A Ranger Beastmaster is not exactly a common thing, you don't see too many of them around, especially with all the builds availabe to a Ranger with a bow. So, you don't typically see 'Beastmaster (BM) Ranger LFG' in local chat. Actually, I've never seen it.
I am sure part of the reason for this is because the Pet AI is worse than our henchmen AI. If you were to rank Pet AI with anything else, it's pretty much on the bottom rung. Why, you ask? I list a few things...
Trying to get your pet to attack something behind a group of enemies? Well, if there is no clear 'as the crow flies' (straight line) path, your pet will get stuck, and only reach the target if the enemies move a little. This is also the case with allies and henchmen, your pet will get body blocked quite easily by them too. And your pet will not attempt to go around.
Thinking about changing your attack from one enemy to another? Well, you better have patience, because even if you are attacking something else, your pet will take quite some time to attack who you are attacking, if the previous target is still alive. Let's say I am attacking a warrior, but he's getting healed by a monk, well I start attacking the monk, 15 seconds later, my pet decides to attack the monk too.
Got a Minion Master on your team or another team? Expect some frustration, your pet will get stuck in the group of minions quite often, and until the minions move, your pet is stuck.
The target is running away and you need to focus fire on another target next to you? Your pet is going to be kited by the running target for quite some time, grab a drink or something, it'll be a while before your pet comes back.
Don't want to get in aggro range, to avoid getting attacked? 'I'm attacking X!' does not work with your pet like it works with henchmen. You can't send your pet in like with henchmen now. You better have a flatbow or longbow to get your pet to attack while avoiding focus fire.
So, while being a Beastmaster is great fun, it can get a bit frustrating at times, especially when your are fighting in compact battles, where there are many enemies and allies. Fortunately, for me, the enjoyment is greater than the frustration. But, for others, I am sure it isn't.
I guess this is a petition to give Pet AI at least the competency level of henchmen AI.
edit 01/05/2007: As far as I know this thread was made before Anet gave the community a response to Pet Controls and Improved Pet AI. Below is what we've been told. Though, that does not change the fact we would really like to see the changes soon.
Gaile, any word on pet controls yet?
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Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
Excellent discussion, and thanks for sharing your constructive and informative thoughts.
I have not heard of pet controls as being on the short list of "soon to come" features but I do know from speaking with James Phinney that they most assuredly are on the "to do list." I will be happy to inquire about that and let you know if there are any additional bits of news to share. As many of you have wisely pointed out, this is not as easy as adding a bunch of commands and you're done. Right away, there are really pesky balance considerations. Consider that not all of us Rangers play straight Beast Mastery; some of us play a dual-skillset Ranger, and heck, I've been known to stubbornly persist in the tri-skillset Ranger, even after a designer said "But Gaile, you know that the reason it's not working exceptionally well is that speading your skills all over is not supposed to be the best choice, right?" The point is, the designers have to look at improving the commands in such as way that they do not make the profession, or any of the distinctive profession subsets, overpowered, while at the same time addressing the very-real concerns of Rangers of all kinds, including those who have noted Fido bounding into the next timezone in search of tasty Grawl bones. The key control I've seen requested is "heel." And it occurs to me that the command set for Heroes would work marvelously for pets, too, and would in fact encompass the popular command requests of the players. However, I could be mistaken but I don't think that pets, minions, or henchmen will be given the same delicacy of controls that are allowed for Heroes. Nor can I say for certain that each category would be given the same level of controls--in fact I'd say that is highly unlikely. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the designers address improvements to pets, in particular, with the overarching objective of fairness, balance, and the fun factor, too. |
so they could do with some improvement, but not to Hench/Hero lvl.
