Anet should really add the option to permanently stow a pet, so that it only comes out if a person wants it to. I would play a ranger for traps and such, but the pet just annoys me.
Just think though, we’d need a hotkey for stowing/summoning our pets. In another game I play previously summoning a pet took a while, especially in combat. Could you imagine running in circles to kite a boss because you forgot to call your pet to you?
I think we should be able to perma-stow our pet, so that people could have a choice.
I mean, it could be like that:
If your pet is out, you get a percentage cut down of your atributes, depending on the number of trait points you put on BM. That way, rangers that do not want pets would not be handcapped by them, and the ones that like pets (like me) could make use of that extra skills linked to a mindless AI like it is already.
Ranger without pet: 100% of their atributes.
Ranger without pet: 100% – x%, x depending on the number of points you put on the BM trait line.
The trigger to that change would be the stow pet button.
Just for the record, like it is now the rangers already get a major cut on their DPS because of the pet. A percentage of the ranger’s DPS is already linked to the pet. If the pet is dead (and if you are running a dungeon and the boss has AoE attacks, it will be) we hit like a wet noodle.
Someone that knows about balance and stuff can come up with a better system, I am sure, but it would be cool to have this kind of choice, just like I don’t want my necro to be a MM. It is probably a stupid suggestion anyway.
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
This is kind of like asking them to remove clones from a mesmer or kits from an engineer . Its a primary function of the class that cant simply be removed . You always have the LB warrior or SB thief if you want to use a bow but not a pet .
Yeah, there should be an option for ranger to permanently stow a pet but only in PvE, for in PvP a pet is very important! This is just beyond irritating! You take falling dmg – pet appears, you attack something – pet appears, you go underwater – pet appears!
Melandru dammit, NO! Get back into the Petaball and sit there, ’till I summon you!
This is kind of like asking them to remove clones from a mesmer or kits from an engineer . Its a primary function of the class that cant simply be removed . You always have the LB warrior or SB thief if you want to use a bow but not a pet .
Actually, nobody is asking them to remove pets, just to make them optional like clones and minions.
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
This is kind of like asking them to remove clones from a mesmer or kits from an engineer . Its a primary function of the class that cant simply be removed . You always have the LB warrior or SB thief if you want to use a bow but not a pet .
Actually, nobody is asking them to remove pets, just to make them optional like clones and minions.
This. Anyone who’s tried to do some of the trickier jumping puzzles (that usually knock you off, or has combat involved i.e. Not so Secret) will understand why its important to have an option to force-stow a pet until commanded back. In particular for an Asuran Ranger – most pets will probably envelop you!
I’m fine with the possible reduction in damage when stowed like that. 99% of the time its for getting from A to B while being able to see where I’m going. :p
“The Meta Game does not stop at the game. Ever.” — Me
I like to view MMOs through the lazy eye of a Systems Admin, and the critical eye of a
Project Manager. You’ve been warned. ;-)
All I can say to this, is that you knew what a ranger was when you started playing it however long ago that was. If your not happy with it you got one option. Play something else.
“We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.”
I actually did do that (also because playing an Asura kept giving me giggle fits – too cute for its own good ;-) ).
But I do understand the concern and issues, so support this kind of change.
“The Meta Game does not stop at the game. Ever.” — Me
I like to view MMOs through the lazy eye of a Systems Admin, and the critical eye of a
Project Manager. You’ve been warned. ;-)
All I can say to this, is that you knew what a ranger was when you started playing it however long ago that was. If your not happy with it you got one option. Play something else.
Yeah! How dare them suggest QoL changes! I mean, it is not like rangers are ANYTHIG but a pet class, since they have absolutely NO skills or traits that are completely unrelated to the pet. Also, how dare them want to be able to run dungeons and not having to rely a big percentage of their DPS on a mindless AI that can’t dogde! They should have known that all the new dungeons and boss encounters would have AoE attacks!
Really?
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
@Runeblade – The problem is, that there are some people who enjoy playin’ as Ranger the most. Other classes are just “meh” for ‘em.
And they can’t enjoy their favorite class in 100% because of that stupid pet that stalks you everywhere and all the time! Got it?
The play style of the thief and warrior are different from the Ranger. I’ve tried the rerolling option, but it just isn’t the same. If it was the same I wouldn’t be back here posting about fixing the pet problem. Feels quite different to play a warrior or thief than it does a ranger. This, of course, would be a viable option if the warrior or thief had all the same weapon skills and traits as the ranger. If that was the case, I would happily stay on one of those classes. Right now, I main a Guardian about 1/2-3/4 of the time now and on my ranger the remaining time.
No. Not close to being right. The ranger is balanced with pet damage. It’s also balanced around the pet having 100% up time. I’m not going to link the references from Anet but they said as much. You or anyone else interested enough can go find them.
The perma-stow is wanted by many who play the Ranger. Instead of pet, let’s have a second class mechanic (such as thief has steal which is seen as a 2nd class mechanic). This can be the Ranger’s 2nd class mechanic so it doesn’t have to be a Beastmaster all the time:
thefantasticg.3984
“The ranger is balanced with pet damage. It’s also balanced around the pet having 100% up time. I’m not going to link the references from Anet but they said as much. You or anyone else interested enough can go find them.”
Your serious, 100% up time, meaning 100% not DEAD ?
Funny because invasions, TEQ, generally any content that’s been added just lately, my pet seems to have about 5% up time on a good day.
Jumping puzzles, love them or hate them, I hate them. Thread killer.
@Runeblade – The problem is, that there are some people who enjoy playin’ as Ranger the most. Other classes are just “meh” for ‘em.
And they can’t enjoy their favorite class in 100% because of that stupid pet that stalks you everywhere and all the time! Got it?
thefantasticg.3984
“The ranger is balanced with pet damage. It’s also balanced around the pet having 100% up time. I’m not going to link the references from Anet but they said as much. You or anyone else interested enough can go find them.”
Your serious, 100% up time, meaning 100% not DEAD ?
Funny because invasions, TEQ, generally any content that’s been added just lately, my pet seems to have about 5% up time on a good day.
Exactly, that’s the point. Rangers are balanced around the ideal situation, which is actually far from the truth.
@Runeblade – The problem is, that there are some people who enjoy playin’ as Ranger the most. Other classes are just “meh” for ‘em.
And they can’t enjoy their favorite class in 100% because of that stupid pet that stalks you everywhere and all the time! Got it?
So they like the pet class but they hate pets.
I don’t get it.
The Ranger is much more than just a pet class. Many skills and traits are completely unrelated to pets, and you can actually build a Ranger that does not use the pet at all. But since we can’t perma-stow them, if we don’t want to use the pet the closer we get is to leave it on Avoid Combat. However, by simply leaving it on Avoid Combat and ignoring it, we are still losing a huge chunk of our DPS.
So that’s the problem:
We use the pet = Pet is dead all the time unless there is absolutely no AoE attack. We lose DPS.
We don’t use the pet = We still lose DPS.
Why should the so called “main mechanic” of a class be a handcap?
I hope that now you get it.
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
Right now the only thing stowing a pet is good for is in cities as a courtesy to other players by reducing screen clutter. Try to do a jump puzzle and take 1 point of fall damage and your pet is right in your face. A mob looks at you funny and your pet is right in your face. Stowing a pet should be just that, stowing it away until called upon.
@Runeblade – The problem is, that there are some people who enjoy playin’ as Ranger the most. Other classes are just “meh” for ‘em.
And they can’t enjoy their favorite class in 100% because of that stupid pet that stalks you everywhere and all the time! Got it?
So they like the pet class but they hate pets.
I don’t get it.
The Ranger is much more than just a pet class. Many skills and traits are completely unrelated to pets, and you can actually build a Ranger that does not use the pet at all. But since we can’t perma-stow them, if we don’t want to use the pet the closer we get is to leave it on Avoid Combat. However, by simply leaving it on Avoid Combat and ignoring it, we are still losing a huge chunk of our DPS.
So that’s the problem:
We use the pet = Pet is dead all the time unless there is absolutely no AoE attack. We lose DPS.
We don’t use the pet = We still lose DPS.
Why should the so called “main mechanic” of a class be a handcap?
I hope that now you get it.
I don’t get it.
First point:
Not all elementalist traits have anything to do with switching attunements and you can actually build a elementalist that doesn’t switch attunements.
Not all mesmer traits have anything to do with shatter or illusions and you can actually build a mesmer that doesn’t use shatter skills.
Not all Warrior traits have anything to do with adrenaline and you can actually build a warrior that doesn’t use adrenaline skills.
Not all thief traits have anything to do with stealing or initiative and you can actually build a thief that doesn’t steal.
Not all Guardian traits have anything to do with Virtues and you can actually build a Guardian that doesn’t use Virtues.
Not all engineer traits have anything to do with tool belts and you can actually build a Engineer that doesn’t use toolbelt.
Not all Necromancer traits have anything to do with Deathshroud and you can actually build a Necromancer that doesn’t use Deathshroud.
Therefore, why should all Ranger traits must be pets only skills?
Second point: The solution to your problems is not to give a option to remove pets, the solution is to make pets more survivable, which will happen in the upcoming patch.
But that’s my point!
None of the classes you pointed out are forced to use any of these.
The Ranger is forced to use the pet. These other classes do not suffer a major cut on their DPS if they choose not to use these mechanisms. The Ranger does. How fair is that?
And about your second point, that would only be possible for PvE, not PvP, which means that ANet would have to stop balancing the game around PvP and effectively split the two game modes.
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
But that’s my point!
None of the classes you pointed out are forced to use any of these.
The Ranger is forced to use the pet. These other classes do not suffer a major cut on their DPS if they choose not to use these mechanisms. The Ranger does. How fair is that?
And about your second point, that would only be possible for PvE, not PvP, which means that ANet would have to stop balancing the game around PvP and effectively split the two game modes.
And you are not forced to use a pet either the same way that other classes don’t have to use their mechanics. Also, keep in mind that other professions are losing out just as much when they are not using their mechanics.
Mesmers miss out in burst damage, confusion, daze and distortion.
Necromancer misses out teleport, defensive fear, nuke spells, extra hp.
Warriors misses out in using powerful burst attack.
Thieves misses out in using shadowstep and gaining an extra skill.
Elementalists will only be stuck with only 5 skills.
and so on…
Second point, they are already doing that for pets. It is on the October patch preview threat.
Pet HP split between PvE and PvP
We wanted to make pets and summons more viable in PvE/WvW while making sure they didn’t become too strong in PvP.
I can’t talk about Engies, but I have the other professions at lvl 80 and I can say for sure that no, they don’t lose as much when they are not using that mechanics. It can’t be compared, it is not even close.
All they lose is extra skills. When our pet is dead, we lose their extra skills and a huge chunk of our DPS.
And about the patch preview , changing the pet’s HP does NOTHING to 1-hit kill mechanics that some bosses have. They will die either way because they can’t dodge. It solves nothing. It just shows that they don’t understand the problem.
Edit: Now, if they got their HP increased and couldn’t be affected by 1-hit kill boss mechanics, we would be getting somewhere…
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
I can’t talk about Engies, but I have the other professions at lvl 80 and I can say for sure that no, they don’t lose as much when they are not using that mechanics. It can’t be compared, it is not even close.
All they lose is extra skills. When our pet is dead, we lose their extra skills and a huge chunk of our DPS.
And about the patch preview , changing the pet’s HP does NOTHING to 1-hit kill mechanics that some bosses have. They will die either way because they can’t dodge. It solves nothing. It just shows that they don’t understand the problem.
Edit: Now, if they got their HP increased and couldn’t be affected by 1-hit kill boss mechanics, we would be getting somewhere…
It doesn’t matter how much you whine about your perceived measurement on what all professions have to lose, everyone loses something when they don’t use their mechanic. Rangers are no exception to that either. Unless you measure out statistic from DPS and damage mitigation using skills for other professions, or cite someone that took the time to research it, all your unmeasured, unproven statement will be false.
The same goes for your statement at the patch preview. It is completely speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt. You cannot throw wild accusation unless you proven to me that you had tested out the buff pets.
sigh
Anyone that has ever played a Ranger knows that the damage output represented by the pet is of about 40% of the total damage a ranger can do, depending on the pet. That’s 40% of your damage output connected to something that can’t stay alive inside pretty much any dungeon.
And saying that pets can’t dodge so they will be killed by 1-hit kill attacks even if they have stupidly high HP is speculation? That’s simply how the game is, sorry. 1-hit kill attacks kills you even if you have a stupidly high HP because that’s what they were made for, and it is not different with pets.
I am not assuming anything and I am not whining, this is just plain and simple what ANYONE can see and test. If you need more information on the pet’s problems, please, Google is your friend. Or maybe you can go to the Ranger boards, too. I would do the research for you, but you are sounding too much like a troll, denying everything that pretty much everybody knows already, so I just won’t waste my time.
Tarnished Coast
Astrid Strongheart, Norn Ranger.
“I wish juvenile wolves were bigger”
I named all of mine peeve. Why? Because I’m not in control of them and they pop out whenever the hell they want like they’re playing peek a boo and that makes them my pet peeve.
