Ranger fighting pets (befriend animal) Please FIX

[CherokeeRose]

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>I have written petitions in game concerning this, and I have been told that they cannot find anything wrong with my character keeping animals tamed.  I was told that they followed me around, played my character to test it, and so on.  They must have hit the jackpot of jackpots in finding the very rare times that my pet is kept tamed.  They then suggested I come to this forum.  I thought.... well maybe it is something that I need to obtain or change to make it work.  So, I came here, and.....  Well, after reading through the ranger forums, I have indeed found that other ranger players are having the same problem. </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">THE PROBLEM</span>:  Rarely does my tamed fighting pet stay tamed for 24 minutes... and I do mean rarely.  Most of the time, I am lucky if I get 10 minutes.  Most of the time, my pet goes untamed minutes after I have tamed it, and worst being it is almost always when I am in battle.  This even happens with pets that are gray to me, so it is not that I am taming too high a level of animal.  This is not only very annoying, but makes it very difficult for a ranger who has chosen the befriend animal ability.  Not only are your playing abilities less than another players, but in addition to fighting quest mobs, you end up constantly being attacked by your own pet! What choice do you have then?  Retaming the pet, most times,  is not  easy, because it is interrupted during battle (again, not only by the quest mobs, but also by your own pet).  If there are many mobs, your only option is to use ESCAPE --- if you already didn't use it for the same thing before it becomes available again.  Then again, if you do happen to have ESCAPE available, you end up having to travel the distance all the way back to finish your quest.  A ranger has no way of knowing how long their pet will stay tamed, and therefore cannot time battles in conjunction with their befriended animal.  </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>I am petitioning here on this forum for this bug to be fixed.  I love my ranger character, and want to continue playing with a fighting pet.  I can solo without a pet on all my other characters, and don't want to do the same with this character.  I do not want to change my options for this character, and should not have to.  From what I can see, this bug has been going on for a very long time, and I feel that it is about time for it to be fixed.  If it is not fixable, then let us tame a permanent pet that will never go untamed unless we abandon it.  Rangers have it hard enough... at least fix this.  </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>PLEASE - PLEASE fix this bug!</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>NOTE:  It did not take me 24 minutes to write this, but I have had to retame my tatterback 4 times while writing.</strong> <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>~ Respectfully, Rose</strong></p>

[Geothe]

<p>Charms have a chance to break everytime the charmed mob takes damage I do believe.</p>

[Ranja]

<p><cite>CherokeeRose wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>I have written petitions in game concerning this, and I have been told that they cannot find anything wrong with my character keeping animals tamed.  I was told that they followed me around, played my character to test it, and so on.  They must have hit the jackpot of jackpots in finding the very rare times that my pet is kept tamed.  They then suggested I come to this forum.  I thought.... well maybe it is something that I need to obtain or change to make it work.  So, I came here, and.....  Well, after reading through the ranger forums, I have indeed found that other ranger players are having the same problem. </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">THE PROBLEM</span>:  Rarely does my tamed fighting pet stay tamed for 24 minutes... and I do mean rarely.  Most of the time, I am lucky if I get 10 minutes.  Most of the time, my pet goes untamed minutes after I have tamed it, and worst being it is almost always when I am in battle.  This even happens with pets that are gray to me, so it is not that I am taming too high a level of animal.  This is not only very annoying, but makes it very difficult for a ranger who has chosen the befriend animal ability.  Not only are your playing abilities less than another players, but in addition to fighting quest mobs, you end up constantly being attacked by your own pet! What choice do you have then?  Retaming the pet, most times,  is not  easy, because it is interrupted during battle (again, not only by the quest mobs, but also by your own pet).  If there are many mobs, your only option is to use ESCAPE --- if you already didn't use it for the same thing before it becomes available again.  Then again, if you do happen to have ESCAPE available, you end up having to travel the distance all the way back to finish your quest.  A ranger has no way of knowing how long their pet will stay tamed, and therefore cannot time battles in conjunction with their befriended animal.  </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>I am petitioning here on this forum for this bug to be fixed.  I love my ranger character, and want to continue playing with a fighting pet.  I can solo without a pet on all my other characters, and don't want to do the same with this character.  I do not want to change my options for this character, and should not have to.  From what I can see, this bug has been going on for a very long time, and I feel that it is about time for it to be fixed.  If it is not fixable, then let us tame a permanent pet that will never go untamed unless we abandon it.  Rangers have it hard enough... at least fix this.  </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>PLEASE - PLEASE fix this bug!</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>NOTE:  It did not take me 24 minutes to write this, but I have had to retame my tatterback 4 times while writing.</strong> <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>~ Respectfully, Rose</strong></p></blockquote><p>Sorry to hear your pet does not stay tamed. I don't think you are doing to get much advice on these boards though as the befriend pet AA is not used by many rangers (for some of the reasons you spell out above) but mostly because it is a ghaint waste of points in the Ranger tree because it costs so many non-DPS points.</p><p>My advice - dump the pet and choose DPS AAs and then you wont need a pet.</p><p>Sorry not the advice you want to hear.</p>

[Neiloch]

Befriend animal is better for role playing than anything. Same points spent elsewhere would help more even for soloing. I really don't want it 'emphasized' either though because I don't want to start becoming a WoW Hunter who are more of a pet class than a scout/archer class imo. In general you aren't going to get a sympathy for this issue here I would imagine. If we had the laundry list of other things broken fixed we would be behind you but right now I'd rather see a 1% increase in CA damage than the pet getting tweaked.

[CherokeeRose]

<p><cite>Geothe wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Charms have a chance to break everytime the charmed mob takes damage I do believe.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Pets take damage, but I do not believe this to be the problem, as my pet will also suddenly untame and attack when I am not in battle.  Something is happening to make the pet not stay tamed.  Although this too is annoying, it is not as serious as when it happens when in battle.</p><p>~ Respectfully, Rose</p>

[CherokeeRose]

<p><strong>Thank you for responding.</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">I too would indeed like to see the other Ranger problems fixed and am indeed with everyone on those issues also, so that we are on equal ground with other character types</span>.  I do not role-play, but do enjoy the aspect of using the bow and pet for this character.  Our pet is part of our weaponry/abilities and should work as such.  I am not asking for the pets to get tweaked, just to fix them.  Other character types have pets to fight with them which do not break like the Ranger pets.  Since this is a game that we purchase and pay to play, the broken befriend animal, as well as the other issues should be worked on.  Not everyone wants to be a wizard, warrior or healer all the time, and many of us have the different character types for just that reason.  Additionally, not everyone wants to group all the time, and the ranger is a perfect character for soloing (this seriously hinders a solo player who has chosen the pet tree).  I think the biggest problem here is that the ranger BUGS and DISABILITIES are not being addressed and we are being forced to play with a handicap.Again, we should be able to keep playing as the game character choices were intended, including with a pet.  This is what we paid and continue to pay for.  This money that we pay is used in part to pay the salaries of the game employees.  DON'T GET ME WRONG, I AM NOT OUT TO GET SOE.  I love their games, especially Everquest II.  The game design, the artwork, quests and lore, etc. are great.  I just feel that the Ranger needs to have their fair share of the salaries we help to pay go toward fixing our Ranger characters.  We should not be excluded, and it is time for it to be our turn for fixes and patches.   A simple fix for the pet would be to make the pet stay tamed without a timer.  When we move to a different zone, level up or the pet dies in battle, we can change pets by re-taming another.  It just seems that the bugs and disabilities we have as rangers are being ignored and I do not feel that this is fair play to have to deal with these and play with a disability. We, as Rangers, need to stay together and keep in unity with all the issues to be fixed.  If the game was football, with the players having serious handicaps, and the ball kept deflating, we wouldn’t just ask to have our characters made stronger, we would also ask to have the ball problem fixed also.  These are the types of problems that make players not want to stay in a game.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease, not the ones that find and use halfway work-arounds --- so maybe we just need to squeak louder, which is what I am trying to do now.In conclusion, PLEASE SOE --- FIX OUR RANGERS <span style="text-decoration: underline;">AND</span> PETS!  We have been waiting for some love for a long time! ~ Respectfully, Rose</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>PS --- Fellow Rangers, please list all of your complaints and bugs in addition to befriend animal.</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>

[Neiloch]

<p>If i remember correctly, charms in EQ2 works as such. Damage can break them from the charm, and every 'tick' it has a chance to break charm. So technically it could break immediately, or it could last the entire duration. Oddly enough rangers are the only ones who REALLY have to deal with charm problems now, since coercers get a 'persistent' pet now opposed to <strong>needing</strong> to charm one.So in that spirit, I would suggest ideally it be replaced outright by a simple pet summon. Failing that simply making the charm duration a flat certain 30 minutes, which would seem much simpler to implement.</p><p>As for our other problems, the main ranger problem is simple, we don't do enough damage to compete with warlocks, wizards, assassins, and in a lot of cases swashbucklers. I personally have a skilled conjurer and SK giving me a DPS challenge on AE fights.</p><p>We were pretty specific for a while but now I don't care HOW our DPS is increased, just as long as it isn't through melee. Make our CA's recast faster, hit harder, or whatever. Just increase it.</p>

[Geothe]

<p>The AA ability is a charm spell.All charms, as mentioned, have a chance to break on a cycling tic as well as when the pet takes damage.this is the case for coercer charmRanger AA charmDruid AA Charm.It is an associated negative to using a charm ability.Deal with it, or drop it.</p>

[kartikeya]

<p>I'm pretty sure charm does NOT have a chance to break on damage--that's roots and snares, but not charm. Otherwise my coercer would be fish food even more often than she already is.</p><p>However, all charms do have a chance to break once every such and such cycle. I can't tell you what the cycle time is, but probably once every minute or so. Basically the mob gets a chance to 'resist' the charm. Here's the biggest problem with rangers' befriend animal: it's essentially an apprentice I level charm spell, and unlike coercers, rangers have absolutely no ability to upgrade this spell. Coercers get an AA ability that lowers the resist chances of charm, which includes their chances of breaking charm early. Rangers don't, obviously. Coercers also have the option of upgrading their level of charm, that is, it is actually most effective to have a master level charm spell, even if the actual spell itself is 20 levels out of date, than to have a lower grade charm spell that's closer to your actual level. The reason for this is two-fold: the pet will break less often, and the pet will be tougher/do more damage.</p><p>You're basically having to make do with an apprentice I charm spell with no options to lower resistance or upgrade. Sadly, while fun, Befriend Animal is pretty much fluff for rangers, and not terribly useful. If you're enjoying it, I say, by all means keep it, at least for soloing, but I'm afraid you're never going to see it get more useful. It's just how charm works in this game.</p>

[CherokeeRose]

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>If this is the case, then the ranger with a pet tree is broken.<span>  </span>According to the GM’s the pets are not supposed to break and the pet is supposed to stay tamed for the full 24 minutes unless they die.<span>  </span>This is what I learned from several GM replies, however, I was also told that they could not see my pet being broken, nor did they know that this was a problem.<span>  </span>As written in my previous posts, it does indeed break or I would not be writing here at all.<span>  </span>I will not post the GM’s names that wrote back to me, as it might be against rules, but I will post what I was told, quoted below concerning the befriend animal problem.__________________________</strong></p> <hr /><hr /><p><strong><em>“After testing the spell as well, I was not able to confirm the issue. As such, I can't really submit a report about it, as it does seem to be working. In these situations, I'd like to suggest that you post the issue on the Ranger forums located here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?category_id=15”" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...category_id=15”</a>“This way, we'll be able to see if other Rangers are having the same issue. The Developers of the game regularly peruse the forums for player feedback and bug reports and they may be able to reply directly to the issue.”</em></strong></p><hr /><hr /><p><strong>_________________________Therefore, I am asking my fellow rangers to post also, so that they can see that we all have the same problems with befriend animal.<span>  </span>And if a reply or response does not happen as promised as above, I can pursue this further.<span>  </span>If we can bring their attention to one thing then we can bring their attention to all of the problems we are having. </strong></p> <p><strong>Thank you.~ Respectfully, Rose</strong></p>

[Sydares]

<p>Befriend animal is indeed useless.</p><p>They need to fix it and buff it, or remove it. Preferably remove it.</p>

[Ranja]

<p><cite>CherokeeRose wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>If this is the case, then the ranger with a pet tree is broken.<span>  </span>According to the GM’s the pets are not supposed to break and the pet is supposed to stay tamed for the full 24 minutes unless they die.<span>  </span>This is what I learned from several GM replies, however, I was also told that they could not see my pet being broken, nor did they know that this was a problem.<span>  </span>As written in my previous posts, it does indeed break or I would not be writing here at all.<span>  </span>I will not post the GM’s names that wrote back to me, as it might be against rules, but I will post what I was told, quoted below concerning the befriend animal problem.__________________________</strong></p> <hr /><hr /><p><strong><em>“After testing the spell as well, I was not able to confirm the issue. As such, I can't really submit a report about it, as it does seem to be working. In these situations, I'd like to suggest that you post the issue on the Ranger forums located here: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?category_id=15”" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...category_id=15”</a>“This way, we'll be able to see if other Rangers are having the same issue. The Developers of the game regularly peruse the forums for player feedback and bug reports and they may be able to reply directly to the issue.”</em></strong></p><hr /><hr /><p><strong>_________________________Therefore, I am asking my fellow rangers to post also, so that they can see that we all have the same problems with befriend animal.<span>  </span>And if a reply or response does not happen as promised as above, I can pursue this further.<span>  </span>If we can bring their attention to one thing then we can bring their attention to all of the problems we are having. </strong></p> <p><strong>Thank you.~ Respectfully, Rose</strong></p> </blockquote><p>I suggest you just /bug it everytime you are in-game.</p><p>Also, the reason why no other ranger has posted about it is because so few rangers use that tree. Of all the rangers I know, you are the only one<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Another reason is that we have so many bigger problems on our plate right now that we are all struggling to get attention to, we don't want something as minor as befriend animal to distract the Devs from the true problems of our class.</p><p>Because if yo uhave been here for any amount of time, you will understand the developers proclivity to fix something in the ranger class that was never a problem or a minor problem and say "there, you got your fix".</p>

[Ragnaphore]

<p>The spell isn't broken, all the Charm AA/spells/items works the same way, the duration listed is the max duration. Every "tick" the mob will have a chance to break charm vs your subjugation skill. </p><p>The only thing "broken" is the GM's answer...   </p>

[kartikeya]

<p>I spy a GM who has never played the coercer class, haha.</p>

[jjlo69]

<p>i used befriend aminal alot back in ROK it was my main specced from 70-79 pretty much it seemed to break mainly when i was charming aminals that were heroic more so then when u grabbed the solo mobs i wish i saved that spec on a mirror ill try to get one test and see if i can see what it is doing to me what it is doing for your self cause it seem like it can be anything</p><p>Uncle</p>

[Kithica]

My 90/250 ranger has used charm animal since it was available. I love it. It's great for solo and group stuff. Just make sure your group knows the pet is your responsibility. When it breaks use your root step back and charm him again. I use it to grab agro when I body pull something out of a pack of mobs. It's great for pulling agro off you when you need a mob's back for extra damage. As to when the pet breaks charm, it's random. Or seems to be.

[Eruditessay]

<p> Just out of curiosity, whats your subjugation skill at?</p>

[glowsintheda]

<p>0 as rangers don't have the subjugation skill</p>

[Eruditessay]

<p>exactly</p>

[Harlequin]

<p>Well, "Befriend Animal" shouldn't be based off the subjugation skill anyway, as it's not really magic here.  Perhaps that's the problem.</p>

[-=Hoss=-]

<p>Good point.  Then what's your charisma?</p>

[Harlequin]

<p>Looking at it logically, charisma really isn't the lone stat either for "taming" animals (all stats could conceivably be applied -- strength for breaking the animal, wisdom/int for knowing how to do it, etc.).  However, if anything, it should be based on some ranger-specific skill.  Since agility applies to anything ranger, probably that should apply.  It's already non-sensically being applied to all damage and other ranger related checks.  Agility factors into "taming" probably just as much as anything else based on that scale.</p>

[CherokeeRose]

<p>Was curious myself as to whether or not stat or stats affect befriend animal, thinking that the reason it breaks so soon might be due to that.  When I originally contacted support concerning this, the GM stated that “the animal is supposed to stay tamed for a full 24 minutes.”  Considering the fact that mine rarely does that, and that even animals way below my level break sometimes in as low as 2-5 minutes, I thought that maybe it might be a stat problem.  Yes, a very few times my tamed pet will stay for 24 minutes, and sometimes it will even stay for 15 minutes as stated below.  However, most times it is way too short a duration.  It also seems that the same pet will stay tamed a lesser amount of time, after each consecutive re-tame.   Yes, I do know how to root and re-tame, but having to re-tame a pet 3 times during one battle is unreasonable, as well as having to re-tame one over and over, even while just traveling.<strong>To restate my correspondence:</strong>  <em>(note the full 24 minute duration point, and the fact that it cannot be reported because the GM cannot confirm the fact that the pet does not stay tamed a full 24minutes.  Additionally, being told to post to the forum to see if any other rangers have the same problem of pet not staying tamed for the full duration of  24 minutes. ) I have omitted GM names just in case it is something forbidden in rules.</em> ==============================RESPONSE from GM__________This is GM __________responding to your petition regarding your AA ability, Befriend Animal. I was able to borrow your account today, and head out to Tenebrous Tangle to test this ability. I cast the spell on two sets of tangleflies, and both times, the spell did not break (and I waited about 8 minutes each).<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong> I am honestly a bit stumped as to why your pet may be becoming untamed before the full 24 minute duration, especially since the TT mobs are grey to you. </strong></span>Do you have the pet set to defend itself? Are they dying? Were they hit by another player's AOE, as this will release it from being tamed? Please respond back to this petition with a bit more information regarding the specifics of when this happens to you, and we will be glad to continue to investigate the issue.Sincerely,GM __________EverQuest IISony Online Entertainment ============================This is GM ________, following up on your petition. I tried to speak to you in-game but you didn't seem to be looking at the chat window. I followed you around for a little more than 15 minutes, and you had the same vicious dryland scavenger the entire time. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>After testing the spell as well, I was not able to confirm the issue. As such, I can't really submit a report about it, as it does seem to be working.</strong></span> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>In these situations, I'd like to suggest that you post the issue on the Ranger forums located here</strong></span>:<span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span><span style="color: #ff0000;"><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/forums/list.m?category_id=15" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?category_id=15</a></span>. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>T</strong><strong>his way, we'll be able to see if other Rangers are having the same issue. The Developers of the game regularly peruse the forums for player feedback and bug reports and they may be able to reply directly to the issue.</strong></span>Best regards,GM __________</p><p>====================================<strong>So, the question is... how many rangers lose their tamed pet before 24 minutes, and without the conditions occuring above? And after this is answered, I wonder if the Developers will peruse and see that this IS an issue, and do something about it, as the GM's stated above.</strong>  I know we have a ton of issues with Rangers, and I agree with everyone on all of them.  Here, I am trying to get the developers to realize that there are problems, and in this particular case, BEFRIEND ANIMAL, as the GM's stated it should stay tamed for the full 24 minutes unless it dies.Respectfully,Rose</p>

[FearDiadh]

<p>I have never used this skill on my ranger, because I am definately not the fluffy-bunny-treehugger-type ranger.  I have however used it on my fury quite a bit.  It never lasts more than a fight or two on the fury.  It was a total pain to use because the mob breaks so often.   I noticed on my fury that some mobs tended to stay charmed for over 10 minutes regularly while others came uncharmed usually within a minute. </p><p>A couple of points:</p><p>1) The lack of subjugation sounds like a good place to start looking, except that my fury has pretty good subjugation and still has the same problem.  If it is a subjugation based ability for a class that lacks, however, then it needs to be fixed.</p><p>2) All mobs get a chance to resist again every few minutes, not just after the whole 24 minutes is up.  I don't know why that is the way it is, but it is.  On my fury, I picked the ones with the lowest resistance to my charm rather than the ones that would be coolest to have. </p><p>3) On the fury I just accepted it and charmed again whenever it wore off.  It was a pain, but he wasn't a very good fighter and it was something I had to deal with.  For a ranger, that isn't true.  Most solo mobs go down before they can get a few steps toward you if you are specced for dps.</p>

[Guy De Alsace]

<p>I rolled a coercer to try them out - his pet broke charm so often I no longer bothered using the pet at all, which kind of ruins the point lol. I got befriend animal on a respec for my Ranger to try it out in RoK. The charm would break pretty much every 3 or 4 minutes.</p><p>Though I did have a lot of success using it in Sebilis with the heroic Chokidai. Seemed to last longer as well maybe due to a buff another group member gave me. However there's not much point using it in SF. Rangers need 100% dps spec IMO unless you have points to spare that is.</p>

[Kithica]

I use this AA ability all the time. Level 90 with 250 AAs. The charm does break all the time. When I'm fighting. When I'm just running around. It seems to be semi random. Semi random as in, it stays charmed for a while. Like 5 minutes.