Guild Wars 2

From what I listened to in the SotG yesterday, we were told that pets will now attempt to move behind a target that they have not ‘aggroed’ in order to avoid aoe/cleave. While in theory, this sounds beneficial, a few issues come to mind.

First and foremost, how will this function against players?
Second, what if I want my pet to tank? Will it waste time attempting to run behind the npc?
Third, can I disable this (99.9% sure I can’t but I would like to know as it ties into question 2)?
Forth, if I recall my pet and pull aggro, will my pet attempt to hit the back of the npc again or will it go straight for it this time?

Also, in case anyone missed it, all pets will have increased toughness and vitality and pet F2 cast times have been reduced all around. I don’t feel like linking if this is the first time you read this so find it for yourself (sotg gw2guru 4/26). They also mentioned spirit health buffs, proc chance increased to 70% (traited only I think), and signet buffs. I think these changes may actually bring some lackluster pets back into the game (drakes for instance) if their cast times are low enough to land hits on moving players at least partially every time but most of all, I think it will further buff the canines, making them even more useful for any build.

Obviously, these questions are aimed at devs, but I don’t expect them to answer. So, this thread was created to see what the community thinks about these changes and how they will affect certain aspects of the game.

Poorly is my guess based on their past coding skill.

I am also concerned that the pet trying to get behind the target will screw us in wvw even more if the pet is concentrating on that and not attacking.

EDIT:
One of the reasons their should be a test server.

Unless the pathing itself is tightened up this change may end up being total butts. As it stands the pet takes a really jagged drawn out path instead of a smooth tight path, you can see it pretty clearly if you run around with your pet next to you. Take a turn and they keep moving forward then snap back on path instead of taking it gradually with you. If they keep this pathing then chances are when they try to move behind a target it’ll take them at least a second to re-position every time. That might not sound like a lot but if the target is turning to face different people a lot (like a lot of dungeon and fractal bosses do) in a worst case scenario the pet will re-position itself after every attack and basically cut its damage done by a large chunk.

Don’t get me wrong I’m excited to see the pets ai getting some improvement but with the “buffs” the ranger has been getting since launch I’ve learned to be pessimistic about everything.

Also in the interview they were asked about giving more direct control over the pets and answered with “We don’t want to overwhelm new players.” That’s such a kitten excuse, if they don’t want to overwhelm new players introduce the ability to use more pet skills over the course of a few levels like they do with every god kitten other thing in the game. I feel like its not even worth using birds because they take the first five seconds of combat dancing around to cast an unnecessary swiftness.

Ryuichi.3456:

I feel like its not even worth using birds because they take the first five seconds of combat dancing around to cast an unnecessary swiftness.

I can’t tell you how infuriating this is, every kittening fight.

Ryuichi.3456:

Unless the pathing itself is tightened up this change may end up being total butts. As it stands the pet takes a really jagged drawn out path instead of a smooth tight path, you can see it pretty clearly if you run around with your pet next to you. Take a turn and they keep moving forward then snap back on path instead of taking it gradually with you. If they keep this pathing then chances are when they try to move behind a target it’ll take them at least a second to re-position every time. That might not sound like a lot but if the target is turning to face different people a lot (like a lot of dungeon and fractal bosses do) in a worst case scenario the pet will re-position itself after every attack and basically cut its damage done by a large chunk.

Don’t get me wrong I’m excited to see the pets ai getting some improvement but with the “buffs” the ranger has been getting since launch I’ve learned to be pessimistic about everything.

Also in the interview they were asked about giving more direct control over the pets and answered with “We don’t want to overwhelm new players.” That’s such a kitten excuse, if they don’t want to overwhelm new players introduce the ability to use more pet skills over the course of a few levels like they do with every god kitten other thing in the game. I feel like its not even worth using birds because they take the first five seconds of combat dancing around to cast an unnecessary swiftness.

New players…. That sounds like they are focusing on new players. People stop playing the game BECAUSE the game is too simple!

Really, it’s so easy to program (based on own experience), especially for them.
F1 Action – Merge the Attack and Return buttons; When pressing it, the pet will return if it is attacking or attack if it is not doing so. Press twice if you want it to attack something else.

F2 Action – Pet based ability (as now)
F3 Action – Pet’s second ability (e.g. knockdown from canines)
F4 Action – Pet’s third ability (e.g. heal from bears)
F5 Action – Swap pet
All can be remapped.
Add Setting called “Automatic pet abilities”

If server controls the Pet abilities: This would not have effect on performance because the pets would have the same AI for using abilities. Turning of the auto setting will skip this AI and actually have a positive effect

If client controls the Pet abilities: No effect at all.

As for pet pathing:
Red – Enemy
Green – Pet

They uncovered my secret to survivable pets in dungeons!

As for how pets react to players, likely there is no way to register if players are ‘aggroed’ or not so they’ll likely just go with somekind of default script of just chasing down their target. I have a feeling this won’t affect PvP (meaning simply vs non NPCs) in the slightest which is unfortunate.