Animal Handling tips for beginners
I'll go straight to the point: some workarounds/tactics that experienced AH players use aren't intuitive to a new player(even counter-intuitive in a few cases). Therefore I will be making a list that should lower people's headaches when using the skill.
If you know anything else, please contribute to this topic so I can edit the OP.
- Learn to use the unsummon button. The red X in the pet screen unsummons your pet(instantly makes it vanish). Use it to save it's life, to avoid having it go where it shouldn't, to resummon it quickly if it gets stuck somewhere due to poor pathing. This will save you a LOT of happiness/first aid kits/stable trips in the long run.
- Level multiple pets. Hopefully you unsummoned your pet before it died, saving it - but now one action bar is useless! That is, if you don't have other pets. Summon the next one and keep fighting. Just remember to heal all of them afterwards!
- Your AH gear only matters when you summon the pet. When you summon a pet, the server checks all your gear mods and creates a pet with said buffs. Here's the thing: you can add or remove gear afterwards - nothing will change. So, if you have gear that gives Enthusiasm/Evasion to your pet but isn't good enough for everyday use, it's worth it to equip it, summon the pet, then return to wearing your usual pieces.
- Learn what pet stats mean. Enthusiasm = critical hit chance + how fast the pets gain happiness. Happiness = how fast the pet gains exp to level(you need to pay a fee at any Stables to level your pet). If the pet dies, it loses half it's happiness! Bond level = how attached the pet is to you. Bond levels grant extra HP, armor and damage, and never go down - they increase by just using the pet in combat.
- Use "Get It Off Me" BEFORE you start the fight. We are entering counterintuitive territory here. GIOM has 30 seconds duration and cooldown, gives your pet a small defense buff, and makes your pet aggro as if it did 4 times as much damage. While the buff certainly helps to get an enemy off of your ass... it's way better to never have it there in the first place!
- Pets can't fight multiple mobs at once. At the current state of the game, all that's left is for us to accept it. Two are doable; three are not. So, you have to plan around this if you're going to use AH as one of your main skills. I strongly recommend using a secondary skill that has some kind of CC in it so you can keep a third mob in place while you deal with the first two as needed.
- Combat modes. These don't mean much, unfortunately. In general, Guard Me makes the pet try to follow you, but if you're attacked/it is attacked, it'll stay back and fight the attacker(useful if you need a distraction, just remember to unsummon it). Assist makes it move to engage something you engaged yourself, even before it hits you back(might aggro other mobs on the way). Follow makes it try to ignore enemies hitting it and follow you, but every hit taken will stagger it a bit, as it'll try to hit back. Finally, Stay makes it sit on it's ass and not move(it'll still attack enemies in melee range).
- Learn to pull/engage. Another counterintuitive one, since you should NOT send your pet in front of you. The proper technique to combine AH and bodypulls is this: Set pet to Stay mode outside the enemy's aggro range; approach one enemy until he(and only him) notices you and moves to attack; retreat outside the aggro range, using Get It Off Me; use Sic'Em to make your pet charge towards the enemy and attack it, getting the aggro almost instantly. Proceed to kill the mob as usual. As long as your pet doesn't enter the rest of the pack's aggro range at any moment, you shouldn't have problems using this method.
