Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

[Roburn]

So my Artificer is slowly working his way up and is now level 11. Its been a joy to watch my pet iron defender “Fluffy” grow in size from a small puppy to the size he is now. The only thing is that while my intelligence has been steadily increasing level to level, Fluffy has been growing more and more stupid.

When I first got Fluffy I was reading about there being problems with the AI but I didn't really see the problem as Fluffy seemed to be a well behaved dog and mostly did as I asked but now he's a total nightmare and he just keeps getting worse.

I think he's been reading up on zerging as he often just runs off as far as he can get until he hits a door or other obstacle, he doesn't care that there may be dozens of angry mobs in his path. Now to be fair if I call him back he will eventually come to me but then he'll instantly turn around and be off again even if I ask him to stay where he is.

One thing I've noticed though is that when he is on one of his zerg runs, he doesn't aggro anything? I was running a quest last night and as the group was stood waiting for our “let me get the traps”, 8 con, 65hp, no fort, “don't worry I'm good at avoiding damage” ding, ding, ding Rogue (that's a whole other story) to disable a trap I looked up ahead to where Fluffy had run off to and I could see that next to the door he was attacking there were several mobs who were just stood there not bothering with him at all. “Hey Bob, look at this enormous metallic dog with the huge spikes on his back and snarling razor sharp teeth and claws. I've been guarding this door for the last several years - never seen him before.” “Me neither Bill, but anyway guess we better get back to looking out for anything that may look suspicious.”

Another thing he does (or doesn't do) - I'm getting attacked form all sides – Fluffy will more often than not either stand and watch me with a toothy grin and do nothing as the *@#! is getting kicked out of me or he'll savage those couple of wooden crates that are lying around next to us – that'll teach those nasty creatures that just beat up my master.

I've tried to be a good master, I take him for long walks around Stormreach, feed him a good iron enriched pet food and even read the latest “Iron Defender Whisperer” book but he just gets worse. I dread to think what he's going to be like by the time I reach cap.

Anyone else having more & more problems the bigger they get?

[Chauncey1]

I haven't had it that bad with my pet, but similar stuff has happened before.
What sort of enhancements do you have on your pet?
I've been keeping mine on defensive mostly, until we get mobbed, then I let him loose.

[Roburn]

I haven't had it that bad with my pet, but similar stuff has happened before.
What sort of enhancements do you have on your pet?
I've been keeping mine on defensive mostly, until we get mobbed, then I let him loose.

He's mainly specced for bluff and avoidance as I'm trying the evasion route with him and he used to do what he was asked but now level by level he's getting more & more disobedient

[Chauncey1]

He's mainly specced for bluff and avoidance as I'm trying the evasion route with him and he used to do what he was asked but now level by level he's getting more & more disobedient

Hmm...that doesn't sound like he should be running off...I've read in other forums, it's one build set, (sorry, I'm new here, don't have the lingo down yet) that was causing the pets to go all woolly.
I'm trying for the aggro build for my pet, and it seems to be working ok most of the time. But sometimes he just goes full tard and gets me killed. Or brings back a mob when I call him back...which can be alright sometimes actually, if you're ready for it.

[andreascott89]

I think when you add either bluff or intimidate, the problem occurs when they try to bluff or intimidate something that is immune.

They seem to get all miffed about the the target being immune and then just sit down and sulk!

I am just avoiding bluff/intimi until they fix it...

J

[Roburn]

I think when you add either bluff or intimidate, the problem occurs when they try to bluff or intimidate something that is immune.

They seem to get all miffed about the the target being immune and then just sit down and sulk!

I am just avoiding bluff/intimi until they fix it...

J

I know he goes a bit crazy on the guildship with the training dummy when he gets the target being immune. He'll attack it, get the message, stop attacking and run back to me then wait a while before running off to attack it again. I think I'll reset his enhancements and maybe try taking the bluff off him and see if that makes a difference.

[smeggy1384]

The sunder armor and trip definatly cause the pet to target barrels. Not had much problem with my pet while it was intim, the AC line, HP line, and the ac+reflex save line... it did occasionally go crazy, but overall was working fine 90% of the time.

I just respecced it to get the rogue capstone, so now have bluff, ac/evasion, both dex stats, and a few other skills now. Haven't gotten to run anything to test that out. Most likely(once i run a few quests later to test) going to go back to ac/dr/tank stuff though, looks a bit squishy.