Pet attack/protect macro

[Manohate]

Beldin posted this in another string. **  .. however i also have a macro with : pet attack,pet preserve_self,pet preserve_master that i user after pet pulls <img src="../../i/smilies/16x16_smiley-wink.gif" border="0" height="16" width="16"> ** I tried using this in a macro, but it toggles off and on if you hit the button more than once.  This is a problem is zones or times of heavy lag.  Can I alter the macro so that no matter how many times I hit the button, all three features stay on?  Thanks for any help on this.

[XtremSummo]

<DIV>The best macro pair that I've seen was posted here recently (can't remember who it was but they deserve credit):</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Macro 1 - to attack</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  /pet attack</DIV> <DIV>  /pet preserve_self</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Macro 2 - to pull back to you</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  /pet backoff</DIV> <DIV>  /pet preserve_master</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is cool, because when you attack the pet goes off and then defends itself in the group without returning to you. On pulling back, the pet's focus is put back on protecting you, and by the time it's back to you the pet is in full protect mode for mobs jumping you unexpectedly.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There are still downsides such as double hitting the macro. You can just check your pet window to see which modes are toggled but then you still need to hti buttons to reset the toggle without messing up pet commands. Worse for me though, is when there's a caster in a group you're trying to pull. Casters often stop and if the pet is only pulling, will often cast at you causing the pet to re-engage when still at a distance from you. Also, control over the precise moment of pet aggro after pulling can turn a mob at just the right moment, or set it at just the right distance for your spells with least chance of aggro... these finess elements often make the difference between good soloing and great soloing. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In general, I warn against macros. There's very little that you can't do with the simple attack and backoff buttons. It may need a little more effort from you - but you'll get full control as a result. Macros are always a trade off, they'll never fit all situations perfectly. If you try to have macros for everything you'll take up a whole bar with them. Better to simply use the commands individually as necessary - but also requires a little more skill and effort. If you don't have that energy or commitment then the above macros are the best I've seen so far.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You pays your money and takes your choice.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>X</DIV>

[Beldin_]

<P>Normally one makro with   /pet attack  /pet preserve_self  /pet preserve_master will do the work, if you pull back the pet both preserves are turned of, then i use the makro for re-attack. Since the perserve commands toggle their status i also use the normal attack button to start encounters <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P><BR> </P>

[XtremSummo]

<DIV>The OP was looking for a different macro though to reduce the toggling of his pet's mode. He says that if he hits attack by accident a couple of times, it toggles his pet's mode and he's not sure what's what. If he uses /pet back off, then until he tells the pet to attack again, he's not automatically protected. This can and does happen in normal play.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>His solutions are:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <UL> <LI>to add another macro to reinstate the protections without a pet command, which takes up a hotbar slot or as you suggest add a pure attack button... still taking up another slot.</LI> <LI>to use a macro set like the above, which always ensures that he's protected after he's backed the pet off - and also makes the pet stay in the encounter when he's fighting at distance</LI> <LI>to do things manually in the pet window when necessary</LI></UL> <P>Personally, I find that I like my 3 active hotbars for in combat to only contain things that I direcly use in combat and need there with shortcuts. My 3 bars are full to the brim with things that I like to have handy for various in-combat responses. There's a lot of things that vie to get onto those bars and pet mode doesn't rate highly enough to get on there. If I want a pet to continue attacking other mobs, then I target them and tell him to attack. I prefer to have control over which mob is attacked anyway, rather than letting the pet choose based on hate or proximity. I prefer to use pure attack and back-off buttons on my active hotbars. Pet mode is something that I change as necessary out of combat in the pet window itself.</P> <DIV>The above two macro set is I believe the best in terms of giving the least issues while including some mode control. I tried it out and it's extremely intuitive and handles the pet modes extremely well, focussing on giving the correct protections as defaults for most situations. There were though some situations where the mode didn't work as I'd hoped and so I've switched back to my micro-management approach doing stuff by hand. In the end - for the finest control without endless macro buttons for each situation, that's the only way to go.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>X</DIV><p>Message Edited by XtremSummons on <span class=date_text>12-12-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:24 AM</span>

[Manohate]

<DIV>This is the reason I'm asking the original question.  I made a macro with the attack, protect me and protect yourself.  When in heavy lag, there are times I'm not sure if the button was actually pressed, so I press it again, which turns off the options.  The reason I asked if there was a way to set the macro to always turn on is, I use the pet window created by Depechenode I believe (my apologies if I spelled that wrong).  He added a button to his pet window that turns on attack, protect me and protect yourself.  No matter how many times you hit the button, all 3 functions stay on.  I was curious if this is possible with a macro, because the buttons on the macro are very small and it becomes tedious pressing them.  His pet window is available on eq2interfacedotcom and it is a fantastic tool.  Small buttons is my only gripe about it.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Manohate on <span class=date_text>12-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:59 AM</span>

[Beldin_]

<P>I also tried the ui-mod, the problem however was that you can't pull this button onto the hotbar, it crashes the game, and i have the most pet controls on my hotbar. </P> <P><IMG src="http://mitglied.lycos.de/Drizzt/EQ2/bellandra_hotkeys.jpg"></P> <DIV>Under the pet-attack thats the macro for re-attack after pull <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV><p>Message Edited by Beldin_ on <span class=date_text>12-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:27 PM</span>

[Manohate]

I tried that too, Beldin.  Same result, crashed.  That's why I'm asking here.  I was hoping whatever code he used to make the pet window could be converted to a macro.

[XtremSummo]

<DIV>I honestly don't know how you cope with giving up so many hotbar slots to pet commands and mode commands (5 slots!!!). The only pet commands I have on my hotbars at all are attack and back-off. Have you guys tried going back to basics and seeing how often you really <EM>need</EM> to use anything else?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Honestly, just a suggestion. Sometimes the best solution isn't to add complexity to a complex situation... </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>X</DIV>

[Thmy]

<P>Some of the commands  that would toggle could be</P> <P>forced to use the default state by adding a 1 at the end  of the command</P> <P>I need to find the post with the exact wording of the command but</P> <P>the person was replying to my old post about targeting your pet ( another command that would toggle)</P> <P>I was using  something like  /target_none  in the macro to force the default state </P> <P>and was told there was a shorter way to do the same thing.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Jeradim]

I use the macros Xtreme posted.  I settled on those after trying to put the 1 at the end.  Maybe I was getting the syntax wrong but I couldn't get it so it would set the pet to preserve_X regardless of what state it was in.  So far it works well enough for me.  I like that the pet protects me when I tell it to back off.  If his preserve_self state isn't what I would like, I just hit the /pet attack macro again during a fight to toggle it to where I want.  Most of the time it's not an issue, but in a case where the pet has all mobs in a group on his hate list, you would want that on so he continues attacking the mobs that hit him.  Again, I find the button (which is no.1 on the numpad which is my primary hotbar) is much quicker than finding the button in the pet window with the mouse.  Particularly since I 2-box so during fights one hand is on the numpad of my other keyboard, I try to avoid the mouse when I can (especially since my conjurer is on the slower, hence laggier computer - I figure it's better if there's no lag on the toon doing the healing :smileywink: ).  I use <EM><A href="http://www.eq2interface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=3799" target=_blank><FONT color=#ff0000>Dio 3-Way Full & Fluff Pet Controls</FONT> </A></EM>for my pet window just because I like the horizontal bar.

[Danedori]

The macros I use are : Backoff    /pet backoff    /pet preserve_master Attack    /pet backoff    : ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet preserve_master The reason /pet backoff shows up in both of them is to turn both preserves to off, then I turn them back on. Danedori <div></div>

[JonasBlackmore]

<span><blockquote><hr>Danedori wrote:The macros I use are : Backoff    /pet backoff    /pet preserve_master Attack    /pet backoff    : ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet preserve_master The reason /pet backoff shows up in both of them is to turn both preserves to off, then I turn them back on. Danedori <div></div><hr></blockquote> I do the same as above -- if you include pet backoff as the first command in your macro then trigger the attack and toggle the preserves, you can make sure that no matter how many times you hit the button, the toggles will be "on"</span><div></div>

[Ziffna]

<DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> JonasBlackmore wrote:<BR><SPAN><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Danedori wrote:<BR>The macros I use are :<BR><BR>Backoff<BR><BR>   /pet backoff<BR>   /pet preserve_master<BR><BR><BR><BR>Attack<BR>   /pet backoff<BR>   : ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet preserve_master<BR><BR><BR>The reason /pet backoff shows up in both of them is to turn both preserves to off, then I turn them back on.<BR><BR>Danedori<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>I do the same as above -- if you include pet backoff as the first command in your macro then trigger the attack and toggle the preserves, you can make sure that no matter how many times you hit the button, the toggles will be "on"<BR></SPAN> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I'll have to try this out with my conj/necro i'm currious if you have any problums with the pet just returning if you switch targets to pull agro off of your self with an add?</P> <P> </P></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>

[Loral]

<P>Here Beldin, I just saved you 4 hotbar slots:</P> <P><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tips&message.id=2363" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tips&message.id=2363</A></P> <P>This will tell you how to put all your Master Strikes on a single macro.</P>

[Beldin_]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Loralor wrote:<BR> <P>Here Beldin, I just saved you 4 hotbar slots:</P> <P><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tips&message.id=2363" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tips&message.id=2363</A></P> <P>This will tell you how to put all your Master Strikes on a single macro.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yeah, i know that, however this will not work for my monk, and as i use the same hotbar layout for all my characters i still have the 5 buttons there. Also it would only save 3 for me, because i would still leave one mastery strike there where i can see the refresh timer <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Danedori]

I've been using the attack macro with /pet backoff in it for a couple of months now, and I have never had the pet fail to attack something when I hit button. Danedori <div></div>

[Ziffna]

<DIV>Havent had a chance to check i just thought with the /pet backoff command that it would wipe the cue of mobs to attack more important in a group situation.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Example group has a tank fighting mobs add  gets on the healer you use the attack with the /pet backoff command to send the pet at the mob on the healer without the pet back off when the current target dies the pet would return to the mob it was attacking previously or one of the mobs that had attacked it previously if its original target was dead.  With the /pet backoff i believe that it would cause the pet to simply return to your side after the add was dead.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I still would like to know if there is a way to force an active state on the protections with a macro so that pets would return to the cue of mobs that have attacked them when they are done with adds rather then having the pet return to my side in such a situation.</DIV>

[Escher13]

<span><blockquote><hr>Ziffnabb wrote:<div> </div> <div>I still would like to know if there is a way to force an active state on the protections with a macro so that pets would return to the cue of mobs that have attacked them when they are done with adds rather then having the pet return to my side in such a situation.</div><hr></blockquote></span>There is not.  If you use /pet backoff, then after he finishes his target, if he hasn't been hit by anything else, he will dutifully return to you.  He's not able to look around, notice things banging on your friends, and pick who next to bang on.  Unless he's been attacked, you have to retarget and send him back in. Unless I have a tank who does a lot of target switching to increase hate (and I haven't, really, in at least 4-5 months), I just target the tank and use implied targeting to follow him around.  If my pet comes back to me, and I don't have anyone else to send him to, I just hit the "attack" button and have him help me help the tank. <div></div>

[Thavek]

<span>Attack   /pet backoff   : ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet preserve_master Where in this does it actually tell the pet to attack?</span><div></div>

[Daghammerskold]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Thavek wrote:<BR><SPAN>Attack<BR>   /pet backoff<BR>   : ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet preserve_master<BR><BR><BR> Where in this does it actually tell the pet to attack?<BR></SPAN> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>You seem to be right, it does not tell pet to attack (unless you or the pet are already being attacked). It does tell pet to preserve_master twice, the second should be pet attack.</P> <P>The macro should be</P> <P>: ; pet backoff ; pet preserve_master ; pet preserve_self ; pet attack</P>