Long overdue changes to auras/pets

[Firebat]

Having played both engineer and bureaucrat to 220 there are a number of incessantly frustrating "mechanics" that have gotten me on a good day flagged, and on a bad day killed by training an army of hostile mobs onto me. starting with pets, they spawn automatically on /pet guard. recently the /pet hunt command was entirely removed from the game, even though /pet guard was the command being widely used to exploit areas like arid rift to farm massive amounts of experience while afk. Don't really care about seeing the /hunt command making a return, but when you zone into an area your pets are automatically put on /pet guard, making it impossible to zone into an area controlled by the opposing faction without getting flagged as a pet class since your pets will automatically attack any guards that come at you. I think I speak for every pet class out there when i beg FunCom to change the default setting to /pet follow. it has been LONG overdue.

Regarding auras, it is baffling that the only auras that cancel when zoning are those that take the longest to cast: engineer snare auras. i can understand why these cancel on zoning, being auras that are run on your pets and cannot be cancelled normally, but yet again with flagging mechanics blind auras and demotivational speeches have caused me countless deaths by gankers who stand by grid terminals flagged waiting for exactly this circumstance: you zone in with any auras running and they kick your @$$. making hostile auras cancel on zoning would completely remedy this issue and save myself and any other individual with offensive auras countless hours of resurrection time.

I doubt that I am the first to question these mechanics, but by making this post I hope to be the last. I am also sure that there are more fixes in these regards that could be performed. Removing /pet hunt while ignoring these other very blatant issues with pets was just insulting.

[Contra]

Never zone with offensive auras on and you'll avoid gankers.
Never zone in an opposing side's city with your pets on and you won't get flagged.

Hope my advice helps.

[Firebat]

so i suppose i shouldn't zone with pets cast either, Malraux? and i should quit AO to perfect my photographic memory? don't be an idiot, it's pretty clear you've never touched a pet profession, since anyone who has touched engineer knows that casting and buffing pets takes around 5 minutes, plus expanding their NCU to fit all of your buffs will cost around 1 million credits per set of pets.

[Psikie]

so i suppose i shouldn't zone with pets cast either, Malraux? and i should quit AO to perfect my photographic memory? don't be an idiot, it's pretty clear you've never touched a pet profession

Ouch...

/me grabs popcorn

This should be good. Although now that pets are insta cast, I usually terminate them if they have offensive auras running and recast them without auras before I zone. It is an inconvienance but I don't get ganked either. I would support offensive auras cancelling on zone. The flip side is casting time/nano cost especially on the nano/time intensive ones when you are zoning into combat/tower field it's nice to have them up and on when entering/leaving grid and you only have to trim your bots. Just a thought.

[Contra]

Actually, if you bothered to check my signature, I own a tl6 crat and started to enjoy it alot!
Problem is....I've adapted to this after the first gank. Why can't you?
It's extremely easy to right click an aura and avoid death.
It's extremely easy to hit the /pet terminate macro if you KNOW you might get flagged upon entry in a opposite side's city.
Also, you own both a 220 crat and a 220 engi, you can't control your auras and pets and you call me an idiot? Well that's a little bit ironic.

[Contra]

since anyone who has touched engineer knows that casting and buffing pets takes around 5 minutes, plus expanding their NCU to fit all of your buffs will cost around 1 million credits per set of pets.

I haven't touched an engineer for this exact reason, but there's a way around this still. Don't buff your pets before reaching your destination.
Also, a 220 engi worried about losing 1mil? PLS!

[Firebat]

I'm not going to continue a firefight since that's clearly all you want from this. modifying how pets and auras work would do nothing but subtract from how many players are ganked daily. if you want more drama go to an in-character forum, i'd rather like to see something good come of this.

And if you play the game for more than 20 seconds, i assure you you will have more than one destination.

[Contra]

Nope, I don't want an argument with you nor with anyone, I'm just giving you a viable solution to a problem. A solution that works for any pet class in the game. This was a problem when it was introduced and since then, people have adapted. Why can't you?
It's super-duper easy to cancel an aura before you zone. It takes only 1 click and you get used to it fast.
It's super-duper easy to avoid getting flagged because of your pets when entering a hostile city. Just don't have them casted. Cast and buff them right before combat.
Also, considering today's population, I seriously doubt there are flagged sneaking players camping outside grid exits just waiting for crats or engineers ) Just admit you zoned out of BS like a noob with your offensive auras on and you got burned.

"And if you play the game for more than 20 seconds, i assure you you will have more than one destination."

I can think of...3 places where zoning could be dangerous with auras or pets on and I seriously doubt anyone zones between them more then 3 times a day

[If6was9]

Well said Firebat.

[Cratertina]

Engi pets take about 7 to 10 minutes to cast and buff. Result? My 220 engi never bothers casting or buffing them. I just log crat. There is no reason engi buffs are not on short recharge. Dev team knows it and purposed rebalance will fix it.

Untill then log a crat. Better for pvm, use engi for tradeskills without pets.

[Firasting]

I support OP if for nothing else the /pet guard being removed as default. There are specific places where its gonna be hard to recast and buff pets.

[Seoin]

Default should definitely be follow, or selectable. Amen there.

As for buffs canceling on zone, no thanks, that makes buffing even more annoying than it is now. Snares canceling on zone are bad enough on top of what it already is to keep an engi buffed.

Cancel anything that will get you flagged if you don't want it to flag you, until they add a non-flag checkbox or some solution that won't hassle everyone else

[Lazy]

who the hell uses hostile auras as a crat? they're worthless.

[Firebat]

who the hell uses hostile auras as a crat? they're worthless.

-19 crit and -400 nano resist are unbelievably useful especially in a raid situation

[Lazy]

it doesn't improve my damage therefore it's worthless. the mobs that the -400 NR is useful for have too high NR for the aura to land on reliably (and i'm usually standing far enough away that it doesn't reach anyway)

[orochi3]

being able to select default pet behaviour is on the new suggestion list, even when pets are not spawned.

As for auras/buffs, being able to decide if a buff should cancel on zone would be a nice option. Reflect shield on slayer while flying over tower field or offensive auras doing nasty unwanted stuff will eb fixed that way. il add this new one to the list