Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone, just curious:

Are there any other rangers who wish they could toggle their pet on/off? Sometimes I just don’t want a pet derping around attracting mobs and bumbling around behind me. I love the ranger skills and weapons, and I really enjoy playing one, but my pet is driving me nuts. Sure, I can set him to “avoid combat” and “stow” him, but the instant I engage an enemy, he pops out and runs around aimlessly ready to get killed. And he doesn’t stay dead. He runs back to me with no health, like “hey, I’m invincible… you’ll never get rid of me..”

My main question is: Why am I forced to have a pet?
Sure, sometimes it’s nice to have someone tanking for me while I shoot from afar. But what if I’m trying to pull mobs and he accidentally draws aggro? Makes it hard to do anything solo.

What was great about GW1 Rangers was that we could choose to go it alone without a pet. Our pet didn’t have to be the defining feature of our class. Why was that changed? I want to be the pro with the bow, but I don’t need a pet to be one. Can’t I choose not to include a pet in my adventuring?

Make a warrior.
You are now a ranger that is not using a pet.

Irony here is strong as you cause more damage as a warrior with a longbow than a ranger can ever hope to achieve as well. =/

This game’s ranger is pet focused, if you don’t want a pet, pick a class that isn’t.

My point is that the Ranger class shouldn’t be dependent on a pet. If I want to play warrior, I’ll play warrior. I want a medium-armor bow master that goes pew-pew. I get everything I want in the Ranger, but the pet is just an added annoyance. It would be as simple as an option – toggle pet on/off.

Also, I don’t really care about how powerful my character is in the end compared to a warrior, I just want to be a ranger >_>

Culzean.8571:

Why was that changed?

Because nobody used them, I presume.

Not that I’d be against indefinitely stowing pets if you don’t feel like using them at the time (e.g. too lazy to manage aggro). Wouldn’t be performing at your character’s full potential, but that’s your call. I often ignore my guardian’s special abilities as well, until the heat’s turned up.

You use another class . The pet is the rangers class mechanic so if you don’t want a pet running in your gonna have to use a ranged pet .

EDIT:

As i read your posts through again i realised you just want to stow the pet. This i approve but this class will always be pet-dependent DPS and survival-wise. :|

Also, try a ranged pet and put the pet into passive, the mobs wont attack him then since he isn’t doing anything.. :P

Okey, it’s been a while since I plaid ranger, but I think there was a method of stowing the pet away.

Or maybe it was what Torguish mentioned?

Fred Fargone.3127:

Okey, it’s been a while since I plaid ranger, but I think there was a method of stowing the pet away.

Or maybe it was what Torguish mentioned?

You can stow your pet away, but up it pops again as soon as you trip over a twig, even in towns when you have your town clothes on.

I don’t want the pet either, we should have the choice.

Agreed, since this game the “bow class” is a Ranger and not a Hunter, you should have to had an option to go with or without pets. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t choose the ranger, I hate the pets but i love the ranged bow class and it’s optional melee fighting style.

I’d suggest grabbing a devourer or a spider. They tend to be more like little mobile turrets than typical MMO pets.

That said, if you want a medium armor bow user, thief is also an option. Shortbow is a powerful weapon set for them, and you still have the aesthetic of the dodgy, highly-mobile medium armor class to play with.

Roktar.2497:

Agreed, since this game the “bow class” is a Ranger and not a Hunter, you should have to had an option to go with or without pets. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t choose the ranger, I hate the pets but i love the ranged bow class and it’s optional melee fighting style.

I find this comment here funny because rangers in games like these are actually a more appropriate calling for a class that has an animal friend. Since you know.. a hunger hunts them.

Rangers are meant to be in the wild, utilizing the wilds and befriending animals. Not hunters.

Ps. Roll a thief.

Yes, we rangers need a stow lock or something. I’ve been wanting that since the beta weekends. It’s not about changing the class, just to have to option of choosing what aspects to use and when, just like every other class already has.

In the dreadge fractal my pet gets killed about every 30 sec by the boss AoE. Pet lovers go Yay! In the jade sea fractal the boss keeps targteing the pet no matter what, even if he just killed it 5 sec ago, and after 15 min when the rest of the party screams “Get rid of the pet!”, all I can say is Anet won’t let me, so I have to go hide in a corner and stay out of battle. In WvW I can set my pet to passive, but I can’t tell the players on the other server not to notice it.

And from a roleplaying perspective, what kind of ranger would I be if i couldn’t even get a dog to stay at home when I go out to hunt?

On the HowTo part of this, ether add a right-click/ctrl+click option to the stow button, or a lock button next to it, when the pet is stowed to prevent it from automaticly poping out once you enter combat. (just my suggestion)

A ranger without a pet is about as reasonable as a naked guardian. Only usable in bed.

I find my pet useful though somewhat dumb (like when I jump down a two meter drop just to see my pet pull 3-4 mobs by taking an alternative route). But at times I would like to lock my pet away until I tell it to reappear.

The thing I find odd is that when you put your pet in Avoid Combat and then stow it, there is no reason for the pet to activate unless you press F1 or change pet mode. Thus my suggestion is to keep the icons for Attack My Target and Guard/Avoid Combat visible even when pet is stowed, keep the pet stowed if pet is set to avoid combat and only activate pet on your order. When the pet is set to guard and is stowed away it’ll function as it does now with the added Attack command available as a bonus.

Culzean.8571:

My point is that the Ranger class shouldn’t be dependent on a pet. If I want to play warrior, I’ll play warrior. I want a medium-armor bow master that goes pew-pew. I get everything I want in the Ranger, but the pet is just an added annoyance. It would be as simple as an option – toggle pet on/off.

Also, I don’t really care about how powerful my character is in the end compared to a warrior, I just want to be a ranger >_>

Anet disagrees with you. They want Ranger to be a pet class, and so they are. Its their game, so whatever they decide to do is what “should” be. What you want based on what other games or media do with their Ranger classes or just what you’d personally do, thats irrelevent. This is GW2, not any other game / media, and in GW2 Ranger is a pet class.

If you don’t want to be a pet class, don’t play a Ranger. If you want Ranger minus pets, then you don’t actually want to play a GW2 Ranger at all, you want a Ranger from another game or your own created Ranger profession. And thats not the way it works, you don’t get to pick and choose which parts of a class you want. You play the whole package, or not at all.

I’m sure my whole post sounds rude and condescending, and thats not my intention, but its just the way it is.

Sirius.4510:

Culzean.8571:

Why was that changed?

Because nobody used them, I presume.

Yes, basically they were terrible in GW1 and iirc only gimmick builds like bunny thumper/pack hunter actually used them.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Sirius.4510:

Culzean.8571:

Why was that changed?

Because nobody used them, I presume.

Yes, basically they were terrible in GW1 and iirc only gimmick builds like bunny thumper/pack hunter actually used them.

They weren’t terrible if you used them right. I never went without one on my Ranger and did quite well in PvE and PvP.

I wanted to play a mobile archer/scout/skirmisher type character, but I didn’t want the pet or the whole “nature” thing, so I ended up making a thief that uses shortbow and sword/dagger.

It feels pretty close to what I wanted to play, so you might try that.

TJV.6239:

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Sirius.4510:

Culzean.8571:

Why was that changed?

Because nobody used them, I presume.

Yes, basically they were terrible in GW1 and iirc only gimmick builds like bunny thumper/pack hunter actually used them.

They weren’t terrible if you used them right. I never went without one on my Ranger and did quite well in PvE and PvP.

I used one all the time on my GW1 ranger as well, and my build had no real focus on the pets. They were useful.

But, yea… I sometimes just want to stow my pet and run though areas without having it jump out and attack everything in sight the instant i take even a single point of damage.

Ranger is a pet class, it’s no different from guild wars 1 or other mmos which has pet classes (hunter from wow). There are other classes that use ranged weeps without pets, it’s the point of the ranger class… To be Beast trainer.

However, you should be able to send it away and bring it back, this functionality would be useful.

Why do people argue against a change like this that would not affect them?

Sometimes i think people come on here and argue just for the sake of arguing.

I support this idea… i don’t know why anyone would argue against it.