Summoner /pac sic and Obey?

[Bonkleberry]

I am a returning player. I mainly play healing roles, but I do like to have a DPS choice as a flex option when running content to keep things interesting. Before I last left (at the beginning of Stormblood), my preferred DPS choice was Summoner.

I have been spending my morning playing with the new classes and such and it seems that Summoner is still my main preference, so I am investing more time into getting my Summoner set up properly to play. However, when I last played, I had the Obey stance and "/pac sic" in macros to control exactly who my pet is attacking (unless I chose to attack a target directly, my pet would not attack the target). That does not seem to be an option anymore.

I am not a total MMO noob when it comes to pet DPS classes. You cannot just have your pet attack willy-nilly, lest you attract the ire of a tank who is trying to set things up or you can mess up DPS mechanics (Ifrit's nail, as an example). With the absence of Obey, I figured keeping my pet in Steady is the new tactic and using /pac sic in macros to control who my pet attacks. However, while running some preliminary dungeons, I noticed it does not quite work. Any macro with /pac sic switches my pet's stance to Guard and my pet does not switch back--this breaks the whole "controlling when my pet attacks" thing because then they start attacking whatever the party has initiated if the last target I used /pac sic on has died (like when I am running around or using spells/abilities that do not have /pac sic attached to them).

I could just write another macro to put my pet back into Steady stance, but I would rather not have to take up a button spot just for that--it is an extra button press that I do not need and another mechanic to pay attention to. So, my question to you summoners who are experienced with how this new version of the game works, what are the expectations for pet management now? Like, are tanks okay with your pet sitting in Guard stance? Is there some special, prolific macro to use?

Any feedback or advice is appreciated, thank you.

[xxPheNoMeNa]

Just put the pet stance actions on your hotbar. No reason to use a macro for sic when you can just use the sic command directly. If you want your pet to swap targets, focus the new target and hit the sic command, the pet will immediately swap (so long as you're within range, there "is" a range for pets and if you're very far away from them, they won't receive the command).

[Bonkleberry]

Just put the pet stance actions on your hotbar. No reason to use a macro for sic when you can just use the sic command directly. If you want your pet to swap targets, focus the new target and hit the sic command, the pet will immediately swap (so long as you're within range, there "is" a range for pets and if you're very far away from them, they won't receive the command).

Let me be clear here. I am fine with leaving my pet in Guard stance and using /sic to swap targets. This better for DPS and lets me focus on other things. My problem is that this was a bad summoner play choice when I last played for various reasons and good players frowned on it. I am not sure if this is still the case anymore and I need to hear from the community.

[xxPheNoMeNa]

Let me be clear here. I am fine with leaving my pet in Guard stance and using /sic to swap targets. This better for DPS and lets me focus on other things. My problem is that this was a bad summoner play choice when I last played for various reasons and good players frowned on it. I am not sure if this is still the case anymore and I need to hear from the community.

It is still technically the case, for the exact same reason as it would have been before. Is it a "big problem"? Not really, it just gives you a bit less control of your pet and you'll lose some auto attacks. You will always use Sic to swap targets, which is why I recommended to just cut out the macro and use Sic manually. Sic can also be used to engage immediately, so your pet is not waiting for your attack to finish before casting