Guild Wars 2

Hey all, haven’t played ranger for very specific reasons, so i have some questions. I was stoked to try the class until i read about the pets. I know some love them, but i personally can’t stand pet classes so I’ve kept away from ranger.

Management of a FEW pet abilities and keeping it on a target is fine, but i reeeally hate micromanaging an NPC pseudo-companion. I’ve read plenty about how skilled play of the class requires smart micro’ing your pet and that it contributes a significant part of your damage.

My question is: Is this always true? Are there builds or playstyles that put far more emphasis on your character’s abilities and damage and require less pet babysitting? Is it even possible?

Thanks in advance.

you obvoiusly havn’t even made a ranger to try. go make one, there is no micro managing of your pet.

once your in game your pet does its own thing, attacks what your attacking, the only thing you need to is is choose what pet you want….

There is MUCH more micro managing a necro herd than a rangers pets. truth be told, necros are the “pet build” class.

You do have to manage your pet, but like you said it depends how heavily you want to rely on them. I have 15 sec pet swapping and use two wolves. So I swap a lot and my pets are important to my build.

the only complaints from micro managing pets are from high lvl dungeon runners this is mainly because pets get 1 shotted by mobs there..

if your doing anything else you never really need to micro manage

you dont have to spec for the pet you purely choose traits that only effect the ranger.. but if you ignore the pet altogether then your missing the point of the class and it’s advantages..

Why do you want to play ranger if you’re not interested in working with a companion AI?

My suggestion for minimal pet headaches is to get a pair of devourers, specifically carrion & whiptail. They have very high armor, tunnel backward to evade melee, and can push back melee opponents. They will mostly stay out of trouble and add some damage & poison to your current target. Use their specials if you feel like more poison, swap them when you must, and don’t worry about it. I lose the majority of my DPS if my pet dies, but you won’t, and unlike GW1, nothing bad will happen to you.

Do “stow” them before jumping down barrier if you’re worried they might pull mobs. They have a weird swim animation, but they will work underwater just fine.

My build honestly probably utilizes as little of the pet as possible, but I still find myself hitting the pet buttons very often (F1-F4), especially casting the F2 in good situations. In other words, if you want to be a decent ranger, you do need to learn how to use your chosen pet.

Hmm ok, sounds like what i’d heard was from high level dungeon runners exclusively then. I’ll give these suggestions a shot, I’ve been inspired to try ranger. Thanks everyone!

You can tailor your build/playstyle around how important you want your pets to be. Personally, I’ve been leveling with whichever pet suits my current mood with no problems. Call em back or switch their target if you want them to focus on your target or keep another busy. Or just ignore them and let em attack whatever they feel like.
You can trait BM for extra emphasis on your pet’s damage and survivability and role, or trait into other things and just let it act as a passive dot on your targets.

They have such cool & varied functionality that I think you’ll start to enjoy them more & more as you play your Ranger and your management of pets will become just 2nd nature. Remember, every profession has F-key mechanics that define the class. This is Rangers. You can treat them like Guardian virtues, left on passive (to their own devices) or trait into em and use em on CD (pet skills, traits, management).