Guild Wars 2

So it was said at PAX for the HoT announcement that specializations would change how the class gets played fundamentally. Eles use attunements. Engineers have kits. Warriors have adrenaline. Rangers have pets.

So why in the video footage of the Druid did the druid have a pet? If the class is being changed fundamentally, shouldn’t the Druid be petless or are pets so useless that they figured they would throw pets in with the Druid mechanics as a bonus of sorts to sweeten the pot?

There’s a wee bit of snark in my post, but isn’t it high time we get a petless version of the Ranger, or at least sweeping changes to fix the pet? Sure, the Ranger is a lot better now, but it isn’t because pet mechanics got better. Do you guys think we will have the ability as a Druid to stow the Ranger pet or do you think we will be forced to carry the burden of the Ranger pet mechanic around with us for no good reason?

Druid pet in the video may have been a placeholder for people watching the video to recognize the ranger vs other adventurer classes.

Or the pet may be tied into the Druid mechanics some how.

We’ll have to find out!

They could be removing some control over the pet in exchange for new mechanics, making the Ranger pet function closer to a Mesmer phantasm or Necromancer pet.

They could also be layering on top of the existing pet mechanic, overloading the existing commands with new ones that you perform as well (like: your pet howls to give you might, entangling roots burst up beneath your foe).

On a personal level- I’d love to see a profession that relies on the Bow but is free from pets. The druid just might not be that class.

ANet has also said that Specializations are a framework they want to build on. There’s always a possibility that a future specialization will replace the pet mechanic.

i wouldnt be surprised with instead of the traditional pet you get summons similar to either necro minions or say mistfire wolf as class utilities in addition to the new class mechanic. also i wouldnt be surprised if pet positioning provided a roll in your new skills such as teleport to pet or create fury at pets location ect ect. lots of things they could do and almost all of them would be nice.

I think its fantastic how people assume things before any real information is released. Just peachy.

Since we don’t know precisely how specializations will work, it could be a few different things.
For example, maybe that wasn’t a druid. Maybe it was just a ranger with a staff, but not in “druid mode”.
Or perhaps druids get a summon pet ability, even if they don’t have pet as a class mechanic.

“Change class fundamentals” doesn’t have to mean “remove them completely and swap it to something entirely different”. And I very much doubt it will, as the class mechanics are far too engrained into the professions to just do away with them like that on a whim. You’d basically be making every specialization into a completely different class, and that’s not what they’ve said they’re going to be, they’ve said they’re going to be secondary classes / sub classes.

Rangers can’t use staffs.

maybe it’s just what you can do with your pet that changes if you’re a druid. like maybe the pet’s attacks are tied to your weapon skills rather than being something you can micro, or maybe instead of attack and come back, you have a pet evade. could be a bunch of things. could be that pet isn’t what changes about ranger at all.

I think they’re going to be replacing profession mechanics with similar mechanics. Just because a druid has a pet, doesn’t mean they have to use it the same way a traditional ranger does.

Notice the wolf waits to pounce until the druid’s big attack has finished channeling. That could be a sign that the pet attacks less often and is a smaller part of the druid’s damage quota, (which would fall nicely in line with discussions during the ranger CDI).

Holy crap guys haha speculation like this is only gonna stress ya out. The information will come. We will know for sure what the druid is when it shows up.

well if you know druids from stuff like D&D. Druids still have pets. Wall of Fur is a phrase I have heard many times relating to Druids in Table top RPGs due to the animal companions and summon nature ally. I wouldn’t be surprised if instead the Druid pet is more passive and the new mechanic is wild shape

Well fundamentals is a interesting word to look at. Technically other classes can also summon pet-like creatures to help them, although what set the ranger apart is that he or she has more control over the pet and has 2 to swap between. So simply changing how the Druid is able to use their pets would change the fundamental difference in that regard. However it’s possibly that Anet perceives what constitutes the fundamentals of a ranger different then you or me, and thus will change what they believe to be the fundamentals.

The more information that does come out the less hope I hold for the Druid spec being petless. I’m really hoping that Knighthonor is correct and it’s possible since the Art Team did put pole-arms/spears in there and we aren’t getting those. On the other hand I’m hoping future Specializations replace the pet altogether in exchange for something like preparations from GW1 or something else that doesn’t rely on AI. The specialization isn’t “on a whim” so it’s more than possible that the class mechanic gets full-on replaced. Didn’t Colin say something close to “it’s like a secondary profession” or like playing a new profession or something like that. Little lines like that give me hope that my Ranger will one day, through Specializations, be unshackled from dumbed-down AI.