Guild Wars 2

*bold*I want to know why there is no PET UI for Necromancers.
I know there were no minion PET UI on GW1 but that was alot different system alltogether… Now the pets are permanent no temporal and a game with so much strategic combat system seems to fell short on that point specialy at the time when almost (if not all)all mmorpg games every necro class at this point have pet ui.. even temporary pets on classes like mage in WoW,AoC,WAR and similar games get a simple generic pet ui and a innovative new gen game as guild wars 2 cannot give that..? and instead gives the more unresponsive bugged minions of any game i have ever played…?
CAN We Please have an official Statement on the matter? And if Anet is ever planing to give necros a way to control our pets? Cause frankly the thought of might they give us pet ui is the only thing that make me still staying here and i want to clear that up so i can move to another game or give another try to some other class (allthough i doubt i can fit in any other class since i play that kind of minion casters in any game..).

Thats actually an pretty well discussed Theme i guess…

I heard that people told rumors which say that the Minion Masters in Guild Wars 2 was pretty weak in the beginning and getting more and more powerful after a couple of long-run patches…
I have hopes that this happens here too…
And also ofc the hope of maybe getting some controls of them like that UI you speak of…

An UI is needed and would be welcome to counter the Artifical Idiocy of the minions. Actually I’d like to play a minion spec where you could really give your pets some orders and play strategically.

I wish more Necro players share the same feeling so aneta might listen to us!!

I have a bit of shining hope that maybe a little patching stuff for necromancers come with the Haloween update tomorrow :X…
I guess it would be an drastical change… but maybe they did some little changes which possibly affect us positiv…

LET ME DREAM kittenIT^^

I like uncontrolled chaotic pets. And it’d be silly since that’s the special ability rangers get, and not every necro has pets. If necros really need something else, I’d look somewhere else for a buff.

and why u want your pets Dispari to be chaotic? u know ofc that necromancers specialized on summoning right? “Necromancy (/?n?kr??mænsi/) is a claimed form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge. it comes from the Greeks and its Necro = Dead body and mantis =prophecy or divination” source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necromancy

so even some necros does not use pets the pet ui should be there. cause necromancer controls the DEAD to his own WILL!…. instead Rangers pet should be more savage and Chaotic instead! cause beasts has their own will.. abominations obay to their masters! capice? anyway both rangers and necros can have control over their pets… Ranger still can be special cause he can have almost any beast in the game…necros has only few.. still we should be able to control them.

Vangy.7403:

and why u want your pets Dispari to be chaotic? u know ofc that necromancers specialized on summoning right? “Necromancy (/?n?kr??mænsi/) is a claimed form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge. it comes from the Greeks and its Necro = Dead body and mantis =prophecy or divination” source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necromancy

so even some necros does not use pets the pet ui should be there. cause necromancer controls the DEAD to his own WILL!…. instead Rangers pet should be more savage and Chaotic instead! cause beasts has their own will.. abominations obay to their masters! capice? anyway both rangers and necros can have control over their pets… Ranger still can be special cause he can have almost any beast in the game…necros has only few.. still we should be able to control them.

By the game’s lore, especially following the first game, is that minions are just magically animated servants. Not unlike a golem made of wood or metal. They just happen to be made of flesh and bone. One of the pets is even “flesh golem.” They should not have souls and it’s unlikely they even have useable brains.

The necromancer doesn’t really regard them very highly. Sometimes she’ll dismissively say “I guess I have to make another one,” or other versions of “Oh, it died.” They aren’t persistent pets, unlike a ranger’s wolf or bear which limp back to their master to be helped. If a necromancer pet dies they just move on. I don’t think they’d really have time to teach them any tricks, even if we assume they’re capable of learning them.

The necromancer does have the ability to control them to an extent, because they follow her, they attack or don’t attack depending on her actions, and they can be issued certain commands. It seems likely they’re capable of performing one or two very simple tasks (such as “use your one ability on that guy”), but a full set of pet controls would be out of character.

Besides which, there are two good reasons not to do this.

One is that there’s already a class that has controlled pets. Some people (like me) like both aspects. I have a ranger and a necromancer. In my experience, games often offer both options instead of making it so all pets are the same. Sometimes I like the uncontrolled pets. It’s less micromanagement for me to worry about. So making it so all pets are the same gives players like me less options.

The other is that, from a balance standpoint, being able to control swarms of highly variant pets can be difficult to control. Being able to control something means its effectiveness can vary much more than an uncontrolled unit, depending on the ability of the driver. Being able to control six such things can make it so the output of the class varies to much and can wind up being excessively powerful in the right settings, which is hard to dial back without hurting players of less ability. I come from a game where one of the classes has six fully controllable pets, and the drawbacks for that are numerous and significant.

I prefer mindless zombies.

well rangers have pet control. ive no proof but my theory is that necro got no pet ui or pet control cuz we have multiple pets that can be 3 or 4 slots if use elite, and that they didnt feel up to effort to do the coding for the multitude of 1 2 3 or 4 pets and the possible combo’s of pets

I prefer the chaotic nature of the beasts as well, but would like necro-themed skills or traits which would allow you to interact with the pets in limited broad ways. Instead of triggering skills and calling back and forth like rangers, I’d prefer traits that sent my minions into a super frenzy when I hit low health, or caused them to run to me when I used a spectral skill. Note: these are just ideas, not tested or really thought out, but the concept would require traiting for the ability but no new skills. It would be an investment, but would allow the necromancer to have better control and a more satisfying feeling with their minions.

There needs to be a simple attack and passive command for minions, as a lack of this has shown them to fail to a large degree. Hell, I’d settle for just an attack command for the horde, as the auto-attack function only works half the time.

without pet ui necros are in big disadvantage…. we can go in big trouble just because we cannot command our pets to fall back. we already punished to use utility skills to have our pets while ranger not. and as for personal preference some people like pets but also magic instead of arrows and guns thats why i believe its ok to have 2 pet classes.. one for the physical damage lovers and one for the magic lovers (like me and many others).. if someone decides that he want to retreat from a fight he can… our pets though fight without brains.. still dead things that i have raised should obey me to attack and fall back. i dont wish them to roll,dodge and dance…or whatever other tricks… simple things..like attack and dont attack…. and my character is really upset when i pet dies..although i can make another one!

bamp cause this is serious!!!

The pets aren’t permanent though, they die just like GW1. We don’t even need the minion health UI since we can see them much more clearly than in GW1 (and lack any target-able skills).

I honestly like it more without the UI since minions are supposed to be the mindless horde.

Pets do not die like in GW1. Yes one good aoe will kill them but they stay up forever to it is killed or we swap it out and its not like we have a quick way to swap them so we can resummon them to be at full health besides swapping to another skill, waiting on cool down then swapping it back. It is clunky with how we unsummon the minions. Just a simple all minions passive, attack, and defend would do wonders for them. So many times in instances, wvwvw, etc that it would have made minion master builds many times better. Also remove the horror bleed for the love of anything holy or unholy.

Outside of jagged horror none of the minions have a self bleed/degen.

Outside of the Golem, none of the minions seem to regen either.

gamefreak.5673:

Pets do not die like in GW1. Yes one good aoe will kill them but they stay up forever to it is killed or we swap it out and its not like we have a quick way to swap them so we can resummon them to be at full health besides swapping to another skill, waiting on cool down then swapping it back. It is clunky with how we unsummon the minions. Just a simple all minions passive, attack, and defend would do wonders for them. So many times in instances, wvwvw, etc that it would have made minion master builds many times better. Also remove the horror bleed for the love of anything holy or unholy.

I didn’t mean the degen, I meant they actually die. (as compared to the ranger’s pet who only goes into a downed state).

striker.3704:

gamefreak.5673:

Pets do not die like in GW1. Yes one good aoe will kill them but they stay up forever to it is killed or we swap it out and its not like we have a quick way to swap them so we can resummon them to be at full health besides swapping to another skill, waiting on cool down then swapping it back. It is clunky with how we unsummon the minions. Just a simple all minions passive, attack, and defend would do wonders for them. So many times in instances, wvwvw, etc that it would have made minion master builds many times better. Also remove the horror bleed for the love of anything holy or unholy.

I didn’t mean the degen, I meant they actually die. (as compared to the ranger’s pet who only goes into a downed state).

and what have to do the fact that our minions die instead of downed with the PET UI ..? fact is that we need more control for the sake of gameplay… otherwise is clanky and not good for any kind of strategy.. actually u cannot even bring minions at dungeons cause they might pull wrong mobs…or u might wrongly target some mob and u cannot bring the minions back..and that sucks apart from the fact that minions die almost instantly…but thats another story..

I for one do not want a flashy all inclusive pet UI like the ranger has or something, but some basic functionality would be great. I would say its a good almost 30% of the time (maybe higher) that my pets do nothing, absolutly nothing.
One time I was fighting a turret and my pets just stood there while I blasted away with auto attacks (since I use staff and marks are useless on objects, another issue altogether) and the turret was shooting me and my pets did absolutly nothing at all. After about 10 seconds my FG ran up to the turret, acted like it was going to attack then just turned and walked away. A few seconds later it ran off to attack some wolf that was out of my weapon range while I was still attacking the turret.
To me the AI for minions right now is just flat broken, and has been since launch, even if a very simplistic UI consisted of all minions attack and all minions back off that would be better than the broken AI they have at the moment. If the AI is fixed and is actually somewhat reliable I dont feel I would even need that, a simple “attack what I auto attack” and “defend me” AI scripting would work fine as long as I could count on it. I really hope the devs read this and all posts about this “class breaking” issue, not all necros want to work with minions, fine, but theres a lot that do. Some small response from the devs that they are aware and at least looking into fixing this would go a long way to keeping me playing this game. Sorry about the rambling rant.

i don’t think they are “pets” so to speak but more minions of the diablo variety. similar to a necro in d2 you didn’t “control” your pets just let them wreak havoc on anything that moves. and they do have a purpose other than just existing with their utility abilities, albeit sometimes it’s a bit hard to aim them.

Minions are meant to attack the same targets you are attacking, and otherwise kinda just hang around.
The AI is just glitchy so they do all sorts of weird things like charge at enemies you aren’t attacking or just stand still…
This will be fixed. …at some point.

They don’t have a pet UI because Minions are just rotting, replaceable abominations.
Not well trained companions like a Ranger’s pets.

I don’t use minions anyway. Having all those critters following me around just bugs me. My rangers one pet is enough and even those get in the way

Daedrik.3087:

I for one do not want a flashy all inclusive pet UI like the ranger has or something, but some basic functionality would be great. I would say its a good almost 30% of the time (maybe higher) that my pets do nothing, absolutly nothing.
One time I was fighting a turret and my pets just stood there while I blasted away with auto attacks (since I use staff and marks are useless on objects, another issue altogether) and the turret was shooting me and my pets did absolutly nothing at all. After about 10 seconds my FG ran up to the turret, acted like it was going to attack then just turned and walked away. A few seconds later it ran off to attack some wolf that was out of my weapon range while I was still attacking the turret.
To me the AI for minions right now is just flat broken, and has been since launch, even if a very simplistic UI consisted of all minions attack and all minions back off that would be better than the broken AI they have at the moment. If the AI is fixed and is actually somewhat reliable I dont feel I would even need that, a simple “attack what I auto attack” and “defend me” AI scripting would work fine as long as I could count on it. I really hope the devs read this and all posts about this “class breaking” issue, not all necros want to work with minions, fine, but theres a lot that do. Some small response from the devs that they are aware and at least looking into fixing this would go a long way to keeping me playing this game. Sorry about the rambling rant.

I agree on that. We dont need a sophisticated pet ui as ranger (although it would be awesome) but at least the very basic as attack/come back , passive/defensive/agressive .. is this too much to ask? And also they can put some kind of system like auto pet control (as it is noe) and manual control for those peipke that want some more control and thhey are no slackers on that

I just want attack my target, passive and if possible defend. Now when i say attack my target i mean I select a foe, hit the key or press whatever button they give me and they all run off and do there best to kill it. After they are dead or target is dead they run back to me or when i give them another target they attack that.

Id like the horrors to stop having a health degen and ranged attack so they could at least attack targets and not leave my side like on the last boss on arah which makes the fight many times harder since they run up and try to attack him. The horrors I would love to go down the toughness line but they make that fight and others annoying because i turn them off or only summon ranged minions. Also it would be nice if the bone minions did have a slightly bigger aoe since it annoys me when i press them to explode and nothing happens to my target and they are only a few feet away from what i can see.

gamefreak.5673:

I just want attack my target, passive and if possible defend. Now when i say attack my target i mean I select a foe, hit the key or press whatever button they give me and they all run off and do there best to kill it. After they are dead or target is dead they run back to me or when i give them another target they attack that.

Id like the horrors to stop having a health degen and ranged attack so they could at least attack targets and not leave my side like on the last boss on arah which makes the fight many times harder since they run up and try to attack him. The horrors I would love to go down the toughness line but they make that fight and others annoying because i turn them off or only summon ranged minions. Also it would be nice if the bone minions did have a slightly bigger aoe since it annoys me when i press them to explode and nothing happens to my target and they are only a few feet away from what i can see.

+1 on everything!

We really don’t need a UI, just AI that works. Pets should /assist on your target by default. Control can be hidden inside the skill slot like the auto-attack function. 3 modes!!! Just control/Rclick the skill to toggle the pet between passive/berserk/assist. Simple. Effective. And it doesn’t step on any Ranger’s toes.

/thread =)

I agree with Josher. A UI isn’t necessary if the pets just behave intelligently. I only ever use them underwater anymore, but they seem better about attacking my target lately. Sometimes i’ll even stand back with a spear and send them to attack by swinging at out of range targets.

I think from a design standpoint, they don’t want to clutter our UI with tools and bars and boxes for every little thing. One of the (many) reasons WoW is so ugly is the skill bars

The current minion AI is embarrassing for a game in Alpha…much less Beta or two months after release.

Jackal.7432:

I agree with Josher. A UI isn’t necessary if the pets just behave intelligently. I only ever use them underwater anymore, but they seem better about attacking my target lately. Sometimes i’ll even stand back with a spear and send them to attack by swinging at out of range targets.

I think from a design standpoint, they don’t want to clutter our UI with tools and bars and boxes for every little thing. One of the (many) reasons WoW is so ugly is the skill bars

Thanks. By the way, the WOW UI is only as ugly and cluttered as you want it to be. GW2’s UI is pretty but has NOTHING on the functionality of WOW’s, due to mods. Not even close.

Josher.9612:

Jackal.7432:

I agree with Josher. A UI isn’t necessary if the pets just behave intelligently. I only ever use them underwater anymore, but they seem better about attacking my target lately. Sometimes i’ll even stand back with a spear and send them to attack by swinging at out of range targets.

I think from a design standpoint, they don’t want to clutter our UI with tools and bars and boxes for every little thing. One of the (many) reasons WoW is so ugly is the skill bars

Thanks. By the way, the WOW UI is only as ugly and cluttered as you want it to be. GW2’s UI is pretty but has NOTHING on the functionality of WOW’s, due to mods. Not even close.

Actually WoW can be as pretty or as ugly as u want UI wise.. and in my opinion thats WoW True Power.. Let Community evolve with the game and people can make some awesome things! And that make blizzard work less and have actually everything anyone needs! And if something is very needed they put it officially. i dunno greatest power than this., Actually myself i was playing WoW mostly cause i could have everything as i wanted them.. something i couldnt never have from another game.. Fuctionality wise GW2 is mediocre. it misses many fuctions and also u cannot move anything and that makes things not so comfy…

EDIT: And dont get me wrong. Im not asking for an actual UI for the pets with bars and infos etc as it is for Ranger pets.. Just the basic Controls that near evey AAA game gives for the class that use pets of any kind… even pets for 10 secs should have that basic attack/retret aggresive/defencive/passive !!

Engineers, Guardians, Thieves and Elementalists (i think) don’t get a pet UI either. If the AI was working, it wouldn’t be an issue. As long as pets keep up with target switching, we don’t really need a UI.

Terok.7315:

Engineers, Guardians, Thieves and Elementalists (i think) don’t get a pet UI either. If the AI was working, it wouldn’t be an issue. As long as pets keep up with target switching, we don’t really need a UI.

first of all… engineers,guardians,thieves and eles pets should have controls…but either way… that kind of pets are not even perma pets like ranger or Necros… so for those i could accept to not have controls (although they should too) If the AI could be better!.

I’d just like all my pets not to DIE TO COOLDOWN because some water splashed in my face. And if I’m in the water, I have to surface when downed…and there go my pets again.

yes that issue with water and pets are indeed really annoying..but i guess its a feature as it was (NOT) the lich form that despawn the minions on use.. maybe they can rid of the cd but i can see some ways that people can get avantage of that…best is to not dispawn..but thas for now a minot issue… pets that dont attack and pets that cannot be controled are far more important.

Although I wouldn’t say no to minion AI’s being improved upon, it’s important to remember that necro minions aren’t designed to be pets, they’re utility skills. It’s a bit absurd to compare them to ranger pets in terms of expectations of control when you consider that difference. As far as profession skills go, the ability to control a ranger’s pet is more comparable to the ability to use skills within death shroud or change attunements as an ele.

TL;DR Comparing pets and minions is like comparing apples and oranges. They’re not meant to be equivalent.

Styopa.2538:

I’d just like all my pets not to DIE TO COOLDOWN because some water splashed in my face. And if I’m in the water, I have to surface when downed…and there go my pets again.

Yeah, if anything needs to be fixed it’s that the golem needs to be able to swim. The only elite I can use underwater kills all my pets. Which means either I can’t use pets or I can’t use an elite. All the other pets swim. Why doesn’t the golem?

Ground Stop.9538:

Although I wouldn’t say no to minion AI’s being improved upon, it’s important to remember that necro minions aren’t designed to be pets, they’re utility skills. It’s a bit absurd to compare them to ranger pets in terms of expectations of control when you consider that difference. As far as profession skills go, the ability to control a ranger’s pet is more comparable to the ability to use skills within death shroud or change attunements as an ele.

TL;DR Comparing pets and minions is like comparing apples and oranges. They’re not meant to be equivalent.

@Ground Stop here we are not Comparing Rangers Pets with Necro Minions. We just ask for the Very Basic Controls. every other game gives u the control over pet/minions/eles etc…

Apples and Oranges are different but still you can eat them both and you should. now as it is u cant eat the oranges and there is no a reasonable explanation for that…

I believe that necromancer is meant to be a leader of his own undead army.
I always played as a minion master in gw1/2 , I hope that Anet focus on MM issues in the nearest update and fix most of them.
I will be grateful if we got a different skin and a control panel for our minions. XD

I for myself cant seen any fixes.. no official word about it. Im rly considering to try wow and pandas to get some real necro aka warlock with real minion control…

Necros Totally needs a Pet Ui or Basic minion control…if you dont make it then you better delete this prof alltogether…seriously..

they said they have multiple teams dedicated for several things.. but so far we see only events to pop up and fluffy things… i havent seen bug/prof fixes for awhile…considering this i really doubt they gonna ever add a minion ui for necros…