Please, give my pet a brain...!!!

Hi everybody...

Playing for a couple of days now. So far it's kinda fun. Only one frustration...

Why is it that my pet keeps returning to my side after killing his immediate target in the middle of a fight with multiple opponents? (pre searing Northern lands). Why can't it switch to the next target like my main character does? Why doesn't it stay on attack? Is that an option I missed?

In numereous occasions the stupid animal returns to my side and just stands there, not even defending, while I'm getting my ass kicked... (sometimes it takes me a minute to realize the moron stopped fighting. By then I usually end up dead.

The imp (f.i.) keeps fighting... Why not the Pet ???

On other occasions the animal just won't attack at all. (Yes, I have him locked on target). I have to get so close to the target I take the first hits. Even then sometimes the dumb beast remains peaceful. And that's kinda useless.

Any tips?

Thanx...

You can set the pet to attack, guard and heel in the pet window.

Set him to guard. Or to attack. See which you like best.

The pet is quite effective, but remember that in this game you are there to support the pet, not the other way around. Similarly, I have found that I am there to direct and support my henchmen. They are not there to get me out of trouble. Just the way the game works.

Yup, they are considered animals anyway. There is a delay when pet comes next to your target and when he begins his first attack. The AI of pets is like that, stupid. They have weird delays before attack and they can get stuck easily. So when the target dies you'll have to lock him to other target as soon as possible (or you can just start autoattacking) else he will come back to you.

Because pet AI is horrible like that. For some reason you can't set them to auto attack nearest target, you need to manually lock them on it. I think there has been several posts in sardelac about it but nothing was done and I dont expect it to ever change.

I never had that much of a problem with it, sure there is a small delay in the reaction. Gennerally my pet attacks after my first hit. If I change target before the first target is dead I need to lock the pet on the new target yes. And if I lock target before I get up close to a foe I can with some luck make them attack the pet instead of me.

But I do know about pets that don't react or do anything... this I have noticed happen for some casters, as they do not wand/autoattack at the foe but only cast spells.
Easiest way is to always have the auto attack on, otherwise you will need to use the attack, guard, heel options which might be more of a pain imo.

This. As long as you autoattack the pet always follows your target. True, he's not very fast but he does it. And if you keep switching targets too often he may not have the time to attack and will end up just running from one to the other (you also have to take into account he's a melee so changing target always requires more time than it takes to you with bow or to the imp with casting, apart from pet delay), but...just keep your attacks in a more pet-friendly way.

put the pet on aggresive (click on the number next to it's name in party window and click the sword button) this shoulkd act like the imp. however this means it will attack all enemies it sees, potential leading to an unexpected attack.

I wouldn't be surprised if they won't/don't do it for metagame balancing. A 'smart' pet might be up for abuse in the game depending on just how 'smart' it is made.

Sorry, but the pet control panel does NOT work this way. The aggressive button for a pet works like the target lock button for a hero, and once the target is down the pet will automatically return to guard status. Pets never remain aggressive and will never act like the imp, a henchie, or a hero set on aggressive.

Well pets aren't imps, heroes or henchies - they act as a part of the player, it makes sense because the ranger has the pets attacks on his skill-bar.

Pets set to "attack" will attack the target you set them on until until the target dies. It will then return to Guard status.
Pets set on Guard will attack whatever you are attacking. You don't need to actively set a target for your pet unless you want it to attack something other than what you are attacking. If you change targets (when the pet is on guard) the pet will attack your new target after a short delay.
If you are not attacking, your pet returns to you.
So, any time you are not actively attacking, your pet returns to you. If you were a healing Monk for example, and were only targeting allies, your pet would never actively attack, unless you locked it onto a target or (maybe) if it is attacked by something.
I assume that, as an E/R, there are times during which you are not actively attacking, which is resulting in your pet returning to you.

At any rate, it is more useful to learn how your pet's AI works, and proceed accordingly.

protip: spam the spacebar

Thanx for the tips Guys. I kinda figured the pet needs some coching. It' all in the timing. I use my pet mainly to get the aggro of me. It doesn't do to much damage, but keeps the heat of me, so I can zap the baddies off one by one. But sometimes I get surprised by a sleeping pet :-)
Anyway... Tx for the tips.
Grtzz Nico2000
PS. Oh Ninja Ninja? please read the post and think about your answer before stating the over obviously obvious...

You have a great way of treating people trying to help you. I'd say there's a fairly good chance there will be people who don't notice those buttons in their first few days.