Guild Wars 2

Does anyone know if Druids are going to get different or at least additional pets unique to Druids?

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Does anyone know if Druids are going to get different or at least additional pets unique to Druids?

Nop.

Druid hasn’t yet had his official info release so all we can say with certainty is that we’ll have a staff and be called druids. Other than that it’s waiting for more information to come.

All we know for sure about druids is that they’ll use staff, and that is it, nothing else.

I hope they dont have pets at all. Maybe then people will let rangers/druids into dungeons.

Dunno if they’ll be unique to Druids but it’s likely they’ll add new ones, i heard rumors of raptors and rockdogs but who knows.

I also have a feeling Druids will get a spell to “posses” their pet, because you know, druids.
Or something simillar, would be cool atleast.

Edimaru.5392:

I hope they dont have pets at all. Maybe then people will let rangers/druids into dungeons.

That you can just forget for 2 reasons:
1 – In the HoT announcement trailer we can see the druid with a wolf pet.
2 – During the Ranger CDI devs stated that they don’t want to have rangers without pets at all, for them rangers are the pet class and they is their mechanic.

I’m pretty sure that the elite specializations in the future will all be new ways to use pet mechanic, without ever removing it.
Ranger have many traits that depends on the pet and simply be able to perma stow the pet and make those traits apply to the ranger would make it either too strong or plain broken.

deSade.9437:

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Does anyone know if Druids are going to get different or at least additional pets unique to Druids?

Nop.

Source or it’s not true.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

deSade.9437:

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Does anyone know if Druids are going to get different or at least additional pets unique to Druids?

Nop.

Source or it’s not true.

He answered the question, no, no one knows how the Druid will change our pet mechanic.

That always irked me how they consider it “The Pet class”, yet Necros are not the “The minion master class”. Or how our class mechanic is the least synergistic aspect of the profession.

starlinvf.1358:

That always irked me how they consider it “The Pet class”, yet Necros are not the “The minion master class”. Or how our class mechanic is the least synergistic aspect of the profession.

That is because minions are not the necro class mechanic, death shroud is.
Pets actually have a lot of synergy with our class, the problem is that pets doesn’t work really well and all that synergy is wasted, that is actually a shame.

Rangers are the only class who HAS to deal with pets, no if ands or buts about it. Anet has said on several occasions that rangers will have pets, no matter what. The AI and the lack of control over them is irritating, but since 30-40% of a Rangers total damage is from their pets, Rangers have no choice. Necros do have a choice to run Minions or DS. I would love to be able to micromanage my cats or drakes, choosing when to dodge, as well as where. But, I don’t believe Anet can do it currently. So, we rangers swap when necessary, choose the best pet for the encounters. <smile>

Edimaru.5392:

I hope they dont have pets at all. Maybe then people will let rangers/druids into dungeons.

If half the rangers actually learned to control their pets and use their skills appropriately there would probably not be an issue. Probably at least half of this can probably be laid at the feet of the meta-builds and at least some players using them without learning how they should be used. Personally, I do not adhere to the meta-build philosophy and use hand crafted builds that I find works for the way I want to play.

Rangers have always been prejudiced against from certain quarters of the community since the original GW though, possibly in part due to bots using them alot. There is no excuse for such prejudice IMO and I consider such prejudice as bad as (if not worse than) PvP griefing.

Belzebu.3912:

starlinvf.1358:

That always irked me how they consider it “The Pet class”, yet Necros are not the “The minion master class”. Or how our class mechanic is the least synergistic aspect of the profession.

That is because minions are not the necro class mechanic, death shroud is.
Pets actually have a lot of synergy with our class, the problem is that pets doesn’t work really well and all that synergy is wasted, that is actually a shame.

A set of Independent buffs != Synergy. Theres only a hand full of traits and skills where the Ranger and pet proc off each other, or where they get different buffs that play off each other. The majority are just Give Ranger this buff while giving Pet this buff, and one of those buffs is just a 2 second DPS increase.

Lately I’ve been thinking about this Korean MMO called Rappelz, that added a simple, but highly effective pet system available to everyone, and then built 3 classes around the idea of Pets. The result was 3 summoner archetypes.

Breeders, nick named Pet Clerics, sends the pet into combat and plays support for them. They can bolster pets enough to act as primary roles within a party, though not nearly as effective as a dedicated class.

Sorcerers utilize pets as vessels, channeling spell effects through them (sometimes sacrificing them) for powerful offensive ability. They share a number of parallels with Minion masters of GW1, except they focus mainly on one Minion.

The third is the Spell Singer, who shares huge parallels to what GW2 Ranger’s Beast Master line is supposed to be in theory. Whats odd about this class is that it has a decent level in independence from its Pet, making its existence additive. Most buffs are shared, which synergies both of them toward the same role. They also have a number of skills intended to specifically enhance the Pet the even further. On the surface this looks simplistic…. but in practice it produces 2 forces which can either operate independently against 2 different targets, or combine efforts to overpower an enemy with sheer force.

Rangers in GW2 fail at both of these because of how pets are incorporated into their damage balance. Pets make up a huge component of their theoretical DPS, but have none of the mobility, versatility, or even basic durability the Ranger has access to that make them dangerous. As a result, we have 25-35% of our designed DPS bound into an element that has very little survivability, and mostly one-off utility. Any value as a pressure element is typically lost in the speed of this game’s combat…. this can be seen in fact that pets tend to be ignored in all areas of the game except 1v1 combat at extremely high ranks.

If this is going to improve, Pets need to be expanded significantly in terms of control, function, and build coherence. The choice of pets is literally down to which F2 skill its good for in buffing before combat, or periodically putting down a strong CC (like Immob). Rangers need a line of utilities that tie directly into controlling a pet’s attacks, or Pets need to be strong enough so they are as strong a player if fully traited toward it. The addition of Taunt to the Beast Master traits is just a way to force that functionality, but doesn’t do anything to address the underlying problem that Pets are simply too unreliable in the only 2 roles they serve for the Ranger.

Durzlla.6295:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

deSade.9437:

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Does anyone know if Druids are going to get different or at least additional pets unique to Druids?

Nop.

Source or it’s not true.

He answered the question, no, no one knows how the Druid will change our pet mechanic.

Oooh, I see what he did there now….

/SheepishGrin
/HidesInACorner

I’d rather see anet continue to fix and work on pets instead of the mindset of:
“just delete pets”…. I would like to see at least 2 new pets added to finish the Pet Management window, currently there are two empty slots (on land). Since we are going into a jungle, maybe:
Anaconda
&
Gorilla

Maybe I’m just going senile but, I’m pretty sure Anet stated at some point that druids will have the option to go petless.

Random.4691:

Maybe I’m just going senile but, I’m pretty sure Anet stated at some point that druids will have the option to go petless.

Never said anything like that mate it was possibly in your dreams

Come on people – get real. Elite spec characters can still take any two of the other 5 lines. Which means Druids (and ALL future Ranger E-specs) will ALWAYS have access to traits that work with pets, which means they will ALWAYS have pets around to be affected by those traits. They could do all kinds of crazy stuff with the pet itself… but there will still always be a pet (and some form of pet swapping) for those traits to hook on to.

Wish they could make pets into spirits that cant be attacked and boosted the “spiritmaster” ranger elite spec accordingly

Random.4691:

Maybe I’m just going senile but, I’m pretty sure Anet stated at some point that druids will have the option to go petless.

I think what you mean to say is something along the lines of

“Anet stated every time they’re asked that rangers will never have the option to go petless”

No matter what we get, the pet is going to be right there, tripping over it’s own 2-4 feet as usual.

If you pick the right pets and trait a certain way then the pets can be a useful if not slightly OP tool for a ranger. Personally, I would expect the Druid trait line and skills to at least complement usage of a pet if not enhance it.

If you can’t control your pet or find it a liability with things as they currently are then perhaps you should not be playing as a ranger. It is a bit like in the original GW where some people have the mind set to play a monk while others do not (I was really in the latter category and I am not afraid to admit it).

That is not to say there is only one way to trait for a pet or effectively use it but rather that they can have a high degree of utility. They may die on occasion but strategic swapping of pets can avoid a large portion of the pet deaths (there are some situations where pet death is inevitable though but that does not mean they are necessarily a liability).

Pets are a useful tool IME, but A-Net could allow us more control over them (e.g. if they are put away give the player the ability to prevent auto-deployment when attacked/damaged)