Guild Wars 2

Every Ranger has a pet. They can not take it away, so they must use it. Stowing only works outside of battle and when not taking damage. Rangers are also less affected by power than other classes because the ranger has a pet, so if the pet can’t deliver, then the Ranger is handicapped.

In many PvE boss battles, pets are basically useless. And it’s getting worse! They are either dead or they are unable to reach their target.

Try doing these boss battles with a ranger pet:
Aetherblade laser boss (pet is dead),
Aetherblade final boss (pet is dead),
Snow fractal elemental boss (pets are unable to attack the boss somehow),
Snow fractal final boss (pet is dead),
Molten facility cage boss (pet is dead)
Pets also trigger the mines in the Southsun Cove and Aetherblade dungeons (try getting those avoid achievements – seriously).

Basically any boss that requires avoiding area of effect damage handicaps the ranger. It’s not the fault of the dungeons per se, but it’s definitely the fault of the Ranger pet mechanics. Allowing for permanent pet stow and immunity to AoE damage would help a lot for example.

Are the dungeon devs going to push the other devs for making pets survive more in boss battles so you aren’t restricted to what you can and can not do? If not, are you going to start restricting yourself so it isn’t impossible to bring a Ranger’s pet?

I guess you could also do something like the following:
Pets in dungeons and fractals receive a boon that can not be removed. It makes them immune to AoE damage and they can not trigger things like mines and that lightning staircase fractal. Give it a nice name, like Hightened Senses and you’re done and ready to throw as much AoE and triggers into dungeons as you like.

Like this. The pet ai is the elephant in the room of Ranger design.

Holland.9351:

Allowing for permanent pet stow and immunity to AoE damage would help a lot for example.

Pet stow is an incredibly bad idea. To make it simple to understand, it’s almost as if ArenaNet told us tomorrow that, in order to balance rangers, they are removing them from the game and all ranger characters will be changed into warriors.

The pet is the ranger’s main exclusive mechanic. It isn’t even the most subpar mechanic, between traps and spirits. ArenaNet should fix the pets, not take the easy path of making it easier to ignore them.

There’s only two things I see that are possible to fix this

1: Since the uncalled for pet damage nerf in PvE, pets should have 50-70% AoE damage reduction. At the very least in dungeons only

2: Pets don’t take damage from stuff like the laser beams/activate mines/etc. But this could cause possible exploiting

Webba.3071:

Like this. The pet ai is the elephant in the room of Ranger design.

They should give rangers an elephant pet.

Erasculio.2914:

Holland.9351:

Allowing for permanent pet stow and immunity to AoE damage would help a lot for example.

Pet stow is an incredibly bad idea. To make it simple to understand, it’s almost as if ArenaNet told us tomorrow that, in order to balance rangers, they are removing them from the game and all ranger characters will be changed into warriors.

The pet is the ranger’s main exclusive mechanic. It isn’t even the most subpar mechanic, between traps and spirits. ArenaNet should fix the pets, not take the easy path of making it easier to ignore them.

Well that… and the fact that half of our Hitpoints and DPS are also locked inside that other `companion` . And then looking at the Balance changes they just added, it’s clear that Anet doesn’t actually want to reward “skill” on this class for timing all our Micros just right b/c that lead to bunkering (oh dear god no!) yet Guardians got nothing but buffs and they’re the #1 bunker class (esp in Dungeons). Yeah good luck explaining that one…

I can’t tell if this is a problem with unintentional Contradiction in design …
or just straight up hypocrisy. :p

Erasculio.2914:

Holland.9351:

Allowing for permanent pet stow and immunity to AoE damage would help a lot for example.

Pet stow is an incredibly bad idea. To make it simple to understand, it’s almost as if ArenaNet told us tomorrow that, in order to balance rangers, they are removing them from the game and all ranger characters will be changed into warriors.

The pet is the ranger’s main exclusive mechanic. It isn’t even the most subpar mechanic, between traps and spirits. ArenaNet should fix the pets, not take the easy path of making it easier to ignore them.

That may be the case in pve, but in wvw rangers are the biggest joke because they can’t stow pet in combat. The pet is the weak link in any group. Rule number one of being a necro in wvw is to dump conditions on the pet and use it repeatedly as an epi bomb. Essentially wiping the group easily and there is not much anyone can do about it except to remove rangers from the group which obviously isn’t fair.

Every class gets to choose whether they use their class mechanic or not, every class but the ranger that is.
When making a big change every gameplay type needs to be taken into consideration.
They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, you could easily buff the pet yet still make it storable in combat.

Anet has already mentioned that they cannot just buff the HP of the pets nor make them immune to AoE. Why? Because pets ended up being able to solo tank bosses, more so regular mobs.

My solution to this is make the HP of the pet and the ranger interconnected to some degree. Not shared HP but by % or whatnot. If the ranger is out of AoE and the pet is, there could be a dodge button for pets.

IDK, I’m just throwing it out there.

Yenn.9185:

Anet has already mentioned that they cannot just buff the HP of the pets nor make them immune to AoE. Why? Because pets ended up being able to solo tank bosses, more so regular mobs.

My solution to this is make the HP of the pet and the ranger interconnected to some degree. Not shared HP but by % or whatnot. If the ranger is out of AoE and the pet is, there could be a dodge button for pets.

IDK, I’m just throwing it out there.

I remember that post and it was a certain build, two rangers and careful management of pet swaps and I believe he said it was only some bosses.

Give them AoE damage reduction and near immunity to aggro. Pets don’t tank mobs because mobs ignore them, pets don’t OHKO when a stiff wind blows their way.

If ranger and pet HP was connected you would see a tonne of rangers drop dead all over the place. Possibly one of the most hilariously bad suggestions I’ve seen.

Honestly I’m very tired of these threads. They’ve been around since the beginning of the game and yet here we are, almost a year later with no fix. ArenaNet doesn’t give a kitten.

Shiren.9532:

Honestly I’m very tired of these threads. They’ve been around since the beginning of the game and yet here we are, almost a year later with no fix. ArenaNet doesn’t give a kitten.

Yes it’s extremely frustrating. It’s pretty hopeless. The main problem is their complete lack of communication with the community apart from the sPvP state of the game, which completely ignores everything outside sPvP. It’s like throwing someone a life line, but he keeps failing to grab it while he keeps going under and the weather is getting worse.

It seems like if you could have a “heel” command in the pet Ui that would keep them closer to you most of these problems could be avoided.

^ I was just thinking about that.

Or even make the pet dodge as you dodge, if its a nasty enough of an AoE you’ll probably be trying to avoid it as well, oh wait never mind, you’re at 4000 range with auto attack on while you check Facebook right?