Hunter and pet control in Cataclysm Classic pre patch, how do you do it?

[Mahgeta-draenor]

Whats up with pets in cata pre patch? Do you need to have pets on passive on completely control them yourself? Because if I have my pets on defensive they will often just attack random mobs after the first mob die and not at all what I’m attacking. Or well if there only is one mob my pets will attack it but if theres many mobs, all of a sudden I notice my pet stand there and attacking a completely other mob then what Im attacking.

To stop the pet from doing that and instead attack the mob I’m attacking I have to 1. put it on passive, 2. then call it in and then 3. tell it to attack the mob I’m attacking. If I don’t do this and just keep my pet on defensive, my pet will NOT do what I tell it, even when I tell it to attack the mob I’m attacking.

Is there a solution to this through macros or something or how do you guys control your pets?

[Brìz-ravencrest]

For as long as I can remember, probably since the early BC(when it was retail) days, I’ve had the Attack button on my pet actionbar bound to a specific key[R] on my keyboard. This way, I don’t have to do with macros to include /petattack etc. And with this, my pet is also always on Passive.

@Mahgeta-draenor

Because if I have my pets on defensive they will often just attack random mobs after the first mob die and not at all what I’m attacking. Or well if there only is one mob my pets will attack it but if theres many mobs, all of a sudden I notice my pet stand there and attacking a completely other mob then what Im attacking.

The Defensive stance for your pet isn’t like the /assist stance which they added later(and afaik, will add later on in cata classic as well). If you have that as your active stance for the pet, the pet will only attack enemies which have attacked you, or your pet(logically, based on which order said enemies have hit either of you). This is probably why you often see your pet attacking an enemy other than the one that you’re attacking.

[Kagrot-kazzak]

Easiest solution is to have an MMO mouse and delegate one modifier, say ctrl+1-12 to pet commands, such as petmove, petfollow, petattack, petstay, taunt and stances.

[Mahgeta-draenor]

Come on… when do you have time to push the actuall DPS keys?

Dont you feel this micromanagement is a bit much when aoe:ing alot of mobs f.e? There will be a whole lot of sending and calling pet. I have played wow since wow vanilla back when it released in 2005 and Hunter have been my go to class this whole time. I have been playing retail this whole time and havn’t touched Classic until now. Back in Vanilla and forward I never found the pet management to be something I struggled with but now that Im used to retail and almost 20 years older, I find pet defensive over pet assist a bit overwhelming.

[Kagrot-kazzak]

Kill Command sends your pet wherever, and it’s a builder on SV. Makes pet management less silly, but still a big nerf in PvP when you have to be in line with your pet to use stuff such as freedom and sac.

[Brìz-ravencrest]

@Kagrot-kazzak

Easiest solution is to have an MMO mouse and delegate one modifier, say ctrl+1-12 to pet commands, such as petmove, petfollow, petattack, petstay, taunt and stances

Never felt the need for a MMO-mouse. Haven’t played DF, but up until SL, I was mythic-raiding mostly, + some 5mans. I’ve gotten by with the keybinds I’ve had for about 2 decades(as far as it concerns my pet at least).

@Mahgeta-draenor

Come on… when do you have time to push the actuall DPS keys?

I swapped to BM with Legion. Not had any issues since then on retail. Any issues with the pet has been more about pathing and other back-end stuff involving the pet AI.

For Classic, it’s been fine so far. Playing SV there though, so not much to do with the pet itself, beyond telling it to attack something.

@Mahgeta-draenor

Dont you feel this micromanagement is a bit much when aoe:ing alot of mobs f.e? There will be a whole lot of sending and calling pet. I have played wow since wow vanilla back when it released in 2005 and Hunter have been my go to class this whole time. I have been playing retail this whole time and havn’t touched Classic until now. Back in Vanilla and forward I never found the pet management to be something I struggled with but now that Im used to retail and almost 20 years older, I find pet defensive over pet assist a bit overwhelming.

It’s an adjustment. People are different, so these changes affect people in different ways, I presume.

For me, it hasn’t mattered at all, since I always have my pets on Passive, and handle it via the [R] key for /petattack, and [shift]+[R] for /petfollow. The biggest issues during the Cata beta has been about how the pet action bar, and pet controls, haven’t really worked much at all. The only way to manage your pet during the beta has been to use Kill Command, which has a /petattack built into it. Since Kill Command in Cata has such a short range(5 yards from pet), you can make good use of it, without having to actually use it, and the Focus it costs.

[Mahgeta-draenor]

@Brìz-ravencrest

The only way to manage your pet during the beta has been to use Kill Command, which has a /petattack built into it. Since Kill Command in Cata has such a short range(5 yards from pet), you can make good use of it, without having to actually use it, and the Focus it costs.

How does this work? Do you use Kill Command and then cancel it somehow or how do you avoid it from actually going off, waisting 40 Focus, once you use it?

You also say it has /petattack built in to it so how is using Kill Command any different from just using a “normal” /petattack macro?

Have you heard anything about Blizzard fixing this? I mean you shouldn’t really have to use skills from a specialization you are not actually playing just to get the specialization you actually are playing to work.

[Brìz-ravencrest]

@Mahgeta-draenor

Have you heard anything about Blizzard fixing this? I mean you shouldn’t really have to use skills from a specialization you are not actually playing just to get the specialization you actually are playing to work.

It was a big issue during the beta, and apparently for some people now during the pre-patch. For me, it works fine now though.

Btw, Kill Command in Cataclysm isn’t strictly a BM ability, or otherwise strictly tied to a particular specialization. It’s a baseline class-wide ability. As for the specialization I’m playing, that being SV, it works fine. It’s just the pet commands and input that wasn’t working properly during the beta.

@Mahgeta-draenor

How does this work? Do you use Kill Command and then cancel it somehow or how do you avoid it from actually going off, waisting 40 Focus, once you use it?

Kill Command in Cataclysm was reworked from the Wrath iteration. It’s now much more similar to the retail version, where you use it to deal some upfront damage to the enemy target when you use it.

Because it has such a low range(of use), only 5 yards, if you use it at any time when your pet isn’t within 5 yards of a target, it wouldn’t go off, nor would it cost you any Focus. It would only result in your pet starting to run towards the target you had acquired, when you pressed the ability. Do note that, if you use it when your pet is already attacking something else, and is within 5 yards of that enemy, Kill Command will be used on that enemy, and you will consume the Focus it costs.

I mostly used it to get my pet to attack an enemy I wanted to engage in combat. That said, Kill Command itself actually deals a fair bit of damage, even if you’re not BM, so it’s not a complete waste if it goes off.

@Mahgeta-draenor

You also say it has /petattack built in to it so how is using Kill Command any different from just using a “normal” /petattack macro?

In this case, it’s not that different. But since /petattack macros or other pet commands weren’t working much at all on the beta, this was essentially the only way to semi-reliably control your pet while leveling or doing other stuff in combat.

Again though, they seem to have fixed most of these issues now, going into the pre-patch, so no need to rely on Kill Command for this. Now, you can use macros, or keybind the buttons on your pet actionbar as normal.

[Mahgeta-draenor]

Ok, thanks for clearing things up for me

[Pharien-silvermoon]

Yes, they need to be kept on passive and instructed to attack. You will need a pet attack macro.

They also don’t have the pathing that we have in retail in cata. It’s still buggy now, but you absolutely must dismiss your pets when trying to jump down to skip anything or they will go ape and pull the whole instance.