Guild Wars 2

Does anyone know what the best PvE pet is? I’d also like to know what the best PvP/WvW one is?

When Drakes aren’t bugged, they’re our best pets at handling groups of enemies and also some of the tankiest (besides swapping double bears on cooldown). River and Marsh Drake work well for this with their bouncing breath attacks being ludicrously strong, though the other drakes’ breath weapons are better AoE damage overall.

Wyverns are a close second for groups and carry some CC with wing buffet, but they’re nowhere near the one man army monsters that Drakes are. Fire’s world tour attack is about as effective as Rathalos’, i.e. not at all (better in conquest at least where it can cover a point or paint the floor of a teamfight). Electric’s Lightning Assault is as kitten as it sounds and gives it the title of best CC pet, especially big targets.

Bristleback is one of the best DPS pets and is by far the best ranged DPS pet, perfect for harpies in fractals and other situations where you have to fight at range. Its F2 is also brutal in PvP, as it takes a lot of effort to mitigate. Combined with the Smokescale and (Quickdraw) Rapid Fire, you can chain long single target attacks together until any squishy opponent gets flattened.

Cats are typically the go to DPS pets though. Tiger is especially due to its great fury uptime, though in groups that don’t need that Jaguar, Melandru’s Stalker and Lynx are alternatives with their own niches.

Dogs are the pets of choice for PvP when you’re not going for Bristleback/Smokescale hijinks. Hyenas give you double dogs for double takedowns, which is more gimmicky than anything really. But the cream of the crop is the wolf. A pocket wolf makes it very difficult to finish a downstate ranger and even outside that, an AoE hard CC that forces opponents to go sky diving is as powerful as your imagination allows it to be. (black widow/Jungle) Spiders and Krytan Drakehounds are also fairly popular due to the power of spamming immobilize.

Pink Moas are the CC pets of choice against small targets. Lightning Assault is just unreliable against them and while Wing Buffet makes the wyvern the superior break bar breaker, Pink Moas deal more instant CC. Black Moa deals more break bar damage overall, but you take pink for the instant damage.

Lastly, if you must fight the Risen Abomination in Crucible of Eternity, bring beastmastery and two bears. I don’t care what your build is, that is the only way you can stop yourself from being a liability in that fight. Outside of that one fight, Brown Bear has some use as a support pet since it cleanses conditions.

Best for doing what?

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Best for doing what?

Questing and stuff

Lynx Condi
Tiger power

Have lightning wyvern the CC. It’s a breakbar smasher, other than that the others are kind of meh. Smokescale could be good for power builds but I feel like the passive might the tiger gives on its F2 might make it better

Are Fire Wyverns any good?

No Not really, their F2 is horrible and the wyverns as whole suck at fighting. Even with their attacks being upped they just kinda suck, You see them alot but they dont hit hard. And they dont really do much, Its all about what you wana run at the end of the day but they just wont hit as hard as the others I’ve listed.

when Soul beast comes out im sure they will all be viable, because even if They suck you can merge with them and get their strengths. So their skills ect… meaning we might see some odd pets playing well into this niche.

If it is just open world PvE, then Tiger is probably your best bet, until you get it, go for the other Felines, they do the most damage which is what you want. If you take advantage of pet swap traits, then have a Feline in both slots. If not, take something tankier in the 2nd swap so if your Feline is going to die, you can swap to something tankier that will hold agro for you. River Drake is pretty good with a decent DPS burst too, the Wyverns are pretty tanky, so if you are in an area with mobs that have break bars, the Electric one is a good choice for a 2nd pet due to its CC.

Lynx for condition builds.
Jaguar for power builds, Tiger for power builds when lacking fury.
Bristleback for either build as a ranged pet.
Lightning Wyvern for cleave and large hit-boxes.
Pink Moa for CC on small hit-boxes. Black Moa if you have access.
Smokescale, Bristleback, and Wolf are strong PvP/WvW pets. Will very depending on build, playstyle, and scenario.

Fire Wyvern is also handy in PvE when dealing with grouped mobs. DPS-wise, it can crank out similar damage to a mid-ranged Bristleback, but on multiple targets. It’s not to be undervalued, especially on a condition setup, likewise with the fire field it provides.

I really like Drakes for generic PvE. Tanky, hard-hitting F2, and Tail Swipe is both a big AoE nuke and a blast finisher.

I like my wyverns for AoE damage + CC, and then I run a jaguar for my damage pet, sometimes I’ll run a Moa or fern hound or brown bear if I need more support

For PvP and WvW it isn’t as easy an awnser. You want a reliable pet that can survive cleave? Smokescale with its evading F2 and smoke asasult.

You want a pet thats a bit more offensive…packs a wallop but can still survive a little burst? Fire Wyvern has powerful attacks, solid cc, and a kitten good evading f2.

You want something just designed to kitten something up with a little setup? Electric Wyverns. Same as the fire wyvern except that electric wyvern has an f2 that can double tap if the enemy is pushed up against a wall. Talking SOLID burst and heavy CC here. Electric wyvern when combined with the speed boost of sic em can also shaft someone try to run away sometimes.

Bristlebacks are a solid ranged pet depending on what your fighting. Staying safely out of harms way while applying steady pressure.

If your feeling lucky and want to run a 1 shot build. The tiger is a key part of that build providing a VERY hard fitting f2 on a low cooldown. Perfect for combining with maul/sic em for heavy damage. But its basically Wet Paper.

Moa’s are solid if you want to run with a zerg and aren’t worried about doing damage so much as being helpful directly. Both red and blue moa give out strong boons and aoe healing.

For now though those are the only ones that really stand out to me. The hope is that basic pets get more of a buff. But atm pets that do similar jobs (like drakes and wyverns) are heavily disproportionate in terms of strengths. Wyverns for example do ALOT more damage with alot more CC and nearly the same survivability.

Similarly bristleback massively outperforms spiders and devourers for ranged combat. Seeing as not only does the birstleback hit alot harder. Its projectiles are far more reliable due to there speed of travel and there built in tracking.

Its just an unfortunate fact that so far all of the HoT pets outperform there counterparts. The hope is that either the other pets are brought up to the level. Or the new pets fulfill the rolls we are currently lacking in. A healing pet, a heavily control oriented pet, and a solid condition based pet. The good news is that at this time it sounds like we will be getting two of those atleast.

Durzlla.6295:

I like my wyverns for AoE damage + CC, and then I run a jaguar for my damage pet, sometimes I’ll run a Moa or fern hound or brown bear if I need more support

Do you use Fire or Electric Wyvern?

Zoe.4830:

Durzlla.6295:

I like my wyverns for AoE damage + CC, and then I run a jaguar for my damage pet, sometimes I’ll run a Moa or fern hound or brown bear if I need more support

Do you use Fire or Electric Wyvern?

I normally use my lightning Wyvern because I like the CC, but I do occasionally use the fire one too. Probably like 80% electric 20% fire

Carrion Devourer

my favorite wvw/pvp pet is the Tiger, along with the Smokescale usually. Both are super responsive, and Tiger’s F2 hits all the time for decent damage while giving u fury. the Tiger is amazing with the GS.

Zoe.4830:

Are Fire Wyverns any good?

Their special attack is one of the coolest looking abilities in the game but making good use of it is tricky.

It takes a long time (5 seconds) to complete. During that time your pet is in the air, and not tanking. So you need to be standing in the area of effect or the mob(s) will most likely move out of it to get to you.

For PvP/WvW, Smokescale is by far and long, the best.

It reliably lands it’s attacks, it has good skill chains and it’s smoke field is near mandatory for 1vX.

Not only that, it has the stats of a canine but when running Beast Mastery or when the pet has been buffed with Might, it tends to hit significantly harder. So it has the durability of a canine and nearly the damage of a feline and it can be hard for players to shake them once they latch on to them.

Honestly as it stands, I feel that Smokescale is pretty untouchable compared to the other pets. It’s just so effective at sticking to people, knocking them down and being great for an escape tool.

Caeledh.5437:

Zoe.4830:

Are Fire Wyverns any good?

Their special attack is one of the coolest looking abilities in the game but making good use of it is tricky.

It takes a long time (5 seconds) to complete. During that time your pet is in the air, and not tanking. So you need to be standing in the area of effect or the mob(s) will most likely move out of it to get to you.

Actually, if you have beastly warden a lot of mobs will keep swinging at the Wyvern even after the taunt has worn off because it’s technically still there, it’s just evading.