Guild Wars 2

I spent quite a bit of time testing it today, to try and figure out what’s causing it to break.

at first I thought it might be related to the Rending Attacks trait, but ruled that out.

I’m going to respec my guy in a bit and see if no traits fixes the issue.

This was brought to my attention by Druzilla that if you use an ability after popping Sick’Em it’ll go away, however.. that’s not the only thing that will do it as well.

Have your pet attack a mob with Sick’Em, you’ll notice right before it gets to the mob, you’ll have a slight “pause” this is sick’em dropping from the pet…I thought it might be movement related, but it doesn’t seem to be (though sometimes if you’re right next to the mob, Sick’Em will work) It also doesn’t appear to be distance related either.

If you’re any kind of distance though Sick’Em will drop before your pet hits the mob.

(I’d say it actually works maybe 1/20)

Need help from the Ranger Community in determining what the cause of this bug is.

(tested it on multiple mobs to see if it was mob related, was not)

Anyway, i’m out of idea’s on this one..

Sick ’em is bugged? Crap, that sucks, and I have been using it in sPvP. I will try this also later on.

Jazenn.7526:

Sick ’em is bugged? Crap, that sucks, and I have been using it in sPvP. I will try this also later on.

See if it works better in SPvP, you’ll know when sick’em drops from your pet as it’ll do a 1 second to 1 and 1/2 half second pause when it drops from the pet.

Also test it in PVE and see if i’m not just seeing things.

Hm. I do know that if you use Sic ‘Em while out of combat your pet will sort of get to mid-range and then sit there and contemplate it’s navel for a second before getting down to business. Though, If you do it while in combat, you won’t have the same effect. Thankfully.

Is that what you’re talking about, or is the damage buff dropping?

/edit: I guess while we’re on this topic I may as well contribute this horrible little nugget just as a general PSA. Last I checked, this pause actually made closing the distance to the target slower than a pet just running naturally. Panned out to something like this;

Natural run to 1200 range target
4s761ms, 4s790ms, 4s730ms (4.7 average)

Agility Training run to 1200 range target
4s171ms, 4s047ms,4s098ms (4.1 average)

Signet of the Hunt run to 1200 range target
4s247ms, 4s202ms, 4s147ms (4.2 average)

Sic ‘Em run to 1200 range target
out of combat; 5s016ms,4s952ms,5s046ms (5.0 average)
in combat; 3s875ms, 3s850ms, 3s978ms (3.9 average)

Confirmed. When you view the pet’s buff after using the skill, it very often debuffs right before combat. I tried this multiple times in PvE and in PvP and the result is the same. I also think I have the true cause. Druzilla was correct, it drops when using a skill afterwards. While I am not sure if this is a ranger skill that procs that ( I didn’t test that). I am almost certain that it is the pets ability. This is because pets almost ALWAYS open combat with one of their skills, for instance, the cat and drake I tested open with bite, and the buff dropped as the AI began the cast time for the skill.

This is a important find and must be fixed, we have been missing out on a HUGE pet buff that I thought was working fine. What must have been happening was the buff works and it seems as it has the extra movement speed, but as soon as it enters combat the pet always activates one of their combat skills(not the autoattack) and the buff drops, so it loses the speed and never benefits from the damage.

What needs to be fixed is this: The buff cannot be lost when another ability is activated. It needs to last the full duration.

Unfortunately we will most likely have to wait a month at least for this to be fixed, even if we report it now. And even that is being optimistic. The changes in the game I can understand being slow, but bugs need to be fixed asap, and I am positive this counts as a bug.

EDIT: Looking at Vox’s post I will present another possibility I may have overlooked. It is possible the skill is debuffing because we are entering combat. Maybe if the entire process took place during combat, the skill would work. I cannot test this right now because I have to go, but I hope we can identify and report this bug quickly so that it may be fixed.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Hm. I do know that if you use Sic ‘Em while out of combat your pet will sort of get to mid-range and then sit there and contemplate it’s navel for a second before getting down to business. Though, If you do it while in combat, you won’t have the same effect. Thankfully.

Is that what you’re talking about, or is the damage buff dropping?

/edit: I guess while we’re on this topic I may as well contribute this horrible little nugget just as a general PSA. Last I checked, this pause actually made closing the distance to the target slower than a pet just running naturally. Panned out to something like this;

Natural run to 1200 range target
4s761ms, 4s790ms, 4s730ms (4.7 average)

Agility Training run to 1200 range target
4s171ms, 4s047ms,4s098ms (4.1 average)

Signet of the Hunt run to 1200 range target
4s247ms, 4s202ms, 4s147ms (4.2 average)

Sic ‘Em run to 1200 range target
out of combat; 5s016ms,4s952ms,5s046ms (5.0 average)
in combat; 3s875ms, 3s850ms, 3s978ms (3.9 average)

Hmm, maybe that’s it, I use it at the start of combat, I’ll check real quick and see if that’s it.

K, just checked it see if that’s it, and I think it might be, If you tell your pet to attack first, then use Sick’Em it doesn’t appear to cause the pet to drop the buff

If you tell your pet to attack via Sick’Em, it’ll drop the buff when it gets to the target.

edit

Yeap, that’s 100% it.

Was able to get Sick’Em working that way.

So for the record on anyone who’s reading

1. Only use Sick’Em after you’ve used every other ability (aka Jaguar Stealth/QZ) otherwise it’ll drop Sick’Em

2. Make sure you attack the target first (via telling your pet to attack or Jaguar Stealth for example) before using Sick’em, otherwise it’ll drop the buff once it reaches the target.

Thank you Vox by the way for helping, that pretty much nailed the issue, and yea, that pause you was seeing was Sick’Em dropping from the target.

:) happy to help

Okay lol that’s a little better. Still sucks it has to be used in that way but that is acceptable I suppose. Lol thanks guys.

I always knew F2 dropped Sic Em buff or if the target dies or if you change targets via telling it to attack another target but this new bug i didnt know. Man i wasted so many sick em buffs.

Puandro.3245:

I always knew F2 dropped Sic Em buff or if the target dies or if you change targets via telling it to attack another target but this new bug i didnt know. Man i wasted so many sick em buffs.

If you give your pet any command (I can confirm that things such as sig of the hunt, winter’s bite, greatsword #5 etc do NOT count) it’ll cancel Sick’Em, literally any, F1-F4, shouts, QZ, ANY cancels it (this is the same for all shouts, except QZ doesn’t seem to cancel the other shouts).

@Xsou, huh, i didn’t know about this bug, however I don’t think i’ve EVER used sick’em pre-combat, so that’d explain my ignorance to this bug xD.

Well, this is annoying.

So I use a Jaguar, so would this work:
F2, QZ, Sick ‘Em?
So Sick ’Em shouldn’t go away? I knew about F skills taking it away, so currently I’ve been using F2, Sick ’Em and QZ, but does QZ drop the buff?

My Sweet Lily.1952:

So I use a Jaguar, so would this work:
F2, QZ, Sick ‘Em?
So Sick ’Em shouldn’t go away? I knew about F skills taking it away, so currently I’ve been using F2, Sick ’Em and QZ, but does QZ drop the buff?

I didn’t think it did, but Xsou says it does, if test it out to be sure, because I know you can pop it during Guard and S&R and be fine and then if you -really- want you can do it during “Protect Me!” But idk why you’d wanna waste it then…

Wow good catch on this one. I almost always hit Sick em before anything else. Little did I know it was doing nothing for me that way.

That explains alot….thank you!

A crucial Ranger skill not working?
That’s rare.
Fixing it would make Ranger too strong.

Im so sad now, this bug wont be fixed anytime soon, and we rangers have already been nerfed to death… this only kills us even more T__T

Thanks. Another reason not to use these garbage shouts. Add it to the list.