Most of my knowledge is from the "other" 1.65 freeshard, having not played live since not long after that patch. I'm speaking from that perspective, and things might be different here or Live, so do some testing.
Verdant was bugged on live so that the pet PBAOE would always fire as a baseline and not take the caster's INT into account (and I believe not spec either). A "purist" approach has purposefully kept that bug in the other game. I'm hoping that given the attitude of these devs that Verdant will be adjusted to work as listed and not as it actually was.
Outside of the potential PBAOE finally working, Verdant is a fairly useless line. The Battle Crier controlled pet is NOT worth pulling out. Even the old Verdant guides suggest putting a handful of points into the Creeping line to use that controlled pet instead... dismal damage, but take advantage of the snare. The problem is that it can't pull enough aggro to ever participate in the fight, let alone well. It does decent damage once it gains aggro, but it has the hardest time getting aggro of all three controlled pets.
I STRONGLY recommend a full Arb spec, for multiple reasons. 1. Let's get it out of the way... Creeping's advantages are the snare and marginally cheaper FnF pets. The snare is indeed useful, but not vital, especially compared to Arb's advantages. 2. Arb bombers do massive damage and are in the same spec line as a primary pet. Amongst Hib casters, this is not a common combination, and it allows a strong emphasis on DPS while retaining all of the benefits of a pet. 3. The arb controlled has the best damage, and it draws the most aggro. 4. Arb bombers draw very little aggro. It is very easy to draw creatures, transfer aggro to the pet, and bomb the bejeebus out of them with very little risk of them switching targets. This is the power of an animist, not 162 FnFs littered all over the landscape. You have complete control of the situation AND do massive damage. 5. You have an obvious role in groups... damage. You're much more effective stationary than mobile, but you aren't useless when mobile either. A Creep is going to have almost no role outside of planting crops. 6. You can use a baseline vent fnf to draw mobs from much farther away. (1500 range + mob aggro range instead of 1000 for most shrooms or flat 1500 for most spells.) Mobs run up to hit it then are easily peeled away as it's not actually attacking them.
I haven't gotten past 10 here yet, but so far the mobs appear to be dense and wide, at least in the newb areas. This is good for arbs and really, really, really bad for creeps.
KK, I was going with some other builds first, but I decided to put them on hold and create an Arborial overlord.
The dynamics are different than on Uthgard. I hesitate to say "bugged," because that would presume that Uthgard got it right and Phoenix's implementation is wrong. I don't have Live experience to compare, ether recent or 1.65 era, and it's always possible that what I'm seeing in-game are conscious and desired changes to those mechanics.
On Uth, even from the very earliest levels, it's very easy to keep a MOB targeted to your controlled turret. Bombers draw much less aggro than lifetap, presumably because the bomber is technically a pet, and therefore drawing off most of the aggro. It dies on impact, and MOBs will at this point find a new target; it's easy to make sure they "switch" to the turret they were already targeting.
Another big factor in Uthgard is distance. The closer you are to the MOB, the more likely it is to target you. You need to keep some range between yourself and the MOB/Turret battle to not get the MOB's attention.
This combines to a pattern that will almost never draw aggro, even from the very earliest levels: 1. Tell your turret to attack your target. 2. If the target is too far away from the turret, then get its attention by a spell that does NOT cause damage. The level 12+ CON debuff is perfect for this, and even lowers its health pool a bit. Before then, a level 8+ root bomber will work, then you'll need to wait out the root timer. 3. Move if necessary to put your turret between the MOB and you. Your turret will attack it. The Arb turret will ALWAYS draw aggro at this point. If you drew it with a bomber instead of debuff, the turret will have to actually connect and do damage to draw aggro. The creep pet will usually and not always; the verd pet can only if your attack was a debuff and its taunt is not resisted. 4. Let your turret continue to draw actual damage for a turn or two. If it's resisted, your attacks can still draw the MOB off of them. Putting the damage barrier on the turret helps it hold aggro. 5. If you've done all of this, AND are far enough away, AND use bombers, you'll not draw it off of your turret. 6. You can heal your turret with impunity throughout this process, because your heal is actually a bomber.
What I'm seeing on Phoenix is that distance has what appears to be zero effect, and bombers versus lifedrains don't matter. The primary determinant of whom the MOB targets is simply who's done the most damage to it. I've seen cases where I was a point or two ahead in total damage and it still targetted the turret, so it's not simply if A > B, but other factors appear to be very minimal in the overall formula.
This is not unplayable or nonsensical, and it even has its advantages. On Uthgard, it's damn hard to get the turret to draw aggro off a MOB that's stuck to your butt because of the proximity factor, and it requires running THROUGH the turret repeatedly until it fires when close enough to the MOB to get its attention. Here, simply staying in the range of the turrent until it does enough damage to top yours is sufficient to have it regain the MOB's attention.
I've also seen no compelling arguments to switch to Creeping, as it would help none of this. Verdant could be useful if the PBAOE is not only fixed, but draws aggro to the turret and not the caster. (It's technically the turret who fires the PBAOE, and your spell is simply a command for it to do so.) Keeping your turret alive in bigger battles could be more complicated with heal bombers drawing aggro as well, especially if their heal numbers are counted at face value versus the turret's damage numbers.
Also bear in mind that none of this is expected to apply to either server when creeping FnFs are present. This is simply solo caster with just the main controlled turret. Adding pets adds in Bring A Friend mechanics, and loosens the switch mechanics for MOBs when one of your FnFs dies or times out.
Jeebus, keep finding differences. I'd mentioned vents having 1500 range. They do on Uth, but just 1000 here. Again, no idea which is "correct."
I am finding myself adapting well. I realized my movement patterns were based upon Uth rules of distance, and have found more efficient movements here.
I might start a verdant just for testing. I'm hearing various reports of bugs with the main and the PBAOE, but not everything I've heard is "wrong." The level 1 PBAOE works, but it's too low to test for if it causes MOB aggro to switch to me or double down on the turret. I've heard the turret doesn't draw aggro, but I'm not sure if that's what I'd mentioned in the other post about it not drawing ENOUGH aggro to pull off a MOB, or it it doesn't in general, but the old verdant guide I'd read suggested using the creeping turret anyhow.
My current pattern is very similar to what I'd posted before, except that since my bombers do draw aggro, I get in about 2-3 shots before the critter is in my face yelling at me. Fortunately, he's generally 20% or less at that point, though I'm just 21 and not sure how well this works in later levels. It's definitely doable, and I've had very few deaths on a class known for dying as a profession.
Final note, I was grouped with two other animists, and the pet cap worked in my favor. It's hard enough to maintain power and end on a turret that's continuous firing, and I had no interest in planting a field. We had enough pets out that I couldn't if I'd wanted to, so I got to simply maintain my turret and fire bombers without negative feedback from the group.
Are you referring to FnFs? I've not tried them in solo battle yet, but aggroing greys wouldn't surprise me.
Getting shrooms to not go ADD is not an easy process. On Uth at least, it's an issue in that the shroom has actually targeted something out of range. They switch targets in what appears to be a random pattern, but I think they can only switch after the attack is performed, so they lock. It's best to keep FnFs on the back row and put your controlled pet forward, both for this and for aggro management. (Let's see how much Phoenix surprises me when I try this...)
For the controlled, I've been soloing with leaving it on defensive and specifically telling it to attack targets. In groups, I cycle between aggressive and passive to force it to select new targets. I have done and would do these in any case, not because of anything specific to Phoenix.
I'll do some testing with putting the controlled on aggressive when solo to see if it operates as expected. Controlled *should* retain the same target until one of them is dead or it is commanded to switch, and FnFs *should* randomly select targets for each attack. We'll see if either of those holds.
Rolling Verb Ani for the first time and having trouble with the Crier, seems it will only attack one mob at a time and once that mob is killed it wont re-engage.
It's broken, but there's a workaround. Cycle the pet from aggressive to passive and back between each kill. Annoying, but it works.
It's not about the verdant controlled specifically. It's about the PBAOE. It also locks up the creeping controlled, and probably the arboreal controlled as well, once the target is dead. Arboreal with bombers doesn't require cycling attack mode, but I'm also choosing targets manually, which could be a factor.
Speaking of bugs, the arboreal controlled will never use a melee attack. I didn't test the creeping specifically, but it's probably the same. They do far less damage in melee, but it's not supposed to be zero. Think of a caster's nukes versus melee staff damage for an approximate difference.
My guess is that the arboreal (and presumably creeping) keep trying to cast even in melee range, and they're being interrupted by the MOB's melee.
The verdant controlled's melee damage seems way too low to me, but I don't have the numbers on where it should be. I seem to recall it being about 50% more than arboreal's melee damage, so I guess it's technically ahead of the curve on phoenix, as arboreal melee damage is zero. :p