Solution for SCH/SUM Pets...discuss

[Gatzby_or_Holden]

Hey all,

Just a bit of back ground but my SCH is about to hit 50. Def looking forward to playing endgame with him. This is the first and only MMO I've ever not mained or created a healer first and the itch to get back to Raid healing has hit again.
Having said that even in the high 30's and low 40's dungeons pet management is a nightmare. Not because it makes anything difficult per se...It just add's a ton of BS that you have to deal with since the stances come off upon using a pet action. OBEY and SIC are pointless. You hit embrace and next thing you know all of your pets CD's are blown. It's a bit ridiculous.

After looking around the web's and reading all that I can theres a few thing's that I think could alleviate all of this and make managing your pet much more easy.


First lets talk about the two elephants in the room: No macro support for pet actions and not being able to dismiss the Pet Hotbar which is cumbersome and really unecessary since really you should only need 5 of those buttons.

I really cant say as to why macro support isn't included for pets. Even something as simple as the following would be super helpfull:

/ac "Embrace" <mo> (or whatever you prefer to use)
/wait 1
/ac "Obey" <pets name>

That alone would ensure the any of the Illumination's or other skills dont go off in case theres an "oh shhhhhhh....." moment. I mean they have decently long CD's and if they go off at the wrong time it is a HUGE problem. Or at least can be from what I've seen from our scholar in Coil.

The Hot Bar. Oh how I loathe the with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. It gets in the way. Theres no good place to put it. Then again that is probably because I'm a minimalist when it comes to my hotbars. I dont like clutter at all. This needs to be able to be gotten rid of either through the options or through the HUD layout menu. It should be a very simple fix since it is a hotbar like any others. And yes I know about changing the options to controller mode to make it disappear but that messes up ground targeting.

The other solution which I will admit is not my own is this: Incorporate something similar to the Gambit system from FFXII. This would be amazing. It would allow healers to customize precisely how they want their pets to function in specific circumstances. Entire party just took an unavoidable AOE attack that killed a bit of health...boom set up a if->then statement in the gambit that basically says "if party health < 80% then cast "Fey Dawn". Or "if tank health < 30% then cast "Fey Illumination" and "Fey Dawn".

Just imagine that for a second and think of the possibilities not only for healing pets but also the SUM pets.

Mind blown yet?

I honestly dont know if implementing such a system is possible or if in the grand scheme of things it would make a marked difference. These are just things that I think would really help with pet management and SCH heals in general (not that they need any help).

Let me know what you think. Put up some ideas about what you think would help or if they even need any help. Post how you work around. Let's just create a discussion.

[Iecerint]

SE has said that they don't want to do Gambits because they don't want the decision tree to be automate-able.

I do think that pets could maybe be an exception, but it could cause problems if they ever implement a Puppetmaster-like class that relies on the pet rather than that is supplemented by the pet.

Being about to macro pet options should really be a no-brainer, though. I would be interested in an official response regarding why this isn't included.

[Gatzby_or_Holden]

SE has said that they don't want to do Gambits because they don't want the decision tree to be automate-able.

I do think that pets could maybe be an exception, but it could cause problems if they ever implement a Puppetmaster-like class that relies on the pet rather than that is supplemented by the pet.

Being about to macro pet options should really be a no-brainer, though. I would be interested in an official response regarding why this isn't included.

Well I can understand that line of thought. You make circumstantial commands viable in all circumstances well you run the risk of damn near botting. Specially for high level characters using their pets to farm mobs.

I should probably make it plain and clear that gambits would not apply in any way to YOUR character in what I'm talking about. Only for pets. I def agree though. Pets should supplement the player and not vice versa. For scholars I dont see that an issue, but for summoners, yeah I could def see what I proposed making it a puppet master class where you just sit back and spam ruin over and over. Cant really say I'm not at all familiar with Summoners

How do you work around it? And SCH or SUM?

[EvokerKeii]

Gambit for pets would make them infinitely more fun.

[Gatzby_or_Holden]

Gambit for pets would make them infinitely more fun.

Absolutely. And way way more versatile IMO.

[Malamasala]

What I think is sad is that there is AI, and there is AI missing.

Example: Pet won't attack a bound enemy, instead it retreats. But it will gladly use AOE attacks next to slept or bound monsters. Which means you need to micro manage it a lot in the cases anyone attempts to sleep stuff. It also lacks a "don't attack pacified leve monsters", since they just keep attacking neutralized enemies and you get to spam retreat over and over.

Also, I wish SE would just sell custom pet 3D models in their crysta shop. I'd pay money to improve the pet design that almost nobody wants but SE claims they don't have any motivation to improve. Money should be motivation enough.

And I do agree that the hotbar is terrible. Why not let us disable it and set our own macros like all other skills?

[Gatzby_or_Holden]

What I think is sad is that there is AI, and there is AI missing.

Example: Pet won't attack a bound enemy, instead it retreats. But it will gladly use AOE attacks next to slept or bound monsters. Which means you need to micro manage it a lot in the cases anyone attempts to sleep stuff. It also lacks a "don't attack pacified leve monsters", since they just keep attacking neutralized enemies and you get to spam retreat over and over.

Also, I wish SE would just sell custom pet 3D models in their crysta shop. I'd pay money to improve the pet design that almost nobody wants but SE claims they don't have any motivation to improve. Money should be motivation enough.

And I do agree that the hotbar is terrible. Why not let us disable it and set our own macros like all other skills?

You are absolutely right. I hadn't really though of it as a lack of AI. Almost as if SE said "fuck it players will take care of it". Healers also run into the same problem with that bound enemy problem. Sometime tank will be at 50% and my fairy will be staring off into the distance like the most unentertained ADD child ever. It's frustrating is really my point. There needs to be a way to change that.

Also fuck yeah. I would def pay to customize my pet. Heavy metal fairy OP.

[Gatzby_or_Holden]

Seriously though. Could someone please explain how they deal with this issue?

[Altanas]

The place/heel etc commands are an annoyance. It feels like too much unnecessary micromanaging.

I think any Gambit system should take a leaf from Dragon Age:

You should be able to set a gambit so that the pet moves to front line (up with tank and DD) or back line (fall back with the healers) depending on what abilities it is going to be using.

I might want the fairy to sit with the healers during Embrace spam but when it uses Whispering Dawn I might want it to move up to the front line, cast it, and then fall back to the back line.

You should be able to set gambits based on role (tank, dps, healer) for ease.

Lastly, you should be able to set the pet to follow another party member by default. I don't need my pet around me, the tank does.



Overall, I would like to see less micromanaging "admin" type stuff, and instead manage more abilities for the pets instead. I would like to see more encouragement to "rage" our pets for added bonuses, build their TP etc etc, make them more engaging.

[Alhanelem]

Having said that even in the high 30's and low 40's dungeons pet management is a nightmare. Not because it makes anything difficult per se...It just add's a ton of BS that you have to deal with since the stances come off upon using a pet action. OBEY and SIC are pointless. You hit embrace and next thing you know all of your pets CD's are blown. It's a bit ridiculous.

I don't have this problem. If I use obey, it only uses its basic attack or cure until I tell it to do something.