Guild Wars 2

I’m currently finding that in some story mode and the majority of explorable mode dungeons that pets are simply die instantly.

I try my absolute hardest to micromanage my pets to go to and from the enemy to try and dodge as much AOE or physical damage as possible (this however is time that the pets are not attacking and not adding to damage output). Directed movement of pets is also very limited. I can tell them to return to me, but that doesn’t mean it will stand to the left of me where there is no AOE as opposed to the right of me where there is…

Using a ranged pet such as spiders at first seemed like a viable choice to me, as even bears, the tankiest of tanks, seemed to be dying instantly. Unfortunately due to being very squishy and not able to dodge, small AOEs generally melted my poor spideys instantly.

So, I want to hear, have any Rangers had a satisfactory time with their pets in dungeons? Please remember that pets are our profession mechanic and a potentially large source of damage output. Any time they are not attacking an enemy or dead is lost output on our part.

Against trash? Yes. I have 20 points in BM, and they perform very well against trash. They may require a pet swap on some of the uglier mobs, which is unfortunate where MB is concerned, but they do a fairly yeoman job of keeping things occupied.

On bosses? No, they get murdered pretty quick. If you find your pet is getting ROFLstomped against a nasty boss, consider using a pocket Moa for the duration of the fight.

I have 15 Points in BM and will usually take two Bears into dungeons vs my normal two Dogs. Alternating between the Bears and F3ing them back towards me, I can keep them up practically forever.

Be aware that other classes also feel that pain on bosses. A minion master necro can lose 100% of their offensive power to a single aoe in a boss fight. Although they can resummon those minions, oftentimes that means spending the rest of the fight channeling summons whenever they’re available, dropping a healing well (because the blood minion is crap!) and maybe getting a single swing in with a weapon – probably a bit more harsh than losing just your pet and spending the fight pew-pewing away. After all, you still get your utility skills.

It stems from the dungeon difficulty, not the frailty of pets. think of it as your loyal friend bravely taking one for the team, and it’s not so bad.

Though if you want, I can animate that dead moa for you…

Hmm, interesting take.

If I see that my first pet got downed quickly, I switch and set it to peaceful. Then when one of my party gets downed I used the “search and rescue” ability, then send them to attack while its on cool down. I used that one A LOT in my last dungeon run. I don’t considered rallying a party member “lost output”…

There is 1 boss in AC where my pet dies quick. Other than that my pet usually has no problem staying alive. I use dual bear with heal on crit.

Pets do fall to quickly to many bosses and being forced to use two bears is not much of an option. The whole point of having more than one pet is for utility purposes, which are removed once you don’t really have a choice e.g two bears.

Zep.5189:

Pets do fall to quickly to many bosses and being forced to use two bears is not much of an option. The whole point of having more than one pet is for utility purposes, which are removed once you don’t really have a choice e.g two bears.

Um…

The utility of the bear is its durability.

So you use it in situations where durability is required.

You know, like…a boss fight.

Pets require too much micro-management, the pro players will tell you that you’re doing it wrong, but IMO they’re practically useless for anything other then solo PVE single-target leveling.

Trimethicon.7405:

Pets require too much micro-management, the pro players will tell you that you’re doing it wrong, but IMO they’re practically useless for anything other then solo PVE single-target leveling.

They don’t require any micromanagement at all. If there’s a problem with pets currently, it’s that their animations root them in PvP and their bloody F2 skills don’t respond to micromanagement. I’d LOVE to micromanage my pet. But they pretty fire and forget right now.

at least one of mine is a bear always. it’s very rare that I have a downed pet and F4 isn’t ready yet

choose ‘em, just like you wouldn’t automatically use greatsword for each and every fight…

I realize the bear is a tank pet, but if you are forced to carry 2 of them all time in dungeons thats useless. The pets are suppose to offer options if used at the right time.

And just so you know the bears don’t last that long in boss fights either, so yeah the boss has to down 2 bears instead of one.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Trimethicon.7405:

Pets require too much micro-management, the pro players will tell you that you’re doing it wrong, but IMO they’re practically useless for anything other then solo PVE single-target leveling.

They don’t require any micromanagement at all. If there’s a problem with pets currently, it’s that their animations root them in PvP and their bloody F2 skills don’t respond to micromanagement. I’d LOVE to micromanage my pet. But they pretty fire and forget right now.

They require micro-management when I need to bring two bears into a dungeon, knowing full well one will get vaporized on every fight. They require micro-management when I need to spam F3 to get them to come back to me, because my 2nd pet is about to die, or when I need to constantly use my heal to keep it alive.

Better him than me.

Zep.5189:

I realize the bear is a tank pet, but if you are forced to carry 2 of them all time in dungeons thats useless. The pets are suppose to offer options if used at the right time.

And just so you know the bears don’t last that long in boss fights either, so yeah the boss has to down 2 bears instead of one.

I have done about 500 tokens worth of Honor of waves and about 500 worth of CoF and some Twilight, some AC, and some Arah…9 out of 10 boss fights my pets do not go down quick at all and do a very good job. So other than the scorpian wire guy in AC which bosses were you thinking you could not keep pets alive on?

The pets in GW2 require a lot more then:

1. Attack
2. Use Special Attack
3. Guard/Stand down

We also need – a type of “Growl” on/off, they should not pull aggro off of a player in a dungeon or group setting.

The pets do require micro-mangement although babby sitting is a closer estimate. Saying the pets are fire and forget is nonsense. I’m not saying they even should be fire and forget. The problem is the pets are our class mechanic and they are a liability at this point.

Personally I always carry a bear for situations that call for them, but what about players who want to choose a different play style. You can’t tell everyone to just bring bears all the time, otherwise why even have any of the other pets. Yeah we all know you should have 2 that occupy various roles, but having to carry 2 just to maintain one role…

Trimethicon.7405:

The pets in GW2 require a lot more then:

1. Attack
2. Use Special Attack
3. Guard/Stand down

We also need – a type of “Growl” on/off, they should not pull aggro off of a player in a dungeon or group setting.

I feel the same, but I also would like some kind of BM trait that the pet takes less damage from AoE attacks.

Trimethicon.7405:

The pets in GW2 require a lot more then:

We also need – a type of “Growl” on/off, they should not pull aggro off of a player in a dungeon or group setting.

Must disagree the main reason I like the pets is because they DO pull aggro!

Fluffycalico.2715:

Trimethicon.7405:

The pets in GW2 require a lot more then:

We also need – a type of “Growl” on/off, they should not pull aggro off of a player in a dungeon or group setting.

Must disagree the main reason I like the pets is because they DO pull aggro!

I personally hate it when the tank dies, gets out to heal, … and while someone takes aggro to tank or kite the boss my pet dies because of the aggro he generated.

Sinbad.9752:

Fluffycalico.2715:

Trimethicon.7405:

The pets in GW2 require a lot more then:

We also need – a type of “Growl” on/off, they should not pull aggro off of a player in a dungeon or group setting.

Must disagree the main reason I like the pets is because they DO pull aggro!

I personally hate it when the tank dies, gets out to heal, … and while someone takes aggro to tank or kite the boss my pet dies because of the aggro he generated.

I personally love getting any 4 people together that play well no matter the class and running through explorer with no problem. As long as you can kite and have pets any class group can do explorer with no problem. Did 3 different dungeons on explorer last night with me (ranger) 2 eles and 2 mesmers…no tank in site and no wipes at all in any of the dungeons.

I have only few points in Beast Mastery and to avoid getting my pet killed I use Ranged Pets

In dungeons, used a ranged pet and a bear. Problem solved. Eagles are actually really good too, they have high damage but they’re actually very survivable. I’ve had bad luck trying the big cats though, they die too quickly to be of much use.
I tried a Pink Moa for the AoE protect last time I dungeon’d, that actually went pretty well.

what pet are you using? I run the black Moa, and the bear/wolf creature i picked up in the Norn lands, both have high vitality and toughness, and both last longer then most of my team mates. Though they will die to 1-hit attacks from bosses since they have no dodge mechanic…

corpsekin.4601:

what pet are you using? I run the black Moa, and the bear/wolf creature i picked up in the Norn lands, both have high vitality and toughness, and both last longer then most of my team mates. Though they will die to 1-hit attacks from bosses since they have no dodge mechanic…

This is the exact same set up I use and I agree with everything you say.

I really don’t have any problems with pets dyeing to fast, and I am using felines.. You just need to think of your pet as a second health bar. Use your heals to heal your pet, and swap them out before they die. Really if your pet is dying as often as your saying its your fault. If your in a situation were your pet is being one hit killed by a boss, then you should switch them out for a buffing pet and make them passive.

I have 30 points in Beast Mastery. I have soloed some story mode dungeons. I also solo champions in Orr.

I use bears and can swap to my new pet when ones dies 90% of the time.

Hrm, am I the only one that is annoyed that the answer is always “just keep rotating your pets!”

Simple enough, but the fact is the game encourages long term play with one pet (not just bears lol) for beastmasters due to masters bond requiring 25 stacks for maximum effectiveness and it being lost on swap, which is difficult end game (non-bear) in most situations.

Faolchu.1629:

Hrm, am I the only one that is annoyed that the answer is always “just keep rotating your pets!”

Simple enough, but the fact is the game encourages long term play with one pet (not just bears lol) for beastmasters due to masters bond requiring 25 stacks for maximum effectiveness and it being lost on swap, which is difficult end game (non-bear) in most situations.

This!

Having to constantly swap out pets because they die too fast is not how Rangers should play. Pet swapping ought to be about strategy, rather than because pets simply haven’t enough hp/resilience in both pve and pvp. Often it’s hard to see your pet’s health bar when they are in the thick of a large mob of players and npcs as well and the first you know that they need recalling is that they’re dead. And at that point swapping has a cd penalty! I don’t understand why this hasn’t been fixed, as it has been an issue from the first beta. I’m not saying there aren’t times when this would happen, where you have to call back a pet and resend etc or swap, but it’s requiring so much of my playtime (ie micromanaging it) that the pet becomes a liability rather than the fighting companion it’s supposed to be.That it is currently so weighed down by the fact that pets just die too fast detracts significantly from the profession and enjoyment of it. I really hope Anet fixes this otherwise I’m not sure I will continue with this profession, even though pet classes are my favourite in mmos.

This could be fixed by either just doubling their hp/resilience (I think it’s that bad atm), or providing a heal on autoattack, or something similar.

I don’t PvP and my pets are absolutely fine with some management in PvE. However, I found them absolutely useless in the dungeons. Since I will only be doing the dungeon on story mode and nothing more, I’m okay with not having a pet for that teeny, tiny portion of the game in the story dungeons, but, yes I do wish they were at least barely useful in the dungeon.

I have to use a bear in dungeons, other pets go down too quickly. I do sometimes roll with a hyena second just for the extra pet during big group fights.

The bear maintains pretty well, I use Heal as One to keep him alive and he can usually hang with the bosses in melee unless that have some kind of super dodge or die attack (like the Lieutenant in AC).

I dont seem to have too much trouble keeping my pets up. When going into a dungeon, I bring out 2 bears as my pets for the run, but I also have about 10 points (so far) in BM. Sure, they still will die, but I usually don’t have to wait for the swap being on cooldown. The more points in BM you have will help towards pet survivability.

For dungeons I run with Red Moa for buff and Forest Spider (ranged) since its ranged and has AoE attack/dots. Always run with pets on passive and they wont die (that often).

Faolchu.1629:

Hrm, am I the only one that is annoyed that the answer is always “just keep rotating your pets!”

Simple enough, but the fact is the game encourages long term play with one pet (not just bears lol) for beastmasters due to masters bond requiring 25 stacks for maximum effectiveness and it being lost on swap, which is difficult end game (non-bear) in most situations.

Yes, because the class has no incentives to switch pets. Other than Zephyr’s Speed. And Mighty Swap. And Loud Whistle kind of aids this play-style.

The issue is not that the game requires us to swap pets. The issue is that there is one trait that is very powerful if you do not swap pets. This trait does not belong.

I’m currently ruing around with 30 beast mastery, a drake (hits multiple foes, good for the undead hordes in orr) and a spider/devourer. This is because the drake’s good enough for most situations, but when the two-hits-every-thing melee boss is encountered (which it will) the easiest way to avoid your pet getting brutalised by it is to swap to a ranged one. Swap out to a ranged weapon yourself and you can easily keep the pet alive just my making sure it’s near you with F3.

I usually run with bear/bear ensemble in dungeons. I use the regeneration signet, the toughness signet (6 seconds of invulnerability are great against bosses) and 10 points in beastmastery for the increased heal skill. This gives my pets very good survivability against trashmobs and most bosses. The other bosses require more micromanagement, like swapping and recalling. To utility: I always use the murellow for its poison cloud (great aoe and useful against singletargets as well when you fire a barrage through it). The second bear depends on the encounter, either polar bear for increased damage (got more power than the other bears and the chill is neat for control) or the brown bear with condition removal against condition heavy encounters.

I personally think that Pets give you a huge advantage, yes they can die quickly but at the same time, Pets give you time, especially if facing a strong enemy by yourself, Also it depends on the pet and your utility skills, you can make them a lot stronger-.

Especially in dungeons I think stow pet should be permanent until you activate it again AND give your self a small bouns in stats. It could be like you get some of your pets senses or something.
In GW1 you had a choise if you wanted to have your pet or not.

I don’t have a high level ranger, but how come no one is talking about range pets like devourers or are they worthless?

I use a Devourer as my second pet, but I do not like it as much as my Fern Hound. It has great survivability, but is relatively dull. I have tried Spiders, but just did not like them. I felt the Spider AI needs a little work, but otherwise it seemed fine.

EDIT: Wow, I over-used the word `but’ there!