New 80 ranger...current state of pets?
>PvE
Cats for DPS Tiger (Fury)/Stalker/Lynx (Bleeds)
Bristleback for SotP+ranged burst for quick Might Stacking
>PvP
Bristleback+Smokeskale
Wolf and Birds sometimes
>WvW
Everything dies really quickly with all the AoE flying around in Zergs. Might want to use Ranged pets like Bristle and Spider unless you’re roaming. If you’re just doing small scale/duels out there, then its about the same as regular PvP in terms of your choices.
(edited by Euthymias.7984)
Half-noob ranger here… I mostly PvE and like to use the smokescale mainly. He can take a beating plus has a take down attack that helps with a break bar decently. The F2 creates a smoke combo field. The tiger is the other one I equip because of the the fury.
I really hate how pets die in WvW. Ranger is the only class that loses its “F abilities” in WvW.
In addition to the ones mentioned here, you may want to give a try at the Drakes too. They’re tough, cleave on auto attack, have a big burst on tail swipe which is also a blast finisher, and the river drake’s F2 is very good (big bouncing channeled damage, so will keep hitting foes even if they go in stealth).
Olaf Oakmane [KA]
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SmokeScale is the best PvP pet you can get. People like it for open world as well. I strongly recommend not to use it in dungeons/fractals/raids.
The highest DPS pet would be Lynx/Tiger depending on target toughness.
The highest DPS on moving target has Bristleback hands down.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
SmokeScale is the best PvP pet you can get.
Smokescale is in the highest tier along with bristleback, wolf, drake, spider, and arguably raven. You can’t directly compare those pets because they do different things.
Smokescale and Bristleback are an improvement but pets are still the worst class mechanic in the game. Worthless in WvW zergs, and in situations where you are kiting your target (If you have a melee pet out watch it endlessly try to run to your target and swipe at empty air as your target is trying to move to you, or if you have Bristleback out watch as it only moves to just barely be in range, making many of its attacks and F2’s end up out of range because of constant movement)
SmokeScale is the best PvP pet you can get.
Smokescale is in the highest tier along with bristleback, wolf, drake, spider, and arguably raven. You can’t directly compare those pets because they do different things.
I was mostly speaking overall.
SmokeScale has durability, has spike that tracks the target, has CC and is the only pet that has synergy with Ranger and druid in general. It also negates a portion of Empathic Bond and negates whole Signet of Renewal.
It also offers stealth.
All this combined will outblast any other pet for PvP. If only for the stealth combo. Bristle will not outperform this pet just because it a spike that misses anywhere outside of 600 range and has 4 seconds cast time.
I was able to replace bristle in my builds. I wasn’t able to replace smokescale, though. It’s just way too versatile and good at everything. It’s also a walking portable insta-taunt.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
I was mostly speaking overall.
That’s exactly I no longer use it. It’s very good at everything, but not the best at anything. I prefer to use 2 specialized pets that are better at what they do. That way when I swap to a pet, I’m getting the most out of the reason I swapped to that pet.
I was mostly speaking overall.
That’s exactly I no longer use it. It’s very good at everything, but not the best at anything. I prefer to use 2 specialized pets that are better at what they do. That way when I swap to a pet, I’m getting the most out of the reason I swapped to that pet.
Well, that naturally makes sense. I just cannot stop counting how many times have the smoke field saved my life.
But that’s my personal play-style.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
I have no problems kiting my target when using the smokescale. I send him in to pull aggro while I dance around poking them with arrows. The smoke field has saved my back loads of times. Pets do need improved, would be nice to see a bit more control over their other abilities. Many times I wish I could control the takedown.
Hello! I only recently started playing this game seriously and am reaching almost full ascended on my ranger. Here are my 2 cents.
I play my ranger on full zeolot. At literally a weapon swap I turn from a pretty decent zerk to a pretty decent cleric.
Both my damage and heals are good and I use this build all the time in all situations because that’s how I like to play. I only swap 1 talent tree in raid healing.
For pets I use a hawk. It has great precision and good power (2nd highest I believe). I have the taunt trait and even tho his health is lower he often survives better and deals faster dmg then some other popular dmg choices.
1. His animations are fast and with the extra movement speed from trait and signet I can send him in and out of the fray very fast and cancel some of his animations very quickly. If your good with micro-management your hawk/eagle will stay alive in almost any situation.
2. He has great damage. No fancy buffs to give but while traited his bleed/taunt (F2) is on a 5 second CD. This means not only does he stack bleeds constantly but you can peel mobs off of yourself every 5secs. Combine his movement, your longbow survy skills and good positioning and you make an incredible team.
I dislike taking cats for example because their animations are long and it takes longer to cancel them to make it come back to you if it’s dangerous.
3. My second pet is the one that’s situational. Usually it’s fire wyvern (really only because it’s cool and has pretty decent dmg + knockdown),
Smokescale (murder dog) is my go-to second pet because his smoke field is excellent for survy but on a longer CD, it helps that he has the shadowstep ability to help him and also he uses shadowstep right away on attack, meaning he gets to enemies faster than most pets due to porting before he gets into melee.
For healing/raids I use Fern Hound because of healing talent tree his f2 howl gives a great amount of regen aswell as a good burst of healing, very dandy to keep him on boss to help you burst heal your melee’s.
Closing words:
I haven’t done a lot of WvW and I think my whole build wouldn’t be so good, but I haven’t tried it.
PvE is great because I go from a decent zerk to a decent healer with just a flip of a button.
PvP I rarely heal, only when I have no choice to survive and I kill a whole lot and my hawk by itself deals INCREDIBLE damage. I love kittening over rangers who have cats or dogs (anything other than hawk/smokescale/bristleback rly).
If you are good at pet management Hyena is also a great option because with his F2 you can pull off 2 seperate knockdowns or a double-knockdown on a target.
That’s it, feel free to discuss and if you want I can post my build.
Cheers!
The highest DPS on moving target has Bristleback hands down.
Assumption or actual testing?
I thought the same, but maybe it is not always the case. I compared tiger and bristleback in the dps test area. Both lose dps against the moving golem compared to the immobile one (~ 25% less) and the tiger actually stayed ahead (<10%) in my test. Of course it depends on the circumstances. Bristle was shooting from almost max range, closer distance will increase its dps. Fast moving/rushing/porting mobs will be a bigger disadvantage for the tiger, same with lack of speed increase for the pet (i was using beastmastery – without bm it would depend on swiftness access for the pet). On the other hand obstacles can be an issue for the bristleback.
Overall the difference seem to be negligible and my testing wasn’t very detailed, maybe it was just bad luck for the bristleback.
I still found the outcome rather interesting.
@UmbraNoctis
Testing. I constantly recall Bristle in raids when I’m about to use his F2. You lose out on a lot of damage if he strikes from afar.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
Hello! I only recently started playing this game seriously and am reaching almost full ascended on my ranger. Here are my 2 cents.
I play my ranger on full zeolot. At literally a weapon swap I turn from a pretty decent zerk to a pretty decent cleric.
Both my damage and heals are good and I use this build all the time in all situations because that’s how I like to play. I only swap 1 talent tree in raid healing.For pets I use a hawk. It has great precision and good power (2nd highest I believe). I have the taunt trait and even tho his health is lower he often survives better and deals faster dmg then some other popular dmg choices.
1. His animations are fast and with the extra movement speed from trait and signet I can send him in and out of the fray very fast and cancel some of his animations very quickly. If your good with micro-management your hawk/eagle will stay alive in almost any situation.
2. He has great damage. No fancy buffs to give but while traited his bleed/taunt (F2) is on a 5 second CD. This means not only does he stack bleeds constantly but you can peel mobs off of yourself every 5secs. Combine his movement, your longbow survy skills and good positioning and you make an incredible team.
I dislike taking cats for example because their animations are long and it takes longer to cancel them to make it come back to you if it’s dangerous.
3. My second pet is the one that’s situational. Usually it’s fire wyvern (really only because it’s cool and has pretty decent dmg + knockdown),
Smokescale (murder dog) is my go-to second pet because his smoke field is excellent for survy but on a longer CD, it helps that he has the shadowstep ability to help him and also he uses shadowstep right away on attack, meaning he gets to enemies faster than most pets due to porting before he gets into melee.
For healing/raids I use Fern Hound because of healing talent tree his f2 howl gives a great amount of regen aswell as a good burst of healing, very dandy to keep him on boss to help you burst heal your melee’s.Closing words:
I haven’t done a lot of WvW and I think my whole build wouldn’t be so good, but I haven’t tried it.
PvE is great because I go from a decent zerk to a decent healer with just a flip of a button.
PvP I rarely heal, only when I have no choice to survive and I kill a whole lot and my hawk by itself deals INCREDIBLE damage. I love kittening over rangers who have cats or dogs (anything other than hawk/smokescale/bristleback rly).
If you are good at pet management Hyena is also a great option because with his F2 you can pull off 2 seperate knockdowns or a double-knockdown on a target.That’s it, feel free to discuss and if you want I can post my build.
Cheers!
How did you get ascended zealot gear?
Champion Illusionist Champion Hunter Champion Phantom Champion Magus