Pet AI driving me insane. Any tips?

machinestatic · July 2017

Hey everyone. As a precursor, I don't want to just complain about this, I'd love to hear if other people are having this issue, and more importantly, what you do to work around it.

So I main a magicka sorc, currently sitting at 415 CPs, and really enjoying my class. Except... the pet AI drives me absolutely insane. It is especially an issue when I am in an underground/indoor dungeon. More than half of the time I engage in combat with a trash pack or a boss, I notice my familiar is not near me. So I look around, and I see the icon above his head sticking out of a wall, the floor, or the ceiling. Sometimes he's even on a balcony, or a second floor, completely outside of the boundaries of the dungeon. This is extremely frustrating because, from my last couple of parses, the pet's pulse and melee combine for ~15% of my damage.

I did try the keybind for "Command Pet", but when I target an enemy and press that key, my pet does nothing at all.

So - am I doing anything wrong? Anything I should be doing differently? What do you guys do, dismiss and re-summon the pet before every fight? Thanks!

P.S. I've been farming Netch's Touch 2-3 times a day so I can play without a pet, but you know... RNG.

Integral1900 · July 2017

That's pretty much pets in eso, I adore this game but I will admit the pets drive me insane.

I almost rage quit the sorc until part of me came to the conclusion of sod it and I just went for a heavy attack and aoe build instead. I don't care how big a boost is, it's just not worth the bugs.

In diablo three the pet ai is really simple and moves in a very simple game space, all it does is follow you and attack the nearest baddie, I fear that elder scrolls online tried to do the same thing but in a much more complicated game world. Hence the invisible bears and all the other shenanigans

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2017

Not sure if this is the issue, but the way pet commands work in this game by default is that you hold down the key bound for the pet command and the you have to click the LMB/RMB for Attack/Recall. And yes, it's pretty darn buggy. My favorite is in VMA where my pet just decides he is going to take a swim in the lava for a few minutes.

Nestor · July 2017

The biggest issue your running into, and other players too, is the pet does lag behind you as you go through places in the game, even overland. I got into the habit of making sure my Pet was behind me, and this is the true kicker, the pet had Line of Sight to the mob that I wanted them to engage. If the pet does not have line of sight, it may not engage the enemy, even if you target them.

So the best advice when using a Pet in a Delve is to pause every once in a while, or before engaging a room full of mobs, and turn around and make your pet is not sniffing a fire hydrant somewhere. When I would do this, I would also talk to the pet about keeping up and such. My GF used to wonder who I was talking to, now she just knows I am bit off.

Beardimus · July 2017

One trick I tried is having a few buffs but not the pets on overload bar. Then flick it on to desummon pets, back off when ur in position to bring em back. It's a bit clunky tho.

Also heavy attack targets pets now

NordSwordnBoard · July 2017

Hard target & heavy attack on console to make them attack something - I stopped using them despite the extra dps that leaves behind. They just annoy me too much, and the rotation was boring.

Hempyre · July 2017

Press the command pet key and at the same time either a right or left click on the mouse to activate attack or passive. And then repush the standard pet keys to activate their abilities. (Pulse/heal)

I bound the combos to a couple of keys on my mmo mouse for ease of use.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about the pathing/zoning issues. Garbage pet ai/coding, and worse with the pet changes, attacking your HA target instead of your pet attack selection.

I tend to just respawn them at certain points rather than wait for them to show up. Selene's when you drop from the web being a prime example

Literally, the worst pet ai/coding I have ever had to deal with in any game... Ever...

Oreyn_Bearclaw · July 2017

Hempyre wrote: »

Press the command pet key and at the same time either a right or left click on the mouse to activate attack or passive. And then repush the standard pet keys to activate their abilities. (Pulse/heal)

I bound the combos to a couple of keys on my mmo mouse for ease of use.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about the pathing/zoning issues. Garbage pet ai/coding, and worse with the pet changes, attacking your HA target instead of your pet attack selection.

I tend to just respawn them at certain points rather than wait for them to show up. Selene's when you drop from the web being a prime example

Literally, the worst pet ai/coding I have ever had to deal with in any game... Ever...

Reported for Macro Use!!! JK, I did the same thing Haha. Fix your pet AI, ZOS.

machinestatic · July 2017

Huh. Well, thanks for the replies. I was a little worried I was doing something wrong, and that it was just me, but...

Hempyre wrote: »

Literally, the worst pet ai/coding I have ever had to deal with in any game... Ever...

Nope, I guess not.

For now, I'm having luck with dismissing the pet, and resummoning him IMMEDIATELY before starting each fight. It's a pain, but it works.

This is handy: esoui.com/downloads/info1314-PetDismiss.html

Ironically, I'm having the most pet problems in Darkshade Caverns, which is what I'm farming for the gear so I... don't have to use the pet anymore. Ha...

JasonSilverSpring · July 2017

I think this is being worked on for update 15 based on PTS notes. I have not had a chance to test myself though.

Tasear · July 2017

They are fixing this next patch. Pets will no longer go through walls and will walk faster. I would invest in pet desummon add on till then.

Didaco · July 2017

Tbh, never had these issues on PS4.
I mean, on console you still have the issue of not being able to control it reliably, but that's about it.

I've never seen them getting stuck anywhere, except on 2 round of vMA, where they just choose to respawn outside of the arena doing nothing