Raise Skeleton and Summon Blight Fiend currently work differently from other pets summons. Instead of summoning immediately, it will do one of two things:
Upon mouse click on quickbar: changes cursor to target, and must be targeted to cast. Will cause player to move to target location if too far from target.
Upon hotkey press: will either cast spell at target location, or cause player to move toward target location and then cast.
Please change this to work consistently with other pets (such as Summon Hellhound) and summon the pets instantly nearby upon mouse click or key press. The current targeting mechanism is bad for a number of reasons:[ul]
[li]Causes unwanted player movement straight into enemies where the player’s cursor is often hovering to cast debuffs, especially with the short summoning range of Summon Blight Fiend.[/li]
[li]Pets are often not summoned properly when the player is moving (and pet builds are often kiting), and even successful summons interrupt movement.[/li]
[li]Pets are also often not summoning properly when multiple hotkeys are hit in quick succession, such as mixing debuffs and resummoning short-lived pets as part of a spell rotation.[/li]
[li]Targeting summons is ripe for unintended consequences and exploits, such as summoning pets below ledges or across chasms (I’ve already cheesed numerous enemies this way). Pets are also accidentally summoned somewhere unreachable much more frequently than before.[/ul][/li]If there’s some reason why the Necromancer summon spells should have different activation than the Occultist and Shaman summons, please help us understand the reasoning (other than for Reap Spirit of course). Thanks!
Two options here: either set the pets to Aggressive by right clicking on their icons and choosing that mode which means they’ll then charge in as soon as they detect any foe (skellies do this automatically so can’t be changed) or substitute Pet Attack for the weapon attack on the LMB. Pets will then go where you tell them without you moving I believe.
This isn’t about pet behavior per se, but rather the mechanics of activating the pet summon ability itself. If you compare the activation of the Necromancer summon abilities versus the Shaman/Occultist ones, you’ll find that they activate differently, as described in my original post.[ul]
[li]Shaman/Occultist: Select ability, and pet summons instantly next to you.[/li]
[li]Necromancer: Select ability, and either cursor changes to target reticle (for mouse click) or walk-to-cast if necessary (for hotkey press).[/ul][/li]The Necromancer summoning abilities in question should activate just like their Shaman/Occultist counterparts to avoid the negative behaviors I described.
Ah, I see. Sorry I misunderstood what you were talking about. I’ve had that a few times myself in a mod for the game, but don’t think I’ve experienced it with Necromancer summons. Have you tried holding down the left-shift key while summoning?
Yep and because of this (and the world design) sometime they dont actually summon. You are used to the old way and if u didnt click/or clicked wrong you dont have necro summons. Imagine a tight hc fight
Frankly, I personally prefer the Necromancer way and would make all pets targeted casts so they appear closer to where I want them to be, but I use hotkeys.
I have to agree with DaShiv.
I even thought the skill was bugged because it’d sometimes not be cast when I pressed the hotkey, especially when kiting and/or pushing hotkeys in sequence. For the sake of a more cohesive and coherent gameplay, please change these skills.
No, i use hotkeys. But when mouse pointer is over some wall or other obstacle on pressing hotkey - no skellies/blightfiend… and this is super annoying in HC Crucible. I beg you… =)
Zantai, I’m pretty sure DaShiv’s point was that whether your click on the skill or use a hotkey, there are some unwanted behaviours. Personally, I find it pretty frustrating that if I want I summon normally, my archers and mages show up in the middle of an enemy pack and die. I want them behind me, but to do that I need to move my mouse in between casting Dreeg’s, and then if I try to keep up the Dreeg’s spam I end up shooting eyes into the middle of nowhere. I think it would make a lot more sense for them to work like every other summon so that my skeleton warriors can run into the fray and my archers and mages can stay behind me without an extra hoop to jump through, unlike all of the other summons. Maybe if the dev team likes targeted summoning, it could be worked into a modifier?
Pretty much this! Summoning pets in tight fight or kiting without thinking where is your cursor already in my muscle memory after 1200 hr in GD. And Necro behavior doesn’t fit with this memory…
Were the “upcoming changes” included in this most recent patch (1.0.2.1)? For both necro summons, I’m still experiencing failed summons while moving, when cursor is in the wrong place, etc. What have other people’s experiences been since the patch?
In particular, summoning range for blight fiends is extremely short and fails constantly when using the Unstable Anomaly transmuter.
I strongly agree with the OP and the rest of the players on this one. Instead of fixing targeted pet spawns, why not just make them instant, non-targeted like all the other pets?
Failing to summon skeletons doesn’t happen often, but it should happen never. Also, in the heat of battle, it’s inconvenient to stop while casting a skill with a global cooldown when the rest are instant.
Pets move fast enough (especially at higher levels with total speed) that we don’t really need to choose where to summon them. Honestly, the only thought I put into my mouse cursor while summoning skeletons is to ensure that it’s within its cast range and not obstructed so they don’t fail to summon.
Personally I’d hate to have the summoning of the Necro pets changed and I’m totally baffled why people are moving the mouse out of the combat area, down to the hotbar, clicking on an icon and then moving the mouse back to where the combat is rather than simply pressing the corresponding key… just why take all that extra time with your mouse out of the combat area :undecided::undecided:
As for the issues raided by the OP
Learn your skills and don’t cast something beyond its range, same as other skills such as shooting an enemy with a ranged weapon or skill… your char moves into range and then fires.
in the months of testing a pure Necro summoner the only times I’ve noticed summons not summoning is when my mouse cursor is on terrain that they cannot spawn on…eg trees, rocks etc
Never had this problem.
how is this any different from hitting mobs across a gap with any ranged skill or ranged weapon ?
The main reason I’d hate this to change is the loss of tactical advantage in combat. If it was changed then your summoner, sitting back from the battle, would have all the new summons appear beside him and then have to wait while it moves forward to reach the mob and attack.
As it is my summoner can stand back and by simply keeping my mouse cursor over the mob I can summon fresh pets directly into the middle of the fight without having to wait for them to run and start attacking.
