This particular thread has been driving me nuts:
Caster Threat Talents (Mage/Warlock)
Zingopemba's post is typical of one of the serious problems in there that only a couple people are understanding properly:
Quote:
Just so that we're clear here, we do all realize that pets have their own threat tables right? And that having a pet doesn't actually reduce the owners threat in any way, right?
The pet's threat table is irrelevant -- unless your pet is actually dealing enough damage that it might pull aggro, in which case, you have much bigger problems than your own personal threat.
And yes, having a pet
does reduce your threat -- because threat is based on damage, and your personal damage output is reduced to compensate for the fact that the pet is producing additional damage.
If a Fire Mage deals 1000 damage, he generates 900 threat. That's 0.9 threat per 1.0 damage.
If a Frost Mage, whose pet is doing perhaps 10% of his damage, deals 1000 damage, he generates 810 threat from his 900 personal damage, and the pet generates 100 threat from its 100 damage. The pet's threat can be ignored; the Water Elemental will never pull aggro. That's 8.1 threat per 1.0 damage.
If a Demonology Warlock, whose Felguard is doing perhaps 30% of his damage, deals 1000 damage, he generates 700 threat from his 700 personal damage (he has no threat reduction talents, let's say), and the Felguard generates 300 threat from its 300 damage. Again, the Felguard's threat can be ignored; it will never pull aggro. That's 0.7 threat per 1.0 damage.
That is why pets are passive threat reduction: by their very existence, your personal damage is reduced so that the total damage is balanced. And your personal threat table, which does not include threat generated by the pet, is the only one that matters.
Here's a very rough breakdown for Mage/Warlock threat per point of damage, based on the following assumptions:
Arcane: 40% threat reduction on 100% of damage
Fire: 10% threat reduction on 100% of damage
Frost: 10% threat reduction on 90% of damage, 10% damage from pet
Affliction: 10% threat reduction on 60% of damage, 8% damage from pet
Demonology: 0% threat reduction on 70% of damage, 30% damage from pet
Destruction: 10% threat reduction on 60%(?) of damage, 15% damage from pet
Threat per point of damage, from best to worst:
0.60: Arcane
0.70: Demonology
0.79: Destruction
0.81: Frost
0.86: Affliction
0.90: Fire
Obviously, this is not terribly precise, but it should be within spitting distance. Frost and Destruction could easily swap places.