@Mad
The target and move thing has been around ever since I've started, idk when it was introduced but it ish extremely annoying and very dangerous (at times) for your pets.
Actually glad it was brought up though, as it's part of the precautions of pet care.
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I highly recommend not to do it (target then attack) if you "have" to tank for your pets. Scenario:
You normally spawn a few at a time, say maybe 4-8.
You select a target and "autowalk" one to fire, not seeing you can't reach the one you actually targeted until you hit the "target" icon, resulting in autowalking past the spawn line.
The "timing" results in a double spawn, meaning instead of getting 1-3, you get 2-6 per "step" on the line.
When you autowalk over, you keep walking past the line towards the swarm meaning if you've been there a while spawning, they'll now autospawn as long as you're past the line.
Combine that with a busy map, your normal 4-9 group is now turned into an 8-18+ swarm. Also note, this can all happen in under 3 seconds.
At this moment in time you have 2 choices, log or fight. If your pets can't tank or live easily through a swarm (ogre halflings for example) :
Just log. Whenever a swarm surrounds you, it takes time for all the monsters to fill the 8 directional "spots" before they give up and target your pets instead. The time this all takes is generally enough to log out in time, even with the log-out counter.
Sometimes they won't, depends on how far away the pets are hence ranged pets are generally preferred. You can park them back far enough to still attack, but any "overspawn" will just disappear because it can't find a target within range. They're also less of a pain to position and get them to "stay" plus also negates the chance of them walking into a dangerous swarm.
If the mobs you're fighting are ranged, even more can "stack" on you. Potentially an entire map of spawn, as they don't need to be standing just 1 square away to attack.
Wait a few minutes for spawn to disappear, then log back in. If ya log back in too quick though, the spawn won't disappear though sometimes they get "hung up". I always give it a few minutes.
Personal experience, best option is just to log overall. If you can "duck" down a ladder or map switch easily, that works too. Just make sure and do a quick "log out and back in" to pull your pets back with you, as sometimes they don't come down a ladder or door with you. Instead they're stuck back up a floor being eaten by whatever monster made you flee.
That ain't always the case though; and it depends on your pets, strength of the spawn, and most importantly are you STUCK past the auto?
If you get trapped/stuck past the auto (swarm surrounded you completely, more just keep spawning) and pets are in danger of getting targeted/killed, just log and try again. Learning what your pets can/can't handle is critical to their survival.
I always think of it like "okays how many "hits" can they take before death? Each hit has a 1/6 chance of landing if the dex is right , meaning if there are 6 on you that's pretty much guaranteed 1 hit/second, if you're lucky.
Ogre halfling at Southern mushies: ogre has 19k hp, mushy has 2.5k damage. Meaning after only 4 hits, no more ogre. Very risky, but benefit of the fast xp is why people still use em. Ogre halflings are really where I started to learn/practice the most with pets and maintaining their survival. They ish so squishy but they hits so hard meow.
At your level and pets and where you grind, this scenario isn't likely to happen. The vlad swarms don't really pose a threat to your pets; damage is low in comparison to total hp of pets meaning you should have plenty of time to stop the spawn and heal provided you start doing so at around low yellow, maybe mid yellow depending on how long it takes you to "clear" the spawn. That doesn't mean none of this applies to you yet though.
Always be aware of your surroundings (insert Ry's sig comment here), what other monsters can be "dragged" to you, and have a good idea of how well your pets can "tank" any overflow or dragged spawn.
Not every spawn dragged to you is meant to kill, most are just players passing through either questing or exploring. It happens, just gotta be prepared for it.
Think of that as the textbook version of 102
Quick little side note about the "screen/camera" glitch you mentioned to me last night.
You can "pull" the camera back to where you actually are by moving. Usually a few back and forth steps (4-5) will bring it back up and get everything sync'd again so you're not staring at the bottom of the map instead of your actual apot.
Make sure if/when this happens, do the back and forth in a direction that will NOT spawn them if in a dangerous area. If the line is left to right, walk up and down.
You can't always know exactly where you're standing as sometimes you'll be a few steps into or back from the spawn depending on if a little lag made your button touch register for a few steps instead of 1, just gotta have it happen and practice pulling it back. I've had my avatar autowalk halfway across a map, screen glitched, lagged, and overspawn swarm all at once.
Needless to say I lost those pets. Didn't even get to see em die they were gone by the time the lag spike ended and I pulled the camera back and saw about 20 mons headed right for me (and where the pets originally were)