Guild Wars 2

I have been testing the utility skill: “Guard” since they added “Nature’s Voice” to the Grandmaster tier in Nature Magic and what I don’t understand is why most of our pets F2 skill that are AoE base not ground targeting in the same manner?

As a hardcore WvW, I have been testing Guard as a way to micro the pet to the locations I want the pet to be in to cast their F2 abilities:

1. Guard takes 1 second to cast in order for the pet to get the buffs from the skill (Stealth & Protection) plus (Swiftness and Regeneration with Nature’s Voice)

2. The pet has to move into the exact location the Ranger cast Guard at first in order to cast the pet’s F2. If the Ranger cast the F2 any sooner the pet will return to the Ranger and Guard will be on CD. So what happens here is that if you hit F2 too soon before the pet get to the exact position the Ranger cast Guard at, the Guard buff is now gone; therefore, the pet will return to the Ranger.

3. If you cast Guard in a different location while the pet is currently attacking another player, the pet will continue attacking the same target because Guard has a 1200 radius range; therefore, the Ranger needs to hit F3 first than cast Guard in the desired location yet sometimes this doesn’t always work.

4. Ranger needs to wait for the pet to cast the F2 ability

5. In WvW zerg fighting, in order to get your pet into a good position to cast their F2 skill on a zerg, the Ranger needs to anticipate 5 to 8 seconds in advances in order to maybe get a successful F2 AoE ability off.

The reason I bring this up is because in order for a Ranger to use his pet’s F2 successfully, the Ranger needs to have Guard as a utility skill, then 30 points into Nature’s Magic to get the swiftness for Guard, anticipate 5 to 8 seconds in advance vs a highly mobile zerg.

I have played a Mesmer and a Guardian and their F-functions are so much easier to use vs the Ranger’s F2. Also, A Hammer Warrior has a ground targeted AoE stun/damage on a 10 sec CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Earthshaker
(No Brainer)
One of the main reasons zergs like warriors over Rangers in WvW.

You might ask yourself why don’t you select a target within the zerg then cast F2? Because without stability, rapid condition removal or swiftness the pet will not get into the position in time to cast its F2 properly or it will return because the target ran out of leash range.

This is why Anet needs to revamp the F-functionally.

F1 should work as Guard does with the ground targeting placement of the pet.

All F2 AoE skills should have ground targeting with a range of 1200

Revamp traits or make passive abilities so pet have buffs like stability, swiftness and condition removal

Introduce a F5 function that allows us to keybind passive/guard function

Also, the Guard skill should have never been a utility skill in the first place

Sounds about right, but instead of replacing F1, give us an F5 skill that does what you suggest we replace F1 with.

Also, I think guard shouldn’t have a cast time, and have a farther range. But that seems unlikely because it sounds like a buff, and those don’t happen here.

I just feel that the Ranger and its pet are not united. By having this careless developed F-functionally, this is only going to hurt use until Rangers are fully barred in the eyes of the GW2 community which is happening now.

I really like your idea of making F2 a ground targeting skill.

Its a no brainer. If Warriors can ground target their Hammer F1, why can’t we have this for our pets that do AoE with their F2? Then utility skills like Signets of the Wild be worth using untraited.