Coercer Pet Strategies

Charm or Possess Essence
One of the decisions a higher level coercer (65+) will need to make is whether to use Possess Essence or Charm. A possessed essence has a huge amount of hit points for your level, and will never break. A charmed pet, on the other hand, will have significantly fewer hit points but its damage capabilities are superior, particularly for mage pets. Which one to take depends on your play style. If you use the stunlock scenario below, you can get more out of a mage pet nuking for high damage while you keep the mob locked down with your abilities. However, it requires patience and timing to use. On the other hand, you can make a possessed essence into a passable tank when you solo. Buff him with Enraging Demeanor to increase his hate, Velocity for his DPS, and manage your aggro closely -- and he should be able to tank just about anything for you, even heroics, due to his large amount of HP. If you pull aggro from your PE tank, using Bewilderment (AA) or Amnesia will help him take it back.

A charmed pet will additionally retain its original script and abilities, so some charmed pets are better than others and may come with unique powers. However, a possessed essence will default to its class archetype and gain access to a limited selection of abilities (see below for more).

Using Possess Essence
Part of the fun of Possess Essence is selecting a pet that has a class which complements your needs. To tell what class you are getting, look at the buffs the mobs have on them when you target the mob. See the next section for more details on PE classes.

Regardless of the possessed essence's class, it's default attack is a melee strike called Confound, and it hits for Mental Damage. Thus, using your abilities with arcane debuffs (e.g., Obliterated Psyche, Asylum) will help it do more damage. Most of the PE's damage is supposed to come from Confound, so do not set your PE to ranged attacks if you can help it.

In addition to Confound, your essence will default to a set script of activities depending on its class. This means it may not use abilities you saw it using a second earlier as a live mob, but instead it will gain a certain number of profession abilities and use them according to a predefined script. A possessed essence of any particular class appears to be the same as any other PE of that class, other than its different appearance. So, a PE berserker that is a tiny fish (FYI, you can posses marine pets and they travel on land!) is the same as a berserker that is a towering Sarnak. Note that this is different than Charm, which tends to preserve the mob's original abilities and scripts will vary per mob, even when they have the same class.

Possess Essence Class Information
As mentioned above, your Possessed Essence will be assigned a class when it is created. In general, the strength of its abilities depends on your level and the level of mastery for Possess Essence. However, its profession abilities (spells and combat arts) will do significantly less damage than its Confound autoattack (anywhere from 40-80% of the damage) and appear to be normalized across classes. The exception to this rule are buffs and debuffs. These seem to scale to your level and can be quite powerful.

Here is a list of the mob buffs and the classes they indicate, as well as some of the abilities you can expect to see them perform. This list was created by watching PE actions in the combat log in a variety of encounters, zones, and health percentages.

Additionally, AOE abilities are noted as follows: ^=Group AOE, ^^=Area AOE. Debuffs to stats, migtigation, and combat or casting skill are noted with a super script d as follows: Ruind.

Warrior

 * Berserker - Buff is Berserk Rage. Will use Rupture, Rampage^^, Stunning Roar^ (a stun), and Berserker Onslaught^^.
 * Bruiser - Buff is Bob and Weave. Will use Pummel, Lightning Fists, Beatdown^^, and rarely use Savage Assault^^ and One Hundred Hand Punch.
 * Guardian - Buff is Hunker Down.  Will use Overpower, Severd, Ruind, Assault^^ and rarely use Sentry Watch.
 * Monk - Buff is Inner Calm. Will use Waking Dragon, Striking Cobrad, Crescent Strike^^ and Lightning Palm.
 * Paladin - Buff is Blessed Weapon. Will use Faith Strike, Holy Circle^^, Judgement, Refusal of Atonement, and rarely use Consecrate^^.  When below 50% health it will occasionally cast Holy Aid and Demonstration of Faith on itself.
 * Shadow Knight - Buff is Innoruk's Caress. Will use Siphon Strength, Death Cloud^^, Unending Agony, Painbringer, and rarely use Shadow Coil.

Mage

 * All Summoners - Summoners will summon a pet and you'll have two pets. You can't give the helper pet commands.  This helper pet will only engage when its master is attacked, so if you send the master pet in first and he gets hit, his helper pet will aggro for more DPS.  The type of pet (mage, tank, scout) your master pet summons seems fixed at the time you grab the mob, and it won't necessarily be the pet you see walking around with the live mob.  Once you've gotten a PE of the mob, all other similar summoner mobs will summon that type of pet. However, if the helper pet dies a pet of another type might be summoned.  Not sure what causes the helper pet to reset, but if you come back another day and charm/possess the same summoner mob, his pet may be different.
 * Conjuror - Has a "Summoned Pet" buff. Will cast Fiery Annihilation, Ice Storm^, Earthquake^^ and rarely cast Crystal Blast.
 * Necromancer - Has a "Summoned Pet" buff. Will cast Bloodcoil, Bloodcloud^^ (a lifetap), Lich, Pandemic^ and rarely cast Soulrot.
 * Coercer - Buff is Peaceful Link, but it returns damage when the Coercer is struck. Will cast Medusa Gaze (a stun), Brainshock, Hemorrhage, Obliterated Psyched and rarely cast Silence.
 * Illusionist - Buff is Synergism. Will cast Ultraviolet Beam, Paranoia (a stun), Entrance (a mezz), Dismayd and rarely cast Prismatic Chaos.
 * Warlock - Has no apparent buff. Casts Dissolve, Cataclysm^^, Absolution^ ,Vacuum Field^d and rarely casts Dark Nebula^.
 * Wizard - Has no apparent buff. Casts Solar Flare, Incinerate, Magma Chamber (a stun), Firestorm^^ and rarely casts Iceshield.

Priest

 * All priests - At 50% life or lower, a self-healing script will kick-in and priest PEs will occasionally cast a healing spell on themselves (but never on you, sadly).
 * Defiler - Has no apparent buff. Will cast Abominationd, Atrophyd, Imprecate and Fuliginous Whip^.  When it's below 50% life it will cast Dire Balm and rarely Sacrificial Restoration on itself.
 * Fury - Has Thornskin as a buff. Will cast Death Swarmd, Maddening Swarm^d, Tempest and rarely Fae Fire.  When under 50% life it will cast Nature's Salve and rarely Nature's Elixir on itself.
 * Inquisitor - Has no apparent buff. Will cast Invocation, Condemnd, Purifying Flamesd, Repentance and rarely cast Incarcerate.  When under 50% life it will cast Ministration and rarely cast Fanatical Healing.
 * Mystic - Has no apparent buff. Will cast Velium Winds, Hazed, Lethargy^d and rarely cast Lamenting Sould.  When under 50% life it will cast Rejuvenation and rarely Ritual Healing on itself.
 * Templar - Has no apparent buff. Will cast Divine Smite, Rebuked, Awestruck and rarely cast Mark of Divinityd or Sanctuary. When below 50% life will cast Meliorate and rarely cast Restoration.
 * Warden - Has Thorncoat as a buff. Will cast Dawnstrike, Icefall, Root, and Undergrowth^.  When under 50% life it will cast Sylvan Bloom and rarely Nature's Embrace on itself.

Scout

 * All Scouts - Can use abilities which require stealth whether or not they are actually invisible.
 * Predators and Rogues - Have a poisoned weapon buff. Rangers and Assassins will have a poison called "Hemotoxin" whereas Brigands and Swashbuckler have a poison called "Poison."  Even at a master level PE spell, the poison buff on the PE will be significantly weaker than the poison buff on the live mob.
 * Assassin - Will use Quick Strike, Eviscerate, Stealth Assault^^, Massacre^^, Masked Strike, Tortured, Deadly Focus and rarely use Jugular Slice (a stfile).
 * Brigand - Will use Mugd, Punctured, Deceit, Bum Rush, Murderous Raked and rarely use Entangle.
 * Ranger - If at Ranged distances, it can use a variety of ranged abilities, including Searing Shot, Natural Selection^^, Storm of Arrows^, Triple Shot, Miracle Shot and Snaring Shot. Otherwise, it will use Sneak Attack, Lightning Strike and Ranger's Blade.  Occasionally it will use one of its ranged shots at point-blank range, despite being in Melee.
 * Swashbuckler - Will use Double Crossd, Inspired Daring, Kidney Stabd, Flash of Steeld, and Lucky Gambit^^.
 * All Bards - Provide the group with the buff "Bard Songs." This is an extremely powerful buff that combines several bard buffs into one, and which scales with your level. Note that this buff is not visible until you actually possess the mob.
 * Dirge - Will use Luda's Nefarious Wail, Disheartening Descant^d, Thuri's Doleful Thrust (a lifetap) and Daro's Dull Bladed. Bard song is "Dirge Songs" and provides increased STA, AGI, DPS, Parry, and a proc for damage on combat hit (see image).
 * Troubador - Will use Sandra's Deafening Strike, Chaos Anthemd, Perfect Shrill, Dancing Bladed, and rarely use Lullaby or Painful Lamentations. Bard song is "Troubador Songs" and provides increased STR, STA, Attack Speed, Defense, and a proc for damage on a combat spell.

Summary of Strategies for Possess Essence
Above all, have fun with your pet. If possible, get the class you want in a cool-looking body.

General PE Advice

 * Most of your PEs damage will come from Confound, its melee autoattack.
 * Make sure your PE is set to melee attack. If you set your PE to ranged only you will miss out on most of the damage.
 * Confound hits for mental damage, so arcane debuffs like Obliterated Psyche will increase its effectiveness.
 * Profession abilities are strongest when they are buffs and debuffs vs. direct damage.
 * Direct damage profession abilities (e.g., Solar Flare) strike for around 40-80% of the damage of Confound.
 * However, most buffs and debuffs scale generously with your level. For example, a level 80 PE warlock using Vacuum Field decreases noxious mitigation to the encounter well over 1,000 points. Also, stat boosting profession buffs on the PE (e.g., Inner Calm) are immense.
 * Note that many classes will use proximity-based AOE attacks, indicated above by ^^ (for example Consecrate^^). If you are in danger of unwanted pulls then consider a different class of PE.

Class-Specific PE advice

 * When you are fighting regular mobs, chances are your PE won't use many profession abilities before the target dies. Unless you can get a bard for the buffs, your choice of PE class probably won't have much of an impact. Against heroic mobs, however, there is more time for them to use a selection of their abilities.
 * If you can find one, a bard is the best pet around. The buff alone is amazing, and Disheartening Descant will debuff for a huge amount, well over 200 at level 80+.
 * If you are soloing and want a tank, PEs that heal themselves have the most durability. They all have potent debuffs, with the exception of the paladin, which has none, and the warden, which only roots.
 * If you are soloing and want the most DPS, a summoner PE is great. The helper pet only aggros when the master pet is hurt, so send in the master pet first and you'll get two pet autoattacks.  Both summoners like to use AOE attacks, too, which can help you with groups.
 * Against heroic mobs, consider a potent debuffer (look for d on the ability name). For example, a defiler can seriously weaken an opponent with Abomination and Atrophy and will likely cast both of these spells during a long fight.
 * PEs with debuffs already covered by your party classes are less effective. If your party inquisitor already casts Condemn frequently, it won't stack when your PE casts it.
 * Otherwise, try and match debuffs to where they will do the most good. For example, a warlock's Vacuum Field will help other classes relying on noxious damage, such as necromancers, shadowknights, defilers and mystics.  Alternately, an inquisitor's Condemn will reduce mitigation vs. all damage types, though it will be about half as powerful as Vacuum Field.
 * Finally, since direct damage abilities have low output, classes such as the wizard are less desirable than classes which also mix in debuffs or other handy abilities, such as the defiler or the brigand.

Soloing Heroics
Easiest method to soloing heroics is to charm a caster pet, root, then mezz the enemy, as soon as mezz refreshes attack with pet, as long as they start casting toss out your mezz, your mezz should land just after your pets nuke hits, back pet off as soon as they finish casting. Keep a close eye on pet, if they start to rush in back them off fast. As long as your timing is good on keeping your victim mezzed and rooted you should be able to take down almost any mob without ever getting hit. For caster enemies you should expect your pet or you to get hit, you can toss in stifles to keep this to minimum but it is going to happen.

In order to bring victims out from roaming areas I like to root the mob and run to where I want to fight them, then cancel root and start tapping mezz until they get into range, its a fairly safe way of getting a mob to an open area where you can do your thing.

An alternate method is a little trickier and requires more timing but can be a lot quicker. First thing to do is get a priest pet, preferably at least 2 levels higher than the heroic you are fighting, next send your pet into battle, let them take a hit or two then start cycling your stuns, should buy you at least 10 seconds of no damage, throw out your wee little nuke and daze, if you have room use your AOE stun as well, as soon as your stuns run out and pet is low on health back him off and mezz the heroic, you can either wait for your pet to regen on its own now or do the pet attack/pet back off method to get it to throw a heal on itself as long as it is under 40% health. As soon as your pet is healed up send it back in and repeat as needed.

Using these two methods I have taken down some good heroics though I have always made it a point to fight a heroic lower level than me with a pet higher level than me, the first method has definitly proven to be safer, especially when a pet breaks charm, I have time to deal with it, the second method is a lot riskier but can be significantly faster if done right. These are not the only methods so try some alternates out and have fun.

Debuffing is also an important technique for fighting heroics. Use the Obliterated Psyche line of debuffs to increase your pet's damage. Cast it after mezzing the mob.

If you are not an Erudite with Aura Sense, then I would strongly suggest getting a pair of Thaumatoscopic Goggles. These will enable you to see which mobs are casters etc. when in an unfamiliar zone. (The goggles are currently described as head slot leather armor, but that's incorrect, the item is actually cloth armor).