Guild Wars 2

I always roll with a wolf.

Hit F2, and it still takes like 5-6 seconds from hitting the F2 to the wolf using fear.

This is really frustrating. It’s STILL not cancelling the other actions in its chain to use the F2.

I think it is fixed, sometimes these pets just reposition before F2 comes off.
At least, thats my experience

I have noticed if you use pets F2 and do not have a target he will try and run to his last target before executing the F2. Always have a target even if its an AE effect and should not require a target

I find that it’s contextual. Take the jaguar for example, if in a mob with a target it will use it straight away, but if im using my bow it will take a few seconds to get within range.

I use wolf too.
It does matter what target you push for that fear.
And it’s delayed, and not instant-casting meanwhile the wolf doing something else, like pre-leaping.

If you’re lucky, your wolf can interrupt twice before someone finishes you….or your wolf is alive at all…. always have a spare wolf in frequent case you getting downed

That cat with Might stacking shout is always ridiculous. I trly believe that the whole cast of this thing is about 4-5 seconds. For 5 might! Who wants to counterplay some cat which doesn’t even fight for 5 seconds (if it responds anyway) ? Why not make it instant cast? Truly laughable

These problems exactly why I suggest the Pet being taken out of DMG and only focus on special effect skills that cast INSTANT. I mean… INSTANT.

they have to go into range before they will do the F2….but that doesn’t explain why the jungle stalker F2 is so bad………so slow to fire off, it really should only be used before entering combat.

i found river drake has the best/most reliable F2………..the multi-hit works really well with RaO to stack might, and since its a range attack, it works almost instantly.

I think the main issue is what has been stated above, that the pet is getting into range first. I have found the f2s to be a lot better and mostly fire off right away. I also haven’t had any problem firing AOE f2s without a target, and I play with that option on to autoselect on attack so that isn’t causing the pets to target an enemy on f2 like it would if I were to make an attack myself.

Some tips:

-Hitting f3 followed immediately by f2 has been in my repertoire for some time now, it disengages the pet and as you hit f2 before the pet has done more than turn around there shouldn’t be any lag with casting the f2.

-If for some reason the f2 doesn’t fire when you want, cancel it with f3…better to wait out the interrupt cooldown vs the skill cooldown and then try again. This also works with your canine’s leap attacks, if you see your pet ready up to pounce and you’d rather him hold off, hit a quick f3, f1 and you’ll have it on cooldown. Make sure to disengage him before that cooldown ends and then you’ll have a knockdown (blast finisher in the case of a drake) ready to go, basically when you need it once you figure out how to manipulate the AI in these ways.

The thing about Rangers is that to play them effectively you have to learn and master the management of an AI that can be pretty stupid at times but more and more it is becoming quite consistent in how it acts, you just have to learn the tricks. And each pet is different in this regard so considering the number there are, this easily makes the Ranger the class with the steepest learning curve. One last tip is forget about longbow. You want to be closer to the action both for contributing/recieving of boons/heals from party members and pets as well as being able to actually see what your pet is doing so you can effectively manage it. If you are fighting at a range where your passive pet is in pounce range of your target, an f1 can be used as a pretty reliable interrupt. You can’t do that with longbow, the pet has to get into range first.

edit
Also, it seems like some people don’t know that you can cancel your pet’s animations after the effect is applied. The long aftercast animations on a lot of the skills you can hit f3 to instantly free up your pet or f1 to start attacking. This can save up to a full second depending on the skill and it’s animation. Most f2s drop their effect somewhere near the start of the animation, anything after that should be canceled unless you want to delay an attack (such as a leap knockdown) a while.

I don’t think responsiveness was ever the problem – it’s that F2’s cast times are way too high across the board. Most pet F2s should be in the range of instant-0.5sec.

The brown bear and owl I find to be very responsive. Could be because of the ½ second activation time.

Bryzy.2719:

I always roll with a wolf.

Hit F2, and it still takes like 5-6 seconds from hitting the F2 to the wolf using fear.

This is really frustrating. It’s STILL not cancelling the other actions in its chain to use the F2.

I have put in more support “tickets” in WvW for this exact issue and we’re all getting a bit tired of this not being fixed and instant as they said it would be.

It doesn’t always go off, and when it does, it seems like there is a huge lag even if the WvW map is EMPTY.

RoyalPredator.9163:

These problems exactly why I suggest the Pet being taken out of DMG and only focus on special effect skills that cast INSTANT. I mean… INSTANT.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/runes-sigils-and-balance-updates/

Am I reading this wrong?

“Multiple pet AI quality-of-life changes and bug fixes are being made for the ranger.

For example, commanding your pet to use a skill or attack an enemy will now occur instantaneously and will break the creature out of its current action. "

It either means all BUT f2 or it means they didn’t care that they missed one. And the only one that matters with a pet.

They said it, now we ask they do it – instant is what they promised, and we need it.

Bryzy.2719:

I always roll with a wolf.

Hit F2, and it still takes like 5-6 seconds from hitting the F2 to the wolf using fear.

This is really frustrating. It’s STILL not cancelling the other actions in its chain to use the F2.

How about it never going off?

It’s happening far more now than ever.

it still takes 5-6 seconds after hitting f2 cuz ur pet is trying to get in range… you’d be even more frustrated if u pressed f2, it used it immediately, and nothing happened because it was too far away