Hunter Pet Issues Since Patch 2.3

#0 - Nov. 15, 2007, 1:59 p.m.

It has only been two days and why these issues weren't discovered on the PTR is beyond me. However, here is a compilation of issues that while each by itself is not game breaking, as a whole they are. Pets are a major component of most hunters. If they are not working correctly, the class is broken.

1. Severe pathing issues. If the pet is on stairs, a ramp, or a hallway, he will attempt to sometimes run through half an instance in an attempt to get behind the target. Or, he may just spaz out by seeming to jump from wall to mob at a frenzied pace, not attacking. Or, the pet will run in circles, uncertain of how to target. This is happening mostly to your PvE population, although it's been reported that classes hiding in the corners in arenas are now safe from pet attack since the pet can't get behind them.

Short term fix, roll back this 'behind the mob' pet attack now. Long term fix, after the roll back, fix the above issues.

2. Happiness issues. Pets are losing happiness faster since patch and since pets can't be fed in combat, (or FD-feed now) their potential is diminished. For all the raiding hunters out there, this is HUGE. A quick fix is, allow hunters to feed a pet that's following while in combat (not while pet is attacking). Long term, fix the happiness barometer.

3. Your new leveling formula didn't take pets into account. How can hunters keep a viable pet (see warlock auto pet levels) if they are constantly out leveling it now? Pet leveling needs to be adjusted accordingly. There is no other fix than to adjust the formula.

I've seen blizz very quick to step in and make changes. This should be one of those times. This, as a whole, is class breaking. Please reply.

-G

Edit: Both 1 and 2 severely impacts the class as a whole, compromising DPS, and once again making hunter pets (and therefore hunters) less desirable in raids and groups. This has truly broken a major class component.

Nethaera

#25 - Nov. 15, 2007, 6:21 p.m.

Just as a quick FYI, I moved this from the General forum to here so that it could get better conversation from the Hunter community itself.

Nethaera

#37 - Nov. 15, 2007, 6:41 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Hi Neth.

The Pet "attempting to get behind the mob while it it's tanking the mob" idea is great in theory, it just need the kinks worked out.

Any type of obstruction or elevation that a pet must negotiate to get to a mob can cause some unusual behavior. What we are seeing is the pet will

A. Simply not move after given a command to attack. This persists indefinitely OR
B. The pet will "spaz" out. It usually involves it running back and forth halfway between the mob and the Hunter, or it will take off in a completely random direction, often in bad direction (ie new mobs).

Pets are behaving normally while fighting on relatively flat terrain, and the new "move behind the mob" programming can be especially helpfully, greatly so on boss mobs (I don't think anyone would want to increase the attack speed of Halazzi...)

Thanks, Adlai and others that have explained the issues that are going on. I've forwarded the concerns.

Nethaera

#94 - Nov. 15, 2007, 11:36 p.m.

I have a bit more information for you all based on some dialogue I've had with our QA department.

First, we're not seeing any change in the loss of Happiness at current from our own tests. If you all have more specific information in regard to the pet you are using, the level, etc, please feel free to post in the Bug forum so that our QA team can try to reproduce the issue and track it down.

We are also not able to see the stair issue in our own testing. Again, if you have more specific information on what exactly is happening (specific boss, mob) , please go ahead and post in the Bug forum so we can better track it down. There may be a particular situation or key element that is causing this issue for you.

We also are working on a fix for an issue where pets weren't attacking if a player had their back up against a wall or corner.

Any further pathing issues that seem strange, please keep note of where you are and what mob it may be related to. We'll do our best to see if we can find these issues if they exist.

Just to reiterate from another thread, we are planning to allow Hunters to feed their pets during combat in a future patch. It's in the works right now.