Guild Wars 2

I realized that pets in GW2 are not like pets in other MMO’s like WoW. In WoW a Hunter pet is a DoT and you can spec as Beast Master and do well in PvP because the pet sticks to its target.

In GW2 the pet is designed to act somewhat like a player in as far as much as it will be out of attack range often unless the foe decides to stand still -which does not happen in PvP unless you want to insta die.

So, my question is BM a solid choice for PvP or as solid of a chocie as it is for PvE?

The stat boost for the pets is very nice, but the actual trait line is pretty bloated. Many traits could be consolidated, for example, there are four traits that each buff a certain group of pets. Those should be merged. And two that affect skill recharge. Also should be merged. Some of the best pet traits are found in other trait lines, such as the 30% run speed buff in skirmishing, without which your pet won’t be hitting squat.

But to answer your question, yes. Full BM opens up..options in wvwvw, at least. Not sure about spvp. Upgraded pets are great for chasing down runners, or picking off squishies hiding in the back. With 30 points in BM, the cat pets will often crit for over 4k. And if you use the guard shout, your pet will get 10 seconds of stealth and protection — very handy to get at siege equipment on the ground.

pets are very solid in pvp, but you still need skill with your respective weapons. a stealthed panther can unload like 10K damage while stealthed with quickness, as long as the target is crippled. lynx can close distance by leaping, in addition to helping u stack bleeds. birds give vigor and swiftness. you need skirmishing to improve pet speed and critical damage.

If you spec BM your foe will still go for you, can you really play BM in PvP against foes that are on the move and always focusing you?

Any feedback is appreciated on Weapon choice, I noticed that Great Sword and Sword as well as Survival are the things available in BM, Toughness and Vitality Traits, is that how you spec and play?

The stat boost is really only 300 at full max BM.

So 300 Power, percision, vitiality, ect ect all to your pet. Simply put, it’s decent but not much else.

The problem with BM traits are, they don’t “DO” anything. Sure 1 or 2 are useful which pretty much demand that you take them but so many of the Traits are underwhelming as to make them almost non-existant. Couple that with the fact that your pet roots itself to attack and it gets pretty iffy on wether they hit or not.

Now if you can root them so your pet can go to work it starts to get a little pay off, but then again why not just root them so “YOU” can go to work on them and get a lot more pay off.

Now if there was more variety in the pet F2 abilities there might be some more builds you could create, but right now you have like multiples of the same ability across 3 of the same pets.

I really want to like BM.

Really I want to like Ranger as a whole and even more so as a BM ranger but honestly the BM line is a massive waste of points. It’s a lot of points into a “might work” instead of putting points into “What does work”

i like the traits that allow your cats to bleed on crit, and birds to give you vigor. they make a big difference.

I really don’t want to waste my time if BM is not as solid as any Ranger build in PvP and PvE :/

“I really don’t want to waste my time if BM is not as solid as any Ranger build in PvP and PvE :/”

Then ranger is not the class for you. pets do alot of damage, and for the most part, in pve atleast, they do damage. You can even make them work in pvp as some above posts mentioned, but you actually have to essentially be the support for the pet, notthe other way around, and that leaves ALOT of issues as it basicly means you are stuck with AI limitations, but thats not to say it cant work.

Ranger is not the strongest class or even a contender for strongest, but they dont completely suck kitten like everyone claims.

Support my pet is actually what I enjoy and going into it I imagined something like WoW BM Hunter in the sense that it works and works really well!

The BM build I posted in the sticky at the top of this forum is solid; I believe it the best build for WvWvW; it is also very good for sPvP.

Realize that most of information you see on this forum is just plain wrong. People are trying to play ranger in a way that doesn’t match its proper play style.

Something I came up quick before Mox posted, Ill go look at his build but woudl appreciate feedback:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.6.10.3.0.21.4.4.0.4.131.300.301.144.151.8.8.36.0.0.0.391.400.0.411.0.0.0.0.0.438.442.447.0.20.15.5.30

Not a bad build, but I have two criticisms. First, regeneration isn’t very good in PvP, so natural healing and rejuvenation are not great choices.
Next, shortbow is slightly broken right now, so shorbow+sword may be challenging since you can’t burst at range. Now my build calls for shortbow too..however since it uses longbow you can make up for the QZ deficiency on shortbow by using it on longbow rapid fire instead. Also, and this is very important, Quickdraw gives a bonus to both longbow and shortbow, but not to sword, so that synergy is like having an extra trait! In order to be effective, you need to swap weapons and blow your cooldowns a lot, you should not keep one weapon in your hand most of the time.
Finally, as I note, the key to this is to swap pets out often, and especially before they die!

I accept your criticism, it makes sense and I think moving those points out of regeneration would be wise.

As for utility since its a pet focused build why not go for shouts?

Shouts are not very good. Most disappointing is Sick’Em because it seems so good, but the actual boost it gives is negligible. I have found that the signets passive benefits are overall most beneficial merely because they are always on. ‘Lightning reflexes’ is a good choice too, if you like its affect, since it gets the survival cooldown bonus. But, while you must have QZ as one skill, the other two skills are flexible, use what you like.

My experience is that maxing out Beast Mastery is highly effective in PvE, but it’s a waste of points in PvP where the pet is less reliable and staying alive requires effort.

Full BM spec seems situational in PVP. If you’re going for pure survivability and running a bear, it would certainly help with the health absorb from “guard me”. As was brought up above, cats are nice for their big hit openers, especially against squishies. In my experience cast can be quite good in WVW, especially against classes that have inductions as they have to remain mobile or get stomped on.
So killing machines? Not really, although I have to spend much time with ranged pets in 1v1 matches. However they do have their uses.