Guild Wars 2

im specced full BM and skirmishing, meaning that my dps pets are the best they can be. no, i dont use the bear or the ranged pets. but losing my cats to a boss in one shot is a little disheartening

ANet made an announcement that pets would be improved in dungeons. is this still happening?

Don’t use those pets in those specific bosses.

In GW2, you have the ability to adapt. Take advantage! What you use for certain situations isn’t going to be optimal in others.

You’re given the ability to swap out pets when out of combat. Make use of this ability. Note which bosses kills your cats fast, and swap out to Devourers/Spiders/Bears for that specific fight.

Even then, your pets will still die in some specific situations. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t suggest a 30 Beastmaster build in dungeons.

you gotta just put your pet on passive for those dungeons like everyone else until anet realize the pet mechanic is not working at higher levels and difficulty.

Ursan.7846:

Don’t use those pets in those specific bosses.

In GW2, you have the ability to adapt. Take advantage! What you use for certain situations isn’t going to be optimal in others.

You’re given the ability to swap out pets when out of combat. Make use of this ability. Note which bosses kills your cats fast, and swap out to Devourers/Spiders/Bears for that specific fight.

Even then, your pets will still die in some specific situations. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t suggest a 30 Beastmaster build in dungeons.

nope, i wanna use melee pets and i wanna go full beastmaster. all should be viable. they said they were fixing it and id like to know if it’s still planned.

right now, no amount of micro and skill can save your pet from getting 1-shot by boss AOE.

nerva.7940:

nope, i wanna use melee pets and i wanna go full beastmaster. all should be viable. they said they were fixing it and id like to know if it’s still planned.

Although it is ultimately up to you, I would again like to advise that inflexibility is a huge detriment to one’s playing ability. You’re just handicapping yourself by not equipping yourself with tools you that’s suitable to the situations.

Again, it’s okay to want to use melee pets all the time. That’s your personal opinion. However, just understand that there’s going to be situations where doing that is suboptimal, and you will suffer because of it.

im not asking for advice, im asking for an update on something that was promised. thanks.

nerva.7940:

im not asking for advice, im asking for an update on something that was promised. thanks.

While I totally understand where you are coming from, any update from ANet dealing with pets will likely come in the form of using the right pets for the right job, emphasizing the flexibility of having a ton of pets to pick from with different styles (melee/ranged). In no way did I ever interpret anything said about pets needing help to mean melee pets will ignore AOE’s or take such small dmg from them that they can do things a player cant do (ignore AOE’s and stay up).

Basically, as a ranger, you need to pick the right pets for the right encounters, and no update will make a melee pets ignore AOE’s when a ranged option is there to use. I think an update will come in making them have more responsive time to your commands, and to share your agony resist and things of that nature.

i get what youre saying…but they literally said theyre looking into this issue. might have been a few months ago.

Yes it’s really time that they give some love to ranger pets. I reached lvl 29 fractal today and your pets simply die of agony all the time immediately. It’s pretty much a oneshot. If you are very fast you can switch them but then the newly spawned pet will be instant down from the next agony where you can’t switch anymore because pet swap is of course on cooldown.
While I understand that the high lvl dungeons are so hard that noone can survive it staying in melee range at least we need the ability to keep at least one pet type alive. As it is now it’s not possible in many fights.
Like ascalon endboss. He has an AoE agony range of 900 or something like that and if you send even the longest range pet to fight him it will be instant dead. So pet’s are simply useless there.
Devourers walk too close when they want to fight a target. They should stand still at 900 and not go to 450 or so range when you send them to attack. And Devoureres should have at least 1000-1100 range. 1200 would be perfect.

Agony resistance is the most important to make pets usable. Really – if pets get my agony res I can probably live with it. If they get another AoE resistance (50% less damage from AoE) that would be very decent. And if they would dodge for 1 sec if I press F3 that would also be pretty nice.
Then implement permanent stow and make pets attack more reliable from walls and we are fine with the pets I guess.

Honestly I wouldn’t hold your breath. They seem to have a split personality issue when it comes to pets. On the one hand, they want them to be the other half of our class in damage and utility but then they make them incredibly squishy and give them long recharges as if they are as expendable as Mesmer or Necro minions. They don’t really seem to know how to handle them at all.

This combined with the apparent fact that neither of the devs handling these things actually play Ranger means that any change will at best be halfhearted and will probably miss the point entirely not unlike the very odd water combat buff we got.

To flat out answer your question, no. You need to pay attention to your pets in dungeons and actively know when to let them attack and when to call them back/swap. Even then, some bosses just don’t work, like the Jade Maw or high level fractal bosses with agony. But I wouldn’t despair nerva, since the incoming months suggest patches that will equate to an expansion – so I’m sure that there will be quality of life changes for the ranger and pet.

skittlebob.4850:

To flat out answer your question, no. You need to pay attention to your pets in dungeons and actively know when to let them attack and when to call them back/swap. Even then, some bosses just don’t work, like the Jade Maw or high level fractal bosses with agony. But I wouldn’t despair nerva, since the incoming months suggest patches that will equate to an expansion – so I’m sure that there will be quality of life changes for the ranger and pet.

This, if we don’t get any agony resist (maybe based off of the players agony resist? Or lv of fractals?) or pet AoE damage taken reduction I’m gonna be fairly kitten #8230;

skittlebob.4850:

To flat out answer your question, no. You need to pay attention to your pets in dungeons and actively know when to let them attack and when to call them back/swap. Even then, some bosses just don’t work, like the Jade Maw or high level fractal bosses with agony. But I wouldn’t despair nerva, since the incoming months suggest patches that will equate to an expansion – so I’m sure that there will be quality of life changes for the ranger and pet.

one can only hope!

nerva.7940:

skittlebob.4850:

To flat out answer your question, no. You need to pay attention to your pets in dungeons and actively know when to let them attack and when to call them back/swap.

to flat out clarify your confusion, youre wrong. higher level dungeons have zero room for non-utility pets. it’s sad really. thanks for the bump.

Tell that to my fern hound, he’s been in every scenario I’ve dealt with since character creation with either a hyena, devourer, Moa, raven, or drake as the secondary pet (drake was present at least 75% of the time in PVE and WvW) and I’ve had no issues, maybe you should control your pet better?

all melee pets get one-shot by bosses in most explorable dungeons. in higher level fractals, pets might as well not exist. i hope this issue gets resolved soon. it’s strange how pet synergy is encouraged yet pets are constantly bugged out and overall useless in PVE.

also, what kind of animal cant dodge? why doesnt the pet dodge when i dodge? where is the skill here?

any news? this is one of the worse bits about being a ranger.. i’m sure it’s on their list of fixes right?

Ursan.7846:

nerva.7940:

nope, i wanna use melee pets and i wanna go full beastmaster. all should be viable. they said they were fixing it and id like to know if it’s still planned.

Although it is ultimately up to you, I would again like to advise that inflexibility is a huge detriment to one’s playing ability. You’re just handicapping yourself by not equipping yourself with tools you that’s suitable to the situations.

Again, it’s okay to want to use melee pets all the time. That’s your personal opinion. However, just understand that there’s going to be situations where doing that is suboptimal, and you will suffer because of it.

Oh, shut up for once. Why not tell greatsword warriors to be adaptable and stick to rifles if they want to do dungeons.

Zenith.7301:

Oh, shut up for once. Why not tell greatsword warriors to be adaptable and stick to rifles if they want to do dungeons.

Well, the real reason is that I don’t frequent Warrior forums and so I never get the chance to do so.

First of all, you misrepresent my point. I don’t tell people to “stick” to one thing. I tell people to understand what’s best to use in what situation, and act accordingly. Adaptability is my dogma, and something I constantly shill.

Second of all, from the way you word it, you seem to be implying that “adaptability” is a weakness. That Warrior GS don’t have to “adapt” because they obviously are superior to everything else. It’s patently false. The only Warriors that use nothing but GS are the really, REALLY bad Warriors.

Anyways, since you presented this opportunity, I will tell you why it’s not a great idea to use nothing but a GS in dungeons. It’s incredibly sub-optimal to do all dungeons with nothing but a GS with a warrior because many bosses have pretty heavy anti-melee mechanics. I’ll list some of them.

AC:
Howling King/Ghost Eater/Rumblus:
Ignoring their boss mechanics, their normal melee attacks pack QUITE the punch. It’s impossible for a Warrior to face-tank those attacks. If you’re gonna stick to nothing but melee, you’re gonna be either 1. dead 2. low life, kiting, and waiting for you heal to come off CD, and not contributing damage. In situations like 2, why NOT swap to rifle/longbow and contribute to damage? By solely sticking to GS you are hampering your own ability to damage.

CM:
SSS:
You want to melee SSS? Go ahead, better make sure you dodge every single one of his rifle shots though. With the frequency of his attacks, I doubt you’ll have the endurance to dodge every one of them. You’ll spend a lot of time just trying to get away from his rifle shot. In situations like this, why NOT swap to rifle/longbow and contribute to damage while you wait for your next opening/endurance to charge up?

SE (path 3):
Moleradovich:
I highly, highly doubt you have the sustain to survive his fire attacks/melee attacks. You’ll have to pull back to water fountains/kite/heal at some point. why NOT swap to rifle at times like this?

The APC:
You’re up in a ledge, shielded from a mobs, while the rest of your team ranges down the APC, you hold your GS….why NOT swap to a rifle?

Destroyer of Worlds:
His melee attacks hurt. He also has some melee charge-up that 1-shots you. He also spawns fire circles. He also spawns adds that are chasing and trying to smack at you. You can melee him, but there will be times where you’ll be forced to kite away. why NOT swap to a rifle?

CoF:
Path 1 boss: He has a aoe attack near him, also shoots out those purple thingies that KDs you. When the aoe circles appear, do you continue to stay near him, or do you go out? I imagine the second, most likely. When you do that, why NOT swap to a rifle?

Path 2 boss: Can you even hit the crystal at melee? Even if you can it’s a pretty significant amount of time jumping down, hitting the crystal, and jumping back up to kill the acolytes. why NOT use a rifle?

Arah:
Yea, I’d like to see you tell your Arah group, “I’m going to use nothing but GS because I can!” Tell me their reaction, and please send me a screenshot.

Snowblind Fractal: The boss breathes frost at you. You can take heavy damage by standing in it, or you can kite out, swap to a rifle, and continue to dish out damage.

Dredge fractal: Same with Arah. I’d like to see you say to your team “I’m going to only use a GS in this boss!” See how they respond.

Is the list good enough for you?

let’s return to the topic at hand. pets are nothing but a liability in dungeons. an expensive one at that, because we lose 30% of our dps when they get insta-killed. and this is with 30 points in BM, 20 in skirm and max bond stacks.

Sorry for being a noob but what on god’s earth does “kitten” stand for I see this term tossed round in just about every context possible and I haven’t a clue what it means, it makes me feel old, please help, grandpa wants to know…

Manekk.6981:

Sorry for being a noob but what on god’s earth does “kitten” stand for I see this term tossed round in just about every context possible and I haven’t a clue what it means, it makes me feel old, please help, grandpa wants to know…

Its when the censer system is working, rather than swearing it replaces it with kitten..

There are plenty of videos showing how you can melee 100% of the time as a warrior. I melee 100% of the time in all explorables with my mesmer, and the only time I have to resort to range is lv20+ ascalonian fractal with mages and warriors around to 2-shot you.

The fact that you would call warriors who just melee bad warriors shows a deep level of arrogance. It’s your problem if you can’t melee properly.

It’s not my problem that anet chooses to punish my dps as a ranger by forcing me to switch to mediocre damage devourers, whereas other classes can melee just fine as can my ranger (except the pet). Somehow minions, illusions, and pets have to be the squishy pve exceptions that are ripe for the picking to AoE despite their poor AI positioning. If a ranged mob chooses to target my ranged pet, there’s even nothing I can do about it. It just dies.

At least for fractals – the beginning levels are like “oh, not too bad. Learn when to send pet out and when to call pet back in, pretty cool. Don’t know what everyone is angry about. ”
Then you cross some annoying phases that instadown your pet. “:\ Whatever.”
Then you meet Jade Maw for the first time. “>.> little control over pet’s survivability.”
Then agony comes for the first time “-__- Okay this is getting kind of lame.”
20+ fractals later. “>.<, screw this – I’m gonna go troll in WvW”.

Zenith.7301:

There are plenty of videos showing how you can melee 100% of the time as a warrior. I melee 100% of the time in all explorables with my mesmer, and the only time I have to resort to range is lv20+ ascalonian fractal with mages and warriors around to 2-shot you.

By the way, before I write anything more, I’d like to make clear something. I don’t like people meleeing “100% of the time.” Not “99% of the time.” I don’t like people doing anything “100% of the time” because it indicates a stubbornness and an unwillingness to adapt. “99% of the time” at least you’re adapting for that 1%. Huge difference.

I also don’t believe you do melee “100%” of the time. I’ve listed some situations, and in some particular you’re doing absolutely nothing if you’re staying in melee (So can you actually melee the CoF 2 boss crystal thing?). You don’t address any of them though.

You know what, you should post a video 100% meleeing Lupicus in a team setting. Until you do that, I call your bullkitten on your “I melee 100% of the time in all explorables” claim.

Also, you should list these videos. I do know of an incredibly impressive vid where a War solos Lupicus, but that player has obviously VERY high skill, something that I highly doubt a majority of the player base can duplicate. It’s also incredibly impractical to do in a team setting because Lupi won’t be aggroed to you all the time. If he shadowsteps away to another player, you’re losing a TON damage because you’re running back and forth trying to get into range.

Zenith.7301:

The fact that you would call warriors who just melee bad warriors shows a deep level of arrogance. It’s your problem if you can’t melee properly.

I play with lots of warriors, of varying skill level. They all have a longbow/rifle in their backpack at LEAST. Heck I have Guardian friends (and play a Guardian myself). Their range options suck. And yet I carry that scepter in my backpack. Because in this game, there ARE situations in which range holds a huge advantage over melee. And in those cases, I WILL bust out my ranged weapon. Because it’s incorrigibly silly to force yourself into a disadvantaged situations because of some ideological inflexibility.

Unless you manage to convince me that in EVERY SITUATION IN THE GAME, range holds no distinct advantages over melee, my argument will hold valid: that it is suboptimal to melee 100%. Melee 99% of the time? Maybe. 100%? Hells naw.

Are you seriously suggesting you can’t hit the crystal at melee? LOL, of course you can, and gap closers like blink and portal are perfectly easy to pull off.

Of course you’ll switch to ranged while closing distance on Lupicus, but your damage bulk will always go to melee. Melee is not the exception — it is the rule.

What you are suggesting for pets is that melee pets be the exception, not the rule in dungeons. And I call BS on that, screw that design. If my ranger can be designed to spend his time in melee, why can’t his companions?

Zenith.7301:

Are you seriously suggesting you can’t hit the crystal at melee? LOL, of course you can, and gap closers like blink and portal are perfectly easy to pull off.

I actually have no idea, because I don’t see anyone ever meleeing that crystal because everyone switches to range after killing the acolytes.

Zenith.7301:

Of course you’ll switch to ranged while closing distance on Lupicus, but your damage bulk will always go to melee. Melee is not the exception — it is the rule.

Good, as you should. Also your claim that you “100% melee” dungeons is false, as I thought.

Zenith.7301:

What you are suggesting for pets is that melee pets be the exception, not the rule in dungeons. And I call BS on that, screw that design. If my ranger can be designed to spend his time in melee, why can’t his companions?

So, if you see bolt that requires an allen wrench to unscrew, do you say “screw that design” and try to use a Philips?

No, you don’t. You’re just hampering your own effectiveness by choosing a less efficient tool. You don’t just “screw that design.” The design is the design, and whether the devs will change it is something we have no way to control. What you CAN control is what tools YOU decide to bring to each situation, in order to be effective.

I am “suggesting” melee pets are the exception in dungeons because they are, with the way the game is currently. This is a fact of the design. And due to this, my original suggestion was to adapt.

Which is my whole, ENTIRE point. Adaptability is good. It’s very good. Even for warriors who like great swords a lot.

And the design is kittenty for ruling out the majority of pets for dungeons and punishing your DPS whereas every other class can max their DPS and not be punished with a third of their DPS being 2-shot.

This 99% nitpicking is laughable. You have to bring a ranged pet 100% of the time to dungeon bosses. You are not required to 100% range as a player character. Melee dominates most of the playstyle while I’m closing gaps. I know you think it’s cute to make that observation as if it was a meaningful difference, but it isn’t. That ranged damage makes a rather small percentage of my output relative to the percentage my pet contributes to me as a ranger by comparison. It is there for min-maxing purposes, but it’s not that noticeable — a dead pet vs. a mediocre damage dealing pet IS noticeable over the entire course of a fight.

Cool beans for you if you like to play with a handicap and think you are actually competing with other classes. You are not. Your damage will be inferior to other classes, and you don’t bring a fraction of the utility a guardian, ele, or necromancer does.

It’s so mind bogglingly stupid of Anet to design pets this way. Necromancers are in the same boat, I mean the vast majority of people who pick that class want to use their minions and they can’t because, as most people have said, they are a liability in dungeons just like most ranger pets. What genius decided to base multiple classes around the idea of having pets and then designed all the boss encounters to annihilate said pets because they can’t freaking dodge. Its so frustrating how a game could even be designed that way. They need to give ALL pets a blanket aoe dmg reduction like every nearly every mmo out there has.

Zenith.7301:

And the design is kittenty for ruling out the majority of pets for dungeons and punishing your DPS whereas every other class can max their DPS and not be punished with a third of their DPS being 2-shot.

Zenith.7301:

Cool beans for you if you like to play with a handicap and think you are actually competing with other classes. You are not. Your damage will be inferior to other classes, and you don’t bring a fraction of the utility a guardian, ele, or necromancer does.

…Did you read my posts? When did I ever say I like the current system? That I support and agree with the way Anet designed things? You realize my main is a Ranger, right? I get annoyed as much as you when my pet dies. I don’t like how my pet dies very frequently in many many bosses.

I am not arguing the system is good. Please read my posts, and try to comprehend them better, because what you’re arguing against is NOT what my point is at all. If you want to talk about whether Rangers are UP or not, great, that’s an entirely different topic.

I don’t like the system. However, it’s the system that exists right now. In order to do my very best in the existent constraints, I adapt the best I could. This is my core message. And I still don’t understand how you’ve gotten so visibly annoyed. For advising players how to do the best with the cards we were handed?

Zenith.7301:

This 99% nitpicking is laughable.

Zenith.7301:

I know you think it’s cute to make that observation as if it was a meaningful difference, but it isn’t.

You know, if you said something like “I melee mesmer 99% of the time” or “Warriors should almost always use a GS!” I won’t have a problem with it at all. I’m pretty sure I’ve made it very clear what I see as the difference between 99% and 100% in one of my previous posts, if you care to read.

Ursan.7846:

Zenith.7301:

And the design is kittenty for ruling out the majority of pets for dungeons and punishing your DPS whereas every other class can max their DPS and not be punished with a third of their DPS being 2-shot.

Zenith.7301:

Cool beans for you if you like to play with a handicap and think you are actually competing with other classes. You are not. Your damage will be inferior to other classes, and you don’t bring a fraction of the utility a guardian, ele, or necromancer does.

…Did you read my posts? When did I ever say I like the current system? That I support and agree with the way Anet designed things? You realize my main is a Ranger, right? I get annoyed as much as you when my pet dies. I don’t like how my pet dies very frequently in many many bosses.

I am not arguing the system is good. Please read my posts, and try to comprehend them better, because what you’re arguing against is NOT what my point is at all. If you want to talk about whether Rangers are UP or not, great, that’s an entirely different topic.

I don’t like the system. However, it’s the system that exists right now. In order to do my very best in the existent constraints, I adapt the best I could. This is my core message. And I still don’t understand how you’ve gotten so visibly annoyed. For advising players how to do the best with the cards we were handed?

Zenith.7301:

This 99% nitpicking is laughable.

Zenith.7301:

I know you think it’s cute to make that observation as if it was a meaningful difference, but it isn’t.

You know, if you said something like “I melee mesmer 99% of the time” or “Warriors should almost always use a GS!” I won’t have a problem with it at all. I’m pretty sure I’ve made it very clear what I see as the difference between 99% and 100% in one of my previous posts, if you care to read.

And why would people need your advise, as if the simple observation of ranged pets avoiding cleave weren’t obvious? They don’t need you patronizing them.

They can adapt to the current state of the game, but they don’t WANT to. Because it’s a crap design, and people shouldn’t have to put up with it.

Similarly, it could happen to be the design that the warrior’s only good ranged weapon is the rifle. Some warriors would want to use their longbow. Adapting would mean switching to the rifle, but this game being about fun and choice, many people would rather play something else that actually fulfills their preference rather than having to put up with the undesirable alternative.

I know it’s hard to grasp for some people, but being successful and not having fun is sometimes even more unfulfilling than trying to have fun and not being successful.

we’re not really talking about adaptation any more Ursan. my pet is a liability. not only are my BM points wasted, but i also lose 30% of my dps. pet micro may work in some easy exp dungeons like AC, but in vast majority of situations, pets are instagibbed.

point is, they mentioned something i being worked on, but this was literally months ago.

Many people would say “L2P” "Micro your pet " and stuff like that.
I say dont bother and dont spec counting on your pets to do damage.

While with a good build, and high level of micromanaging you MIGHT keep your pet alive for the duration of a boss fight, all those recalling and swaps cut down your potential damage, and if something goes wrong and a pet dies, your whole build goes to hell with it (not even counting the situations where your pet is a liabiality to your team, and should be set to passive)
Its just not worth it. It SHOULD be, and might be in the future, but currently its not, and i strongly believe many people here are delusional about it.

it’s a fact that i can keep my pets alive against a boss with obvious animations. but the problem is the aoe. as the animation starts, i will recall the pet. but he wont escape in time before the aoe lands, which one-shots it. where is the skill here? nowhere. where is my pet? dead.

The pets are designed to be less powerful then a player. They are basically equivalent to a player fighting a mob/boss that’s maybe 3-5 levels higher, without moving. Bears can be compared to a tank build, and felines to glass canons. This is the way that pets are designed to be. So if you are expecting pets to have the full survivability and functionality of a player, then you are waiting in vain.

AoE is a problem, though. Hopefully they are working on a solution to that.

Zenith.7301:

And why would people need your advise, as if the simple observation of ranged pets avoiding cleave weren’t obvious? They don’t need you patronizing them.

Because what’s obvious to you, may not be what’s obvious to everyone else. OP didn’t need my help in this specific topic, but in this Ranger subforum I try my best to share my experiences to others. Readers can decide if it’s worthless advise or not, but it’s always good to put it out there.

Zenith.7301:

They can adapt to the current state of the game, but they don’t WANT to. Because it’s a crap design, and people shouldn’t have to put up with it.

Zenith.7301:

I know it’s hard to grasp for some people, but being successful and not having fun is sometimes even more unfulfilling than trying to have fun and not being successful.

I fully understand both of your points, which is why I start my post to the OP with a “ultimately, it is up to you…”

At this point I’m not sure what you’re trying state. I think we’re in agreement with many things. Neither of us are fully satisfied with the pet system. It’ll be great if things changed and more things became viable to use. However, with the current system in place, I do what I have to do, and I advise others to do the same. It’s not mutually exclusive to 1. Adapt to the current system to do your best NOW, and 2. Pine for a better system down the road.

Zenith.7301:

Similarly, it could happen to be the design that the warrior’s only good ranged weapon is the rifle. Some warriors would want to use their longbow. Adapting would mean switching to the rifle, but this game being about fun and choice, many people would rather play something else that actually fulfills their preference rather than having to put up with the undesirable alternative.

EDIT: I have a problem with this. You say the word “Could” though so I’m not sure if you seriously believe Rifle is “only good ranged weapon” available to Warriors. Longbow has a fire combo field creator AND a blast finisher. It does less single-target DPS than a rifle but it sure as hell can be incredibly useful in a team-setting where team members know how to use combo fields. If you think DPS is everything in this game, you’re severely underestimating the complexities of this game’s combat mechanics and the effectiveness of the combo system. But that is a completely different topic for another day…

Kasama.8941:

The pets are designed to be less powerful then a player. They are basically equivalent to a player fighting a mob/boss that’s maybe 3-5 levels higher, without moving. Bears can be compared to a tank build, and felines to glass canons. This is the way that pets are designed to be. So if you are expecting pets to have the full survivability and functionality of a player, then you are waiting in vain.

AoE is a problem, though. Hopefully they are working on a solution to that.

Even a less powerful player could at least move out of aoes and dodge.

i dont mind being challenged to keep the pet alive…that’s the point of playing a pet profession. but dungeons are just a slaughter. no amount of skill or micro will help your pet stay alive against AOE’s that instabig him.

Aegis.9724:

Many people would say “L2P” "Micro your pet " and stuff like that.
I say dont bother and dont spec counting on your pets to do damage.

While with a good build, and high level of micromanaging you MIGHT keep your pet alive for the duration of a boss fight, all those recalling and swaps cut down your potential damage, and if something goes wrong and a pet dies, your whole build goes to hell with it (not even counting the situations where your pet is a liabiality to your team, and should be set to passive)
Its just not worth it. It SHOULD be, and might be in the future, but currently its not, and i strongly believe many people here are delusional about it.

With heals in the form they are now, nothing short of a massive buff in armor/life of pets will ever make any kind of BM build viable in PvE and the very idea of it working in PvP in any form is laughable because any player with active brain cells will just ignore the pet and kill the player who has put all their points into making the pet better and leaving themselves open. It’s the same reason GW1 never saw BM’s come on the scene even after massive buffs to pet damage and durability.

It would be easy to fix though, almost every other MMO on the market, WoW, Rift, etc has had this problem and added in some “reduced AoE dmg to pets by 90%” or whatever passive skill or trait. Or give pets a 2 second evade buff every time the master dodges or something. I don’t see why Anet can’t just do the same and make rangers and necromancers happy, there’s no detriment whatsoever and people who like pet classes can play pet classes.

Ursan.7846:

Don’t use those pets in those specific bosses.

In GW2, you have the ability to adapt. Take advantage! What you use for certain situations isn’t going to be optimal in others.

You’re given the ability to swap out pets when out of combat. Make use of this ability. Note which bosses kills your cats fast, and swap out to Devourers/Spiders/Bears for that specific fight.

Even then, your pets will still die in some specific situations. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t suggest a 30 Beastmaster build in dungeons.

…lol no. No matter what pets are useless. Including whats left of our once great spirits. All useless. Since they are taking so long to fix what they took away the pet fix should be much faster.

Derek.6017:

Pet swapping cooldowns for both alive and dead pets should be significantly reduced, by half maybe. Even though it doesn’t solve the problems of pets dying in one hit, that alone would help quite a bit. That or add a 5th skill to pets that makes them invulnerable for a short period of time.

Take a look at signet of stone , when used

The only time I agree that pets are useless is higher lvl fractals due to them not currently getting Agony resistance from gear.

Otherwise pets are fine in dungeons, and I do a lot of them. I run jaguar/devourer, have F1 and F3 mapped to the side buttons of my mouse and use them frequently. I move my pets out of AoE. I use the stealth on the jaguar to drop aggro when needed. I use the shared boons trait to heal my pet effectively from range and stack boons. I occasionally use stone signet to tank & heal through dmg spikes. These are just a few things involved in effective pet micro.

The uptime on my pets is great, simple as. But sure, if you have 0 BM, take 2 mellee pets and never touch anything but the occasional F2 then your pets are going to suck in dungeons. But here’s the thing, it isn’t the pet’s fault.

they should give all feline pets an attack chain with the third strike granting evasion(much like the third greatsword chain skill).

i’m full BM and they still get killed a lot even to non champion mobs. i often just switch to ranged pets, or use dogs/bear/drakes….shouldn’t have to though. birds and cats are the best damaging pets, but their vitality/toughness are disproportionately lower than a bears or devourer compared to their power/precision advantage. this needs to be brought in line, period.

if Jon Peters and friends like to sit on their kitten for a few years before re-evaluating the stats of these things, they could at least add in some skills that help to reduce the damage they’re taking. if i wasn’t BM the only useful pet would be the moa as it just busts out AOE heals when summoned and i’d park it next to me all the time.