Guild Wars 2

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

Since Anet refuses to fix the kitten pets, I would suggest to only go with ranged pets in wvw. Other than that, not a clue, it’s a hard limitation of this class as you’re well aware.
In wvw zerg blobs, aoe is king, and rangers suck at aoe. Find a different role.

You have a couple options. If you want to run offensive pets smokescale and bristleback are your best pet. (heh…get it?) A smokescale reliably hits with its burst and can chase an enemy through the zerg. Once smoke assault ends you will want to immediately pock the f2 in order to cause it to evade the various aoes around it. You can then pull the pet back and with a little luck itl make it back to you in tact. You obviously dont want to send it into the enemy MELEE train. But having it dive into backline is pretty safe. (I recommend sending it in at an angle to there zerg so it can bypass the melee trains bomb)

The Bristleback offers you the ability to provide ranged pressure on enemy downs and casters. Especially those that are isolated (out of hte range of the aoe reflection/bubble spam) such as necros/reapers and even to an extent mesmers and members of the enemy pick.)

A mesmer getting poked by a rangers longbow and bristleback autos at the same time is gonna have to pop something as in a dps spec youl be hitting him around 5-6k per duo shot with the use of something like sic em or stacked might (easy to do with guard+heal as one+zephyrs speed for quickness)

Then you have the option of defensive pets. I,E Canines. You mostly keep these next to you in order to disrupt anyone that tries to gank you. Aoe fear from wolf. Aoe immobilize from drakehound etc.. Combined with Beast master second tier top trait you can mitigate a good amount of a gank if your FAST enough. (Works great with beastly warden)

Finally you have support pets. With Moa’s being at the top since their recent buffs. These pets can also act as defensive pets. With their aoe heal, and decent burst attack. They also hit fairly reliably now that they have had their base range increased.

A big part of this though is that with beast mastery and nature magic a red moa provides permanent fury. And a Blue moa can give that list bit you need for a permanent protection uptime (combined from multiple sources) added another layer of safety.

And both provide there boons in an aoe to your allies as well. Making it very good if your in a party with other pick. As you can provide fury before an engagement and protection when your pulling off on top of your aoe stealth/superspeed and damage reduction combos.

Edit: The defensive and support pets will mostly stay by your side unless your close to your target if you are running a ranged build. Making it easier to keep them alive as they should be avoiding any aoes you do due to them following you around.

The offensive pets (smokescale and bristleback) both have unique features which allow them to exist further away from you (smoke assault/smoke field and extreme range (for a pet)+high toughness)

Swagger.1459:

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

If a player doesn’t want low damage on Druid then that player shouldn’t run full clerics gear. Oh I wonder who runs full Clerics Druid? Just saying.

Also I have seen upwards of 20k+ Mauls in WvW, Rangers can build for Damage.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

If a player doesn’t want low damage on Druid then that player shouldn’t run full clerics gear. Oh I wonder who runs full Clerics Druid? Just saying.

Also I have seen upwards of 20k+ Mauls in WvW, Rangers can build for Damage.

Is that your assumption about my gear?

Lol you keep using the silly maul reference…

Swagger.1459:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

If a player doesn’t want low damage on Druid then that player shouldn’t run full clerics gear. Oh I wonder who runs full Clerics Druid? Just saying.

Also I have seen upwards of 20k+ Mauls in WvW, Rangers can build for Damage.

Is that your assumption about my gear?

Lol you keep using the silly maul reference…

The maul reference is true though, it’s from a build similar to Signet Thief, you have to build for the damage, I’m sorry if you can’t figure out how.

And how I have seen you talk about you trying to Do support role in zergs and complain and want Druids to be Healing gods in WvW it’s not hard to assume you either run clerics or nomads.

Edit:
Added screenshot of Mail for 24k and added Link to video.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

If a player doesn’t want low damage on Druid then that player shouldn’t run full clerics gear. Oh I wonder who runs full Clerics Druid? Just saying.

Also I have seen upwards of 20k+ Mauls in WvW, Rangers can build for Damage.

Is that your assumption about my gear?

Lol you keep using the silly maul reference…

The maul reference is true though, it’s from a build similar to Signet Thief, you have to build for the damage, I’m sorry if you can’t figure out how. And how I have seen you talk about you trying to Do support role in zergs and complain and want Druids to be Healing gods in WvW it’s not hard to assume you either run clerics or nomads.

I don’t care about maul… I care about overall average damage numbers that factor in pets (1/3 of the damage calculations), which struggle to hit moving targets and are dead most of the time in wvw…

I own 9 sets of medium gear… none of which happen to be nomads or minstrel, and I only run a few pieces of cleric gear in a couple builds I may rotate in.

I’m looking at and talking about the big picture, not here to discuss your maul and assumptions…

You don’t seem to understand so reread my previous response. Thanks!

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Well I proved the damage thing wrong,

lol, the maul build proves nothing wrong. Ranger strengths either come from healing or survivability. Our damage is subpar at best in both pvp and pve builds. It drops off significantly in group fights (10+) because virtually all of it is single target and can’t reach significant levels without giving up a lot of sustain. Go ask GvG guilds how many of them bring a ranger as part of their normal team comp. At best you might find a couple that bring the druid as a healbot, but that’s going to be it.

That maul build has been in the game for years and has always been a gimmick that doesn’t work against good players 1v1 and doesn’t work in group fights at all.

Substance E.4852:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Well I proved the damage thing wrong,

lol, the maul build proves nothing wrong. Ranger strengths either come from healing or survivability. Our damage is subpar at best in both pvp and pve builds. It drops off significantly in group fights (10+) because virtually all of it is single target and can’t reach significant levels without giving up a lot of sustain. Go ask GvG guilds how many of them bring a ranger as part of their normal team comp. At best you might find a couple that bring the druid as a healbot, but that’s going to be it.

That maul build has been in the game for years and has always been a gimmick that doesn’t work against good players 1v1 and doesn’t work in group fights at all.

When certain people bring up omg Signet Thief is so stronk shouldn’t do 22k in 3 attacks. Yet that certain persons class can achieve higher damage with one hit. And Maul isn’t the only build that can do good damage, but the certain person doesn’t build for damage and builds for support but wants good damage at the same time.

So I will keep bringing up the maul to prove a point.

You can’t have your cake and eat it to, either spec for damage or not you don’t get both.

And you feel to realize Druid Excels in Small Group like I stated and in Roaming, they don’t also need to excel in Large group as well, every class has things that they don’t excel at, why should Ranger/Druid be a special snowflake and be different and excel in even more?

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Substance E.4852:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Well I proved the damage thing wrong,

lol, the maul build proves nothing wrong. Ranger strengths either come from healing or survivability. Our damage is subpar at best in both pvp and pve builds. It drops off significantly in group fights (10+) because virtually all of it is single target and can’t reach significant levels without giving up a lot of sustain. Go ask GvG guilds how many of them bring a ranger as part of their normal team comp. At best you might find a couple that bring the druid as a healbot, but that’s going to be it.

That maul build has been in the game for years and has always been a gimmick that doesn’t work against good players 1v1 and doesn’t work in group fights at all.

When certain people bring up omg Signet Thief is so stronk shouldn’t do 22k in 3 attacks. Yet that certain persons class can achieve higher damage with one hit. And Maul isn’t the only build that can do good damage, but the certain person doesn’t build for damage and builds for support but wants good damage at the same time.

So I will keep bringing up the maul to prove a point.

You can’t have your cake and eat it to, either spec for damage or not you don’t get both.

And you feel to realize Druid Excels in Small Group like I stated and in Roaming, they don’t also need to excel in Large group as well, every class has things that they don’t excel at, why should Ranger/Druid be a special snowflake and be different and excel in even more?

Bolded… I know you’re not talking about me. I have not mentioned anything about 22k in 3 shots with signet thief, and you are welcome to search my post history to find that quote… That gear comment too… Seriously, keep your assumptions out of this thread and stay on topic.

Your maul has nothing to do with this discussion either.

Increase the AoE cap on skills to 5 targets from 3 would be a good start. Druid in particular has a lot of tools that grant it the theoretical capacity to be strong on the frontline in WvW, but are outclassed in practice.

In a general composition crafting sense, Druid most directly competes with Scrappers and Tempests for a space in a party. What do those classes bring that keeps Druids out of being considered for a spot in meta group compositions? Escapes are part of it. Blink and Elixir S are strong skills that allow those classes to correct their positioning mistakes for free while Druids lack any way to “freely” escape.

Besides that, the sheer utility of Aurasharing (essentially perma frost aura, access to earth aura, shocking aura, etc) on top of the healing and AoE potential Tempest have make them a very unique and easy pick for WvW compositions. Scrappers, meanwhile, bring their AoE healing, AoE cleansing, damage reduction, superspeed fields, and great melee capabilities on top of unparalleled reflect up-time.

Druid just doesn’t bring anything unique that’s also practical for WvW.

As for the dead pets question…. there’s no real fix for them that doesn’t break them when it comes to fight scaling short of a redesign that will never happen. The best general sort of idea is engagement scaling like PvE creatures scale (and WvW lords and such) purely for defensive stats, but that would be a very complex system that would also have to be incredibly fine tuned, and while a system like this should be in place for ALL player generated AI entities in WvW, the likelihood of that sort of balance direction/overhaul this late into the games development would really only occur if there was money to be made from doing so, and I get the feeling that it isn’t very high up on ANets “fix list.”

jcbroe.4329:

Increase the AoE cap on skills to 5 targets from 3 would be a good start. Druid in particular has a lot of tools that grant it the theoretical capacity to be strong on the frontline in WvW, but are outclassed in practice.

In a general composition crafting sense, Druid most directly competes with Scrappers and Tempests for a space in a party. What do those classes bring that keeps Druids out of being considered for a spot in meta group compositions? Escapes are part of it. Blink and Elixir S are strong skills that allow those classes to correct their positioning mistakes for free while Druids lack any way to “freely” escape.

Besides that, the sheer utility of Aurasharing (essentially perma frost aura, access to earth aura, shocking aura, etc) on top of the healing and AoE potential Tempest have make them a very unique and easy pick for WvW compositions. Scrappers, meanwhile, bring their AoE healing, AoE cleansing, damage reduction, superspeed fields, and great melee capabilities on top of unparalleled reflect up-time.

Druid just doesn’t bring anything unique that’s also practical for WvW.

As for the dead pets question…. there’s no real fix for them that doesn’t break them when it comes to fight scaling short of a redesign that will never happen. The best general sort of idea is engagement scaling like PvE creatures scale (and WvW lords and such) purely for defensive stats, but that would be a very complex system that would also have to be incredibly fine tuned, and while a system like this should be in place for ALL player generated AI entities in WvW, the likelihood of that sort of balance direction/overhaul this late into the games development would really only occur if there was money to be made from doing so, and I get the feeling that it isn’t very high up on ANets “fix list.”

Pet’s just need the PvE treatment. Let them take full damage when targeted but give them the 95% damage reduction to aoe attacks. Also make fortifying bond baseline so they get access to stability without completely destroying build variety.

As for the lack of utility, they just need to change spirits to wisps. Let them circle around you and 4 allies giving the buffs and damaging any enemies they hit, and the active will detonate from the players locations. Maybe make 1 of them a stun break or change nature’s vengeance so that detonating a wisp breaks stun.

I’ll stick with my idea for an all around pet fix.
- Only give auto attack and an F2 to the pet. (remove bothersome behavior)
- Pet auto do no more damage than a bleed tic would do. (leave no room for PvP player to complain about an AI killing them)
- Generalize PvE protection to all game mode. (allow ranger to have a special mechanism that doesn’t disapear due to stupid behavior)
- Balance ranger’s weapon output accordingly. (Obvious fact)

Obviously there would be a need to change a bit _"sick’em_" and 2 of our signets but most of the actual complaints about the ranger would probably disapear thanks to that.

They do that and one necro will destroy the entire zerg. Load the pet up with condi’s, then epidemic bomb it. Since the pet isnt taken direct damage, you can load the pet up with massive amounts of stacks (similar to a lord/champ) and transfer that to 5 folks, instantly killing all of them.

Staff aa meets the dps threshhold for killing any class with zerk gear. Running less power? Expect less damage.

mulzi.8273:

They do that and one necro will destroy the entire zerg. Load the pet up with condi’s, then epidemic bomb it. Since the pet isnt taken direct damage, you can load the pet up with massive amounts of stacks (similar to a lord/champ) and transfer that to 5 folks, instantly killing all of them.

It’s good to see that there are still people that greatly overestimate the necromancers. Beside, what’s done in PvE is not “pets do not take direct damage”, “it’s pet do not take direct damage if they are not the target of the attacker”.

You seem to forget that the pet have roughly 40k health point which could be reduced since their vitality had been raised for the purpose of making them more resilient (let me laugh!). And 40k is not enough for a necromancer to stack up a deadly amount of conditions (outside the fact that the ranger can still switch it’s pet as a counter play). No honestly, as someone who play decently almost all profession (still struggling with revenant) using the ranger’s pet to condibomb a party feel… stupid! It would be an extremely ridicule gimmick which would only take idiot of guard. A ranger that would let that happen just deserve it’s death.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Swagger.1459:

Ranger and Druid damage is pretty low, and pets hardly contribute because they struggle to hit moving targets or are dead… so how do we fix this?

If a player doesn’t want low damage on Druid then that player shouldn’t run full clerics gear. Oh I wonder who runs full Clerics Druid? Just saying.

Also I have seen upwards of 20k+ Mauls in WvW, Rangers can build for Damage.

Is that your assumption about my gear?

Lol you keep using the silly maul reference…

The maul reference is true though, it’s from a build similar to Signet Thief, you have to build for the damage, I’m sorry if you can’t figure out how.

And how I have seen you talk about you trying to Do support role in zergs and complain and want Druids to be Healing gods in WvW it’s not hard to assume you either run clerics or nomads.

Edit:
Added screenshot of Mail for 24k and added Link to video.

Getting hit by a maul is like getting hit by a warrior’s eviscerate, the person is BAD. Except it’s even worse because unlike warrior ranger doesn’t have a multitude of short cd stuns/roots to secure a maul with, and eviscerate hits for those numbers often while maul builds are a one trick pony with no sustained damage whatsoever if the burst fails.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Substance E.4852:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Well I proved the damage thing wrong,

lol, the maul build proves nothing wrong. Ranger strengths either come from healing or survivability. Our damage is subpar at best in both pvp and pve builds. It drops off significantly in group fights (10+) because virtually all of it is single target and can’t reach significant levels without giving up a lot of sustain. Go ask GvG guilds how many of them bring a ranger as part of their normal team comp. At best you might find a couple that bring the druid as a healbot, but that’s going to be it.

That maul build has been in the game for years and has always been a gimmick that doesn’t work against good players 1v1 and doesn’t work in group fights at all.

When certain people bring up omg Signet Thief is so stronk shouldn’t do 22k in 3 attacks. Yet that certain persons class can achieve higher damage with one hit. And Maul isn’t the only build that can do good damage, but the certain person doesn’t build for damage and builds for support but wants good damage at the same time.

So I will keep bringing up the maul to prove a point.

You can’t have your cake and eat it to, either spec for damage or not you don’t get both.

And you feel to realize Druid Excels in Small Group like I stated and in Roaming, they don’t also need to excel in Large group as well, every class has things that they don’t excel at, why should Ranger/Druid be a special snowflake and be different and excel in even more?

Great, so you’re saying that in WVW, the massive battle game mode, ranger / druid excels at the sideline dinky crap instead of what is the main purpose of existance of the said game mode, and thus it is fine as is.

Got it.

Isn’t the bigger problem with wvw, and not ranger?

Two blobs make most damage numbers meaningless, SoS through it. What can’t be burst down can certainly be whittled through attrition.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

What can’t be burst down can certainly be whittled through attrition.

Yeah…. that’s not really true anymore.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Isn’t the bigger problem with wvw, and not ranger?

Two blobs make most damage numbers meaningless, SoS through it. What can’t be burst down can certainly be whittled through attrition.

The issue is not WvW. The issue has always been a lack of foresight when they created the ranger’s special mechanism and the fact that they thought : “It’s ok if ranger do less damage since they got a pet to add damage to”.

The pet mechanism in itself was an interesting concept, however, the way it has been done make the pet forever imbalanced. So either it’s useless or it’s overpowered. In the end the choice that they did (and keep) is to keep the pet in kitteneless state. The fact that it is useless wouldn’t really matter if it didn’t came with it’s load of drawback (like the low damage of weapons, pet aggro, the fact that the pet is a flag that reveal you when you’re stealthed… etc.)

It’s a clear problem of design ad the fact that the pets are a joke in wvw is just the cherry on the cake.

As i said it before and i repeat again, it should be pretty easy to improve the pets to the point that they could be wanted:

• cleanses, stunbreaks and evades that affect the ranger also affects the pets. That way you get the tools to save your pet if you sacrifice yoir own survival. The same for the boons: the boons the ranger gets should be copied(like thy work now with fortifing bond)
• pets should be left with 2 different autottacks from the 3 actually available, the most simple ones that do not require any AI to work and can be casted as soon as they are off CD with no impact in the player gameplay.
• players should have control over other 2 of the pet’s abilities, the most common design (although with some exceptions to give every pet a different flavor) one utility skill and one burst skill.
• Burst will be designed to overcome the lacks of the ranger, can be a decent dps AoE or a strong dps single target. This burst should have casting time and clear tells so targets may avoid them if they keep their eyes in the screen.
• Utility should be skills that bring support and\sustain: smokescale smoke field a perfect example. This skills don’t need to be new or especially designed: reuse of the other professions skills could be cool too. Pets that can cast reflecting bubbles, water fields, group stealth… would be a great addition and also increase exponientaly the variety of the ranger gameplay.
• Pets AI driven attacks should have reduced their dps to an average match for Staff solar beam in average (so glassy pets could do same damage as a glass canon solar beam). Pets should attack faster and have better habilities to hit and stick to their target.
• Pets should have also diferent mobility and speed attack between them to match different playstyles and give an uniqness flavor to each one of them. A player could preffer a pet that hit slower but does more damage(to wear off diamond skin alikes) or a pet that hit faster for less damage (to hit thieves). Some pets could move faster than any player others almost no move during combat (manly to reinforce thier role: a tank tortoise pet wich have all skills for suport\sustain PbAoE you may want it as static as possible)
• pet’s skills that are player controlled should increase their dps accordingly to their role. Some pets should be designed to complement the lack of single target burst at the style of warriors killshot. Anet shouldnt be afraid to test differents skills effects, they have many variable to balance it like the glassiness of the pet, CD, range…
• Pets should stay completely independent from ranger stats. Trait line BM should not increase their mobility or direct dps as this should not be needed. BM traitline should be focused in increase the gameplay by encouraging the synergy between the ranger and the pet as empathic bond (should be in bm with some tweaks), Companions might(great trait by the way that can’t get the shine it deserves) or Zephirs speed.
• Other players pointed out in this forum: the utility from the old shout guard should come back as baseline command available to any ranger. The utility that brings being able to leave your pet as advanced scout\ guard for a camp\ another entrance of the corridor is too good to be forgotten. it should be an state, like offensive\passive is so the ranger should be able to cast the F2 skills and the pet still carry on guarding the area. Also that command could allow the ranger to somehow be able to order the pet to follow a concrete path if he is good enough(to flank a zerg to get to the backline for example)
• casting the F2 should not make the pet switch targets if it has already a target. For that we already have the command Attack my target.

In resume: pets should lose thier actual vision of “average for any situation” and instead became to “very good for one job”. Ranger should not be the class for people that want an AFK class for farming, they already have minion master necro for that, or a class were your bear tank while you AA the boss, players have the warrior or guardian for that as well.

Ranger should be class with the pet mechanic were the ranger must play with that mechanic and in exchange get greater rewards. Right now due to the lack of complete control pets are more or less like a loose end.

Issue comes with balancing issues in WvW for ranger,
If you buff pets, you will also buff the 1500 range pewpew ranger, that neither allies or enemies like.

Looking at the concept of ranger/druid

Core ranger might be okay in 1v1, but when theres more than 2 people (at least in smallscale), it becomes less than half a revenant, like most, even all non-HoT specs. So theres nothing to fix there. Well its a class that cant seriously ress, stomp, share boons or stay 300 range from enemy so I guess its good against cancerous play.

Druid is more interesting, it has almost the same damage as normal ranger but can ress, stomp, stealth, share boons and be somewhat useful in other ways. The great ress/stomp ability, makes druid strong in small scale like 2v2s, 6v6s etc.

Now if we look at both, they are both single target classes, their pets are single target classes as well. Capable of dishing out over 10k damage in 1 second immobilizing enemy, makes them perfect single targeters, its the only way to play druid (not ranger), and only way to keep pets alive. So basically you will be punished going out of your role and pewpewing people in the middle of enemy zerg, instead of at the sides, and its only your pet dying, not you, boohoo, not the worst thing in the world.

Anyways the whole concept of single target classes in wrong in WvW, theres 1 AoE damage skill in normal druid build. You cant obviously balance skills for both single and AoE target. Staff ele sucks in 1v1 or smallscale, but excels in AoE because pure overall dps. Ranger sucks in overall dps, but has bigger damage on single target.

Thats why ranger will never be optimal “braindead” class in largescale WvW until they bring another weaponset, kinda like thief, you actually have to think. Mesmer can do lot of AoE bursts, but is little harder to execute than above mentioned classes. Thus you druids and daredevils should stick in roaming/small-scale and all classes are balanced.

As an option to play ranger, play revenant for bigger fights, it has nearly same range with hammer, is viable full zerk and shiro evade backwards is basically lightning reflexes and glint heal is basically signet of stone but better. Best thing of all, it does AoE damage!! 10k AoE hammer 2, 10k AoE hammer 3, 10k AoE hammer 5!!! Hard to hit on single targets, but excels on this scale. Also it shares boons and doesn’t rely on pets.

They would have to buff ranger damage by 100% to make it even close to damage/support most classes deal out in largerscale WvW fights, and they wont do that because it will break the smallscale. But I guess anet is living with the saying " No pain, no gain". So you have to risk yourself to come out of that 1500 range shell to become viable.

Simple facts :

1- Your pet attacks your target.
2- F2 makes the pet (in addition to the F2 skill) to attack your target (even in “Avoid Combat” mod).
3- When your pet he’s in “Avoid Combat” mod and you activates “Guard” mod, your pet attacks your target.
4- When your pet he ’s in “Guard” mod and you activates “Avoid Combat” mod, he returns to you.

As a result :
- You have 3 different ways to make your pet to attack your target (2 and 3) so the F1 is ABSOLUTLY USELESS and NEVER USED. You obviously have a room on the F1 to do anything else rather than a command that you can achieve in 2 other ways.
- “Guard” mod to “Avoid Combat mod” and your pet returns to you (4) so F3 is really barely used, you got another room.

All the F command are in conflict, (F2 and Guard/AC mods are concretly enough for pet management ) it needs to be fixed. Then you could find other usefull commands.

borya.2964:

- You have 3 different ways to make your pet to attack your target (2 and 3) so the F1 is ABSOLUTLY USELESS and NEVER USED

While it is true that you can use different methods to get your pet to attack your target by other means than F1 (F2, out of range attacking, cancel attacking, Sic’em), I still find plenty of use for F1 so I wouldn’t want to miss out on that function. Out of range attacking or cancel attacks won’t work with pet in Avoid Combat mode.

F1 is also the only way to get your pet to switch to another target in combat (and stick to it), without you having to do so (other than to quickly target the other enemy and ‘tag’ it with F1).

So no, the functionality of F1 is far from useless.

Also…

borya.2964:

3- When your pet he’s in “Avoid Combat” mod and you activates “Guard” mod, your pet attacks your target

Only if you yourself attacks the target. Only switching from one mode to the other won’t make the pet attack. May be easily misinterpreted when you word it like that.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Out of range attacking or cancel attacks won’t work with pet in Avoid Combat mode.

I am not sure to understand what you mean, but i would say turn your pet in Guard mod, and you’re ok, no need for the F1 here .

OGDeadHead.8326:

F1 is also the only way to get your pet to switch to another target in combat (and stick to it), without you having to do so (other than to quickly target the other enemy and ‘tag’ it with F1).
So no, the functionality of F1 is far from useless.

Ok, i believe you. But from my point of view, “plenty” of use is actually 1 niche command in such a case. We are talking about pvp / WvW fights right ? I never do this, neither in solo roaming (vs at least 2 guys), nor small scale fights, nor large scale fights. Besides, i watch a lot of vids (ranger / druid mostly) and i never saw anyone reliably do this. I can see 2 reasons :

1.) Pratically (am not sure that is the good word to get the idea in english) you don’t have the time to do it, it’s an action mmo with big spikes damage. Let say you’re fighting two guys : the time you chek and point the one who’s not targeted, while still figthing your target, to use your F1, and chek for you pet to know if he’s actually sticking the second target (untargeted), you’re virtually dead. I feel like i haven’t the luxury to reliably do this.
2.) Our pets, for all the reasons we all know, stick to nothing.

Like i said, F2 and Guard/AC mods are concretly enough for pet management during a fight. When i say “useless”, i mean “pratically” useless. I can’t imagine that we (rangers) should perfectly use all the F1 commands to successfully fight, cuz for real, it’s nearly impossible. So, if we can achieve, globally, all we need to do with 2 commands whereas there are 4 commands , there is a room for improvement.

I use F1 a lot and would miss it, if its functionality gets lost. I keep my pets on “avoid combat” most of the time to prevent them from wasting their skills at the wrong moments and to have better control over them in general and therefore F1 is my main attack command, which makes sure, that the pet sticks to the target it should (and it actually does!), even if i target something else for whatever reason. (Interrupting a rezzing enemy while my pets keeps dmging the downed for example, or when i’m tabbing arround to check what/how my enemies are doing or because my actual target is stealthed, and i don’t want my pet to run back and forth between different targets).

F1 is also comes in handy vs enemies that stealths, or vs mesmers for example. F1 on the real mesmer, and your pet will always attack the ‘real’ mesmer and won’t get confused by clones like a player many times will be.
Lock on to a thief that stealths with F1, and the moment the thief becomes visible again, your pet will instantly seek out said thief (if within range), revealing where they are even if you don’t see where they ran to.

You can also get your pet to use its F2 skill on an enemy you previously locked it to, even if you yourself are attacking someone else. Just drop your target briefly, and make sure autotargeting is off, press F2 and your pet will use its ability on the target it’s attacking, instead of running to you and use it on your target instead.

Whether people think stuff like these are useful or not depends a lot on playstyle, and how they like to utilize their pets. I for sure would miss F1, since it opens up plenty more options for how you can best use them.

Before, when the leash range wasn’t so pathetic as it is now, it was great to let your pet chase the enemy that fled from a point and keep pressuring that enemy, while you stayed and helped your team with the fight on point (or send it to take out the enemy treb/harass the the enemy player trebbing while you helped out with the fight on mid).

None of all this would be possible without F1.

You both are right.
If you have one target (targeted), then you have 4 options for your pet to attack the target:

1.) In both AC and G mods (you’re not attacking), use F2, and then the pet will reach the target to land the F2, or land the F2 at your side, and then he will attack the target.
2.) You’re in AC mod (you’re not attacking), you can use F1, then your pet will stick to the target.
3.) You’re in AC mod, you need to attack your target, then turn the pet in G mod, (or the contrary) and will stick the target.
4.) You’re on G mod, just attack your target.

In all 4, the pet will stick to the target, even if you remove the target. Now if you have two targets A end B, if you want your pet to attack A, you need to target A and then use one of the 4 options, but 2 and 3 offer better control and timing without wasting F2. Once your pet stick to A, if you target and attack B:

In 2.) Your pet will keep sticking to A (untargeted), while you are attacking B (targeted). It’s indeed the only way to achieve that. Unless you use F2 (your pet will reach B ), or swap pet and the new pet won’t attack any targets until the next command.
In 3.) Once you attack B (targeted) the pet will stop to stick to A and will reach or attack B.

That being said, you still have 4 different ways to engage your pet vs your target just because you sometimes want him to stick to a specific one and you have 2 different ways to call back him. The F1 tooltip is even actually wrong. It’s way too much and too complicated, that’s why, depending on playstyle I guess, rangers find their own way to make the pet practical (I was a big user of the old Guard utility skill). And it’s probably the reason why there is no simple answer to the dead pet sentence in WvW. We could say that that the pet would receive less damage on AC mod for instance, but hell you can’t because any form of other actions cancel the said AC mod effect, etc…