Is there logic how pet's abilities are being activated?

[wilegenuis]

I wonder if there are rules how pet's abilities needs to be activated.
There are activities that the hunter needs to click in in order to activated (like a shot)
There are other activities that you can mark to auto buff when the CD of the buff had passed.

Is the logic for pets is that if the CD is shorter than the buff length you can set it to auto buff?
So for example turtle's Shell Shield needs to be activated manually coz is takes 12 sec and got 1 min CD
And the wolf's Furious Howl can be auto-buffed as it takes 1 min and got 45 sec CD.

[AdamSavage]

The turtle's shield wall goes off on it's own for me. I never have to manually make it go off.

[TygerDarkstorm]

The turtle will cast shell shield on its own. From what I've noticed, they actually smart cast it when they're low on health.

What you're referring to are abilities you *wouldn't* want on autocast. For example, a rhino punting its enemies every chance it gets, a worm constantly dropping aggro to burrow, a chimaera spewing flames everywhere, etc. These are also typically abilities that have a HUGE focus dump for the pet. I'm not sure how Blizzard decides whether or not to make them autocast, but I have a feeling these factors play into it.

[Acherontia]

There's some pet abilities that use logic based on what they were *before* they changed.

For example, the Nether Ray's "Nether Shock" is an interrupt--but it also used to deal damage, and therefore casted itself on every cooldown. And although it's only an interrupt these days with no damage component, it still casts itself on every cooldown, so you have to take it OFF autocast. By contrast, there are other Interrupt pets that use their interrupt intelligently, i.e. only when the opponent is casting!

Buffs, Growl, Cower and Shell Shield, etc should all auto-cast.

As a rule, the pet abilities that can't be SET to autocast (i.e. get the swirling box around them) will not cast themselves--so Last Stand, Ancient Hysteria, etc, YOU must click.

The exception to the rule seems to be Taunt. You can set it (visually) to auto-cast, but I've never had a pet use this on its own.

[Cialbi]

I'm not sure that I follow what exactly you're asking, but I'll take a crack at this. So, if this doesn't answer your question, then oh well.

Almost all pet abilities have an autocast option that you can toggle on or off. But, not all abilities act the same when autocast is enabled. Abilities with no limit to thier duratio, like Prowl/Spirit Walk, Embrace of the Shale Spider, and Qiraji fortitude will autocast whenever possible. Most abilities that deal damage, or apply a buff or debuff will autocast whenever possible in combat; Growl will also behave this way when on autocast. Some pets will automatically alternate between two different targets for applying their debuff to, if left on autocast; TygerDarkstorm has pointed out that Worms will do so with their Acid Spit ability. Charge/Swoop will be used whenever the pet is attacking a target that is within the range of that ability; since it has a minimum range, you won't need to worry about your pet wastefully using the ability when not needed. Dash/Dive will only autocast when the pet is attacking a target that is out of melee range. Pummel and Serenity Dust will only autocast when the pet's target is casting a spell that they can interrupt, and Snatch will only autocast if the pets target can be disarmed. Shell Shield/Hardened Carapace and Cower will only autocast if the pet drops below 50% health while in combat, Lick Your Wounds will autocast if the pet drops below 50% health regardless of combat, and Spirit Mend will be autocast at anyone in your group (I think raids are included as well, but not sure) who drops below 50% health, regardless of combat. Bullheaded will autocast only when the pet is affected by a snare that it can break out of by using that ability. I have no clue what will trigger Taunt, Roar of Sacrifice, or Intervene to autocast, however.

As TygerDarkstorm said, some pet abilities don't have an autocast option. These abilities would be Rest, Play, Trick, Last Stand, Heart of the Phoenix, Horn Toss, Burrow Attack, Froststorm Breath, and Ancient Hysteria.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I was super excited to find that Birds of Prey will smart cast Snatch.
When it still had the damage component, they would just cast it on anything and everything. I made sure to test it a couple of times in Gnomergan yesterday and she definitely only cast it on mobs that could be disarmed. Which I guess sort of disproves the theory of pets not smart casting their specials if it used to do damage. >_>

[Acherontia]

Ahh, that's not quite it--it's not a theory, exactly, nor is it universal. It's just that *some* of the abilities that behaved one way weren't changed completely when abilities were revamped. The autocast of nether shock is only one case in point--another would be Hyenas' mangle debuff not affecting bosses (as it used to be a snare) or the ravager special having DR for awhile because it used to be a stun.

It's just a bit of sloppy carryover from old code on some abilities--to pull this back on topic, what it means is that some abilities, due to old coding, won't follow "the norm" that most do

[TygerDarkstorm]

Which is a real shame. It's nice to see our pet AIs actually behaving in a semi-intelligent fashion (excluding pet AoE abilities that effect critters).