Guild Wars 2

anduriell.6280:

So at this point just looking for any other no-farming no-pay to win mmorpg

Let me know if you find one

Ryuichi.3456:

I’ve always loved classes in games with a micro-manageable AI partner. The goal of a successful pet class is to have the pet become an extension of your character. I played a hunter in WoW for quite a few years and used my pet in combat to take care of specific tasks in fights like another player. The members of my guild treated Pickles the plague wolf like another member guild. There’s 3 main things that is implemented would make ranger pets into an asset that rewards skilled play.

1) Remove the lag time between giving a command to execute an f2 ability and the pet actually starting to use it. As it stands I need to hammer my keybind for it about 6 times before my pet stops and starts to use the ability.

2) Add a “go here” command. When I want to move my pet out of the way of a pbaoe the only option I have at the moment is to tell it to come back to me. Which usually results in dragging it through even more aoe creating a dead pet.

3) Give pets a dodge command. If my pets in a situation where it will be hit by a life ending hit let me command it to avoid the attack.

This. Anet – do THIS. I’d rather you remove pets, but since you won’t – do THIS!!!!

Pets are completely OK.

Ok = Not Good… Just… Ok… Meaning LOTS of room for improvement… They can start with the keybinds.

OK = OK, nothing more.
Good = you + pet.

OK is not acceptable.

So what you want? Make OMG_one_shot_kill_IMBA from pets while you can just AFKing?

I’ve already have stated it COUNTLESS times what I want:

1) Give me the option to opt-out of pets
2) Give me more keybinds
2a) Keybind for active/passive
2b) Keybind for stow/unstow
3) Store pet names on client side
4) Make pathing AI smart enough NOT to go straight through red rings if you call them back
5) Massive PVE AOE damage reduction

I’m not asking for much. That’ll put pets in a MUCH better spot… Much closer to this “OK” you are fond of.

Not saying I agree or disagree, but…

1) They shot that down countless time for Anet Ranger means ‘The Pet Class’.
2) Unfortunatly they’ve (at least for the time being) struck down additional keybinds/control on the pets. The reasoning behind it was about skill floor raising that they wanted to avoid.
3) Also something they aren’t willing to do
4) Too much chance of labeling it an I win button, also could potentially be used to find additional exploitative spots in future encounters (see how almost the entire PvE design of the game at launch and them forgetting the stupid amount of reflection given to guardian)
5) Was also shot down can’t have 2 rangers destroying dungeons or some such reason.

Side note on 3) In finding some way they could do that would be a balance neutral change that would generally have a positive reaction from the community, but who knows,

The pet system is currently a large problem that unless they have changed their stance on will continue to exist only receiving Bandaid fixes as Anet refuses to handle any but the quick fix options.

Slightly offtopic, but with the general removal of water combat (or just it phasing out of sPvP) I think that ranger is kind of owed an additional balance patch after that Aquaman patch a certain someone was promising big improvements for Ranger.

I don’t think it would ever happen but if it did, it would be awesome. If a pet is stowed, I think the abilities should be transferred to the ranger to some degree.

six.6304:

I don’t think it would ever happen but if it did, it would be awesome. If a pet is stowed, I think the abilities should be transferred to the ranger to some degree.

we had a discussion about that in the ranger CDI. the idea (aspects) was raised by an former Anet employee, and subsequently shot down by the devs themselves.

six.6304:

I don’t think it would ever happen but if it did, it would be awesome. If a pet is stowed, I think the abilities should be transferred to the ranger to some degree.

I don’t think there will be a buff for a stowed. But it isn’t needed. We need a perma stow for situations, when a pet is just negative for you or for the group. And after the situation you free your pet and the action is going on (maybe just push f1, f2, f3 or f4 for pet freeing)

And for other in fight situation, you should use a passive pet, which buff the ranger and the group. But there is the crux of the matter, we need some passive pets and not only distance fighting pets

Bran.7425:

Not saying I agree or disagree, but…

1) They shot that down countless time for Anet Ranger means ‘The Pet Class’.
2) Unfortunatly they’ve (at least for the time being) struck down additional keybinds/control on the pets. The reasoning behind it was about skill floor raising that they wanted to avoid.
3) Also something they aren’t willing to do
4) Too much chance of labeling it an I win button, also could potentially be used to find additional exploitative spots in future encounters (see how almost the entire PvE design of the game at launch and them forgetting the stupid amount of reflection given to guardian)
5) Was also shot down can’t have 2 rangers destroying dungeons or some such reason.

Side note on 3) In finding some way they could do that would be a balance neutral change that would generally have a positive reaction from the community, but who knows,

The pet system is currently a large problem that unless they have changed their stance on will continue to exist only receiving Bandaid fixes as Anet refuses to handle any but the quick fix options.

Slightly offtopic, but with the general removal of water combat (or just it phasing out of sPvP) I think that ranger is kind of owed an additional balance patch after that Aquaman patch a certain someone was promising big improvements for Ranger.

I know the reasons why they won’t do what I, and many other Rangers on the forums, have requested. And the #5 reason you were thinking of was when John Sharp infamously said two bearbows the bears would just go in there are “rip the face off” of whatever it is they were attacking… Which was total bull_hit and how many of us really knew that he had NO F__CKING CLUE how to play a Ranger or what it was like to play a Ranger.

All of ranger’s weapon dmg is low damage in ranger because sharing damage with pet, I would rather prefer, pets to have protection boon when the ranger dodge, at this moment, all of those ranger hate was because the pet die too easily in dungeon, damage contributed is low hence.

Better yet, trait that gives rangers protection on dodge should at the same time give aegis to pet

Prysin.8542:

Better yet, trait that gives rangers protection on dodge should at the same time give aegis to pet

There’s no reason to tie it to a trait.

As has been said in the past… either give the pet aegis or dodge frames when the Ranger dodges or evades.

Im still hoping pets eventually gain “avoidance: Pet takes 70% reduced damage from attacks they are not the specific target of when attacked by melee attacks” but im not sure if thats gonna be a possibility in this games current combat system.

Atherakhia.4086:

Prysin.8542:

Better yet, trait that gives rangers protection on dodge should at the same time give aegis to pet

There’s no reason to tie it to a trait.

As has been said in the past… either give the pet aegis or dodge frames when the Ranger dodges or evades.

we aint getting shiny toys “read: stuff that does no require investment”. So rather then doom ourselves by praying for free stuffs, we should just argue for it at a cost.
Then once we get it, we can start arguing the cost is too high….

First we need this function…. one way or another, we are NOT getting it free, that is 100% sure…..

Prysin.8542:

Atherakhia.4086:

Prysin.8542:

Better yet, trait that gives rangers protection on dodge should at the same time give aegis to pet

There’s no reason to tie it to a trait.

As has been said in the past… either give the pet aegis or dodge frames when the Ranger dodges or evades.

we aint getting shiny toys “read: stuff that does no require investment”. So rather then doom ourselves by praying for free stuffs, we should just argue for it at a cost.
Then once we get it, we can start arguing the cost is too high….

First we need this function…. one way or another, we are NOT getting it free, that is 100% sure…..

what? why not do this right from beginning? The costs are too high by using a stupid trait for a function that e ery ranger needs. So this means every ranger must use this trait -.-

yLoon.5289:

the pet die too easily in dungeon, damage contributed is low hence.

I have to ask, what dungeons are people talking about? I used to do daily dungeon tours whenever I had the time, and pet death nowhere near being a problem.

I saw some guys in this thread saying their pets were dead 90 % of the time… Yeah, it’s probably an exaggeration, but if it’s even close to being that bad, you simply suck at pet management.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

what? why not do this right from beginning? The costs are too high by using a stupid trait for a function that e ery ranger needs. So this means every ranger must use this trait -.-

Ties perfectly in with having to trait the lb unless you like the attack rate of a sloth and arrow velocity that looks like you might aswell have thrown the arrow with your bare hands. Or all the other things we have that need traits to be viable.

More required traits plz.

yLoon.5289:

All of ranger’s weapon dmg is low damage in ranger because sharing damage with pet, I would rather prefer, pets to have protection boon when the ranger dodge, at this moment, all of those ranger hate was because the pet die too easily in dungeon, damage contributed is low hence.

The #3 traits (minor) in nature magic apply the protection boon to pet when dodge rolling.

Lazze.9870:

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

what? why not do this right from beginning? The costs are too high by using a stupid trait for a function that e ery ranger needs. So this means every ranger must use this trait -.-

Ties perfectly in with having to trait the lb unless you like the attack rate of a sloth and arrow velocity that looks like you might aswell have thrown the arrow with your bare hands. Or all the other things we have that need traits to be viable.

More required traits plz.

but a longbow is no must-have for the ranger.

Lazze.9870:

yLoon.5289:

the pet die too easily in dungeon, damage contributed is low hence.

I have to ask, what dungeons are people talking about? I used to do daily dungeon tours whenever I had the time, and pet death nowhere near being a problem.

I saw some guys in this thread saying their pets were dead 90 % of the time… Yeah, it’s probably an exaggeration, but if it’s even close to being that bad, you simply suck at pet management.

As I have stated multiple times before, a zerking melee ranger (meaning gear and traits) melee zerker pet (meaning not a ranged pet and not a bear … meaning cat only) is going to have a bad time. If you’re a ranger in a dungeon you should be melee with zerker with zerker pet. If not, you’re being carried. Unfortunately, the pet doesn’t dodge nor does it not know how to path around red rings. So yes, as a melee zerking ranger, the pet is going to be down much more of the time than it’s going to be up. Honestly, that’s a good argument to just not bring a ranger into a fractal/dungeon at all. If it wasn’t for spotter and frost spirit, they’d be out-right banned from any kind of efficient dungeoning.

If there’s a L2P issue it’s learn not to pewpew from 1500 range and learn how to melee and be a boon to your party instead of being carried. But hey, I know you play how to want and f_ck everybody else.

thefantasticg.3984:

Ok = Not Good… Just… Ok… Meaning LOTS of room for improvement… They can start with the keybinds.

As stated numerous times they are not giving the rangers any additional keybinds for pet control they do not want to increase the skill floor on the profession for the sake of tPvP.

So I wouldn’t hold your breathe on it. By the time they changed that stance there will be another title that is similar enough to pull players away.

On your later l2p rant. the games basic design with the (general easiest/fast solution mentality of the vocal player base) combined with stacking (take away most if not all of the risk vs reward out of melee) is just painting the game into corners. Any variety that does not cater to that design will be ignored (i.e. faster better rewards elsewhere).

It does bring me to a question do you wait for the youtube how to video on new content? Or are you a liability to you own party trying to learn the timing on sword (or do you take the dps lost for greatsword safety, which is lowering your damage and making you a liablity to your party) for the new fight.

None of this is actually contributing to the subject at hand so if you want to give the breakdown on how you feel the profession should be played then I suggest you start your own thread on it.

Bran, I know they’ve said that many times that they are going to leave us handicapped with less controls than we need. That is what makes me sad.

And you’re right on the stacking. After I’ve done a dungeon 1000 times I don’t want it to take any longer than it has to. So, me and the many I run with, are going to do what it takes to get through it fast.

Not sure about the youtube thing. Maybe I posted that while I was drunk but I don’t care enough while sober to go back and look.

How the profession is played is directly related to getting rid or making the pet better… so… And starting another thread that is just going to be ignored by Anet, like this one, because it contains things that would make the Ranger better but they are the ostrich with its’ head in the sand is pointless… much like this thread.

The problem with some people’s views on pets is stemming from a biased standpoint in a particular game mode. Shouldn’t the class at least have semi-effective builds in all game modes (if designed correctly)?

The “I’ll show you how to play a ranger” or “your not using the pet” aren’t valid arguments by any stretch.

sPvP – Nobody should be arguing that pets are under-powered here. Many of them shine with a variety of builds. It may take practice, but it’s doable.

PvE (No world bosses) – The jury is out on this one. Seeing as some enemies ignore the pet’s presence, it really negates having the pet, given pathing issues and slow F2 response.

PvE (Dungeons & World Bosses) – Pets are supposed to account for 40% of your dps. You can’t sustain 40% of your dps if they are:
- sitting by your side
- continually being called back or swapped out
- dead because of unavoidable 1 hit ko’s

WvW (General Play) – By general I mean what people usually do there and that’s zerg. Maybe some small or medium group play; either way the pet is useless in all these scenarios due to pathing issues, lagging F2, and AoE.

WvW (Roaming) – If your somehow able to avoid the zerg and stay in 1v1 or maybe 1v2 scenarios, the pet is fine in skilled hands. Most people don’t go to WvW to roam, they go to zerg, and given the amount of complaints of roamers and smaller groups being run over by the zerg, it pretty much negates the pet.

So we have 5 scenarios; 1 of them, the pets are fairly advantageous, 1 is a toss up, 1 is semi-useless and based on luck, while 2 of them are completely useless.

To me it sounds like we should have the option to play with the pet because it really limits the effectiveness of the class as a whole.

DeadlySynz.3471:

WvW (Roaming) – If your somehow able to avoid the zerg and stay in 1v1 or maybe 1v2 scenarios, the pet is fine in skilled hands. Most people don’t go to WvW to roam, they go to zerg, and given the amount of complaints of roamers and smaller groups being run over by the zerg, it pretty much negates the pet.

That sounds more like a tier thing. My server is full of roamers and small groups and we know how to avoid being run over by zergs. Pets come in very handy in these situations.

DeadlySynz.3471:

The problem with some people’s views on pets is stemming from a biased standpoint in a particular game mode. Shouldn’t the class at least have semi-effective builds in all game modes (if designed correctly)?

The “I’ll show you how to play a ranger” or “your not using the pet” aren’t valid arguments by any stretch.

sPvP – Nobody should be arguing that pets are under-powered here. Many of them shine with a variety of builds. It may take practice, but it’s doable.

PvE (No world bosses) – The jury is out on this one. Seeing as some enemies ignore the pet’s presence, it really negates having the pet, given pathing issues and slow F2 response.

PvE (Dungeons & World Bosses) – Pets are supposed to account for 40% of your dps. You can’t sustain 40% of your dps if they are:
- sitting by your side
- continually being called back or swapped out
- dead because of unavoidable 1 hit ko’s

WvW (General Play) – By general I mean what people usually do there and that’s zerg. Maybe some small or medium group play; either way the pet is useless in all these scenarios due to pathing issues, lagging F2, and AoE.

WvW (Roaming) – If your somehow able to avoid the zerg and stay in 1v1 or maybe 1v2 scenarios, the pet is fine in skilled hands. Most people don’t go to WvW to roam, they go to zerg, and given the amount of complaints of roamers and smaller groups being run over by the zerg, it pretty much negates the pet.

So we have 5 scenarios; 1 of them, the pets are fairly advantageous, 1 is a toss up, 1 is semi-useless and based on luck, while 2 of them are completely useless.

To me it sounds like we should have the option to play with the pet because it really limits the effectiveness of the class as a whole.

Not sure if they have fixed all of them yet, but I do recall some pets will not attack object and some boss are basically just that. Many of the issue I can recall most recently involve open world underwater, but we all know how anet fells about underwater combat…

thefantasticg.3984:

How the profession is played is directly related to getting rid or making the pet better… so… And starting another thread that is just going to be ignored by Anet, like this one, because it contains things that would make the Ranger better but they are the ostrich with its’ head in the sand is pointless… much like this thread.

I would love to see how the other profession would deal if their mechanic behaved as poorly as the ranger pets, imagine toolbelt/attunement taking the time to activate the way most pet skills do.

A large part of the general issue with ranger is the pvp communities stance on programmed behavior features (pets, minions, etc), but that isn’t to say that they designed pets as if the game would be an archaic stand and cast relic from the past instead of the action-based combat game.

DeadlySynz.3471:

The problem with some people’s views on pets is stemming from a biased standpoint in a particular game mode. Shouldn’t the class at least have semi-effective builds in all game modes (if designed correctly)?

The “I’ll show you how to play a ranger” or “your not using the pet” aren’t valid arguments by any stretch.

sPvP – Nobody should be arguing that pets are under-powered here. Many of them shine with a variety of builds. It may take practice, but it’s doable.

PvE (No world bosses) – The jury is out on this one. Seeing as some enemies ignore the pet’s presence, it really negates having the pet, given pathing issues and slow F2 response.

PvE (Dungeons & World Bosses) – Pets are supposed to account for 40% of your dps. You can’t sustain 40% of your dps if they are:
- sitting by your side
- continually being called back or swapped out
- dead because of unavoidable 1 hit ko’s

WvW (General Play) – By general I mean what people usually do there and that’s zerg. Maybe some small or medium group play; either way the pet is useless in all these scenarios due to pathing issues, lagging F2, and AoE.

WvW (Roaming) – If your somehow able to avoid the zerg and stay in 1v1 or maybe 1v2 scenarios, the pet is fine in skilled hands. Most people don’t go to WvW to roam, they go to zerg, and given the amount of complaints of roamers and smaller groups being run over by the zerg, it pretty much negates the pet.

So we have 5 scenarios; 1 of them, the pets are fairly advantageous, 1 is a toss up, 1 is semi-useless and based on luck, while 2 of them are completely useless.

To me it sounds like we should have the option to play with the pet because it really limits the effectiveness of the class as a whole.

pet barely accounts for 25-30% granted the recent buffs to weapon DPS.

Also, pets and their survivability is VERY reliant on one thing; correct pet choice. Most players fail to use the right one, or even the right type of pet (IE: tanky/bursty/control)

most pets are strong and useful in conquest and small group skirmishes in general. I don’t pve so wouldn’t know about that. by fixing f2 responsiveness, they greatly improved pets. when you think about it, pets should be kiteable, otherwise using them would be cheap and effortless. cats and birds hit like trucks, especially if you spec into BM and appropriately time the right utilities.

if you want a pet that stays on the target at all times, use birds.

I would rather they shift focus into fixing our dozen completely useless utilities and further buffing some weapons.

DeadlySynz.3471:

The problem with some people’s views on pets is stemming from a biased standpoint in a particular game mode. Shouldn’t the class at least have semi-effective builds in all game modes (if designed correctly)?

The “I’ll show you how to play a ranger” or “your not using the pet” aren’t valid arguments by any stretch.

sPvP – Nobody should be arguing that pets are under-powered here. Many of them shine with a variety of builds. It may take practice, but it’s doable.

PvE (No world bosses) – The jury is out on this one. Seeing as some enemies ignore the pet’s presence, it really negates having the pet, given pathing issues and slow F2 response.

PvE (Dungeons & World Bosses) – Pets are supposed to account for 40% of your dps. You can’t sustain 40% of your dps if they are:
- sitting by your side
- continually being called back or swapped out
- dead because of unavoidable 1 hit ko’s

WvW (General Play) – By general I mean what people usually do there and that’s zerg. Maybe some small or medium group play; either way the pet is useless in all these scenarios due to pathing issues, lagging F2, and AoE.

WvW (Roaming) – If your somehow able to avoid the zerg and stay in 1v1 or maybe 1v2 scenarios, the pet is fine in skilled hands. Most people don’t go to WvW to roam, they go to zerg, and given the amount of complaints of roamers and smaller groups being run over by the zerg, it pretty much negates the pet.

So we have 5 scenarios; 1 of them, the pets are fairly advantageous, 1 is a toss up, 1 is semi-useless and based on luck, while 2 of them are completely useless.

To me it sounds like we should have the option to play with the pet because it really limits the effectiveness of the class as a whole.

I would disagree with your assessment of pets in open world pve. Pets are the reason why an already easy game mode is even more easy. Yes, there’s a few enemies smart enough to do otherwise but even if they target you, you can always use stealth or go back far enough. It helps if you have a pet with some kind of CC.

In dungeons, I don’t really see them dead unless the party as a whole is doing bad. That seems to be more of a fractal thing, but I do those very rarely.

In general play wvw, aka blob fights, supportive pets on a tight leash are still quite usable. And there’s always the spiders that have range. The only flaw is a lack of heavy aoe of which I think it’d be nice to have a pet for, but YMMV.

I do agree they are irrelevant in your average world bosses, but in general people themselves are largely irrelevant as it’s largely a 111111 snooze fest. In world bosses that require effort like Teq, pets can offer immobolizes and stuff that can be very helpful for turret defenses as well as being able to actually tank most champions.

Roamers need to learn to avoid zergs; if you can’t do that, then no profession or ability matters. That doesn’t mean the pets are useless.

The ranger targeting in general is awful. Prioritisation seems to go like this:

1. The target off screen
2. The target behind cover and out of line of sight
3. Enemy weapon installations (dredge turrets etc)
4. Yellow name creatures
5. Something else you can’t even see
.
.
.
.
10 The enemy right in front of you.

This goes for pet AI and bow targeting. I’m sick of my Ranger always targeting everything but the obvious thing in front of me. Today I saw my pet run past 2 Dredge in a tunnel ahead of me, and attack one round a corner I wasn’t even aware was there, or in Skypeaks, running down 2 tiers of a tower, past several Dredge, to attack one way below me.

GuzziHero.2467:

The ranger targeting in general is awful. Prioritisation seems to go like this:

1. The target off screen
2. The target behind cover and out of line of sight
3. Enemy weapon installations (dredge turrets etc)
4. Yellow name creatures
5. Something else you can’t even see
.
.
.
.
10 The enemy right in front of you.

This goes for pet AI and bow targeting. I’m sick of my Ranger always targeting everything but the obvious thing in front of me. Today I saw my pet run past 2 Dredge in a tunnel ahead of me, and attack one round a corner I wasn’t even aware was there, or in Skypeaks, running down 2 tiers of a tower, past several Dredge, to attack one way below me.

lol This is why I absolutely hate all the random animals wondering around WvW. I’ll be trying to fight a thief or mesmer and every time they stealth and drop target I have to tab target through 50 fireflies to retarget the enemy player directly in front of me. It would be nice if I could just click on the enemy player but that seems to work about 30% of the time.

Baldrick.8967:

Until they come up with a pet that can jump waves from the dragon, they are a liability there too- whether kept next to you doing nothing or sent in to do some damage, same result, dead pets and kitten damage output.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Devourer_Retreat
AI is excellent on this skill for dodging high-damage attacks, and you can F4 your pet to avoid PBAOE’s. Pets will also teleport back to you if you’re a good range away from them and set them to passive.

Maximum Potato.5923:

Baldrick.8967:

Until they come up with a pet that can jump waves from the dragon, they are a liability there too- whether kept next to you doing nothing or sent in to do some damage, same result, dead pets and kitten damage output.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Devourer_Retreat
AI is excellent on this skill for dodging high-damage attacks, and you can F4 your pet to avoid PBAOE’s. Pets will also teleport back to you if you’re a good range away from them and set them to passive.

That skill in particular will trigger at ANY time an enemy that pet is in combat with enters less than x range or sometimes when it gets attacked by ranged attacks.

Which means a thieves shortbow one might trigger it. Or even a random PvE mob. I cant tell you how many times ive been getting stunlocked near my devourer and I REALLY need it to use that knockdown it has but instead it runs away.

I cant tell you how many times ive had something almost dead and I really want the poison attack it has but instead something random happens and it runs away.

That skill in particular is a HORRIBLE one ot use as an example. As it MIGHT help keep the pet alive but its far more likely to happen at random times causing the pet to not be doing any for of offense for quite awhile. meaning while its active you don’t have a pet.

That skill tends to do more harm than good.

Edit: If I could control my pet completely however id be in love with the devourer for just that skills reason. Its just that as it is now its auto cast programming tends to get you killed.

I wouldn’t mind pets so much if I didn’t consider the initial damage split to be so excessive, and that the majority of helpful controlling conditions seem to be tied to pets. Not that we players haven’t learned how to make it work, but I do find it rather suboptimal, and as a GW1 vet where an entire skillbar dictated how you used your pet and the pet system felt overall better because of it, GW2 gives players way too little ability to choose how they use their pet and then makes you rely on the pets AI to get results, which aren’t always the results you want (F3 to cancel skill I don’t want right now, F1 to reengage, repeat over and over to cycle skill queue to get to skill I want used right now).

I think that if I were designing a game and felt inclined to make a “pet class” (I believe AI detracts from a competitive environment in general unless you are actively controlling all of the AI like a puppet master of sorts), the pets would be disposable and not permanent.

Ranger, for instance, would “call” an animal ally into battle that could do damage and provide utility and be traited for more damage/survival/utility, but serve as a boost and overall “burst” where using such a call would be skill based by timing of usage, and not detract from initial performance of the player (very similar to how banners or spirits already function in the game).

+1 pet implementation in this game is way below par for an MMO. The feel is all wrong IMO.

Activated abilities need to be equivalent to weapon skills in cast time and utility and survivability ought to be way higher.

Rangers go from the family tool kit in gw1 to being the butt of jokes. Honestly the biggest downside to rangers is the pet itself. The ai is awful, the effects are minimal help or great help (cleansing condis or interrupting met shower that is 4/5 through the channel).

The only viable build in gw1 with a pet was bunny thumpers and that saw various forms but that was more about overwhelming the other team with the sheer numbers (ultimate anti tab target), knockdowns and conditions (disease, poison, deep wound). Granted gw2 is not gw1 but anet needs to realize that pets need to be optional.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Granted gw2 is not gw1 but anet needs to realize that pets need to be optional.

Or at least make them worth keeping alive.

I love when dumb people try to rationalize being opposed to expanded options and fail to see differences between classes other than the presence or non-presence of a pet.

There is no good reason to hogtie the entire class to the pet concept and give the player no control over it. At the very least there needs to be a stow option that gives a modest buff to the Ranger’s skill damage output.

If a ranger does not have a pet, then what different is he from say, a warrior or a thief other than it’s skill set? I know that pets still have yet to be improved upon but removing them is just counter productive.

Malkavian.4516:

If a ranger does not have a pet, then what different is he from say, a warrior or a thief other than it’s skill set? I know that pets still have yet to be improved upon but removing them is just counter productive.

True, but how can we improve pets without incurring the wrath of PvP community?

Malkavian.4516:

If a ranger does not have a pet, then what different is he from say, a warrior or a thief other than it’s skill set? I know that pets still have yet to be improved upon but removing them is just counter productive.

The skill set is enough of a distinction.

Malkavian.4516:

If a ranger does not have a pet, then what different is he from say, a warrior or a thief other than it’s skill set? I know that pets still have yet to be improved upon but removing them is just counter productive.

You’re not thinking laterally enough. What if when you dismissed your pet you acquired their “aspect”, which granted you a proportion of the dismissed pet’s stats and a species-specific ability?

eg: dismissing a spider pet → immobilise targets that you poison (20s CD), dismiss a devourer pet → evade when disabled (20s CD), dismiss a canine pet → your opening strikes knockdown targets (20s CD), etc.

Malkavian.4516:

If a ranger does not have a pet, then what different is he from say, a warrior or a thief other than it’s skill set? I know that pets still have yet to be improved upon but removing them is just counter productive.

What I was thinking is, with the Specialization thing being released with the Heart of Thorns, that the Ranger would become his pet and gain the pets skills, along with a dps boost.
So the ranger would become (change appearance to) the Bear, Wolf, Bird, etc. and give them access to the F2 skill (fear, blind, poison, bleed, etc.)
That would fix the pet issue while still keep the pet thing.

Or just give a Specialization that replaces the pet altogether with new F skills. Didn’t Colin say (I didn’t get to read a transcript of the presentation yet) something about the F skills getting replaced with the Specializations?

thefantasticg.3984:

Or just give a Specialization that replaces the pet altogether with new F skills. Didn’t Colin say (I didn’t get to read a transcript of the presentation yet) something about the F skills getting replaced with the Specializations?

For ranger it would be more than just the F-skills in would also have to rework the downed state as well. They built the pet into too much of the ranger for the lack of development that went into the behavior design of it.

When Colin said “…almost like a secondary profession” that gives me hope that they reworked everything needed to work the pet out of one of the Specializations. Assuming the Specialization that replaces the pet class mechanic with another mechanic doesn’t suck, that’ll be the standard for me and many others who want to be rid of the pet. (Honestly, even if it does suck it’ll still be better than the pet. I’m hoping for something like Preparations from GW1 from what I read about it. F1 – Apply this during next attack, F2 – Apply this during next attack, F3 – Apply this during next attack, etc.)

The video look like they still had a pet, the alpine wolf if I am recalling it correctly. At this point if they got the same people who are improving the content behavior to put even a bit of effort into the ranger’s pets if would be like a totally new profession.