Assist Stance is crap.

[Azunara]

I've also noticed both Maxwell the Felguard and Dagger the snake would go off and attack their own things. It was a real nightmare in Vashj'ir, when I wasn't geared properly. Maxwell would go pick up another mob when I didn't need him to, and we'd have to try and fend that off, or nearly die.

[Royi]

i'm not a fan of these stances:

I however did find it useful to use a macro to have my pet attack what I want it to attack.

I already have a macro on my Explosive Shot already to use my synapse springs, i just added a /petattack line in there to have my pet go where I want him/her to go.


#showtooltip Explosive Shot
/targetenemy [dead][noharm]
/use 10
/use Explosive Shot
/petattack
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

That helped put duct-tape over this annoyance at least for now.

[Worba]

Not sure if this has been fixed, but I know this used to be the case - when in def stance and fighting a bunch of mobs, when my pet's current target went down, it would occasionally run back to me instead of auto-switching to the next mob, unless I was quick enough to attack the next mob before my pet could leave the melee.

Didn't matter that I'd hit all of the mobs previously with MS, or that they were taking dmg from my exp trap, or that they had been beating on my pet the whole time - according to pet, "WELP, JOB'S DONE! TIME TO HED BACK TO MASTER FOR SCRITCHES!" 8D~

So, any traps I carefully launched are now useless, and the mobs are now inside my minimum gun range. Joy!

[TygerDarkstorm]

I used to have that problem a lot too Worba. Was annoying to watch my pet run back to me in the old defensive even though I'd shot all the mobs.

[Dewclaw]

I miss aggressive stance while pvping.

As for the new stances, they seem very buggy. On assist, my pet will sometimes run out and attack a mob that I am neither attacking, nor targeting. I'm not sure why that happens, but I end up having to run on passive a lot, and micro manage my pet attacks.

[Lohuran]

If they could somehow make Assist work JUST like the Old Defensive, and then find a way to make Defensive ONLY attack a mob that is attacking you or the pet, then I think this change would be much more appreciated.

I find that Assist works just fine for me. It is very much an old Defensive stance with the ability to change targets with the hunter added in. Maybe it's just me, but I haven't noticed any issues at all with any of my stances.

*And that's saying something. I've been playing my both my hunters very frequently in pvp, dailies, and dungeons.

[Novikova]

You're very lucky. Assist varies from MURDER EVERYTHING to 'don't move hot lava'.

[TygerDarkstorm]

My assist stance has mostly worked fine for me as well, it's the new defensive I'm not so fond of.

[Acherontia]

I have no problem with the current targetting system--I prefer it. I don't like the buggy pet stances & lack of Aggressive, which I miss FAR more than I thought I would

Today I was on a target, and had a SS running on another target. The pet, no matter how many times I spammed PET ATTACK onto my current target, kept turning and running back to the target with Serpent Sting, perhaps because it counted as me "attacking" it. As a result, the pet spent the entire fight running about doing nothing. >.>

[Morven]

I never used aggressive out of a fear I'd forget to turn it off, take my pet into a dungeon with it on, and embarrass myself half to death.

I've not noticed assist being that buggy personally, but it sounds like a more complex bug than "it never ...", it's a "it sometimes doesn't ..." kind of bug, which is hard to track down.

And defensive really needs more awareness of who's actually hurting the player; it seems to be very slow to kick in, rendering it useless.

[CrystalKitten]

I've not noticed assist being that buggy personally, but it sounds like a more complex bug than "it never ...", it's a "it sometimes doesn't ..." kind of bug, which is hard to track down.

This is pretty much exactly what I've been experiencing, only with defensive as well. Both stances seem to behave extremely erratically, and I have to say I don't envy Blizzard having to figure out WHY sometimes in very similar, if not the same, conditions the stances will do 2 (or several) completely different things... I've done some web programming, and while I know it's no where near the same as a game like WoW.. I can say that it's really annoying when bugs appear "random".

[Rhyela]

After not playing for a few months, I started playing a hunter anew on another server. I'm only level 8 right now so I haven't had a chance to use the stances, but are you telling me that I can no longer send my pet in to attack and hold one mob, trap another, and kite the third? I do big pulls like that a lot because I know I can, but it sounds like now I won't be able to. The pet will either attack what's spanking me, or attack what I'm shooting? That's.....stupid. >.>

[CrystalKitten]

You should be able to use passive for situations like that. That is, assuming that defensive really was changed, and isn't supposed to act like it used to (which it sometimes does, and sometimes doesn't). Again, this is after they fix it of course. Right now everything is pretty buggy, and I don't know if anyone outside Blizzard actually knows FOR SURE how the stances are supposed to work now.

[Acherontia]

Okay, so after doing PvP for about the last four days straight, I must say I am RAGING.

* The pets' new pathing AI is completely stupid. I don't know WHAT they changed, but whereas previously a pet would path around obstacles like walls or through tunnels, now they stand staring stupidly THROUGH THE WALL, motionless.

* Manual commands have no effect, or have to be spammed. Pets' stances overwrite manual commands, so if a pet on Assist is sent to attack a target you're getting in range of, but you have a Serpent Sting ticking on something halfway across the field/arena, the pet will continually go back to that.

I mean, seriously--after all the bugs they fixed, they bring this in?? Removing aggressive stance to give us a stance where pets will only attack what hits us first?

I REALLY hope they change back this horrible mistake of a change. I was on the fence, then for it, but after playing with it for awhile I'm just infuriatingly frustrated, which is a step back to the start of last season. To add to all this, a couple of times today I've once more died through Deterrance with no DoTs up--latency, or whatever, but haven't had this happen since early Cataclysm.

I think this patch was a nasty step backward for the PvP UI, tbh, and I very much hope they change it back. It's far too overly complicated a system to basically do LESS than it was capable of doing before, and I'm already pretty sick of it.

It's only been a week and I'm starting to hate my freaking pet.

[Rynbi]

I'm SO unhappy with the way stances work now. I used to keep my pet on defensive with /petattack macro'd into everything just to make sure my pet was on my target. Even with those macros, my pet just stands there and does nothing a lot of times. I've tried assist and the new defensive, and they both suck.

I'm hoping they're just bugged and that Blizzard will fix them. Not holding my breathe though. =/

[Royi]

i'm not a fan of these stances:

I however did find it useful to use a macro to have my pet attack what I want it to attack.

I already have a macro on my Explosive Shot already to use my synapse springs, i just added a /petattack line in there to have my pet go where I want him/her to go.


#showtooltip Explosive Shot
/targetenemy [dead][noharm]
/use 10
/use Explosive Shot
/petattack
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

That helped put duct-tape over this annoyance at least for now.

*COUGH COUGH!*

seriously, it works wonders. Replace Explosive Shot with "Arcane Shot" and your pet will go after whomever you are arcane-shotting.

[Klakk]

/startattack has the same functionality of returning the old autotarget, and uses fewer letters.

/petattack is good, except when you autotarget something down one floor and five miles away, it sends the pet after it.

To avoid the pet "ping-pong" in a pack of mobs, open the round with mutlishot. You pet is now autofocused on everything you hit. Of course, combine it with a misdirect for a happier tank.



Personally, I have had zero issues with the assist stance, it works flawlessly for me. I prefer it over the old /petattack macroed in, as now I can use my Chimera's breath weapon while giving it new attack orders and it will move while casting. It is a lot easier to control, now.

[Splaticus]

I have almost 99.9999999% of the time ALWAYS kept my pet on passive stance since the dawn of time and I command the pet to attack each mob individually.
The only thing I miss about aggressive stance being gone is for pvp and stealthers you know are in the area and are masterful at avoiding your flares and traps. Put on track hidden and pet on aggro- boom. They can't get anywhere near you with out getting ripped out by your pet. I can't get assist stance to attack if I get stun locked unless I somehow make it out of it and can start attacking.

I think it's dumb. If I want my pet to assist me or go crazy nuts on its own I will give the command, not some brainless AI that also causes every single pet I have to de-aggro whatever target I have it on when ever ANY kind of cc is put on it. Even cc that doesn't break when damage is dealt.

[Foru21dr]

Okay, so after doing PvP for about the last four days straight, I must say I am RAGING.

* The pets' new pathing AI is completely stupid. I don't know WHAT they changed, but whereas previously a pet would path around obstacles like walls or through tunnels, now they stand staring stupidly THROUGH THE WALL, motionless.

* Manual commands have no effect, or have to be spammed. Pets' stances overwrite manual commands, so if a pet on Assist is sent to attack a target you're getting in range of, but you have a Serpent Sting ticking on something halfway across the field/arena, the pet will continually go back to that.

I mean, seriously--after all the bugs they fixed, they bring this in?? Removing aggressive stance to give us a stance where pets will only attack what hits us first?

I have had times where my pet freezes and does not attack in the BG's. Like you described, he seems to be stuck. It's not until I dismiss, or the attacker is dead that he comes back to my side. Many a death I have suffered because he will not help

When it does work though, I do like the assist stance. The switch to the person I'm attacking is great, and he continues to go after the attacker, even when they stealth back out. If he is on defensive, he comes back to me.

Since I do a lot of bg's, my pet is on assist stance most of the time.

[Morven]

I notice that the pet pauses for a lot longer before going into combat now; there's a noticeable lag. That's annoying. They also won't route to places I know they'd be able to route to before; e.g. if I'm on the middle level of the Warsong Gulch base looking down at the flag room, the pet won't route to the ground floor down the stairs, and I know they used to.