Panther attack speed

isakongming

Ok, I am noticing an issue with the Panther companion opening attack "pounce".

It is so slow that by the time it actually "pounces" the mob is already dead. This is on normal mobs. This basically makes the companion useless except for elites or higher because after the pounce triggers (about a second after the mob is already dead) there is a delay of another 2 seconds before it will then start to move to the next mob to do another attack, by which time, I am finishing off a second mob and moving to a third where it MAY get in a claw attack before its dead.

I am not asking to make pounce "faster", but is there a way we can make Claw the opening primary attack? Or a hotkey to send the pet to attack a target while I then attack another? As is, the pet isn't very good for anything than as a bragging right once game opens to the public.

projx

Agreed the panther AI needs love...

avalon2099

+1 for this

iamviperswhip

Yep, he's pretty useless unless it is sustained combat.

lexthegreat

I actually made a similar thread on the Gen forums. I couldn't agree more.

iamviperswhip wrote: »

Yep, he's pretty useless unless it is sustained combat.

And even then the wolf from the GoN pack far overshadows the panther. If you have both packs, try using the wolf and you will never want to go back to the panther.
Something about the panther's AI, animations, and attack speed is either wonky or poorly designed.

ledarr

I finally got my panther last night, and then I played this morning, and wow, by the time I engaged, with my ranged spells I typically would have the groups down and done before the panther decided to attack. Most games that allows pet classes, have a attack button, as a wizard it would be nice to send in your striker first let them agro, while you blast away. But have heart is this not open beta, so hopefully someone will notice.

However, it seems to me as I have no evidence is that the cat seemed to get faster as he went up in levels, so this could be a leveling issue too. A manual on occasion could go a long way, as D&D traditionally is all about the stats.

Yenkin - Lvl 10 Control wizard

kotli

The panther's 2 sec attack takes longer than 2 secs as well.

toadoflicking

Yeah. Even in sustained battles, I end up doing all the work. At least judging by his animations, the cat will barely ever attack. It'll pounce in late, then swat lazily at the enemies. It just doesn't appear that it's doing much of anything.

agash22

+1 for this

iymala

Agree....the cat is very disappointing as it is. It takes entirely too long to engage an enemy thus making it useless for almost every encounter.

isakongming

Ok then, lets keep this thread on the first page and hope they see it, with no real testing, odds are they don't know...

malfar1

I agree it is bad.

seitoh

The grey panther is useless like this. I sure hope they fix it promptly!

somebob

The problem is that pet AI has been a mess among Cryptic's games for a while now. STO/CO isn't not that bad (sorta) as both games have a 'attack my target' button that you can press, along with the general 'automatically attack what the player is fighting' feature.

The issue is that NW does not have that 'attack my target' button so you can have them lunge in before the player gets their first swing in. If Cryptic tossed that up, some of the problems would be solved methinks.

lexthegreat

somebob wrote: »

The problem is that pet AI has been a mess among Cryptic's games for a while now. STO/CO isn't not that bad (sorta) as both games have a 'attack my target' button that you can press, along with the general 'automatically attack what the player is fighting' feature.

The issue is that NW does not have that 'attack my target' button so you can have them lunge in before the player gets their first swing in. If Cryptic tossed that up, some of the problems would be solved methinks.

But the wolf doesn't have this issue. It attacks without any problems.

isakongming

somebob wrote: »

The problem is that pet AI has been a mess among Cryptic's games for a while now. STO/CO isn't not that bad (sorta) as both games have a 'attack my target' button that you can press, along with the general 'automatically attack what the player is fighting' feature.

The issue is that NW does not have that 'attack my target' button so you can have them lunge in before the player gets their first swing in. If Cryptic tossed that up, some of the problems would be solved methinks.

This issue is only with the Panther, but yeah...would love an attack button for my pet.

memorythought

Mouse button 3 for pet attack would be pretty nice and would open up the game to more of the directed pet classes as well, with a directed pet sharing the commands with your companion.

But it might also be a little late for that. :-/

mbomberdavid

isakongming wrote: »

Ok, I am noticing an issue with the Panther companion opening attack "pounce".

It is so slow that by the time it actually "pounces" the mob is already dead. This is on normal mobs. This basically makes the companion useless except for elites or higher because after the pounce triggers (about a second after the mob is already dead) there is a delay of another 2 seconds before it will then start to move to the next mob to do another attack, by which time, I am finishing off a second mob and moving to a third where it MAY get in a claw attack before its dead.

I am not asking to make pounce "faster", but is there a way we can make Claw the opening primary attack? Or a hotkey to send the pet to attack a target while I then attack another? As is, the pet isn't very good for anything than as a bragging right once game opens to the public.

your right

nightsiren0410

Direwolf attack faster and harder than panther,plus knockback enemy.

lexthegreat

nightsiren0410 wrote: »

Direwolf attack faster and harder than panther,plus knockback enemy.

Yes, exactly. I really see no point to the Panther ATM if you have the wolf.

bruddajokka

Especially noticable on a Rogue where most fights are over before they start if you know how to use stealth properly. Slightly more useful on bigger mobs, but he's usually only out when the Cleric is training.

masabooooooo

i gave up the panther when he was just rank3

lordwrider

Agree I like having the panther by my side but the panther stay by my side too long while I am doing all the attacking. Needs to get in the fight quicker or better have an attack button so I can send panther in first.

projx

Fights start to take a while longer @ 20+.. Panther @ lvl 10 cleric @ lvl 9 atm.

ragemonkey83

yeah I have to say I have got mine to 27 and its no better, fight is done and he is still there looking at dropping its first attack. its ok on bosses but they also have high resist to knock down so it really wont shine there either.

I agree making claw primary would be great, and my god an attack button would be gold.......

just hope the devs get it sorted.

sirdregar73

Yes they defiantly need to do something about this. It is so slow that everything is dead before it moves.

malkavianite

Switched to the Tier 1 companion you get for free at level 16, because anything is better than Slowpaws McFail

athrogathe

I ended up buying the rock golem and the badger because I was so annoyed by the panther. While the badger is faster at engaging mobs, it also has many flaws. Sometimes it won't attack and it is also way too slow sometimes.

The rock golem is by far the better of the three. It actually does a decent job and engages quickly. However, from my closed beta experience, the healer is just way better than any of them, because her main role is to heal. After they increased her healing, I kinda wished they could offer us a both better AI for the badger and panther (should have been worked on tbh....) and a lvl 30 healer companion. There are currently none.

bcvapor

Yep, he's Panther McFail. Same issue.

lexthegreat

athrogathe wrote: »

I ended up buying the rock golem and the badger because I was so annoyed by the panther. While the badger is faster at engaging mobs, it also has many flaws. Sometimes it won't attack and it is also way too slow sometimes.

The rock golem is by far the better of the three. It actually does a decent job and engages quickly. However, from my closed beta experience, the healer is just way better than any of them, because her main role is to heal. After they increased her healing, I kinda wished they could offer us a both better AI for the badger and panther (should have been worked on tbh....) and a lvl 30 healer companion. There are currently none.

If you can get your hands on the wolf from the GoN pack, it's pretty awesome too. Best striker out there, and the damage it deals is sick.

No idea how Cryptic let this Panther thing happen. Wasn't it tested during the beta? Cryptic is an amazing company so I expect a lot (STO lifer, CoH subber for almost 3 years), and they really dropped the ball here.

projx

It happened because they speed implemented these items which imo is why they had to patch the tattoo's in. Hopefully over the course of Beta these things get addressed.