BM: The Madness consumes my pet.

[Gheld]

So last night the team I'm on finally took down Normal Madness, I played it as BM and still topped the meters despite having to dismiss and resummon my pet 3 times throughout the fight due to "Your pet is out of range." type warnings, preventing me from using Kill Command. Where does my pet keep going? I have noticed that on Mutated Corruptions it sometimes walks around the edge of the platform and stands on the side of the platform in order to attempt to DPS it from behind. (I can still pop KC when this happens).

Other times it seems to disappear off the face of the earth entirely and give me range warnings. Oddly enough this happened TWICE on the head phase when going after adds where you'd think it would have no incentive to take some odd path.

I like BM better on this fight because of the insane focus regen, which despite giving me lower overall damage than Surv since 4.3.2, means more damage where it counts (Blistering Tentacles, Elementium Bolt, etc) and also has a faster cobra shot for 4th platform than surv.

But this pathing quirk that nullifies my kill command is obviously a problem, and a very annoying one at that, the only saving grace being that the pet is still in LoS for dismiss pet.

So my questions are:

Do other people have this issue?
Is there a bandage solution?
and for the fun of it Where do you suppose my pet keeps going?

[AutomaticBadger]

Maybe you should try using a pet that is ranged. If I remember right a wind serpent is ranged pet right?

[Gheld]

Maybe you should try using a pet that is ranged. If I remember right a wind serpent is ranged pet right?

There is not and never has been such thing as a fully ranged pet.

[Kegan]

I am very interested in this subject aswell since our hunter keeps resummoning his pet on heroic.

[VanishO2]

If I'm not mistaken, had this problem in LFR madness with my hunter too, but only had to select "follow" for him to show up out of nowhere at my side again and he would proceed to attack the target again normally.

If I start shooting on the pull (when he's still throwing his claws on the plataforms) my pet would disappear too, like if he went to the position the claw was in the air between the plataform and the center of the maelstrom (because we can start attacking it before it reaches the plataform).

Only other bug I have in DS with pets is with Hagara's storm special, where my pet just dies a few seconds after the add dies and we start the chain lightning. Need to dismiss the pet while the raid kill the add, then summon it back when we're about to overload the last.

[Gheld]

If I'm not mistaken, had this problem in LFR madness with my hunter too, but only had to select "follow" for him to show up out of nowhere at my side again and he would proceed to attack the target again normally.

If I start shooting on the pull (when he's still throwing his claws on the plataforms) my pet would disappear too, like if he went to the position the claw was in the air between the plataform and the center of the maelstrom (because we can start attacking it before it reaches the plataform).

Only other bug I have in DS with pets is with Hagara's storm special, where my pet just dies a few seconds after the add dies and we start the chain lightning. Need to dismiss the pet while the raid kill the add, then summon it back when we're about to overload the last.

The Hagara problem is because your pet tries to DPS Hagara on storm phase once the add is dead. So it stands inside her bubble taking damage (Whereas in ice phase it is smart and goes ahead and attacks other crystals). So for that you just put your pet on passive once the add dies, and then set it back to assist once her shield is down.

[eschatological]

On Hagara, pets actually stand next to the totem where you killed the elemental, continually stacking lightning on itself because the only target left on its table is Hagara, who is under immunity (and thus the pet doesn't attack). It doesn't come back to you (as it does when you kill something) because there is still a target on its table, but it doesn't move because of her immunity.

On Madness, the only problems I've found occur when switching platforms. I have my /petattack macroed to my SrS, and if I switch platforms before something is dead (IE, the pet returns to my side), the pet has trouble following me across platforms. Blizz has made it so that when you're crossing platforms, your pet despawns and instantly respawns when you land on the next platform, so you have to play around with that a little bit.

If your pet is trying to get behind the corruption, there's probably something wrong. I've never used anything but a wolf or wind serpent on that fight, but it goes from the wing tentacle to the corruption and stays in that spot parallel to the platform's edge DPSing the corruption. That's where druids can shred and rogues can backstab, so I think that's where the "in the back" problems are solved. Maybe you're not putting your pet on a target before the corruption, so that when it runs to the corruption it runs in head-on, and then tries to adjust to the back and gets despawned? About the only thing I could think of.

[CyborgAssassin]

I run into this issue too as a hunter. When you jump from platform to platform, wait until your pet is attacking the arm before you use kill command or /petattack

[Ril-gania]

i believe it falls off the platform. also, i've seen it stuck to the ground somewhere under the claw/wing. then, it wouldn't move to the tentacle and just stand there.

i haven't ever experience a bug that couldn't be solved with setting the pet on follow in this fight.

[Ankram]

Never had any pet issues on MoD. The number of people that use assist on their pets is alarming. With as many issues as we have with pet ai you should just know you have to micro your pets every move. The lightning totem is the best one. You can always tell who doesn't use passive and lets their pet die like a tard in lfr.

As far as MoD goes i've seen my pet try and get behind the claw and i've seen him attack from the side of the cliff on the tents, but i've never had issues with him not attacking or having to resummon.

[mofo]

I've had the issue of the pet moving off the platform/falling through the platform while going to the Corruption on Kalec's platform. The way I fix it is pretty simple, I don't use the pet's Assist stance but rather use the Passive stance throughout the fight and send it on targets manually. Once I switch to the corruption, I recall the pet back to me (it magically appears right next to me, doesn't run back from anywhere) and then send it on the corruption. It's an annoying extra step but at least it's better than the pet not doing anything for the entire duration of the platform.

[Ankram]

Moral of the story. Stop using pet assist.

[Asrialol]

There is not and never has been such thing as a fully ranged pet.

Not entirely true, if I remember correct there was a pet (Maybe it was the Wind Serpent) that used to cast Lightning Bolts as it's attack. It didn't melee at all. This was in Vanilla I believe, around ZG times. Was playing a Mage as main at this time though, but I recall seeing them since our Hunters used them in ZG when it was released..

To the op; your pet is running from platform to platform probably, they tend to run all the way down to the bottom of the zone, then up to the next platform. At least I've seen my pet do that.

Also, if you topped meters despite resummoning and stuff, I'd question how good your other raiders are

[Regen]

My problems with madness lie in my pet completely dying by the 3rd-4th platform. Any input on that? That either leaves me pet less or stuck casting revive

[kidsafe]

Strange, I've never had my pet disappear on Madness using Assist, Defensive or Passive.

If your pet dies on Hagara it's your own fault for having him on Assist or Defensive and chaining the lightning on himself by the dead elemental / totem. Set your pet to passive for that phase. Better yet, dismiss him and summon a different pet to get a fresh CotW.

[Gheld]

Not entirely true, if I remember correct there was a pet (Maybe it was the Wind Serpent) that used to cast Lightning Bolts as it's attack. It didn't melee at all. This was in Vanilla I believe, around ZG times. Was playing a Mage as main at this time though, but I recall seeing them since our Hunters used them in ZG when it was released..

To the op; your pet is running from platform to platform probably, they tend to run all the way down to the bottom of the zone, then up to the next platform. At least I've seen my pet do that.

Also, if you topped meters despite resummoning and stuff, I'd question how good your other raiders are

Wind Serpent (and later Chimera in TBC) had a ranged damage ability in place of bite/claw (and scorpids had stacking poison, gorillas had thunderstomp etc). But the majority of their damage was still done via melee attacks which made them behave as any other pet. Even if they did have a ranged ability that still wouldn't negate range issues on KC. Their abilities are still ranged, but now only apply a debuff and they have claw as their "basic attack".

I'm also OP, and I think I will try what people are suggesting, passive and petattack macro. I don't think it's too "bad" as people are suggesting to as a general rule of thumb have my pet on Assist because on pretty much every other fight in the xpac. (except spine of course) assist makes for good target switching (because there's no 50+ yard away target switches like on madness). Madness is the only fight where I see a pet on assist hesitate on target switches and behave strangely, which leads me to believe it's a terrain design issue. I usually use petattack macro while on assist for target swaps anyways (or on Yorsaj because I can get my pet running long before I'm in range of the blood) But like I said, if you have to switch targets and the target is in range, popping a serpent sting on assist has essentially the same effect as petattack.

EDIT:

Strange, I've never had my pet disappear on Madness using Assist, Defensive or Passive.

If your pet dies on Hagara it's your own fault for having him on Assist or Defensive and chaining the lightning on himself by the dead elemental / totem. Set your pet to passive for that phase. Better yet, dismiss him and summon a different pet to get a fresh CotW.

Not always practical; for instance on a 10 man your pet might be sunder armor, or CoE, or 30% Bleed damage, and by swapping pets mid fight you might gain 1k dps from the extra CotW but cost the rogue 2k dps from taking away 30% bleed for a time. I've also experimented with "pre-petting" (casting CoTW before pull along with prepot and swapping pets before the pull) and I find half the time it causes the pet to bug out.

[kidsafe]

Not always practical; for instance on a 10 man your pet might be sunder armor, or CoE, or 30% Bleed damage, and by swapping pets mid fight you might gain 1k dps from the extra CotW but cost the rogue 2k dps from taking away 30% bleed for a time. I've also experimented with "pre-petting" (casting CoTW before pull along with prepot and swapping pets before the pull) and I find half the time it causes the pet to bug out.

...5 pet slots...For example I currently use a chimera, wolf, cat and two hyenas most of the time. For Spine, I use the hyenas for complete CotW coverage on Burning Tendons while also providing the bleed debuff so nobody else has to. If different pets are needed for a specific fight,it doesn't take long to get it out of the stable.