Guild Wars 2

Technically speaking, is it not possible to do so? If you can’t make a smart AI, which is understandable, then why don’t you make it so that players can set conditions on when/where/how the pet would react to its environment? Take the party control system in Dragon Age Origin for example (even a game as old as Dungeon Siege had this).

Say. You can expand F1 skill and choose the option regarding how you want your F1 to command your pet… ex.

Expand F1> 1) Fetch -> pets attack and return to you once the target is dead
2) Aggressive -> pets continuously attack every target
3) Guard -> pets only attack anything that attack the rangers

Now for pet skills, you can separate it into different layers of control, for example,

First layer
Default mode: Pets use skills as originally scripted
Trained mode: Pets only use skills according to the “training”
Semi-trained mode: Pets prioritize default mode and will activate skills according to the training if applicable

Second layer, the training, this will only activate if you choose the Trained mode or semi-trained mode

For each skill your pets have besides auto attack, you can set up conditions on when these skill should be executed.

For example, the first tier of the condition will specify whether it will be focused on the ranger, allies or enemies and then the next tier will define the next condition at narrower scope.. say we’re talking about Bear’s endure pain, it would be like

Open pet window, click Endure Pain skill, there pops the first tier of condition

Endure pain
First tier > 1- Ranger
2- Allies
3- Enemy
4- Pets

Say, I select enemy

Second tier > 3- Enemy > 1-HP
2-Condition

Say, I select HP

Third tier > 3- Enemy > 1-HP > 1- More than 75%
2- More than 50%, less than 75%
3- Less than 50%

Say, I select less than 50%, so the final training for Bear’s endure pain would be like….

Use this skill [endure pain] when the [bear’s] target enemy’s HP is less than 50%

You got the idea.. It won’t be perfect, but it should at least make pet more manageable, although I’m not really sure if this is possible to implement.