Guild Wars 2

Please create a class for me!

I’d love another archer type class that specializes in longbows & shortbows but I cant stand pets cause their AI is always god awful!

Warriors can use Longbows quite good, give it a try.

In what sort of content is the AI always awful? I’m looking for some sort of specificity since I have no problems with pets in the open world.

Have you tried a bow warrior?

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

i also share the same sentiments when most of the time my pet dies,

how i wish there is a class that can use both bows without the pet,

give warriors shortbow, or give thieves longbow, and ill be delightful to switch immediately

Solid Gold.9310:

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

Under what circumstances is the pet a liability?

lordkrall.7241:

Warriors can use Longbows quite good, give it a try.

I have. It would be my first choice, were it not for the fact that they’re literally DISALLOWED from using lighter armor.

I get that it is lighter, it requires getting used to and a warrior who has worn plate mail for ten years might feel awkward in a tunic alone, but come on. I don’t like the idea of a bowman wearing heavy armor, so ranger(pets required) is my only option.

zenleto.6179:

Solid Gold.9310:

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

Under what circumstances is the pet a liability?

Dungeons for a start.

Plus it runs all over the place agroing other mobs nearby.

It can’t even jump down 6 inches, it has to go all the way around, however far that might be.

Yeah I’m not too thrilled about wearing heavy armor and using a bow.

I want an archer class that specializes in, and uses both bows without having to worry about a silly pet!

Heck they could give thieves longbows and Id be happy!

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

lordkrall.7241:

Warriors can use Longbows quite good, give it a try.

I have. It would be my first choice, were it not for the fact that they’re literally DISALLOWED from using lighter armor.

I get that it is lighter, it requires getting used to and a warrior who has worn plate mail for ten years might feel awkward in a tunic alone, but come on. I don’t like the idea of a bowman wearing heavy armor, so ranger(pets required) is my only option.

Yeah forgot about the armour, heavy armour and a longbow, just so wrong.

Snow White.9680:

Yeah I’m not too thrilled about wearing heavy armor and using a bow.

I want an archer class that specializes in, and uses both bows without having to worry about a silly pet!

Heck they could give thieves longbows and Id be happy!

^this

lets petition for thieves to have long bow, and we can be happy, stealthy bow scouts hehehe

Yeah, the jump thing bugs me a bit. Surely a bird could just fly down!

Maybe they could look into making the Stow Pet feature more permanent. That way people who rarely want to use their pet, or don’t want to use it all, can just tuck them away.

Hmm, yes, that’s my suggestion.

The whole idea that pets run around and aggro everything is completely false. Hate to go “elitist” on everyone, but that’s a L2Play issue. If the pet is in the agressive/combat mode, it will go after your target. If it gets within aggro range of another target, it will hit that one next. I dare you to set it to the non-agressive status and use F1 to attack specific enemies (or use the recall F3 after each kill). It won’t aggro a single extra thing. And yes, melee pets are more susceptible to overaggro because, you know, they get within melee range and are therefore closer to the surrounding non-aggro’d enemies.

Aside from that, making the pets optional would be a godsend. Some of us would rather rely completely on our own skills rather than depend on that of a half-witted AI that we need to properly command every move or watch like a hawk to not screw us.

zenleto.6179:

Yeah, the jump thing bugs me a bit. Surely a bird could just fly down!

Maybe they could look into making the Stow Pet feature more permanent. That way people who rarely want to use their pet, or don’t want to use it all, can just tuck them away.

Hmm, yes, that’s my suggestion.

Yes brilliant idea, we had the choice in GW1 why not here, keep everybody happy.

The problem as I see it, others have suggested the pet is anything from 30% to 50% of out damage, but we probably only get that 30% to 50% damage for 10% of the time because 90% of the time the pet is dead or off on a jolly somewhere.

So in real terms, the pet is probably only worth 3% to 5% damage.

I’m sure somebody be itching to tell me ALL about pet managment, ewww !

Snow White.9680:

Heck they could give thieves longbows and Id be happy!

Bulky and yet agile… that doesn’t seem to fit at all.

Lol I just really don’t like pets. Anet could make a perfect AI and I’d still prefer not to use a pet. xD

And rangers are like…i dunno boring to me because their skills are flavorless.

Uh… my pet doesn’t die very often. I mean, I do watch its HP bar and recall occasionally…? It’s generally most dicey against champions and in dungeons (which is to say, against champions – but that’s a different topic), so there I can kind of understand it, although I haven’t had a terrible run so far.

But sure, maybe the “other bow” could be added to another profession so I can tell people to play that instead. Ironically, half the time I play Ranger I find myself using greatsword instead because it does more damage.

ExTribble.7108:

The whole idea that pets run around and aggro everything is completely false. Hate to go “elitist” on everyone, but that’s a L2Play issue. If the pet is in the agressive/combat mode, it will go after your target. If it gets within aggro range of another target, it will hit that one next. I dare you to set it to the non-agressive status and use F1 to attack specific enemies (or use the recall F3 after each kill). It won’t aggro a single extra thing. And yes, melee pets are more susceptible to overaggro because, you know, they get within melee range and are therefore closer to the surrounding non-aggro’d enemies.

I agree with this part. I understand not liking the class mechanic, but it works well if you actually use it instead of ignoring it. One nice thing about putting your pet on passive is that it won’t switch targets when you do, so I can attack two targets of my choosing at the same time. My necro is petless simply because I can’t stand pets I can’t control.

There are some issues with pets hitting moving targets that make me not take my ranger into WvW, but between recall and being able to swap pets I rarely have problems keeping them alive. It’s also awesome how much flexibility rangers get in choices for our extra skills; Pets have combo fields and finishers, and there are a lot of choices for the F2 skills.

As far as making pets optional, put them on passive and ignore them if you want. You’ll be hurting your effectiveness, but if it’s more fun for you that way, go for it.

Pandemoniac.4739:

As far as making pets optional, put them on passive and ignore them if you want. You’ll be hurting your effectiveness, but if it’s more fun for you that way, go for it.

OR anet can:
1. make a proper archer class that doesn’t use pets.
2. give thieves longbows
3. make a viable ranger build that doesn’t use pets.

The easiest option would be giving thieves longbows. They don’t have a long-ranged weapon anyway!

Asking the player base to simply ‘ignore’ their pets because that’s how they wanna play – especially when people already deny rangers a dungeon spot – is ludicrous.

The only problem with the approach of leaving a pet on passive mode and ignoring it is that a ranger’s DPS noticeably suffers with the pet sitting idle. An option where we can stow the pet and gain something like a 5% damage boost and some other passive boost (I haven’t and don’t care to number-crunch here, so this could be wildly OP or UP) is what I think most people would appreciate.

Solid Gold.9310:

zenleto.6179:

Solid Gold.9310:

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

Under what circumstances is the pet a liability?

Dungeons for a start.

Plus it runs all over the place agroing other mobs nearby.

It can’t even jump down 6 inches, it has to go all the way around, however far that might be.

I’ve done the dungeons and I’ve never had a problem with my pet. It sounds to me like you’re doing the dungeon in a way it wasn’t intended, or something, or you don’t know how to stow it when absolutely necessary.

The only time in the entirety of the game in which my pet has been a liability was in the Rata Sum Fractal during the escalator of doom. If your pet gets hit you get hit, which is dumb. But again, stow the pet, make the run, done.

Pets die to bosses a lot, but that’s not a liability, that’s just an annoyance.

Pets are part of what a ranger is. Anyone who disagrees is trying to play something other than a ranger.

Why would anyone ever want to use both bows? I’ve never actually seen someone who runs Longbow/Shortbow. Generally it’s a preference one way or the other and a melee weapon or axe for the swap. Honestly short bows aren’t very rangery anyway.

Snow White.9680:

Pandemoniac.4739:

As far as making pets optional, put them on passive and ignore them if you want. You’ll be hurting your effectiveness, but if it’s more fun for you that way, go for it.

OR anet can:
1. make a proper archer class that doesn’t use pets.
2. give thieves longbows
3. make a viable ranger build that doesn’t use pets.

The easiest option would be giving thieves longbows. They don’t have a long-ranged weapon anyway!

Asking the player base to simply ‘ignore’ their pets because that’s how they wanna play – especially when people already deny rangers a dungeon spot – is ludicrous.

option 2 pleaseeeeeeeeeee option 2 petition

thieves with long bows then we are all settled

Snow White.9680:

Pandemoniac.4739:

As far as making pets optional, put them on passive and ignore them if you want. You’ll be hurting your effectiveness, but if it’s more fun for you that way, go for it.

OR anet can:
1. make a proper archer class that doesn’t use pets.
2. give thieves longbows
3. make a viable ranger build that doesn’t use pets.

The easiest option would be giving thieves longbows. They don’t have a long-ranged weapon anyway!

Asking the player base to simply ‘ignore’ their pets because that’s how they wanna play – especially when people already deny rangers a dungeon spot – is ludicrous.

But both SB and Pistol have 900 range attacks, and the second SB skill has 1200 range, and now I have to read that thieves don’t have a long-ranged weapon
I vote in Ranger changes

Kal Spiro.9745:

Solid Gold.9310:

zenleto.6179:

Solid Gold.9310:

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

Under what circumstances is the pet a liability?

Dungeons for a start.

Plus it runs all over the place agroing other mobs nearby.

It can’t even jump down 6 inches, it has to go all the way around, however far that might be.

I’ve done the dungeons and I’ve never had a problem with my pet. It sounds to me like you’re doing the dungeon in a way it wasn’t intended, or something, or you don’t know how to stow it when absolutely necessary.

The only time in the entirety of the game in which my pet has been a liability was in the Rata Sum Fractal during the escalator of doom. If your pet gets hit you get hit, which is dumb. But again, stow the pet, make the run, done.

Pets die to bosses a lot, but that’s not a liability, that’s just an annoyance.

Pets are part of what a ranger is. Anyone who disagrees is trying to play something other than a ranger.

Why would anyone ever want to use both bows? I’ve never actually seen someone who runs Longbow/Shortbow. Generally it’s a preference one way or the other and a melee weapon or axe for the swap. Honestly short bows aren’t very rangery anyway.

BIG parts of that I don’t agree with………..

I’ve only ever played a Ranger, I think I know how to “stow” my pet, anyway stub your toe, fall over a twig, or get hit, up pops the pet.

I’m not a particular fan of dungeons anyway, at least not with a pet, I’m “sure” you’ve had every success with your pet in dungeons, but I can’t comment as I have only done the story mode ones. (So your theory “I’m doing them in a way that wasn’t intended” does’nt really hold water, explain a way that wasn’t intended anyway ?).

A pet is not part of the Ranger, your thinking of a Beastmaster, sorry to burst your bubble, anyway IF there were a choice to play with or without a pet as in GW1, wouldn’t everybody be happy ?

I would happily play any other class that can use both long and short bows, with light or medium armour, you see I like the short bow because of it’s speed and the longbow for WvW, for general PvE use the longbow bores the pants off me.

zenleto.6179:

In what sort of content is the AI always awful? I’m looking for some sort of specificity since I have no problems with pets in the open world.

Have you tried a bow warrior?

A few days ago I was at fire ele, and noticed my pet was taking damage so I brought him back.

I then moved to the left to avoid a red circle, and my pet walked right in to it, and got sent flying and bounced right into a red circle on my right and died. :P It was kind of funny to watch, but in the back of my head I was thinking, “well, there goes some of my dps”. I couldn’t switch because there was 4sec left on the timer.

I can keep the pet up for a little at melandru, but eventually he gets taken out by one of those big aoe spike attacks, or charges.

At Grenth he dies in the ocean of red circles, or if I decide to fight shades instead he can’t damage them.

Solid Gold.9310:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Solid Gold.9310:

zenleto.6179:

Solid Gold.9310:

Yeah problems are, warriors can use longbows, thieves can use shortbows, no other class can use both types of bow.

I can’t stand the stupid pets either, I wanted to play a Ranger, not a Beastmaster.

But no, we have to have what ArenaNet see as a Ranger, forced to use the mainly useless pet, a pet that is a total liability, a pet that they will never be able to fix.

Under what circumstances is the pet a liability?

Dungeons for a start.

Plus it runs all over the place agroing other mobs nearby.

It can’t even jump down 6 inches, it has to go all the way around, however far that might be.

I’ve done the dungeons and I’ve never had a problem with my pet. It sounds to me like you’re doing the dungeon in a way it wasn’t intended, or something, or you don’t know how to stow it when absolutely necessary.

The only time in the entirety of the game in which my pet has been a liability was in the Rata Sum Fractal during the escalator of doom. If your pet gets hit you get hit, which is dumb. But again, stow the pet, make the run, done.

Pets die to bosses a lot, but that’s not a liability, that’s just an annoyance.

Pets are part of what a ranger is. Anyone who disagrees is trying to play something other than a ranger.

Why would anyone ever want to use both bows? I’ve never actually seen someone who runs Longbow/Shortbow. Generally it’s a preference one way or the other and a melee weapon or axe for the swap. Honestly short bows aren’t very rangery anyway.

BIG parts of that I don’t agree with………..

I’ve only ever played a Ranger, I think I know how to “stow” my pet, anyway stub your toe, fall over a twig, or get hit, up pops the pet.

I’ve played other classes, but my first class, first to 80 and all around main is a Ranger, so I’ll say we’re on even footing. If you’re taking damage while your pet is stowed then it’s hardly your pet’s fault, and since the entire point of that post was to express a lack of pets being a liability that’s very relevant.

I’m not a particular fan of dungeons anyway, at least not with a pet, I’m “sure” you’ve had every success with your pet in dungeons, but I can’t comment as I have only done the story mode ones. (So your theory “I’m doing them in a way that wasn’t intended” does’nt really hold water, explain a way that wasn’t intended anyway ?).

If you are moving in such a way as to cause your pet to run a weird direction and agro huge groups of mobs that seems to mean you went somewhere you weren’t intended to go based on the level design. The only place I can think of where this is a thing is in Sorrow’s Embrace, in which the strategy is, stow your pets so they don’t ago all the moles. So again, stow your pet.

A pet is not part of the Ranger, your thinking of a Beastmaster, sorry to burst your bubble, anyway IF there were a choice to play with or without a pet as in GW1, wouldn’t everybody be happy ?

Sorry, you’re just straight up wrong. Ranger is a guy with a bow and an animal companion. They are intrinsic qualities of the whole. It only worked in GW1 because class design in general was hugely different anyway. But no proper ranger is without his trusty animal companion. If all you want is a guy with a bow and inferior armor you’re looking for a rogue more than a ranger. In this game it’s a Thief. If they give thieves longbow (which they probably never will) then I’m sure you’ll be happy. Until then you’re stuck because Rangers will always have pets.

Lambent.6375:

zenleto.6179:

In what sort of content is the AI always awful? I’m looking for some sort of specificity since I have no problems with pets in the open world.

Have you tried a bow warrior?

A few days ago I was at fire ele, and noticed my pet was taking damage so I brought him back.

I then moved to the left to avoid a red circle, and my pet walked right in to it, and got sent flying and bounced right into a red circle on my right and died. :P It was kind of funny to watch, but in the back of my head I was thinking, “well, there goes some of my dps”. I couldn’t switch because there was 4sec left on the timer.

I can keep the pet up for a little at melandru, but eventually he gets taken out by one of those big aoe spike attacks, or charges.

At Grenth he dies in the ocean of red circles, or if I decide to fight shades instead he can’t damage them.

See, this is relevant, while also being hard to address. Basically NPCs, which pets are, can’t see the red circles. They aren’t able to react to them. The options available are to allow them to react, which would be potentially very bad for everyone that uses heavy AoEs, but would be easier to implement, or somehow separate pet AI such that they can react to AoEs while the other NPCs can’t. This would definately be the ideal situation but almost certainly significantly more difficult.

Personally I would give up my F2 ability (just put it into their general rotation, while also making all porcine abilities actually useful) if I could use F2 for Pet dodge. That would probably be the easiest and most accepted solution.

Saying pets are not a part of what a ranger is, is bs. ANet decides what a ranger is in their game, and in their game rangers use pets. It is an essential part of what they are. You do not define what a ranger is in this case, so stop pretending.
Why does it matter to me if pets become an option rather than a requirement? Well then I as one who likes pets, wont be allowed to use it and get hassled for it.

Maybe I am just lucky, but I have had little problems getting groups in dungeons. I’ve done pretty good in WvW when I chose to be there, and open world is np. Yes some pets are die quickly in certain cases, but it doesn’t really bother me all that much.

If this is such a problem for some people… give thieves longbows… whatever. Would be cool to add more weapons in general anyway to most of the classes.

yes, please, i advocate longbow for thieves,

they will be the ultimate kiting masters,

I’m honestly confused why people want to use two of the same weapon type.

That’s like crying about Thieves using a long sword and a short sword (dagger) but not wanting to be stealthy and squishy. I mean, I guess, yeah…but the weapons themselves aren’t some kind of identity in and of themselves, they are simply a style. Long Sword tends to be a sweeping, power weapon while Dagger is a short quick weapon, often with mobility and movement.

The bows are the same. Longbow is more of an AoE centric weapon while the Shortbow is a single target one. So wanting to use both, has nothing to do with being an ‘archer’, IMO, but instead wanting to have both modes of play.

If that’s the argument, I can agree, it’d be cool to have more varied modes of play for the weapons, possibly even new classes to make use of the different modes if it’s not viable to add to an existing class.

…but if you’re talking about using the bows for the sake they are bows…why does it matter if you’re only using a longbow and can’t use a short or the reverse? The point of using a bow is to shoot something at range…is it for the skins? I can’t honestly fathom why it’d even matter if a profession is limited to one, it’s the mode of play that’s important.

I see no purpose to give Warriors shortbow as their AoE centric weapon is Longbow and their single target centric weapon is Rifle. There aren’t anymore modes of ranged play other than that needed for the profession. Dunno about Thief but I’m going to guess they don’t have an AoE centric ranged weapon for balancing concerns.

That all said, I’ve been attempting to garner more support for a Bow weapon for Elementalist, either long or short, namely to fill their gap of a single target-centric ranged weapon…but I couldn’t imagine thinking up two styles of bow skills for the class as it’s completely unnecessary.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

lordkrall.7241:

Warriors can use Longbows quite good, give it a try.

I have. It would be my first choice, were it not for the fact that they’re literally DISALLOWED from using lighter armor.

I get that it is lighter, it requires getting used to and a warrior who has worn plate mail for ten years might feel awkward in a tunic alone, but come on. I don’t like the idea of a bowman wearing heavy armor, so ranger(pets required) is my only option.

There are light options in the heavy armor choices. Some are even lighter than medium, practically exposing the upper body. Some even look like a tunic (although somewhat adorned with reinforced plate) and coat. I’d suggest actually seeking a look that suites you before dismissing the class because of their armor grade name.

I mean, what do you do if you want a heavy-looking armor on your necro or elementalist? Give up? No, there are options to make your caster look armored. Trust me.

Honestly the pet is more of a boon than a detriment. the fact is you are just lazy and cannot micro-manage your pet very well. Do so and you are a huge anchor point for your group in dungeouns. the problem is so many people want to skip all the time (which is pointless as all you do is trigger DR faster if you skip…and skipping also typically only saves you 10 minutes).

I see this all the time, you knew what you were getting into…you CHOOSE YOUR PET at character creation even.

Runiir.6425:

Honestly the pet is more of a boon than a detriment. the fact is you are just lazy and cannot micro-manage your pet very well. Do so and you are a huge anchor point for your group in dungeouns. the problem is so many people want to skip all the time (which is pointless as all you do is trigger DR faster if you skip…and skipping also typically only saves you 10 minutes).

Off topic about skipping: depending on the mobs being skipped, I find it particularly good to have the pet out on passive. Likely, the pet will aggro the mobs, I’ll run past and swap. This doesn’t put me in combat (so long as I don’t get hit) and it keeps the mobs busy just long enough to get past them without any cooldowns.

So often, and across many dungeons infamous for skipping (AC, Arah, TA, SE) I can often times dance in those skip areas (not literally /dance, but rather than getting by by the skin of my teeth, I can go back WHILE foes are aggroed, pick people up, act as a distraction, what have you). Granted, I wouldn’t suggest attempting it in TA specifically…but actually easier from my experience to skip content.

The exception would be CM. Trying to use the pet to skip = instant dead pet more often than not.

Ranger with a pet might be how Arenanet see the Ranger, it’s not how many Rangers want it to be and would like the OPTION, so you fanboi’s of a pet can still use the thing.

People supporting the pet seem to want to force us to play with it, whereas many would like the option.

Arenanet really need to be flexible with some issues, and not force people to play how they see various aspects of the game. (Town clothes being another issue).

People will walk when something that suits them more comes along, and I’ve heard all the rubbish like “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out”, just remember it’s the players that make this game a success.

I chose Ranger because it was the obvious archery class, which I love to play. Both Warrior and Thief have limited range on their bows. I was fully aware that I’d have a pet, and accepted that. But I thought the pet would be more of a utility than what we have. Ah, well, I’ll make due with what I have, but I wouldn’t mind pets becomming optional. Honestly can’t imagine why anyone would…

Solid Gold.9310:

Ranger with a pet might be how Arenanet see the Ranger, it’s not how many Rangers want it to be and would like the OPTION, so you fanboi’s of a pet can still use the thing.

People supporting the pet seem to want to force us to play with it, whereas many would like the option.

Arenanet really need to be flexible with some issues, and not force people to play how they see various aspects of the game. (Town clothes being another issue).

People will walk when something that suits them more comes along, and I’ve heard all the rubbish like “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out”, just remember it’s the players that make this game a success.

Yre the “fanboi” here more than others. I argue against changign it as other options are there. Warrior and thief that can both play ana rcher role. You grumble about warrior wearing heavy armor, boo hoo…choose some of the lighter looking heavy armor than. How about thief? What? Don’t like shortbow range?

Every class has a unique skillset, a mechanic that is their’s alone, for ranger that is the pet. The pet will never go away, it will forever be bound to the ranger. This is not how I want it, but this is how Anet has built the class. Make peace with this fact and learn how to utilize the pet. Outside of high level fractals (thanks to agony) if your pet is dying constantly than you are just a failure at understanding the pets you have chosen and your playstyle.
Hint; do not choose a pet based on how it looks, you choose them based on their stat strengths and the on-use skill they have access to. Birds are persuit pets, for use when you are hunting/scouting in wvw. Spiders/lakittenails fire at range and make great boss fight pets as you can command them out of red circles easier than melee pets and rarely draw the aggro of the boss. Bears make great tanks and have (through use of clever swap outs my own heal and the guardian being a buffer.healer in the group) used 2 bears as a raw tank for all 3 paths of HotW. The rest of the pets are ok for open world but lack any real niche they just excel at in a manner that doesn’t require constant supervision.
As for using the bears to tank for me, yes…that includes manually making them run out of red circles/aoes/large attacks and using follow/attack commands to manuever the boss when necessary.

Seriously, those griping about the pet AI…just don’t know how to use it…and Ranger isn’t even my main…I’d love for the ai to be farther improved but it is not nearly as bad as people think.

I love that this thread devolved into a “lets have Rangers without pets,” thread when the purpose of this suggestion was to get a new class on top of the ones we have that could serve that purpose. It may be silly to hope for, but at least the OP is already accepting that Rangers won’t lost their pets.

Yeah, I don’t see rangers losing their pets. It would be cool to see thieves get longbows but I posted a thread about it in the thief forum to get very little response or ‘no thanks’.

My favorite weapon has always been bows, and I would love to see another LB/SB class since most games seem to have only 1 option and I think ANet likes to break the mold. I wish I could get into the ranger, I really do. I have a level 80 one that was my first character and I just can’t enjoy her. The only reason shes 80 is because the game as a whole was new. I find her very boring. I wish they did something more exciting with bows rather than ’shoot an arrow, shoot 2 arrows!" Ironically the thief bow options are much more fun and exciting and I find that disturbing.

Anyways, its only one persons opinion and I wanted to share it!
I didn’t mean to cause an argument with this suggestion!

Runiir.6425
“Yre the “fanboi” here more than others. I argue against changign it as other options are there. Warrior and thief that can both play ana rcher role. You grumble about warrior wearing heavy armor, boo hoo…choose some of the lighter looking heavy armor than. How about thief? What? Don’t like shortbow range?”

Yeah of course I’m a “fanboi”.
Why would you argue about the pet being OPTIONAL, surely you would be happy as you want to use your pet, and many Rangers who prefer not to have a pet would be happy as well ?

And as I have said before, warrior can only use a longbow, and thief can only use a shortbow. So niether of them can play an archer role.

And stop with the telling me what pets to use and how to “micro” manage them, I don’t want to “micro” manage them thank you.

@OP
According to dev interviews in the last week or so (here’s one of them) Rangers apparently have a lot of fixes in the works, so I suggest patience for now, since I would expect that you’d see some of them as soon as Tuesday’s patch. I realize a lot of people have lost faith that ANet will ever follow through on fixing the class, but hopefully SOME of the problems will get better.

I seem to recall that running a pet in GW1 only really worked for gimmick builds. I’m not sure I want to go back there. The profession still needs some work, but I have more confidence that it will ever get there…

So instead of saying I hate pets, maybe you could have proposed a new class mechanic for the new class? There’s a lot more to a class than bows and medium armor. What is the theme for the utility skills? Every profession has different weapon skills, how would the archer be different from a petless ranger?

The thread devolved into a rangers without pets discussion because that is what the original post was about as it was written: A class that can use bows without pets.

Sirius.4510:

I seem to recall that running a pet in GW1 only really worked for gimmick builds. I’m not sure I want to go back there. The profession still needs some work, but I have more confidence that it will ever get there…

How is spending one skill slot to have an entire extra party member a gimmick?

Snow White.9680:

I wish they did something more exciting with bows rather than ’shoot an arrow, shoot 2 arrows!"

Which Ranger skill shoots 2 arrows?

Solid Gold.9310:

And as I have said before, warrior can only use a longbow, and thief can only use a shortbow. So niether of them can play an archer role.

By definition, any character who can use a bow to shoot arrows at a target are Archers. If going purely by innate skills, Ranger, Warrior, Thief and Elementalist are Archers because they all have profession skills that fulfill the definition of Archer.

Perhaps you mean Toxophilite, which by definition, is an expert at archery. Why we’d need a profession to be an expert at archery is beyond me when that hugely limits the concept of weapons it’d use. Why would an expert of archery use anything but the two bows? So it’d be a class with two weapon options?

Even introducing the other bow to Warrior/Thief, I think it’d hardly be for the reason of creating another Toxophilite professions and more to do with fulfilling a playstyle option for that professions. So what could that playstyle be, exactly?

Kal Spiro.9745:

How is spending one skill slot to have an entire extra party member a gimmick?

For most of the game’s life, it was two, since you wanted to have some way to res it. And… it was because it didn’t really do that much damage, all told. Necromancer minions were nearly as good for most purposes, and you could bring a lot more of them.

Thus, in most cases, spending two (often really valuable) skill slots on a pet wasn’t really worth it; there were exceptions but they usually involved things that were built around having lots of pets (IWAY) or cases where you really didn’t need the skill slots for anything else anyway (Ursan).

Maybe there’s something else I’m forgetting too… but I don’t remember seeing a lot of rangers bringing pets in GW1. It did happen, but most of the time I jumped into PvP I didn’t see them, just stuff like condition stacking and interrupts.

If you love bows and hate pets, then a compromise is in order, play the Warrior if you like longbows or Thief if you like shortbows.

Expecting the Ranger to playable without pets is something ArenaNet doesn’t want to do. That’s the way the profession is intended to be.

I have to agree with the OP,

THIS was the reason why I deleted my ranger and have not created another one. I too like the bows; I would be very happy to run around the world with my bows and not have to worry about that dam pet. Maybe there should be an option to permanently turn off the pet if you don’t want them.

Craywulf.5793:

If you love bows and hate pets, then a compromise is in order, play the Warrior if you like longbows or Thief if you like shortbows.

Expecting the Ranger to playable without pets is something ArenaNet doesn’t want to do. That’s the way the profession is intended to be.

Yup it’s a shame that the Ranger with the pet is ArenaNets vision of how a Ranger should be.

Not a Rangers vision at all.

Oh well, there’s some competition coming out shortly, we’ll see how their Ranger is.

Anyone else find it ironic that it’s “Snow White” complaining over her furry and cuddly woodland friends? More so, that she wants to be a thief instead???? :-) Too funny….

Anyway’s, the dev’s have a thing for forcing Melee. No class is going to get two long range weapons that aren’t going to be a hindrance. For Thieves, they should get nothing! IF they do, then I want IN COMBAT weapon swap on my Ele’s.

Rangers can use both Long and Short bows though why a Ranger would use a short bow is beyond me. Cavalry or Mounted Infantry makes sense for a short bow.

As to pets… A Ranger can carry two pets just not both active. Keeping an eye on the active one and swapping out before it dies is a skill choice that can be very useful when done right.

The main complaint I have regarding pets is I am a level 80 and still have a Juvenile Pet. That is like running around with an Armored Personnel Carrier armed with a
sling shot. The pets should Level Up with the character.