Guild Wars 2

Ok, I have played pet classes a fair bit in several mmos now, and I’ve read a number of threads about rangers and pets here, and playing a ranger atm I really think pets need more health/resilience.

1. In a fantasy mmo like this, pets are meant to be companions, not disposable pixels
2. Pet choice and pet swapping ought to be primarily about strategy, not primarily an adaptation to the fact that pets just don’t live long enough. This is probably the biggest issue. So many people say they deal with the poor longevity of pets by having the same kind of pet, usually a bear, and by constantly swapping them. Imo, this is not in the spirit of the game.

If the main way of dealing with poor pet longevity is to swap, then Rangers may as well just have one pet with double the hp/resilience. I would much prefer this than spending my time constantly over concerned about my pet’s health. The Ranger could still have all the different pets to choose from, but can only swap ooc.

3. Pets shouldn’t be the limiting factor in deciding which build to go. They should complement and augment, not limit. Again, it ought to be about stratgey, not driven by the fact that their hp is too low. I’ve read a number of posts now that recommend players spec Beast Mastery (as well as only have bears and constantly swap), again, as the way to adapt to the fact that pets just don’t live long enough. Again, it doesn’t seem in the spirit of the game.

When a fight isn’t overmobbed, you can generally see your pet’s health to pull them back or swap. But when there are a lot of mobs or players too often by the time there’s warning that the pet needs healing, it’s too late. It’s good now that the pet self-heals ooc, but then Rangers are down an essential part of their gameplay. Sure, you can then swap pets, but then there is a cd penalty because you’ve swapped a dead pet.

Atm, pets are too unreliable, especially with all the other issues that I know are being looked at (which is great btw). Their low health really makes them a liability too often. I would like to read the rationale from Anet about why pet health/resilience is what it is atm, cos it really doesn’t seem to fit with the spirit of the Ranger and the game.

I’m not saying pets should be unkillable, there needs to be balance. But atm the balance is way out.

Ways to fix this:
1. double pet health (I think it’s really that bad)
2. make them much tougher
3. a bit of 1 and 2
the problem with these is that players would still use pet swapping and so in effect making one op pet., so other options:
4. provide a regular, reliable heal of some description, eg on autoattack either from the ranger or the pet, that isn’t limited by build or weapon.
5. or have just one much more resilient pet when in combat, and only be able to swap ooc … personally I prefer this.

I really want to enjoy the pleasure of choosing my pets based on strategy and managing them accordingly, but atm it’s hard to find situations where I can do that.

Use a bear or learn to play.

runeblade.7514:

Use a bear or learn to play.

yeah right …. what a thoughtful answer to my post … clearly you haven’t read the many complaints about pets or thought through the responses made.

l2 troll better or learn how to read

runeblade.7514:

Use a bear or learn to play.

Provide proper helpful feedback, or don’t reply at all. This isn’t the place for that behavior/response.

If you have the time to type that, you had the time to explain why pet balance is fine as it is, and how to better make use with that balance. You could point to sources to read. You could do anything helpful.

That, was just being pathetic.

But pet balance does seem fine to me, as they are squishy but also useful. They are a resource to manage, that needs careful attention. There would need to be balance between improving their survivability and not making it too much when specced into. In WvW, you can see pets running into and out of masses of combat and trying to pick off players, and not taking as much damage as you think they should. They seem to survive everything. But I’m a second-hand observer.

I just wish the pets had maybe a little more AOE resistance. That would be kind of nice.

Still, it could be worse. They could be like the necro pets =D

What level ranger are you and what traits are you using? I’m currently level 65, I tend to die much faster than my pets ever do, even in WvW. Actually, they are usually the last to go down. I personally use wolves, birds and moas, and rarely switch them out, unless for boss battles. If you spec beast mastery with Signet of the wild and properly manage your companion in battle, you shouldn’t have any issues. They can dodge and avoid attacks just as effectively as you can with the right commands.

Hsinimod.5784:

runeblade.7514:

Use a bear or learn to play.

Provide proper helpful feedback, or don’t reply at all. This isn’t the place for that behavior/response.

If you have the time to type that, you had the time to explain why pet balance is fine as it is, and how to better make use with that balance. You could point to sources to read. You could do anything helpful.

That, was just being pathetic.

But pet balance does seem fine to me, as they are squishy but also useful. They are a resource to manage, that needs careful attention. There would need to be balance between improving their survivability and not making it too much when specced into. In WvW, you can see pets running into and out of masses of combat and trying to pick off players, and not taking as much damage as you think they should. They seem to survive everything. But I’m a second-hand observer.

Sure that is one way to make use of pets. But WvW isn’t the only place they need to be used, and chances are they are running out of masses of combat because their hp can’t take the damage in there and the players can’t tell how much health they have left. So the choices are to keep pet swapping, which takes up too much playtime especially considering the constant monitoring it requires, or to use the pet to pick off stragglers. But that limits their role considerably.

You are right that there needs to be a balance, but atm the balance isn’t there. There is no point having pets that are so weak that the only way they can be resilient is with one particular build. If that is really the case then pets need a rethink.

Nimmi.1650:

What level ranger are you and what traits are you using? I’m currently level 65, I tend to die much faster than my pets ever do. Usually they are the last to go down. I personally use wolf and moas, and rarely switch them out, unless for boss battles. If you spec beast mastery with Signet of the wild and properly manage your companion in battle you shouldn’t have any issues. They can dodge and avoid attacks just as effectively as you can with the right commands.

My ranger is currently 35. However I’ve played pet classes in other mmos and found them much better only because the pets are more resilient without being op compared to other classes. I rarely die. On dungeon trash mobs you’re right, pets are usually fine because they aren’t catching the aggro. Yes, I swap in boss fights and in general pve and pvp. I mostly use hyena and dog for their cc abilities and the hyena’s ally which is great. I’ve tried moa as well, they are slow, but have use. I’m not having a problem levelling etc, but find micromanaging pets around this issue takes way more time than it should, and it really is because they don’t have enough health/resilience.

You say spec beast mastery …. but my point is you shouldn’t have to spec a particular spec for pets to be resilient enough. There ought to be a base pet resilience independent of build. Atm that base resilience is way too low. That limits rangers to one build. Where’s the fun in that?

Use spiders ? They can dish damage and cripple/poison/weaken/Immobilize from far. They have high toughness and survive a bit from a Risen mob. Sylvari Hounds can howl heal in mid combat. Spring and howl, mightly refreshing.

I agree with the OP here. Rangers and their pets have poor interaction in game. Using pets is like a carrot and stick game with a button click. Go out, Bite something. Come back. Go out and bite again. Lately they even removed the option of reviving beaten pets, which in my opinion, made ranger class quite unappealing. And no, pet swapping is not enough.

Pets in game, especially in PVE, should really have beefed up resistances or perhaps certain immunity to a condition. Having only unique abilities is bland.