Guild Wars 2

I have been playing GW since a little while now, but only very casually. I only have one character – rather low level engineer doing mostly PvE – and didn’t have enough spare time to try the other classes.

Thing is, in every other MMO I played I always been more of a “pet class” player. It’s not really for gameplay reason, I just always liked having someone (or something) else with me, and it became kind of an MMO habit I guess.

Now, I was wondering which you guys think is the most interesting pet class to play in guild wars 2 ? I know the necromancer, the mesmer and the ranger all have more or less persistant pet, but I don’t know about the different mechanics and how much the class actually relies on pet combat. If any of you could shed some light on this for me I would really appreciate it as it would save me a lot of time, and time is a very scarce ressource for me these days.

Thanks a lot !

The mesmer pets aren’t persistent. Clones and phantasms die each time your target dies and then you have to cast them again. Minions aren’t the same as pets to me either. The only pet profession in this game (from my point of view) is the ranger.

Strangely, I have a necro, a ranger and a mesmer, and they’re actually my three favorite professions.

Mesmer: not really a persistant follower. Clones shatter as soon as the foe you cast them on is dead.

You could go with the Necro, as you can have a permanent “pet” around (or multiple).
Or the ranger, naturally. I personally didn’t like the minion master and I love the ranger, so I’m biased :P

take any class, buy a lot of those:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_Elemental_Powder
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ogre_Pet_Whistle
P.S. if it gets killed, you can summon new at once

enjoy the game

Ranger is the obvious choice, I think, and I’d recommend giving it a try. You can name your pet, swap between two in combat (four if you include aquatic pets,) and you can collect a whole stable of ones you see out in the world to swap between. Ranger relies pretty heavily on their pet for a lot of their damage, and has a bunch of utility skills that buff or control your pet. Other classes might have pets, but Ranger is the pet class, and the others just don’t push the mechanics to the same depth.

Rangers can also summon nature spirits, which aren’t as deep as their animal pet, but are still another thing you can summon…

For alternatives, I might suggest Necromancer, or, surprisingly, Elementalist, which has a pair of skills to summon elementals that follow you around. They’re not as persistent as Necro minions or a Ranger pet, but they have pretty short cooldowns, and they’re pretty useful skills. Mesmers do have clones/phantasms, but they feel even more expendable than Necro minions, given that most of them can’t move, and clones die as soon as their target does, if you don’t blow them up first.

I second Ranger- it is the only true pet class really and Rangers are very nice to play for a casual player in PvE because they are though and you can take them anywhere.
I adore my Ranger and I find it to be an awesome solo class- that champ over there? no problem- that interesting cave full of dregde? bring it.

I have 2 Mesmers and I have always considered their clones and phantasms to be attacks not pets.
Mesmers are also tricky to play well and since they are comparatively late bloomers they can be a pain to level.
They are great fun though.

I am leveling a Necro now and this is a really surprising class to me.
I run mine completely without minions so I can’t consider it a pet class at all.
to me Necro is sort of a strange blend between bloodmage and dark knight- think melee/medium range caster with mass murder aoe

Another plus to the ranger is that you can charm(tame) juvenile pets found in the open world. They have unique abilities, so you can focus on collecting them all as you explore the world.

Saulius.8430:

take any class, buy a lot of those:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_Elemental_Powder
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ogre_Pet_Whistle
P.S. if it gets killed, you can summon new at once

enjoy the game

This is my fav thing to do. I’m on a mesmer, mesmers are not a pet class, but i do have full stack of those. mwahahahahaa I am now a ranger

But any imo, there is only ONE pet class and that’s the ranger. Permanent pet, and a class where it would actually be considered a pet, train them, use their skills, control them somewhat, even name them etc. Other classes just summon things, like elementalists can even summon and to me that isn’t really a pet class, but a summoner class

Ok, so in my honest opinion the Ranger is lame in comparison to the Necromancer in regards to a pets character. By level 31 a Necromancer can summon a 1 Healing Blood Fiend, 2 Bone Minions, 1 Shadow Fiend, 1 Bone Fiend, and 1 Flesh Golem… all of which are persistent. That’s 6 pets that are all out at once, which way more than a ranger’s 2 out at once with a nature’s ally every now and then.

I can run my Necromancer as a total melee character with a dagger/horn combo, or use a staff to mastermind from range. With specializations your pets become more awesome, so there is no comparison in my mind.

As a necro main i have always found minion builds pretty lame and fairly niche.

As a ranger you get much more of a range of different looks and types of pets not to mention you get to name your pets. With ranger as well no matter what build your character is you will still have a pet out. I would try both to see which you like more but for me the only real pet class is ranger.

—Thread Necroed—

Just to note for those looking to comment, this thread was just necroed and is over 2 years old (2013, Nov. 4). Just pointing it out for those looking to comment so they know the posts above are very old and this is not a topic the OP is currently wanting thoughts on as if they had just made this thread.