Soooo am I the only player who finds "pets" annoying on teams?

[Mina]

In this reincarnation of COH, I tend to play scrappers, generally so I can solo  relatively painlessly. However, for TF, and occas mission teams, I  come across pets. As a scrapper, pets knock me off bridges (I am thinking/cursing of Posi II), block doorways, block enemies and generally just run amuck. What's the big love affair with pets? I just don't get it. Yes I've run those same missions a million times. In the old days, I had like 20 different 50s ( 3 incarnates, as I recall) and multiple different levels of different builds on various servers at the end. I found pets annoying then and surprisingly still do. Prove me wrong, please.

[Blackbird71]

It sounds like you haven't actually played in a while.  Pets were updated on HC quite some time ago so that you can move through them, so they shouldn't block doorways or be pushing any PCs anywhere.  If you're playing currently and still having these issues, you should make a bug report.

 

Edit to add:

 

I found the patch notes; this was done in Issue 26 Page 5, which went live March 31st 2020.  So the issue you're complaining about has been a non-issue for over a year.

 

Patch Notes for March 31st, 2020 - Issue 26, Page 5 - Patch Notes - Homecoming (homecomingservers.com)

Edited July 25, 2021 by Blackbird71

[Glacier Peak]

6 hours ago, Mina said:

In this reincarnation of COH, I tend to play scrappers, generally so I can solo  relatively painlessly. However, for TF, and occas mission teams, I  come across pets. As a scrapper, pets knock me off bridges (I am thinking/cursing of Posi II), block doorways, block enemies and generally just run amuck. What's the big love affair with pets? I just don't get it. Yes I've run those same missions a million times. In the old days, I had like 20 different 50s ( 3 incarnates, as I recall) and multiple different levels of different builds on various servers at the end. I found pets annoying then and surprisingly still do. Prove me wrong, please.

Edit: Nevermind! 😅 - I may have been thinking of Phase Shift.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Glacier Peak

[Mina]

29 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

It sounds like you haven't actually played in a while.  Pets were updated on HC quite some time ago so that you can move through them, so they shouldn't block doorways or be pushing any PCs anywhere.  If you're playing currently and still having these issues, you should make a bug report.

 

Edit to add:

 

I found the patch notes; this was done in Issue 26 Page 5, which went live March 31st 2020.  So the issue you're complaining about has been a non-issue for over a year.

 

Patch Notes for March 31st, 2020 - Issue 26, Page 5 - Patch Notes - Homecoming (homecomingservers.com)

Thanks, I will try to reinstall the game, as these events happened yesterday. 

[Coyotedancer]

Hmm. I know you can easily move through Mastermind pets now, but does that apply to all the other pets as well? I haven't specifically or carefully tested it, mind... but I swear my Brute got blocked in office map doorways a couple of times yesterday by our Dominator's big stone pet and his patron-summon Mu Guardian. 😖

 

(I mean, maaaaybe Semnai was actually caught on the not-yet-evaporated bodies of defeated goons on those maps, but said-goons were all human-scale mobs rather than giant warcry mechs or any of the other oversized "usual suspects" for that kind of thing, so I have some doubts. If we run with that pair again today, I'll have to take a closer look at that. )

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Coyotedancer

[KC4800]

I know for a fact that you cannot move through Dark Domination pets. Because I play one. In fact, the Wolf pet is so annoying, I renamed him Getouttamyway.

 

With that said, I do not find others pets annoying at all, especially MM pets. They can be pushed to exit a door, or ran through in a close cave or tunnel. Yes they still block your view, but so what? If you're that annoyed, you should just solo that day.

Edited July 25, 2021 by KC4800

[GraspingVileTerror]

There are also some enemies who you can't pass through, even after they're defeated.   I was on a team not too long ago where a Zeus was defeated in the doorway to a small office, trapping half the team in that office until the body despawned.

[Snarky]

Dark days in CoH history.  The advent of Demon pets.  The new thing.  Everybody running them.  Do you seriously know how hard it was for a Brute to make it through Oranbega caves?  F that. Those things are huge.

 

For Incarnate Lore pets I prefer polar lights.  Small.  Storm Elementals fit my theme better.  So then I am blinding myself at certain camera angels.  Nice.  But oh no, not bad enough.  The best Incarnate teams want Banished Pantheon.  Huge.  They can actually ruin trials they are so big if enough people get stuck on them in a mechanic (the first crackle in The Really Hard Way Magisterium ITrial)  

 

I have seen Ninjas jump up and down some of the multi floor rooms and pull EVERYTHING in a very large multi floor space right to the team.  That was .....not helpful.

 

Flipside.  With Pets used correctly you can do things pretty easy that are otherwise really stupid hard in CoH.  If they ever came up with a theme of pets I could run I might do so.  Give me an army of "polar lights"  Small, do energy damage maybe.  mix iof powers based on tier of pets.  I will find a theme costume that works.  But the pets that currently exist?  The closest I come to interest is the undead.  But how do I have a lich working for me and where do you even get two death knights?  THe zombies I get.  The rest?  What, I got to write three short stories to justify where these very specific oddball pets come from?  pfffft.

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

If by “pets” you mean other players, I’m so with you.

[Twisted Toon]

51 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

If by “pets” you mean other players, I’m so with you.

Weren't other players "pets" for scrappers in the old days?

If that's the case, then Mina only had Mina to blame for all the pets in Mina's missions. ( I keed, I keed 😉)

[Xenosone]

1 hour ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

There are also some enemies who you can't pass through, even after they're defeated.   I was on a team not too long ago where a Zeus was defeated in the doorway to a small office, trapping half the team in that office until the body despawned.

You have to hit the recycle button to continue

[Lusiphur Malache]

Long time ago a bot pushed me into a mob trying to save itself. Since then I've hated robots and while I will team with a bot mm, I won't get in front of them.

 

Plus the screams and howls from demons is just wrong on so many levels.

[Mina]

2 hours ago, Twisted Toon said:

Weren't other players "pets" for scrappers in the old days?

If that's the case, then Mina only had Mina to blame for all the pets in Mina's missions. ( I keed, I keed 😉)

lol In the old days most of my 50s were support, various trollers, a defender, and blasters (yes fire/rad was the 1st 50). Didn't start with scrappers until the husband changed over to WoW. Interesting, although I remember what all the support heroes were, when I went to create the scrappers here, I honestly couldn't remember what powers the scrappers had. I do remember my husband literally sat down with his spreadsheets to help me with the incarnate stuff.

[Nemeroff]

4 hours ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

... Plus the screams and howls from demons is just wrong on so many levels.

Especially when the pets are loitering in the AH, Icon, and/or University as the player is busy.

Having said that when they're my Demons the noises don't bother me but I don't summon them in such places.

[Greycat]

10 hours ago, Mina said:

 I found pets annoying then and surprisingly still do. Prove me wrong, please.

 

Prove you wrong that you find pets annoying?  How is anyone supposed to prove a preference wrong? I can't stand the taste or texture of sweet potatoes. Others love them. Neither is wrong. *shrug*

[Chaos String]

I remember teaming with a MM on live whose Assault Bot was named, "DoorBlocker 9000."

 

I also remember the patch which no longer required MM pets to be resummoned on every map change.  I remember thinking, "Great, I'll never be able to go to the Black Market again without wading through 3984738 bots making clankity clank noises jumping over themselves to bubble each other."

 

Therefore, it's hard to say with a straight face that people's pets do not annoy me.

 

That said, no, they don't annoy me.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Chaos String

[Neiska]

Personally pet classes in not just CoH but games in general is what I usually lean toward, that or tankers. But I love Masterminds and Crabbers, (just wish crabbys had more oomph.) I've tried a few different Controllers, but I wasn't a fan. From what I have seen in video games, pet classes are a mixed bag. Some people love them, others hate them. But I think thats fair to say about any archtype. I know I loathe playing a clerics/priest/healer sorts. Some MMs can heal quite well, but I wouldn't call that their forte. You can build MMs any way you like, depending on secondary. Which to me is sort of a hidden feature. A scrapper is always gonna scrap. A tanker is always gonna tank. But a MM playstyle can change on pet and secondary parings. A /Dark MM plays very differently from a/Forcefield or /Kinetic MM. Which to me, is a fantastic thing. 

[WanderingAries]

9 hours ago, Snarky said:

Dark days in CoH history.  The advent of Demon pets.  The new thing.  Everybody running them.  Do you seriously know how hard it was for a Brute to make it through Oranbega caves?

 

Oh the caves....

 

But yeah, they've done the update that helps most (?) pet types not be a pain apparently (haven't played in a while). I know that for the longest time on live, you'd have so many pets in the TFs that it was often hard to target without auto-targeting on melee alts. I don't Mind them, but depending on the team makeup and the environment (Caves!!!!!), they certainly can be a hindrance if the caster isn't being proactive with controlling them (as possible).

[WanderingAries]

1 hour ago, Chaos String said:

"Great, I'll never be able to go to the Black Market again without wading through 3984738 bots making clankity clank noises jumping over themselves to bubble each other."

 

Yeah, that always caused a headache when people wouldn't think about others (by not parking their bots outside the standing area).

[WanderingAries]

9 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

If by “pets” you mean other players, I’m so with you.

 

Pets (without fly) that for the longest time people used to TP to just off the top of buildings to their insta-death. Yeah, those were the days. >.<

[Riverdusk]

13 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

Hmm. I know you can easily move through Mastermind pets now, but does that apply to all the other pets as well? I haven't specifically or carefully tested it, mind... but I swear my Brute got blocked in office map doorways a couple of times yesterday by our Dominator's big stone pet and his patron-summon Mu Guardian. 😖

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, the intangible pet thing only applies to MM pets unfortunately.  A change I REALLY wish they'd forward to ALL pets.  Not sure why they haven't.

 

When I play my illusion controller my own phantom army pets can annoy me on occasion as they block me into a room.   I mean, come on, they are phantoms, especially in their case why can't I move through them?

Edited July 26, 2021 by Riverdusk

[Riverdusk]

13 hours ago, Mina said:

In this reincarnation of COH, I tend to play scrappers, generally so I can solo  relatively painlessly. However, for TF, and occas mission teams, I  come across pets. As a scrapper, pets knock me off bridges (I am thinking/cursing of Posi II), block doorways, block enemies and generally just run amuck. What's the big love affair with pets? I just don't get it. Yes I've run those same missions a million times. In the old days, I had like 20 different 50s ( 3 incarnates, as I recall) and multiple different levels of different builds on various servers at the end. I found pets annoying then and surprisingly still do. Prove me wrong, please.

 

As stated, Mastermind pets were changed to not affect other players at all anymore and you can go right through them.  I'd love to see that change made for all pets.

 

As to your issue more in general, it sounds like you are looking for validation about your personal preference more than anything.  Some people have a "love affair with pets" because they find them fun.  I think that is pretty much it.

 

Also, if you really hate teaming with pet users that much, then don't?  Instead of complaining on the forums about how other people enjoy playing the game, you could even start your own teams and just say in LFG, no pets please, when you recruit.  Problem solved?  I'd rather you do that then to be silently cussing me out just because I join a team you're on and I enjoy playing pet classes.   I also enjoy ice cream.

 

[Riverdusk]

4 hours ago, Nemeroff said:

Especially when the pets are loitering in the AH, Icon, and/or University as the player is busy.

Having said that when they're my Demons the noises don't bother me but I don't summon them in such places.

 

Demons are actually easy to shut up when idle.  There are a lot of emote stances you can put them in that will quiet them as long as you are standing in one spot for a while.  I'd always set up a quick macro for just that purpose.   Something like  /macro Eat "petsay_all <em eat>"

 

I find the noisiest ones now a days for just standing around outside combat are beasts (and the dark control dog) and those you can't emote to quiet them unfortunately.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Riverdusk

[tidge]

Time for the PSA, there is a difference between "pets" and "henchmen": Masterminds summon "henchmen" using their primary which can be given orders (including absorb damage given to the MM) and stick around until defeated, everything else is a "pet" (or a "pseudopet").

[Triumphant]

Well, regarding henchmen and pets, the thing that bugs me about them the most is that they run amok and block my line of sight and create a distraction when I'm trying to focus on the combat.  I wish there was a setting in the options menu that I could set to make them invisible to me.  That would honestly solve all problems for me.

 

Getting blocked by the them isn't really a thing for me, most of the time.  I almost always have teleport or combat teleport, so I can escape from most any location if I get jammed up (obviously, this is not a solution for those that don't, of course).