Guild Wars 2

Before I even get started this is not another complaining thread SO PLEASE READ IT FIRST. Lets be honest the Ranger is one of the funnest classes in the game, However it is also one of the most irritating. The majority of this comes from the classes mechanic “Pets”. Whats wrong with pets? How can it be fixed? I’m No game designer but I have a few Ideas that will most likely not even be looked at. Why? Because the A-Net team is busy running a Massive Multi-Player game and I respect that. Why am I even posting then? IDK I feel like it.

Ok first off the title said it all pets feel like a built in DeBuff. Do I want to git rid of pet’s? Not no, but MISTS NO! I just don’t a total of 50% of our damage output should be so easily be ignored or outright eliminated so easily. Why? Its a class mechanic! Are warriors debuffed when they run out of adrenalin? Are Mesmers when they shatter or have their clones?Phantasm get destroyed? Nooo… Sure it should be noted that their are always consequences but why should the pets be so steep? Some could argue that you can swap pets. Once every minute or so? Well its alot quicker if they don’t die but even with good reflexes you only catch it about half the time.

Yes, I know the majority of the problem with pets is a lack of good AI. Primarily their unresponsiveness, Inability to dodge, and more often than not inability to hit moving targets. How can these be fixed? I have a couple of Ideas.

Unresponsiveness- Not much can be done on this other than looking at cast times and Ect. I’m sure A-Net is on this.

Inability to Dodge- Dodges can be difficult to map. I mean the only enemies I even see dodge are bandits and they SUCK at it. I mean really suck like dodge strait into an arrow suck. So what can be done many have suggested pets have a resistance or immunity to AoE. Sadly i don’t think A-Net will take this approach. Why do to the nature of GW2 combat lets say 75% give or take 10% of all attacks in the game are AoE. And honestly thats a little overpowered in my opinion. I have two suggestions.

“Combat Stow” -Combat stow will stow your companion IN combat allowing a clever ranger to stow his pet during AoE spikes in dungeons and PvP. Sure some rangers will Perm stow their pet but let them suffer a 50% DPS loss. I can see how this might be trouble as you might not be able to keep up with Pet health while they are stowed.

Pets gain invulnerability during a rangers dodge and/or will always run and/or “port” to the rangers side when he/she dodges. I could see people abusing this however if the pet could not attack during said invulnerability frame then I don’t see alot of problems other than getting it to read and making sure the timing on it is reasonable enough keep the pet alive and not interfere with the pets ability to aid the ranger.

Pets not being able to hit moving targets: I have one solution.

I noticed that my Pet Drake-hound and Jungle-Spider have no problem hitting foes most of the time. Why is this? One the spider is a ranged pet. Two the Dog has a distance closer. I purpose that all non ranged pets are given a distance closer problem pretty much solved. Then again I am pretty big on cripples in game so… that might just be me.

Please no A-Net roasting, Feel free to support or nitpick my ideas. Cheers!

Also A quick not. Why does the pet have to count for 50% why not bring that down to maybe 25%. Maybe?

Also this is not a pet hate thread this is a constructive criticism thread to help improve pets!

If moved to the ranger forum it would be yet another one in the uncountable number of pet-hate posts there. Anet is very aware we despise being chained to some glitching AI creature that we also have to micromange on the side. Do any of you share any measure of your strength or base damage with your housecat? I certainly hope not… at that point it ceases to be a housecat and becomes a disturbingly cute parasite.

Pets need massive work in both the defensive and offensive departments.

Offensive: They need to be able to hit moving targets. This is a stupid easy fix. Make all their skills mini-AoEs. Now you don’t have to change animations. Give them a small radius and they’ll actually connect.

Defensive: Pets die way too easily. They should be able to evade. Pets also need some sort of AoE and siege damage reduction so you can’t spam AoE them down effortlessly. What’s the worst that could happen? People actually have to target pets to kill them? Oh noes, ranger pets are a threat. What is the world coming to?

I really don’t know how Anet could miss these gaping design flaws. Other games had this figured out years ago.

One this is not a “Pet hate thread” Pets are unique fun and sometimes even useful “oh no he didn’t say useful” Mechanic. I was mearly stating that they have a couple of flaws and suggesting some fixes from where I stand is that “Pet Hate” I also said no A-Net roasting so please don’t talk like that.

I don’t see how they are like a debuff, its not like killing them puts all our skills on cd like guild wars 1 AND they can be quite useful if you use them well. Could they be better? Sure, but I think the QZ double nerf they are trying to sell as a buff is much worse.

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Yes, they should take reduced damage from aoe and seige, should definately not be 50% of the ranger’s damage output, but they should always require micro management to use well. Those that don’t pay attention to the pet should always stand out as just plain bad rangers. Which is a hard balance to strike.

Runiir.6425:

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Then get it off my favorite profession by making it optional! If I wanted to babysit I’d start a guild… I get so utterly sick of the “well this is the way it is” argument. I’m glad you guys are willing to accept being shackled to mediocrity as a class. I am not. I LOVE the ranger. I love the concept of ranger. My main in the original GW was guess what? A ranger. Back when I had the choice to just ungimp myself and lose the fleabag entirely. It sickens me that we’re not even living up to the standards of the same profession in the prequel to this game, when we should be surpassing it. I’ve pushed the class literally as far as it can go, and am unimpressed. Especially when my level 35 thief puts out more damage, and has better survivabilty than I do as ranger.

We need help, and we’ve needed it since launch.

I totally agree on the debuff thing try running through anything with a pet, active or passive everything immediately attacks the pet no matter what, slowing you down, as you watch the rest of your party leave you behind thanks to it (i call it a ball and chain)..

Jump puzzles are a nightmare due to these things, very unresponsive in wvw, and groups actively ignore, drop and say no to rangers in dungeons, especially Arah thanks to pets messing everything up….

We at least need a permanent Stow option asap…

KStudios.2850:

Runiir.6425:

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Then get it off my favorite profession by making it optional! If I wanted to babysit I’d start a guild… I get so utterly sick of the “well this is the way it is” argument. I’m glad you guys are willing to accept being shackled to mediocrity as a class. I am not. I LOVE the ranger. I love the concept of ranger. My main in the original GW was guess what? A ranger. Back when I had the choice to just ungimp myself and lose the fleabag entirely. It sickens me that we’re not even living up to the standards of the same profession in the prequel to this game, when we should be surpassing it. I’ve pushed the class literally as far as it can go, and am unimpressed. Especially when my level 35 thief puts out more damage, and has better survivabilty than I do as ranger.

We need help, and we’ve needed it since launch.

If you don’t want the pet, then why be a ranger? Meleeing? Be thief or war. Archer? War or thief again.
If you aren’t using spirits, than you already aren’t using the purely unique ranger utility skills and can find similar if not literally the exact skills in other classes.

What then has you so enamored with the ranger? Armor? Engi and thieves get the same armor.
The look of the skills? If that is the only thing, then harang them for a druid class.

This is not gw1, it is not limited to or held back by the design decisions of the older game. In THIS game, a ranger is a beast master. If you don’t like pets, find a class that mechanically does what you need and doesn’t have a pet.

It sounds mostly like you are in denial of what the game is and what you want. If you want the gw1 ranger exactly as it was, play gw1.

This comes froms omeone that recognizes the failings of the pet system in it’s current incarnation, and that they will tweak it but never get rid of pets.

Runiir.6425:

If you don’t want the pet, then why be a ranger? Meleeing? Be thief or war. Archer? War or thief again.
If you aren’t using spirits, than you already aren’t using the purely unique ranger utility skills and can find similar if not literally the exact skills in other classes.

What then has you so enamored with the ranger? Armor? Engi and thieves get the same armor.
The look of the skills? If that is the only thing, then harang them for a druid class.

This is not gw1, it is not limited to or held back by the design decisions of the older game. In THIS game, a ranger is a beast master. If you don’t like pets, find a class that mechanically does what you need and doesn’t have a pet.

It sounds mostly like you are in denial of what the game is and what you want. If you want the gw1 ranger exactly as it was, play gw1.

This comes froms omeone that recognizes the failings of the pet system in it’s current incarnation, and that they will tweak it but never get rid of pets.

Then we will ALWAYS be the kid on the playground nobody wants to play with when it comes to dungeons, fractals, etc… Don’t even get me started on how pets always manage to get right up in the camera. Especially in jump puzzles.

Runiir.6425:

KStudios.2850:

Runiir.6425:

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Then get it off my favorite profession by making it optional! If I wanted to babysit I’d start a guild… I get so utterly sick of the “well this is the way it is” argument. I’m glad you guys are willing to accept being shackled to mediocrity as a class. I am not. I LOVE the ranger. I love the concept of ranger. My main in the original GW was guess what? A ranger. Back when I had the choice to just ungimp myself and lose the fleabag entirely. It sickens me that we’re not even living up to the standards of the same profession in the prequel to this game, when we should be surpassing it. I’ve pushed the class literally as far as it can go, and am unimpressed. Especially when my level 35 thief puts out more damage, and has better survivabilty than I do as ranger.

We need help, and we’ve needed it since launch.

If you don’t want the pet, then why be a ranger? Meleeing? Be thief or war. Archer? War or thief again.
If you aren’t using spirits, than you already aren’t using the purely unique ranger utility skills and can find similar if not literally the exact skills in other classes.

What then has you so enamored with the ranger? Armor? Engi and thieves get the same armor.
The look of the skills? If that is the only thing, then harang them for a druid class.

This is not gw1, it is not limited to or held back by the design decisions of the older game. In THIS game, a ranger is a beast master. If you don’t like pets, find a class that mechanically does what you need and doesn’t have a pet.

It sounds mostly like you are in denial of what the game is and what you want. If you want the gw1 ranger exactly as it was, play gw1.

This comes froms omeone that recognizes the failings of the pet system in it’s current incarnation, and that they will tweak it but never get rid of pets.

You have missed the whole point of this thread I LIKE PETS i just feel they need some improvements that allow us to better keep them alive and get the most out of them.

If melee pets had a passive cripple to keep foes in range, and some sort of inherent super toughness to reflect how much avoidable damage there is in this game, I think they could be a pretty darn desirable party member to have.

I really like the pokemon aspect of rangers, and have an alt I’m not motivated to level but keep around for the sake of occasionally collecting new pets.

KStudios.2850:

Runiir.6425:

It honestly feels like most people who hate or claim the pet is a debuff just are not cut out to play a pet class. Are the pets perfect? No. They SHOULD require some micro management, they should not be this perfect ai you don’t have to maintain. This is the class mechanic, if you don’t like micro managing a pet, don’t play a pet class.

Then get it off my favorite profession by making it optional! If I wanted to babysit I’d start a guild… I get so utterly sick of the “well this is the way it is” argument. I’m glad you guys are willing to accept being shackled to mediocrity as a class. I am not. I LOVE the ranger. I love the concept of ranger. My main in the original GW was guess what? A ranger. Back when I had the choice to just ungimp myself and lose the fleabag entirely. It sickens me that we’re not even living up to the standards of the same profession in the prequel to this game, when we should be surpassing it. I’ve pushed the class literally as far as it can go, and am unimpressed. .

Same :/

I enjoy ranger weapon and utility skills but lets face it, the pet is too large or a part of the ranger. If the damage output it had was adjustable to either let you or it have the large® portion of the dps then I’d be fine. But like op said, does a warrior with no adrenaline get weaker? not so much. Does a mesmer get weaker with no clones? not really, unless they spec’ed into their clones being their main dps which idk if thats entirely effective. Is a ranger weaker when it’s pet dies and/or can’t hit the target because it attacks too slow? YES!

Pets are strong if you spec into them (bm), if you don’t your ranger is near useless. Such a large crutch, GW1 ranger was soo much fun with the different kinds that could be made. Whoever said a ranger can’t run without a pet? I don’t see it written in stone anywhere..

This isn’t about difficulty managing a pet, many people have no issues micro managing. It’s about the pet being the such a large part of damage and its inability to survive well unless you take up utility skills and pet swap immediately. But when you pet swap to a melee pet said pet needs to return to the enemy and right there is a few seconds of lost dps. Also most pet skills are extremely slow and easy to spot (arctodus or drake breaths). If some people enjoy the bm builds, thats fine. No reason to hate someone who enjoys something for what it is. I don’t mind the pet being there, but I do mind that if it is dead/I choose to ignore it I end up losing my overall effectiveness in battle. I made a post like this awhile back on ideas of how to fix the A.I of the pet with player set options

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Ranger-Held-back-by-pet/first#post1733809

I have a Ranger as my main since day 1 and I recognize some of these issues although I see some nitpick too.

Running pass enemies can easily be done by stowing the pet, even if you get agro keep your pet close and it will break on both at the same time.
Same for jumping puzzles, I’ve done most with very little trouble as far as pets go.

More worryingly is the travel time, as an all ranged Ranger (1500) the time the pet takes to reach a target is appalling, specially if you engage more than one.
Say you are striking someone down the road infront of you, your pet will run there when suddenly someone comes in your flank, you aim and try to push him back with the Longbow #4, mean while your pet that was just arriving at the first target starts running for the second one.
This happens A LOT, specially in WvW, the pet barely ever gets a hit at times with all the running around and then there’s the walls…
Again, a Ranger with 1500 is really good on the wall except half of the damage dealer is sitting there next to him idle…

Then there’s the swap, I’d recommend anyone to swap when the life goes below 50%, but that’s easier said than done specially for someone that plays a melee one.

All and all a successful Ranger, or to be successful, needs to be more independent from his pet at the current game state, which like it’s been said, kinda kills the purpose of being a Ranger in the first place.

What I’d like to see implemented:

Faster zeroing.
Not complicated, in PVE when ever you take a shortcut the pet will still use the normal pathfind, but it will multiply it’s speed several times if needed to reach the Ranger very quickly.
So the code is there and it’s possible, doing the same to reach targets would solve the ranged Ranger target problems.

Jump or teleport to target when pathfind returns 0.
To solve the wall problem in WvW along with countless other locations, the “immune” system would still work the same way to prevent exploits when needed.

Stowed pets only come out manually
Like it was said here, this would fix some of the clumsiness of having a pet at times, and it could hardly be exploited too, because what’s the point or in what way could it really?

Buff the ranger when the pet is downed.
This could be as simple as adding the damage the pet would deal to the damage the player is doing.
Now people might ask, “what would be the downside of killing the pet then? That hardly seems fair.” well it might not sound fair at first, and this might be controversial, but, the difference between the Ranger pet mechanic and the lets say the Warrior Adrenaline mechanic is:
The Warrior has its base line, and the adrenaline adds on to it.
The Ranger has its base line, and when the pet dies he gets a “50%” debuff on his damage output.
The pet alive and dealing damage IS the base line of the Ranger, not a “multiplier” like you see in other classes.

But all and all I don’t think my last point would even be considered, the first 3 how ever I’d like to see implemented ASAP because they would actually fix some of the brokenness of the Ranger right now.

Personally unless your specing into making your pet stronger through traits, I don’t see why your so upset at the pets. Yes they need work I agree, pets have a bland taste to them. Although if your not worried or hate your pet let it die ignore it. If your not specing into buffing your pet then the pet doesn’t have that great of an effect on you.

Personally I agree with Runnir, Rangers are built with the pet, I get you like the ranger, but in Guild Wars the rangers had pets also, and they were not really all that beefy there either. In my opinion Pets are stronger in utility in Guild Wars 2 than they were in Guild Wars.

I would have no issue with pets if I could keep the thing stowed, not have it automatically deploy because I sprain my ankle falling, then attack some random mob, keeping me in combat…

Well personally i think only thing Anet needs to do is tweak pet swap time. 15sec and 1min are just too mutch, someting like 5sec and 15sec shud be fair. Of course litle more thougtnes and vitality would help also.

Kaimick.5109:

Personally unless your specing into making your pet stronger through traits, I don’t see why your so upset at the pets. Yes they need work I agree, pets have a bland taste to them. Although if your not worried or hate your pet let it die ignore it. If your not specing into buffing your pet then the pet doesn’t have that great of an effect on you.

Personally I agree with Runnir, Rangers are built with the pet, I get you like the ranger, but in Guild Wars the rangers had pets also, and they were not really all that beefy there either. In my opinion Pets are stronger in utility in Guild Wars 2 than they were in Guild Wars.

That’s the problem though. If you ignore the pet, even when not spec into them, you get weaker. They are a large part of the dps that ranger’s have and unless you keep them alive (best done through utility/traits) your effectivness in combat is much lower than other professions. That mixed with ranger having no blast finisher makes them fairly weak for groups. They can try to support dmg with the pet alive, or they can try to throw out weak little boons at people but they can’t criss cross those in any way (been suggested too many times; make maul a blast finsiher!). Spec into spirits is just a waste, they die way to quick and simply don’t bring enough to the table to take up a utility slot unless you’re on an invulnerable ledge.

Dean Calaway.9718:

I have a Ranger as my main since day 1 and I recognize some of these issues although I see some nitpick too.

Running pass enemies can easily be done by stowing the pet, even if you get agro keep your pet close and it will break on both at the same time.
Same for jumping puzzles, I’ve done most with very little trouble as far as pets go.

That’s all I see. I honestly can’t understand anyone who looks at a Ranger and says, woodsman, or archer, without animal companion as well. That’s what a ranger is. Not Aragorn, Drizzit.

More worryingly is the travel time, as an all ranged Ranger (1500) the time the pet takes to reach a target is appalling, specially if you engage more than one.
Say you are striking someone down the road infront of you, your pet will run there when suddenly someone comes in your flank, you aim and try to push him back with the Longbow #4, mean while your pet that was just arriving at the first target starts running for the second one.
This happens A LOT, specially in WvW, the pet barely ever gets a hit at times with all the running around and then there’s the walls…
Again, a Ranger with 1500 is really good on the wall except half of the damage dealer is sitting there next to him idle…

This is a lack of control on your part. Step one, target distant enemey. Step two, F1. Step three, attack. Step four, switch targets and attack. Your pet will head for target 1 before you’ve even started attacking and may reach it before you land your first hit. Your pet also will not turn around and attack target 2 because you set it to attack target 1 rather than just having it target based on your attacks.

As for Walls, some pets are better at actively attacking objects than others. Sometimes they need to be at just the right angle. I concider this a bug and something that ANet actually needs to work on for the class.

Then there’s the swap, I’d recommend anyone to swap when the life goes below 50%, but that’s easier said than done specially for someone that plays a melee one.

This depends on many things. I run with troll unguent, and short of boss damage it’s usually enough to heal through damage. I also use Signet of Stone allowing for invulnerability for a few seconds. Baring those, then yeah, pay attention to the HP and try to swap before they die.

All and all a successful Ranger, or to be successful, needs to be more independent from his pet at the current game state, which like it’s been said, kinda kills the purpose of being a Ranger in the first place.

I don’t see this at all. I prefer to work with my pet as a ranger should. I prefer to control my pet and dictate what it needs to do. Sometimes I ignore that it’s even there and just let it do its thing, they’re pretty capable on their own, and I don’t even trait more than 10 in beastmastery.

Dean Calaway.9718:

What I’d like to see implemented:

Faster zeroing.
Not complicated, in PVE when ever you take a shortcut the pet will still use the normal pathfind, but it will multiply it’s speed several times if needed to reach the Ranger very quickly.
So the code is there and it’s possible, doing the same to reach targets would solve the ranged Ranger target problems.

Jump or teleport to target when pathfind returns 0.
To solve the wall problem in WvW along with countless other locations, the “immune” system would still work the same way to prevent exploits when needed.

Stowed pets only come out manually
Like it was said here, this would fix some of the clumsiness of having a pet at times, and it could hardly be exploited too, because what’s the point or in what way could it really?

None of this is actually needed. The biggest thing people seem to have with pets being stowed is them agroing thing, which seems to be exclusively a point of people not understanding how agro works with pets, nor being able to properly control them.

If a mob attacks your pet, it will not put you into combat. It will put your pet into combat, but until your pet actually strikes the mob you will not enter combat. If you pay attention to your pet, watch it’s actions and watch its position on the minimap, you can usually intervien before it lands a hit. If you hit F3 before it hits it will abandon the effort and return to your side. Just to be sure do it a couple times. Here’s the thing. Mobs prioritize your pet over you. Meaning they are more likely to attack your pet, not putting you into combat, then they are to attack you and forcing you into combat. So if you set the pet to passive, or pay attention and hit F3, you don’t slow down. If, however, you stow your pet, you become the only available target and there are no options.

There is absolutely no value in having your pet stowed in combat. Meaning the only other time to have it stowed is out of combat, and if you’re out of combat it won’t come unstowed on its own, therefore having a stow lock serves no purpose. If you take issue with the size of your pet, get a smaller pet. The birds take up very little space.

Buff the ranger when the pet is downed.
This could be as simple as adding the damage the pet would deal to the damage the player is doing

Now people might ask, “what would be the downside of killing the pet then? That hardly seems fair.” well it might not sound fair at first, and this might be controversial, but, the difference between the Ranger pet mechanic and the lets say the Warrior Adrenaline mechanic is:
The Warrior has its base line, and the adrenaline adds on to it.
The Ranger has its base line, and when the pet dies he gets a “50%” debuff on his damage output.
The pet alive and dealing damage IS the base line of the Ranger, not a “multiplier” like you see in other classes.

The whole point is for the pet not to get downed. To maintain your swaps. Yes that means the ranger is debuffed when it does go down, but that’s easily balanced by the fact that the ranger mechanic is always on, unlike any other class. It’s even on while the ranger is downed and can help revive the ranger. It’s a significantly more powerful mechanic than any other class (short possibly of Death Shrowd) and as such needs a more significant disadvantage when misused.

Kal, you hit it on the head and here is another thing I have noticed on my own ranger time and time again…even if your pet is dead and you go down…your dead and untargetable pet cans till revive you with number 3 down skill.

Who else gets an unkillable, unstopable revive?

Runiir.6425:

Kal, you hit it on the head and here is another thing I have noticed on my own ranger time and time again…even if your pet is dead and you go down…your dead and untargetable pet cans till revive you with number 3 down skill.

Who else gets an unkillable, unstopable revive?

Finishing them off? Everyone can do that. Most downed states are extremely predicatable and with little practice you can down anyone with little work.

1. Start finsihing move. Enemy notices it.

2. Enemy is likely to use a teleport/cc ability to stop you. So dodge

3. Resume finishing.

4. Enemy dead.

Ranger can only Aoe daze (assuming they arn’t blinded which is plain broken. Should remove blind on downed people) After they waste that its another few seconds b4 they can start that invulnerable revive which unless their underwater isn’t actually invulnerable. Ranger pet being bound is w/e. The pet however is such a large part of range that it should bring more to the table than being something you have to take care of. It should take care of itself to some degree and allow the ranger to either focus their own dps or survivability.

Kiran.2705:

Defensive: Pets die way too easily. They should be able to evade. Pets also need some sort of AoE and siege damage reduction so you can’t spam AoE them down effortlessly. What’s the worst that could happen? People actually have to target pets to kill them? Oh noes, ranger pets are a threat. What is the world coming to?

I really don’t know how Anet could miss these gaping design flaws. Other games had this figured out years ago.

Here’s the thing. It’s not like the damage our pet does is above and beyond. It is what we need in order for out damage output to be on par with the other classes. Also, extra things like virtues for Guardians or the Adrenaline skills for Warrior all fall on the player’s character. What is our pet? As it is in this game, our pets are a third weapon that comes with 4 skills. Damage wise, it works with our character’s weapons to produce the 100% damage output. Skill wise, although it brings 4, we only control one and these skills are only enough to bring us on par.

So without the pet, we are sub par and with the pet we are on par. Yet no other class has to worry about loosing something they need just to make par. a Warrior can’t have their weapon poisoned. A guardian can’t have their focus killed while just leaving them with a mace.

What they should do is….

When we dodge, so does our pet.

In GW1, mobs were made smart enough to run out of AoE. In this game, they don’t. I think our pets should. They are not immune but they don’t just stand in it either.

Without our pet, we should be only doing about 75% of what every other class can do. With our pet, we should be doing 125% what every other class does.

Combat stowing or permanent stowing should be allowed…..

I agree with op on the debuff tho, we should get a buff if we choose to do this called “Ranger’s Resolve” increases damage done by 15~20% and attack speed by 2~5% as well as a boost to toughness, but we cant summon pets in combat until we exit combat. That would be cool for people who do not like relying on pets maybe we could select it as a sigil in the pet selection area.