Guild Wars 2

So guys, it’s one month in, we’ve all had some time to play with various pets, and I was just wondering what everyone thought. Which pets have you tried? Which worked great, and why? Which didn’t, and why? What do you guys think?

Personally, in beta I came to the impression that Bears were the only pets worth using, because they had higher cumulative stats than the other pet types, and the other ones died all the time. After launch though, I focused my traits on the pet line, and on regeneration for my pets, and found some of the other ones plenty survivable to use.

My current character is Shortbow-based, and uses a Raven and an Eagle as pets. I really like these birds, because one Blinds and the other Bleeds, they move very quickly with little wasted movement, they are small and fly so they don’t get in the way visually as much as a bear or lizard, and they can give me swiftness sometimes when I attack a random critter. They have decent damage, keep agro quite effectively, and only rarely die when I pull more agro than most classes could survive anyways, so I don’t blame them for that.

I have also used bears a good bit, and wanted to use an Arctodus or Murrelow for their special attacks, but can’t get over their creepy looks. Same with Devourers, I hear they’re useful, but ew. I like the River Drake, still use him as one of my aquatic animals (still paying around with those to find ones I like). I do kind of wish that once you unlocked a given racial trait you could train it into a different breed, like being able to make a Snow Owl that bleeds things, or a Wolf that can summon a buddy wolf like the Hyena can. I don’t see the harm in it, given that they have the same stats anyways there shouldn’t be any balance issues with that.

Anyways, what have you guys learned so far?

As a fledgling ranger, I too am interest in specific pet choices for different situations.

All I know is
Bear = tank
Jaguar is good for stealth attacks
Birds are good for swiftness and bleeds
Dogs are good for CC
Lynx – has an activated bleed attack as well as the “maul” of all cats, so is this the highest damage dealing pet?

Thanks not very much knowledge….

All pets seem to have uses, but bear if great

Heavy Beastmastery spec and I use a hawk and owl for bursting stuff down quickly. In dungeons I use devourers (for ranged damage and extra toughness so they don’t die instantly) and drakes for AoE packs.

Also like the lynx, who has a nasty bleed, but really don’t use any other pets that much. I don’t really feel like the other pets are capable of holding aggro too well and don’t do as much damage.

Underwater I love the shark and armor fish.

I have lernt that there really isn’t a reason to use a bear unless you want it tanking a champion,dungeon mob or a crapton of mobs.
It was the way to go in BWE1 and 2 when the mobs hit like trucks, more of the damage came from the ranger itself and pets were made out of paper, since that’s no longer the case running around with 2 dps pets or 1 dps 1 dog is the way to go for me.

I’m liking the eagle/hawk the most, it has an evade and it’s activated ability is on a 6 second cooldown and hits like a truck.
Another favoirite is the river drake, that thing is one bad kitten motherkittener when it comes to AoE damage, combine it with QZ and some traps and you’ll melt faces, hell on lover levels you don’t even need the QZ and traps, it’s F2 will melt a group of mobs on it’s own.

I’ve also lernt that switching around what pets you have ‘equipt’ to fill in any holes or enhance some aspect of your group or depending on the fight is quite important if you wanto get the most out of your ranger.

Honestly what bugs me the most is the redundancy.

Just by switching around their activate skills with other innate skills it would be so much more flexible.

We have what 2-3 birds that give blinding slash, why not switch one of those birds out to give 20sec Swiftness ability on activate.

Or we have what 4 piggies that give forage? why not start switching out some of their skills with other ones so we don’t get so much redundancy like instead of simply x4 forages get some Charge, or Gore or leap attacks going.

There are good pets out there but it’s just kinda blah because there is no real difference, so what’s the point to having them?

I do not mind the variety on the pets and skills etc I just want my pet to not dies so easy from AoE that they cannot dodge.

I also wish some of pets did not have stupid long animations before the skill activates which results in very little actually landing on target in PvP due to player movement.

I also wish my F2 ability would activate on the first press of the button, not 5 presses later.

Lastly I wish my pets names would stick when I swap.

I’m not really on a pet build at all, since im all dps and survivability, i mainly have my pets to keep me alive by delivering the extra dps i need and being distractions when necessary, and as long as i keep them alive, i can AoE, tank and even let myself be downed (usually when i end up having to solo an event where there are massive swarms) and rally immediately since im always close to finishing more difficult things off.

So for my pets I run with two wolves, lots of damage, they also survive surprisingly really long actually, almost though not quite as well as bears in my experience, even when i’ve let them face off several enemies at one time. Nice howl effects, normal attack rate is relatively fast but what I love the most about the canines are the lunging knock downs, they consistently do frequently and do quite smartly too, like i.e. when an enemy is about to use a skill and interrupts it. helps me finishes things really fast without giving a chance to take a lot of damage. Really gorgeous smart and fast animals ^^

I run bears in dungeons to absorb stuff and be shields for the team. I’m thinking of using devourers now since they have ranged attacks and can stay alive longer as such perhaps.

Two drakes for water, for their AoE frost and boil, since I find dealing with swarms underwater is annoying and can use all the help i can get.

Yep! Those are my faves.

I was vehemently supporting pets ever since the class was revealed and people were trying to tear pets away from the being the class mechanic. I’ve since felt like ArenaNet isn’t working hard enough to bring the pet up to where it needs to be to stop the class from getting kittened by the AI and its bugs or just the drawbacks of a pet.

Many dungeon encounters require specific strategies which a pet running around (even in melee) would be a serious hindrance. In these fights my pet sits at my side taking DPS away from me because if I send it in (even the ranged spiders) it will draw too much aggro. I also found builds which use pets for boons (so the stalker for might and pet switching to gain quickness or even the boons at 25% pet health) are seriously kittened by cheap AoE abilities which I have no control over in dungeons. I can even have the pet on passive and eventually they will get hit by one of the AoEs and become defeated, causing me to lose my quickness, might and fury buffs they provided (and that’s after you already accepted the loss of their DPS to the fight by setting them on passive to keep them alive longer). Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, the fact that they are an extension to your DPS but not as responsive or durable as you are means that even when it’s not your fault, there is nothing you can do from losing a significant amount of your class usefulness because pets will die. AoE damage on pets needs to be nerfed to make melee pets other than bears more viable during boss encounters, and any pet at all viable for certain encounters (like the AoE ice shard boss in HotW story mode who killed my pets several times in that encounter because even on passive they were one or two shotted by AoE – and I was using a bear).

Other times I’m frustrated by pet responsiveness with the F2 skill (it’s gotten better, but the general inability to hit moving targets is frustrating) and the frequency of Lick Wounds simply not working. I would say about 50% of the time I’m downed, Lick Wounds will simply not work. The pet will return to me and it will just stand there, not restoring any health while I slowly die, I think it has something to do with elevation of the ground you’re on while downed, it certainly has nothing to do with whether or not the pet was alive when you used the skill (or after you used it). That’s infuriating because I’ve played other classes with better downed mechanics (anything that moves you from one position to another is a fantastic ability and often the difference between useless and useful) that are not only situationally better (most group situations) but also aren’t bugged.

I’d change beastmaster’s bond to work on pets until they are downed (and persist when you change pets). It’s a really bad trade off to have to use the same pet to access this buff and it simply doesn’t fit in with the rest of the pet play style, I think it discourages rangers to play badly and was a terrible trait to put in so early on because it discourages rangers from learning the class mechanic well. Pet switching is better. Quickness every 20 seconds is amazing. This trait is not enough to lose that so it needs to persist after changning. Pets become so much more active and interesting when you get used to swapping them (accessing different pet buffs, like fern hound, stalker, red moa, blue moa etc) and making builds, skill timings or rotations around swapping pets (to match up your spikes with the most buffs) is where so much of the mechanic’s depth lies. Beast master’s bond not persisting beyond pet switching is counter intuitive for the class and rewards static play. Pet swapping to avoid deaths also maintains player awareness of pet health and the death penalty cooldown on their pets which has the added bonus of making pets significantly more viable (because you are swapping them in and out as a form of healing). I get that the trait was designed to make a trade off for a gain but the gain is significantly inferior to all the things you lose by not swapping pets (quickness, other pet F2 skills including AoE might, full pet health, possible boons if a pet reaches 25% health, players statically playing the class rather than actively, a whole second pet) and it encourages people to play the class badly rather than learn how to play it properly.

Pets in dungeons are hit and miss, for some encounters and strategies they are fine, in other encounters their performance is a glowing recommendation for the people who said they should never have been a forced class mechanic and players will suffer because of their inclusion. Many changes specific to their performance in dungeons need to take place.

My favourite pet is the stalker. I like the AoE buff and I love the nostalgia of it being my first pet from GW1 (although I wikitten looked more like the GW1 pets). I don’t really bring bears any more, once I started switching pets often in combat I felt less of a need for a tanky pet as I could keep both pets alive for 20 seconds, long enough to bring in the second pet before the first died. This also allowed me to juggle F2 cooldowns and my quickness buff for a more enjoyable play style. I’ve found the only F2 skills I really think are worthy of being cast by the player are the crowd control and the boons, but almost all of them would benefit from an auto cast option, something I dearly hope they add into the game. The hawk and eagle bleed is a condescending and annoying F2 skill, the cooldown is so short of course it should be used instantly in every situation. It’s annoying to have to press F2 every time it’s up, I find the pet less useful because of this because I will often cancel the skill because of a lack of responsiveness and the frequency of which I have to manage the pet. The end result is usually lower DPS because I simply don’t bother casting it all the time. I’m confident the bird pet was originally supposed to give AoE swiftness as its F2 skill but it was moved to an auto attacking skill because swiftness is so useful that the pet felt required. If this isn’t the case, please swap the bird auto attack with the F2 skill and give us swiftness as our AoE skill. That’s something I would absolutely love.

I’ve found the river drake to be a great AoE pet. The axe like bounce of it’s lightning skill makes DPSing groups down easier when I’m running my axe and pulling more than one creature, but I still choose other pets because I prefer their looks over the drake. Wolves are durable without the DPS loss of the bear, I like the condition removal of the brown bear, especially in dungeons but I often find my bear is never positioned in the right spot and is simply not responsive enough for the precision use of this skill to be anything other than a token effort. On top of that conditions are re-applyed so quickly, it often doesn’t matter if I removed the condition with this skill, it’s usually back on my party right away making this skill feel like a poor trade off given all the work you have to do to get it to be useful in the first place.

I really love spider combo fields (the poison one). This was one of my favourite pet abilities, the feeling of working with my pet was really rewarding and I wish the developers made more use of this mechanic with pet skills. Their range is also a bonus and sometimes a necessity for some dungeon encounters. I do wish there was more variety with the ranged pets (like a monkey that throws rocks, a dragon that shoots fireballs, a bird that breathes lighting or flaps up little whirlwinds – just something to boost the aesthetic variety of ranged pets from being all spiders) considering they are becoming a core part of some dungeon builds. Aside from that I’ve stayed away from some pets based on their looks or F2 skills. Others I don’t value as much as I could because of F2 and general pet unresponsiveness. Aquatic pets I don’t bother with at all. I was using a shark and armour fish but I’ve found it’s easier to just use land pets, at least that way if you ever swap it back in as a land pet it remembers the name you give it as an aquatic pet, another thing I really wish they’d change. I’d still like to see F2 skills spread across the entire family.

I’m going to end my post there, I could keep going but that’s more than enough. The system has surprised me in some ways and disappointed me in others. There are some changes I’d like to see and other changes I think we need to see for the ranger to move to a better place in class design and balance. I think this part of the class mechanic is still in a place where it deserves more attention than it’s getting, but I’m sure there will be improvements in the future. Currently it’s still fun and has enough depth to be worthwhile.

I’m loving my Black and White Moa’s they’re awesome. AoE Healing, Vulnerability, And either AoE Daze or AoE Regen. What more could I want?

Just to echo, as for keeping pets alive, even without working on beast mastery myself, all I have to do is switch in my second pet just before the first died, then alternate with a heal which by that time I myself should need it as well in tricky situations, then alternate back to a pet swap. Most of the time it keeps my pet alive. If the enemy is tough enough, I send it in to draw aggro and then bring it back out by switching to passive mode or swap suddenly so they lose track of their target. :P I love the tricks you can do with a pet

I have lernt that there really isn’t a reason to use a bear unless you want it tanking a champion,dungeon mob or a crapton of mobs.

Tanking a crapton of mobs is the whole point though. Have it draw aggro from all of them except your current target and if you tanked it up enough it will die at the same rate as you, meaning your heal is twice as effective.

Why bother with a pet that does slightly more dps when you could use a pet that prevents you from taking any damage?

I love the tricks you can do with a pet

I’ve had my bears tank significant bosses from start to finish. “Press F1 for 30 second stun”.

Wolves are really my favorite for most content. They’re pretty durable, do decent damage, and tend to have impressive f2 skills.

Bears are nice in Explorables. I take a Brown Bear for the team condition removal and a Polar Bear for the AoE chill.

At the end of the day, a bear might be able to take 3-4 boss hits instead of 1-2 compared to the weaker pets. Compare that to how many hits a lot of players can take, and it’s quite impressive, considering, with two bears, we can have them take ~6-8 hits every 20 seconds. That saves lives.

For PvP it’s straight up Wolf and Drakehound for their amazing knockdowns and CC skills. There just isn’t a better option for my power build and I love. Those knockdowns have saved my butt numerous times as well as let me dish out an amazing amount of damage with QZ while the person is CC’d (especially that Drakehound).

Underwater pets, for both PvE and PvP though, those Jellyfish are AMAZING. With my PvP build my jelly’s are hitting/critting people for 5k+ with their F2. I hadn’t notice before but it seems insane for a pet that has high vit and an AE regen ability. If you haven’t yet, try them. They wreck people in Capricon and I now really enjoy underwater fights with them. Even in PvE they destroy enemies they’re tanking, and can dish out tons of damage on numerous mobs while you do some of your own.

Now to ground PvE. Bears. Using black bear for his AE weakness and white for the AE chill. I mostly just keep out the black bear because with the AE weakness plus the Asura racial Radiation Field he can tank tons of stuff and keep Vets/Champions on him far longer than anything else. All the other pets seem to die way too fast at my current level of 20 (should be 40+ but kept rerolling lawlz). I haven’t made it to a point yet to where I can maximize their survivability/damage via traits, but I can only imagine what they can do once they get those. I’ll probably keep them til end-game or until I start doing some WvW at which point I’ll switch it up to dogs. I may even switch out the White bear sooner for grouping and put in the Fern hound for more damage and AE regen for the party—I’m still debating.

For PvE I like Wolves (the AOE Fear on the Juvinile Wolf you charm in the WvW Eternal Battlefeld is one of my favorite pet abilities bar none), plus they look cool.

For dungeons I like Bears, usually the Arctodorus/Brown for their F2 abilities (Brownie’s condition removal has saved quite a few lives over time in my experience).

Haven’t done much PvP, but when I do I run Brown Bear/Raven, mainly for the Condition removal on Brownie and the Bleeding/Speed from the Raven. Plus, other players seem to ignore the bird a LOT more than they ignore the bear (it almost never seems to be specifically targeted).

I’m traited 30 intoBM and mainly use a Lynx in PvE for its high DPS. I keep trying birds, but they die so fast. I’m the type that hates having to pet swap as a normal gameplay tactic. There are times in level 70 PvE where I can order my Lynx to attack a target, and within a few seconds, it’s dead without any help on my part. Especially when I have multiple stacks of Beastmaster’s Bond active on her.

In WvWvW, I run my Lynx usually. I suck at WvWvW though. I like the ideas to use a wolf or drakehound for the CC. I’ll have to try that.

I got a jellyfish for an aquatic pet (named U Jelly, of course), and they are doing a crapton of damage too. I haven’t tried a river drake yet, but I haven’t been playing the class very long.

Skolvikings.5132:

I’m traited 30 intoBM and mainly use a Lynx in PvE for its high DPS. I keep trying birds, but they die so fast. I’m the type that hates having to pet swap as a normal gameplay tactic. There are times in level 70 PvE where I can order my Lynx to attack a target, and within a few seconds, it’s dead without any help on my part. Especially when I have multiple stacks of Beastmaster’s Bond active on her.

In WvWvW, I run my Lynx usually. I suck at WvWvW though. I like the ideas to use a wolf or drakehound for the CC. I’ll have to try that.

My hawk never dies in PvE, even when fighting veteran and some champion mobs. Not sure what your build is, but running this build my hawk is a killing, tanking machine (even more so than ‘tanky’ pets).

[Edit: For the record, I just used GS and LB for filler, it’s not actually what I use. You can use pretty much any weapons with a BM build. Those are the skills I use though.]

Arctodus is not creepy! It is adorable and has high survivability.