Guild Wars 2

Pet in both pve and pvp while still retaining the same degree of usefulness (or at least close)?

Now I know rangers do still have their problems in dungeons but not to the point where I feel it’s embarassing if anything dies to them 1v1.

The point of discussion here is the pet and not the player since the player is capable of performing well regardless of if the pet performs as well. This does not mean that the player performing to the best of his/her abilities will get a player downed.

I’ve both played ranger and dueled rangers and can say from my own personal experiences that the pets is: not a threat, is very unlikely to hit the player, F2 skills take too long to cast, and it is usually a waste of time to kill it.

Essentially duels with rangers are something like 0.8v1 since the pet does not (usually) at all contribute positively.

Suggestions for pvp that I think may help with pets. (Just a heads up I have not thought them all through)

-Debuff pets damage and increase the rangers so that having a pet is not the reason for your low dps.

-Allows pets to be flagged similar to GW1 heroes. Also replace guard and sick em. Pets could be given a slight speed boost to allow them to be naturally faster than players (Capped at 40% increased speed).

-Allow players to go without their pets (Likely not a possibility).

-Allow pets to build frenzy that goes away when the player gets OOC (I considered allowing them to go berserk but no one really hits them anyways). Also I think they should build frenzy relatively slowly but enough that players consider killing them (Obviously if you’re facing a GC you would still kill the ranger 1st).

-Have melee pets cast their F2 skills faster, or if they actually are able to build frenzy have that be factored in.

-Instead of having spirits as a separate entity have them fuse with the pets. This could replace their F2 with that of the spirit while also giving the spirit higher survivability. May need to be limited to one at a time for balance.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head but would like to hear opinions on this. If you think there is a way to keep both pve and pvp ranger pets the same and still be useful in pvp while not being too powerful in pve I would like to hear it.

There are three purposes for your pet in PvP:

• Damage
• Crowd Control
• Support (boons, heals, etc.)

There are four purposes for your pet in PvE:

• Damage
• Crowd Control
• Support (boons, heals, etc.)
• Tanking

As long as you are picking a pet that isn’t focused on tanking, you should be able to use them about the same in both PvP and PvE.

Do please note, however, that using melee pets is more difficult in dungeons than ranged pets.

Issues with pet responsiveness will only make the pets closer to reliable in both PvP and PvE.

Removing bugs will do the same.

Sebrent.3625:

There are three purposes for your pet in PvP:

• Damage
• Crowd Control
• Support (boons, heals, etc.)

There are four purposes for your pet in PvE:

• Damage
• Crowd Control
• Support (boons, heals, etc.)
• Tanking

As long as you are picking a pet that isn’t focused on tanking, you should be able to use them about the same in both PvP and PvE.

Do please note, however, that using melee pets is more difficult in dungeons than ranged pets.

---

Issues with pet responsiveness will only make the pets closer to reliable in both PvP and PvE.

Removing bugs will do the same.

From my experience tanking pets (such as bears) tend to have a larger hit box than other pets making them very effective meat shields in PvP.

WonderfulCT.6278:

Pet in both pve and pvp while still retaining the same degree of usefulness (or at least close)?

Now I know rangers do still have their problems in dungeons but not to the point where I feel it’s embarassing if anything dies to them 1v1.

The point of discussion here is the pet and not the player since the player is capable of performing well regardless of if the pet performs as well. This does not mean that the player performing to the best of his/her abilities will get a player downed.

I’ve both played ranger and dueled rangers and can say from my own personal experiences that the pets is: not a threat, is very unlikely to hit the player, F2 skills take too long to cast, and it is usually a waste of time to kill it.

Essentially duels with rangers are something like 0.8v1 since the pet does not (usually) at all contribute positively.

Suggestions for pvp that I think may help with pets. (Just a heads up I have not thought them all through)

-Debuff pets damage and increase the rangers so that having a pet is not the reason for your low dps.

-Allows pets to be flagged similar to GW1 heroes. Also replace guard and sick em. Pets could be given a slight speed boost to allow them to be naturally faster than players (Capped at 40% increased speed).

-Allow players to go without their pets (Likely not a possibility).

-Allow pets to build frenzy that goes away when the player gets OOC (I considered allowing them to go berserk but no one really hits them anyways). Also I think they should build frenzy relatively slowly but enough that players consider killing them (Obviously if you’re facing a GC you would still kill the ranger 1st).

-Have melee pets cast their F2 skills faster, or if they actually are able to build frenzy have that be factored in.

-Instead of having spirits as a separate entity have them fuse with the pets. This could replace their F2 with that of the spirit while also giving the spirit higher survivability. May need to be limited to one at a time for balance.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head but would like to hear opinions on this. If you think there is a way to keep both pve and pvp ranger pets the same and still be useful in pvp while not being too powerful in pve I would like to hear it.

Only one thing needs to be changed-pets are not rooted to the ground while attacking and it should be able to hit players just fine.
ok and some useless/dumb f2 skills etc

@Durz’s comment:

If you need a pet that is going to intercept hits for you, the Devourer is a better choice as it will remain at range so is much easier for you to position between you and projectiles. Since the bear is a melee pet, this is more difficult and not really feasible.

Sebrent.3625:

@Durz’s comment:

If you need a pet that is going to intercept hits for you, the Devourer is a better choice as it will remain at range so is much easier for you to position between you and projectiles. Since the bear is a melee pet, this is more difficult and not really feasible.

The bear however has enough health and survivability to allow for the use of “Protect Me!”, not to mention the bear is also capable of providing some nice support/control with their F2s (AoE weakness and Shake it Off! are my favorites =D).

Both are -very- good tanks in PvP, it just depends on whether or not you want to play ring around Clickity Clack, or if you want to throw beary bearington ontop of you to protect you from the bad people + have his added support/control from his varied roars.

It’s essentially just preference.

EDIT: I just realized how biased i seemed towards bears lol, Devourers however deal more damage than bears, have an easier time hitting the enemy, and can apply condis pretty easily.

Devourers also have more toughness than bears, so they actually do a better job of surviving except against condition damage.

Sebrent.3625:

Devourers also have more toughness than bears, so they actually do a better job of surviving except against condition damage.

Bears have Endure Pain and regen not to mention they can have up to like 5k vitality which translates to like 50k health or so, making them the gods of soaking damage xD. Because face it… when you have that much health (assuming 10 health = 1 vit like it does for players) it doesn’t really matter what your armor is when you can regen as well as a bear can.

EDIT: Bears can get up to around 46k health, not 50k, but that’s till kittening high!

Oh, definitely, but all the bear is good at is getting hit.

They are harder position to take hits for you because of them being melee, which makes that tankiness not so great.

Sebrent.3625:

Oh, definitely, but all the bear is good at is getting hit.

They are harder position to take hits for you because of them being melee, which makes that tankiness not so great.

Keep in mind they also make a good pet for a condi sponge and can provide some pretty detrimental conditions to the enemy (AoE 10s weakness is nothing to scoff at, especially with malicious training which makes it 15s).

But if you’re relying on your pet for your damage, a bear certainly isn’t the option you’d want to go with, but if you want to have them help you kill the enemy then you may want to consider them because they’re a lot meaner than i originally had thought!

And actually them being melee -is- good because they tend to position themselves between you and your enemy by default making enemies trying to land ranged attacks to just get kitten off that your bears big fat kitten is getting in the way due to their larger hit box.

PS: Idk for sure if their hitbox -is- bigger i’ve just noticed that he seems to intercept more attacks for me than my wolf does.

I don’t rely solely on my pet for my damage, but he’s a very good source of it.

If you’re using an axe, the weakness isn’t really needed as #3 puts the same amount (though not AOE).

Any pet can really be a condition sponge because you can swap them out when they are low. It just takes faster reflexes with a non-bear pet.

Sebrent.3625:

I don’t rely solely on my pet for my damage, but he’s a very good source of it.

If you’re using an axe, the weakness isn’t really needed as #3 puts the same amount (though not AOE).

Then take a Murrellow for the poison field for the bouncing poison from axe which will give you more condi damage, or the Brown Bear for the aoe condi removal. The beauty of different pet F2s lol.

It varies on my build, when i use a bear normally i’m relying on myself for damage and for him to take hits for me and hinder the enemies, that or i’m going with a REALLY bunkery build.

EDIT: lol i feel like we’re arguing over our preferences now, both are really good at tanking hits so it’s probably just more preference.

I’m disagreeing mainly on the viability of the bear for taking hits for you … especially in PvP.

If your pet is in melee range, he is having to chase the target, this makes it much harder to make sure he is positioned between you and enemy projectiles.

As it is largely infeasible to use the bear to intercept projectiles, his tankiness is extremely lackluster.

That is how I think about it.

Sebrent.3625:

I’m disagreeing mainly on the viability of the bear for taking hits for you … especially in PvP.

If your pet is in melee range, he is having to chase the target, this makes it much harder to make sure he is positioned between you and enemy projectiles.

As it is largely infeasible to use the bear to intercept projectiles, his tankiness is extremely lackluster.

That is how I think about it.

You could always use a melee build and chase the enemy around with your bear, making the Devourers useless because you can’t really run around him in melee range because that pets AI is designed around -leaving melee-. Not to mention, you can use “Protect Me!” To force your bear to take hits for you where a devourers would snap in two with how low health he has.

If using a melee build, neither pet is likely to take hits for you.

I do believe the bear is superior at surviving your use of “Protect Me!”.

Ok so I think I may have a different experience with pets, having faced rangers more often than playing one.

-Pets will not (frequently) hit players that understand how to kite mobs.
-Melee pets are too easily kited around without taking hits.
-Mid ranged (300-900) players always beats rangers ranged due to pets not hitting.
-Ranged pets have too large an arc to hit players.
-Players can run away from pets before their F2 skills have a chance to go off.
-Pets cannot tank at melee range in pvp unless in a zerg where players are not easily able to directly attack the ranger.

Therefore what I’m saying is from my experience pet choice often seems meaningless as the battle will take place between the two players and the pet is not too far off of being a bystander.