Guild Wars 2

Just as the title says. Do melee vs. ranged pets follow the same rules about damage that player characters do? And if not, why not?

Here’s a small list that shows how fast those pets can kill a golem:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60919-what-is-currently-the-highest-dps-pet/page__st__30#entry1903391

Yea but thats not including certain f2 skills which is huge. Ive done my own testing and while auto attacking lynx and jag should do the same since they have the same attacks, the f2 abilities make the difference. For instance I sick my pet on the light golem (which is really medium) and my raven kills faster than any otehr pet if I use his f2, jaguar isnt far behind, its all about the f2 skill. However river drake if it hits with his f2 it can put the hurt on someone from 500 range, atm its bugged and crap so really not worth it but when they fix up rangers it should be.

Also seems that ranged pets are more focused on conditions/CC than damage, like spider who uses poison spit and web shots and poison paralysis ect…

Nor are you including survivability …
Cats are squishy and a dead cat does not produce DPS.
You will need to constantly micro-manage them and/or swap them out as they die.

It is all about play style, but my main pet is a carrion devourer – good AI evade, decent toughness, with some damage, CC, and AoE condition
What more could you want in a pet??