Question about Suspend Minion AA

[Eyez]

I took about a year off, but I've started playing again recently. I remember that I used to have to Suspend Minion before I invised, but now it seems that's not the case. I cast invisibility the other day with my pet up - I intended on regening a bit before I logged and I didn't care that my pet would "poof". Low and behold the pet didn't poof. So now you can apparently cast invisibility with a pet up and still keep it.

So my question ...

Is this change for people that have purchased the Suspend Minion AA or is it like this for everyone? I would assume it's for people that have the AA or the first rank of Suspend Minion would be rather useless.

Thanks

[mardo]

No it works like that for everyone now, no AA required. You can invis and FD and don't have to worry about pet poofing. Not real sure if its always been true or not becasue I have not been playing that long but you can zone with pet to (seems like I remeber reading that you could not zone with pet in the past).

[Eyez]

You definitely couldn't zone with a pet a couple of years ago ... that was added before I took my "break" about a year ago.

As far as Suspend Minion, I guess the only benefit for rank one is that your pet doesn't poof when you feign for an extended period of time?

[Necro_Bone]

I thought pet doesn't poof due to feign for everyone.

I think Suspend Minion simply lets you store a pet (without buffs--get Suspend Minion 2 if you want to store a pet with buffs), either because you don't want one out or because you want an extra one.

The need for this AA has been drastically reduced ever since pets stopped poofing due to invis or feign.

You still might want to store your pet in certain situations, like when the AE from the encounter will kill it quickly anyway or when you might quickly need a backup, without having to mem the spell and incur the mana cost.

[Nirruden]

Originally posted by Eyez@Jun 8 2005, 01:08 PM
Is this change for people that have purchased the Suspend Minion AA or is it like this for everyone? I would assume it's for people that have the AA or the first rank of Suspend Minion would be rather useless.
Suspend Minion 1 is of dubious value... unless you're pet pulling. Suspend main pet, pull out a green-con pet, buff it and send it to fetch a mob. When it dies, unsuspend main pet and go to town. But, even then, you're probably going to want Suspend Minion II - to save buffs and pet toys.

Pet no longer poofs to: Feign over 2 minutes, Zoning, or Invis. That's for everyone, one of the BEST changes they could have made (particularly for mages, who rely on their pets extensively).

Plus, suspend minion I can be used to feed two pets to a mob in succession, if needed. (Suspend II still better here, too...)

[Felicite]

Pets no long poof for invis or FD.


Cool things you can do with Suspend Minion 1:

Suspend a pet in the zone you are camping and summon another. While you remain in that zone.. you have a manaless "backup pet" you can call forth. It does take time, and it will be unbuffed (hence unhasted).


Cool things you can do with Suspend Minion 2:

When you go to pet pull, you can store your pet with buffs and gear. Summon the little boner, use him to pull. Once you dismiss him, you can restore your original pet as he was.

If you are AFK.. or moving a long way.. you can suspend your pet and the buff timers stop.

Note: at this point, your suspended pet poofs when you zone. Any "not suspended" pet zones with you, but.. the suspended one poofs.


Cool things you can do with Persistent Minion:

Any pet you have suspended remains there.. when you zone, when you camp (even through most Server resets) I once used the same pet toys for over 2 weeks. This allows you to keep one in the hole, always. (unless you die.. but.. when does that happen? We have Death Peace! *giggles*)

You can buff and equip your pet, suspend him, go sit in the Bazaar in /trader for 2 days, then go solo and once you get there pop out your fully buffed and geared pet.


The AA we need:

Swap Pets

So.. you can suspend the good one, summon a pulling one.. then switch which one is active.. back and forth (I cannot take credit for this idea.. but.. we need to repeat it.. often!).

[chabeksis]

Originally posted by Felicite@Jun 8 2005, 04:03 PM


The AA we need:

Swap Pets

So.. you can suspend the good one, summon a pulling one.. then switch which one is active.. back and forth (I cannot take credit for this idea.. but.. we need to repeat it.. often!).
This would be a great AA, and I would love to see this happen. This would make pet pulling so easy and efficient, maybe too efficient and that is why we do not have it.

[Eyez]

Thanks alot for the clarification everyone :D

[Xxithiss]

Please do NOT repeat that pet-swap thing. Pet pulling is a manifestation of a few changes they made to NPC agro and pets over the years.

1- pets used to count as PCs and as such, would agro mobs...this is the reason for summon companion...park pet at ZI, summon him to your camp area.

2- They changed how NPCs interact and agro other NPCs, making them no longer assist each other when attacking a green-con NPC. This was done a while before the change to pets. This was a work-around to prevent a few bugs in the game, before the "god-mode" NPC existed (the "your spell did not take hold" can not attack or kill NPC, as found in Nexus, PoK, GoD etc...). Ever notice that any and all mobs in old-world, kunark, and velious can be attacked?? That god-mode coding has not always been in the game.

The combination of the two = pets can be summoned as a non-agro, green-con NPC that other NPCs will not assist in killing, if it attacks another NPC, so long as the pet is green to all the NPCs.

This is more of a bug, or glitch...and pet-pulling is nothing more than an expliot of the current system. Asking SoE to add what you want will do nothing more than make them away of how broken the system is, and they will fix it. More likely than not by making a change to the NPC agro system by setting NPCs to assist on green-con NPCs, and making vital, quest NPCs unkillable with the new(ish) god-mode setting.

Please don't ruin pet pulling for everyone.

[Rijak]

i don't think SOE is unaware of pet-pulling... and a swap-pet AA would be completely unrelated to aggro-systems... it's also highly-unlikely they would make such a huge change that would take a lot of work (much more than any new AA) and cause so much animosity

[Felicite]

Originally posted by Xxithiss@Jun 20 2005, 05:01 AM
{snip}This is more of a bug, or glitch...and pet-pulling is nothing more than an expliot of the current system. {snip}
I called Pet Pulling an explot once (which I believe) and Brahman yelled at me and went off and started his own forums.

T_T

I am afraid the cat is out of the bag on pet pulling..

[aeriform]

Originally posted by Xxithiss@Jun 20 2005, 12:01 PM
1- pets used to count as PCs and as such, would agro mobs...this is the reason for summon companion...park pet at ZI, summon him to your camp area.

The main reason for pet summon spell was/is because of messed up pathing. Running somewhere and your pet not being able to find you, or getting stuck eternally, or warping to zoneline, or ... used to be a huge pita. NPC pathing is better than it used to be (ie. it's more random), but there's still a lot of bugs with it without an easy fix.

[rukasak]

as far as i am concerned, suspend minion is one of the most important aa's we have.

and if you are going to get suspend minion you might as well get minion II and persistent minion.

When I am soloing a DoN mission (or any other zone that has mobs with a high movement speed), or should i say i am 3 boxing a mission but only hunting with my necro, I go through a lot of pets whether green or not. Snare doesnt land or the mob is at a bad angle... then the pet goes in.

And I sure like getting my primary pet all buffed up and dressed to kill while in guild lobby or hall... then suspending him till he is actually needed....


yes, I believe that suspend minion is a very important AA.... but that could also be due to my playing style.. good or bad.

rukasak

[Felicite]

To Rukasak I say "ah-men!"

Of course I could be just as crazy.