Pet pulling - Going with a bang or a whimper?

[Mewzee]

I never used "Pet Pulling" much at all... very few instances that I did.

Heck, I recall a group with my guildies only once or twice where I was actually asked to pet pull and I was like "Hu? Ohh yea that"....
Then the following commenced:..../uses suspend minion....../summons 46 pet..../pet attack........Inc Single Mob001..../pet dies...
/Unsuspend minion..... /pet attack mob01...../group attacks mob01......./mob01 dies. You gain experience!
Then after 5mins of that, Hey Monk008 is available for group, lets get him in! Me: Ok! Np...:)

I will miss it for the times I want to solo (which is rare atm) and single pull in a really difficult area such as caves ect and even for some raid utilites ect.
But mostly I'm use to pulling and getting trains. I am so use to the trains that I just go and train myself at Stoneroot Falls, and kill along with
my pet and Werewolf until im OOM and my Hp is 15%, Or till I die and at least I have fun with it ;)

But I agree that it does take away from us being able to be somewhat useful, and a useful tool from the toolbox. Even if it was never
intended to be in the game, they really should rethink it and consider it for pet users when they wish to solo, or even group situations
where you don't have necessarily the right classes in it..

[Thaeliun]

I can't believe how many people aren't using this!?

I am the designated puller in the instances that my groups do.  I don't even know any chanters or bards except for a few boxed chanters that my friends made for buffing.  Taking away pet pulling virtually removes my current group chances for doing almost all of the  group instance content we currently do.

I really am curious what all you people are doing?  Am I the only one that doesn't group with pullers?  Are you skipping the content that requires creative pulling?  I am called upon to pet pull all the time......just difficult to picture how people get by without it but I guess I will have to learn.

Very few changes cause me much hearburn.  I have often read threads here with people complaining about stuff that I feel they should just deal with and now the shoe is on the other foot.  Sorry to be the whiner but I am pretty disappointed not just in the devs but in the people who aren't even interested in keeping this utility.

[Inphared]

Pet pulling was never intended, it was a direct result of a bit of faulty programming in the 'call for help routine' of NPCs and should have never been expected by anyone to stay around for as long as it did. It is not a nerf of our class because technically we should have never had this ability in the first place and anyone with sense should have seen this coming.

Urim hit it dead on. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm not going to let it kill me. No one else should, either.

[Pakratz]

I'm sad to see it go.  There's situations where it's very very handy.  It's not intended as a nerf to us really b/c our pet pulling sucks, it's a nerf to mages.  I'm guessing the devs are a bit pissed that raid mobs like Shyra are being pet pulled.

I'm happy to give this up if it gets us in line for some kind of real utility.  If we get nuttin again from next expansion then it sucks and I may have to switch to another class like everyone else.

[Moogasourus]

I dunno.... I have used pet pulling for as long as i can remember.  I am one of the ones who likes to solo allot..... well upgraded that to 2 boxn allot but still ... pet pulling is something ill miss for sure.

Bigger reason than my own selfish solo route is Shyra raids.   I was designated puller on that raid. I would assume that is the main reason for the fix.   Anguish type loot dropping off a raid mob that a pre anguish geared guild could easily kill.  I sure hope we can still pharm bazu augs for our guild.  


I'm not one to normally whine about "fixes" in the game, but if this was never intended to work the way is has in the past they should have fixed it immediately and not let people use it for a few yrs b4 "fixing" it.

[Rarrum]

I used it all the time.  For me, it was a basic ability we've had since I can remember.  Like many of our other older abilities that have been lost, it seems we're completely losing this one too.  I mostly used it solo, to break spots where pulls don't come single and it's suicide to fight more than one at once (as our pet can't offtank anymore).  Occasionally I'd use it in groups, but only if no puller/mezzer was around.

The main reason it's being removed was BDA on a pet made pulling with it trivial (I've never even tried that), and mage fire pets can do it from a distance making it much safer.  For us though it's a risky thing to try.  Our pet has to actually move up and touch the mob, and we can't FD if it goes wrong.

[Tastian]

I think part of why you don't see more of a stink is because many just never used it.  For me, I can remember back before pet pulling, I can remember a few spots I used it, I can remember lots of spots I just didn't need it.  *shrugs*

The biggest thing about for me is that it's another case of beastlords just being caught up in bigger changes though.  For beastlords pet pulling has lots of issues and only through use of BDA(which has a decent refresh) can pet pulling really be super safe/fast.  However, a mage fire pet, and even sk/necros using it in conjunction with FD can do amazing things very fast with zero risk in most cases.

It does suck that some of our recent utility will take a hit, but at the sametime, if sony is now stepping up and saying "hey pet pulling isn't intended" then that means we no longer have to have people go "sure pets tank for schit now, but they are great pullers".  It actually levels the discussion field a bit, whereas previously many people(beastlords included) would claim pulling as part of our recent utility.  With that now gone it is really impossible to argue or justify a lot of our past utility that has simply faded away.  I truely hope that going forward from this change we see improvements to pets and to beastlord utility.  *shrugs*

[Nusa]

The alternative to BDA is the bard DA song, which refreshes in three minutes, which only works for pet users that have pet affinity. Of course, at the upper end all the major pet users have that AA. For SK's, it is the primary reason to buy pet affinity....DA pet pulling combined with FD is a very powerful and survivable combination. That will change now, of course.

Personally, I knew how to pet-pull, and used it on occasion. I'm primarily a raider now with this toon and there are others better suited to pulling. It was never a mainstay of my playing style, just the occasional useful tool.

[bham]

It does suck that some of our recent utility will take a hit, but at the sametime, if sony is now stepping up and saying "hey pet pulling isn't intended" then that means we no longer have to have people go "sure pets tank for schit now, but they are great pullers".  It actually levels the discussion field a bit, whereas previously many people(beastlords included) would claim pulling as part of our recent utility.  With that now gone it is really impossible to argue or justify a lot of our past utility that has simply faded away.  I truely hope that going forward from this change we see improvements to pets and to beastlord utility.  *shrugs*[

Can you imagine anyone agreeing we should get a new ability because a bug got fixed to our detriment? I cant...

[Tiroon]

I would think with a whimper if I thought it'll go.

My take on it is that the only thing gone is a feasible way for high level pet class players to get singles. That's the part that was fixed, the mechanic however is alive and well.

People have buff bots now. In the future they will have pull bots as well. I don't think we've seen the last of this unless SOE starts to go heavy on the level restrictions for zoning into a place, which would of course open a whole new can of worms.

[Bengali]

Can you imagine anyone agreeing we should get a new ability because a bug got fixed to our detriment? I cant...

It's not that people would think that we should get new abilities every time bugs get fixed.  But it does mean that people won't be able to use that bug as evidence that we bring a certain amount of utility to groups.  For some time now, we've explained how beastlords have been losing utility, and people have answered, "what are you talking about?  Beastlords can do pet pulling which is better than FD pulling!"

Nevermind the fact that was a lie to begin with.  Now they can't even say it.  So the question is, what *are* they gonna say in response to our claims of falling behind in utility?  Not much.  And that's the point -- that even some of the more stubborn folks are gonna have to start admitting there's an issue that needs fixing, which is the first step toward getting it fixed.

[hakaaba]

unless SOE starts to go heavy on the level restrictions for zoning into a place

They tried that.  It was called PoP.  It didn't work very well :p

[Denti]

Nah, the only real level restriction in PoP was for time, you can enter all other planes at 46 (same as old planes).

Anyway, i don't like the loss of utility that was there since the class was started. But there is apparently nothing we can do about it, however it means i can solo/duo less content than i could before, i actually used pet pulling quite often.

[Stumps_Bertox]

Only place  I use  it *alot* is duo farming Illsalin.  Ive tried it in aug runs, and it usually gets me killed hehe. Kinda risky, I really wish pets were just changed so BDA no longer stuck on them but oh well, farm Shyra and Bloodeye while you can  :evil:

[Tastian]

"Can you imagine anyone agreeing we should get a new ability because a bug got fixed to our detriment? I cant..."

Yes I can.  In fact, I've already had it.  A few beastlords from these very boards have already PM'd me going, "uhhh yeah without pet pulling I guess our pets do need *something*".  Give or take.

Even among pet users this was debated as a "bug" or intended, or unintended, but staying or whatever.  Just as bengali mentioned, there is now a definite answer and that has to be part of the decision.  No longer will someone be able to tell me "ok, so your pet doesn't OT anymore, but you don't need it to OT since it can pull singles now". 

What will actually happen I don't know for sure, but finally atleast having an answer to where pet pulling stands in sony's eyes is atleast information.  *shrugs*