clumsy pet

[Mirth]

Greetings,

My pets seem to miss their targets with appalling frequency, even when nicely buffed. Is there something that keeps track of pet skill levels (that I would assume carries over from pet to pet?) for 1H, 2H, piercing skills? i.e., should I always try to give it the same type of weapon to try and increase it's skill level?

"Okay, now pick up this rock and then run up and bash that mob! Gonar, how could you miss a giant?!" <Gonar cackles maniacally>

many thanks for any advice!

Mirthen

[Sarnath Creed]

As far as i know, all pets skill levels are capped for their levels. I have noticed my pets missing quite a bit as well, but i think that SOE just made more and more npc's have damage mitigation, and other assorted skills to increase their level of difficulty.

[Xelgadis]

I'm going to dive into this assuming you're below 61...

Until PoP, pets are (generally) a significant number of levels lower than most of the mobs you'll be fighting, that level differential alone will translate to less than stellar accuracy. If I'm not mistaken, the level 49 (now 48 :rolleyes:) pet is actually level 41. Now compare that to the level of the average mobs you fight while using that pet, you should see a fairly good difference.

A good way to see the result of this difference in level, try PL'ing a level 5 toon in PC (assume the PL'er knows what they're doing and tailors their technique in such a way that your weapon skills keep up with your level), see how often you miss?

[FCseven]

Is the bug still around where if you get too far away you will always see pet misses?Maybe that is the cause,best bet is just to turn pet misses off like I do so you dont have to see it and cuts down on spam.

[Xelgadis]

Dunno, I turned pet misses off long ago for the exact reason you stated- spam. I don't parse misses, and could give a crap less how often little Goner misses when I'm parsing dps, all I really care about are the damage numbers.

[shraklor]

if you want to see a bunch of misses, make a 63 monk, with maxxed weapon skills, decent (not Elemental) equipment. Then turn ON show my misses, with 2 decent H2H or 1HB weapons. And then cry. Misses happen, alot. Most people I know just turn off misses. They are only useful for tracking Haste % really.
Oh, also good to make you think you are a crap meleer.

[Mirth]

Greetings again,

Thanks for the great replies! It does seem that the pet miss messages are the only ones propagating back to me as he is chasing down the mob, so FC7's response about the possible bug would explain that.

Xelgadis, on your suggested experiment, is this to show that a maxed level 5 player fighting a mob that is in close level range will hit more often, even though the player char skill level (being only level 5) is still pretty low?

The suggestions about turning off the misses are a good one, which leads me to another question... How do you keep track of everything?! I've tried opening multiple windows, turning off some messages, and still find myself frantically moving the scroll bar backwards - especially when I'm in a group! How do you all organize your chat windows and what messages do you put where/don't bother having at all? How do you guys apparently effortlessly keep track of something like DPS, while I'm still trying to remember what that cryptic message from a group member was that scrolled off my screen 10 seconds ago, and whether it was telling me to do something. (Do ya get the feeling here that I don't get a chance to play too often?) <Goner rolls his eyes, and thinks "what did I ever do to deserve this whining excuse of a Master? >

Okay, I'm calm now. Thanks again for your help :)

/bow
Mirthen

[Kinadil]

Depending on what resolution you use, I would use a few different windows

I have chat in one window, pet in anouther, spells and system messages in one, and my hits/misses in a small one, and also one for my focus effects on my necro.

But then again I use 1280x1024 resolution and also have 2-3 more windows open for chat channels

[Zanbus]

ok..this is my window set up:

One window for main chat...(this is where all pet/group damage stuff goes)

One window for Guild Chat

One window for Group Chat

One window for Raid Chat

One window for Necrotalk

Any window currently not interesting or used is minimized and put off to the side.

Personnally I dont care about parsing DPS..(type /log on to start parsing), I just look to make sure that my DoTs have landed and darkness..that way i know if I need to recast. Other than that...../shrug ( is that the wrong way to look at it? Should I be parsing the hell out of everything I fight?.....Nah..I will leave that to others) :lol:

[Raidjin]

I use 1 window and turn off just about everything. I see my DoTs land, pet start to attack, guild chat, DoTs wear off, group chat and spell effect drops all in 1 window.
The bottom line is that, it doesn't matter what my DoTs do for damage, what my pet does for damage, or what Iwillkillyounow did last night in /ooc. All I care about is xp and my/pet/group/MA's health ... beyond that...all else can rot:)

I can't really control how much damage my pet does or how much damage my DoTs do, so it's really quite pointless in my opinion, to have those messages on once you have a good understanding of the damage the DoTs do so you know how to stack them and what their respective durations are so you know when to recast or whatever.

I have Critical Affliction AAs and Pet Crit AAs and all they do is increase slightly how much damage I do. If you stop and seriously think about it, when do you REALLY need to know EXACTLY how much damage your pet or DoTs or DD for that matter, does to the mob?

In soloing situations, you will simply keep recasting until the mob dies, regardless of damage. In group, chances are you cast 1-3 spells and that's it (to avoid pulling agro) and the group does the rest. In raid, chances are, the majority of your time is spent watching the healer channel to see who to twitch, since raid leaders have somehow still managed to NOT see the fact that with some of the highest DPS in the game, our mana is better spent on the mob instead of a 150m twitch.

So what we do for actual damage doesn't really matter except that we do the damage at all so why have the messages spam and have 18 windows up???

Just my 2 cps.

[Xelgadis]

Originally posted by Mirth@Jun 13 2005, 09:00 PM
Xelgadis, on your suggested experiment, is this to show that a maxed level 5 player fighting a mob that is in close level range will hit more often, even though the player char skill level (being only level 5) is still pretty low?
There's several factors that determine hits and misses. Weapon skill, your level vs. the mob's, atk rating, etc. What I meant was that at level 5, most mobs at C1 are in the upper teens for levels, so they're significantly higher than you. As a result, even with maxed weapon skills (assuming max offense too), your miss rate is staggering, but as you get closer to their level, and have appropriate weapon skills to match, your miss rate will decline.

-------------------------

As far as my window setup: I use 4 chat windows, sometimes a 5th on raid events that have scripted emotes. "Main Chat" receives the stuff I don't really care about compared to other things; emotes, /say, system msgs, non-melee damage (damage shields get spammy, and I use the exact same setup on my sk, which is why I keep that there), ooc, shout, auction, etc. "Melee/Non-Melee" is just as the name implies really; my hits, pet hits, me being hit, me being missed, dot damage, focus msgs, etc. "Chatterbox" is my real 'main chat' (too lazy to change it now); group, guild, raid, chat channels, etc. "Tells"... self-explanatory. All that comes together in my UI which is a hybrid of EtasiUIv3, my own custom pieces for some parts, and some default elements. If anyone is curious to see my UI layout, PM me and I'll give you a link to a screenshot.

[Xislaben]

Originally posted by Raidjin@Jun 14 2005, 06:48 AM
I have Critical Affliction AAs and Pet Crit AAs and all they do is increase slightly how much damage I do. If you stop and seriously think about it, when do you REALLY need to know EXACTLY how much damage your pet or DoTs or DD for that matter, does to the mob?
If you get a couple close crits it can really effect your agro if you're close to the line with overagroing the mt. I like knowing the dot damage so I can see if i should fd earlier. Hott doesn't always give you much of a heads up, and until I can afford the fd aa, it's 120 mana that I have to spend every few ticks or so.

I'd love it if I could only see the dot crits in my spells window with fizzles and what not, that would reduce spam a bit.

[Jebasiz]

Damn..I use 2 windows. One for mainchat, emotes, shout/ooc/say, raid chat, etc...then another one only for tells.

I have pet melee off, melee crits off..most stuff is off, except for me being hit/missed, me hitting, or and dots(which I sometimes turn off if I need to watch emotes)

[Felicite]

Two windows.. stuff I read and stuff I don't have to (mostly).

All three boxes setup that way.

My issue of late is I filtered "x wears off" messages into "stuff I read".. cause I need to keep track of running DoTs.. and pretty soon they fill that window completely.

In a perfect world, I would have a window (windows?) that shows currently running DoTs (and on which mobs). Now that would make it too easy. :rolleyes:

I know it seems easy, but with my split center of attention I find myself recasting the same DoTs.

Edit: Back on topic, I believe they turned the "pet misses" on by default a number of patches ago (it was always off before) and people were shocked the see how many of the 4 possible attacks a round (not including bash or kick) had been missing all along.

Really, if you think about it, unless you are farming greens.. mobs have reasonable mitigation and avoidance too.. and the misses reflect that. Just turn them off, again.. yours and others. It's TMI.

[Xelgadis]

Originally posted by Jebasiz@Jun 14 2005, 02:08 PM
(which I sometimes turn off if I need to watch emotes)
Sony seriously needs to seperate scripted emotes into it's own filter... being lumped with "other" sucks in grand ways.

[Xelgadis]

Originally posted by Felicite@Jun 14 2005, 02:18 PM
My issue of late is I filtered "x wears off" messages into "stuff I read".. cause I need to keep track of running DoTs.. and pretty soon they fill that window completely.
Good god... mass dmf wearing off a raid is TT. I'm still trying to figure out which is more annoying: a big lump of 53 messages at once + the damn pet (if Goner lived long enough for it to fade), or after the raid zones a couple times and the spam comes like a heavy trickle as people's zonetimes are different. Then add MW recourse wearing off everyone in my group (and my pet too!) with all that at the same time... luckily my filtering layout sends it to the "not so often read" 'main chat', rather than my 'chatterbox' window, but it's still annoying regardless.

[Veratu]

I only use 2 windows. My chat window (which includes: All chat channels I use, me being hit, wear off messages, and emotes.) and a window that shows my DOT damage. Bard songs are off, pet's hits and misses are off, other's hits and misses are off, damage shields are off.

I would recommend taking a moment to think about what information normally gathered through filters is necessary for you to be effective and enjoy the game then turn all others off. It will take you a little time and some adjustment, but eventually you will achieve a nice balance.

Veratu