How Can I Make my Fairy act like it USED to? :-(

[CrystalW]

I don't get why we have all this behavior crap. Why not have Active and Passive mode while allowing us to individually toggle which spells we want to use manually or leave to the AI discretion?

This is exactly what I would like as well. Honestly, is it that hard to implement? I personally was looking forward to the patch changes, but they're not good at all. I can't force my pet to heal someone in priority anymore, unless I fancy controlling every other ability. And needing to target an enemy to do that? Really?

[Spider-Dan]

I've been playing scholar only for ~8 weeks before 2.1 and since 2.1 hit, they are exactly the same. The difference before/after the patch is: Prior to 2.1 the fairy would blow certain cooldowns in Obey (that is fixed now). They heal at exactly the same rate in either stance. I'm playing with it right now.

This isn't accurate; in 2.0, you could issue commands (via hotbar) without having to target an enemy first. For example, if your fairy dies right before a Titan jump and you Swiftcast resummon, you cannot issue any command (e.g. Fey Covenant) until after he lands. Furthermore, Embrace is now interruptable by hits, whereas before it was not.

A few other misconceptions in this thread to clear up:

It's important to recognize that the pet AI mode is two part: Sic vs. Obey vs. "free", and Guard vs. Steady. When you summon your fairy, she is in Free+Guard mode. (Free mode is only accessible immediately after a summon, and you can see that the Guard icon is greyed out.) The only difference between Guard and Steady for fairies is that you cannot be in Sic+Steady mode (Sic automatically puts the fairy in Guard), and you can only issue commands in Obey+Guard or Obey+Steady mode (in 2.0, you could issue commands in Free+Guard or Free+Steady mode).

In 2.0, there was a dramatic increase in Embrace spamming speed when the fairy was in Place vs. Heel; this was dependent only on her movement AI and had nothing to do with her action AI (e.g. Free Steady). However, this is no longer the case in 2.1; now, that heal speed increase is (unfortunately) exclusively limited to Free+Guard and Free+Steady. You can easily see this by syncing to and immediately desyncing from a low-level FATE; in both Free modes, the fairy will spam cures as fast as a human would (her GCD doesn't stop moving), while in Sic and Obey modes there is a noticeable lag in between casts.

These AI changes have the net result of making the fairies significantly worse than 2.0: they won't cast as quickly in a controllable mode, you can no longer issue commands without an enemy initially present, and Embrace is now interruptable. This is a sour tradeoff for the ability to macro pet abilities, particularly since /micon doesn't work for pet abilities. (It would also be nice if pet commands displayed properly in the log, as they did in 2.0, instead of You give the order "." for everything.)

It seems to me that pet AI should simply work in the following manner (and since fairies cannot attack anyway, none of these commands should require an enemy target):

Free+Guard: fairy accepts commands but does what it wants, and casts Embrace with pauses for input
Free+Steady: fairy accepts commands and does only what it's told, except for Embraces with pauses for input
Sic+Guard: fairy does not accept commands, does what it wants and chaincasts everything
Obey+Guard: fairy accepts commands and does only what it's told, except for chaincast Embrace
Obey+Steady: fairy does nothing but execute commands

If that makes Obey+Guard "too good" then I'd rather have chaincast go back to Place vs. Heel; at least then you are rewarding pet micromanagement without totally relinquishing control of your pet.

[LiadansWhisper]

try to put her in Steady stance after you have issued Obey and Heel. Steady stance is considered like the Healer stance of the Chocobo Companion somehow.

I wanted to respond to this after I got a chance to test this technique out. It does seem to work. She was much more responsive in her healing when I did Steady --> Obey --> Steady. Thanks for the tip!

Edited to Add: She does still hesitate before casting a new spell, and I noticed that a few times she started casting Embrace and abruptly stopped. I'm not sure if she took damage or not - she didn't appear to take damage at the time, though.

[BlueMage]

I'd love a barrier healer and DOT class that doesn't have a pet. I've never been a fan of pet classes in games.

[Mirakumi]

My fairies have been acting very strange though as of late. When I put them on heel sometimes, they run off and bug out. (In a constant loop) I have to de-summon them entirely to fix it. ;/

[Rydiah]

I like the changes that were made, the only thing I don't like is that I have to target a mob before I can hit obey. There have been times she's died and I forget I need to be targeting something, so she stays in free stance. Now that I can use everything when I want and use macros, I feel like I can heal much more effectively and I feel more confident now.

My fairies have been acting very strange though as of late. When I put them on heel sometimes, they run off and bug out. (In a constant loop) I have to de-summon them entirely to fix it. ;/

Mine have been acting a little weird the past couple of days too, twice today when I used Whispering Dawn...the cooldown started, but nobody got the buff. That should never happen and I hope they fix it quickly.

[CrystalW]

Hating the changes more and more -.-. Was in coil on Monday, and as I was positioning for the boss, my pet was on free stance, and it ran off to heal someone who was weak and just recovered and aggroed the boss on the way. Great -.-

[Clouse_Cleyra]

How can i make fairies to cast embrace when i tell her, cast alone when its needed and auto cast buffs??

Thats how i used them before patch

[Zeddy]

This isn't accurate; in 2.0, you could issue commands (via hotbar) without having to target an enemy first. For example, if your fairy dies right before a Titan jump and you Swiftcast resummon, you cannot issue any command (e.g. Fey Covenant) until after he lands. Furthermore, Embrace is now interruptable by hits, whereas before it was not.

A few other misconceptions in this thread to clear up:

It's important to recognize that the pet AI mode is two part: Sic vs. Obey vs. "free", and Guard vs. Steady. When you summon your fairy, she is in Free+Guard mode. (Free mode is only accessible immediately after a summon, and you can see that the Guard icon is greyed out.) The only difference between Guard and Steady for fairies is that you cannot be in Sic+Steady mode (Sic automatically puts the fairy in Guard), and you can only issue commands in Obey+Guard or Obey+Steady mode (in 2.0, you could issue commands in Free+Guard or Free+Steady mode).

In 2.0, there was a dramatic increase in Embrace spamming speed when the fairy was in Place vs. Heel; this was dependent only on her movement AI and had nothing to do with her action AI (e.g. Free Steady). However, this is no longer the case in 2.1; now, that heal speed increase is (unfortunately) exclusively limited to Free+Guard and Free+Steady. You can easily see this by syncing to and immediately desyncing from a low-level FATE; in both Free modes, the fairy will spam cures as fast as a human would (her GCD doesn't stop moving), while in Sic and Obey modes there is a noticeable lag in between casts.

These AI changes have the net result of making the fairies significantly worse than 2.0: they won't cast as quickly in a controllable mode, you can no longer issue commands without an enemy initially present, and Embrace is now interruptable. This is a sour tradeoff for the ability to macro pet abilities, particularly since /micon doesn't work for pet abilities. (It would also be nice if pet commands displayed properly in the log, as they did in 2.0, instead of You give the order "." for everything.)

It seems to me that pet AI should simply work in the following manner (and since fairies cannot attack anyway, none of these commands should require an enemy target):

Free+Guard: fairy accepts commands but does what it wants, and casts Embrace with pauses for input
Free+Steady: fairy accepts commands and does only what it's told, except for Embraces with pauses for input
Sic+Guard: fairy does not accept commands, does what it wants and chaincasts everything
Obey+Guard: fairy accepts commands and does only what it's told, except for chaincast Embrace
Obey+Steady: fairy does nothing but execute commands

If that makes Obey+Guard "too good" then I'd rather have chaincast go back to Place vs. Heel; at least then you are rewarding pet micromanagement without totally relinquishing control of your pet.

Well said. SE seriously needs to read this over a few times and come up with a fix.

[sharazisspecial]

One step forward two steps back ...
I would love to have an option where i can control the pet and have them use certain abilities on cool down. Is it so hard for you SE to implement wow/rift style pet control?

A Toggle for EACH ability. Whether pet will auto cast that ability or not. This will solve most problems.

Who thought "Your pet is in free stance cannot be controlled" was not the dumbest thing ever? Most likely someone who doesnt even play sch . Why limit control at all?