Magus: Unearthly Shriek Doesn't Force Monster Aggro Consistently

[punishedhank]

Unearthly Shriek provides summoned Daemons with a 15% chance to Taunt enemies -- with all that that means, including interrupt and the ability to "force monsters to attack them."

This tactic, however, doesn't function correctly -- owing, I think, to some way in which summoned daemons/turrets struggle to hold monster aggro in general.

Specifically -- Unearthly Shriek will consistently pull monster hate and maintain monster hate until the summoned daemon dies. After it dies, and the monsters switch their target to your Magus, it is virtually impossible to get the monsters to ever switch back to the new daemon.

You can take Unearthly Shriek in conjunction with Sleight of Hand (50% less monster hate) and Detaunt all you want -- monsters will NOT switch back to your Daemon consistently after they have turned to target you upon the death of your initial summon.

This contrasts sharply with the Basic Squig, whose taunt ALWAYS works. It ALWAYS forces the monster to target the squig -- even if the squig has died and been resummoned. If that Taunt procs, the monster is taunted. It is consistent.

With the Magus, Unearthly Shriek is nice for pulling hate from large numbers of mobs -- but it fails utterly to consistently force specifically Hero type monsters to attack the summoned Daemon.

My solution: give Unearthly Shriek the extra effect of "Summoned Daemons generate 30% more Hate in Monsters." I think the reason Unearthly Shriek currently can't actually "force" monsters to attack the Summoned Daemon is because the base threat of the Daemon is too low. You will often see Hero-type enemies get taunted, pause to start to target the summoned Daemon, then immediately turn and target your Magus -- even the Magus has just detaunted and isn't currently attacking.

The only way I have found to maintain aggro on Hero enemies is to never attack them -- this helps the monster transition to the new Daemon. But I feel if the Taunt procs, it should work like the Squig pet's taunt does. And I'm not sure why the Squig pet's taunt always works, but the Daemon's taunt does not.