Easy way to fix the pets vol. 2

[anduriell.6280]

This is a quick idea to how to fix the pet mechanic and how the ranger interacts with it. It is easy in a way that uses current systems and do not deviate from it although it would require some rework in some pet systems to make it work.  This changes are aimed so they are as indepent from the pets abilities as much as possible such being easily adaptable to any new and existing pets so future specializations are more autonomous and won't need to give so much though to the balancing process with the pet. 

 

First, Pet UI. 

The pet, in opposition of the minions for other classes, is deeply intertwined with the damage and survivability of the class. Having the pet dying because the player lacks all the information about the state of the companion is an issue that very often happens. To solve this is something it should be easy enough:

 

• Pets appear in an party like UI in one corner of the screen, showing the boons and status conditions ( File:Party ) . Portrait icons can be much smaller. This simple modification would bring all the info the ranger needs about the pet without intruding the current UI. Later this UI could be used for other minions like spirit, Necromancer, Elementalist or Renegade. 

 

Second, Pet survivability. 

Without increasing the automated sustain of the pet the AI needs means to be able to survive the AoEs and conditions. To accomplish that, ranger share its own survivability with the companion. Thus the ranger can increase the survivability of the companion by becoming more vulnerable. 

 

• When the ranger apply a cleansing from his own skills the pet is affected too in the same amount. 
• When the ranger gain evade frames due dodge or skills used (like Lightning_Reflexes ) the pet companion get an effect similar to Distortion for the same amount of time. 
• Pets would have the additional stats and base speed from Beast Mastery traitline as baseline and removed from the traitline. 
• The minor trait Fortifying Bond becomes baseline to the ranger and removed from the traitline. 

 

Third, Pet commands. 

Pet UI needs an small rework, as to allow the player to have control over as many skills as possible from the pet. To accomplish that an small change is required in the pet interface ( File:Ranger_Pet_Interface) :

• F1 is turned into a switch which reflects the next order to be carried by the pet, cycling between "attack!" and "Return to me!". When "Attack status is clicked the status changes to "Return to me!" which stays that way until the pet stops attacking (because of no target) or the player click it again cycling it into "attack!". 
  This fullfills current mechanic of being able to send the pet to a target and then middle combat it can switch targets by clicking the button twice (attack->return->attack new target). 
• F2 keeps current functionality.
• F3 will show another pet skill from the 3 the AI currently manage. This skill is different because the AI manages the ability, so it shows itself in cooldown when the companion has used the skill by itself but allows the player to cast the skill on demand (more info below as the AI will not use all skills "on CD" and will have some basic decision making based in conditions) .
• F5 - becomes a ground target skill which allows the pet to be reposition to that location. This f5 has very low CD (1s) to avoid missclicks but at the same time it should allow better control over the pet. It should work in the same mechanic as the old shout "Guard!" (without any of the buffs or boons) which would  send the pet to stay in a location for a short while or until commanded otherwise. This can be used to manually guide the pet to follow an specific path or to make them stay in an specific areaoutof harms way while not needed.
• Passive / Aggressive switch keeps current functionality. 
• Stow / Show pet becomes a switch which is not triggered by combat and can be only used while the ranger is not in combat. As such rangers can stow permanently the pet at the tradeoff of losing the utilities from the pet (in some specific situations it is beneficial to have the pet permanent stowed like a ranger in WvW ) . 

 

Rework of the command utility skills to something similar to what i suggested in below thread would allow to a better fined control being able to send the pet to a position to help the friendlies in the case of the defensive pets or simply position the pet as needed to perform specific activities.  

 

Fourth, Pet AI. 

Pets need an small rework in how it casts the skills. Having the pet casting the skills on CD feels random and the ranger has very little control over it, playing a guessing game when trying to get an expected results. Implementing an small AI could solve the issues and also allow the ranger to have better understanding on how the pet behavies. 

As such pets would need to become "standardized" in the AI behaviours defined as follow: 

•  
• Melee pets will try to get into melee combat. It will use the utility skills(F3) to interrupt the targets and Close gaps if the target is beyond reach of the skill to keep up with the target. 
• Ranged pets will try to keep a minimal distance of 750 units from the target. If any enemies come closer than 200 units of the pet, the pet will try to reposition itself moving away or using the utility / defensive skill if needed. The pet would get closer only when instructed by the ranger by using F2's or F3's. 
•  
• Melee offesive. (canines, felines) This pets need the following composition of skills: Auto attack, Close Gap skill used only when the enemy is farther than 600 units, Utility cast when target is casting skills(F3). 
• Melee defensive. (moas, bears) This pets would use Autoattack, deffensive skill designed around healing/reduce damage cast on CD, and  defensive skill  to be cast when the pet is under 50% health under CD (F3). 
• Ranged offensive (spiders, bristle) This pet will consist of Autoattack, Burst cast on CD, Utility cast when the target is within 600 range(F3).. 
• Ranged deffensive. (Devourers) This pet will have an Autoattacks, An utility which is cast when within 600 units, An defensive utility cast when there are enemies at melee range(F3). 

 

This should make pets to behave consistently, and having the F3 casting under specific conditions  would allow the ranger to operate with the pets as it fits, for example using Devourer Retreat (F3) if the devourer is within an AoE or Harmonic Cry (F3) to heal himself/group  instead waiting for the moa to be under the health threshold . 

 

Fifth, Pet damage

Making pets more versatile could make the pets extremely effective which paired with the damage they currently output could prove challenging to balance. Pets should be there to bring that additional push to the ranger but not to replace the profession damage. To accomplish that some small changes are required:

•  
• Companions can not inflict critical hits. This should make much easier to balance and some pets may need some buffs into the damage they currently do. It makes no sense a pet has the smarts to be able to critically hit an armored target. Current trait/skills buffs to critical damage or Fury could be reflected as plain increased damage, like "while affected by fury the pet does a 7% extra damage".  
• There is no need to modify the current stats if that proves too work intensive, Critical hit and Ferocity will be there, just not used when on the pets attacks. 

This would open new skills where the pet gain access to critical hits for short duration as utility(F3)/burst skill. 

 

Sixth, Pet design

Now that pet damage has been brought down and controlled and survivability has increased the last piece missing is how the pet interact with external systems within the game. With that in mind an small rework is needed on the pets so they may interact better with the rest of the game. Also skills between pets and Soulbeast should differ as little as possible as means to allow the ranger to understand better the pet mechanics. As some examples: 

 

Canines : This would include smokescale in the group. Canines are bruiser type pets which bring some utility to the group. Base stats from Smokescale should be applied to all the canine family. 

Basic template would consist of AA with short condition, 600 units close gap, 600 units utility. current examples: Crippling Leap as closegap, Brutal Charge as utility. Both those skills need a buff in range.  F2's shoudl cast an AoE combo field addtionally to the AoE effect. Example Fern Hound could leave an AoE water field behind when cast Regenerate.      

 

Felines: Offensive pets. Tougher than birds yet glassier than canines. This pets are selfish in nature and the F2's will provide additional effects in their future attacks. This family needs an small rework as it lack the mobility needed. This would interact well with the soulbeast as giving an additional toolset different from other pets. 

Basic template will consist of 900 close gap ( Pounce ), Utility skill similar to Stalk (short stealth without the biff to not being revealed) (F3). F2's will consist on giving the companion an addtional effects for the next few attacks. Example Lynx F2 would give the pet additional bleeds for the next few attacks, Snow leopard would apply chilled. 

 

Spiders: Selfish Offensive range pet, it will try to keep the distance with enemies and it would need a buff in the range to 1200. The basic template would consist of burst Poison Gas  and utility Entangling Web. F2's would benefit the pet and not the ranger.

Bristleback: Similar to spiders this pet need an small rework. While current Spike Barrage would become a Burst and be managed by the AI, the ability Sharpen Spines should become the F2 ability so the ranger can decide when the burst should go in. The skill would  need to have more attack stacks or decreased CD. The utility (F3) would be Rain of Spikes which addtionaly would daze the targets hit by the skill. 

 

Bears: Melee defensive pet, This pets would be designed to have them as passive pets around the ranger. The basic template would consist of Bite as defensive skill and Defy Pain as F3. Having that immunity on F3 would allow the ranger to help the pet when is within AoEs but not under the health threshold. Defy pain could apply also resistance as means to be used also as close gap / escape skill. 

 

Birds: melee offensive glassy pet. This pet is very selfish and it should be able to stick to target consistently. It should be a pet with access to a burst in a similar fashion as Soulbeast is designed. 
While Swoop should become a close gap like the soulbeat skill, Quickening Screech (F3) should apply quickness and supperspeed in a similar fashion to Quickening_Zephyr as means to allow the pet to have access to a burst compensating the fact this pet should be very glass. 

 

 Moas: Defensive melee pet. This pet could be designed with groups in mind as such it would need some rework on the skills. 

The basic template would consist on Protecting Screech, an utility skill wich cast regeneration and resolution around the pet.  Harmonic Cry (F3) is an plain healing around the pet which would need in increased radius of at least 450.  The F2's should become AoEs similar to consecrations which could provide different defensive effects, like cleansing, block projectiles, provide boons... 

 

Seventh, why the lack of formatting options in the forum posts. 

A lot of tools have been removed from forum tools like paragraph formatting and insertion of images. It makes very difficult to organize a long forum post like this one, Please bring back the formatting buttons. 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by anduriell.6280
formatting, smol corrections. Added F5 skill.

[Wild.1705]

The pet mechanic is why I main ranger. But, even as a lover of the mechanic there are many qol changes that are needed, as well as a bit more control during combat. From what I have seen here on the forums, this post has the most comprehensive list of areas to focus regarding the pet mechanic. I hope someone form ArenaNet sees this post. If they ever do decide to revamp pets there are alot of good ideas here, and the reasoning for many of these changes are easy to get behind. Great post!

[Ehecatl.9172]

You seem to have completely forgotten about the drakes and wyverns. Very unfortunate!

 

I don't necessarily agree pets need to lose their ability to crit, but I do agree that it'd make pet damage easier to balance if nothing else.

 

I like basically everything else though. We need more control of the other high impact skills our pets have. Using pet swap to activate them works but is a little clunky. I've also LONG said that rangers need to be able to perma stow their pet if they so choose. There are just activities in the game where the pet is a detriment. Let the ranger make the choice to stow their pet knowing they're missing out on the pet's damage and utility if they think the pet is more of a liability than an asset in that situation.

 

As an addition: Just make the pet swap button summon your stowed pet so the ranger can whip it out on command the second they need to. Pet swap doesn't need to go on cooldown for this. It just acts as a command to un-stow the pet then returns to being the normal pet swap as long as you have an active pet.

[anduriell.6280]

7 hours ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

You seem to have completely forgotten about the drakes and wyverns. Very unfortunate!

I have forgotten about a lot: drakes, wyverns, pigs, ibogas, jaracanda... although i understand your disappointment this was intentional on my part as i didn't think i needed to specify all of them. Just gave some sort of blueprint where pets design can get they info from. 

Quote

As an addition: Just make the pet swap button summon your stowed pet so the ranger can whip it out on command the second they need to. Pet swap doesn't need to go on cooldown for this. It just acts as a command to un-stow the pet then returns to being the normal pet swap as long as you have an active pet.

I was thinking more on if you have your pet stowed you can not bring it back during combat. This is to avoid any undesired interactions with traits like continuously stowing/show pet to trigger certain traits or outplay other players burst damage by making the pet disappear. 

 

There is somebody who seems confused about my post thou, i hope they can get their help they need to overcome that confusion soon! 😄

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by anduriell.6280

[Ehecatl.9172]

14 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

I was thinking more on if you have your pet stowed you can not bring it back during combat. This is to avoid any undesired interactions with traits like continuously stowing/show pet to trigger certain traits or outplay other players burst damage by making the pet disappear. 

 

That might be a bit too punishing. Imagine leaving a zerg to go back to re-supply and getting caught with your pet in storage. You'd have almost no chance of winning.

 

Not being able to stow them in combat makes sense and makes it a strategic choice you make before a fight begins. It also prevents the ranger from being cheeky and stowing the pet just before they go down. But I feel the ranger should always be able to call their pet into action just because of how crippled they are without them. Just make taking a pet out of stowing not trigger as if it were a pet swap and I think it'd be fine.

[anduriell.6280]

12 hours ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

That might be a bit too punishing. Imagine leaving a zerg to go back to re-supply and getting caught with your pet in storage. You'd have almost no chance of winning.

 

Not being able to stow them in combat makes sense and makes it a strategic choice you make before a fight begins. It also prevents the ranger from being cheeky and stowing the pet just before they go down. But I feel the ranger should always be able to call their pet into action just because of how crippled they are without them. Just make taking a pet out of stowing not trigger as if it were a pet swap and I think it'd be fine.

You bring a fair point, i would agree with you, once the pet is brought back the ranger would not be able to stow it again unless it goes out of combat. 

 

That is a great compromise and a fantastic addition.