Guild Wars 2

As the title says, is Empathic Bond still worth it after the nerf? I´m not so sure about that. I´ve been thinking about using Bark Skin insted.

I have been a BM bunker/CD build for awhile now. I have loved every minute of it.

This morning, post-patch, I went out for my usual WvW romp, and definately noticed my pet dying more than it used to. (I think they also buffed the mobs that attack the frogs in EB). But, after the play this morning, I am now considering moving away from Empathic Bond as what it seems inherently good for now is getting my pet killed. I may have to keep it as it is my only form of CD removal, but it is quite a bit weaker than it was when it was “broken”.

I have done quite a bit of testing, but not enough. However my preliminary impression is that builds that rely on pet dmg get hit extremely hard – it only takes one cripple, chill or immobilize and your pet does 0 damage for the duration.

Furthermore, pets are less survivable, so it nerfs the number of builds available to ranger, as you either have to invest full BM to get them to last or forget it altogether, in which case you might as well role another class and do double the damage.

I love it. But, my spec tends toward Beastmastery. If you’re using a glass cannon pet, like a cat or hawk, probably not so much.

It’s basically counterproductive now.

They need to make Signet of Renewal’s passive affect Ranger and Pet. This will compensate while moving the skill into the realm of truly useful utilities.

At the moment i would say its not worth it. Once again 1 of our best support ability is taken.

Krugan got it. It’s counter productive. If you’re chilled, it doesn’t matter as much if you use shortbow for your weapon, but if your pet gets chilled/snared, whatever, you loose like 80% of your damage when you play a bm build, you nerf your main damage source kitten hard by using it now.
So the only build left is trapper now, where you pet dies after 5 seconds combat anyway.

It seems pretty dumb to be honest, everything we do seems to hinge on a pet to the point where they feel that even our condition removal should move the conditions to our pets.

I get some of it, but they seem to take it to a silly degree. We’re a pet class and I’m cool with that, our pets are important and I’m cool with that but does just about everything we do HAVE to hinge on our pet?

I WvW~
I run Pow/Crit/Tough so my pet does not contribute to dmg. Its only around to buff or fear. Thus, transferring conditions to pets isn’t that big of a problem for me. Though, considering that there are 11 different conditions, nerfing it from all conditions removed to 3 conditions is a bit… too much? I’m not sure how many conditions you would receive on average in each encounter. Don’t know if I can still get by with empathic bond + signet of renewal combo for condition removal.
Maybe change it so that the nerf is only in sPvP?

I thought it was going to crush my bunker ranger, but last night I was stomping as many unfortunate glass cannons as I usually do.

I’m using dogs for the toughness, cats just went down too fast and didn’t have enough dmg to compensate.

Bind your pet skills to the keyboard, it’ll get rid of half of your problems. BM tree let’s you switch pets every 15s so you should be able to keep them up if you stay on top of it.

My tip for pets? Ignore everything but survivability and their utility skills. Who cares if the Jag does more dmg than the wolf? The wolf can fear and stays alive longer which means its doing damage for longer.

Pets IMO are just a sustained DOT with unique skills, if you treat it like that instead of an EQ style pet I think you’ll enjoy it more.

Use them for distraction and utility, depend on them for nothing else.

Linkisdead.9647:

Pets IMO are just a sustained DOT with unique skills, if you treat it like that instead of an EQ style pet I think you’ll enjoy it more.

Totally agree, but I still feel (as someone who’s argued that Rangers are no where near as bad as some make out) there can often be too much emphasis on our pets and what we do. I don’t think we should be dropping them but it would be nice to go to the bathroom and not feel like my hawk has to do everything for me.

Even when not using a BM build/DPS pet they are important to our DPS.

Other classes like warriors can remove conditions, we for some reason have to transfer to our pets. As well, I might add, as everyone else’s conditions if using our signet active.

It probably has more of an effect on bow users then people who are in melee range more often.

Bow users generally kite, and their pet has to kite with them…so Chills and such will hurt your pet a lot.

if you’re in the targets face, Your pet has to move less.

I still can’t see giving it up though.

Looks like we see Ranger the same way cap.

I agree our class is too focused on the pet, especially in the traits. Nothing we can do about that other than to wait for a patch and adapt.

I don’t depend on my pet for anything, even damage. I went bunker just for that fact, so if my pet is on CD or something its not a big deal.

I wish the pet was more effective, or we could trait away and make ourselves more effective, but that’s not the case.

If my pet can add some DPS, distract a bit, and provide fear/regen then I’m pretty happy with it.

I have since switched to runes of Hoelbrak. Increases power and the x6 effect reduces incoming condition duration, so both the conditions I keep and the conditions my pet takes do less.

There’s 2 types of builds rangers can have 1) your pet is an expendable critter you picked up and you’ll throw it under the bus at every opportunity that’ll prove beneficial to you, and 2) your pet is your beloved companion and you 2 fight as a single unit and help each other achieve your goals.

Both are highly effective, if you’re using one of the former types, this trait is AMAZING it means -you- will not have condition issues, and if you’re using a moa, or a ranged pet (like a spider) or a bear, or a pig, or some other supportive/tanky pet + a ranger focused build you’ll have a great time with this. If you’re using the later type, well, you shouldn’t be taking this trait at all and should instead look at the Barkskin Grandmaster Trait because that things pretty amazing as well, ESPECIALLY since it stacks with protection which means after you dodge roll you and your pet take 58% less damage…

PS: If you also have frost armor you take 68% less damage, all i gotta say glass canon thieves is “Good Luck” when i’m running that + my toughness build.