Beast skills need fixing and some EOD pets

[circuitnerd.5863]

First off, all Beast Skills need fixing. I often have to mash F2 repeatedly for my pet to use it's special attack. It should interrupt the pets current attack. Or at the very least activate after the pet has finished their attack. Not mashing the skill over and over for it to work. 

Second. Phoenix, White Tiger and Turtle constantly miss their target. The Phoenix often zooms past completely missing. It's melee bite often misses as well. White Tiger shadow steps to the last known location of the enemy but if the enemy has moved then it misses. Turtle... well the projectile is just so dang slow it misses 90% of the time unless the enemy is stationary. 

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

As far as I understand ever since the changes to Engineers golem it affected Rangers pet, and from that point on a rangers pet won't perform it's F2 if it is already doing another of its skills. I agree this needs to be changed because it can really affect the fight. 

Hopefully Anet will look into this soon. 

[Zyreva.1078]

5 hours ago, Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341 said:

Hopefully Anet will look into this soon. 

It's has been more than a year with zero acknowledgement from the devs. Doesn't look like they are even trying to fix any of the pet issues introduced last year. Unfortunately there isn't enough of an outcry about those things, likely because the majority of rangers never cared much about pet micromanagement and just puts everything on autocast now. So better get used to playing a class with a broken class mechanic.

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Zyreva.1078

[Beddo.1907]

90% of pets need fixing, including the traits.

[anduriell.6280]

19 hours ago, circuitnerd.5863 said:

First off, all Beast Skills need fixing. I often have to mash F2 repeatedly for my pet to use it's special attack. It should interrupt the pets current attack. Or at the very least activate after the pet has finished their attack. Not mashing the skill over and over for it to work. 

Second. Phoenix, White Tiger and Turtle constantly miss their target. The Phoenix often zooms past completely missing. It's melee bite often misses as well. White Tiger shadow steps to the last known location of the enemy but if the enemy has moved then it misses. Turtle... well the projectile is just so dang slow it misses 90% of the time unless the enemy is stationary. 

Let me tell you: If pets wouldn't take 2 full seconds pre-casting anything they do we would not have this problems. Also if quickness would work on pets you could have some work around. 

 

[Silvoshipnos.2089]

Beast abilities almost never get cast, pressing the skill doesn't seem to even queue it and unless the pet happens to not be doing anything else it won't go of. You have to spam the key multiple times to for it to try casting it. Fix it

[Beddo.1907]

F2 works on the same logic as normal skill queue, except on the pet. Since that's the case, the only fix would be forced action cancel and I kinda doubt anet would spend time on that.

[Zyreva.1078]

4 hours ago, Beddo.1907 said:

the only fix would be forced action cancel and I kinda doubt anet would spend time on that.

They would just have to revert whatever they changed last year, because that's exactly how pet skills used to work - and it was crucial for their functionality and responsiveness.

[Mell.4873]

Pets have there own internal logic that can prevent the skill from being cast.  You will notice this all to well with Untamed if you select it to auto cast them. 

Some skills they use will only trigger if they are below 50% health. While others like the beast skills need the target to be within range while you press it. 

 

The phoenix if its skills are working properly is very strong. I don't know if anyone has noticed but it has the highest movement speed of any pet. Which is great for chasing targets, to bad all it's skills suck. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Gotejjeken.1267]

What's weird is it is ONLY the F2 this happens with.

I use smokescale a lot on Untamed and have no issues ever getting it to do the KD on the F1 or the smoke assault on F3 (though usually have that set to auto).  Ironically, I've never seen an issue with the field on F2, always wonder why just that one behaves.

Same with Rock Gazelle, no issues with the kick or the charge.  The headbutt on F2? 9/10 times have to spam the crap out of that thing for it to work.

The point about lack of outcry is true because in PvE you don't need pets, just perma merge slb.  Which even in competitive is somewhat effective too as the sic em build are the most popular and they only ever unmerge for smoke field stealth.

Really wish the September patch or whenever they do balance next is not actual balance but just bugfixing.  

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Gotejjeken.1267

[sewenewes.4176]

I have picked up the game again and noticed right away that the active pet skills have become extremely unresponsive. Wondered if it's an issue exclusive to untamed so I tested it on my soulbeast and base ranger as well and have noticed the same thing. I'm used to F2 skills not landing with moving targets, that has always been the case, so I make sure the target is focused on me and I'm either standing still with it or have stunned it for my pets to land their ability. However, even this has become a gamble as it now takes so long for them to do it that either the target wakes up from its stun or forces me to move before the F2 goes off.  Have to keep mashing that button as it simply doesn't do anything until the the pet's AI finishes whatever process it started and finally executes the F2.

[Mell.4873]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:45 AM, sewenewes.4176 said:

I have picked up the game again and noticed right away that the active pet skills have become extremely unresponsive. Wondered if it's an issue exclusive to untamed so I tested it on my soulbeast and base ranger as well and have noticed the same thing. I'm used to F2 skills not landing with moving targets, that has always been the case, so I make sure the target is focused on me and I'm either standing still with it or have stunned it for my pets to land their ability. However, even this has become a gamble as it now takes so long for them to do it that either the target wakes up from its stun or forces me to move before the F2 goes off.  Have to keep mashing that button as it simply doesn't do anything until the the pet's AI finishes whatever process it started and finally executes the F2.

Yeah you can't que pets skills, and yes you do notice this alot on Untamed. Spamming is your best option. 

I believe the player can que up to 3 skills but pet can only que 1 so anything else gets left out. 

[AquaBR.9250]

Please, i only play with auto skills now, i really have to press the button 4+ times for the skill to be used, that is just unplayable, and in automatic the pet just don't use the skill when its avaible, leaving it off cooldown for some time for the sake of auto attacking, please fix that

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

Please consider adding video evidence to the thread below;

 

[Silvoshipnos.2089]

It so cool that EoD allowed engineers to be the better pet class and on top of that accomodating their pets broke the AI of our pets.

Thanks Anet.

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

The best advice I have so far come across is to call your pet to you, this breaks the current cycle that it is in, then press F2, as the cycle is now stopped F2 works more responsively. 

This ofcourse does not fix the issue, but it gives you a work around. 

The more people contribute to threads like this, and the bug thread, the greater the likely hood we shall get on their radar for them to fix this issue. 

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

Well, they fixed an aether hunter bug, the question is how did that bug get on their radar and not the other F2 bugs, what did that one do or not do that made it stand out from the rest?

[DarkFlopy.8197]

16 hours ago, Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341 said:

Well, they fixed an aether hunter bug, the question is how did that bug get on their radar and not the other F2 bugs, what did that one do or not do that made it stand out from the rest?

If I remember correctly that bug was first introduced with EOD pets when it was released.

Perhaps some dev that didn't touch that area before had to add them and wasn't sure what needs to be done and then the bug was created.

Do not forget it has been like ~4.5-5 years between POF and EOD, it can also happen that they forgot what needed to be done to add new pets.

[Silvoshipnos.2089]

The bug was introduced with changes to the way the mech queued skills. I think it will stay there to preserve the behaviour of the mechs since engineers are the better pet class

[meerfunkuhtron.9725]

On 12/17/2023 at 2:46 AM, Silvoshipnos.2089 said:

The bug was introduced with changes to the way the mech queued skills. I think it will stay there to preserve the behaviour of the mechs since engineers are the better pet class

This made me sad and, of course, just really annoyed. They gave us Untamed, which is supposed to give you more control over your pet, and then they... broke our ability to do just that.
Despite how sad the AI has been for our pets, I still love the mechanic wherein pet interaction is a big part of the gameplay. I don't want Anet to give up on ranger pets, but I swear, sometimes they truly make things worse so I'm always on the fence on whether I want their attention on something or if I'd rather them leave our class alone lol

[Loboling.5293]

Yes, the delay on pet skills is totally unacceptable. This reminds me of the Revenant class bug if your action bar switching up randomly, making it really hard to fight in combat until you get a chance to set it back. The pet is a core part of the ranger. The fact that they may not even cast the skill you tell them too means the pets need better training... Maybe they didn't like being kidnapped at such a young age... Anyway, I hope this gets fixed. It really makes the ranger feel less responsive to play. I'm glad I took a break from PvP, because this would make me tear my hair out in that mode.

 

But I did find a workaround for those interested. Not 100% tested, but it seems to work so far. Press pet return before pressing your beast skill. They will immediately cast the skill.