Ice in the Air: Veteran Corrupted Ice Elementals only targeting pet

[Sir Mossy.3805]

DISCLAIMER: I know that you can just go to Bitterfrost Frontier and get frozen by the tornado, but as it stands, she only has LWS4. We both bought LWS4 first and I am the only one who owns LWS3, so the freezing tornado isn't an option. This is a discussion about poorly implemented mechanics that make an enemy prioritize the pet over the player for something that needs to be done for an achievement.

So I was trying to help someone complete their skyscale achievements, and they happen to be a ranger. On two separate occasions, we went to the Claw of Jormag event to get frozen by the ice elementals to get the achievements. However, no matter what we do or what happens, the ice elementals will only ever freeze the pet. They will be aggro'd on her and will be attacking her with all of the standard attacks, but the ice prison attack will only ever target the pet and not her.

The question I have is this: Why is this like this? It seems like the ice elementals are designed to go out of their way to not attack the player when it comes to the ice attack. Out of the dozens of times they've done a freeze attack, it has ALWAYS been on the pet. The other issue I see is that this is a class-specific issue. I got frozen quite a few times trying to help her get frozen herself, but it was literally impossible to get her frozen because the ice elementals ALWAYS disregarded her (even if they were actively attacking her) and went for the pet.

[Ayrilana.1396]

They should ignore the pet if it doesn't attack them. I've been frozen before while on ranger and by default always have the pet set for passive as they tend to aggro everything otherwise. You can also send the pet to go attack something else.

I actually did this last night on an alt account and did have issues with it not using the attack on me which got me worried as the fight was almost over. I wasn't a ranger on this attempt. It turns out that once I had some distance between me and the elementals, I started to get frozen. It may be because the attack is actually a projectile and it won't use it if you're in melee. Likewise, the pet could also be body blocking it.

[Illumine Sparkler.6019]

If you have ls4 doesn’t that mean have access to the elite spec soulbeast. That would completely remove the pet from the field allowing all attacks to be directed at the player. No pet = can’t get in the way.

[Sir Mossy.3805]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:They should ignore the pet if it doesn't attack them. I've been frozen before while on ranger and by default always have the pet set for passive as they tend to aggro everything otherwise. You can also send the pet to go attack something else.

I actually did this last night on an alt account and did have issues with it not using the attack on me which got me worried as the fight was almost over. I wasn't a ranger on this attempt. It turns out that once I had some distance between me and the elementals, I started to get frozen. It may be because the attack is actually a projectile and it won't use it if you're in melee. Likewise, the pet could also be body blocking it.

@Illumine Sparkler.6019 said:If you have ls4 doesn’t that mean have access to the elite spec soulbeast. That would completely remove the pet from the field allowing all attacks to be directed at the player. No pet = can’t get in the way.

I'll try both of these suggestions. As far as I'm aware, the pet wasn't body blocking the shot at all. She was standing a good bit of distance to the side of the pet, but the ice attack would only go after the pet. We also tried it at a large distance and closer up, and both situations both yielded the same results of the pet always getting the ice attack instead of the player.

I feel like the elite specialization will most likely be the best bet for this, so we'll give it a try. Removing the pet would seem to be the best option for this situation.

[robertthebard.8150]

@Sir Mossy.3805 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:They should ignore the pet if it doesn't attack them. I've been frozen before while on ranger and by default always have the pet set for passive as they tend to aggro everything otherwise. You can also send the pet to go attack something else.

I actually did this last night on an alt account and did have issues with it not using the attack on me which got me worried as the fight was almost over. I wasn't a ranger on this attempt. It turns out that once I had some distance between me and the elementals, I started to get frozen. It may be because the attack is actually a projectile and it won't use it if you're in melee. Likewise, the pet could also be body blocking it.

@Illumine Sparkler.6019 said:If you have ls4 doesn’t that mean have access to the elite spec soulbeast. That would completely remove the pet from the field allowing all attacks to be directed at the player. No pet = can’t get in the way.

I'll try both of these suggestions. As far as I'm aware, the pet wasn't body blocking the shot at all. She was standing a good bit of distance to the side of the pet, but the ice attack would only go after the pet. I feel like the elite specialization will most likely be the best bet for this, so we'll give it a try.

If the spec isn't an option, try dismissing the pet.

[Cuks.8241]

Could it be the Shared Anguish trait in Wilderness Survival?

[Sir Mossy.3805]

@Cuks.8241 said:Could it be the Shared Anguish trait in Wilderness Survival?

That's a good idea, but I checked and the two builds that she has both either don't have wilderness survival or don't have shared anguish selected.

As an added note, this is something interesting that I just experienced. After she put the soulbeast into her specializations and absorbed the pet, she got the ice attack shot at her immediately. Interestingly, after going back to her normal specialization (with the pet), the ice elementals would literally not shoot ice attacks at her at all. They weren't shooting them at the pet or missing, but they just weren't shooting the freeze attack. After leaving combat, putting back on soulbeast, and absorbing the pet, they started shooting freeze attacks again. It almost seems as if there's something in the AI (could be due to them being a special enemy variant) that is causing their freeze attack to just not activate with a pet active.

She managed to get frozen and get the skyscale of ice. These enemies certainly are strange, but I appreciate all of the help with this issue.