Guild Wars 2

Pets are useless in WvW:

1. F2 skills do not work in WvW if there are at least 20 ppl on the screen. They either start a few seconds cooldown without any effect or simply do not react to F2 at all.
2. Even if F2 skill worked, pet stops and starts 3 seconds animation and when it finally lands the buff my party/squad is already far away from the pet.
3. Even defensive pets die pretty quickly in mass pvp

What I really would like to see is some kind of “sacrifice” pet ability that would remove the pet and grant some permanent buff instead (toughness for a defensive pet, precision for cats, etc). Because atm I’m running in WvW with my pet on passive and time to time try to apply pet’s buff which almost never works.

Kain Francois.4328:

Know what would be a cool idea? If when a player dodges, so does the pet evade attacks. That would be a nice trait or even profession mechanic for avoiding large AoEs.

You know what that is a good idea. That would look really cool also, synchronized dodging. That way we only have to focus dodging once, instead of getting your pet to dodge and yourself. It would just be one button.

FlyingCrackers.5620:

Kain Francois.4328:

Know what would be a cool idea? If when a player dodges, so does the pet evade attacks. That would be a nice trait or even profession mechanic for avoiding large AoEs.

You know what that is a good idea. That would look really cool also, synchronized dodging. That way we only have to focus dodging once, instead of getting your pet to dodge and yourself. It would just be one button.

This would require additional NPC animations for pets to be able to dodge, which generally means it would take a considerable amount of time and effort to be implemented, especially considering how many pets there are. Even if ANet wants to do this, I wouldn’t expect to see this anytime soon unless they could get around adding extra animations somehow.

@ Kassidi: for WvW, use pets that give you buffs if you’re going to be spending a lot of time in zerg fights. If you use a Red Moa and a Jungle Stalker, you can at least give yourself Might x 5 and Fury periodically.

You don’t really need to make new animations for that, just think on it like an inmunity the pet receives when you dodge, that’s all.
But, it’s hard to determine if that would be too much or not, imo it would be a bit OP.

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

Well, that has an easy fix, when they implement full ascended gear they can buff pet stats sightly to match it, not a big deal.

I am glad people who spec into beast mastery are having their pets be useful.

For me, I did not spec into beast mastery. My pet does very well in everyday PvE but it is lacking in WvW where you can focus fire a pet VERY quickly and in dungeons where the pet has a delayed reaction to my orders.

Pets do need some love. They are not competing in PvP situations. Others are right, we are the only class where our unique function can be completely negated when we may need it most.

Dungeons are a mixed bag. Sometimes pets are great but in others I have to go out of my way to ensure my unique feature doesn’t become a hindrance.

A professions unique feature should NEVER be a hindrance.

I was going to come in here and either troll or fire back a counter argument to OP’s post depending on how biased and/or composed it was; but it was actually a decent post.

I wouldn’t say that it makes the problems or complaints a ranger player has any less legitimate, but it does hopefully allow players that were thinking about playing a ranger, see a slightly better overall picture of the ranger class.

Personally; I really hope they do something about pets and enemy AOE. Even if I can dodge every attack myself, my pet almost always dies in boss fights (especially in dungeons) where the enemy champ has some kind of large AOE skill (You know the ones where there are only these little slivers of area to avoid them, unless you run to the opposite side of Tyria and back…). Pet survival need a bit of adjusting; give them some sort of dodge or something saved for powerful incoming attacks (maybe even just powerful AOE’s at least…)… or something…

I find I’m pretty good at keeping my pet alive and use Troll Unguent more often for my pet than for myself, and also pretty good at calling them back from charge attacks, but even still their survival rate can be pretty poor in many boss scenarios.

The other thing that annoys me is how we use them as condition dumps… what sort of master are we? I’m sure they could have built in more creative ways of accomplishing this kind of stuff than just dumping on them…

So I’ve tried the new pets, and they improved just a bit. I think it could be better, but this is definitely a step in the right direction

They can now atleast hit the flying owls and hawks in the WvW borderlands

Still hoping for more pet survivability on dungeons though, lets see what ANet has for us on the next few patches

Torguish.4786:

My wolf crits 5k and with the elite buff + the sigil that gives you more size etc you can do about 12k easily with the number 2 skill of longbow. I can’t remember the names but i CAN take a picture if you want. :P

Also, the 12k crit is while flanking and buffed.

12k in 5 SECONDS to a glass cannon with 100% crits, but that glass cannon can hit 12k with 1-2 skills in 1 second……

urdriel.8496:

Torguish.4786:

My wolf crits 5k and with the elite buff + the sigil that gives you more size etc you can do about 12k easily with the number 2 skill of longbow. I can’t remember the names but i CAN take a picture if you want. :P

Also, the 12k crit is while flanking and buffed.

12k in 5 SECONDS to a glass cannon with 100% crits, but that glass cannon can hit 12k with 1-2 skills in 1 second……

I’m a glass cannon Ranger and I do about 12-15k on fotm bosses with just my pet buff and it being on passive, no flanking.

Last night I did over 14-18k on the asura golem bosses, Norm ice boss, and Swamp boss. On the Drudge boss where you use lava my best hit was 152k.

jvang.1387:

urdriel.8496:

Torguish.4786:

My wolf crits 5k and with the elite buff + the sigil that gives you more size etc you can do about 12k easily with the number 2 skill of longbow. I can’t remember the names but i CAN take a picture if you want. :P

Also, the 12k crit is while flanking and buffed.

12k in 5 SECONDS to a glass cannon with 100% crits, but that glass cannon can hit 12k with 1-2 skills in 1 second……

I’m a glass cannon Ranger and I do about 12-15k on fotm bosses with just my pet buff and it being on passive, no flanking.

Last night I did over 14-18k on the asura golem bosses, Norm ice boss, and Swamp boss. On the Drudge boss where you use lava my best hit was 152k.

I was talking about Spvp or WvWvW.

bump for new rangers

Code.1327:

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

This could be an issue when more ascended gear is released, but hopefully there is some change to pets to offset this.

For now, it’s actually a good thing that pets don’t scale with stats. This lets us keep strong damage even when we go with defensive stats and/or gear. Your raven can still do 10k crits on F2 when might stacked even if you’re wearing white gear with nothing in marks or skirmishing traits.

Code.1327:

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

So, I’m peeking in on this forum as I goof around looking for something to replace my Engineer (I’ve realized ANet has no idea what they’re doing with that class, and it’s just a hand’s breadth from utterly broken and useless right now). And I wanted to comment on this.

This is actually a good thing. Let me say it again; pets not scaling with gear can be a good thing. What this means is that your pets do not scale with your gear choices, which means you and one of your pets can be wildly different in spec. ANet has promised, unfortunately, to change Engineer kits so that they do have gear dependence. Try not to let them do this for you; instead have them make pets keep up with gear creep.

The reason it’s good is that right now, you could go full bunker spec and still whip out a cat and have cat-level DPS added to your own (which may be low with a bunker spec, but presumably you have control effects to help your pet). You have mid-fight role variability. It’s the holy hybrid grail, and right now the only class where it’s even remotely feasible is Ranger.

I do not have a high level ranger, but I’ve done dungeon and WvW runs with them. I’ve always been impressed by the class. I’ve watched people switch pets to dodge (exploiting the fact that pets do not instantly phase in, and as such a pet swap is actually a dodge if you time it right; even in melee). I’ve always been impressed by how much DPS Rangers can sustain while also being very good with helping the party. And in sPvP I dread stomping good rangers nearly as much as I dread stomping mesmers (“Oh kitten now I am dazed… Oh kitten now I am knocked down… Oh kitten you just got a rally… and you were contesting the point the whole time.”)

I also want to note that the people here talking about the absurd difficulty of managing a pet and themselves should probably try giving Elementalist, Thief, or (if you hate the idea of being effective) Engineer a try. All three of those classes require a lot of situational awareness, very quick decisions, and close-to-flawless technical execution. Which is not to say that Rangers are not in need of bugfixes; I think most classes are. But I do think it’s easy to forget how hard other players are actually working with their classes.

urdriel.8496:

jvang.1387:

urdriel.8496:

Torguish.4786:

My wolf crits 5k and with the elite buff + the sigil that gives you more size etc you can do about 12k easily with the number 2 skill of longbow. I can’t remember the names but i CAN take a picture if you want. :P

Also, the 12k crit is while flanking and buffed.

12k in 5 SECONDS to a glass cannon with 100% crits, but that glass cannon can hit 12k with 1-2 skills in 1 second……

I’m a glass cannon Ranger and I do about 12-15k on fotm bosses with just my pet buff and it being on passive, no flanking.

Last night I did over 14-18k on the asura golem bosses, Norm ice boss, and Swamp boss. On the Drudge boss where you use lava my best hit was 152k.

I was talking about Spvp or WvWvW.

FotM bosses are much more durable than any player in WvW, if he is capable of getting 14-18k damage on a PvE bosses god have mercy on the poor glass canon he runs into in WvW.

Granted, there may be more vulnerability on those bosses due to it being a group, but seeing as how if he has 20 points in marksman he’s guaranteed 20% increased damage and there’s only 5% more he could be dealing via that, it’s likely not going to change that much….

See the boss winding up a big PBAoE? Press F3 to recall your pet, press F1 to send it back in.

With pet swap there is no reason you should have problems with keeping your pets around in dungeons.

Pet Control…the lost art…

Pets are good but they die too easy in tougher content and they execute their skills way too slow.

I’m mostly using Drake or Bird pets for my damage dealing builds. Raven + Eagle for single target damage and Drakes with lightning breath and poison for AoE.

KirinDave.6451:

Code.1327:

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

So, I’m peeking in on this forum as I goof around looking for something to replace my Engineer (I’ve realized ANet has no idea what they’re doing with that class, and it’s just a hand’s breadth from utterly broken and useless right now). And I wanted to comment on this.

This is actually a good thing. Let me say it again; pets not scaling with gear can be a good thing. What this means is that your pets do not scale with your gear choices, which means you and one of your pets can be wildly different in spec. ANet has promised, unfortunately, to change Engineer kits so that they do have gear dependence. Try not to let them do this for you; instead have them make pets keep up with gear creep.

The reason it’s good is that right now, you could go full bunker spec and still whip out a cat and have cat-level DPS added to your own (which may be low with a bunker spec, but presumably you have control effects to help your pet). You have mid-fight role variability. It’s the holy hybrid grail, and right now the only class where it’s even remotely feasible is Ranger.

I do not have a high level ranger, but I’ve done dungeon and WvW runs with them. I’ve always been impressed by the class. I’ve watched people switch pets to dodge (exploiting the fact that pets do not instantly phase in, and as such a pet swap is actually a dodge if you time it right; even in melee). I’ve always been impressed by how much DPS Rangers can sustain while also being very good with helping the party. And in sPvP I dread stomping good rangers nearly as much as I dread stomping mesmers (“Oh kitten now I am dazed… Oh kitten now I am knocked down… Oh kitten you just got a rally… and you were contesting the point the whole time.”)

I also want to note that the people here talking about the absurd difficulty of managing a pet and themselves should probably try giving Elementalist, Thief, or (if you hate the idea of being effective) Engineer a try. All three of those classes require a lot of situational awareness, very quick decisions, and close-to-flawless technical execution. Which is not to say that Rangers are not in need of bugfixes; I think most classes are. But I do think it’s easy to forget how hard other players are actually working with their classes.

Pets not scaling with gear is a horrible thing. The class is designed so the pet accounts for 50% of its damage. So right off the bat, this class is working with a 50% handicap because the rest of the stats are being flushed down the toilet.

Atherakhia.4086:

KirinDave.6451:

Code.1327:

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

So, I’m peeking in on this forum as I goof around looking for something to replace my Engineer (I’ve realized ANet has no idea what they’re doing with that class, and it’s just a hand’s breadth from utterly broken and useless right now). And I wanted to comment on this.

This is actually a good thing. Let me say it again; pets not scaling with gear can be a good thing. What this means is that your pets do not scale with your gear choices, which means you and one of your pets can be wildly different in spec. ANet has promised, unfortunately, to change Engineer kits so that they do have gear dependence. Try not to let them do this for you; instead have them make pets keep up with gear creep.

The reason it’s good is that right now, you could go full bunker spec and still whip out a cat and have cat-level DPS added to your own (which may be low with a bunker spec, but presumably you have control effects to help your pet). You have mid-fight role variability. It’s the holy hybrid grail, and right now the only class where it’s even remotely feasible is Ranger.

I do not have a high level ranger, but I’ve done dungeon and WvW runs with them. I’ve always been impressed by the class. I’ve watched people switch pets to dodge (exploiting the fact that pets do not instantly phase in, and as such a pet swap is actually a dodge if you time it right; even in melee). I’ve always been impressed by how much DPS Rangers can sustain while also being very good with helping the party. And in sPvP I dread stomping good rangers nearly as much as I dread stomping mesmers (“Oh kitten now I am dazed… Oh kitten now I am knocked down… Oh kitten you just got a rally… and you were contesting the point the whole time.”)

I also want to note that the people here talking about the absurd difficulty of managing a pet and themselves should probably try giving Elementalist, Thief, or (if you hate the idea of being effective) Engineer a try. All three of those classes require a lot of situational awareness, very quick decisions, and close-to-flawless technical execution. Which is not to say that Rangers are not in need of bugfixes; I think most classes are. But I do think it’s easy to forget how hard other players are actually working with their classes.

Pets not scaling with gear is a horrible thing. The class is designed so the pet accounts for 50% of its damage. So right off the bat, this class is working with a 50% handicap because the rest of the stats are being flushed down the toilet.

I don’t think you really understand this concept. If this was WoW or some other gear arms race, then it would be a problem, but in GW2, it allows defensive builds to still bring significant dps and only really works against people that can’t manage their pets effectively.

KirinDave.6451:

Code.1327:

The OP and most players forget one very important point.

PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.

This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.

So, I’m peeking in on this forum as I goof around looking for something to replace my Engineer (I’ve realized ANet has no idea what they’re doing with that class, and it’s just a hand’s breadth from utterly broken and useless right now). And I wanted to comment on this.

This is actually a good thing. Let me say it again; pets not scaling with gear can be a good thing. What this means is that your pets do not scale with your gear choices, which means you and one of your pets can be wildly different in spec. ANet has promised, unfortunately, to change Engineer kits so that they do have gear dependence. Try not to let them do this for you; instead have them make pets keep up with gear creep.

The reason it’s good is that right now, you could go full bunker spec and still whip out a cat and have cat-level DPS added to your own (which may be low with a bunker spec, but presumably you have control effects to help your pet). You have mid-fight role variability. It’s the holy hybrid grail, and right now the only class where it’s even remotely feasible is Ranger.

I do not have a high level ranger, but I’ve done dungeon and WvW runs with them. I’ve always been impressed by the class. I’ve watched people switch pets to dodge (exploiting the fact that pets do not instantly phase in, and as such a pet swap is actually a dodge if you time it right; even in melee). I’ve always been impressed by how much DPS Rangers can sustain while also being very good with helping the party. And in sPvP I dread stomping good rangers nearly as much as I dread stomping mesmers (“Oh kitten now I am dazed… Oh kitten now I am knocked down… Oh kitten you just got a rally… and you were contesting the point the whole time.”)

I also want to note that the people here talking about the absurd difficulty of managing a pet and themselves should probably try giving Elementalist, Thief, or (if you hate the idea of being effective) Engineer a try. All three of those classes require a lot of situational awareness, very quick decisions, and close-to-flawless technical execution. Which is not to say that Rangers are not in need of bugfixes; I think most classes are. But I do think it’s easy to forget how hard other players are actually working with their classes.

I don’t think the scaling would work like that. I imagine it would look at your gear ‘level’ and just scale the stats of the pet up or down based on that level. Pets would keep their relative stats(ie high precision pets would have precision as their highest stat when up or down scaled. Bears would have high vitality even if you had pure berserker gear).

Pets are useless in WvW and pretty much worthless everywhere else as well.

The fact is that a ranger cant hit with 100% of his dps because the pet must hit at same time too, all other classes can use 100% of his dps in any situation.

Solid Gold.9310:

Pets are useless in WvW and pretty much worthless everywhere else as well.

lol..

lol.. hold on… lol

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classic

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..Sorry not all of us zerg surf and send the pet into aoe messes

Vexacion.3971:

I don’t think the scaling would work like that. I imagine it would look at your gear ‘level’ and just scale the stats of the pet up or down based on that level. Pets would keep their relative stats(ie high precision pets would have precision as their highest stat when up or down scaled. Bears would have high vitality even if you had pure berserker gear).

This^, pets should have their stats be derived relative to ours.

As a hypothetical example:
Cats and birds are known for their high precision. So 150% of our precision is used to generate theirs. This would give them a minimum Precision of 1374 = 24% crit chance, lower than are currently at 2061 = 58%, but a high potential precision of up to about 2421= 76%.

However, cats have the lowest vitality of all pets. If the stat coefficient for a cat’s vitality was say 100%, their health range would be around 9160-16140.

I think the only caveats are bears. If one was to build like a tank and take a bear, the two would be really hard to stop without cc spam.

Using a 300% coefficient, a bear would have about 2748 – 5268 health

To those that care, I am using the chart on the Pet Attributes page of the wiki to derive my coefficients.

The minimum stat in any area that a pet can have is 1374 which is 343.5 * 4.
I took this to be the a bare minimum 1:1 ratio of our stats to the pet’s.

I then divided the ratio number of a given stat by 4 to get the coefficient.

To put the above in context, running full berserkers’ gear, I have the following stats:
2101/1768/1001/916
A canine would have the following stats:
2626/1768/1502/1145
908/394/-559/-573

Wearing a Soldier’s armor set with Knight’s trinkets gives me:
1755/1261/1776/1288
A canine would have:
2194/1261/2664/1610
476/-113/603/-108

This way, each pet ends up with +858 stat points.
In the end, this isn’t so much balancing rangers. It is more future proofing a design change, ascended gear/gear treadmill, by the dev-team.

Pets aren’t useless

I have the video to prove it ;o)

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

0/0/30/10/30 take my build for what its worth.

Things I’ve garnished on my journey to 80.

The more you pay attention to pet the better.

Tricks I’ve gained:

1) Oh no pet is attacking head on when it doesn’t hold agg, call it back, flank enemy, send it back in, simple.
2) Oh no pet is getting eaten by AoE. There is a nifty trait 15 into Wilderness Survival, protection on dodge roll, this is meant more for your pet, it will take reduced damage from said AoE use dodge rolls for both you and pet, you are already getting stamina (whatever the bloody stat is called) faster, and you can also trait for vigor on heals (healing spring ftw)
3) Pet dying all the time, 15 second swaps from 15 BM is more than enough to swap the pet often to not get taken out
4) pet dying all the time, Use heals for both you and the pet, use it when EITHER of you are getting low. The nice thing about ranger is that enemies have to split their focus, they can only attack one at a time. I have rarely been caught with my pants down because I used a heal for my pet. (Healing spring is quite nice because of lingering effects)
5) too annoying to manage your pets, keys to far to bother constantly pressing? I’ve actually rebound all my keys, my utilities are now f1-3 elite r and my pet controls are zxcv. I can control my pets on the dime and the controls are quite responsive (barring the f2), utilities are all minute or more cooldowns so they get used much less making them more efficiant up at f1-3

Batlav.6318:

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

I take wolves into dungeons all the time, I’ve soloed group events since lvl 15, and have soloed all but 2 champs without losing pets also since lvl 15… you are doing it wrong.

DaisyRogers.6837:

Batlav.6318:

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

I take wolves into dungeons all the time, I’ve soloed group events since lvl 15, and have soloed all but 2 champs without losing pets also since lvl 15… you are doing it wrong.

No, in pve pets are nice, in WvWvW or sPvP need fixes, all other classes can hit you with 100% of his dps in each attack but you only hit with 60-70% because your pet must move all time to be able to hit and is too kiteable.

urdriel.8496:

DaisyRogers.6837:

Batlav.6318:

sry but i want to use pets that i like not one specific pet that can live 10s longer because of ranged attack in dungeon for eg.
melee pets do not attack from behind which leads to beign one shoted by frontal cone attacks
even bears should attack from behind which will make the target to turn its back to us
Pets do not have aoe dmg reduction which is another problem

Yes they are not useless but they are not good enough either
And pls tell me how a little bird got 2k vit but a big cat got only 1.3 ?
Cats might be the best dps but beign 1-2 shoted reduces the dps to zero
Pets are good as long as the player do not go into dungeon, group event to fight champion or to PvP unless it is 1v1

I take wolves into dungeons all the time, I’ve soloed group events since lvl 15, and have soloed all but 2 champs without losing pets also since lvl 15… you are doing it wrong.

No, in pve pets are nice, in WvWvW or sPvP need fixes, all other classes can hit you with 100% of his dps in each attack but you only hit with 60-70% because your pet must move all time to be able to hit and is too kiteable.

I’ve solved it by fighting melee, pets much more reliable then.

Besides my comment was aimed at the post saying pets were useless against champs, in dungeons, and group events. I solo all but dungeons and even there my pets do fairly well when I am on my game.

Lysico.4906:

Solid Gold.9310:

Pets are useless in WvW and pretty much worthless everywhere else as well.

lol..

lol.. hold on… lol

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classic

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..Sorry not all of us zerg surf and send the pet into aoe messes

So you’re saying they’re decent if you run around looking for that gank on an underleveled solo player.

Indeed!

Soon as group combat starts your pet is dead or hiding though. Considering that W3 is MOSTLY about group combat…

There are several issues that ANet could easily deal with to improve the AI of the pet to reduce the stress some rangers feel. I have been playing my Ranger since Launch and I have explored several builds including a Beastmaster build. I own all the pets available [except the ones from GW1] and have given ample time to explore them and their uses. Some of the key areas of concern with pets are:

1. Putting the Pet Away.
– In Some Cases, it serves you and your party much better if there isn’t a “stupid” pet doing “stupid things” like “accidentally standing in lava” or "aggroing adds/mobs the party isn’t expecting. For that purpose, ANet included the “Store Pet” function. HOWEVER, the store pet command only works as long as you do not a] Make an attack b] Take damage of any kind. This becomes an issue even when doing things like jump puzzles, as your pet can be a distracting and unwelcome guest teetering on a narrow beam with you 100 feet above the ground. [Keep in mind you can sometimes take fall damage from jump puzzles which of course has them leaping back into the fray] ANet could easily make a lot of rangers happy if they included a setting on the store function.

Example: Passive Storage/Active Storage. When a pet is “Passively” stored, the AI would function as it currently does, with the pet returning to your side if you attack or take damage. However, You could choose to “Actively” store your pet which UNTIL REMOVED your pet will not return regardless of how often you atack or how much damage you take.

2. Positioning.
– It is so frustrating to me that I cannot predict where my pets stand or move. I cannot begin to fathom at how many countless times I have my pet set on"Avoid combat", because I am not wanting him to roam off on his own and aggro mobs, and he is standing 20 yards away from me [In avoid combat mode]. It makes no sense how pets can stand so far away even if they are set to “avoid combat”!

Example: In twilight arbor[dungeon] there are poisonous aoe flowers that are set off by proximity. I cannot tell you how many of these flowers my pet has run over/stumbled across [even in avoid combat mode]. and Remember! it’s not like you can put your pet away during these areas because YOU ARE FIGHTING! One time I had my pet stored and I was fighting through the first hall in Twilight arbor, when a flower spawned beside me and went off. I dodge rolled, but not before taking damage! Then leaping into action [sensing my imminent peril] my pet came out and tromped on two more flowers…which downed my Elementalist friend.

3. Lick Wounds / Search and Rescue
– I tried using Search and Rescue for awhile, but the skill rarely works as intended…it is quicker and more reliable just to rez my friend myself because the range is terrible, the cooldown is long, and it’s not exactly a “Fast-rez” technique like the Warriors Banner. Lick Wounds is by far the most unreliable downed Skill I have experienced. Assuming your pet is alive, the skill is supposed to call him to your side to “help you bandage yourself quicker” Sounds Legit right? WRONG.

First when you go down, the Lick wounds skill is on an 8 second “cooldown” meaning all you can do is try to rally with a weak lightning bolt and a few rocks, or bandage yourself for 8 seconds and try to outlast the damage you are probably taking from whatever downed you. If you manage to last for 8 seconds channeling bandage, you are suddenly able to use “Lick Wounds” but the 8 seconds doesn’t account for the time it takes for your pet to jog back over to your body from wherever he was fighting. [If you didn’t already push F3 – Not that some people know you still have control of the pet even though the pet control bar is absent from the downed screen -.-] Finally 11 seconds after you’ve been downed your pet arrives at your body and then the AI derps. 50% of the time he starts giving you a tongue bath and you gain health rapidly. The other 50% of the time he decides you smell funny, and he’d rather not bother with licking at all.

BTW – Choosing to activate lick wounds INTERRUPTS/CANCELS the bandage channel….so now you have to wait for a cooldown on bandage as well. Classy right? Especially when you stop bandaging yourself only to have your pet stand ontop of you -NOT- Licking you…while your healthbar drains. Seriously if anyone from ANet is reading this..PLEASE look into this! Can’t the skill be fixed so that it works ALL the time as intended?

4. Poor Responce to the “F2” command. When I click the F2 button, often times…the command is not recieved [The skill doesn’t begin blinking to indicate that my pet is performing his special move.] As such I find that I have to hold/rapidly pound the key until my pet decides he “feels like” using his “roar/spit/rend/howl” etc…

5. Poor Pathing – Pet unable to follow you off even the smallest of ledges, even if your pet is winged [like an owl/raven], and then looks for the shortest way down from the ledge which often aggros groups unintentionally. In addition, the pet won’t/is unable to enter combat if your foe is seperated from you by a gap. [Ie: Fighting Harpies in the Catastrophe Fractal]

I really am dissappointed with how inefficient and “dumb” the AI for my pets is. I chose Ranger in GW2 because I was a Ranger in GW1 and I love the class…but the pet AI feels sloppy and careless. I don’t know if it should be a priority to fix because it doesn’t make the class “impossible to play”…but it certainly [in my opinion] makes the pets and Beastmastery side of the class “Impossible to Love”.

-Cole Winters
[Stormbluff Isle]

DaisyRogers no im not doing it wrong i also soloed a lot of champs mainly in lower lvl zones and some in mid-hight lvl zones with dual bear but some champs are weaker or the champ does not use special abilities so it’s normal

i do use heal for me and my pet but if i waste the heal for the pet which will die few seconds later will leave me vulnerable and i can do much more alive in dungeon or pvp than my pet

All I know is the hunter pets in WoW were far superior. Pets in this game are also buggy. Once my pet goes down, he stays uninvolved, even when he’s regened more than half his hp back. The aggro issue when they’re following is annoying. Just make them aggroless unless you sick them on something or they’re protecting you…it’s an easy fix. Overall, my pets are less companions than they are tools. And who wants to adveture with a tool?

Batlav.6318:

DaisyRogers no im not doing it wrong i also soloed a lot of champs mainly in lower lvl zones and some in mid-hight lvl zones with dual bear but some champs are weaker or the champ does not use special abilities so it’s normal

i do use heal for me and my pet but if i waste the heal for the pet which will die few seconds later will leave me vulnerable and i can do much more alive in dungeon or pvp than my pet

Than I guess all I can say is that our experiences are vastly different from how we approach the instances. I’ve been doing perfectly fine with my pets.

I look forward to the continued work of the devs as they smartify pets, I will only become that much more godly.

i talk for both pvp and pve and yes the AI of the pets is terrible
in some dungeons they can die even on passive
bears can live a lil longer or a ranged pet but i need to pay attention to it most of the time isntead to be alert on when to dodge for example etc.
i don’t deny that i’m not so good at menaging the pet because i stoped to care when it got 1 shoted few times but that doesn’t change the fact that pets need to be reworked

one game starting with “W” did it right when it comes to pets

Braxxus.2904:

Lysico.4906:

Solid Gold.9310:

Pets are useless in WvW and pretty much worthless everywhere else as well.

lol..

lol.. hold on… lol

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classic

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..

lol.. hold on… lolOh man, that is classicWatch my bird pet blow you up, or my cat rip you a new one..Sorry not all of us zerg surf and send the pet into aoe messes

So you’re saying they’re decent if you run around looking for that gank on an underleveled solo player.

Indeed!

Soon as group combat starts your pet is dead or hiding though. Considering that W3 is MOSTLY about group combat…

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

Xsorus.2507:

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

I’ve never seen you roll with a zerg in your vids. His point stands. A lot of people in this thread are testing it in really controlled environments. 1v1 with melee no less…well if you’re rooting people with sword of course your pet could hit.

Make a video running LB with pets against zergs and see how well the pets perform.

They’re little more than buff bots/distractions in that case.

Aridia.3042:

Xsorus.2507:

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

I’ve never seen you roll with a zerg in your vids. His point stands. A lot of people in this thread are testing it in really controlled environments. 1v1 with melee no less…well if you’re rooting people with sword of course your pet could hit.

Make a video running LB with pets against zergs and see how well the pets perform.

They’re little more than buff bots/distractions in that case.

Ehh, the entire Natures Ninja video set is me rolling with a Zerg.

If you’re going to do Longbow setup and fire shots back and fourth between a zerg I recommend Range pets for that, just put your pet on passive so you can control it better (and less likely to run in and die) You can do a Beast Master Build with this, but a setup like that is more useful to use Bears/Spiders Combo (switch to Bear when being attacked for Protect Me) and Spider when you’re fighting.

If you’re wanting to actually flank though, any of the high dps pets will work quite well.

Aridia.3042:

Xsorus.2507:

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

I’ve never seen you roll with a zerg in your vids. His point stands. A lot of people in this thread are testing it in really controlled environments. 1v1 with melee no less…well if you’re rooting people with sword of course your pet could hit.

Make a video running LB with pets against zergs and see how well the pets perform.

They’re little more than buff bots/distractions in that case.

He did… It involved his pet running in and assassinating some poor kitten before they even realized what happened…

Grimwolf.7163:

I wonder if there’s a word for that bizarre kind of massive vicarious narcissism, where one person believes another is completely infallible.

News flash for you, this game was made by human beings, and humans make mistakes. Constantly.

Ooh ooh! I know <hands up> does it begin with a ‘F’? and end in an ‘Oi’?

Zealot is pretty good also.
<kitten>wit is even better.

People don’t constantly make mistakes: But if you don’t and believe you don’t (i.e. Hubris) then you’ll never learn kitten. It’s how it works. To err is to be human.
It’s why I play a Charr

Good guide for new rangers – In a game so situational can’t believe people still plink away like a <cough> WoW <cough> Hunter and expect the same. You ain’t in Azeroth any more Dorothy.

Xsorus.2507:

Aridia.3042:

Xsorus.2507:

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

I’ve never seen you roll with a zerg in your vids. His point stands. A lot of people in this thread are testing it in really controlled environments. 1v1 with melee no less…well if you’re rooting people with sword of course your pet could hit.

Make a video running LB with pets against zergs and see how well the pets perform.

They’re little more than buff bots/distractions in that case.

Ehh, the entire Natures Ninja video set is me rolling with a Zerg.

If you’re going to do Longbow setup and fire shots back and fourth between a zerg I recommend Range pets for that, just put your pet on passive so you can control it better (and less likely to run in and die) You can do a Beast Master Build with this, but a setup like that is more useful to use Bears/Spiders Combo (switch to Bear when being attacked for Protect Me) and Spider when you’re fighting.

If you’re wanting to actually flank though, any of the high dps pets will work quite well.

You made a video wall hopping with pets, while entertaining it’s not what I meant by rolling with zergs. Like I said you are using it in very controlled conditions, in this case hiding behind a keep where you have little chance to be jumped. Again, try it with LB preferrably while you are trying to flip a camp against 50 guys. There’s no way to get that kind of burst with ranged pets and by going so deep into BM the LB dmg will be pretty weak.

Aridia.3042:

Xsorus.2507:

Aridia.3042:

Xsorus.2507:

I have entire videos showing that’s incorrect

If you send your pet into the front of a zerg firing on you it will die, But so will most people running solo into that zerg as well.

Key is getting your pet to hit from the sides or rear

I’ve never seen you roll with a zerg in your vids. His point stands. A lot of people in this thread are testing it in really controlled environments. 1v1 with melee no less…well if you’re rooting people with sword of course your pet could hit.

Make a video running LB with pets against zergs and see how well the pets perform.

They’re little more than buff bots/distractions in that case.

Ehh, the entire Natures Ninja video set is me rolling with a Zerg.

If you’re going to do Longbow setup and fire shots back and fourth between a zerg I recommend Range pets for that, just put your pet on passive so you can control it better (and less likely to run in and die) You can do a Beast Master Build with this, but a setup like that is more useful to use Bears/Spiders Combo (switch to Bear when being attacked for Protect Me) and Spider when you’re fighting.

If you’re wanting to actually flank though, any of the high dps pets will work quite well.

You made a video wall hopping with pets, while entertaining it’s not what I meant by rolling with zergs. Like I said you are using it in very controlled conditions, in this case hiding behind a keep where you have little chance to be jumped. Again, try it with LB preferrably while you are trying to flip a camp against 50 guys. There’s no way to get that kind of burst with ranged pets and by going so deep into BM the LB dmg will be pretty weak.

In a camp he can just do what he does in all of his other videos where there’s no walls to stop him -_-’ camps are also something us rangers can solo cap, so that’s not something you would be taking with a zerg.

Zergs hit keeps and towers, he was fighting at keeps and towers, he was down on the floor in a bit of his videos and throwing his pet up ONTO the wall. This is a position where he can very easily have been ganked by thieves, or a warrior, etc.

Pets are worthless in PvP, how can you argue otherwise?

With 4-fully geared 80s; Ranger, Warrior, Guardian, and Thief I can’t remember the last time a Ranger pet did damage to me. You can actually avoid all ranged pets damage, just by moving, and I’m serious here. Even with the recent change to melee pets, you can still move away from their damage.

You should NEVER get hit by a drake, ever either, they stop to attack, with a slow animation.

Funny thread, very funny thread.

Durzlla.6295:

In a camp he can just do what he does in all of his other videos where there’s no walls to stop him -_-’ camps are also something us rangers can solo cap, so that’s not something you would be taking with a zerg.

Zergs hit keeps and towers, he was fighting at keeps and towers, he was down on the floor in a bit of his videos and throwing his pet up ONTO the wall. This is a position where he can very easily have been ganked by thieves, or a warrior, etc.

You’re missing the point. If you face someone out in the middle of no where like a camp, you have to make your pet run to him. It’s the travel distance that makes pets pointless against WvW zergs which is why we get all the QQ about not being able to hit moving targets. So no, you’re not going to get the same effect, especially when they have a zerg to focus fire on your pet. You might surprise a few guys with a jag onto a wall, but again, it’s very specific and controlled conditions and not at all indicative of the full gamut of what actually happens in WvW. Putting a jag onto a wall during a mini siege is completely different to making your pet run through fire towards a target.

And I hope you’ve noticed. There was probably hardly anyone in the keep. If there was a real zerg in there, they’ll come out and face roll the whole group and people who wander off. It’s a complete different lvl of threat when you’re attacking a keep vs facing someone in an open field because you know either side will camp the keep until the tide turns in their favor. Until one side moves, it’s pretty tame and there’s no real danger of being swallowed by the zerg.

Not sure what server you play on, but if you play on Tier 1, you often don’t have the luxury to flip camps solo, especially on EB. More than half of the fights involve 2 zergs pew pewing each other until enough foolish people wander off/get over aggressive and get picked off and one side gets overpowered. Which makes claims that you and your pet could flank even more dubious.

Aridia.3042:

Durzlla.6295:

In a camp he can just do what he does in all of his other videos where there’s no walls to stop him -_-’ camps are also something us rangers can solo cap, so that’s not something you would be taking with a zerg.

Zergs hit keeps and towers, he was fighting at keeps and towers, he was down on the floor in a bit of his videos and throwing his pet up ONTO the wall. This is a position where he can very easily have been ganked by thieves, or a warrior, etc.

You’re missing the point. If you face someone out in the middle of no where like a camp, you have to make your pet run to him. It’s the travel distance that makes pets pointless against WvW zergs which is why we get all the QQ about not being able to hit moving targets. So no, you’re not going to get the same effect, especially when they have a zerg to focus fire on your pet. You might surprise a few guys with a jag onto a wall, but again, it’s very specific and controlled conditions and not at all indicative of the full gamut of what actually happens in WvW. Putting a jag onto a wall during a mini siege is completely different to making your pet run through fire towards a target.

And I hope you’ve noticed. There was probably hardly anyone in the keep. If there was a real zerg in there, they’ll come out and face roll the whole group and people who wander off. It’s a complete different lvl of threat when you’re attacking a keep vs facing someone in an open field because you know either side will camp the keep until the tide turns in their favor. Until one side moves, it’s pretty tame and there’s no real danger of being swallowed by the zerg.

Not sure what server you play on, but if you play on Tier 1, you often don’t have the luxury to flip camps solo, especially on EB. More than half of the fights involve 2 zergs pew pewing each other until enough foolish people wander off/get over aggressive and get picked off and one side gets overpowered. Which makes claims that you and your pet could flank even more dubious.

I’m on Sanctum of Ral, which is second highest tier, an I flip camps solo ALL THE TIME, it’s actually what I do a good 75-80% of the time I WvW because I’m not a fan of zergs (I like to always have an escape, zergs don’t allow that unless you’re defending).

As I said though, I use Sick’Em/ Guard which makes the gap closing a non issue especially since I’ll run signet of the hunt a lot (in Zerg warfare I’ve been known to swap it to signet of stone for added pet survival) I don’t have issues with my pet in zergs.

However, I’m also 30pts in BM & 30pts in NM (ALL my real damage is from my pet I just provide support fire for him) because of this I play smarter than a lot of others do involving the pet, I only send him in to slaughter one target (maybe two if I know I can get em) and then pull him back out.

PS: Guard provides protection and stealth on 100% uptime until the pet gets to the designated area (center of redicule) at which point it lasts for a limited time (I -think- 6s)

Aridia.3042:

You’re missing the point. If you face someone out in the middle of no where like a camp, you have to make your pet run to him. It’s the travel distance that makes pets pointless against WvW zergs which is why we get all the QQ about not being able to hit moving targets.

I don’t really get this paragraph. If you are on your own and face someone at a camp or anywhere else, well yes, you and your pet have to run to him if you wanna fight and pets have improved a lot at hitting moving targets after last patch.
If you are talking about zerg fighting, pets are useless pretty much for the same reason you would be useless if I didn’t have a bow and you just walked into the enemy zerg. Zerg fights have nothing to do with hitting moving targets, they are all about having higher numbers and organization. So you can complain that your pets are useless there, and that you are losing 40% of your damage, but criting for 12k with rapid fire instead of 8k is not gonna turn the tide anyway

Not sure what server you play on, but if you play on Tier 1, you often don’t have the luxury to flip camps solo, especially on EB. More than half of the fights involve 2 zergs pew pewing each other until enough foolish people wander off/get over aggressive and get picked off and one side gets overpowered. Which makes claims that you and your pet could flank even more dubious.

In the borderlands solo capping camps is pretty usual. Zergs tend to move from one BL to the other, so it’s not that hard to flip them when most SBI or SoS are gone.

EB always has big numbers, and that’s all that matters. Same happens in the bls during big zerg fights attacking/defending keeps/towers.

It’s kinda silly to complain about pets being useless in that situations. There are only 3 things that are usefull: numbers, siege and portals. So yeah, as a ranger I can’t crit for 15k and my pet stands by me doing pretty much nothing except for granting buffs every 30 secs. But what do you think other professions do apart from dpsing the gate or manning siege? Zerg fights is not where you’ll find out how good/bad pets are.