I thought it might be fun to have a thread dedicated to the little tricks about warders that a new bl might not know. I'll periodically re-read the thread and edit this post to incorporate corrections and new ideas.
- Your warder as RADAR: tell your pet to guard here and then watch where it looks. It will always look to the nearest mob. Walls and such dont matter. It's not track but at times it's useful.
- Your warder doesnt forget it's target after a kill. Lost a mob in a wall? Your pet was beating on it too? Do this, /pet target, /assist, /loot and if you are close enough to the corpse you get the loot window. I actually have this hotkeyed for soloing cause it's easy way to loot mobs even when corpse isn't lost. /pet back off does clear its target though.
- Your warder gets it's resists from you so don't bother casting resistance buffs on it.
- If you press the F1-F6 key for targeting a group member, then again a second time you will target that individuals pet. So, not just F1 does this!
- Emotes for your pet: "/emote `s warder gnaws on the nearest corpse." Isn't perfect but kinda works.
- MAX MELEE DISTANCE DAMN IT! Heard that yelled in a raid? A fighting pets never fall outside of max melee, so if you are in front of a pet you're too close!
- Now you see me now you dont. You can't invis pets or be invisable with one. Your pet poofs when you are made invisable. Vah Shir can still sneak with there pet up though.
- In some aspects pets are indestructible. They don't need EB under water. They dont burn in lava. They dont take fall damage.
- What is the tank on? /assist MT, /pet hold, /pet back off, /pet attack will send you pet off after the MT's target. Who needs a targeting a targeting ring?
- Equiping your pet: Yes you can give your pet weapons and items too. Many will help. Pet level and item restrictions and types matter so read up on it. Realize, the items will be lost.
- Pet pulling: Mobs consider it beneath themselves to assist each other against a green con. You can use that to your advantange if you have /pet hold. Summon a warder, not your best, but one that /cons green to mobs you want to pull. Give it a run speed buff and any extra HP you can. Tell it to attack a mob, then once it hits mob /pet hold to bring a single back to you. If you have suspend minion you can even have a proper warder waiting to spring. As long as your widdle warder doesnt die in aggro range of other mobs this will ALWAYS single pull.
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one fun trick i found was if you run straight, then turn around and run back from where you came from, then turn back around and run back from where you ran from just then (aka run back and forth) your pet will follow you, but will be slightly delayed and it;ll look like you and your warder playing chicken.... okay its not usefull but funny and gets a lol out of people occasionally
Last night in MM on an adventure the mobs were warping (separate post on this) around the room. Our pets immediately (like a warp) go to the mob's new position. Just turn around and look for your warder.
Expanding on what the poster said above, this also works for Pallys or anyone else that decides to use knockback a lot. Because of server lag, sometimes you will not see the mob change position for several seconds after a knockback, and typically you will be hitting air (a "ghost" of the mob's old position). Your pet often is in much better sync, if you watch him, he will move to the mob's new position before the mob does. I find that following my pet's moves allows me to get a few hits in even before I can actually see that the mob was pushed.
Pets don't need Enduring breath. I'm not sure if they get EB from the beastlord, or if they just never need to breath. I have an EB item, and have never had to cast EB on my pet. (maybe someone else knows the details of this... whether pets need EB if the owner doesn't have an EB item)
Pets make a good last line of defense when soloing. If you make a bad pull and have too many adds to handle, send the pet in and often all the mobs will stick to it. This usually affords plenty of time to get a good head start to the zone line, and will often stop a possible train.
Most of the time it's a good idea to keep your pet at the back of the mob. If you are soloing, this will help balance out the push and keep the mob in place (also has this same effect if there aren't too many other pets in your group). Also, mobs do not get defensive skills when being attacked from behind, so they won't be blocking/dodging/reposting your pets attacks, and your pet will do more dmg. In dungeons, try to keep your pet in between the mob and the nearest wall, and in groups with lots of pets try to make sure your pet isn't on the same side as the other pets.
fozz
Pets don't breathe, the Grey has no air as well, and they are immune to lava.
I have been using mine for RADAR for ages, but the assist for mob lost in a wall is news to me. Thanks!
hehe aye Fozz, my wolf has saved my butt (and groups) more than once - click on taunt and head for the zone in and meet up with your pet later!
The fact that my wolf could hold agro on more than one mob at a time I found very useful when solong rockhoppers in the low level 50s because sometimes I would pull 2 and would need pet to hold em while I healed for a sec.
such a good doggie =)
On a raid I use the /assist ma, /pet attack to then find the target everyone is attacking (like on those messy PoEarth pull where the mob splits.)
My pet is my beacon.
The assist/loot thing is new to me and a great idea. (c:
Been using most of these tricks for a while, even the loot one. It has come in handy many times. I will add that if you back off your warder, wipe its hate list even after the mob is dead, or if another mob gets onto your warder's hate list, it will lose the target of the corpse and /loot will not work.
QuoteOn a raid I use the /assist ma, /pet attack to then find the target everyone is attacking (like on those messy PoEarth pull where the mob splits.)
My only suggestion to the above is to put a /pet hold (if you have it) and /pet back between the /assist ma and /pet attack commands. This will wipe the warder's hate list and ensure that it is really on the correct target. On fights where adds spawn, multipe aes or there are a lot of target changes I have found the additional commands helpful.
Quote from: FelidaeMAX MELEE DISTANCE DAMN IT! Heard that yelled in a raid? Pets know it and always fight at exactly max melee, so see how close the pets are getting.
Unfortunately this isn't quite true. The pet will attack as soon as it thinks it can attack. So normally it will attack at max range. When I have soe or sow on my pet he can sometimes get a little way into range before it detects the range and will be a few feet inside from me when it starts attacking. Not very important but enough to get it killed on Time RZ.
Also they certainly do not keep max range if the mob moves. Might be more accurate to put "Pets know it and always start to fight at max melee range".
Shere Khaan
My favorite "trick" was to use the warder's protection instincts. When I turn 39 I went off and soloed Rathe Giants for 10 levels.
My technique was to sic the warder on a giant and back off and look around. When another popped I would run under it, with attack off, grabbing proximity aggro. I would get a smack from the giant, I would run back to the warder and he would engage the giant taking all aggro with him, leaving me to look for another.
One day I had 6 giants on my warder at once as I sat back and watched and grinned at the /tells from the level 50 groups complaining that I ksed the whole hill, when in fact I hadn't even touched a single giant.
Perhaps not the best public relations strategy, but when you have level 60+ farming greens, I figure no holds barred.
Koocoo