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Ranger's Crux: Pets need to be improved!


Wuselknusel.4082

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Disclaimer before the disclaimer: I'm porting this post from the old forums. Expect some changes to this post when I find the time.

Disclaimer: This is a heavily edited version of my first proposal, which can be found here. The post on the old forums can be found here.

ArenaNet has said that they don't want to tinker with the base mechanics of the game anymore. I can understand that, yet I feel that there is one mechanic that needs to be looked at one last time: The Ranger Pet.

I think the pets needs to be better controllable by the player to be a worthwhile addition to the player and not just another method of dealing damage.

Here is what I'd do to the pet to increase its effectiveness:

KeybindingsF1 - Repositioning CommandF2 - First SkillF3 - Second SkillF4 - Pet Swap

Combat Modes

  • Aggressive
  • Defensive
  • Passive

UI changes

  • Display all pet skills with their respective cooldowns
  • Add an independent indicator for when your pet enters combat

Elite Specializations Integration

  • Druid Integration
  • Soulbeast Integration

At the end I've added a very small Q&A for some questions I thought some might have.You can use the links above or just scroll down for the detailed descriptions.

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F1: Repositioning Command


Mechanic:

When pressing F1, a ground target will appear with an outer and an inner circle.This ground target allows you to send your pet to a location, an ally, an enemy or a neutral object within its primary leash range.

The inner circle defines the position or the entity your pet will be sent to, while the outer circle defines the range at which the pet will automatically attack enemies, if the appropriate combat mode is chosen.

- Leash Ranges:

You can send your pet to locations, enemies or allies, but only if they are close enough to you. To which point you can send your pet or how long it will stay at that point is described by the primary and secondary leash range.

The primary leash range describes the range to which you can send your pet to locations, enemis or allies. This would take the place of the current leash range in the game, which is 2000 units to my knowledge.

The secondary leash range describes the range to which the pet will stay at its location or follow an ally (or attack an enemy in PvE). It should be a multiple of the primary leash range, with its actual size being different between game modes. My proposal would be 5 times the range of the primary leash range, 10000 units, for PvE and maybe WvW, while being smaller in PvP.

- Inciting your pet to attack an enemy or to protect an ally:

There are multiple ways for you to incite your pet to attack an enemy/neutral object, or to protect an ally:

  • Moving the inner circle of your ground target over an enemy/allyMoving the inner circle over an enemy and clicking or pressing F1 again will cause your pet to attack that enemy. If multiple enemies are within the inner circle, the pet will attack the enemy closest to the center of the circle. Similarly, commanding the pet to protect an ally is done by moving the inner circle over that ally. If both enemies and allies are within the inner circle, the pet will always be commanded to attack and not to protect.

  • Having an enemy/ally targetted and pressing F1This will show the ground target circle, which allows you to task your pet with something different, like attacking a different enemy, protecting a different ally or moving it to a location, without you having to un-target your current target

  • Pressing and holding F1 while you have something targettedThis will not show the ground target circle, but just command your pet to attack/protect your target until your pet dies, the target dies, until you command your pet to do something else or if the target leaves your primary leash range (<- could also be secondary leash range for PvE).

  • While downedPressing F1 while you have an enemy/ally targetted will cause your pet to attack or protect the target.

- Sending your pet to a location:

There are multiple ways for you to command you pet to move to a designated location:

  • Moving the inner circle of your ground target to the locationThis will command your pet to move to the chosen location, as long as it is within the primary leash range and accessible for the pet. It will stay at that location until it dies, you issue a different command or you leave the secondary leash range.

  • Having an enemy/ally targetted and pressing F1This will show the ground target circle, which allows you to send your pet to a location mid battle.

  • While downedThe pet cannot be sent to locations while downed

- Commanding your pet to return to you:

  • Moving the inner circle of your ground target over yourselfThis will command your pet to return to you. Enemies or allies that are also in the circle will be ignored.

  • Moving the cursor over the UIYou can move your cursor over your UI and quickly press F1 two times in succession to command your pet to return to you

  • Pressing and holding F1 for more than 3 secondsThis is meant as an alternative for players that are using the action camera.

  • While downedWhen downed, you wont be able to ground target. Pressing F1 while nothing is targetted, or keeping F1 pressed while you have something targetted will cause the pet to return to you.

  • Additionally, the devs could add an unused keybinding option for you to command your pet to return to you instantly.

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F2 and F3: Skills


The two most impactful skills of each pet will be bound to keys F2 and F3, for player controlled activation.Combined with a reduction of the casting time, this will make many pets much stronger

F4: Pet Swap


The functionality of this key can largely stay the same, however I'd suggest that the cooldown of the ability to swap pets should be changed to be based on whether or not you pet is in combat, and not the Ranger.

UI Additions


The third, non-auto attack skill should get its own icon next to the other two skills of the pet to keep track of its cooldown.The pet will use it's third skill as soon as possible, as long as its enemy is not invulnerable

Separate the combat notification of the UI for the pet and the Ranger.Combine this with the change to let pet and Ranger enter combat separately and you will cut the annoyance of the pet in the open world in half

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Combat Modes


- Aggressive

  • While following the Ranger or guarding an allyThe pet will attack enemies that attack or are attacked by the player/ally they are following, and enemies that attack the pet. If it is already in combat, it will focus on the target attacked by the player/ally.

  • While standing at a locationThe pet will attack enemies that attack the pet or that are within the pet's effective range. As a reminder, the effective range is defined by the outer circle when using the ground target to command your pet.

- Defensive

  • While following the Ranger or guarding an allyThe pet will only attack enemies that are attacked by the player/ally it follows

  • While standing at a locationThe pet will only attack enemies that attack the pet.

- Passive

  • AlwaysThe pet will not attack unless the ranger commands it to.
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Druid Integration


With the pet now being more controllabe, it can take more responsibilities.As such, the pet will now be the Celestial Avatar, giving you more freedom.

Celestial Avatar

  • Passive - Natural Convergence: The pet will passively pulse out a field that cripples enemies with its first hit, applies Slow with its second hit and immobilizes the enemy with its third hit. After that, the field will only cripple that enemy for a while (internal cooldown). No damage in favor of lower internal cooldown.
  • Auto Attack - Cosmic Ray: Used on allies in range
  • Uncontrollabe ability - Lunar Impact: Used on the lowest ally in range or the ally it was ordered to follow
  • F2 and F3 - Seed of Life and Rejuvenating Tides

Additional Mechanics

  • Activating Celestial Avatar makes the pet invulnerable to direct- and condition damage for the duration of Celestial Avatar, however not to status effects, such as cripples, slows, knockback, roots or the like
  • If the pet is in a certain range of the Ranger (for example 1000 units), the Ranger will be linked to the pet, benefitting him and all allies that stand on that link from all passive and active effects, as well as debuffing enemies that stand on that link

These changes would offer multiple benefits to the player. Moving the Celestrial Avatar to the pet allows the Ranger to continue his rotation, while the smaller damage source becomes the healbot. The invulnerability would not only finally give you a reliable way to get your pet through a zerg in WvW alive, but also allow you to heal in high-risk areas, such as next to your aggro-tank in raids. The link between the Ranger and the pet does ensure that the Ranger doesn't miss out on buffs, while the line between the Ranger and the pet gives benefits to those who position themselves properly to affect allies and enemies alike. As balance to this potentially really potent mechanic, the range at which the pet pulses out the buffs and heals it provides can be rather small, forcing the Ranger to keep a close eye on the positioning of his pet.

Soulbeast Integration


Currently, I am not confident enough to make any deeper suggestions. I do however see one aspect on how the Souldbeast could improve the pet gameplay

Beastmode

  • Leaving Beastmode - Holding F5 instead of just tapping it will give you a ground target circle that allows you to spawn your pet on that location. The range to which the ground target can be used is up for balance concerns.

This change would allow you as a Soulbeast to quickly reposition your pet without risk of it getting stopped.

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I've tried my dearest to not make any aspect of the pet more clunky than it is today. I know ofcourse that the removal of F3 as return button comes at a cost, but I think that the gains are greatly outweighting the costs. If I've overlooked some glaring issues, I'd encourage you to let me know!

Questions you might have and Answers I would give


"Your suggestion requires a lot of work. Why would we want to that?"

Instead of repeating myself by saying that it would give the player so much more control over the pet, I will give some specific examples in the hope of you coming up with some of your own as well.

  • Positioning your wolf ontop of a shadow refuge to pressure the enemies inside it.
  • Leaving your pet at an entrance of a camp in WvW to alert you of incoming enemies.
  • Your Necro teammate needs more pressure to condibomb an enemy? Command a pet with CC to aggressively protect the Necro.
  • Want to participate in a "protect ..." event, but also farm the nodes nearby? Let your pet guard the ally to alert you to and fend off enemies.
  • If caught in an AoE, you can command your pet to take the fastest way out of the danger zone.
  • When chasing a fleeing enemy, you can send your pet to the position you expect that enemy to be, rather than letting it just mindlessly chase that enemy.

"Why replace F3? That is lost functionality right there!"

That is correct, but the positive outshines the negative. Most pets have very powerful secondary skills, which you can't easily predict when they are used currently, let alone control when or where they used. If the player could control those, the pet would get way more effective.

  • Canines have a ranged knockdown
  • Drakes have AoE knockback
  • Birds have swiftness
  • Dragons have AoE knockback
  • Smokescale has blind field

This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. In most fights you are not reliant on being able to recall your pet faster than what my suggestion would allow, however having control over these skills could shift the way the Ranger is played in a huge way.

But I've also added the suggestion to give the option to rebind the F3 key, or any other key, to letting the pet instantly return to you, for those who really don't want it.

"The pets are useless, even with your proposed changes. They need buffs!"

I'm not saying that I disagree, and there are some clear candidates, like procines, that need a revamp. But most of the time it's not that the skills of the pets are bad, but that those skills have long windup times and huge tells, which make the pet miss their skills more often than not. My suggestion would give the player the ability to control where and when those abilities are used. Making those skills then actually hit could be a part of the gameplay. The Ranger has to make sure to keep the enemy in place while the pet activates its ability.

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@Cloud Windfoot Omega.7485 said:Do you really think you need to reserve 7 spots (sorry if i ruined that plan)?

Yes, and I'd kindly ask you to delete your post, as I was spam-blocked. Thing is that the old forums would auto-collapse spoilers, which the new forums don't do. Given that this will be a really long post, I want to give others the ability to use links to skip posts, as you can't collapse spoilers anymore.

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  • Pressing and holding F1 while you have something targettedThis will not show the ground target circle, but just command your pet to attack/protect your target until your pet dies, the target dies, until you command your pet to do something else or if the target leaves your primary leash range (<- could also be secondary leash range for PvE).

  • Moving the cursor over the UIYou can move your cursor over your UI and quickly press F1 two times in succession to command your pet to return to you

  • Pressing and holding F1 for more than 3 secondsThis is meant as an alternative for players that are using the action camera.

  • While downedWhen downed, you wont be able to ground target. Pressing F1 while nothing is targetted, or keeping F1 pressed while you have something targetted will cause the pet to return to you.

I really like the idea behind your Repositioning Command change. However, I think a better mechanic than key press speed/duration would need to be used. There are players with physical limitations that could prevent them from doing that kind of coordinated or extended key press. Additionally in some game modes holding a key for 3 seconds could have critical consequences.

What if instead you do something like toggle the function key options using another pre-start key. I am thinking like how druid switching to celestial changes the 1-5 skills, or necromancer going into shroud. F1 toggles the repositioning options and then you have f2-f4 for the sub-commands.

I am really looking forward to your other thoughts on the pet mechanic.

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@BlueIce.6951 said:

I really like the idea behind your Repositioning Command change. However, I think a better mechanic than key press speed/duration would need to be used. There are players with physical limitations that could prevent them from doing that kind of coordinated or extended key press. Additionally in some game modes holding a key for 3 seconds could have critical consequences.

What if instead you do something like toggle the function key options using another pre-start key. I am thinking like how druid switching to celestial changes the 1-5 skills, or necromancer going into shroud. F1 toggles the repositioning options and then you have f2-f4 for the sub-commands.

I've made multiple suggestions on how one specific function could be executed to allow different players to achieve the same ffect through different means. That obviously doesn't mean that my suggestions are the be-all-and-end-all. If I'd have suggested just one way of activating a certain effect, many players would have said that this specific suggestion goes against their way to play the game. As such, your suggestion is just as feasible as mine are, they were meant to be seen as possibilities anyways. the more options you have to activate a certain skill, the better.

Edit: What I wanted to say is that I am merely presenting options on how to implement the mechanics I am suggesting. So your option would probably work just as fine as mines. The more options the better.

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Nice and detailed suggestion. I have just a few comments:From my personal view, removing F3 functionality is not a good idea, as it can be often very beneficial. For example, while roaming around the world, sometimes I simply want to recall my pet back when it is trying to defend me and slowing me down, without a need to turn the passive state off and on all the time. When downed, I sometimes want to keep my pets on the enemy to finish them off (rally), but sometimes I want to recall them back to help with my revive (and shorten the time they need for running to my spot before they can start the revive). As mentioned in the FAQ, this functionality may be eventually re-assigned to another key, but I am afraid we are getting even more to the area of over-complication and micro-management. These increased management abilities rise a question if it simply does worth the effort. Will be the benefits so significant that it worth to be implemented and most importantly - will be the benefits high enough that players will be using it? Also using the key-hold and key-press difference on the same keys (although it is relatively oftenly used on consoles/gamepads) is not very common on PC and I am not sure if it is the concept ANet may approve.

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Removing the F3 as recall would indeed mean losing convenience, but I think that the positive effects of this would far outweight the negative. However, you would not lose functionality. You can still recall your pet to you, it would just require a bit more work (clicking two times and moving the mouse or holding a button for 3 seconds instead of just one button press).I also added a new combat mode, Defensive, which is aimed at keeping the pet from running off while in the open world. This mode would make the pet only attack targets you are attacking.

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I don't think that more controls will change anything. Pets are slow in movement, slow in attack and stucked by attacking. Add more leaps, bigger cleaves and increase base movement and we will have a minimum fix of our "special ability".

Then we need big improvements and changes for most pet skills. Porcine F2 is senseless since release. Then there more skills that are useless (bird swiftness -.-, devourer retreat, etc.)

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@Wuselknusel.4082 said:Removing the F3 as recall would indeed mean losing convenience, but I think that the positive effects of this would far outweight the negative. However, you would not lose functionality. You can still recall your pet to you, it would just require a bit more work (clicking two times and moving the mouse or holding a button for 3 seconds instead of just one button press).I also added a new combat mode, Defensive, which is aimed at keeping the pet from running off while in the open world. This mode would make the pet only attack targets you are attacking.

That is partially also my point - such basic and simple feature like a recall should be also easy and simple to use and just one button press seems to be just right. I think that the extended functionality (and you wrote good ideas there) should be just... well, the extension. If anybody want to use it, they will have that option. But in my opinion the current function should remain the same for those that do not want to fiddle with it - easy to understand, easy to use and more or less flawlessly working. It shouldn't be a requirement, just tailoring the pet behaviour to your gameplay style. I will surely welcome some kind of pet behavior like "attack foes just when I am attacking and not just passing by". ;)

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@"Aleksander Suburb.4287" said:I don't think that more controls will change anything. Pets are slow in movement, slow in attack and stucked by attacking. Add more leaps, bigger cleaves and increase base movement and we will have a minimum fix of our "special ability".

Then we need big improvements and changes for most pet skills. Porcine F2 is senseless since release. Then there more skills that are useless (bird swiftness -.-, devourer retreat, etc.)

There are usually two main approaches on how to make pets better: Make them hit more consistently or make them more controllable. You want the pets to hit more consistently, and I want them to be more controllable. That doesn't mean that pets should not get better hitting attacks, but I think that the main improvement will be the added control over the pet. After all, just making the pets hit more often still wont fix them using their abilities with completely inappropriate timings or angling themselves unfavorable towards their opponents.Also, having better control over the pet means that you can more easily ensure yoruself that the pet will hit by sending it to intercept the enemy, rather than just chasing after him.

Procine are bad and noone denies that they need a different F2, but their other uncontrolled ability is a charge that is fast and long reaching that knocks back enemies. Having control over that ability, which my suggestion would provide, would already buff Porcines. The swiftness from birds is actually pretty helpful in my book, for example if you are just running around in the open world. You could reach perma-swiftness way easier.

In general, my suggestion does not mean or imply that most pets don't need a buff. It should however give you the ability to play with your pet, instead of just reacting to it.

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@Hya.5168 said:

@Wuselknusel.4082 said:Removing the F3 as recall would indeed mean losing convenience, but I think that the positive effects of this would far outweight the negative. However, you would not lose functionality. You can still recall your pet to you, it would just require a bit more work (clicking two times and moving the mouse or holding a button for 3 seconds instead of just one button press).I also added a new combat mode, Defensive, which is aimed at keeping the pet from running off while in the open world. This mode would make the pet only attack targets you are attacking.

That is partially also my point - such basic and simple feature like a recall should be also easy and simple to use and just one button press seems to be just right. I think that the extended functionality (and you wrote good ideas there) should be just... well, the extension. If anybody want to use it, they will have that option. But in my opinion the current function should remain the same for those that do not want to fiddle with it - easy to understand, easy to use and more or less flawlessly working. It shouldn't be a requirement, just tailoring the pet behaviour to your gameplay style. I will surely welcome some kind of pet behavior like "attack foes just when I am attacking and not just passing by". ;)

My stance on the loss of the retreat option is that it is not important enough to have its own button. As such, having to click 2 times instead of just one time is totally fine in my book. Additionally, the versatility and control gained by having F3 mapped to the pet's secondary skill far outshines the convenience loss of the missing the 1-click-retreat button. But outside of that, do you think that there is any situatio in Guildwars that requires you to retreat your pet that couldn't also be accomplished by just moving your pet with the ground target?

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