Guild Wars 2

This is not a discussion on what it will be, that can be discussed in another discussion this is merely to get an idea of how many are for and how many are against getting rid of the pet mechanic.

If you agree simply put +1
If you disagree simply put -1

You can justify your answer underneath but make sure the +/- 1 is clear and do not post more than once. The primary purpose of this is to get a tally and gather the pro’s and con’s of both sides. If someone gives a reason you do not agree with do not argue with it on this thread, save it for when i write up all the results on a separate topic.

+1

the pet/ranger mechanics are terrible. the current designs make the pet more of a liability and useless in most cases causing the ranger to be a subpar profession at everything.

more power to the ranger itself is my vote.

+1

At least make it a choice. Warriors get traits that let them ignore their class mechanic, why not us?

+1
The pets should simply be an additional source of damage, not have the ranger’s damage cut by 40-60% because the pet cannot achieve the goal it was intended due to poor ai in a fast paced combat environment. At this point, the mechanic does more wrong than it does right and almost warrants a complete overhaul. The very minimum change would be to make them able to negate non targeted damage in some manner since they simply are not responsive enough in either ai or direct commands to keep them alive in many situations (not all, but many) and possibly look at the downstate cooldown length. There have been many fantastic alternative suggestions that don’t force using the pet it would be nice if Anet would at least perhaps rethink their stance about the mechanic.

+1
the pet/ranger mechanics are awfull.
Arenanet nerfed pet damages and above all the ^^ leash range ^^ making pets really useless. Above all some pets like birds..deals their attack once every 5 seconds..their mechaninc is just broken.
Arenanet please work on Pets..and by working I mean NOT NERFING becouse as far as we can see..you can just nerf things. ( play ranger class test it in wvw above all..and do something important for this broken class )

-1
They need work, but I like the idea and want it to improve rather than go away.

+1
worst pet mechanic ever

coming from a guy that always plays the petclass in every mmo that means something
kitten AI, no connection to the pet whatsoever (they need to be switched around anyways so why even name them when they always forget their name)
No costumization, they dont scale.

imho whoever designed that pet system just dont get why people play pet classes…
complete failure…

+1
enough said.

+1
i think we should have 1 pet controlled at a time + they should add more pet spells to use, add more costumization or even an option to put some gear on our pets .
we need to feel some connection to our pet (its a ranger class ) …

Yeeeeeeeeeeah right, just postpone the problem, instead of fixing, right?
Everyone is like “FIX THIS NAO B-CUSS IT SUCKZ!” But doesn’t try to come up with a fix.

It is probably easier for Anet to fix the pet pathfinding so that it is smoother rather than to remove the mechanic, come up with a new one and recreate a lot of traits.

Removing pet mechanic is a huge change and would take at least a year to balance all the new things.

ALSO A FUN-FACT:
Statistics show that a majority of people who are active on the forums are there because they have a problem with the product. Which leads us to me saying; this is partially stupid because you will obviously have a much greater amount of ‘+1’ than ‘-1’

+1

Give us the choice.

-1

nope ranger is fine. My pets are fine. I speak but only from WvW perspective.

-1
Just continue work with them, but not remove. lol.
play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself

-1

They do need work, but removing it is a drastic move. Pets offer a lot of utility and you can control it in contrary to other minions like necro’s golem (generally necro’s minions are stupid as …). There definitely should be possible to customize the dmg balance through traits either making your pet main source of damage and ranger itself useless, 50/50, or maxing ranger’s damage at cost of pet being useless and squishy. That’s how it should be, with a choice given.

+1
I play ranger since release. I’m not against having a pet BUT the pet mechanic was simply badly implemented. Fix it or change it. Also i’m tired of playing with or against AI controlled things in s/tpvp.

Talek.6795:

play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself

I’m so tired of reading this kitten tbh…

-1
Better control scheme/Defensive options are plenty. As it is now, the pet becomes a liability due to bad AI and no reaction against enemy attacks. Fix those, and pets’d be srs business.

By the Gods, there are traitors here! -1

solrik.6028:

ALSO A FUN-FACT:
Statistics show that a majority of people who are active on the forums are there because they have a problem with the product. Which leads us to me saying; this is partially stupid because you will obviously have a much greater amount of ‘+1’ than ‘-1’

Nice ad hominem bro.

No need to lie.

Namica.2951:

solrik.6028:

ALSO A FUN-FACT:
Statistics show that a majority of people who are active on the forums are there because they have a problem with the product. Which leads us to me saying; this is partially stupid because you will obviously have a much greater amount of ‘+1’ than ‘-1’

Nice ad hominem bro.

No need to lie.

That part of the quote is not ad hominem, rather, it’s questioning the premise of the post which is basically a perspective on the usefulness of this survey: next to none.

Chopps.5047:

Namica.2951:

solrik.6028:

ALSO A FUN-FACT:
Statistics show that a majority of people who are active on the forums are there because they have a problem with the product. Which leads us to me saying; this is partially stupid because you will obviously have a much greater amount of ‘+1’ than ‘-1’

Nice ad hominem bro.

No need to lie.

That part of the quote is not ad hominem, rather, it’s questioning the premise of the post which is basically a perspective on the usefulness of this survey: next to none.

“Everyone who posts here just hates the class so their opinion is moot”

No, it was attacking the person and not the argument by making a statement which was a lie in the first place.

-1

I like pet classes, I just think there is some serious room for improvement. The main issue is the pet taking power scaling away from the ranger. It was a quickfix at the end of beta, but it turns out to ruin the class in several situations. It makes the pet into a handicap.

They will never completely change the class mechanic. Considering it is a waste of time.

+1

I’d like to see preparations make a come back. Give the option to use pets instead of every ranger being forced into the beast master status.

solrik.6028:

Yeeeeeeeeeeah right, just postpone the problem, instead of fixing, right?
Everyone is like “FIX THIS NAO B-CUSS IT SUCKZ!” But doesn’t try to come up with a fix.

It is probably easier for Anet to fix the pet pathfinding so that it is smoother rather than to remove the mechanic, come up with a new one and recreate a lot of traits.

Removing pet mechanic is a huge change and would take at least a year to balance all the new things.

ALSO A FUN-FACT:
Statistics show that a majority of people who are active on the forums are there because they have a problem with the product. Which leads us to me saying; this is partially stupid because you will obviously have a much greater amount of ‘+1’ than ‘-1’

Not debating your fact about forum goers however just because a group is in a minority doesn’t mean they have any less valid concerns and there have been many well-written posts about this topic as well as suggestions. Those same statistics should also point out the people who go to forums to complain are also the ones who care, not just sit in game and shoot arrows or swing swords at lvl 5 champions.

As for no one offering suggestions, it’s because we’ve been doing it for more than a year and we’re kinda done writing up pages upon pages of supporting arguments just so it can be ignored by devs or flamed by players who put more thought into matching their socks than an articulated reply.

Here is a post that I gave up and didn’t finish. The thread ended poorly but as you can see, received virtually zero actually constructive feedback from supporters or opposition while it was alive.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Comprehensive-Ranger-Suggestions/first#post2550550

Here is another post I made a little longer ago that received great constructive feedback from players and still went no where.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Real-tools-for-the-WvW-player/first#post2179363

We’re way past the “We’re having X, Y, and Z problems. Here is why and some ideas for improvements for X, Y, and Z are as follows.” and at the “It’s obvious this is a problem, we’ve gone over why it is several times before, get your act together.” phase.

Well Anet is NEVER going to remove the pet from ranger because they’ve said a TON of times near launch that the pet is the rangers mechanic and that’s never going to change. Personally I feel preparations should’ve been the ranger mechanic, because when I though “ranger” in GW1 I thought “preparations” not “pets” and I was even a BM ranger in GW1!!

I had a suggestion for how they should alter the pet mechanic, I’ll post it in this thread later today or something.

Please note i will not take into account any posts that do vote or have already voted and i urge others to not argue with the people that break these rules.

Samitan.6192:

Please note i will not take into account any posts that do vote or have already voted and i urge others to not argue with the people that break these rules.

So what? Just because the “+1s” win doesn’t mean kitten, it doesn’t mean Anet is going to go, “oh this one thread where <insert small fraction of rangers in the game here> voted we should change the prof mechanic!! Better get that change in ASAP guys!!”

-1? I think? I want the mechanic to be our pet but I want it to be altered still…. Here’s how I want it to be done:

“In all honesty i think they should just balance the Ranger profession around the pet being bonus damage and then make the pet not out 100% IE you summon the pet who will fight with you for X seconds or until it dies (we get command of it as we do now) and then it leaves and begins going on CD (F4 would make it so we send it back sooner than it normally would and thus start the CD earlier). Pet would still be the rangers mechanic, you’d still NEED to use it to be playing to your fullest (like a necro needs to use death shroud or a thief steal), but ignoring it, or not relying on it wont destroy your viability.
Just throw some Grandmaster Major trait in the BM tree that makes it so your pet will be out 100% of the time( or maybe make it so the CD on the pet starts when summoned so you have the potential of 100% uptime) and make Zephyrs Speed or w/e it’s called trigger on pet summon.”

PS: it’s a quote from one of my other posts

It’s not so much that I want a full removal of the pet.

I just want the option to not use it.

Fjandi.2516:

+1
I didn’t play ranger ever. I’m not against having a pet BUT the pet mechanic was simply badly implemented. Fix it or change it. Also i’m tired of playing with or against AI controlled things in s/tpvp.

Talek.6795:

play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself

I’m so tired of reading this kitten tbh…

fxd.

then don’t come to ranger’s forums, if you even can’t control your pet and you think that all you needto do just push attack button and forget about pet in fight.

Talek.6795:

Fjandi.2516:

Talek.6795:

Fixed

+1
I don’t mind the pet mechanic per se, it just needs some tweaking to make the pets better in any build.

Suggestion:
Master’s mourning:
Increase damage by 25% when pet is defeated.

- 1
If they just improve the Pet AI (And not skirt the issue by comparing it to Warriors Dualwielding Greatswords), then no one would have any problems at all.

Antisceptic.9174:

Suggestion:
Master’s mourning:
Increase damage by 25% when pet is defeated.

Until you can summon another one.

We all know Anet wants us to use or pet. Following this idea most people would leave their pet dead because they gain some damage. Pet is a part of our class, must not forget it. But still worst pet AI I’ve ever seen in a mmo …

+1

It’s not that I’m entirely against the pet mechanic. My issue is that the pet simply doesn’t work. The game has been out for a year now, and while the pet has improved from launch, it’s still a hindrance to this class and completely unreliable.

Pet attack range needs to be increased so they can more reliably hit moving targets.
Pet F2 abilities need to be instant cast so they can actually be used at all.
Pet traits are just a complete joke and spread all over the place. Entire trait lines need help.
Signets need to affect the player and not the pet base. Certainly shouldn’t need 30marks.
Pets need more control (secondary skills should be controllable too).

I mean this is a lot of work, and this is what would be required to even get close to making the pet for this class on par with even the worst of other class mechanics in this game. I don’t think ANet has the time or interest to do it… let alone the actual capability given it has been a year and we see where we are right now.

What about giving the pets high damage long melee range cleaving attacks? due to only cleaving pet is drake which is a tanky pet.

Big Tower.5423:

What about giving the pets high damage long melee range cleaving attacks? due to only cleaving pet is drake which is a tanky pet.

This would fix NOTHING, the problem is that we rely to heavily on the pet which is dead most the time, the best solution would be to make pets not out 100% and thus us not be based on needing them out 100%, maybe even add a trait into Marksmanship or something that’s called “Lone Ranger” where you get a damage boost for ignoring your pet, and then put one in BM where you’re capable of having your pet out 100% of the time if you can keep it up.

Uhh, well, +1 for making changes to the mechanic.
-1 for removing the mechanic altogether.

There are really some good ideas out there that I as well as many, many other people have suggested. I’d rather see some of them implemented (especially since it’s easier to alter than redesign) before I make a final decision on pets, because the implementation of them that I’m thinking of, and that has been alluded to being suggested in this thread, is a very good change.

Talek.6795:

Fjandi.2516:

+1
I didn’t play ranger ever. I’m not against having a pet BUT the pet mechanic was simply badly implemented. Fix it or change it. Also i’m tired of playing with or against AI controlled things in s/tpvp.

Talek.6795:

play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself

I’m so tired of reading this kitten tbh…

fxd.

then don’t come to ranger’s forums, if you even can’t control your pet and you think that all you needto do just push attack button and forget about pet in fight.

Tell me, when you are fighting in melee range and you need to evade an attack and you dodge to negate your damage, how do you get your pet to avoid the damage? Even if you recall the pet to you, it’s not fast enough nor is it retreating far enough to miss getting hit. Recalling your pet only works if you are at range, and despite “Range” being in the name Ranger (the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard for the defense of something btw), there is no reason to believe that everyone should have to use a bow, especially given that it’s been proven time and time again that melee will out damage ranged nearly every time if you know the encounter well. This is from a pve perspective obviously where bosses are more than capable of one shotting you or your pet.

Talek.6795:

fxd.

then don’t come to ranger’s forums, if you even can’t control your pet and you think that all you needto do just push attack button and forget about pet in fight.

Lol this epsilon. Ye sry I am bad at the game. I can’t control my pet.I might try explaining to you why your statement “play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself” is stupid, but it would be a waste of my time. Logic is not for everyone. Even simple statements may be hard to understand for some ppl.
Awesome ranger can you explain to me then how to play a ranger in tpvp? I bet this is not going to happen. Or maybe how to avoid having an unfair advantage for having an AI controlled npc at my side?

Pet UI and AI are appalling and frankly I’m very disappointed with the devs. Its almost been a year and the ranger still feels like its in a closed-beta state. It’s not that our class is terribly weak, but rangers are gimmicky and frustrating to play with. Nevertheless, I’ll have to “-1” since I chose rangers solely for pets.

+1 solely because I don’t think they are capable of fixing the issues. I’d love to have a pet that works, but I don’t and it’s a big deal.

-1, I forgot that my pet gets a vote too.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Talek.6795:

Fjandi.2516:

+1
I didn’t play ranger ever. I’m not against having a pet BUT the pet mechanic was simply badly implemented. Fix it or change it. Also i’m tired of playing with or against AI controlled things in s/tpvp.

Talek.6795:

play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself

I’m so tired of reading this kitten tbh…

fxd.

then don’t come to ranger’s forums, if you even can’t control your pet and you think that all you needto do just push attack button and forget about pet in fight.

Tell me, when you are fighting in melee range and you need to evade an attack and you dodge to negate your damage, how do you get your pet to avoid the damage? Even if you recall the pet to you, it’s not fast enough nor is it retreating far enough to miss getting hit. Recalling your pet only works if you are at range, and despite “Range” being in the name Ranger (the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard for the defense of something btw), there is no reason to believe that everyone should have to use a bow, especially given that it’s been proven time and time again that melee will out damage ranged nearly every time if you know the encounter well. This is from a pve perspective obviously where bosses are more than capable of one shotting you or your pet.

I am pure melee ranger and i’m always in the middle of the fight as well as my pets.
The dude above said about spvp, i answered to him only about spvp. I have noghing against that fact that Anet needs work with pets. But i hate such whining as you saw.

Fjandi.2516:

Talek.6795:

fxd.

then don’t come to ranger’s forums, if you even can’t control your pet and you think that all you needto do just push attack button and forget about pet in fight.

Lol this epsilon. Ye sry I am bad at the game. I can’t control my pet.I might try explaining to you why your statement “play thief or warrior if you want dmg from yourself” is stupid, but it would be a waste of my time. Logic is not for everyone. Even simple statements may be hard to understand for some ppl.
Awesome ranger can you explain to me then how to play a ranger in tpvp? I bet this is not going to happen. Or maybe how to avoid having an unfair advantage for having an AI controlled npc at my side?

OK, if you agree that you are bad we can finish this useless discussion. How could i explain to you pet issue if you said that you even couldn’t control your pet. Stop using my sentences =) i said that you DONT need to just use attack button and forget about your pet, and now you blame me because you think that i said that you need just to use attack and forget.

Honestly, i like that you are so bad on ranger as you said. Continue whining, even if i hate it. i will not answer on your posts anymore, you are my competitor in spvp, why do i need to teach you?

Cheers

Way too late to remove the pet outright. It is quite obvious that it needs a massive overhaul though. Now moreso then ever due to the challenging content proving that this pet mechanic just doesn’t fit in with the gameplay (especially PvE mechanics).

I’m sure their are many Rangers who beat Liadra but how many of them can honestly say their Pet actually factored in that fight in any significant way?

Anet also needs to take a long hard think about why they think other class mechanics should be bonuses to make the classes even better but they think the Ranger’s class mechanic should just be a reason to give the rangers low damage on their skills.

And on a slightly related point, have they said anything yet about everybody getting better stats from Ascended armour/weapons that are coming soon but pets stats remaining the same?

Talek.6795:

OK, if you agree that you are bad we can finish this useless discussion. How could i explain to you pet issue if you said that you even couldn’t control your pet. Stop using my sentences =) i said that you DONT need to just use attack button and forget about your pet, and now you blame me because you think that i said that you need just to use attack and forget.

Honestly, i like that you are so bad on ranger as you said. Continue whining, even if i hate it. i will not answer on your posts anymore, you are my competitor in spvp, why do i need to teach you?

Cheers

I have a pro tip for you mate. Stop trying to make yourself look smart at any cost, cos that’s exactly what not-so-smart people do. Also should i explain to you what irony is? Nah i think you understood exactly what i said, still you pretend not to understand. And ofc you won’t answer my posts anymore, if that’s the best you can say you will make yourself look like a fool. Now go back in the middle of the fight like a baws, pure melee ranger.
On a side note, most of the times in spvp (a game mode i doubt you have any relevant experience in) a ranger (expecially before pet nerf and if bm specced) could literally join a small fight on a point and let his pet attack passively while spamming evades. Bm bunker ranger was the king of passive play (along with phantasm mesmers) and almost impossible to kill 1v1. If anything the devs should make the mechanic more complex.

Chopps.5047:

-1, I forgot that my pet gets a vote too.

It would if it could path its way to the correct keys without stepping on them all.
Sorry Chopps.

-1

I don’t think the ranger pet is that bad at all..

In pve it’s incredibly useful:
Solo- it’s basically allowing you to either have 2x decent tanks for mobs which are otherwise not solo-able or a decent critting/dmg machine while leveling or something.
Group- I personally only use two different pet sets when running dungeons. Fury/might if the party is lacking, which pets can provide pretty decent while fighting. Or normally 2x feline for great dmg that can’t be ignored, beside your own damage.

It’s insanely usable in pvp:
Having additional CC (since most of us use dogs) ready to be used on a secondary unit while being stunned or whatever is priceless for me as a ranger, especially since the cc I’m receiving is not hindering my pet at all
Also, the fact you can ‘micro’ your pet to nibble on someone’s ankles while you tackle another task is something we can do best. (Being imitated by a brainless golem)

Generally:
Okay the AI has its fair share of flaws but if you play enough hours as a ranger you know those all too well.. So it’s really not that hard to overcome those flaws.
For instance, when you drop a floor down, swap pets so the poor thing doesn’t have to run around for half an hour to rejoin you. Or stop moving for a fraction of a second if you want to swap+f2 so your pets walking animation won’t cancel it.

Adjusting the pet AI step by step is being done, the majority of the changes are IMO going the right (1)direction and we just have to wait and see if it keeps getting improved.
Removing this mechanic is just stupid talk.. The damage split caused by having a pet is the only viable argument, which in turn is complete nonsense if the right pet is alive and kicking(which isn’t that hard)

Ps. I won’t let you guys separate me and my trusty Sir-Pawns-Alot !

Melandrus Flower.1206:

-1

Ps. I won’t let you guys separate me and my trusty Sir-Pawns-Alot !

I too don’t want the mechanic to go away, but it needs a major design overhaul.

+1
The pet mechanic makes the Ranger the worst overall class in the game. The Ranger’s pet excels in only two areas: small scale pvp and overworld pve, so I guess it’s fine if those are the only things you play. However, they keel over in dungeons, wvw zergs, and any difficult content that requires dodging. Only going 30 into BM and judicious pet swapping helps, but not a ton (ranged pets like devourer are an option, but you are basically gimping yourself with them). If the Ranger pet problems were apparent in pvp it might have been fixed by now, but it’s sort of the opposite of a warrior now, since it’s good in pvp it can only see nerfs, while the warrior is basically nerf-proof and OP in pve because it is mediocre in pvp.