Guild Wars 2

Hubby just bought this for me for my bday! I’m creating a Norn ranger and am trying to choose a pet. Are there any differences between them or is it purely cosmetic? I like the Snow Leopard and the Wolf and can’t decide.

Thanks for any help you can provide and Happy Hunting!

The pets have base stats based on their family, but the main reason you’ll select a pet is for the F2 abilities.

If you are playing PvP, you’re going to want pets that can CC (like Wolves with Fear or Spiders with Root). If you are doing PvE, you’re going to want pets that stack vulnerability and who have high base damage (Jaguars and Jungle Stalkers).

If you are just having fun and learning the game, take whatever pet you want!

TY for the quick response! I only PVE so I’m assuming the Snow Leopard is comparable to the Jaguar, but would a Wolf be able to fear enemies in PVE? Or is that ability reserved for PVP only?

The Wolf can fear enemies anywhere (except Champion level enemies who have a stack of CC resistance).

The wolf can only be tamed in the WvW map though, so you will have to make a trip there to get him (not to be confused with the much easier to find “Snow Wolf” who doesn’t fear enemies).

Snow Leopard is similar to the other cats DPS-wise (it stacks vulnerability and has high base damage), though the “chill” effect is of limited use in PvE so your F2 ability is the weakest of the cat abilities.

FeralOne.1093:

TY for the quick response! I only PVE so I’m assuming the Snow Leopard is comparable to the Jaguar, but would a Wolf be able to fear enemies in PVE? Or is that ability reserved for PVP only?

The wolf has that skill in any game mode. However, for PvE it’s not as effective as in PvP where use a method to get an enemy of you is sometimes essential for survival.

You don’t need to worry too much when you’re creating your character. It’s possible for any character to unlock all the different pets, and then you can switch between them based on what you need at the time (or feel like using).

Some people like to pick the one which is hardest to tame, although all the norn ones are found in their starting area and home city, but I like to pick one which suits the character I’m making.

I use an Ice Drake and a Carrion Devourer on my Norn Ranger. Reasons as follows:

1. Ice Drake – Chosen primarily because I like reptiles and dragons. I like the Ice Drake’s appearance above all the other types, which is why I went for him above one with a more useful F2 ability like the Swamp or River Drake. Drakes are also quite tanky (second only to Bears), have a cleaving autoattack, and a blast finisher tail attack which comes in quite handy at times.

2. Carrion Devourer – I wanted a ranged pet for situations where it’s not ideal to send in a melee pet. I also love scorpions, so I wanted a Devourer over a Spider. As a bonus, Devourers are also quite tanky, and the Carrion Devourer has a nice poison spit attack that’s useful for inflicting poison.

Underwater I use an Armored Fish and Jellyfish. For PvP I use the Krytan Drakehound and a Wolf to help keep enemies still/running while I spike them down.

OP, choosing ranger pets are as important as choosing what weapons to use. They represent around 30% of your damage output, so no, they are not just cosmetic.

Some are more useful than others, depending on your play style and game content you prefer to do. Regardless, as a new ranger your first goal should be to collect all 41 pets, scattered throughout Tyria. This will get you out exploring the world, gain XP and level.

There are different groups of pets, i.e. birds, cats, drakes, canines, spiders, etc., that share the group common stats and 3 skills, but each pet in the group has a different F2 skill. It is usually the F2 skill the determines the usefulness of a particular pet, with the group stats and 3 common skills being secondary.

Taking cats as an example, you have :
Lynx – F2 bleeds
Jaguar – F2 attack from stealth with bonus damage
Jungle Stalker – F2 shared might
Snow Leopard – F2 chill

All these have stats for high single target damage and low survivability. These are melee pets and are more suited for a melee style ranger. They also require the most micro-management effort to keep them alive though longer fights.

In terms of usefulness, the Lynx is the least because of the way condition damage is handled in the game. Snow Leopard is next, however if single target control is required, it can be quite useful. Jaguar is great when playing solo and to see high damage numbers. Jungle Stalker is great for group play needing a might buff.

Both Jaguar and Jungle Stalker are unique in that no other pets have these same F2 skills, while there are other pets that can chill and bleed.

Just pick whatever pet you want to. You can eventually gather all of them anyway. Have fun and message me in the game if you need help in the future.

BEAR! You need a BEAR! Get a bear.

To recap:

Bear.

any of the bear series and a secondary with ranged attacks makes for a very good PvE setup.

I like murello and spider for the poison on a cond damage ranger, and arctodus/devourerer otherwise.

But i have really been enjoying the birds too. I don’t know if they are good at anything but they really seem to stay engaged better. maybe its just the animations.

I tend to run a Blue and Red Moa in my support spec, occasionally switching one or the other out for a Jungle Stalker depending on the fights. Never discount their heals and their screeches, I feel like they’re underutilized and so is running a support role.

Danikat.8537:

You don’t need to worry too much when you’re creating your character. It’s possible for any character to unlock all the different pets,

Depends if you have played GW1 and achieved a reasonable amount of AP

JCROY.5730:

Danikat.8537:

You don’t need to worry too much when you’re creating your character. It’s possible for any character to unlock all the different pets,

Depends if you have played GW1 and achieved a reasonable amount of AP

I forgot about those 3.

But they’re just re-skins. There are other pets (the normal raven, blue jellyfish and pink moa) with exactly the same stats and skills.