Guild Wars 2

WvW player pets are beyond annoying when targeting players. When in large battles I can hardly select players using my key-bind “Select Nearest Target”. I don’t mind turning to kill a pet in the group of players, but when this is all I select first out of the mass amount of players, it gets annoying quickly. I tab target again, only to have selected another pet.

Mesmer’s should be an exception to this rule, of course, as it is simply their build.

This game needs an option that players can select saying “Do not target enemy pet’s” — badly! I have spoken to several players, in /T in WvW, on my server and everyone is in agreement. A few said No, but the majority would like this option within the game.

Another feature I would like to see hapkitten Enemy Mobs within WvW zone need another name plate color. Red is a bad color in a WvW area with Mobs . At least make them Purple, or something to easily separate the distinction between an Enemy and a Mob. (it’s bad enough having tons of player pets, players and mob names all showing up as Red)

Folks, please keep the conversational thread on topic. This thread is not about Pets usefulness, it is about a Tab Targeting feature.

Pets really need to get either scrapped from the game entirely (I play a Ranger in WvW, thank you), or get a complete overhaul to not suck as much as they do now. You can tell there is something very wrong with their current design when players actively call for removal of pet targeting and would rather ignore the enemy pets altogether.

Considering the current state the pets are in, I support the OP’s request. Or additionally, drop all pets from the game (read: make it a possibility to play without them), give all pets-dependent professions back their stats they lost because of those worthless little buggers, and call it a day. I can guarantee that from that moment on, you won’t see a single person running with a pet - in WvW - anymore, thus also solving this particular targeting issue.

Heck, the target spam is one of the few things they are useful for.

They don’t dodge or move out of AE’s or otherwise react intelligently in combat, so they kind NEED to be statistically buffed up to compensate.

"Heck, the target spam is one of the few things they are useful for."

Thank you, this is probably the most awesome (and true) statement about pets I’ve read in these forums.

Sorry, I can not agree with pet target spam as being part of the game. You guys should be lucky to even have pets.

If I want to kill a pet, I should manually target it, not auto.

I could see the mention of pet target spam as an obvious take at sarcasm, and well executed, so to say.

Playing a Ranger, I can only guess that this is how most of us actually feel. Since pets are completely dumb, very weak, almost uncontrollable, using their skills purely on random without any logic whatsoever, and I’m not even going into the ton of actual bugs involving them, most of us simply ignore them and let them roam freely around the battlefield, as the only other option left is setting them on "avoid battle", making them even more worthless and that much annoying, constantly tripping a step behind your back (you can’t even "lock them in" and let them stay unsummoned, as they automatically pop out the moment you take a first hit).

As for being lucky to have a pet, you’re forgetting that because of them, "pet-classes" (let’s say Rangers and partially Necros) got heavily weakened, as by theory, they should be getting half of their damage output from their pet (that especially in the case of Rangers).

You know how much they do. You know why you ignore pets, and why we all ignore them. Because in WvW, they’re completely worthless, and laughable.

A-net has never done well with pets. Ever. But, removing them just because they’re bad in WvW isn’t exactly a solution. They’re still good for solo PvE, serve a pretty good purpose in PvP, as they give knockdown, cripple, two seconds of quickness, and fear or immobilize every 20 seconds...

So no, they don’t need to go away.

See the rest of the sentence:

"Or additionally, drop all pets from the game (read: make it a possibility to play without them), give all pets-dependent professions back their stats they lost because of those worthless little buggers"

Or without putting it sarcastically: Currently there is no possibility to play a Ranger without a pet, so people are forced to run with them, despite them having no useful role in WvW (yes, they work somewhat better in PVE and sPVP). And this, kind of unintentionally, results int he OP’s original problem.

There is no useful purpose for pets in WvW (and I’m obviously not counting lone 1v1 encounters here), other than enemies occasionally tripping over them. There are good and viable builds for a Necromancer to play without his summons. There is no such possibility for a Ranger, it’s a class constantly crippled by its (pointlessly roaming and smacking headlong into walls) pet.

I say, give Rangers the opportunity to get rid of their pet, but boosting their stats (i.e. damage output) accordingly, so they are comparable to other classes, if they wish to go that route. Easy, isn’t it? Only that it will never happen, of course.

It’s just a bad idea to remove them, just for WvW. They do actually have a purpose, and it’s just that, to trip people up. The OP tries to just tab/target around, and finds himself wasting skills on pets, or having to actually manually target.

Cannon fodder, while not glamorous, is serving it’s purpose very well.

Having the ability to play without a pet doesn’t equal in removing them from WvW.

Having a particular class crippled only so it can run with an unguided mine that messes up people’s targeting doesn’t make a good class design.

If you think rangers are crippled, look at the actual damage output on a longbow/greatsword build, and compare it to how much damage the pet is actually doing.

I can’t say pets should be removed, just the Auto/Tab targeting shouldn’t be targeting the pet ‘first’.

Target nearest = target nearest. Maybe you should be using a different button?

TBH, even in just PVE I think it’d be easier to play a ranger without a pet. They kinda-sorta provide a brief sponge for enemy damage but it’s no good if you take on a few stronger things and kite.

Against any decent thing as well, like in an event, they just die constantly and need reviving or get ignored for the rest of the battle because it’s not worth the time.

My pet doesn’t die that often, maybe it’s the build. I run a Greatsword/Longbow ranger, with Rampage as One for an elite. I use a wolf, and an alpine wolf. I’ve got the Wilderness Survival trait that gives him and myself protection when I dodge roll. He is healed every time I am healed... I swap, often, and that’s really the key.