Curse

NeHoMaR · Aug 04, 2009, 05:47 AM // 05:47

All useful builds with a pet, needs 3 or 4 slots just for the pet, and they are all very limited to (normally overpowered) builds based in another 3 or 4 slots.

Having "Charm Animal" equipped for a pet, is plenty normal and reasonable for me, but the need to also use "Comfort Animal" is the part that reduce the possibilities. I mean "Charm Animal" should be upgraded to at least revive the pet, even without healing.

draxynnic · Aug 04, 2009, 06:02 AM // 06:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeHoMaR

All useful builds with a pet, needs 3 or 4 slots just for the pet, and they are all very limited to (normally overpowered) builds based in another 3 or 4 slots.

And those three slots just match the functionality that an Asura summon provides with a single slot and no attribute investment - a level 20 ally with a single skill.

Arkantos · Aug 04, 2009, 06:11 AM // 06:11

Charm Animal. While this skill is equipped, you have an animal companion which has up to 80 armor, 420-540 health and does -15%-+15% damage. I dunno, sounds like a pretty fair trade off.

Pets suck in PvE, yes. What is this going to change? They're still going to suck, and it's just going to create gimmicks where there's a bunch of pets running around because they're free.

DarkGanni · Aug 04, 2009, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper.nl

Not signed, a solution would be to merge the finctionality of charm animal and comfort animal into one skill. (As suggested many times before)

/signed to this, which in my opinion is the best idea (probably that's why ppl keep bringing it up all the time).

Maybe keep it tied only to PvE.

]HM[ Sabre Wolf · Aug 04, 2009, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Killamus

What they need to do is change charm animal to this:

Quote:

Skill. Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have Charm Animal equipped. You cannot charm an animal that is more than 4 levels above you. If you use this skill while you already have control of a pet, that pet is resurrected with 5% health.

That way, if you want a real, in-battle res, you need to take it, but otherwise you don't need to waste a skill to just res your pet after a fight.

/agree

Charm Animal must be used to bring out a pet... if not, every single person in the game would have a pet following them around creating an unblance (not to mention IWAY would be king).

However, a skill change to include a rez inside of the Charm Animal skill, would be a balenced change I think... have a skill for Charm Animal AND a skill to rez the pet takes up a lot of bar space. 5-10% HP on rez sounds about right... Since there are other skills out there that already rez' the pet for more HP, I think that a solid 5-10% is fine as well.

draxynnic · Aug 05, 2009, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Charm Animal. While this skill is equipped, you have an animal companion which has up to 80 armor, 420-540 health and does -15%-+15% damage. I dunno, sounds like a pretty fair trade off.

Until it dies, and then you have nothing. Unless you spend a second skill slot for Comfort Animal, in which case you've spent two skill slots to have an animal companion which has up to 80 armor, 420-540 health and does -15%-+15% of an inconsequential amount of damage (unless you've also invested in beastmastery). Or you could get Heal As One, in which case you've spent one regular slot, your elite slot and (presumably) a bunch of attribute points for an animal companion which has up to 80 armor, 420-540 health and does -15%-+15% damage...and a self-heal.

Now, if you ramp the investment up to 4 skills or so, you start to get something that might actually be a fair trade... except that the AI issues mean it'll rarely actually be where you want it to be.

Or you could spend a single PvE slot and 10 energy every minute for an Asura summon that has up to an estimated 60 armour, 480 health, no AI issues, and a skill that it'll use at no cost to you every 10 seconds or so... and you don't even need to be a Ranger! Sure, if you've only got a moderate rank in the Asura track it'll have a bit less health, armour and damage and will only have 85% or so uptime, but I'll still take that trade over the pet any day.

MithranArkanere · Aug 05, 2009, 08:38 PM // 20:38

Hehe, add a checkbox next to your health bar and each hero.
Check it, and the pet health bar for that character appears in the bottom.

Now, if you are primary or secondary Ranger, the pet behaves normally. And if you don't, it behaves like a Miniature, always heeling, just following you.

There are so many animals that it's a shame not bringing them when you don't need to be a ranger.

What about that? XD

Axwind · Aug 05, 2009, 11:27 PM // 23:27

It would be nice if pets could be made more useful, and I do agree that bar compression would be a good start. But perhaps there's another way. It just sort of sprung to mind while I was reading through this thread, so I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think.

Basically, rework the pet so it acts and functions the same as a hero, including having its own skillbar which, like that of a hero, you can customize from the skill panel. However, pet skillbars would only be able to hold four slots, and an interesting twist might be that different pets would be of different professions. You can't choose the primary, like with heroes, and unlike heroes, you can't add a secondary, either.

You would still be required to have Charm Animal on your bar, but the frequently suggested compression of that and Comfort Animal into one skill would also work well here. Other pet skills would function as they currently do, but this way, not as many of them would be needed on your bar to make your pet viable and effective.

The above is just an idea, and any adjustments/suggestions to make it better are welcome. I just hope Anet does something to make pets better, because I know a lot of us (including me) want to be able to bring them along and have them be useful without sacrificing too much of our own utility in the process.

]HM[ Sabre Wolf · Aug 07, 2009, 02:45 AM // 02:45

Quote:

08/06/09 Update

Comfort Animal (PvE): (concise description) skill. Your pet gains 20...87...104 health. Resurrects your pet (10...48...58% health.) if you have comfort animal equipped, your animal companion will travel with you.

ANET listened!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

stevedallas · Aug 07, 2009, 02:55 AM // 02:55

I'm still missing the days when a nec set up as a minion factory could troll through an area with over 25 minions trailing behind. And even that isn't nearly as overpowered as some of the builds that many people are actively using.

Let's look at permasins as the standard. A permasin can waltz through an area alone and take on pretty much most things... alone. And if that example doesn't sit well with you, lets look at 600/Smite two man teams...

Having a pet travel around with you even if you dont have comfort animal should be... well, acceptable. if the pet dies, you still have all your skills reset and you're still bound to using ranger as your secondary. sure you may have 8 players with 8 pets but, is that really any more useful than a two man team with 6 total discordway necromancers? I don't think it is.

and it certainly isnt more overpowered than a 8 player party with an activated summoning stone and two permasins.

or a team of W/M's with skills like echo, asuran scan, signet of strength and I Am the Strongest

i really dont feel this is a big deal.

/SIGNED