Guild Wars 2

Hi.

I remember there was a nic topic about pigs here, explaining F2 skill etc. I wonder, do you guys use pigs? Why/why not?

I’m playing LB ranger, mostly WvW, sometimes dung or two. Atm I’m running with 2 wolves, mostly for KD. Now, I decided to try pigs (the one with stealth skills on F2, and one with healing) – they have same KD (maybe even better coz of 3 sec KD) as wolves, bleeding I could use on npcs with buff (nothing big, but better than nothing if I don’t have time to swap bet before) and F2 is usefull in siege (stealth could be nice in field, but picking up while running is buggy).
What do you think?

I’m a fan of pigs, however i have not used a pig for a while, i don’t know why to be honest, just haven’t.

I do like how well the pet swap trait synergizes with their F2 trait though.

If the F2 mechanic can me made ‘smoother’ when it comes to these critters, I just might start using them. Tried’em somewhat in pvp, the knockdown is great, and the F2 is good in theory, but too clumsy. Dps is too low.

Thier f2 skills are to random. when I press f2 its for a specific reason. I cant count on any of the pigs f2 skills so i dont use them.

The are nice in theory not so much in application.

Pigs are good. I like pigs. I’ve never gotten in to any bad arguments with pigs.

I think part of the problem is that they don’t always use the skill when you command them to. Sometimes, it even goes on full cooldown without yielding the environmental weapon. Additionally, it seems that whenever you try to pick up an environmental weapon while on the move, you get stuck moving in that direction for a little while and don’t pick up the item.
Porcine pets can be really good to have and fun to play with, but these bugs need to be fixed. There are other bugs that also affect pets in general, of course (they are probably slightly higher priority).
I especially like the warthog (pve) and the boar (pvp). Getting gunk with the warthog (or skull with boar) is always a wonderful thing. The other items are fine, but they’re a bit more situational.

They are an acquired taste and a bit buggy. They have really low precision, their skills misfire often, their knockdown is slow to activate, they produce random effects, and someone else might pick up the item, or you may not be able to.

That said, they are a lot of fun if you are highly mobile enough to pick up the items easily, pay attention to where they are and whether the skill actually worked, and keep track of the duration of the item (I use the F2 cooldown timer as a reference).

Siamoth is my favorite, because I tend to run increased boon duration and boons shared with pet (though pet doesn’t get them all at full duration). It is less random because two of the items are basically identical. Stealth + movement skills is pretty handy in WvW if you travel alone. Warthog produces a couple combo fields which also goes well with melee weapons for leaps and whirls and I enjoy being a giant norn in an even more giant bubble. Warthog + Drake lets you grant aoe chaos armor or aoe weakness which is not something you see many rangers doing, it takes a little practice.

Tip: Picking up a foraged weapon during combat and using a foraged weapon in combat both trigger on-weapon swap effects and our on-weapon swap traits appear to have no cooldowns so using two porcines with reduced F2 recharge can grant significant Swiftness and Fury to you.

If you’re using a longbow, a pig probably isn’t a good idea since you’ll want to be a long distance from your enemy, while your pig will drop the item in melee where it’s fighting.

Also, sadly, the charge knockdown on pigs has a very long cast time, unlike the one on canines, which means they miss a lot of charges on anything beyond a stationary target.

I used to use pigs in wvwvw a fair bit they can be very handy. Usually i keep the pig by my side then press F2 pick up the environment then let the pig attack causing knock down, after the knock down swap pets which i have traited for quickness you will get some good buffs from that little combo in itself.

Yeah, KD seems to miss sometimes :/ but on the other hand, F2 is great when I’m sitting on a wall.
They have low power and prec, but tbh it doesn’t matter for me. Pet dmg in WvW isn’t that important, unless you use “Guard” or are BM specced.

And yeah, I’m using F4 for quickness, so I justclick F2 after every F4, when pet is near me.

Maybe if the pig produced both at ground based environmental weapon as well as one in the hand of the ranger it might be a bit more useful.

True, or at least in hands only. Or in place of F2 skill – like thieves F1! Can you hear us dev?

Pigs are awful in spvp because the enemy can pick up your weapon. The enemy knows you have to go over and pick it up so can drop big aoe skills on top of the item, plus you’re losing seconds of dps or evading by picking it up.

You can’t activate unless the pig is standing still which wont happen often. the two stealth things are too short in duration to be useful defensively, offensively ranger has no high damage attack that would really benefit from a guaranteed crit.

Some of the other buffs are really nice, but since it’s random you often can’t use them to be consistently good. Furthermore, the pigs themselves are quite weak, their only redeeming feature is the knockdown.

Changes they need to be useful:

1. fix bug where they don’t forage on the move
2. item appears in your hand, not on ground
3. cycles through items so you can plan around abilities
4. improve stealth duration by 1 second on siamoth stuff

As others have said, F2 is too random and slow for me to use. I don’t like to leave much up to chance when I’m playing (I do mostly WvW). Canine 2s knockdown is practically guaranteed as long as the enemy doesn’t use an escape mechanism. Pigs miss the F2 way too often due to long cast time.

Their damage is surprisingly high compared to their stats, but that doesn’t make up for their cumbersomeness.

I would like to the the F2 automatically place the item in the rangers hand, that would really solve a lot of issues I have with them.

No one mention pig’s kd have cleave yet?
That 6 sec area kd is really useful in some situation.
And using warthug even granted more cc.
Besides pigs are quite tanky.
So I use them a lot in dungeons.

Zi Yang.5387:

No one mention pig’s kd have cleave yet?
That 6 sec area kd is really useful in some situation.
And using warthug even granted more cc.
Besides pigs are quite tanky.
So I use them a lot in dungeons.

O.o i didn’t know that was a cleave!!

I really only find pigs good as a swap in if you have another cc. If you have your wolf knock an opponent down or you immobilize them you can swap to your pig and they will attempt their charge right off the bat. As for the F2 I would definitely enjoy it if the item just went straight to the ranger’s hands.

Dante.3754:

I really only find pigs good as a swap in if you have another cc. If you have your wolf knock an opponent down or you immobilize them you can swap to your pig and they will attempt their charge right off the bat. As for the F2 I would definitely enjoy it if the item just went straight to the ranger’s hands.

Yeah, if this happened i think pigs would be used A LOT more, they’d lose a miniscule amount of their usefulness by allowing allies to use the items, but it’d be a much smoother and less clunky solution that would just be a benefit as a whole.

If you’re a lone roamer in wvw the Siamoth is great. On demand stealth is amazing.

No one expects a ranger to stealth, so when one does, it completely throws the other person off their game giving you the advantage.

You can carry the Siamoths random object while running around. So if you spot a lone enemy running towards you, you can run straight at them, use the stealth, and they’ll be completely lost and confused when suddenly you appear already destroying them.

The pig i would only use for the on demand stealth ability. I would switch to my wolf or drakehound whenever actually attacking.

ChaoticFlame.4752:

If you’re a lone roamer in wvw the Siamoth is great. On demand stealth is amazing.

No one expects a ranger to stealth, so when one does, it completely throws the other person off their game giving you the advantage.

You can carry the Siamoths random object while running around. So if you spot a lone enemy running towards you, you can run straight at them, use the stealth, and they’ll be completely lost and confused when suddenly you appear already destroying them.

The pig i would only use for the on demand stealth ability. I would switch to my wolf or drakehound whenever actually attacking.

I do that is spvp too, but there are two problems with it; The first is that the item is random, the Siamoth also drops plasma which is awesome but sometimes you really want/need stealth. The second is is that the items can’t be held forever and can’t be dropped in the sense that if you want to cast swiftness on your warhorn you better do it before picking up the item because you’ll destory it if you drop it.

I agree with what Dante said. Siamoth’s F2 is great, but it annoys me sometimes that it even fails to spawn a weapon from time to time. Sometimes when you need it quickly, it seems that piggy is taking all the time in the world finding that weapon. And sometimes it’s just too far off and you have to go in a different direction. In such case I find wolf’s Fear be more reliable.

I like pigs, they taste good. I dislike them as pets though, too impredictable. The item should appear directly in your hand, and I think it should depend on the type of terrain foraged so you can actually strategize.

Siamoth drops three different items Tuft of hair, Feathers, and Plasma. Of those three, two will stealth you. The odds are in your favor.

Its a mind game/tactical advantage type thing. Mainly because most the time when a ranger suddenly stealths in front of a person they don’t understand how its even possible.

Stealth scares people and wins fights, its why thieves receive so much hate.

ChaoticFlame.4752:

If you’re a lone roamer in wvw the Siamoth is great. On demand stealth is amazing.

No one expects a ranger to stealth, so when one does, it completely throws the other person off their game giving you the advantage.

You can carry the Siamoths random object while running around. So if you spot a lone enemy running towards you, you can run straight at them, use the stealth, and they’ll be completely lost and confused when suddenly you appear already destroying them.

The pig i would only use for the on demand stealth ability. I would switch to my wolf or drakehound whenever actually attacking.

it despawns from your hand after about 20 seconds, so you can’t just carry it around in case you get into an engagement as you describe.

The time between when the random object drops off and when you can use the skill to retrieve it again is 5 to 10 seconds. With the F2 skill cool down reduced due to being traited it’s about 5 seconds. So yes. The time u can have the object is almost infinite. This is all done outside of combat of course.

ChaoticFlame.4752:

The time between when the random object drops off and when you can use the skill to retrieve it again is 5 to 10 seconds. With the F2 skill cool down reduced due to being traited it’s about 5 seconds. So yes. The time u can have the object is almost infinite. This is all done outside of combat of course.

So you can have it for 15 seconds out of 20 and that’s almost always to you?? and 1/3 of the time you won’t get a stealth item at all so that’s 30/60 seconds that you’ll have a stealth item – literally 50% of the time, definitely nowhere near indefinitely!

Not to mention the fact you have to stop, wait a second for your pig to also stop, cast f2, go over and pick up an object every 20 seconds out of combat on the off chance that you’ll run across someone – fun!

I haven’t checked time, but for me it disappeared when CD on F2 was 3/4 – that means I had it in hands 30 sec. Just saying

After 2 days of testing idk. Charge misses too often and wolf F2 fear was also pretty useful. Pigs F2 skills are great in siege, where wolves were totally useless. I still need to try it in FotM, but not going there anytime soon.

I love the Porcine pets. They’re hearty for tanking, have a KD, and their Foraged items are amazing. I only wish their F2 mechanics were a bit less clunky. I tend to use them only when fighting melee because they item will appear right next to me. Tip: If using a LB, use their F2 ability before entering combat. Then the items will be at your feet and at range.

I also don’t like that an enemy player in PvP or WvW can pick up & use the item. If their Foraged item acted more like a thief’s Steal (the ability replacing the F2 button) that would be ideal. However, that would make it so that allies can’t use it, only the Ranger.

I can see Porcine pets being valuable in dungeons, digging up heals & boons for melee party members to use when needed.

Keep in mind I only really play WvW.

I started off using cats all the like the forum suggested but I recently stopped in favor of dogs.

I run ferg hound and wolf. Seeing as how the bear pets weren’t tanky enough to reliably stay up(even fully traited) and the cats didn’t do enough DPS to be so weak, I decided to aim more for the utility skills.

Jags stealth is great for guard on keeps walls, but really in a one on one face to face fight stealth provides you with absolutely nothing. Wolves had a leap for the knockdown so lynx didn’t cut it either.

Ferg is a good mix of stats and provides aoe health regen which can be a life saver.

Wolf has AOE fear which can be truely devastating. I use fear all the time to keep allies from getting stomped and its only a 20sec cooldown. I use the fear as a mini stun all the time, it can give you that split second you need to root a thief before he gets back into stealth.

Also there is nothing better in the entire game than fearing someone off the edge of a cliff. Also sent my wolf up keep walls last night and got multiple defenders feared off the walls into our zerg.

Linkisdead.9647:

Keep in mind I only really play WvW.

I started off using cats all the like the forum suggested but I recently stopped in favor of dogs.

I run ferg hound and wolf. Seeing as how the bear pets weren’t tanky enough to reliably stay up(even fully traited) and the cats didn’t do enough DPS to be so weak, I decided to aim more for the utility skills.

Jags stealth is great for guard on keeps walls, but really in a one on one face to face fight stealth provides you with absolutely nothing. Wolves had a leap for the knockdown so lynx didn’t cut it either.

Ferg is a good mix of stats and provides aoe health regen which can be a life saver.

Wolf has AOE fear which can be truely devastating. I use fear all the time to keep allies from getting stomped and its only a 20sec cooldown. I use the fear as a mini stun all the time, it can give you that split second you need to root a thief before he gets back into stealth.

Also there is nothing better in the entire game than fearing someone off the edge of a cliff. Also sent my wolf up keep walls last night and got multiple defenders feared off the walls into our zerg.

Alpine wolf is another really good canine pet, I feel like they’re underrated. 4 secs of AoE chill can make a real impact in group WvW combat.

Back to pigs, the main reason why I literally never use them is having to run over and pick the item up. It would be FAR more useful if it spawned in your hand, at the expense of not being available for allies.

i would use pigs if they came and gave me the item. i am ranged in dungeons and i don’t want to run in to get the item.

if pigs were ranged i’d use them, but as they are the only time to use it is on swap which i don’t much care for. i could use stalker for might. i think it is more valuable than 2s of invis.

Just change the mechanic to work like it does for thieves – replace the F2 with the item and let us use it on demand while still being able to attack stuff.