Guild Wars 2

Still not convinced. Prove it!

We now focus on what pets can give even without points in Beastmastery.

If you go through the List of Pet Skills in the wiki, you will notice that nearly all of the pet skill have a bonus effect, which is either condition for the target, or a boon for itself/allies. Those are what needs to be utilized when there’s no points in BM.

IMPORTANT: It should be noted, however, that pets are particularly vulnerable in this state so they should be kept in passive mode permanently, and their skills should be used on command, even their non-F2 skills.

*Update Post April Patch: Since the survivability of pets have been improved, you can actually set your pets on agressive now, but you have to press F3 often to keep them in check. Its still a good idea to keep them on passive to control who/when pets attack though!

Contrary to popular belief, Pet AI is actually predictable and can be manipulated, to an extent. Pets will likely try use their high cooldown skill, if it is an offensive spell. This means that drakes will most likely use Tail Swipe first when they are activated, and Canines will likely use Brutal Charge first to knockdown enemies.

What this means, is we have Knock Down and a Blast Finisher available to us with 5/0 Points in Beastmastery. And it is not limited to just that. Here’s what each of the families/specific pets can bring to the table:

Bears:
Family Skills – none that can be manipulated
Black Bear – 10s Weakness in a 600 AoE, 45 second cd.
Brown Bear – Remove 1 condition in 600 AoE, 25s cd.
Murellow – 6 second poison field, 35s cd. This is my personal favorite, for reasons i will mention in the Carrion Devourer section.
Polar Bear – 3 second chill in a 600 AoE, 45 second cd.

Bears have been considered the worst pet for a while now because of they have the lowest DPS and really slow attack animations. With the recent changes to ranger utilities, things may have changed since then. The “Protect Me” shout is best used with bears because they are very likely to survive the 6 seconds that the shout is active. Murellow has always been my favorite because of the poison field, with Black Bear a close second because of the new Weakness. Rangers have been known to have really bad condition cleanse and Brown Bear happens to have an AoE condition cleanse every 25 seconds. The only bear that hasn’t changed in status is the Polar Bear because a 3 second chill on a kitten cd just doesn’t cut it.

Bird:
Family Skills – 10 seconds of Swiftness.
Owl – 6 second chill, with quite a bit of damage, 20s cd.
Raven (Regular/White) – 5 seconds of blindness, 18s cd.
Eagle/Hawk – 2 bleed stacks, 15 seconds duration, 6s cd.

In the first version of this guide, I strongly discouraged using birds because of their lower hp, even though Quickening Screech was useful. With the survivability of birds buffed, they are a very nice utility pet. The blind and chill they bring last a decent suration and are on pretty fast cooldowns. They used to be great for spike damage (dealing over 4k with their double crits), but they were toned down for the June patch. Special mention goes to Eagle/Hawk because they have really long bleeds on very short cooldowns. They are very nice pets to use when the enemy has really crazy condition cleanse.

note: Thanks to Indoles.1467 for pointing out Owl’s Chill is 6 seconds

Porcine:
Family Skills – 3 second AoE Knock Down in a small arc, 40s cd.
All the forage skills are unaffected by Beastmastery so they all are still working on 100% efficiency without it. Read up on pigs on my Porcine Pet Guide! /shameless plug

For our purposes though, the Warthog and the Siamoth are best suited for this, since their Forage items are usable at range and allows us to stay out of range for most of the nasty AoEs. Pigs are also one of the better pets to use on a BM 5/0 build because of it’s Knock Down, available on every swap!* The downside to them, though, is that their Brutal Charge seems less accurate than the Canine version, as the skill starts from about 600-900 range away from the target, while the Canine’s version makes them leap from 350 range away from the enemy and has a less noticeable charge up animation.
EDIT: A recent discovery shows that the Knockdown from pigs has a small AoE so it can knockdown multiple foes!
*Note: This no longer applies because ANet fixed pet cooldowns when stowed

Canine:
Family Skills – 2 second knockdown, 40s cd, more accurate as mentioned in the pig section, and 5 second cripple, 20s cd.
Alpine Wolf – 2 second chill in 500 AoE, 30s cd.
Fern Hound – 10 second Regenerate, 25s cd.
Hyena – Summons a hyena ally, 45 second cd. More knockdown machines!
Krytan Drakehound – 2 second immobilize in 500 AoE, 20s cd.
Wolf – 2 second fear in 500 AoE, 45 second cd.

The Canine Family is my personal favorite when running 5/0 BM Builds, because they add so much utility from their Knock Down alone. A recent thread has shown that they have the best kill time on moving targets because of their innate cripple. Drakehound + Wolf is what I usually use when roaming in WvW. Don’t be afraid to use the drakehound howl as it has a pretty big AoE and it has a fairly short cooldown.

note: Thanks to Indoles.1467 for pointing out Canine KnockDown is 2 seconds

Devourer:
Family Skills – none that can be manipulated, although 10% chance of poison from their normal attack is nice.
Carrion Devourer – 5 second Poison Field, 30s cd
Lashtail Devourer – 7 stacks of 5s bleeds, 30s cd
Whiptail Devourer – pet version of Shortbow #2, 30s cd. Fires 5 barbs, each barb puts 2 seconds of poison.

Devourers are the pets with the highest toughness and this is what keeps them viable even without points in Beastmastery. They are also the best pets to use for Rampage As One since their normal attack counts as 2 hits, and it gives out 2 stacks of Might per attack! Best of all, is that “hits” made by the Carrion Devourer’s Poison Field will also trigger the Might section of the elite skill. I could get 25 stacks of Might very quickly if the devourer is able to hit a mob of 3 or more inside the AoE of the Poison Cloud, in addition to it’s normal attack. This also applies to the Murellow’s, but the Murellow doesn’t have the double Might per attack that the Carrion Devourer gives.

Drake:
Family Skills – The Ranger’s only Blast Finisher!, 30s cd. It also deals weakness with quite a bit of damage in a small AoE.
Ice Drake – 5 stacks of chill in a 250 cone in front of it, 25s cd.
Marsh Drake – Fires 5 projectiles that bounce twice, and gives 3 seconds of poison per hit. 30s cd. This skill is one of the easier to aim because it tracks it’s enemies and can hit behind it!*
Reef Drake – 5 stacks of Confusion, 25s cd. The Ranger’s direct way to access confusion. With the cast time buff on pet F2 skills, it’s easier to hit this but it still requires the target to stand still for 1.5 seconds for the charge up, and another 1-2 seconds for the confusion to stack up.
River Drake – Damage!, 30s cd. I wasn’t planning on including a pet that didn’t have a condition, but River Drake gets a pass because it has an amazing F2 skill that can track enemies similar to the Marsh Drake’s. It’s also a really AoE attack so it’s worth mentioning.
Salamander Drake – 5 seconds of burning with quite a bit of damage, 30s cd. This is supposed to be the strongest Breathe attack, but it is really hard to aim that I don’t use it that much.

Ah the Drakes, once useless, now oh so useful! The Drakes are our only source of Blast Finishers and they are really good for that purpose. It isn’t a targetted blast finish though, so don’t expect to use it for pre-buffing on fire fields. It’s more useful for AoE Healing in conjunction with Healing Spring. The setup is cast Healing Spring near an enemy, and make your drake attack that enemy while it is on the water field. Easily pulled off during boss fights in Dungeons! Special mention goes to River Drake because even in its nerfed state, it’s still a really hard hitting skill.

*Update June 25: No longer tracks enemies behind it.

Feline:
Family Skills – 5 seconds of Vulnerability on auto attack, and 4 stacks of bleed (10s duration) every 20 seconds.
Jaguar – 6 seconds invisibility, +25% crit chance, 30s cd.
Jungle Stalker – 5 stacks of might with 5 second duration, 30s cd.
Lynx – 4 stacks of bleeds, 10s duration, 30s cd.
Snow Leopard – 8 second chill, a bit of damage, 30s cd.

I used to strongly discourage using Felines because of how squishy they were pre-April patch. Now that they’re much more survivable, they are viable pets for builds with no points in BM. They still deal the highest DPS out of all pets so whenever you need high DPS and there aren’t really that many threats, Felines are your best bet. Also, Lynx has a really long lasting bleed, along with pretty decent damage.

note: Thanks to Indoles.1467 for pointing out Icy Pounce is 8 seconds chill

Moa:
Family Skills – 2 stacks of Vulnerability for 10 seconds, 20s cd, and a 3k~ heal in a 240 AoE, 40s cd that is very hard to manipulate.
Black/Pink Moa – 2 second daze in a cone, 30s cd
Blue Moa – 3 second protection in a about 360 AoE, 40s cd
Red Moa – 15 seconds of Fury in 360 AoE! 30s cd One of the best pet buffs!
White Moa – 3 second chill in about 360 AoE, 24s cd
NOTE: The AoE is a personal observation, it might be wrong

Now we get to the Moas! They should’ve been the best pet for this purpose with their heal, but sadly, it cannot be manipulated effectively. Because if it, they’re not the best pet for 5/0 BM builds, except maybe for the Red Moa and it’s amazing 15s Fury. The Red Moa is the only one I would recommend out of all the Moas, as the other screech is pretty hard to time to maximize their effects (3s protection) or make them hit (the daze and the chill).

Spider:
Family Skills – 3 second immobilize from 600-900 range(!) 20s cd and a slightly buggy 4 second Poison Field from 600-900 range! 20s cd.
Cave Spider – 5 seconds of Weakness and Vulnerability that could potentially last up to 10 seconds if both attacks hit. 30s cd.
Forest Spider – 6 seconds of Poison which could potentially last for 18 seconds if all 3 attacks hit. 30s cd.
Jungle Spider – Another 3 seconds of immobilize (!) kitten cd.

We’ve finally reached the end and we saved the best for last! Spider pets the best pets to use during boss fights as their snares and conditions go through Defiant. Think of them as mobile Net Turrets that trades more snares for damage/conditions. I learned of their amazing use when I did CoE in a party that had no heavies. I thought of using spiders because of their inherent immobilize skill and I asked the other ranger in the party to do the same. We were able to kite the Champion Ice Brood Hound really well because it spent most of it’s time getting chain-immobilized. We had 12 seconds of Immobilize across 2 Jungle Spiders before swapping, after which we had 6 seconds more in addition to poison, vulnerability and weakness. It opened my eyes to the viability of Spider pets in dungeons that needed CC for bosses. I originally wrote this article with Jungle Spiders in mind, and then later expanded to the other pets upon studying their various skills.

*Update June 25: With the update to weakness, Forest Spider is the easiest way to get weakness from leaping through the poison field and or applying it directly from it’s F2.

Err… ok… thats a lot of data… o_O

To finish up the article, I’ll discuss the playstyle. After all, a dead pet is dead weight!

As mentioned earlier, the pet should be kept permanently on passive to increase it’s chances of survival. With this setup, you can actually trigger your pet’s Family Skill listed here by pressing F1. After they do their special attack, immediately press F3 to make them come back. Pets should not extend their stay inside melee range of the enemies as they will most likely die.

For ranged pets, you can make them act like a turret in the sense that you can “park” them in a spot and make them stay there by pressing F1 on spot you want them to stay in. They will stay in that spot until you either press F3 to call them back, or attempt to follow their target if it goes out of range. Remember that the pet will keep on attacking even if the enemy is in their face and is charging a nasty spell to 1 hit it! Make sure to call it back before the charge up finishes.

Oh-kay.. Is that it..?

One last thing: We can further improve our pets by using Malicious Training to increase the pet’s Condition Duration by 50%, and Concentration Training to increase our pet’s Boon Duration by 50%.

And that’s it! If you made it this far, thanks for reading my wonderful wall of text! I hope you gained some insight on pet uses as some of these applies to BM builds as well.

TL;DR – Use pets with conditions, keep pets on passive and press F1/F2 to use pet skills, press F3 after pet uses skill to keep it alive.

Some of your data isn’t correct. Alpine wolf deals 4s chill, owl 6s, snow leopard 8s. Canines have 2s knockdown. And drakes … still useless. Stalker applies 5 stacks of might with 10s duration with a 3s cast time. It isn’t very good.

Indoles.1467:

Some of your data isn’t correct. Alpine wolf deals 4s chill, owl 6s, snow leopard 8s. Canines have 2s knockdown. And drakes … still useless. Stalker applies 5 stacks of might with 10s duration with a 3s cast time. It isn’t very good.

I wrote this while I was at work (don’t tell my boss :P), So I used the info from the wiki.

I’ll check back after I’ve confirmed the durations.

Your discontent with pets has also been noted.

EDIT: You were right about the chill durations, except for the alpine wolf’s Edited and gave you credit

Again a very nice and informative post by you, jubskie, very well done!

:)

Well done, nice infomative post!

It’s sad that we are forced to have our pets on “passive” mode due to their awful survivability (especially AoE) . Shame on those responsible for this major profession flaw!

I really really hate how a pet on passive will still decide that it simply must run across the battle to my target and attack when I have used its F2 skill, even though said F2 skill is a buff and not an attack skill. Royaly peeves me off no end.

I have it on passive for a reason!

And whats with the wonky code in pet pathing and following? Half the time my pet ends up 5 feet in front of me, rather than beside me. And they run around stupidly in straight lines.

I really like pets, and rangers (Gw1 BP ftw!) but the pet mechanic design and code is highly flawed.

I don’t think anyone is content with pets atm. Didn’t realize alpine wolf was bugged, but I had tested the others. Most rangers really need information like this to help them decide what pet to choose to compliment their builds. The issue is that most rangers use builds that they don’t understand (because we are pigeonholed into certain builds to be viable) and therefore pets that have no synergy. Before you decide on what pet you want, first determine what do you need in you build. Do you lack cc? Pick a canine. Do you lack burst but have cc? Pick a feline or bird. Are you squishy? Don’t pick a bear.

Indoles.1467:

I don’t think anyone is content with pets atm. Didn’t realize alpine wolf was bugged, but I had tested the others. Most rangers really need information like this to help them decide what pet to choose to compliment their builds. The issue is that most rangers use builds that they don’t understand (because we are pigeonholed into certain builds to be viable) and therefore pets that have no synergy. Before you decide on what pet you want, first determine what do you need in you build. Do you lack cc? Pick a canine. Do you lack burst but have cc? Pick a feline or bird. Are you squishy? Don’t pick a bear.

Well.. ok, I’ll give you that. I just hate it when people say pets are useless when they’re not. Especially that spider pet! I love it’s immobilize! Picking the pet to compliment your build sounds like a good topic for my next article. I’ll try to write something for that No promises on when it will be released, though XD (I’ll probably write that when I’m procrastinating at work again XD)

Well.. ok, I’ll give you that. I just hate it when people say pets are useless when they’re not. Especially that spider pet! I love it’s immobilize! Picking the pet to compliment your build sounds like a good topic for my next article. I’ll try to write something for that No promises on when it will be released, though XD (I’ll probably write that when I’m procrastinating at work again XD)EDIT: It looks like this post is bugged.. I tried to edit to remove that double text thing but it wont go away o_O

This was a nice guide, might be worth mentioning that it’s pretty pve or perhaps wvw oriented though, a lot of the advice doesn’t really work in tpvp – for example with low BM investment it’s often best to go for cats to get some damage, despite their low health – which is more manageable in small skirmishes

Wanderer.5471:

This was a nice guide, might be worth mentioning that it’s pretty pve or perhaps wvw oriented though, a lot of the advice doesn’t really work in tpvp – for example with low BM investment it’s often best to go for cats to get some damage, despite their low health – which is more manageable in small skirmishes

Sorry but I disagree. Pet Snares and CC are especially good in sPvP if there are 5/0 points in BM. For example, wolves still serve their purpose well as knock down machines and AoE fear for anti stomp even without points in BM. Without BM, Felines can’t crit for 1.6k-2k anymore. I think the bigger problem for sPvP without BM is that 20 second swap timer that’s hard to stomach once you get used to Loud Whistle. (That’s essentially 25% less swiftness)

Lastly, thanks for reading I thought it might have been too long to keep people’s interest until the end XD

jubskie.3152:

Wanderer.5471:

This was a nice guide, might be worth mentioning that it’s pretty pve or perhaps wvw oriented though, a lot of the advice doesn’t really work in tpvp – for example with low BM investment it’s often best to go for cats to get some damage, despite their low health – which is more manageable in small skirmishes

Sorry but I disagree. Pet Snares and CC are especially good in sPvP if there are 5/0 points in BM. For example, wolves still serve their purpose well as knock down machines and AoE fear for anti stomp even without points in BM. Without BM, Felines can’t crit for 1.6k-2k anymore. I think the bigger problem for sPvP without BM is that 20 second swap timer that’s hard to stomach once you get used to Loud Whistle. (That’s essentially 25% less swiftness)

Lastly, thanks for reading I thought it might have been too long to keep people’s interest until the end XD

yeah that’s true – i personally run wolf/jaguar atm – the stealth also adds survivability to this particular cat. I think it’s also worth noting that you can get away with these squishier pets (and hence still maintain a credible dmg threat from pet with low BM investment) if you’re running signets of the wild and stone.

What about underwater combat pets? No jellyfishies ’n a-likes mentioned :<

FrouFrou.4958:

What about underwater combat pets? No jellyfishies ’n a-likes mentioned :<

Underwater pets and combat is a different beast altogether, I’ll write about that in a different article

jubskie, thanks for your post.

I’m playing ranger from headstart but still struggling with pets.
I play a lot WvW and I have 2 different build set ups. I seem to have much troubles with pets during big zerg vs big zerg fights. Putting my pet on ‘avoid combat’ is your first tip I will follow up.
My first build has no points in BM, the other one has 20 points in BM.

I would really like your advice,

Especially for my 20 BM set up. (It’s 0/20/30/0/20) jewelry is healing power, armor is toughness. What pets would you recommend? I tried canines a lot but I was way to focused on it’s health-bar and switching from avoid combat to attack that I couldn’t really fight myself. Now I’m thinking spiders. What do you think?

That’s a very good question. I’ve been spending more time in WvW after I finished my Kudzu.

It depends on how you play WvW. Here’s what I’ve been doing so far:

1. If you’re hanging around the zergs, keeping your pets passive and using Red Moa/Jungle Stalker would be better for the Fury/5 Stacks of Might. Other viable choices would be devourers since they can handle themselves pretty well, or the Jaguar since you can ninja one guy with it’s invis.
2. If you’re roaming in small groups, spiders definitely. Spiders look like random mobs and people tend to ignore them. This is one of the few times that pets actually survive quite a bit in WvW. Immobilize is really good for small skirmishes since it allows your party to focus fire.
3. If you’re roaming solo, Wolf/Hyena are really good to keep people occupied and they’re actually a big enough threat for people to use their dodges on them.

jubskie.3152:

FrouFrou.4958:

What about underwater combat pets? No jellyfishies ’n a-likes mentioned :<

Underwater pets and combat is a different beast altogether, I’ll write about that in a different article

I got you covered, lakittenail devourer and armor fish. Why? Armor fish is tanky while still dealing a lot of damage with an on demand 2s stun (you should cc your target first to guarantee it hits). Lakittenail devourer deals 2 1s stuns on next attack = 2s stun at range. Very strong to have all these stuns available underwater.

Shark does have the ability to fear, but it isn’t very reliable even though they usually cast it first. Their power is also misleading. Auto attacks from them are weaker than armor fish if I remember correctly. I know a lot of rangers like the jellyfish (especially for the F2) and while it works in PvE, it just isn’t as useful elsewhere. I much prefer the on demand stuns provided by the other two mentioned. Also, devourers attack significantly faster underwater increasing their dps to be on more par with other pets.

Thanks for such an informative article! Made a ranger player’s day.

Now that you have covered the viability of pets with only 5/0 BM points, I am also curious about how you feel with investing more than 5 BM points, say like 15? (That way you have 15s CD on pet swapping.)

Do you think the extra 10 points is worth it and significant? Or it’s more or less the same as only 5 BM (like maybe because that doesn’t make the pets much more tanky and have DPS, unless you decide to put in like 25 or more BM points)?

And what pets would you recommend when people put in 15-30 BM points?

Sorry for the late reply, I can only lurk during office hours… anyway, on to your questions!

Now that you have covered the viability of pets with only 5/0 BM points, I am also curious about how you feel with investing more than 5 BM points, say like 15? (That way you have 15s CD on pet swapping.)

More points in BM is definitely a plus for me. Loud Whistle is just so good, that without it, I feel like I’m missing out on so much quickness. That’s just from the traits. Getting 15 points in BM also equates to 150 Healing Power. That equates to a better Healing Spring for your allies as well. That would also equate to more survivability and damage for your pet.

ocfallwind.4821:

Do you think the extra 10 points is worth it and significant? Or it’s more or less the same as only 5 BM (like maybe because that doesn’t make the pets much more tanky and have DPS, unless you decide to put in like 25 or more BM points)?

Personally, I think 15 points in BM is just the right amount to get the most out of your pet, but still have enough points for your other Trait lines. I think this is the line where a ranger becomes a hybrid beastmaster. Going back to Loud Whistle, it can be used to make your pets survive longer as well. The extra 4 seconds your pet is out could mean the difference between your pet dying a horrible death or it surviving by the skin of it’s teeth. Not to mention the death swap penalty is down to 48 seconds. That 12 seconds could be the deciding factor of whether you win or lose in a pvp game as well.

ocfallwind.4821:

And what pets would you recommend when people put in 15-30 BM points?

Interesting question. I wrote this primarily because there are no guides for 5/0 BM builds. If you search this subforum, you’ll notice that most sPvP builds use 15/30 BM builds, and most of them go Bunker with full 30 points to get Natural Healing. From what I’ve seen, the only build that advocated 5 BM was the full glass cannon 30/30/5/0/5 one, and it only touched on pets lightly.

Anyway, I would recommend going by the already established conventions with pets with that amount of BM. Felines for DPS, Birds for Burst, Bears for tanking, etc.

It’s really the 20 BM traits that makes the tree more specialized. Rending Attacks for example, gives even more DPS to the Felines, and a marginal boost to Drakes and Devourers. Vigorous Training, on the other hand, makes your birds have supportive touch whenever you swap them.

For reference, I use Rending Attacks and use a Jaguar/Carrion Devourer when I’m roaming in the world

Bird are not as squishy as felines please check the stats before making assumptions.

BlackhawkSOM.6401:

Bird are not as squishy as felines please check the stats before making assumptions.

I’m not basing it off of stats. I base it on actual gameplay. For some reason my birds die more often than my felines.

jubskie.3152:

BlackhawkSOM.6401:

Bird are not as squishy as felines please check the stats before making assumptions.

I’m not basing it off of stats. I base it on actual gameplay. For some reason my birds die more often than my felines.

Er thats an opinion birds for me at least survive a lot in both pve and pvp. Spvp especially because of the small target. Plus they have way more vitality and toughness from felines.

BlackhawkSOM.6401:

jubskie.3152:

BlackhawkSOM.6401:

Bird are not as squishy as felines please check the stats before making assumptions.

I’m not basing it off of stats. I base it on actual gameplay. For some reason my birds die more often than my felines.

Er thats an opinion birds for me at least survive a lot in both pve and pvp. Spvp especially because of the small target. Plus they have way more vitality and toughness from felines.

There is little difference in their survivability, but cats will survive better against big hitters – go test jaguar vs raven against svanir in the mists, jag will take more hits.

Updated with the info regarding pig pets!

Hmm.. maybe we should get a sticky thread to link to these posts.. This are the kind of posts that new ranger players should see, not the whining posts that we currently have at front page..

Good read. 9/10.

You fail to mention that the behavior you describe of a pet staying in one spot requires the dedication of a utility skill slot for a skill that provides no other benefit and even has a silly cool down.

jubskie.3152:

Contrary to popular belief, Pet AI is actually predictable and can be manipulated, to an extent.

Ranger pets are notorious, especially ranged attackers like devourers, for committing suicide by foregoing attacking bosses at range, and instead running right up to the boss and attempting unsuccessfully to face tank the boss.

They can be manipulated if you devote a utility skill to guard, or by wasting most of your time watching your pet run back to you while contributing nothing, when using ‘return’ repeatedly.

Arenanet has yet to acknowledge that this suicidal behavior exits much less given any indication of intent to resolve it.

Exhumed from the deeper page numbers of the ranger section!

Seeing as pet focus is being shifted (forced?) into utility, the information here is more relevant than ever! I’ll update this after the patch notes hit as some of the info here is outdated. (Like the bears not lasting for 20 seconds and the black bear roar lasting 10seconds)

This is a wonderful write-up indeed.

Quite possibly next patch will stirr things up a little, if not a lot… But starting from this list it will be a lot more clear to see what pets are usable outside of BM or not.

Thanks for your time of doing this, a few months ago but still
I’m sure you’ll be adding the changes to this next week.

what i dont understant : why i forced to play with pets? why am i need to switch between 2 pets? why cant switch between a pet and a sniper mode (or something like that)

Kimbald.2697:

This is a wonderful write-up indeed.

Quite possibly next patch will stirr things up a little, if not a lot… But starting from this list it will be a lot more clear to see what pets are usable outside of BM or not.

Thanks for your time of doing this, a few months ago but still
I’m sure you’ll be adding the changes to this next week.

Personally, I don’t think much will change in terms of utility based pets as they weren’t depended on for damage (although having it was nice). Would be interesting to see if things do change though.

McWolfy.5924:

what i dont understant : why i forced to play with pets? why am i need to switch between 2 pets? why cant switch between a pet and a sniper mode (or something like that)

Sorry, wrong thread to ask this. Your question has already been asked multiple times in other threads, you can start your own or look for those instead.

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all the theorycrafters out there (not only jubskie) who make awesome posts like this and make me not lose hope in my ranger.

Labbes.5678:

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all the theorycrafters out there (not only jubskie) who make awesome posts like this and make me not lose hope in my ranger.

Glad to help!

Also, I think I understand why Lacerating Slash was nerfed. It’s a freaking 2 stacks of bleed that lasts 15s on a 6 second cooldown. O_O

Updated for the June 25 patch!

• Added all the pets
• Removed some outdated stuff
• Added some newer stuff

Ah… I didn’t know someone had written this up. I wrote something similar on my guild forum, but yours is much nicer! (and don’t feel bad, I wrote mine while I was in a class at college!)

Glad to see someone else actually breaks down the pets, too. I was about to ask a question about the porcines and their forage, but I clicked on your link there, and it was answered. Thank you for THAT post, too! <3

Lyana Evrilow.8102:

Ah… I didn’t know someone had written this up. I wrote something similar on my guild forum, but yours is much nicer! (and don’t feel bad, I wrote mine while I was in a class at college!)

Glad to see someone else actually breaks down the pets, too. I was about to ask a question about the porcines and their forage, but I clicked on your link there, and it was answered. Thank you for THAT post, too! <3

You’re welcome!

Yeah it’s hard to find stuff like this in this subforum because it gets buried really quickly. This is linked in the sticky thread for guides, so check that out every time you want to look for stuff like this

Also, thanks for reminding me about the pig guide! I looked at it and there’s no need to update it yet as pigs have remained the same for the past 6 months, except maybe getting a fix to but on item pickups.

Thank you for some really solid ideas on how to utilize my pets better. Especially devourer, spider, and using #1 while on passive to activate their special skill which seemed so random before. At work now but cant wait to try it out.

Maybe change the name of the thread since 5 in BM is no longer Zephyr’s Speed.

Chopps.5047:

Maybe change the name of the thread since 5 in BM is no longer Zephyr’s Speed.

Good idea. Removed the “5” in the OP. I’ll edit the rest of the document laterXD