Pet Pathing/AI Broken *Update: GM Response*

[Acherontia]

Update:

A GM has kindly replied to my post on the support forums with the following info.

Posted by Acherontia I'm both reporting this as a bug and also asking if the devs are, as far as blues know, aware of it; also, was this an intended change?

Well, both actually. Our developers have been tweaking pet pathing in recent weeks to try to improve it in certain terrain. So, its current state is indeed intended, but our developers know that it is not in a great place right now and have re-entered it as a bug and will continue to work on it until they are happy with the way the mechanic functions.

* * * * *

I made a post here (forums are EU, to you US players, you sadly can't post but feel free to repost if nobody's brought it up on US) about the buggy pet pathing since last patch.

I found out we're not alone--DKs have major issues with their ghouls now, too. Someone's mentioning it happening on their warlock, as well.

Basically--ignoring the stupid stances for the moment, and the fact that stances override manual commands, and just going to the pathing issues--pets' pathing AI is broken. They don't won't go up or down zeppelin or AV towers, for example, to chase a target, or up to the ledge in WSG, or even around corners in some cases. Has anyone else had these issues? (Calling All Noahs )

Some comments picked from both threads:

Also in the Dalaran Sewers Arena, an enemy jumped off the ledge, and my pet refused to run back, down the stairs, and to them. Instead he simply stared at them. Pretty bad since I'm a BM hunter in PvP.

my pet got stack in dalaran sewers like 3-4 times in 4 days of arenas.

pet always stucks on BE bridge, usually using /petpassive unstucks it

Seen a few fights recently where my pet was stood still on solid ground along with the boss and it wouldn't move, assumed there was a large hit box and that it was still attacking but it was just stuck and unable to attack the entire fight.

This happened to me on nefarion fight-as thought the same but saw that it didn't put the ravager buff on the bosses- it just stood next to me the whole fight- tried everything to make it attack but it wouldn't.

where is my pet? He's standing on the bridge, not moving at all

[Gelannerai]

That's not all. It seems like pets are dying very easily to AoE attacks now, at least in the Firelands. I typically have to res mine at least once during a trash pull, and my pet doesn't ever grab aggro in these encounters.

There's also the possibility that Sic'Em may not be working the way it should, but we'll have to see what Blizzard says about that.

The short of it is pets are in bad shape right now and it's really hurting the pet-centric specs of DK's, Hunters, and Warlocks.

[Acherontia]

It seems like pets are dying very easily to AoE attacks now, at least in the Firelands. I typically have to res mine at least once during a trash pull, and my pet doesn't ever grab aggro in these encounters.

Oh god, is Avoidance broken or something? :S

[erwil]

That's not all. It seems like pets are dying very easily to AoE attacks now, at least in the Firelands. I typically have to res mine at least once during a trash pull, and my pet doesn't ever grab aggro in these encounters.

I've noticed this happening on trash in Firelands, but only on specific mobs (The rock/flame elementals) and the cat trash (swipe) before Halazzi in Zul'Aman. Oh, and Rhyolith's rock (the one that crumbles when you pull him) is very pet-unfriendly even when it's intact (For both Hunters and Warlocks). On bosses though, I have not noticed any strange pet deaths.

[Nimae]

I, too, am having trouble with pet pathing. As quoted in the original post, when fighting Nefarion, my pet would appear next to me after the jump down, but refused to attack. I had to dismiss then resummon during the fight to get each pet to finally engage (I tried this with multiple pets: cat; wolf; raptor). I found that I had to dismiss before jumping down, and then summon once we pulled the boss (classic tactics). I also randomly experienced this in ZA during a random mob pull. The dismiss then resummon fixed that; while not game-breaking, it's irksome to break rotation during a fight to fix something that operated well pre-patch. Here's to hoping for a hotfix!

[Golden]

Not to mention them going around things they shouldn't... Namely they refuse to go under some of the stairs in Tol Barad. Enemy runs under stairs? The pet runs all the way around the building! For some time now I've seen people doing this clearly to avoid enemy pets reaching them.

Pets also seem to constantly get stuck in weird places. The forge guy in BRC comes to mind, my pet absolutely loves getting itself stuck on the round metal thing in the middle. Because you're in combat, the only way to get your pet out of there, you'll have to dismiss and resummon - and the pet is almost guaranteed to get itself stuck again.

[Ziarre]

The Pyrelord in Firelands has a ticking debuff that he puts on anyone nearby, it seems...I get my pet through those pulls by putting it on passive and only sending it in on the Blazing adds.

[Seilahyn]

I've noticed this as well. A few times my pet has run up to the mob, but stops just short of being in range. I hit Kill Command thinking it's in range, but it won't fire. It looks like he's in range, I think he's in range, but I can't get him to use Kill Command. The pathing is still 100% better than Warhammer pet pathing, even in it's current buggy state.

I've also noticed in whatever Northrend dungeon Skadi is in, there is one spot while running through my pet always disappears. The first outside hallway with three groups of Vykrul and an abomination. Around the middle group, everytime, my pet vanishes.

[Acherontia]

See update; a GM has replied to tell us that the "current state is indeed intended," but in the process of being tweaked. I'm not sure if (s)he meant that it's meant to be crap now, requiring more intervention from the player, or if they were trying to fix it and accidentally botched it, and are fixing it again. I'm assuming (and hoping) it's the latter, and hopefully after today's patch it'll be back to normal (*fingers crossed*).

As the official forums are currently down, this is what my post actually read, for the record:

It appears that pet pathing for all pet classes has been changed for the worst. This is not listed in notes, nor is it one of the many pet issues listed in Known Bugs.

Essentially, pets have forgotten how to go around walls, through doors, over lumps in the ground, up towers and up ramps, etc. It takes many commands and stances changes, and often being removed from combat, to return the pet to its original position. Many bugs have been reported in raids, battlegrounds and arenas, for Hunter, Warlock and Death Knight pets.

I made this post on the hunter forum asking if anyone else had the issue; it seems to be quite widespread:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... ?page=1#13

This is making playing a pet class extremely frustrating, and in unforgiving environments it can easily mean the difference between a successful endeavor and a failed one.

I'm both reporting this as a bug and also asking if the devs are, as far as blues know, aware of it; also, was this an intended change? Nobody is really sure why pet pathing would have been altered at all, as it was perfectly functional before.

(On a sidenote, the Assist stance is also causing pets to continuously go back to DoTted targets despite repeatedly being told to attack a new one, so it looks like Stances are overriding manual commands, which really shouldn't happen!)

Thanks!

[CrystalKitten]

I've noticed something strange with pet pathing. My Sparkles (ghostcrawler) will get stuck on the jellyfish elevator EVERY TIME. My other pets will step off fine, but it seems Sparkles has made friends with the jellyfish... Refuses to leave unless I dismiss, and resummon...

[Tsuki]

I've noticed something strange with pet pathing. My Sparkles (ghostcrawler) will get stuck on the jellyfish elevator EVERY TIME. My other pets will step off fine, but it seems Sparkles has made friends with the jellyfish... Refuses to leave unless I dismiss, and resummon...

Funny you should say that. My Bucket (Karoma) does the same thing, and I've seen someone with Skoll have a similar issue. Possibly an issue with spirit beasts?
Also, I've had my Grace (Deth) fall THROUGH the Jelly and despawn...

[Novikova]

Yeah. This is driving me loopy. My pet starts and just kind of stands there.

[Tsuki]

Also, I've noticed that sometimes, my pet will just go all LEEROY JENKINS and charge in to attack a random hostile mob for no reason. I've seen this happen while he was passive. I've also seen him get himself killed by attacking some mobs in the Molten Front while I was mounted.

[Acherontia]

That behavior's (the random aggression) is thankfully already noted in "4.2 Known Bugs," at least on the EU forums--I'm not sure if they're synched. But the pathing itself isn't--hopefully it'll be fixed tonight, though, seeing as the GM said the devs are aware of it!

I'm just seriously afraid of the phrase "indeed intended," and hope they mean "a change" not "THIS change" >.>

[Nanluin]

Also, I've noticed that sometimes, my pet will just go all LEEROY JENKINS and charge in to attack a random hostile mob for no reason. I've seen this happen while he was passive. I've also seen him get himself killed by attacking some mobs in the Molten Front while I was mounted.

Along these same lines, whilst soloing I've noticed that sometimes if I target hostile Mob A, then change my mind and target hostile Mob B, when I send in the pet to begin the attack on Mob B, the pet will run/charge Mob A instead, as if the re-target never registered. Additionally, even if the pet -does- correctly go after Mob B as desired, the instant that Mob B is killed, the pet will, without any command issued to it, go charging after Mob A anyway. This 'feature' has to be watched *very* carefully in an instance, where rapid re-targeting based upon the situation is quite common.

As has probably already been noted, the new Assist feature also doesn't work as advertised. Instead of an enhanced form of Passive mode, in which the pet will assist you with any targets that you are actively attacking (and doing nothing else); it instead appears to work as an extended form of Defensive mode, in which the pet will automatically assist you on whatever you are attacking and *also* attack anything else that damages either you or your pet in the mean time. Example: the Behemoths in the Molten Front are especially good at doing their Stomp AoE as they walk by you while you are killing something else, such that when that something else dies, off charges your pet after the Behemoth that stomped, with no input from you. "Hey! Come back here, you weren't in Defensive mode!!"

-- Nanluin

[AdamSavage]

I really wish they would increase the range of kill command to at least a couple yards more.