Guild Wars 2

I don’t mind losing the effects of this trait if my pet is defeated, deactivated, or when entering water, but can we atleast be able to keep stacks upon pet swapping?

That’s the reason I’ve never used this trait. You have to swap pets during a fight, whether it’s to use another’s f2 or if the one you swapped out was close to dying. And then once you do, all stacks are gone.

I’m actually surprised this wasn’t addressed in the feature pack balance update.

Yeah it’s counter intuitive. You’re supposed to actively swap pets, why have a trait that discourages good play? I’d say ~50% of the pet traits are either not well thought out or bugged. Malicious Training? Yeah that might be a good trait if it actually increased the durations. I still see it being suggested or in people’s builds though.

Shanks.2907:

Yeah it’s counter intuitive. You’re supposed to actively swap pets, why have a trait that discourages good play? I’d say ~50% of the pet traits are either not well thought out or bugged. Malicious Training? Yeah that might be a good trait if it actually increased the durations. I still see it being suggested or in people’s builds though.

Last time I tested it malicious training was working but you need to be in combat. Of course there has been a patch or two since then so who knows whether they broke it again or not.

This trait is actually very strong if you can amanage to keep a single pet out for a long time – that however makes it a lot more valuable for people with tank pets such as bears or drakes. Honestly though? It’s still a great trait that i’ve been using for a long time, as it actually turns pets into powerhouses as time goes on. Drakes in particular benefit a lot from it due to the fact that they are both tanky and cleave, giving them solid damage against multiple opponents.

Its the only trait that makes me dread the sight of water.

It’s just a terrible trait, especially when you start to consincider you could just take Might Swap and the 6 might (3 + 3 from you, assuming Fortifying Bond) gives your pet as much damage at 25 stacks of Master’s Bond and more overall tankiness because you will be pet swapping constantly. As well as access to both F2, and AoE might for you are your other teammates.

Just bad. All round bad.

Untrue Cuf! it depends on the situation – plus, when you swap pets, the aggro your pet had gets swapped to you, which can be devastating for a zerker who relies on their pet for tanking.

Master’s Bond has its place, it’s just not with squishier pets. Keep in mind that a drake or bear on a BM ranger can tank legendary bosses in mid-high grade fractals and Arah explorable for a considerable amount of time.

I always thought they should do away with the stacks and make it a flat buff like: “Your pet inherits 10% of your stats.”

Percentage would be debatable, but you know what I mean.

Harnel.6810:

Untrue Cuf! it depends on the situation – plus, when you swap pets, the aggro your pet had gets swapped to you, which can be devastating for a zerker who relies on their pet for tanking.

Master’s Bond has its place, it’s just not with squishier pets. Keep in mind that a drake or bear on a BM ranger can tank legendary bosses in mid-high grade fractals and Arah explorable for a considerable amount of time.

OK, I perhaps should have mentioned I am talking purely about WvW and PvP. I don’t do PvE at all so I have no idea, and you could well be right on that.

But when fighting other players there’s really no justification for this trait.

The trait sucks.

Cufufalating.8479:

OK, I perhaps should have mentioned I am talking purely about WvW and PvP. I don’t do PvE at all so I have no idea, and you could well be right on that.

But when fighting other players there’s really no justification for this trait.

I’ll agree with you there; like I said, this trait is very situation dependant, and PvP/WvW result in far too many deaths for both you and your pets to keep stacks up. I love it in PvE though, which is where I spend most of my time.