Guild Wars 2

First id like to say thanks for all the work you have put into the December 10th patch coming up. However there are two issues I have seen that has not been addressed and they are ignored by most rangers except those that use heavy BM tree builds.

My goal: Convince developers to consider removing the stack loss on down for masters bond.
Second Goal: Convince developers to consider causing Search and rescues detection radius to center around the PET (as the tool tip describes it as) not the player and increase its range.

Reasoning is as follows

First is as the topic above says the Masters Bond trait. This trait adds stats to the pet for every successful kill by the player. On paper its a GREAT trait to have for heavy pet focused builds.

However this trait has flaws that may seem small but cause the trait to be one of the LEAST desired if not the least desired trait in the BM tree.

First is the reset on down. I understand slightly why this was made. I am okay with this ON ITS OWN. however coupled with the second flaw it is crippling.

The second flaw is Loss of stacks on pet swap or deactivation.

Pet swap as above im okay with on its own. It deepens the bond with the ranger to a specific pet that he/she decides to fight with. Rewarding there perseverance.

However if the reset on pet swap is to be implemented. I believe that the reset on pet down should be disposed of. Pets down…its part of the game. and when a pet downs one of the first things we do is pet swap. Thats TWO things that happen that this trait is designed to work against.

Coupled with bosses with either one shot mechanics that pets cant avoid (jade maw , crusher, and for anything not a bear the flame wave of the new twin boss fractal.) Its a pain enough as it is and were scrambling to rescue our pets from near certain and regular demise. Even a full pet shout ranger spamming guard and troll ungeant can only watch as his pet is crippled/chilled and then torn apart cause it can no longer be recalled to the rangers side without loss of masters bond stacks.

What i ask for is. Either remove the loss on down. OR remove the loss on swap/deactivation (possible method to make masters bond appear on the rangers buff bar instead of the pets? Yet still improve the pet stats) One would further support the bond between a ranger and his pet. The other would support the bond between the rangers TWO pets. A Bear tanks to group and collects stacks of masters bond. Then the eagle utilizes it rushing through and hitting high value targets.

For Search and rescue the issue is a little different.

My issue with this ability is that not only can it interfere with guard (thus canceling its effect in the same way that sic’em does) but that it chooses its target in a TIGHT radius around the ranger. Thus making sic’em useful only if the ranger is in melee with the grp. For shortbow/longbow/axe rangers that isnt always going to be the case.

The result is a member in melee downing. Me hitting search and rescue. The pet looking for downed players around ME…. and not even noticing the poor warrior bleeding out on the floor next to him.

I thank you for taking the time to read this.
And hope that you will reply letting us know atleast that you have seen it.

It is nice to see some people here actualy defend the well behing of the pets. Master bond do deserve some reworking. Technicaly the buff should be active as long as the ranger itself doesnt die. this would solve the issue of pet swapping going underwater and pet death by 1 hit KO boss such as lupi or worse yet… alpha.

How about if buffs were shared amonst pets so to keep the buff until one of them dies? this would justify pet swapping and force the player to be considerate of what they do with their pet… and im not just saying this for Master bond but also for might stacks and any lovely buff such as Rampage as one the pet just lost because the kitten able boss spammed a nuke that the pet obviously cannot dodge (exemple: Alpha)

Give love to our pets! We who work hard to keep them alive from those nasty red circles using all our effective control to pull them out or make them dodge deserve consideration! (i dont ask to have a jingle bear that can solo tank Duncan the black but i still want my Jaguard to be able to take on some aoe or at least keep its current dps when i have to swap it in the middle of a battle

Good to know Im not the only one who wants the trait to be decently viable :P.
So much potential but its wasted in the current mechanic scheme.

Just incase you didn’t know, S&R went to useless mode when they nerfed it not to revive defeated players… it’s dead to me anyway. YMMV.