Guild Wars 2

Things that the pet does that you don’t want it to:

- Gives bouncing attacks an extra target. In PvP, one on one fights, this is deadly. Shortbow thieves LOVE to hit you twice with their arrows. Staff mesmers, Axe rangers, and such all will get extra hits, and that’s not so great.
-Boss fight shenanigans. Certain boss fights just ruin pets. Others, like a big jellyfish, will ruin a party’s day because of the pet.
-Aggro
-Pathing
-Possible enemy rezzes off of pet kills (not sure if this is a thing right now. I know it is for Necros)

There can be a lot of frustration with the pet. Sometimes, it will be bad for more than just the pet. Also, if your pet is constantly dead (which you’d think would be “Just doing no good” instead of “more harm than good”) then you’re doing less damage than any other profession could be doing due to the balancing. Which means it being unavailable hurts your performance.

There are professions that get away with not even caring about their F1-F4. Like warrior, mesmer, and thief. Sure, you can do better, but you’re not flooring your output like you would be if you were a Ranger with a dead pet.

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Casey.9687:

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Pet’s save my kitten / kill people for me, no thanks.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Pet’s save my kitten / kill people for me, no thanks.

then use your lame pet….but for us who don’t really care for it allow us to put him away for good…whats so wrong with that?

Casey.9687:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Pet’s save my kitten / kill people for me, no thanks.

then use your lame pet….but for us who don’t really care for it allow us to put him away for good…whats so wrong with that?

It’s the class design…. deal with it. Don’t play ranger if you don’t like the idea of a pet class.

I agree with being able to leave the pet stowed in combat, I don’t agree with getting a bonus for it.

Negativity.5801:

I agree with being able to leave the pet stowed in combat, I don’t agree with getting a bonus for it.

This is the most reasonable man in this thread.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Pet’s save my kitten / kill people for me, no thanks.

then use your lame pet….but for us who don’t really care for it allow us to put him away for good…whats so wrong with that?

It’s the class design…. deal with it. Don’t play ranger if you don’t like the idea of a pet class.

rofl you people and this class design argument……so tell me why the ranger in guild wars 1 had the option of having a pet or going full marksman? don’t try and feed me this bs that its the class design…..theres a reason beastmaster has only 1 trait line. It’s there for the option of having a powerful pet or you can use marksmanship for buffing your ranger attacks instead of relying on your pet to do damage(which half the time it doesn’t)

So I think this whole thread stems from the fact that the pet is ineffective and often more of a hazard than a help. The problem is that our pet can get parties wiped in a dungeon and there’s nothing we can do about it. The pet, or our “class mechanic” is broken so we are here seeking a solution. You don’t see thieves or warriors crying about their class mechanic because it works as intended. Our pet does not. People are tired of carrying a broken mechanic by their side, so either fix it or give us an option to remove it.

It seems the main response to ‘if you want a pure archer, just play a warrior’ is ‘but that’s what a ranger should be.’

So how about just swap the names around? Even if it annoys every other warrior and ranger, they won’t get so hung up about it as the pet-hating Ranger demographic.

There’s a happy medium in there. If the pet is put onto passive mode, NOT stowed away, then the missing dps should be folded into the ranger.

Then it’s up to you to manage you pet to suit your needs. This class needs to be more complex. And stowing the pet away for a pure buff or making pets being able to hit constantly on the move is not the answer. Both are set it and forget it type of options and makes for very shallow gameplay.

Oh god, no, they don’t rez an enemy.
Don’t tease, we’ve got more than enough genuine problems. :p

Though I’d agree the bouncing thing would qualify, and is kind of annoying.

Mostly it sounds more like the absence of a pet is a liability, not that when the pet is alive and on target it’s somehow messing things up. Doesn’t it seem kind of silly to agonize over these various bandaids instead of just fixing that problem directly?

@garethh.3518
Show me exactly where I told that I want to stow pet for an extra dmg. Your argument with mesmer is invalid. What most of you guys seem to not understand is that every class has an OPTION to perform a certain action. Mesmer has to click the button to summon phantasms and has the skills F1-F4 to destroy them. Necro has to summon pets and has its F1 form. Thief has to click the steal button. Warrior with its ultrarage attack has to click F1. Engi has a buttons with certain actions. So does Elementalist. Guardian has his virtues. All those skills are clickable. While we as a Ranger are forced to have our pet all the time. I see no balance here. Now imagine that all those classes are forced to play as we do. Thieves do autosteal when entering the combat. Warriors attack with its ulti whenever its fully charged. Guardians Uses its virtues immediately after entering the combat. Necros are forced to change to their f1 form when in combat. Elementalists have their f1-f4 automatically changed for them. Engi are automatically using their belt skills when in combat. This is exactly how I feel when playing ranger. Instead of having option to perform an f1 action- I am forced to do it constantly.

And frankly I do not wish to delete the pets. I just want to stow them. Why can I give them commands to perform different actions and I can’t hid it when they are under heavy attack? You Beastmasters are telling us that pets are for life. In real life I agree. But seeing my pet suffer because it’s poorly designed drives me mad really. And all I ask for is a button in Pet (K) menu with two options: ‘Pop out my pet while in combat’/‘Leave my pet stowed while in combat’. Is this really so harmful for you to accept this solution? I do not want and extra dmg in exchange. I still do kill ppl with my RIP pet. I will just do it better with him popping out when I order him to do so. And all it takes is to let the pet pop out when we press f1 button and attack our target. That could change pets really into something useful. Right now an army of rangers with their pets out can do only one thing – create more rendering issues in wvw.

I like my pet, the only time I would happily stow it and get a damage increase is attacking/ defending keeps & towers .. on those occasions the pet is nothing short of useless.

Ya’ll should know this by now, GW2 is all about not having options. So playing a ranger without a pet is never going to happen.

1st of. Stop with the: the ‘range’ in Ranger should equal being a ranged class.

2nd. for practicality, and nothing more, make it possible to stow the pet – regardless if I take damage or not. Let me decide when I want to bring out something from my entourage of critters..

Loki.4871:

I see your quote and raise you this pre-release one:

The pet system sounds much more robust than the one in Guild Wars 1. Are pets only one of many options for the ranger, or is there a clear overall advantage for those rangers who have one?

Having a pet is an integral part of being a ranger in Guild Wars 2. It is possible for a ranger to fight without a pet but fighting with a pet is always more effective. If a player wants to play a ranged character without a pet then they will very likely find one of the other professions more appealing. Every profession in the game has some sort of ranged option, be it magic, a bow, or a firearm.

Bolding and italics mine, source here

I see in your quote a line you seem to be missing in relation to the point here.

Are pets only one of many options for the ranger, or is there a clear overall advantage for those rangers who have one?

It is possible for a ranger to fight without a pet

Only way to fight without a pet is to have it die, and then stay in combat so it never revives. So no, it is not possible for a ranger to fight without a pet. That is not a choice a ranger is actively given.

I don’t even care about the damage bonus that I’d be missing without using a pet. I’d be fine doing 80% damage compared to other professions if I could not use the pet. As it stands right now, the AI is so bad that the only pets worth using are for self/party buffing, or bears to tank everything.

It’s also possible to fight without illusions or phantasms as a mesmer, without using your lifebar as a necromancer, or adrenaline (or adrenaline related traits/skills) as the warrior. Doesn’t mean it’s smart.

Dutch Master.7208:

We get it Loki. You take your beastmaster roleplay very seriously.

But you have to admit there are times when it is beneficial to stow the pet! At the VERY least there should be an option to stow pet and keep it stowed, without the possibility of it popping out when entering combat (or taking fall damage).

Its just plain silly that the pet is more trouble than its worth in the numerous situations listed previously in the thread.

More I’m exasperated that people want the ranger, which ANET made no secret of being more pet orientated this time around (you’d think the class mechanic being the pet, and the unique trait line beastmastery would have tipped people off) to be a Warrior-lite class with eyecandy following them around. May as well go warrior with a minipet, you’d get the same result. It’s like playing the warrior and complaining it can’t stealth and backstab like a thief, or the guardian can’t summon illusions like a mesmer, then demanding that they do so.
But no, the ranger must be changed to play like a warrior, even though for the warrior to keep it’s role the ranger would have to be inferior. I remember the beta weekends where the ranger routinely stomped warriors into the floor without the pet, let alone when they used the pet as well.

Beneficial times for hiding? Beyond hiding for a screenshot I honestly can’t think of any off the top of my head. That’s not to say there’s never a good time to hide the pet, it’s simply that I can’t think of any specific ones right now.

No Loki, we do not want to be like any other class out there. I do not want to have phantasms, backstab or whatever else you wrote in your comment. We all just want to have an option to use our own skills in a same controllable way every other class do. Not in automatic way. And really if you can’t think of any reasons for hiding pet, try WvW. In pvE, even sPvP pets are way more beneficial, while in wvw they die constantly. Try it yourself it may change the way you think. And if making screenshots is the only reason why you play this game.. Well, let me tell you one thing: You are doing it wrong.

For the record, I didn’t even like the idea of hiding pets for screenshots. Because I knew the inevitable “Can we hide them in combat too” threads would follow, like this one. Hiding pets in combat means you lose the class feature, and damage and utility. So then after asking for hiding pets, people will start shouting for compensation (they’re already doing it) for hiding the pet in combat. The ranger’s a pet class. Deal with it or just go play something else.

Casey.9687:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Casey.9687:

i say throw away the worthless pet….didnt need one in guild wars 1 don’t need one now, enough said

Pet’s save my kitten / kill people for me, no thanks.

then use your lame pet….but for us who don’t really care for it allow us to put him away for good…whats so wrong with that?

It’s the class design…. deal with it. Don’t play ranger if you don’t like the idea of a pet class.

rofl you people and this class design argument……so tell me why the ranger in guild wars 1 had the option of having a pet or going full marksman? don’t try and feed me this bs that its the class design…..theres a reason beastmaster has only 1 trait line. It’s there for the option of having a powerful pet or you can use marksmanship for buffing your ranger attacks instead of relying on your pet to do damage(which half the time it doesn’t)

Tell me, why in GW1 was i allowed to pick up a hammer and essentially kill someone in 4 skills? Why can’t i do that in GW2? I’m still a ranger, i still have a pet, i still have rampage as one, but why can’t i use a hammer and kill someone before they can react? OH WAIT! i know! It’s not the same game!!

Also by using your logic, assassins (now called thieves) were the highest DPS prof in the game, but no one complained they could rock someone faster then rangers, why does everyone care now?

See how bad your argument is? Ranger in -this- game is the PET CLASS, if you don’t want to play THE PET CLASS but want to be a scout play a THIEF, they have traps, preparations(venoms), archery, and mobility! It’s pretty much exactly like a Marksman/expertise ranger in GW1 except you also get preps and traps!

Arenanet will never reward the players for ignoring a core mechanic of their class like this, so there’s really no reason to worry about that. What they should be (and hopefull are) focusing on is making the pet easier to work with, since that seems to be the main issue here- that pets, despite the F1-4 skills, are still hard to control and rely on for damage.

It’s the pet class because the core mechanic is a pet. Arenanet has said it’s the pet class. If you roll a ranger in GW2, you have to expect that you’re going to be using a pet! They don’t need to get rid of the pet, they need to improve it! Stop trying to cut off the arm when all you need is a splint!

agnostAnts.7065:

It’s the pet class because the core mechanic is a pet. Arenanet has said it’s the pet class. If you roll a ranger in GW2, you have to expect that you’re going to be using a pet! They don’t need to get rid of the pet, they need to improve it! Stop trying to cut off the arm when all you need is a splint!

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation. PLEASE POINT OUT WHERE IT SAYS WE ARE A PET CLASS.

I still don’t see why all of you make such a fuss about it. Having an option to stow pet permanently won’t harm you at all. No one will be taking your beloved pets from you so calm down. It’s just better to have an option than don’t have it at all. We are all playing the same class and if u see that you can make more dps with your pet, then kitten do as you please. I just hate when ppl ignore the alternative. Even slight compensation in dps won’t harm you at all. You really seem to see it like that: ‘Anet will let them stow their pets, they get like 10% more dps and now we are forced to run the same build as them!’ If u like to play with pets that’s up to you.

If you want to still ignore what I say, then please make a separate thread in which you ask Anet to rename Rangers into Beastmasters and then I promise I will be quiet for the rest of my days here in this forum. The current name of the class is extremely misleading for all of those who pick ranger for the ‘range’ part. And please do remember when there was no option to stow pet out of combat (during beta). They implemented the feature back then, so now let’s just wait for Anet developers do the same with permanent stow. It is only a matter of time.

vilman.7196:

I still don’t see why all of you make such a fuss about it. Having an option to stow pet permanently won’t harm you at all. No one will be taking your beloved pets from you so calm down. It’s just better to have an option than don’t have it at all. We are all playing the same class and if u see that you can make more dps with your pet, then kitten do as you please. I just hate when ppl ignore the alternative. Even slight compensation in dps won’t harm you at all. You really seem to see it like that: ‘Anet will let them stow their pets, they get like 10% more dps and now we are forced to run the same build as them!’ If u like to play with pets that’s up to you.

If you want to still ignore what I say, then please make a separate thread in which you ask Anet to rename Rangers into Beastmasters and then I promise I will be quiet for the rest of my days here in this forum. The current name of the class is extremely misleading for all of those who pick ranger for the ‘range’ part. And please do remember when there was no option to stow pet out of combat (during beta). They implemented the feature back then, so now let’s just wait for Anet developers do the same with permanent stow. It is only a matter of time.

Well, seeing as how Anet said back in the Beta forums they have no intentions on allowing rangers to play -without- the pet, i highly doubt he’s going anywhere.

It’s that flip-flop that’s problematic, vilman.

This argument tries to lend weight and get people on board with the suggestion by listing how it would be a solution all ranger’s ills. But once it comes under scrutiny as a dissatisfying solution, people try to paint it as a mere option to try and deflect the criticism.

You can’t have it both ways. It’s either a request for an option that isn’t meant to resolve ranger’s problems and as a result shouldn’t have to come under scrutiny as such but also it’s importance is very low. Or it is the very important magic cureall people initially frame it as and should have to stand as the best choice against other solutions.

Loki…

I’m not trying to remove the flavor of the class. I’m trying to suggest ideas that would fix the problems this class has while still working within the constraints of the game. There’s nothing wrong with the ranger doing Warrior level damage. It doesn’t have the health or armor of the class and in exchange it has a few more escapes and range (which also isn’t a real advantage because Warriors have similar range and gap closers etc).

The problem is the pet mechanics aren’t working in this game.
The problem is the class has no utility in PvE and it’s not being brought along.
The problem is the class has no utility or burst in PvP and can’t compete.
The problem is the class has such a horrible list of traits and powers to choose from.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this class toning down the pets in favor of boosting the Ranger’s damage. Especially when you consider the problems related to the pet are largely technical and will likely NEVER be fixed. And even if they were, the above problems would still remain with this class and it would still be useless.

So if you can think of a better way to give this class the utility and burst damage it needs without attaching it to the pet, feel free to suggest it. Personally, I think my idea is the most acceptable method to resolve everything plaguing this class without turning it into a petless wonder.

In trying to move the ‘weight’ off the pet and put more onto the ranger, you do remove being penalized for things outside of your control, but you also lessen the actual playing. It’s only logical that somebody would think to resolve the issues caused by the mechanic by lessening the impact the mechanic has. But a mechanic without impactful rewards for playing it well, is hardly worth playing at all.

I am going to repeat myself as all of those with: ‘Anet said this and that 4 months ago and I won’t allow them to change their minds.’ Okay here I go. It’s all about having an option. You hear that? Option. Pet stowing shouldn’t be mandatory. If you want to play with it, that’s okay with me. I don’t want to delete them completely. It’s just about them being useless in so many situations I’ve encountered. Yes if you play PVE, they sure rocks (not in dungeons or Orr). That’s why ranger used to be so popular among botters. They brainlessly send their pet to attack and tank their prey. Easy loot. But that is not going to happen in wvw. And really if you rely on your pet fighting there.. then sorry to jump over your dead body. Believe me no one is going to aim at your pet. No one. It is only a fly and as long as your enemy moves around it is not annoying at all. And aoe is going to kill them anyway. Having the option (love this word ) to stow your pet permanently and then let him pop out while you are downed with full hp would be really something to deal with. Summoning wolf with instant fear? I like it. It keeps enemy from stomping you. And it can save your butt. And how does it look like now? Your pet keeps wandering aimlessly on the battlefield 20 ft from you, and even if you press f2 it won’t work. Believe me, I’ve tried. Success rate- about 10%. So please do visit other battlegrounds available in the game before you start talking about ‘how did my pet save me today’.

Vox Hollow.2736:

In trying to move the ‘weight’ off the pet and put more onto the ranger, you do remove being penalized for things outside of your control, but you also lessen the gameplay.

It’s only natural that somebody would think to resolve this issue is by lessening the impact of the mechanic as a whole. But a mechanic without solid rewards for playing well is hardly worth playing at all.

This is why you move class defining mechanics to the pet. While you move the bulk of the dps to the ranger, you still would rely on the pet for all of the ranger’s burst damage, almost all of their group utility, and you force the Ranger to make some tough choices on trading burst for utility.

Oh, no real redistribution of importance just function?
I’d have to think about it. My initial concern is if they don’t have a meaty autoattack, how would they have a strong enough presence on the aggro table for managing their HP to be a much of an indication of successful or unsuccessful play? Would you need to invent a whole new indicator of successful and unsuccessful play? How would we accomplish old pet playbook standards like dividing and conquering?

Well, it’s worth talking about at least. Might wanna’ make your own thread, though.

There even been a real decision on how agro works in this game? Was under the impression it isn’t your typical agro table but instead was related to toughness rating?

For anyone relating “pets are for life” in real life…puh-lease! Do you take your pet to work? Grocery shopping? Out to dinner? Christmas shopping at the mall? To the movies? I bet not. I bet your pet stays at home. He/she isn’t with you 24/7. Essentially he/she is occasionally stowed. Just saying.

Ack. I’m derailing a thread. Bad poster me.

Yes and no. Yes, in tests versus single targets toughness seems really important, and because we can only do so much about our pet’s toughness you’d think they’re destined to never contribute in a dungeon as well as they do for you in open world pve and you’d never get make any choices about it. But in practice you can always get your pet to distract adds or lower priority mobs in a cluster by virtue of people being too focused on the high priority target to make much of a competitive impact, or taking a ‘turn’ on bosses by virtue of everybody else eventually falling back to rest or not wanting to get within ten feet of the guy to begin with.
Surviving that for any respectable length of time without crazy deep investment into a beastmaster build is another story >.>;

So we have two sides to the argument.

1) Ranger is the pet class. Therefore, pets should be a thing.

2) Ranger pets have so many issues that they should just be dropped so Rangers can pew-pew at full strength without worrying about a second health bar.

How about a compromise? The pet mechanic as it is goes away. Instead, we get a customizable F1-F4 that we fill out by going to visit juveniles like we do now.

Go out and fine a Fern Hound, and you get an F1 skill that’s just like the F2 that it has right now. When you click it, the effect happens on top of you, and you summon a Fern hound to fight for 15-20 seconds before it goes on a 40ish second cooldown. During that time, it uses the skills that it would normally have as a fire-and-forget missile.

Enforce a 1 pet active at a time limit, but let the pets override each other, so you can use your skills on demand, but still only have one pet, allowing your damage to be easier to normalize.

Group 1 is happy because they get pets. In fact, they’d have 4 pets on land and 4 pets underwater! It’s like a whole friggin’ zoo!

Group 2 is happy because the pets go away after a short time, so it’s easy to sneak around, they get better control of when and where their skills go off, losing the pet is less harmful, and when you don’t want your pet around… It’s not there, but it’s ready for you to call it on-demand!

Wasdclick.1764:

So we have two sides to the argument.

1) Ranger is the pet class. Therefore, pets should be a thing.

2) Ranger pets have so many issues that they should just be dropped so Rangers can pew-pew at full strength without worrying about a second health bar.

How about a compromise? The pet mechanic as it is goes away. Instead, we get a customizable F1-F4 that we fill out by going to visit juveniles like we do now.

Go out and fine a Fern Hound, and you get an F1 skill that’s just like the F2 that it has right now. When you click it, the effect happens on top of you, and you summon a Fern hound to fight for 15-20 seconds before it goes on a 40ish second cooldown. During that time, it uses the skills that it would normally have as a fire-and-forget missile.

Enforce a 1 pet active at a time limit, but let the pets override each other, so you can use your skills on demand, but still only have one pet, allowing your damage to be easier to normalize.

Group 1 is happy because they get pets. In fact, they’d have 4 pets on land and 4 pets underwater! It’s like a whole friggin’ zoo!

Group 2 is happy because the pets go away after a short time, so it’s easy to sneak around, they get better control of when and where their skills go off, losing the pet is less harmful, and when you don’t want your pet around… It’s not there, but it’s ready for you to call it on-demand!

As much as i really want to be like “Zomg no! i want to be a beast master and have my pet 100% of the time!” i really don’t mind if i can have 4 pets total and have at least one of them out 100% of the time (IE there will always be a pet by my side)… MAKE IT HAPPEN ANET!!

You sir, have the greatest idea ever, make sure Anet hears it!

I agree that the Ranger should have his/her choice to take out their pet or not. Don’t give us a damage boost if the pet is stowed, just give us the option to perma stow it away. There have been many situations where perma-stowing a pet would of been very useful. Also, pets are not at their greatest potential right now so why not give us more options?

Wanted to add post on this as well. +1 for damage boost in wvw, while stowing pet.

I have always been for a Stow Pet change like this. I would even throw in a speed boost to the benefit (15% damage increase / 10% speed increase [doesn’t stack with signet]).

If you want to use your pet, use it! But give those of us who don’t want to bother with it the option. Don’t punish the rest of us because you want a pet. It’s that simple. There’s a million ways to make this balanced. You get what you want, I get what I want.

I’m playing a Ranger because I love Archer classes. I love Bows, it’s that simple. I play one in every MMO, I even played one in GW1 too and guess what? Never used a pet. Not sure why they attached one to us in GW2, especially since they’re so bad. Some class mechanic. Hmph.

Wait why are many of you asking for a damage compensation with a stowed pet when you’re apparently pro without one and don’t need to rely on it.

These are one of the many questions I have in life.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Wait why are many of you asking for a damage compensation with a stowed pet when you’re apparently pro without one and don’t need to rely on it.

You’re just being confrontational now.
It’s pretty obvious that the ranger was designed to have less damaging attacks than other classes because there was supposed to be supplemental damage coming from the pet.

The problem as it stands is that this supplemental damage system only works in theory because in a majority of game settings the pets die (ie every time there is something that needs to be dodged). Thus obviously to keep some semblance of class balance in the game it makes sense that a ranger build sans pet would need some sort of damage buff to compensate. My original post was not trying to “buff” rangers at all, but just keep things as they stand in terms of the theoretical damage output of our profession.

And also yes I am “pro” without my pet. Any ranger worth his salt has learned to be due to the nature of the game (pets being dead 75% of the time). After 600 hours on my ranger character I have concluded that the best way to run dungeons is to keep my pets on passive and treat them only as an extra boon spell (I use jungle stalker/red moa). Their offensive damage is laughable as they only can manage to get in a couple hits before dying. Also I run with 6 ranger runes and I always try to keep my pets alive as long as possible for that extra 5% damage, but even on passive mode they still die quickly to any aoes that come my way.

So please, be honest with me, do YOU really “rely” on your pet?

Dutch Master.7208:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Wait why are many of you asking for a damage compensation with a stowed pet when you’re apparently pro without one and don’t need to rely on it.

You’re just being confrontational now.
It’s pretty obvious that the ranger was designed to have less damaging attacks than other classes because there was supposed to be supplemental damage coming from the pet.

The problem as it stands is that this supplemental damage system only works in theory because in a majority of game settings the pets die (ie every time there is something that needs to be dodged). Thus obviously to keep some semblance of class balance in the game it makes sense that a ranger build sans pet would need some sort of damage buff to compensate. My original post was not trying to “buff” rangers at all, but just keep things as they stand in terms of the theoretical damage output of our profession.

And also yes I am “pro” without my pet. Any ranger worth his salt has learned to be due to the nature of the game (pets being dead 75% of the time). After 600 hours on my ranger character I have concluded that the best way to run dungeons is to keep my pets on passive and treat them only as an extra boon spell (I use jungle stalker/red moa). Their offensive damage is laughable as they only can manage to get in a couple hits before dying. Also I run with 6 ranger runes and I always try to keep my pets alive as long as possible for that extra 5% damage, but even on passive mode they still die quickly to any aoes that come my way.

So please, be honest with me, do YOU really “rely” on your pet?

To change the subject somewhat, I believe the pet just needs to be out to get the 5% from ranger runes, alive or downed makes no difference.

Nashaan.3160:

To change the subject somewhat, I believe the pet just needs to be out to get the 5% from ranger runes, alive or downed makes no difference.

Ah is this true? I did not realize.

Dutch Master.7208:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Wait why are many of you asking for a damage compensation with a stowed pet when you’re apparently pro without one and don’t need to rely on it.

You’re just being confrontational now.
It’s pretty obvious that the ranger was designed to have less damaging attacks than other classes because there was supposed to be supplemental damage coming from the pet.

The problem as it stands is that this supplemental damage system only works in theory because in a majority of game settings the pets die (ie every time there is something that needs to be dodged). Thus obviously to keep some semblance of class balance in the game it makes sense that a ranger build sans pet would need some sort of damage buff to compensate. My original post was not trying to “buff” rangers at all, but just keep things as they stand in terms of the theoretical damage output of our profession.

And also yes I am “pro” without my pet. Any ranger worth his salt has learned to be due to the nature of the game (pets being dead 75% of the time). After 600 hours on my ranger character I have concluded that the best way to run dungeons is to keep my pets on passive and treat them only as an extra boon spell (I use jungle stalker/red moa). Their offensive damage is laughable as they only can manage to get in a couple hits before dying. Also I run with 6 ranger runes and I always try to keep my pets alive as long as possible for that extra 5% damage, but even on passive mode they still die quickly to any aoes that come my way.

So please, be honest with me, do YOU really “rely” on your pet?

Nah, I’m just making fun of that guy calling the rangers who use their pets noob lol.

I’m pretty sure Necromancers, Mesmers, Elementalists, and even Guardians are better “pet classes” than Rangers. Actually, I should say Guardians are the BEST pet class. Their summons can not be killed.

Sarcasmic.6741:

I’m pretty sure Necromancers, Mesmers, Elementalists, and even Guardians are better “pet classes” than Rangers. Actually, I should say Guardians are the BEST pet class. Their summons can not be killed.

Makes it REALLY fun in PvP when they have all the summons out, because then you might as well not even try to fight, as you’re dead. The hammer knocks you down, the sword just rips into you, and then the Guardian itself does the same. Death comes fast from that combo.

vilman.7196:

@garethh.3518
Show me exactly where I told that I want to stow pet for an extra dmg…. Your argument with mesmer is invalid…. What most of you guys seem to not understand is that every class has an OPTION to perform a certain action…. Ranger are forced to have our pet all the time… I see no balance here… Now imagine that all those classes are forced to play as we do. Thieves do autosteal when entering the combat. Warriors attack with its ulti whenever its fully charged. Guardians Uses its virtues immediately after entering the combat….

And frankly I do not wish to delete the pets. I just want to stow them…

Being able to stow a pet when in combat is something people have talked about, in PvE it could be useful but of course would require balancing, since just being able to stow/release pets on demand would make them a bit unkillable…
Making pets more able to be used without dying would be much more appreciated on the part of many many rangers though, like aoe dmg reduction or something of the likes so they are not fodder in larger fights/PvE.

And every class has an option with regards to the F-skills… look at your ranger F-skills… they are options.. attack, come to me, ability, swap… saying that having to have a pet out is like having to use class F-abilities on CD is a TERRIBLE comparison, especially when rangers quite obviously have exactly the same type of thing on pets themselves (F2 button). I hope you just mis-wrote that or weren’t thinking straight when you did because it makes little sense…

Look there already is the ‘passive’ setting on pets so they just sit next to you unless you tell them not to, its not a far stretch from that and stowing a pet.
I can’t say that stowing a pet won’t make the game more enjoyable for you, but what I can say is that it doesn’t seem like that is really a largely held opinion.

easy fix, make it a trait. my pet aggros the entire continent in Orr all the time and it’s annoying.

@garethh
I don’t know much about PvE. My experience with pet is mainly from wvw. But I explored 100% of PvE content, just to lvl up my toon and get the title. I have never thought about stowing my pet back there. It was really useful. It barely died, I was able to switch it when it has 10% hp no problem. It used to tank veteran and sometimes even champions for me. But I am no longer playing PvE. And in wvw pets are of limited use.

What I wrote about different classes.. Look. They have to be alive to use their skills. Now we have a pet which has to be alive in order to perform our f skills. If your pet is dead you can’t use your f skills. And I agree- mechanics is mechanics. I do not want anything in exchange for stowing my pet. I just want the option to hid it when I don’t use it. And sorry, I cannot stay out of combat all the time in wvw. That would be really pointless.

Finally, believe me or not after playing more than 430 hours on ranger I am well aware of the passive mode our pets have. But from what I’ve experienced they still tend to wander around and pull random mobs. Also they enjoy standing right in the middle of enemy aoes, even if their master is like 20 ft away.

Having that said I think it is my last post in this thread. Let’s wait till the 14th Dec patch and see how our pets are going to work after. There is no need for us to argue now before seeing new improvements.