This thread has nothing to do with removing the pet, revamping the ai or changing the ranger’s mechanic.
It’s about improving an already existing feature.
As you may or may not know, the per more or less lines itself up on the front of the ranger while the ranger is strafing to the right. Not pressing W + D or S + D but only D.
Anyone can try doing this and the pet will follow it’s master as if it was given the “heel” command.
This is a great feature because it helps the ranger’s survivability and gives a reason to use bears and other tanky pets. I have been playing my ranger a lot the last 2 months and tried builds with Knight’s, Rabid’s, Berserker’s and other sets that doesn’t give healing power because I tried to find a build that isn’t the meta. The main problem with the many builds I tried was that there is too little damage reduction.
A ranger can either have the evasive weapons or a lot of regen, that is how I see it…
Anyway, back to the pet “heel”;
This is a half-accurate description:
The feature is great but it lacks precision. The pet will run too far ahead if the ranger turns slightly to the right and causes the pet to “heel” too far ahead. This problem can be addressed by turning slightly to the left, which will make the pet slow down and bring it back. This is also a problem because the pet will be too far back if the ranger is turning to the left when the pet is aligned well. Sometimes it’s smooth and sometimes it isn’t.
Here is a video that illustrates the heel. As you can see, it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. It is very unprecise when there is swiftness or signet equipped and you can see how perfectly the wolf follows my movement. Towards the end I wanted to see how it reacts with twitch movements.
It would be great if the pet could be improved so that it won’t run around too much but follows the ranger. A slight reaction time is realistic because we wouldn’t want a robot pet that “heels” perfectly.
Discussion: (No real need to read this)
Making this feature “official” may create two types of rangers. Those who send their pet into battle and those who use them for defense.
The class will overall receive a higher skill-roof while keeping the same learning-curve.
Using “hated” pets like bears will now be viable because they would be an excellent damage soaker.
For skilled rangers:
Rangers would be the ones who you wouldn’t want to attack right in the face but would have to kite them.
Using CC is risky because it might hit the pet instead.
The ranger would keep his pet behind you and him.
Fighting a ranger would require paying attention to the pet. Go to close? He might apply weakness with his black bear, fear you away with a wolf or even worse; send the wolf on you to knock you down and then fear you away just when you get up, while the ranger is killing you.
Video is up 5 minutes after this post