Guild Wars 2

Hi Jon, ArenaNet, Community,
Any news on fixes being made to the Ranger Pets?

As we all know there’s quite a bit wrong with them in terms of attacking while moving, survivability and responsiveness. I would of thought it would be on the top of the things to fix list for the ranger. Feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks

I totally agree with you. The current state of ranger-pets is probably the main reason why rangers are sub-par compared to other classes regarding almost every aspect / niche of the game. It would be nice if the devs could tell us something about it, whether we can expect some fixes in the near future or not.

Pets will never be fixed. They would have to go back and redo the attack animations for every pet to let them attack on the move. That or they let them skate around, or increase their attack range to 10 meters or something like that, which they won’t do either. The best we can hope for is that future pets will have better animations.

l doubt we’ll see any pet changes any time soon. Pets are the weakest aspect of the ranger and they’re a disaster tbh. Just poorly designed all around and it would require way too much work to actually make them useful. That being said, pets can do some decent damage if target is crippled or immobilized.

But if a dev wants to prove me wrong l’d love to hear it!

Thank you Jon this is all we ask for is some feedback on progress

Pet fixes are great and thank you, but I’d really like to see a way to “perma” stow my pets and give myself an uptick in DPS by doing so. Some situations I just do not want my pet out. Also, if we can make it so the pet doesn’t pop out on damage, fall or otherwise, that would be fantastic. Thanks for the attention Jon.

Any plans for the necro pet AI?

Garmr.5672:

Pet fixes are great and thank you, but I’d really like to see a way to “perma” stow my pets and give myself an uptick in DPS by doing so. Some situations I just do not want my pet out. Also, if we can make it so the pet doesn’t pop out on damage, fall or otherwise, that would be fantastic. Thanks for the attention Jon.

Yeap thats what l would like, but l don’t think there’s much chance of anything happening anytime ever.

Not being able to stow pets is not that big of an issue for me. My isses with the pets are:
Animation speed before going to the target
Pets not hitting a moving target.

At least there working on them.

Any chance you could tell us what % of the Ranger class you feel the pet should be accounting for with their DPS? Is it supposed to be a 70/30 split or 50/50? Next to nothing? etc.

Just trying to get an idea of what the designers feel the class should be capable of and what it’s currently doing.

Thank you very much Jon, i no AI can be tricky and am not expecting pets to be totally fixed over night but a push in the right direction is still much appreciated.

If this is so hard to fix, I would just drop the melee mechanic and put an invisible damage field around the pet that pulses for damage, so anything the pet is near takes damage on each tick (attack animations would just be for fluff). I know it’s a crude hotfix and the damage would be AoE and unblockable, but at least the problem would be solved. If pets become OP, just decrease their DPS.

JonPeters.5630:

I made some changes to improve pets hitting moving targets in this upcoming build. I wouldn’t expect those changes to light the world on fire, but they have improved. There is more to be done in this area still but feedback on how much this upcoming change helped, once it is in, would be great.

Sounds great Jon : )

JonPeters.5630:

I made some changes to improve pets hitting moving targets in this upcoming build. I wouldn’t expect those changes to light the world on fire, but they have improved. There is more to be done in this area still but feedback on how much this upcoming change helped, once it is in, would be great.

Thats it, thats all I love to hear, pets hitting moving targets. Thats all we wanted MOSTLY done, thx Jon

What about drake pets never using their abilities? (tail swipe, chomp)

Oh and one more thing Jon, bring some of Black and White gameplay in this game with the pet options like taking it for a walk, playing with it, making it bigger and stronger as levels increase..lol I know, too much.

Beardmonger.4692:

What about drake pets never using their abilities? (tail swipe, chomp)

I’m guessing they can do it on the move hopefully.

Garmr.5672:

Pet fixes are great and thank you, but I’d really like to see a way to “perma” stow my pets and give myself an uptick in DPS by doing so. Some situations I just do not want my pet out. Also, if we can make it so the pet doesn’t pop out on damage, fall or otherwise, that would be fantastic. Thanks for the attention Jon.

What he said.
Anyway, I really love to see how you guys work hard on delivering those improvements. Thank you for that.

JonPeters.5630:

I made some changes to improve pets hitting moving targets in this upcoming build. I wouldn’t expect those changes to light the world on fire, but they have improved. There is more to be done in this area still but feedback on how much this upcoming change helped, once it is in, would be great.

I think we should run a test on moving targets to see how frequent or how long it takes for the pet to damage the target before the patch so we can test it out afterwards in order to give Jon the feedback he is requesting. Preferably someone who has video capture on their computer, otherwise I’d do it myself. I know there are some video’s out there already but one for this test in particular would be good.

JonPeters.5630:

I made some changes to improve pets hitting moving targets in this upcoming build. I wouldn’t expect those changes to light the world on fire, but they have improved. There is more to be done in this area still but feedback on how much this upcoming change helped, once it is in, would be great.

Jon, help me here, I don’t understand, “but they have improved”, specifically the “they”. What “they” are you talking about? “They” referring to “changes to improve pets hitting moving targets” If so, then how is a change being improved? OR is the “they” referring to the act of our pets hitting a moving target which has now by your reworking, have been improved? OR did you mean to finish that second sentence with the addition of " , but they have improved the hit %." ???

Any clarification here would be great.

Right on!
I hope this is true!
Thanks Jon

Thanks jon. Even a small improvement would increase pet reliability and dps significantly cant wait to test it out. Thanks for continuing to improve it.

Good news keep on coming. 3 confirmed changes already, all of them quite significant towards gettting the ranger out of the gutter.
Thanks

THANK-YOU for this topic. And thank you Jon, for all the responses and some fixes to the pets. I would hate to flood with with requests/questions/concerns, but I feel now is a good time.

A question: I personally think one of the biggest faults for ranger end-game PvE is the survivability of the pet in dungeons (specifically, AoE mechanics, groups of mobs one shotting the pet, etc.) Does the balance team see this as a problem, or is it intended? I feel since the pet is responsible for a sizeable chunk of our DPS, it should perhaps have AoE damage mitigation to help them stay alive in instances where they aren’t specifically targeted.

I am just wondering that if the team sees this as an issue, if there are any future plans to implement perhaps a talent or passive trait to pets allowing more dungeon survivability, somehow.

Thank you for your continued work on the Ranger, my favorite class!!

Projectile speed, Signet of the Wild and now this?!

Mind. Blown.

JonPeters.5630:

Melee pets hitting moving targets.

Dog, wolf, fernhound, all bears, arctodus, murellow, all cats, pigs, boars, siamoths, all drakes, all moas…

Birds too? Hawks/Owls/Ravens/Eagles attempting to peck an opponent’s eyes out or steal their hair for nesting material is melee too right?

Jon,

Another pet issue specific to piggies is the animation freeze stutter when picking up environmental weapons. It feels like a .5-1 sec freeze that is somewhat annoying when you are pulling a dodge roll kite maneuver to pick up the object in transit.

I realize this probably isn’t a ranger specific issue and likely applies to other classes spawning environmental weapons as well. So perhaps there are assets outside the class dev team that could work on streamlining it more.

good news on melee pets.

“Melee pets hitting moving targets.

Dog, wolf, fernhound, all bears, arctodus, murellow, all cats, pigs, boars, siamoths, all drakes, all moas…"

Thank you for the quick clarification! Thanks on your efforts to improve the class, keep us posted.

And the rangers rejoice! Ooooh will it be a bad day to be an enemy now!

Hmm. As a PvE player and one who usually lets pets tank, I can’t say the pets ability to hit moving targets will do much for me personally, but its nice to see pets getting any sort of fixes, since they’ve been largely ignored thus far. Probably more due to the fact that its harder to fix pets than abilities with the whole AI thing, but its nice to see some changes coming to fruition on the pet front finally. And the number of replies / fixes in the works for the upcoming patch in general is starting to look really nice, so thanks on that Jon.

Definately looking forward to Drakes getting fixed though, even if its not until after the upcoming patch. Drakes are my favorite pets appearence-wise but the fact that they only use their basic attack really makes me dislike using them, like I’m wasting my pet slot on something thats not doing everything it could be.

Electro.4173:

Hmm. As a PvE player and one who usually lets pets tank, I can’t say the pets ability to hit moving targets will do much for me personally, but its nice to see pets getting any sort of fixes, since they’ve been largely ignored thus far. Probably more due to the fact that its harder to fix pets than abilities with the whole AI thing, but its nice to see some changes coming to fruition on the pet front finally. And the number of replies / fixes in the works for the upcoming patch in general is starting to look really nice, so thanks on that Jon.

Definately looking forward to Drakes getting fixed though, even if its not until after the upcoming patch. Drakes are my favorite pets appearence-wise but the fact that they only use their basic attack really makes me dislike using them, like I’m wasting my pet slot on something thats not doing everything it could be.

I have this same exact issue… except i also have grown really attached to Bubbles and Sparky so i don’t like pulling a different pet out instead lol.

In regards to pets I would love to see any of the following:

1. Better regeneration or survivability. I would love to see pets either regenerate quicker or be able to dodge attacks better. This could be based on animal (bears have fast regeneration but dodge less, cats have slower regeneration but dodge more).

2. More health. While I understand a pet shouldn’t have a ton of health, it should be able to stay alive for more than 2-4 hits. A Mesmer pet stays alive just as long as our pets do and they can respawn 10x faster.

3. Being that a Ranger is primarily an archer, it would be great to have some sort of pet buff while using bows. At the moment it’s more effective (to a degree) to be a melee Ranger (in certain situations) due to the lack of DPS of bows.

Edit. Nevermind. Wrong topic

@ Jon , we appreciate your replies

Any chance of taking a look @ our traits they seem in a bit of a mess and i think need rearranging a bit

cheers

i will pull out my ranger from the abyss of my bank compartment,

imagine the glory of melee pets hitting moving targets,

i smell other classes crying for more nerfs towards rangers,

i hope pets can cast skill while moving ^^ hahahahah

Decrypter.1785:

@ Jon , we appreciate your replies

Any chance of taking a look @ our traits they seem in a bit of a mess and i think need rearranging a bit

cheers

Need a lot more than rearranging imo. Half of them make no sense

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

One little step ………. GIANT leap for the Ranger!

I Love my ranger and pets even more now :-)

I ve always been a pet lover.In a friendly way..
Thank you Mr Peters

Thanks for talking to us!

What I really would like to see fixed for rangers wrt pets is Lick Wounds (3rd downed skill). It used to work well for me, but now it seems to fail every single time I’m not in a completely flat surface. It’s like a trump card for ranger survivability in PvE and it makes me cringe every time I use it in anticipation for whether it’ll work or not.

Oldgrimm.8521:

i will pull out my ranger from the abyss of my bank compartment,

imagine the glory of melee pets hitting moving targets,

i smell other classes crying for more nerfs towards rangers,

i hope pets can cast skill while moving ^^ hahahahah

I suspect they changed ranges as that seems a much easier change.

Thank you so much for communicating with us Jon. You have no idea how much it means to us

Im not jumping for joy until I see valid results.

the pets have improved since the beginning, but when improved the ranger skills…?

Good in PvE but no WvW, my ranger is in the closet for some time!

Anyone got a link to this dec 14th patch notes?

Sauzo.6821:

Anyone got a link to this dec 14th patch notes?

Can’t have patch notes for a patch that’s not done yet

I’ll get the link, hold on.

I just got to figure out where I put my Tardis.

In the meantime, hooray for pet improvements. And Jonny-Dev knows and seems to acknowledge that pets are a big issue, so that gives even more hope.

HOPE!

Totally off topic… I want to see a Guild Wars 2 fanvid with four elementalists doing the whole Captain Planet thing… Then see a Ranger jump in and yell “HEART!” Probably only to be met with awkward silence and shame.

Poor Ma’ti.

Ok well i ask cause on this thread only thing i’ve seen is pets will hit moving targets but in aother thread i read someone say that longbows are getting buffed. I want to know how this is known ie is there some thread where the devs post some of the changes they are doing to rangers?