Guild Wars 2

For the longest time i’ve seen threads of how much anet hates pets and how tying roughly 20% of our damage to the pet is dumb design. Well yesterday was doing imbued shaman with dual ranged pets when it occured to me: while i’m reviving a down mate the pet keeps doing damage. That’s something most other Classes can’t do and has to enter the equation.

Before the 71% Hp buff my pets died on a handfull of situations and because of bad management/timing. Now? It has become a non issue.

In wvw i avoid zerging, and when i do zerg i just keep a tighter look to my awsome class mechanic.

In spvp nobody targets a pet and mind your step in aoe.

You got to see the glass half full fEllas.

Have fun with your awsome class

I’d love my pet more if i can get a combat capable raccoon

But seriously, I do love my pets. That’s why I take time to think of fancy names for them. And I personally don’t agree on the sentiments of removing pets as ranger class mechanics; in part due to the reasons stated. (unless they decide that ranger class mechanic is that they can drive a 2000 ton mech that can solo fight kaij…err..dragons… Yea too much pacific rim here :P )

And I do love the boost in pet HP, im more inclined to use more damaging, less tanky pets now.

But you got to admit theres so many times we get our class mechanic shut down, largely due to AoEs and those 1 shot kill abilities from bosses. Of course finding a fix to that while keeping the pet mechanic isnt easy, but i do hope they find ways to do so anyhow.

So the fact pets can do damage while you are ressing someone makes the sub par mechanic of this class good? Lol.

Engineers, Necros, Mesmers, and others can do it as well…better most of the time. Other classes can do it, and dont even loose their F skills, or loose dps, or have weak power scaling due to their F abilities.

Weak argument.

Sounds like a-nets justification of pets.

“Well yesterday was doing imbued shaman with dual ranged pets when it occured to me: while i’m reviving a down mate the pet keeps doing damage. That’s something most other Classes can’t do and has to enter the equation.”

Think how much better it is when your pet is reviving a mate while you keep doing damage and dodging.

Vaxx.3178:

So the fact pets can do damage while you are ressing someone makes the sub par mechanic of this class good? Lol.

Engineers, Necros, Mesmers, and others can do it as well…better most of the time. Other classes can do it, and dont even loose their F skills, or loose dps, or have weak power scaling due to their F abilities.

Weak argument.

Engineers often run turret builds?
I dont see how any player got into this ranger class without some inclination that the dps would be tied into the pet. It is a pet class from creation, not through utilities.

Who care’s if you look at the class half full or half empty? It’s still half a glass.

Pet F2 abilities seldom work.
Pets still aren’t hitting moving targets reliably.
Pets still die in moments in WvW.
Pets still are being killed by unavoidable AE in PvE.

These aren’t made up problems or problems only the l2p bunch run into. These are class wide problems that have been an issue for a year with no real improvement. With these problems still in the game how can you legitimately expect Rangers to lose 25 to 40% of their damage simply because the pet exists?

But I do love my pets. It’s just that ArenaNet doesn’t…

Dead Muppet.9718:

Vaxx.3178:

So the fact pets can do damage while you are ressing someone makes the sub par mechanic of this class good? Lol.

Engineers, Necros, Mesmers, and others can do it as well…better most of the time. Other classes can do it, and dont even loose their F skills, or loose dps, or have weak power scaling due to their F abilities.

Weak argument.

Engineers often run turret builds?
I dont see how any player got into this ranger class without some inclination that the dps would be tied into the pet. It is a pet class from creation, not through utilities.

Engineers can load a target up with conditions, as well as supply drop. Point being doing damage to a target while ressing someone is not exclusive to the Ranger. It its a horrible justification for the class.

I don’t think anyone got into the class without knowing its a pet class. I know there are some that got into to go the ranged bow route, as the class description says. I know that didn’t work out too well.

The thing is, if Anet wants you to utilize the pet 100%, then it should be worth it. As of now its situational, and pets are on the whole not up to par. The reasons have been brought up tons of times, no need to go into it.

Either makes pets scary, or make the damage from the Ranger scary. I would rather have the first, but if they cant do it, I am good with the latter as well.

I love my pet so much that i decided not to allow it to move away from me any further than 2000 range.

You can’t compare turrets to ranger pets. Minions and phantasms sure, but turrets are a joke. They didn’t even get included with the hp update last patch. They die if a stiff breeze hits them. Not just from champions or even veterans, regular trash mobs wipe them out in a few hits even fully traited, its ridiculous. So just think, things could always be worse

Ive had a laugh the last few days using the Jaguar pet. Its F2 is “stalk” which makes is stealth for 6 seconds. Not great on the face of it, but with sic em active its bloody hilarious to see thieves in WvW turn and run wondering wtf has hitting them and then panic when they cant stealth. Plus the base jaguar attack adds vulnerable and thats handy for synergy with LB2 (since it tracks to a stealthed target anyway).

It may not be a hard counter, or all that effective in the long run. But it is bloody hilarious to me.

Lexandro.1456:

Ive had a laugh the last few days using the Jaguar pet. Its F2 is “stalk” which makes is stealth for 6 seconds. Not great on the face of it, but with sic em active its bloody hilarious to see thieves in WvW turn and run wondering wtf has hitting them and then panic when they cant stealth. Plus the base jaguar attack adds vulnerable and thats handy for synergy with LB2 (since it tracks to a stealthed target anyway).

It may not be a hard counter, or all that effective in the long run. But it is bloody hilarious to me.

It’s all fun and games until that thief turns around and runs in a straight line and your pet misses 50% of its attacks :/

Thats the thing they dont. They either bugg out totally or they take me on even with them severly wounded, thinking i will be easy meat anyway. But dodges combined with barrage and a change to GS and it often takens them totally by surprise.

So in effect its; Spot them and LB2>thief stealths>Barrage>(stealthed thief then reveals) Evade>LB4> Pet F2>Sec em>LB2>Barrage>Change to GS>stun>maul> dead thief.

Long convoluted “rotation” as it were. But its extremely funny, and has worked several times for me since sic em change. Its simply the “panic” factor that seems to get me the win rather than my skillz though tbh.

Lexandro.1456:

Thats the thing they dont. They either bugg out totally or they take me on even with them severly wounded, thinking i will be easy meat anyway. But dodges combined with barrage and a change to GS and it often takens them totally by surprise.

So in effect its; Spot them and LB2>thief stealths>Barrage>(stealthed thief then reveals) Evade>LB4> Pet F2>Sec em>LB2>Barrage>Change to GS>stun>maul> dead thief.

Long convoluted “rotation” as it were. But its extremely funny, and has worked several times for me since sic em change. Its simply the “panic” factor that seems to get me the win rather than my skillz though tbh.

Use fire trap too, in case the thief is smart enough, they can circle your LB rotation:
LB2>thief stealths>Fire Trap>Barrage>thief evaded the barrage and comes in for the backstab>set fire trap> fire trap triggers>evade>LB4>Pet F2>sick ’em>LB2>Barrage>(thief cleans conditions and stealths again)>Change to GS>Fire trap triggers>Evade>Entangle>Maul>Pet F2>dead thief

Lexandro.1456:

Ive had a laugh the last few days using the Jaguar pet. Its F2 is “stalk” which makes is stealth for 6 seconds. Not great on the face of it, but with sic em active its bloody hilarious to see thieves in WvW turn and run wondering wtf has hitting them and then panic when they cant stealth.

For anyone wanting to try this, you have to be sure to hit F2 first, then sic ‘em. If you reverse the order, there’s a bug where the F2 will make the sic ’em buff disappear.

Solandri.9640:

Lexandro.1456:

Ive had a laugh the last few days using the Jaguar pet. Its F2 is “stalk” which makes is stealth for 6 seconds. Not great on the face of it, but with sic em active its bloody hilarious to see thieves in WvW turn and run wondering wtf has hitting them and then panic when they cant stealth.

For anyone wanting to try this, you have to be sure to hit F2 first, then sic ‘em. If you reverse the order, there’s a bug where the F2 will make the sic ’em buff disappear.

Didnt know about that, thanks for sharing. Funnily enough thats exactly how I have been triggering it, F2 first then sic em so the pet can sneak up and then chase down a bit after pet stealth wears off.

It’s actually worse. Pretty much any other buff you give to the pet (e.g. activate signet) will make the sic ‘em buff disappear. So you have to make sure to hit sic ’em last. We’ve been asking for this to be fixed since 2012.

Edit: I misremembered. Signets work ok. It’s the F1, F2, F3 commands and other shouts which cancel sic’em. So you can’t use sic ‘em, then order the pet change targets, or call it back to avoid an AOE. And you can’t order it to guard an area hoping it does exta sic’em damage for the first 10 sec of guarding.

Now see thats solid info on something that directly impacts my gameplay. We really need a master list of ranger specific bugs in here somewhere. At least then I would know what NOT to do.

Fine if the OP likes his pets. A very large percentage of the population doesn’t.

I don’t need my pets nor do I want them. It’s why people are asking for a ranger traitline rework such that beast-taming is still just as viable, but allow rangers to have the option of not using a pet and to be compensated for the lost bonuses.

Speaking of which, the pet accounts for 40% of the rangers’ damage, not 20%.

I find my pet totally worthless. It hits something and soaks aggro while I’m reviving someone? Cool. I could just stealth and res them, though. I shouldn’t have to rely on something soaking aggro to stay alive, banking on the fact it’ll probably die anyways due to the fact it cannot dodge etc. When my pet dies, I win in PvE anyways; I’m skilled enough in archer play to not need it – ever. All I find myself ending up with is a dead object that flutters around after a few brief moments of me soloing a champion, thus causing the fight to take 67% longer than it should need to, because the damage I lose simply makes the fight take longer and has no effect on the outcome.

Frankly, I’d much rather be rewarded by playing the game well in the style I wish to than be forced into a paradigm which I actively dislike. Not stopping people from playing with their pets. I just want to play the way I want to, just like everyone else complaining about pet dependency.

Same Pets are quite useless, not really their fault more of a design and AI issues.. I like pets as a novelty but when i want to get stuff done i do not count on pets, i basically play without the pet and hope it doesn’t mess me up.

Love how the pet is able to complement any build, spot on!

Due the versatility on its F2 active ability i can complement my build by bringing say might, or extra survivability via protection, why not a blind?

Or take use of the on swap insta ability, like in drakes you know you’re getting the blast finisher and the knockdown from a canine.

Plus the combat is so active. In another mmo i played that pet class was called a hunter. Well basically i got tired of it by lvl18 since you only had to not forget to switch off an ability that took threat from the tank (the one supposed to hold the enemy mobs) and to dismiss the pet, a.k.a. stow, before making a jump, so i wouldn’t accidentally pull the entire dungeon. Apart from that i just had to care for my religious rotation and could ignore the pet completely.

Here? oh sweet, i really have to be on my tippy toes to care for my pet. Miss timing or just bad position can really punish me for having a down pet and pay the 50 sec fine. Also in order for my pet to hit i really have to snare my opponent or just go easier mode and go Ranged pet or total easy mode with dual hard snare pet, and if i really want to make others punch their monitor: Malicious Training… i know… 3 sec immobilize from spiders is just… unfair.

Also in that MMO classes have very strict roles so obviously i ended up commiting to the most versatile classes there. Now on GuildWars2 since every professions can do pretty much anything, i’m just a spoiled child, but that extra versatility provided by the pet… Awsome!

Ariete.6509:

Now on GuildWars2 since every professions can do pretty much anything

Except be an archer.

Oh my god, the complaints actually make sense! They don’t want to just allow for pets to be removed because they don’t like the concept… these players haven’t actually had their entire play style accounted for!

It’s like the ranger would be the easiest class to reform due to the promise of it being a raged class from the getgo, and allowing it to be made into an archer rather than adding in a whole new slew of additional content seems like a logical idea, thus making everyone happy!

No way!

Ranger are not a ranged only class. Every class has range. The Idea that if you use anything other than drake/cats or bird then your a noob is bs. Its not all about dps.
But even when it is. Having pets that allow you to get more of you damage in is better then a pet that its only utility is damage (unless your spec heavily into BM trait line).

They are so many ways to mitigate damage to your pet. If your pet dies 90% of the time its the failing of the ranger not the mechanism.

f2 skills are not instant. Learn the time for your favorite pets (at minimum). Pet suffer from something like summoning sickness when you swap so if you use f2 (any command) too soon it wont work.

Learn when to swap out your pet. Not just to avoid its death or to use its f2 skill but to have access to its initial attack like kd’s and the like. As well as for positioning.

If your pet set off a bomb or a trap. Its the rangers fault for not having their pet attack from their side or having a direct line unobstructed line to their target.

Why do so many Rangers blame their pet. When it’s really the failing of the Ranger himself.

Not only should one love thy pet, but also learn to work with thy pet.

Your pet will die for you. I am not asking you to die for your pet. Just merely understand your pet truly.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

They are so many ways to mitigate damage to your pet. If your pet dies 90% of the time its the failing of the ranger not the mechanism.

Learn when to swap out your pet. Not just to avoid its death or to use its f2 skill but to have access to its initial attack like kd’s and the like. As well as for positioning.

If your pet set off a bomb or a trap. Its the rangers fault for not having their pet attack from their side or having a direct line unobstructed line to their target.

Why do so many Rangers blame their pet. When it’s really the failing of the Ranger himself.

Not only should one love thy pet, but also learn to work with thy pet.

Your pet will die for you. I am not asking you to die for your pet. Just merely understand your pet truly.

So much utter BS in those statements.

I take it you have never played WvW? I take it you have never Teq? Tell me, expert, how do you get your pet to jump over waves? I cant find that button.

1/2 baked mechanic does not make it the Rangers fault.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Ranger are not a ranged only class. Every class has range. The Idea that if you use anything other than drake/cats or bird then your a noob is bs. Its not all about dps.
But even when it is. Having pets that allow you to get more of you damage in is better then a pet that its only utility is damage (unless your spec heavily into BM trait line).

They are so many ways to mitigate damage to your pet. If your pet dies 90% of the time its the failing of the ranger not the mechanism.

f2 skills are not instant. Learn the time for your favorite pets (at minimum). Pet suffer from something like summoning sickness when you swap so if you use f2 (any command) too soon it wont work.

Learn when to swap out your pet. Not just to avoid its death or to use its f2 skill but to have access to its initial attack like kd’s and the like. As well as for positioning.

If your pet set off a bomb or a trap. Its the rangers fault for not having their pet attack from their side or having a direct line unobstructed line to their target.

Why do so many Rangers blame their pet. When it’s really the failing of the Ranger himself.

Not only should one love thy pet, but also learn to work with thy pet.

Your pet will die for you. I am not asking you to die for your pet. Just merely understand your pet truly.

I’m not calling the ranger underpowered nor am I blaming deaths on my pet. I’m saying there’s no playstyle for an archer. Frankly, I only blame myself for my deaths, because I often find the pet simply not necessary in combat, for through my abilities as playing an archer I have no issues with surviving mass encounters or needing to rely on an aggro soak.

Regarding the comment about “ranged” classes, I stated “archer,” not “ranged.”

And even then, aside from magic-based builds, most of those aren’t very viable.

Vaxx.3178:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

They are so many ways to mitigate damage to your pet. If your pet dies 90% of the time its the failing of the ranger not the mechanism.

Learn when to swap out your pet. Not just to avoid its death or to use its f2 skill but to have access to its initial attack like kd’s and the like. As well as for positioning.

If your pet set off a bomb or a trap. Its the rangers fault for not having their pet attack from their side or having a direct line unobstructed line to their target.

Why do so many Rangers blame their pet. When it’s really the failing of the Ranger himself.

Not only should one love thy pet, but also learn to work with thy pet.

Your pet will die for you. I am not asking you to die for your pet. Just merely understand your pet truly.

So much utter BS in those statements.

I take it you have never played WvW? I take it you have never Teq? Tell me, expert, how do you get your pet to jump over waves? I cant find that button.

1/2 baked mechanic does not make it the Rangers fault.

I don’t put my pet’s in situation I wouldn’t what to be in myself. I run sword/axe and Longbow in WvW. As Far as Teq you and your pet never need to dodge you have more than enough range to be outside of his wave. A group of ranger can easily keep might stacks up and have no trouble with the waves.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Vaxx.3178:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

They are so many ways to mitigate damage to your pet. If your pet dies 90% of the time its the failing of the ranger not the mechanism.

Learn when to swap out your pet. Not just to avoid its death or to use its f2 skill but to have access to its initial attack like kd’s and the like. As well as for positioning.

If your pet set off a bomb or a trap. Its the rangers fault for not having their pet attack from their side or having a direct line unobstructed line to their target.

Why do so many Rangers blame their pet. When it’s really the failing of the Ranger himself.

Not only should one love thy pet, but also learn to work with thy pet.

Your pet will die for you. I am not asking you to die for your pet. Just merely understand your pet truly.

So much utter BS in those statements.

I take it you have never played WvW? I take it you have never Teq? Tell me, expert, how do you get your pet to jump over waves? I cant find that button.

1/2 baked mechanic does not make it the Rangers fault.

I don’t put my pet’s in situation I wouldn’t what to be in myself. I run sword/axe and Longbow in WvW. As Far as Teq you and your pet never need to dodge you have more than enough range to be outside of his wave. A group of ranger can easily keep might stacks up and have no trouble with the waves.

Thanks for proving my point you have no idea what you are talking about. Good to know when I see your post, I can pretty much just ignore it.