Guild Wars 2

A big thing I see on this board is that players often have a hard time figuring out how to make a ranger effective, and I feel this is in large part to not understanding their pet. This is meant as a guide for players that are either learning ranger or are struggling with their pets; this is not a definitive guide, but an aid to help you make educated decisions about your pets.

If you have any tips or suggestions for changes, let me know and I’ll consider adding them.

A Rundown of What Pets Do
Cats
-High damage. Mainstay if your pet is your main source of damage. I’ve seen them hit close to 2400 damage with basic attacks.
-Not a glass cannon. They have high damage and can sustain more damage than birds, but they’ll also likely survive a fight with anything but a boss.
-Crowd favorite. Many rangers run cats due to their combination of damage and not being horribly squishy
-Amphibious. I find it kind of silly that air-breathing mammals can last indefinitely underwater, but acceptable breaks from reality, right? Bear in mind that the lynx, one of the best types of cats, is terrestrial, with no real explanation as to why that’s so.

Canines
-Respectable damage and knockdown effect as part of the auto-attack skills. While I was testing out a wolf, this saved me from getting hit a couple times
-The howls they can do can often seriously change a battlefield. Sylvan hound regen for the party, Wolf fear effects, drakehound immobilization. Excellent Crowd Control, and the Sylvan hound regen howl is one of the only party buffs rangers have.
-Fairly tough. It’s no tank, but I’d put it as the average level, and it won’t eat dirt the moment a zerker warrior breathes on it.
-Crowd Favorite. The CC effects and party buff that dogs can do are important in PvP/WvW team fights, though aren’t necessarily as strong in dungeons.
-Home of the Hyena. This is a black stain on this otherwise noble and graceful family of pets.
-Terrestrial. Your faithful hound is, unfortunately, afraid of water.

Drakes
-Moderately high damage. slightly less than canines, but still respectable
-if you can deal with the chargeup for the attacks (so, basically, not in PvP) you can get good status effects from drake breath weapons, or considerable damage. Marsh drake for long lasting poison, or river drake for a powerful chain lightning effect. Stuff like that.
-Very tough. A beast mastery specced ranger’s drake can tank legendary opponents that can murder an entire team normally.
-Cleave on attacks. If you can bunch up enemies, drakes end up doing up to triple the damage of most other pets, though more spread out.
-Tail Swipe. This deserves mention because it’s one of the ranger’s only blast finishers, while being a considerable source of damage and the weakness condition.
-Amphibious. An excellent combination in and out of the water, and actually looks like it could live in water to boot.

Birds
-Small and hard to see, making them very good in WvW and PvP, where players need to see what they’re doing to fight you. Pitched teamfights and flying particles mean a small raven will go unnoticed.
-ludicrous damage. Each strike they do is only as powerful as a cat’s strike, but they do two of them every time they attack, resulting in attacks that deal between 1800-3200 damage. They have a slower attack rate, though, making them burstier than cats, but less damaging in extended fights
-Glass cannon. Despite their damage, they are unequivocally the squishiest of all pets. you have been warned.
-Terrestrial. Until we get a king fisher or something, birds are staying out of the water.

Moas
-Low damage. Not as low as a bear, but that’s a pretty low bar.
-Tanky. Potentially tankier than a drake, though I haven’t really seen it happen.
-Screeches. Much like the canine howl effects, moas have a variety of CC and party buff screeches. Red moas, for example, give the party fury, while pink moas daze enemies
-Has the benefit of being underestimated. this can be important in PvP, where if the enemy is ignoring a source of DPS, they’ll be wondering what happened when they go down. Wouldn’t rely on this though.
-Terrestrial. Same thing as the birds; these are not animals meant for adventures under the waves.

Bears
-Terrible damage. Lowest attack speed of all pets, and when it does hit it’s for less than the moas. If you’re looking for damage, you’ve come to the very worst place possible.
-Tanky. You want a tank ranger? This is it. This is where it’s at. This is the alpha and omega of ranger tanking. They have, far and away, the most health and armor of any pet. Far more than any player, certainly. They have an innate ability that lets them ignore damage for a few seconds, brown bears can cure conditions on themselves, they have passive regen. Seriously, if you are a damager, then having a bear to tank for you is not only a good idea, it’s recommended. I can’t stress enough how amazing a bear can get when you’re not relying on its DPS.
-Amphibious. Yes, your ultra-tank can also survive in an airless environment. It’s just that tough.

Devourers
-Moderate damage. They’re not as bad as some people think, though they’re not great. They do two attacks at once, so be mindful that, and have a chance to poison their opponent with every hit.
-Ranged. there’s only two pet types that deal ranged damage, and this is one of them. it can be incredibly useful against melee-unfriendly bosses to have devourers as an option, so many players choose to run a normal pet with a ranged pet in their off-slot.
-Tanky. This is no squishy bug, as they have a considerable toughness. be mindful of conditions on them though; their vitality isn’t as high.
-Amphibious. The only underwater ranged option, devourers make a good choice if you don’t want to get close. Once again, no idea how it survives underwater, especially since they live in arid lands, but it’s so very cute to see them swimming like giant prawn.

Porcines
-Low damage. Pigs are alongside moas for damage, though if I recall they’re slightly higher due to the bleeding damage they can inflict. It’s still nothing spectacular.
-Foraging. Pigs are unique in the fact that all versions of the different pigs are basically just cosmetic changes; a warthog does the same damage and has the same f2 skill as a siamoth or domestic pig. Foraging isn’t really that useful if you don’t like world weapons though.
-Tanky. Second only to the ultra-tank bears, the porcine pets have high vitality and toughness
-Joke pet. The pig is a hilarious little pink thing that’s almost cute. Recommended names: Capitalist, Wilbur, Babe.
-Terrestrial. Pigs apparently can’t swim. Probably enjoy shallow water though, such as mud wallows. Whether you take the pig to one is up to you.

Sharks
-Underwater damager. its frenzy ability is a considerable source of bleeds, though not great as it doesn’t have great condition damage. Still, damage is damage, right? It’s about on par with dogs plus bleeding damage.
-Average Survivability. Not unkillable by any means, but it’s like a dog in that respect. A warrior won’t drop it immediately, but it’s far from a tank.
-Fear effect. One of the few stuns pets have
-Crowd Favorite. It’s a shark. Seriously, what more do you want?
-Aquatic. Sorry, you’ll have to find a landshark somewhere else.

Armor Fish
-Low-ish damage. Not as low as you’d expect from a tank pet, but I wouldn’t use it as a damage source..
-Tanky. If the name didn’t tip you off, this is your fish-shaped tank of choice. Once again, bear does it better, but, once again, the fish has more damage
-Stun. It can stun enemies! That’s kinda cool, and puts it to match the shark for such a thing.
-Aquatic. Like the shark it shares an animation skeleton with, armor fish are incapable of surviving on land. Poor thing.

Spiders
-Surprisingly high damage. Sure they’re spitting black gunk at people, but it must be poisonous or acidic or something because they have impressive damage despite being ranged pets. Keep in mind, it doesn’t hold a candle to cat or bird damage, especially with their low precision.
-Poison. All spiders have a poison effect in an AoE. This makes them somewhat more popular than devourers as ranged pets, as only one devourer type has an AoE poison effect.
-Ranged. As mentioned in the damage entry, spiders are ranged compatants, though I’m not sure why. I’m not complaining though, as their squishy nature makes attacking from range preferable for them.
-Squishy. Compared to other pets, spiders are rather weak in the health and toughness department, so I only recommend them if you can keep them out of danger.
-Terrestrial. Itsy bitsy spider drowns, so you’ll have to find something else for underwater exploration. Devourers can cover the ranged option underwater.

Jellyfish
-Respectable damage. Nothing spectacular, but the Red Jellyfish’s poison tentacles can shore that up
-Boons and conditions. All Jellyfish can give people around them regeneration, which is significant. They can also blind enemies, and while Red Jellies have poison, blue jellies chill enemies.
-Non-tank. I wouldn’t quite call them squishy, but they’re far from being masters of defense. That and being a melee pet is a hazard.
-Aquatic. Really, did you expect them to flop up onto land?

Personal Recommendations
Bear in mind these should be taken with a grain of salt, as they’re based around how I play and my preferences. Everybody has a different way of handling the game, even if the differences can be subtle.

PvE
I recommend drakes here. It’s not hard to bunch up AI enemies, so making the most of the Drake’s unique cleave effect is not hard to do. They also have a considerable level of tankiness; a beast mastery ranger’s drake can tank the vast majority of open world champions with little management, letting you stay back and relax. Be warned, however, that barely taking part in combat is a surefire way to kill your personal DPS. Don’t be that guy.

If you don’t like the feel of the drake or are looking for a baying companion (a hunting term that means distracting your quarry long enough to line up a kill shot), a bear is the way to go. An out-of-the-box bear is still far tougher than tank specced players, even with no points in beast mastery, letting you sit back and plink away with your super-damage bow or sword or something.

If you want to rely on pets for damage, cats and birds are the way to go. In basic PvE, your pets are rarely in danger of being downed as long as you don’t get in over your head, so even the horribly squishy birds can be used to excellent effect, though I still prefer cats for not needing to switch when I do get in over my head. It often comes when you least expect it, after all.

Dungeons
Some lump this in with PvE, but I feel it deserves it own section. Dungeons are very dangerous and require a different set of tactics than open world combat, as even a group of silver monsters can end a party if handled improperly.

Dungeons are dangerous. I, personally, wouldn’t go into a dungeon with anything less tanky than a dog, and even that’s pushing it. Once again, my preference is for drakes due to the target rich environment, cleave, and survivability they have. A wolf can be fun to utilize with its fear effect, but be mindful of the defiance ability nearly every boss in the game has, so it’s more useful for making mobs scatter. Alternately, just grab a bear and you can forget about its safety. The kitten thing will run up to an end boss basically ignore all efforts to kill it.

I also recommend having a ranged option in dungeons, as many bosses and rooms are melee unfriendly. Devourers are my preferred choice here; they’re not as squishy as spiders, which is important in the high lethality setting of a dungeon, and they’re amphibious, so they can handle HotW.

PvP
Tactics plays a large part in how PvP works, and oftentimes controlling what your opponents do is more important than coordinating with your team (but NEVER don’t coordinate. My point is to stress the importance of this.). Because of this, a wolf is a go-to type of pet. It has an AoE fear effect that you can even activate when you’re downed, possibly saving your life from a stomp if you time it right.

Drakes can be good, if you choose the right ones. River Drakes and Marsh Drakes both have f2 effects with good range and fair damage that bounces between enemies, one with direct damage and the other with the poison. They’re also tough and their cleave can, once again, hit multiple opponents if your enemy likes zerg tactics.

Felines are another excellent choice here. Though they’re single-target, they make a better choice if you go off on your own and 1v1 enemies, as they deal quite high damage.

Small bird are an odd case for me. They can be incredibly useful in a teamfight because, while they’ll get creamed by any errant AoEs (and thus why they are seldom used), they nonetheless carry the highest damage rating of any pet in the game. They can also be hard to spot if they’re a color that blends in with the background – for this reason, I prefer ravens.

WvW
This is the bigtime, and pets can make a difference. More often, though, they get smacked by an enemy zerg or are useless as you sit on the ramparts. Because of this, be mindful of what your pets can do; you’re not going to use a bear to tank enemy players, they’ll just ignore it and stab you in the eye with a greatsword, and there will be some many AoEs flying about that anything with a level of squishiness is going to get turned into paste.

Due to this, much the same considerations as in PvP apply, with an extra caveat – buffing allies can be more important than screwing with your opponent. For this reason, the sylvan hound shines as king of the crop, giving you and your allies regeneration when they need it, which can greatly increase the survivability of those you affect.

Choose a pet that can survive a few moments in the thick of combat with a large group of players, such as a drake, dog, moa, or similar. does it have an effect that can target multiple enemies or buffs your allies? If the answer is yes, that’s your pet of choice. If not, you might want to find something that does. Some such examples include the Brown Bear’s “Shake it Off” effect to cure conditions on your allies, the sylvan hound’s regeneration howl, the fear howl wolves get, the AoE poison fields spiders and carrion devourers get, and similar things.

Of note here are the ranged pets, spiders and devourers. they can contribute to your damage total without putting themselves at undue risk, though they still generally won’t attack from the ramparts. Make use of this fact if you can.

Final Notes
You may have noticed I mentioned drakes a lot in my recommendations. This is because they’re my pet of choice; they’re ugly waddlers that look like mutant crocodiles, but I love them to bits. As far as I’m concerned, they have the best mix of survivability and damage in any of the pets, combined with the fact that they can cleave, which is unique to them. I tried to keep my bias out of this though, to let people come to their own conclusions.

The pets you choose should shore up your deficiencies as a ranger. If you’re a bunker, have your pet deal damage. If you’re in full berzerker equipment, make sure your pet can distract enemies long enough for you to do your job. Use your own discretion and intelligence; this isn’t exactly rocket science.

Remember your F3 key. People often complain about pets not getting out of AoEs, well you can fix that by maneuvering your pet properly. F3 calls your pet to you, often out of the fray if you’re attacking from range. If you’re in a safe spot, so should he be at that point, before you press F1 to send it right back in.

Pet abilities can be activated when you’re downed. You can click still F2 for a pet skill – they’re still there. You just can’t see them.

I’d also like to stress that while some pets are optimal, none of them are non-viable, with the exception of the Hyena. This is a post to make educated decisions about the pet type you want to use, not direct recommendations on what you should use, as everybody has differing opinions on that.

And my last note, for the love of Balthazar, do not use a hyena. I don’t care how cool the concept of a hyena is, or that it can summon a second one, it does not justify the loss of nearly 1000 power from their stats, enough to cripple them as a damager and putting them on par with the abysmally damaging bears for damage while being far, far less tanky.

Not a bad summary. And I do agree with the Hyena, as there is only one instance where I ever found it to be useful,…..Running away.

Something quite important (imho) that you may want to add to drakes: their tail swipe attack, which they like to use early in a fight, is the Ranger’s only Blast Finisher. Our large and long water field makes drakes a very good source of AoE healing. Drop field, F4 to drake, drake engages and blasts. In a tight group of 5 that drop lots of fields, the drake is a nice party addition.

As to the hyena, it can be hilarious in 1v1 with double the knockdowns. Very poor stats though, yes.

cafard.8953:

Something quite important (imho) that you may want to add to drakes: their tail swipe attack, which they like to use early in a fight, is the Ranger’s only Blast Finisher. Our large and long water field makes drakes a very good source of AoE healing. Drop field, F4 to drake, drake engages and blasts. In a tight group of 5 that drop lots of fields, the drake is a nice party addition.

As to the hyena, it can be hilarious in 1v1 with double the knockdowns. Very poor stats though, yes.

Ah yes, I knew I was forgetting something! Thank you, I’ll add that to the Drake entry

There is a mistake about cats & birds, I think.
Cats strike twice much faster, but with a single hit. Birds strike twice less faster, but 2 hits each time.
Cats is squishier than birds, birds got more vitality.

Da Poolp.6809:

There is a mistake about cats & birds, I think.
Cats strike twice much faster, but with a single hit. Birds strike twice less faster, but 2 hits each time.
Cats is squishier than birds, birds got more vitality.

Upon further review, Birds have the exact same stats as cats. The only differences is that while cats attack faster, birds make up for it by doing doublestrikes, putting them in a higher DPS range, while having a smaller HP pool.

I still don’t really trust either of them, personally.

Harnel.6810:

Da Poolp.6809:

There is a mistake about cats & birds, I think.
Cats strike twice much faster, but with a single hit. Birds strike twice less faster, but 2 hits each time.
Cats is squishier than birds, birds got more vitality.

Upon further review, Birds have the exact same stats as cats. The only differences is that while cats attack faster, birds make up for it by doing doublestrikes, putting them in a higher DPS range, while having a smaller HP pool.

I still don’t really trust either of them, personally.

At least cats have a clear focus. Birds are never too sure whether the most critically important course of action is to DPS the bad guy or cast swiftness…

cafard.8953:

Birds are never too sure whether the most critically important course of action is to DPS the bad guy or cast swiftness…

The most important part is the 3 second rooted animation leading to swiftness. Awesome!

Harnel.6810:

Da Poolp.6809:

There is a mistake about cats & birds, I think.
Cats strike twice much faster, but with a single hit. Birds strike twice less faster, but 2 hits each time.
Cats is squishier than birds, birds got more vitality.

Upon further review, Birds have the exact same stats as cats. The only differences is that while cats attack faster, birds make up for it by doing doublestrikes, putting them in a higher DPS range, while having a smaller HP pool.

I still don’t really trust either of them, personally.

Cats have higher DPS than birds due to:

*Having a faster attack speed. Birds deal more damage per hit, but cats attack much faster.

*Birds have a swiftness skill with a 3 second channel that deals no damage, and gets used automatically every 20 seconds.

Birds still have better burst than cats, but cats will deal more damage over time.

Couple of things that are iffy to me.

Felines share the same toughness and vitality as birds. Saying that they aren’t glass cannons is a bit of a stretch. Also, the part about Devourers vitality not being as high. Devourers share the lowest vitality with a number of pets (including felines, canines, and birds). Putting that only for the Devourer can be misleading. Since the patch where pet vitality was raised across the board, conditions are not as lethal as they once were to a pet.

Overall, the guide is pretty good. Linking or writing a guide on pet management would go hand-in-hand with this.

This is how I see all the pets:

Felines – Precision and Condition Damage
Canines – Crowd Control
Drakes – Burst and AoE Damage
Birds – Precision Damage and Utility
Moas – Utility and Durability
Bears – Durability
Devourers – Ranged Condition Damage
Porcines – RNG Utility
Shark – Condition Damage
Armor Fish – Durability
Spiders – Ranged Direct Damage
Jellyfish – Durability and Crowd Control

Bears = Very good pets if you plan to use protect me.

Love my wolves and dog though.

I think that Feline: Lynx is terrestial for a reason. For sure later on in the future Terrestial Feline types of pets will have more variety into it like the Lions, Tiger/White Tiger. Overall good review, people forget how important the role of their pets, and they’re really situational.

Edited the Feline and Bird entries to reflect things in the thread. They’re now recognized as a sustained damage pet type and a burst pet type respectively

Rangers also now have a blast finisher on offhand horn in addition to drakes, may want to reword it to something like it is our only blast finishing pet.

Missed this one when it was first posted. It’s much more concise than my pet guide, and that’s something people that don’t want to read wall of texts would appreciate

I’ll add it to the compilation thread now

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Rangers also now have a blast finisher on offhand horn in addition to drakes, may want to reword it to something like it is our only blast finishing pet.

Will do, and thanks for pointing that out. I rarely use warhorns because I prefer greatsword as my melee weapon.

Missed this one when it was first posted. It’s much more concise than my pet guide, and that’s something people that don’t want to read wall of texts would appreciate

I’ll add it to the compilation thread now

:D

In regards to hyenas being in the dog category: I wonder if they’ll come out with red pandas in an expansion, and classify them as cats?

Someone else who knows of biological ties? Good show. I initially chose to play a ranger because I know a lot of trivia about animals; it’s always fun to meet someone else who knows about them.

I’m in college, majoring in biology. And I want mustelids.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

In regards to hyenas being in the dog category: I wonder if they’ll come out with red pandas in an expansion, and classify them as cats?

A lot of people mistake hyenas belong to canine family, because lets admit it, they look like african wild dogs. I have friends that think wolverines are dogs too, /facepalm.

Hyenas can be nice for control. They work well in conjunction with a Wolf and a Longbow.

You can 100-0 someone caught in the knockdown cycle +fear if you’re built for damage.

Start with the Hyena and use F2 as soon as it lands it’s knockdown. The 2nd Hyena will start it’s knockdown as the enemy is getting back up.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

I’m in college, majoring in biology. And I want mustelids.

I am no college major in biology, but I also want to have mustelids…
As it looks I am not the only one who wants a “smaller” animal ripping appart larger ones

Wolverines, Badgers, hell even minks and weasels are nasty critters ;-)
pound for pound the nastiest out there

So go A-Net
Give us mustelids… you even could make a nice story about it (Norn Wolverine Spirit nudge nudge )

Unholy Pillager.3791:

I’m in college, majoring in biology. And I want mustelids.

Two words: Honey Badger.

I personally want my rainbow phoenix from guild wars 1 though. I worked pretty kitten hard for that thing.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

I’m in college, majoring in biology. And I want mustelids.

I am no college major in biology, but I also want to have mustelids…
As it looks I am not the only one who wants a “smaller” animal ripping appart larger ones

Wolverines, Badgers, hell even minks and weasels are nasty critters ;-)
pound for pound the nastiest out there

So go A-Net
Give us mustelids… you even could make a nice story about it (Norn Wolverine Spirit nudge nudge )

I personally prefer pets that look like they’d be capable in their given niche. For example, raptors, given they’re basically dinosaurs. Mustelids as well would be amazing, because those things scare near everything on earth.

But, like I said, I’d forgo everything like that for the sake of having Beaky back. I really miss having a rainbow phoenix. Especially with how they got larger as you leveled.

Raptors actually are dinosaurs (well, technically, so are all birds). Velociraptor, as well as many others, had feathers. I hope I didn’t just ruin Jurassic Park for any of you.

I was really surprised that they didn’t include wolverines. They are, after all, already mentioned. As for honey badgers, they strike me as Elonian within the context of Tyria. I’m hoping to see them in an expansion.

yeah, i know. Deinonychus and Velociraptors used their feathers to stablize themselves as they were doing jump attacks at prey. Very cool. I just said they were ‘basically’ dinosaurs because they don’t fit the exact body structure.

Although, admittedly, I’m no biology major, so I’m just doing this from observation.

How are they dinos? Isn’t the earth only 6,000 years old????

Harnel.6810:

yeah, i know. Deinonychus and Velociraptors used their feathers to stablize themselves as they were doing jump attacks at prey. Very cool. I just said they were ‘basically’ dinosaurs because they don’t fit the exact body structure.

Although, admittedly, I’m no biology major, so I’m just doing this from observation.

They’re in the clade dinosauria, so as far as phylogenetic classification goes they’re dinosaurs.

thefantasticg.3984:

How are they dinos? Isn’t the earth only 6,000 years old????

I really, really hope that you’re joking.

Harnel.6810:

cafard.8953:

Something quite important (imho) that you may want to add to drakes: their tail swipe attack, which they like to use early in a fight, is the Ranger’s only Blast Finisher. Our large and long water field makes drakes a very good source of AoE healing. Drop field, F4 to drake, drake engages and blasts. In a tight group of 5 that drop lots of fields, the drake is a nice party addition.

As to the hyena, it can be hilarious in 1v1 with double the knockdowns. Very poor stats though, yes.

Ah yes, I knew I was forgetting something! Thank you, I’ll add that to the Drake entry

Call of the Wild, warhorn offhand, is now a blast finisher as well.

dunno if it was mentioned, but pigs have different item salvages:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28boar%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28pig%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28siamoth%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28warthog%29

That being said, the Boar and Warthog is incredibly powerful given their F2 abilities. You often get Skull or Bone. Giving you massive CC power. The pigs also have a good knockdown ability.
Warthog drops heavy condition stuff. The “Scale” has 20 seconds of poison, in addition to weakness. It also allows you to get a “poison field on demand”. Which means you can blast it for AOE weakness.

The pigs are extremely underestimated. They are hard to use, but a great utility once you get used to them.

EDIT: it should be mentioned that ALL spiders has a CC attack by default, and that the Jungle Spider has 2x Immobilize attacks. They are extremely good against thiefs

thefantasticg.3984:

How are they dinos? Isn’t the earth only 6,000 years old????

We’ve found a living tree over 5,000 years old, and dendrochronology using overlapping rings goes back at least 11,000 years. Modern humans have been around for 100,000 to 200,000 years, with the debate being over which fossils we’ve found are or are not kitten sapiens, rather than a separate member of the kitten genus. The earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. The universe is some 14 billion years old. Using the Andromeda galaxy as a reference, you could probably prove a lower limit of 2.5 million years for the universe’s age using nothing but high school level physics and geometry.

When i first started playing the game ranger was my first class and back then i had no idea how great some of the pet abilities are in certain builds.Now that i started playing the class again i see how certain pets can make a big difference in your build.

Now i just have to do some more testing to see which pets i want to use but im leaning toward two chill pets.Its kinda nice being able to keep people almost perma chilled.

Wish there was a post like this when i was new to the game. Maybe i would of stuck with the class instead of retiring it because of not understanding it fully.

Prysin.8542:

dunno if it was mentioned, but pigs have different item salvages:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28boar%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28pig%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28siamoth%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forage_%28warthog%29

That being said, the Boar and Warthog is incredibly powerful given their F2 abilities. You often get Skull or Bone. Giving you massive CC power. The pigs also have a good knockdown ability.
Warthog drops heavy condition stuff. The “Scale” has 20 seconds of poison, in addition to weakness. It also allows you to get a “poison field on demand”. Which means you can blast it for AOE weakness.

The pigs are extremely underestimated. They are hard to use, but a great utility once you get used to them.

EDIT: it should be mentioned that ALL spiders has a CC attack by default, and that the Jungle Spider has 2x Immobilize attacks. They are extremely good against thiefs

Pig Guide: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Pet-Mini-Guide-1-Porcine-Pets/