Guild Wars 2

Actual pets:

• Wolf [Warlock]: Fear is useful for rescue and breaking enemy damage for some sec.
• Eagle [Alcatraz]: Just for the crit DMG. Its bleeding is kitten. I prefer Vulnerability for it.
• Shark [Vizipipa (=Water pipe)]: Because there is no more acceptable looking aqua pet for my tase
• Armored Fish [Hummer]: Its stun comes handy against veterans and champions.

I’m currently going with a “jungle stalker” and a “red moa”.

red moa+horn=neverending fury for me and allies nearby.

Dungeons are where I spend most of my time so I will focus on that first. I’ve tried a lot of pets and I alternate constantly what I bring, trying out new things.

Drakes: I’ve been having a lot of fun with drakes. The blast finisher they have is awesome for giving area healing in Healing Spring or might stacks in fire fields. If you have an ele in the part you will see a lot of blast combos and most finishers are incredibly powerful. I often run into melee range to drop my healing spring for the melee toons and then swap in my drake for a quick burst of healing (and condition removal). The first thing he does is a blast finisher (if it’s not on cooldown, the blast finisher is always the first skill the drake uses when beginning combat) so it’s like having a fourth utility skill. Drakes also do nice AoE damage and they are pretty tanky, especially now that their self heal is no longer bugged. Special shout out for the river drake for Lightning Breath. I think it hits 10 times. It does great damage on its own and it’s excellent for building up might stacks with Rampage as One. If it’s safe to use a melee pet, these guys are almost always great choices.

Red Moa: Simply for the Fury. When traited for reduced cooldowns, their F2 skill can provide an awesome fury buff for the party. Fury isn’t easy for all classes to access so with the importance of crit damage builds in the meta, providing Fury to your allies that don’t access it easily can really help a lot. Moas are also decently tanky and their Harmonic Cry is actually a very useful heal. Great for relieving pressure on your allies in a melee situation.

Spiders: In most dungeons you simply can’t run melee pets. They die almost instantly. This is where I bring spiders. They can provide 100% up time on poison which is great for bosses that heal and their immobilise can be great for buying more time for your party to strafe. Aside from that, not much more to say. For me it’s a sad compromise, I don’t bring them cause I want to, but because all the other pets just don’t work.

Devourers: The same as spiders, plus they have evasion and are a little more durable. I usually have one of each. The devourer is also great for building might stacks with Rampage as One because their auto attack hits twice. I usually use the Carrion Devourer for the poison field. If I bring spiders and devourers I try to bring Expertise Training to boost their condition damage, it’s mediocre otherwise. Primarily I brought ranged pets because I wanted them alive so I could keep using quickness, since the quickness nerf I find myself not caring as much.

Water I use the same pets everywhere because I don’t care for water combat much and I find these guys to be effective enough. There also isn’t much variety.

Reef Drake: Their F2 is feedback. Could you want anything else? Feedback is an insanely OP skill and even though the duration is short, the ability to reflect projectiles is just broken in GW2, especially when so much PvP in water uses ranged due to the difficulty of hitting in melee.

Salamander Drake: Their F2 is Boiling Water (although unlike the ele version which got a buff to become a fire field, this one seems to have fallen by the wayside – which is a shame cause drakes have blast finishers) which does a decent chunk of AoE damage.

If I can be bothered I swap them out for the Jelly Fish fight for devourers. The ability to eat pets is a huge hindrance to a part and when it happens I know I’m holding my group back. Even when I use devourers, if the jelly fish comes after them I have to constantly micro them to stay away to help pull the jelly fish to a cage (otherwise the pet keeps attacking and the jelly fish just goes for them instead of following the party to the cage). For these reasons I usually just put the pet on standby for this fight.

WvW

Jaguar: This pet’s DPS is well documented. The stealth is good for getting in hits with it and the crits can be fantastic at taking down an opponent.

My second pet is usually a spider or wolf for the immobilise and poison or knock-downs and AoE fear respectively.

Everywhere Else

I use whatever I like. I wish this was the case for the whole game because there are a lot of pets I like thematically or aesthetically which just don’t have the stats or skills to support them. I usually run a hawk and either a wolf or a stalker (my starter pet) in open world PvE. Not because they are great, but because I just like them.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Hey folks,….

Open World → Zerg: So we are expected to have to use a ranged pet on champ mobs where it takes a zerg to take down because of the lack of pet survivability? Not even the tankiest of tank pets and traits will help huh? That’s actually quite pathetic.

WWW → Solo: Most dangerous game for the ranger class is more like it. If you are looking to disable and kill quickly, pick a different class.

→ Zerg and Wall: We rely on the pet being 40% of our damage output. That is just so we are on par with other classes. If our pet is not dishing out the dps, we are doing 40% less damage than every other class. That is a massive kitten to the class.

Dungeons: Again, forced to use range pets at boss fights or else you have two dead pets and a min CD. Bringing a pet that benefits the group is unlikely. Out of the pets that we have, not all provide a benefit to the group. Those that do are not ranged and what they provide is often brought by other players who can do it far better.

Honestly. What you wrote only makes the ranger’s short comings stick out.

Also, with so much focus on what pet for which situation. Where is the loyalty? Where is that bond? You treat the ranger’s pets as you would a sword or dagger. Just a tool to be used. It’s sad.

Ranger Pets I currently never see any use for in PvP

• All Bears – being a tanky pet that does no damage makes them pretty useless when players avoid the tanky pet and go for the ranger … the Murrelow and Polar Bear could function as AOE poison/chill machines, but there are better options and being “okay” once every 35 to 45 seconds isn’t “good”.
• All Porcine – because forage can let enemies steal what is foraged, is “wonky” to use, and dogs do a better job of providing CC and have more damage.
• Jungle Stalker – because the might has a short range, it’s on a melee pet, and has a long cast time
• Blue Moa – because 3 seconds of protection is pathetic … I’ll dodge roll, thanks.

Now, there are still other pets I pretty much don’t use either, but I can at least see valid uses for them where they are worthwhile to take depending on what you want.

Sebrent.3625:

Ranger Pets I currently never see any use for in PvP

• Jungle Stalker – because the might has a short range, it’s on a melee pet, and has a long cast time

I disagree with that. That’s my primary pet when I WvW. I think Stalker is the most versatile pet if you’re a bow user. It’s one of the few pets where it’s useful in both active and passive mode; it’s pretty good burst when it attacks and the buff is useful. I wish they would switch the buff between land and water. Rangers are very strong in water and they don’t need 10 stacks of might. We should get 10 stacks on land and 5 stacks in water instead. But I agree there’s little synergy between the F2 and the pet itself though and the cast is way too long and unresponsive, especially after the March patch.

The range and priority issue is definitely something that needs to be looked at. This is very apparent in PVE when you do group events. Often times the ranger will not get the buff when F2 is cast. Priority should always go to the ranger caster so an F2 buff is guaranteed to hit the ranger owner. I’ve argued before that, in fact, range should be completely disregarded for the ranger when F2 is cast because of the synergy problem that you’ve mentioned because there’s no reasonable way to recast the F2 when you’ve sent your pet out to attack.

That would only make too much sense, Aridia :-)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=KtBzd7vNSIA
This two pet are amazing for 1 vs 1 in wvsw
Fem Hound and Wolf

I only play PvE

For the sole reason bears have 2 to 3 times as much Vitality as the other pets, i only use bears (on land). There’s the reason why ranger bots always use a bear pet.
In water i like Jellyfish for their Healing Cloud.

Personally i would prefer to use the felines, they r my favourite animals.
But sadly, they die faster than bears.

If you are having trouble with cats (or birds) dying, check out the Major Master Skirmish Trait Carnivorous Apetite.

Those two types of pets crit quite often, even more with points in Beastmastery, and will heal for 276 (more with +healing) each crit. If you couple this with Natural Regeneration (30 pt trait in Beastmastery) and/or Signet of the Wild, your pet becomes quite difficult to kill except by the hardest of hits.

For more information on pet (and ranger) heal per sec, take a look at this thread here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Data-Ranger-Health-Per-Second/first#post1821307

You’ll find there that it is possible for your pet to be healing for 1,000 hp per second (you’ll likely be healing for half that).

for world events where you pets dont get oneshot…ok ill stop trolling,

i dont think you can beat 2x moa’s 2xaoe heals* fury and protection awsome stuff!

*notice i said “heals” and not regeneration this is what makes moa the best support pet for nononeshot events allso awsome if your playing mele ranger

I wish the protection from Blue Moa was 10s and that the White Moa still gave regen :-/

WvW
- When fighting I swap between hyena, drake hounds for knock downs or jaguar and some other feline for bleeds. Sometimes I will use two birds to try something different.
- If I’m playing LB/SB I’ll use devourers and I’ll pepper zergs/groups from range.
- When tower defending I’ll use moas/stalker mix for the boons. I put the pet on passive and then just pop F2 for might, fury, protection, etc.

PvE
- Drake hound because I love dogs. I’ll put a jaguar as back-up when I want to katassasinate something, or a polar bear if I want to pet tank.

WvW is all I really play, so in that context I have 3 main setups I swap between.

Devourer/Devourer. Lower damage than other pets, but at least its ranged and hits more consistently because people don’t generally target it. They melt the second anything more than 4 enemies are involved though.

Wolf/Dog – love the F2s and the kd effects, but the slow cast and their inability to hit moving targets consistently makes this the pet combo I “want” to use moreso than one I actually can use.

Bear/Bear – When running full glass zerker I essentially have 2 methods of survival, signet of stone and protect me. With bears that’s 12 seconds of invulnerability (conditions still apply) at my disposal to use in place of toughness and vitality. Only really woks with bears though because everything else melts too fast. Unfortunately a pair of bears on passive is about the most useful thing I can do with 40% of my class, which is sad.

I will say for WvW, chill is my favorite skill. Any pet that can chill is on my short list and one day when pets actually work against human players that will be the deciding factor on most pet choices.

After 30 april patch, bears still have best health/armor combo.
So, i still see no point in not always using bears (on land).

I want to use felines, but they still (or now) have the worst health/armor combo.
:-(

I run 30 beastmastery, with Natural Healing for the grandmaster trait and Signet of the Wild for a utility. I also bring the minor trait ‘Compassion training’ for the healing boost the pet gets. That out of the way:

General things to remember:
-Remember to switch the pets when they get low. Cannot stress that enough.
-With signet of the wild and natural healing the pet will be able to outregen almost all damage in a 1v1 with something outside of boss characters.
-I personally prefer a ranged pet and a melee pet. Sooner or later you’ll run into something that hits too hard in melee or there’s a big cartoon-dustcloud-you-can’t-see-into style scrum so it’s good to have a ranged pet for those moments. It can also give you a moment to mentally regroup. You swap to the ranged pet and since worrying about the pet is no longer such an issue (if it’s one at all) you can focus on something else.
-Consider 15 Wilderness Survival if you can. Protection for you and the pet when you dodge roll goes miles, and can really take the edge off a hit you can dodge but the pet can’t.
-Don’t be afraid to pick the right pet for the right moment. If you know you’re fighting lots of stuff the drake is worth considering for example. If you know you’re fighting only a few though, consider the birds; they do high single target damage. If you kow you’re going into somewhere with conditions, consider the Brown Bear for it’s roar, and so on.

However, that last point being said…

…For general surface wandering, it doesn’t really matter that much in most cases, you can take anything. The only points it might get tricky for squishier pets like the birds is if things start to gang up on it. I like bringing a drake because with a melee weapon you can hack through most pve groups in moments but, as I said already, it honestly doesn’t matter that much in most situations. Bears may be tough as nails, but at 30 beastmastery with natural healing and signet of the wild, even the ‘squishy’ pets can take a beating from most things.

In dungeons, it depends how good you are with the micro essentially. If in doubt, get ranged pets exclusively but I’ll tell you now, I use drakes, dogs and even birds and it’s usually fine unless I do something silly like fail to swap it or call it back in time.

in wvw i like to put my wolf in front of the big group fear theme all then it doesn’t matter in pvp like one on ones i use jaguar and poler bear for the damage and they cant run while frozen lol

I always run with 2 devours purely to the fact that i am Shortbow / Axe-warhorn ranger.
This way i always keep my poison stack on the target.
The bleeding and poison keeps doing damage even when i’m swapping to axe-warhorn for might stacks and chilling.

I used owl and jaguar, but now I use owl and red drake. I don’t really know or care what most pets do and I’m using them because of aesthetic reason. They come with me everywhere except for dungeons, which I don’t do, because they are stupid. I just wish the drake was little bit smaller though, like a little lizard or something.

Hey Robert!

“Pet Selection – Which, When, Where, and Why bother any more.”
would be a more fitting title at the moment…

yeah. all offensive pets are worthless now. gg. Watch everyone that even tries to continue playing the class now, switch to only using pets that provide buffs…because that’s all they’re good for in wvw now.

Isn’t there some sort of rule that says a Sticky should have relevancy and accuracy? Once out of date, shouldn’t they be deleted or unsticked? If there isn’t such a rule, there should be.

Moderator.9302:

Hey everybody,

We are currently in the process of cleaning up old sticky posts. We have noticed that this bug list is no longer being maintained by the original poster, so we are going to let it drop off. If somebody would like to take up the mantle of maintaining a current bug list, you are welcome to do so. If such a thread is created, please use the report button to alert the moderation team of your request for sticky.

Since the bug list thread was removed, and this was left in it’s place, I’m going to make this post and report it so this thread can be removed from the pinned topics. It’s really outdated and is just becoming a spam thread.

jubskie.3152:

Moderator.9302:

Hey everybody,

We are currently in the process of cleaning up old sticky posts. We have noticed that this bug list is no longer being maintained by the original poster, so we are going to let it drop off. If somebody would like to take up the mantle of maintaining a current bug list, you are welcome to do so. If such a thread is created, please use the report button to alert the moderation team of your request for sticky.

Since the bug list thread was removed, and this was left in it’s place, I’m going to make this post and report it so this thread can be removed from the pinned topics. It’s really outdated and is just becoming a spam thread.

Good idea.
After all, this pet list is no longer being maintained by the original poster.

Easy way to spot n00bs: running bears instead of reef + ranged (devs, spiders, etc)

@Mods
Thanks for unpinning!

@ OP;

I find your suggestion of switching pets as soon as you jump off a wall in a WvW defending situation very bad. As soon as you get out of range of your pet (this works with the height difference in WvW structures) your pet will spawn next to you, just like when you move out of range of your pet.

This bugged me as I read through your post, as it speaks of little experience. I can’t really blame you for that though, as the Ranger is a lot more fun to roam around in WvW than it is useful to defend with.

I find using a jaguar, jumping off and doing your thing (be it Entangle, Muddy Terrain* by trait or skill use) and sending in a Jaguar with F2 to attack the enemy while running back to safety is usually enough to send a few people fleeing. If you find you can get out of combat in the defended structure, that’s the moment to save pet swapping for.
Another pet alternative that works great in these situations is the wolf, to send the people using the rams fleeing with the F2 skill. Using a squishy pet doesn’t really matter to me, because I tend to swap pets out of combat anyway.

One more bit of advice for defending structures as a Ranger; use a ranged pet (I prefer spiders because of the AoE poison field), position it on the wall with F3 and let it attack while you man a arrow cart. Pets stay active when using siege weapons other than golems so it allows for some much needed utility.

Edit; sorry I only just noticed this thread was brought up with the intention of removal. My advice stays but indeed the original post does not seem to be very well informed.