Guild Wars 2

I would consider myself proficient at keeping my pet alive. Many learned players know this but as a tip to those struggling to keep the pet alive or know it’s location: use passive mode more often.

I only turn on agressive mode when I know I can turn it loose and not worry about it. This is usually in an area with many low health mobs. Any other time, I have the pet on passive and am manually sending it to targets and calling it back from targets. I would say I click the send and call buttons just as often (if not more often) than my weapon skills (beside the 1 skill)-definately a lot more often than I use utilities.

If your pet is still dying, move points into beastmastery. Depending on your build, you might use tankier pets until you are practiced enough to reliably use lower health pets. Another option is ranged pets, which really help for a boss fight (as well as traiting 2 seconds protection on dodge roll). Other nice combinations are shared anguish/stability training (turns disables into a stability buff for pet) or bark skin/compassion training. The last one will get you through those bosses you just aren’t good enough to dodge yet. A lot of times in a new dungeon, I would trait more defensive skills. Every player is impressed with a self sufficient player. And the nice thing about a downed ranger is that usually no one has to help to revive.