I've been playing WAR for more than 18 months and am still learning new things all the time. My Engineer is a great example. I never really used his turret (pet) much due to the low damage and inability to really control it. A few days ago, I found out it can be controlled.
Turrets and other pets can be set to aggressive, defend and passive. They also have several special abilities which are usually set to auto. That was pretty much all the control I thought I had over it. While browsing the WAR forums, I saw a fellow Engineer mention wanting to put his turrets special abilities on the hotbar. It got me thinking and I remembered a pet addon.
LoyalPet is an add-on which allows you to have more control over your pet whether it be a lion, squig, daemon or turret. I never realized it could keep you and your pet on the same target. So when I switch targets to a healer, my turret will also start firing on them. This has made my turret feel much more useful.
This is especially true for my gun turret. Its special abilities are an armor debuff and machine gun. The armor debuff is very helpful as a lot of players are sporting armor potions. Since rifle skills are mostly physical damage, getting the debuff on your target is very helpful.
The machine gun ability is also very important despite its low damage. Due to its rapid fire, it can setback/interrupt a caster or healer. With LoyalPet, all this happens with no micromanagement.
Alright, back to the original question. Can you control your pets abilities from the hotbar? Yes you can, with a macro. Type this in your chat box, with a flame turret out:
/script CommandPetDoAbility(425)
That's all there is to it. You can put the above into a macro and place it on your hotbar. Here are the other numbers, taken from LoyalPet.
White Lion
Lions Roar: 429
Leg Tear: 431
Shred: 430
Gut Ripper: 434
Maul: 433
Fang and Claw: 432
Terrifying Roar: 428
Bite: 426
Claw Sweep: 427
Engineer
Penetrating Round: 420
Flamethrower: 424
Shock Grenade: 422
High-Explosive Grenade: 423
Machine Gun: 421
Steam Vent: 425
Magus
Daemonic Fire: 443
Warping Energy: 445
Flame of Tzeentch: 447
Flames of Change: 448
Coruscating Energy: 446
Daemonic Consumption: 444
Squig Herder
Squig Squeal: 442
Gore: 438
Goop Shootin: 440
Poisoned Spine: 437
Spine Fling: 436
Spore Cloud: 441
Head Butt: 439
Death From Above: 435
