, but dont do that til the casters are safely in their spot. Hard to get used to, powerful when you know what you're doing, note that I run no warriors/dervishes/other melee cept maybe minions when doing this.

Main benefit of this build is...if the pet dies it gets no dp! In spots where your tank would normally die in a single barrage of ice pelts (such as snowman HM) this is very useful. Drawback is that often in an overaggro or overly powerful group you'll die and then pet will, since it loses its bond...maybe a bonder monk for the pet instead if no disenchanters? Good luck, and HF!

1) Rainbow Pheonix is cool are rare (hard to get), keep that!!!!

2) Pet build in PvE is good, not great, just good.

3) Add at least 1 bow skill(s) (include interrupt)

4) Decrease you resolution on your screen, so the pheonix don't cover the entire thing.

5) Good pet build, I would suggest a interrupt skill. Other than that, go nuts in killing