/Pet Focus and /Pet No Cast

[Xalmat]

Virtual Copy/Paste from the Mage Compendium. Forgive the Mage slant.

Basically, heres how it works. Its a bit complicated, but once you have it, it will be your favorite AA of all time.

/Pet Focus

Pet Focus is a sort of toggle. You do /pet focus to turn it on, and /pet focus again to turn it off.

Under /pet focus, the warder behaves a little differently than you're used to.

When the warder is not attacking, it behaves exactly the same as normal. It will attack mobs that attack you, unless you /pet hold. However, when it is attacking, thats when things are different.

Once under /pet focus, the warder will attack mobs when you tell it to, no matter what. It will automatically switch targets whenever you /pet attack, no matter how much hate is built up on your warder, and no matter how low health the warder's current target is.

For example, suppose you're fighting a Froglok Krup Knight and a Pox Scarab in Sebilis. Normally you would /pet attack and the warder would attack whichever is at the top of the hate list (and hopefully hold aggro over you, unless you're tanking instead). If for whatever reason one mob doesn't attack the warder and instead attacks you, you have to use /pet back off and/or /pet hold to get your warder to attack the other mob. As any experienced beastlord will tell you, this can be quite a hassle when you have multiple mobs fighting you and your warder.

Under /pet focus, if you /pet attack the Froglok, the warder will attack the Froglok. It will not attack the Scarab until the Froglok dies, no matter how much damage or hate is built up by the scarab. If you tell the warder to attack the Scarab before the Froglok dies, the warder will stop attacking the Froglok and will attack the Scarab instead.

When you turn off /pet focus, the warder resorts to its hate list, and will attack whatever is at the top of the hate list at the time. If you turn on /pet focus while the pet is fighting a mob, it will treat it as if you /pet attack.

It will take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it will become your favorite AA. This is definitely a must have AA.

/pet no cast

Works exactly like you think it does. You /pet no cast, and it causes your pet not to use its special abilities (Mage and Necro pets only?).

[Zentrel]

Thanks fer the tip Xal.

[Liga]

Would /pet no cast remove the Rellic "casting" that we see?  Pets give the casting message when they proc so it would stand to reason, but this IS soe we're talking about here.

[Oneiromancer]

I suppose it could, but in that case wouldn't we just not cast the proc buff?  It makes more sense for Mage pets since they innately cast spells...I don't know if the Necro pet's lifetaps count as spells or not though (or if they get other kinds of spells).

Game on,

[Aeshmal]

High-level necropets are Shadowknight NPCs, and have been known to cast a number of Shadowknight spells. Similarly, high level Magician Fire pets have been known to cast a small selection of wizard nukes. This pet command may also disable other Magician pet abilities (water and air nukes, earth root).

[Siodan]

THERE HAS BEEN A PROBLEM!!!!   I was useing this in a group and have had adds..now normaly if a mob is mezed and you ?pet attack he will say he can't hit it...BUT if he is attacking something and it gets mezzed he will STILL attack if ( tho you get spamed with his melee "can't hit %T") till he procs/casts, at wich time he breaks mez!  This is very not good as in group situations with a good tank i offten sic pet on the add ( the tank 2 pulled alot) and let it deal some damage till the CC has a chance to mez. Normaly he would break off attack and i could go put him on the main target and all is good..this the way it is, is BAD. Have atleastr noticed that if the mob is already mexed he will still not attack, he must be already attacking and damageing the mob for him to break mez. .. I /bugged this, hopefully it wasn't intentional, and hopefully it was a glitch and has ben fixed or will be fixed soon ...just a heads up.

[Vorhees]

Grr, I wish they just made it so that when you have /focus turned on, the pet will only attack mobs you tell it to.  Having to add in /pet hold still to keep mobs from running off if a mob AEs or something is a nuisance.  I don't see any reason why it would be a problem to make the focus command work like that.  Unless you are afk factioning or something, but then again you just turn /focus off and the pet will go back to attacking whatever attacks you like normal.  Hopefully they look into making this change.

[Essant]

Ok, I dont have this yet .. I ran out of aa's that I had banked so I have to get to 70 first and get some more ..

Let me understand the mechanics of this first tho, it looks like it will be very advantagous if used correctly.

What I want to be able to do, is to focus my pet basically at all times.

Current hot key macro's are as follows:

Assist:

/target Essant
/assist <insert assist name here>
/pause 5
/g --- Assisting <insert assist name here> -- attacking %t ---
/pet attack

Pet Hold:

/pet hold
/pet back off

--------

Now I hit Pet Hold after every mob dies regardless, of what I do or where I am.  It's a discipline ive trained myself to do always that has proven to be a real disaster-avoider on raids.  More beastlords should do this.

Anyay, I can deal without the assist spam line, no one see's it anyway but me, I acutally have it set to a private channel for my benifit really but I can get over that ..

So you are saying its a toggle .. ok then.  Thats fine.  So if I change my hot keys to be as such:

Assist:

/target Essant
/assist <insert assist name here>
/pet focus
/pet attack

Pet Hold:

/pet hold
/pet back off
/pet focus

He will basically focus on every mob i tell him to engage no matter what and reset for the next focus command when I back him off.  If the mob he is focused on dies and theres another in camp that has attacked me or him, he will THEN attack that mob, provided I havent told him to back off already.

Right?  Cool.

Only downside I see to this is if I manually back off and re aquire a target via the normal pet attack button instead of through my assist key.  He wont be focused on the target.

So I guess what im going to have to do .. is make a new pet attack hot button that I use just like I had to make a new pet back off button to use instead of the one on the pet display window when I got the first pet discipline.

/pet focus
/pet attack

Yikes .. well im running out of hot button slots.  Ive never been very proficient or fast at switching hot button panels and so basically I dont.

What would be nice is being able to customize the buttons on the pet control panel .. AND be able to tie them to a key, but thats probably never going to happen.  Meh .. I'll /feedback it anway.

Thoughts on all this?

Thanks.

[Bananea]

No, you don't need pet focus in your hot key.

If you have it in a hotkey like you posted, it will toggle it on and off constantly.

When you summon your pet, just type /pet focus. I think iirc you need to type it when you zone or unsuspend your warder also.

I tried the hotkey thing though, it just doesn't work.

[Siodan]

every time you bring a pet out  (zone, suspend/unsuspend/summon) you have to tell it to focus, just like haveing to tell it to /taunt of. this works wonderfully in solos or in a group with no CC but once in a raid or in a group with CC it can become an issue as if your pet happens to be fighting something that needs mezed you'll break it.   Other than this it's not a wasest of AA..tho the new suspend pet is way better and happier IMO.

[Essant]

Ok, thanks but ..

it can become an issue as if your pet happens to be fighting something that needs mezed you'll break it

You are saying a pet /focused on a mob will break a mez?

Um .. thats a real problem.

[Dakat]

solo instance this would be cool.

You are pulling, knowing that the next pull will bring 2. Also knowing that you want your pet to OT one while you handle the other.  Using this function will allow you to control your pet more easily.

Target one mob, pull with slow.  As you run to camp, target the other before he gets there and send /focus pet.  No matter what, you pet will attack the add w/o worry.  Then you can slow your pets mob and continue on your way.  

Another instance.  You are fighting 2 mobs. Your pet has been fighting one and you another.  Your mob is almost dead and you want to finish it off and get on the other.  Before you can tell your pet to hold / back off. Most times though your pet will turn back to the mob that had been in combat with.  Then you have to spam it a couple times to get your pet to help finish off that mob. With /focus you dont have to spam any more. One hit on that hotkey and your pet will forget the mob that had been punding in it all this time and help you kill the other.

[Eatbugs]

Target one mob, pull with slow. As you run to camp, target the other before he gets there and send /focus pet. No matter what, you pet will attack the add w/o worry. Then you can slow your pets mob and continue on your way.

This already works just fine without /focus, and you don't need to switch targets.  Pull one with slow, sic pet on that one, pet will switch targets to the unslowed add about a second after they get in melee range.  Half the time the mob you originally pulled will break off and come after you - the rest of the time you can just cast once on it to get it to come to you.

Another instance. You are fighting 2 mobs. Your pet has been fighting one and you another. Your mob is almost dead and you want to finish it off and get on the other. Before you can tell your pet to hold / back off. Most times though your pet will turn back to the mob that had been in combat with. Then you have to spam it a couple times to get your pet to help finish off that mob. With /focus you dont have to spam any more.

Um - the problem is generally keeping the pet off the almost dead mob. (assuming you want to.)  When the mob beating on you gets under 20% health, your pet will generally be on it instantly no matter how often the other mob is hitting your pet.

Not to complain about the /focus command, (I plan on getting it as soon as possible) but basic pet control knowledge and a small amount of room is all these situations took before.

[Tzuka]

When you summon your pet, just type /pet focus. I think iirc you need to type it when you zone or unsuspend your warder also.

I have this aa and i just wanted to say i feel its extremely boring to have to repeatedly use /pet focus every time i take out my warder, zone, or make a new one. I wish it was either just a one time toggle or an automatic effect. Thats all...  :cry:

[Rarrum]

I ask Rashere about /pet no cast for beastlords (since we can train it but it doesn't help us in any way).  Said it was being left there just in case we have a use for it later sometime.