Controlling the mech on a finer level? (and related PvE issues)

[Nazarick.9653]

No-one seems to have picked up on this yet, but there is one thing I didn't see in the preview - any type of fine control, such as recall the mech to your side, stop attacking, move to a specific area etc. (a bit like the pet bar in WoW)

 

Asking because every boss in group PvE consists of spam-red-circles-and-expect-you-to-dodge-them-all-among-the-visual-clutter...and I fear that the mech won't last 30 seconds against a fractal/strike/raid boss without some way of avoiding the constant AoE spam. (I can't exactly see it being a priority for healers, if it can even be targeted)

 

Not to mention a royal PITA in open world...cue the cries of "stuck in combat forever because my mech won't stop beating on a veteran that I didn't even aggro"

[azarhal.3086]

It use the ranger pet bar which allow for switching between passive/aggressive mode and a recall. The F1-F3 can be considered attack commands depending what traits you pick*. One of the signet is a shadowstep teleport that also move the mech.

You can dismiss it and resummons where you want as that is an AOE attack skill. There is a CD with the recharge rate after dismissal based on the mech damage level, but they are still tweaking that part.

*Going by the preview a ranged F skills will cause the Mech to auto-attack in range afterward, while a melee F skills switch it to melee auto-attacks afterwards. Some of the F skills are support thought, but F1 is always an attack.

Edited October 23, 2021 by azarhal.3086

[magic fly.2041]

Pets and stuff take 95% reduced damage from aoe attacks that don't specifically target them.

I'm not concerned.

Most cries of despair about having an AI assistant with AI pathfinding both here and in the ranger forums are overstated.

 

The only time I could see it being a problem would be in pvp where players can jump gaps and AI would take a long path instead, but why would you take a spec weak in that situation straight into that situation? Can only blame yourself for not picking a different location to fight where your AI pet won't struggle.

[Zzik.5873]

50 minutes ago, magic fly.2041 said:

Pets and stuff take 95% reduced damage from aoe attacks that don't specifically target them.

I'm not concerned.

Most cries of despair about having an AI assistant with AI pathfinding both here and in the ranger forums are overstated.

 

The only time I could see it being a problem would be in pvp where players can jump gaps and AI would take a long path instead, but why would you take a spec weak in that situation straight into that situation? Can only blame yourself for not picking a different location to fight where your AI pet won't struggle.

People 8n general are so bad in positionnig and they rather complain instead of tryimg to get better. Only issue with ranger pet is that they are weak HP wise. But the golem seem to be god in this side so Im not too worry... even more with the pusle aoe barrier o.o seem so op

[Nephalem.8921]

3 hours ago, magic fly.2041 said:

Pets and stuff take 95% reduced damage from aoe attacks that don't specifically target them.

I'm not concerned.

Most cries of despair about having an AI assistant with AI pathfinding both here and in the ranger forums are overstated.

 

The only time I could see it being a problem would be in pvp where players can jump gaps and AI would take a long path instead, but why would you take a spec weak in that situation straight into that situation? Can only blame yourself for not picking a different location to fight where your AI pet won't struggle.

Some skills ignore the reduction. Vg greens, flux bomb and some more. flux bomb + afflicted will probably just kill it. exposed increases condi dmg by 100%.

[Infusion.7149]

3 hours ago, Makuragee.3058 said:

People 8n general are so bad in positionnig and they rather complain instead of tryimg to get better. Only issue with ranger pet is that they are weak HP wise. But the golem seem to be god in this side so Im not too worry... even more with the pusle aoe barrier o.o seem so op

It's going to have 175% of your vitality and toughness as baseline through minor traits. Base vitality is 1000. Therefore it will be ~1750 vitality which is 17,500 health unless you run vitality gear (plaguedoctor probably , but then you won't have enough condition duration).

With 1750+ toughness it won't be likely you see it in any place there is toughness tanking since you force your tank to be more or less full minstrel. It won't be likely used in fractals. Then again on Keep Construct , Xera, Adina, or Gorseval for example it might be able to tank if you could adequately heal it , control its position, aggro stayed on it, and it did okay DPS as a spec...

I feel if the power variant is remotely viable with Jade Cannons (making it ranged) it should change that toughness into a huge vitality pool ala Siege Golems in WVW, especially since running power builds on marauder gear is always an option (would be ~28.6K health with the current traits' 175% ratio). This is especially true since you'd have to use rifle + bomb kit / grenades with a power focused build (no sword mainhand or hammer ; mace is condi).

Currently it doesn't even stack up to Rock Gazelle if you run full glass. Rock Gazelle has 2898 toughness and 3242 vitality ; your choice of bears has 2211 toughness and 4959 vitality ; bristleback has 2898 toughness but 2211 vitality ; smokescale (generally used as DPS pet) has 2211 toughness and 3585 vitality. A ranger with beast mastery has +150 to all attributes on their pet as well.

Edited October 23, 2021 by Infusion.7149