Guild Wars 2

I’ve been working on a ranger alt the past few days. I’ve gotten her to level 26, I’ve begun to experiment with different pets and pet combinations.
So, I’m curious. Ignoring any issues that pets may have (like AI etc) what is your favorite pet? What makes them your favorite? If you don’t have a favorite, what pets do you use most or in certain situations?
I’m very curious as to what others are doing and why.

As for me, I love the Fern Hound. I find it adorable and the little heal he’s got keeps him alive during dynamic events with bosses or large groups.

Lvl 18 – Jaguar right now. I mostly WvW at this point, and the Jaguar gets me kills that I have no right to get.

I’m going to work a bit with the drakehound soon – immobilize is absolutely key in WvW.

In solo PvE? I suppose the lakittenail devourer. Gets in the least amount of trouble, and it’s tough.

-Jeff

Lvl 80 – Pink Moa is my mostly used lately. He goes good with my greatsword (5) skill. It’s like a double Daze that helps get an advantage in a 1v1 fight.

I used the Brown and Polar bears for the longest time, and while they were good at tanking, they weren’t very maneuverable/versatile.

My newest favorite is the devourers, they are fast, easier to keep alive, and have powerful ranged attacks.

What I hate is the fact that so many pets have all of the attack stats close to a bear, but not bear the survivability. It’s really hard for me to get away from the bear type pets in PvE. The bear has almost twice the vit that many other pets have with the same toughness and attacks stats. It also seems like toughness for pets doesn’t have the same stat “weight” as vit either, so a ton of toughness and lower vit doesn’t seem to keep the pet alive as well as high vit and lower toughness.

Haven’t done enough PvP to really make much of a conclusion on that aspect.

I use the bear only in dungeons, and for one reason only: It can survive longer.
It does as much dmg as a mudcake, so in general pve and pvp it is better to go for a pet that has control/dmg.
In pvp the bear is useless, and for sure i would never target it^^

I don’t have 30 p in BM so in dungeons I keep my pets on Avoid combat. Therefore the Stalker (5x might) and Red Moa (Fury) buffs the entire group really well.
Last night we had 22x might :-)

In pve I love Eagle and Hawk. You get swiftness and their bleed is awesome.

www: Jaguar and Hyena (double knockdown)

I like the Stalker and Fern Hound when leveling solo. Their F2’s let me boost myself and regen if needed. I swap often so I don’t have any trouble with them dying.

My other favs:
Red Moa (fury)
Porcine pets (fun w/ melee specs)
Murellow (tanky but with poison field)

I really should experiment more with pets. I use two wolves. Fern hound and the wolf that uses fear.

I pet swap a lot to take advantage of their knockdowns. I like the wolves because they are pretty balanced as far as dmg and survivability. Plus I love wolves

jaguar and raven, crits all around, jaguar stealth is amazing (expecially when combined with traits like carnivourous appetite and pets prowess) and i love ravens high damage + blind f2

Hands down 1. Wolf
Easy second 2. Jaguar
Tough third 3. Drakehound
Last: Any bear. Sure they can tank, but they deal 0 damage.

The owl is my favorite pet. All birds get swiftness, vulnerability, and a leap combo finisher, which is great on its own. But the owl has the chill F2 skill, that can give the pet a higher chance of hitting, make it easier to chase down players, or slow down your opponents skill recharge to mitigate their dps.

I also love the jaguar for its stealth and the black bear for its survivability (made easier with weakening).

Depends on the situation:

• pve vs mostly single targets: jaguar, due to the high dps and burst from its stalk ability – the only pet that you get the full benefit from quickness swap+instantly activated F2 if in melee range. Most likely complemented with a second feline of some sort

• pve vs tightly clustered groups of enemies: river drake/reef drake for their aoe abilities, both the regular attack and their F2 special ability. A shame their special is so kitten slow to activate though…

• sPvP/WvW: felines, canines, birds or ranged pets… depending on build, situation and opposition

• Dungeons: river drake/reef drake, devourers or spiders, jungle stalker/red moa/blue moa (moas are pretty nice in a group both for their buffs and for their Harmonic Cry ability)

I tend to use most of them a lot, but if I had to select just one pet it would definitely be the jaguar.

I love my Pet Ravens
Black Raven = Rek
White Raven= Rip
+1 point if you get the refferance

80% of the time I have the on “stay” I use them for the switch quickness trait.
If I’m getting hammered a little I send one in to blind so I have a few seconds rest.

I only PvE. Level 42 currently.

I tried really hard to use birds, such as Raven and Eagle. I tried because I loved the idea of having birds of prey attack my opponent (I basically created a Ranger for using bird pets and Hunter’s Call skill from Warhorn). However, while soloing, I’ve noticed that they are way too fragile. They are dead in mostly 3 hits. While that wouldn’t be bad if they weren’t attacked all the time, they always seem to pull aggro. So most of the time I have a dead bird on a cooldown.

This made me switch. Now I use 2 bears and boy, what a difference. Sure, their damage is really low, but they are meat walls. They can take a lot of punishing and if they eventually get to 0 hit points, I just switch. As of now I have yet to see a bear reach 0 life and have the other on cooldown.

So my favorite one:
1- Black Bear: Oh yeah tank and gives them Weakness so he tanks for even longer.
2- Polar Bear: Get them Chilled so they never get to me.
3- Arctodus: Bleeding is always good since I use Shortbow most of the time.

I’m sure I’ll value Brown Bear more as soon as I start doing Dungeons.

I was using the Lynx for awhile till a friend told me about the fern hound, Their pretty good and have a knockdown. If i need ranged Devourer is about the best one i’v come across so far, currently testing the forest spider out. For underwater pets definatly the Jellyfish. I heard the Amourfish was great at tanking but I found it to be quite the opposite. It was crap, taking too much damage. The moment I switched to the Jellyfiish it was like OMG this thing rocks. Takes bugger all damage and can dishout some dps.

I liked the idea of using birds as it seemed like they would be hard to get hit – but are downed quickly.

I’ve mostly ran with two Bears – love the ‘shake it off’ (F2) and they tank well. Not much DPS (but on single targets I can run behind and we’re attacking from two sides – got to love that!)

I’m currently trying two spiders. I like their ranged effects.

Is there a chart somewhere where we can compare the different Pets/abilities/buffs side by side?

Where do you find the Moa’s?

I find I run with double devourer pets, they burrow to avoid damage, attack at range and work with combo fields pretty well. I like having poison on a quick cd as well for countering healers. I find they do well in dungeons and wvw as well.

Only one pet is really the best, but not necessarily my favorite. Da bear…

I’ve used it to solo EM bosses and it tanks just about anything. Everything else dies too quickly to really be of much use. This said for PvE you are better off using any bear and a ranged pet. It could be a spider, devourer etc. Imo devourer is probably best, but half the time I’m too lazy to change my spider and a black widow is just as good. Doesn’t throw down poison as often but helps snare things that might be chasing people in the party.

Btw lvl 80 with about 700hrs on my Ranger alone.