Guild Wars 2

I’m suprised no one posted about it yet. Bear won’t tank for me anymore. Even if I just order bear to attack a target and do nothing myself, target is still hitting me.

gonna say i noticed this as well right after the patch. Spider/bear wont tank anything…even my elementalist friend noticed this. He said, why wont your pet keep agro on anything, it used to. Just put this up on the neverending sticky list.

This is generally the case after you hit level 60 or so. The AI changes tactics and almost always ignores your pet from that point on.

Noticed it as well, even if you send your pet into a group and you aren’t in range, they’ll still come running up to you with a big smile on their face.

It may be something to do with amount of dmg. You vs pet. Unless you use a Pet like the Krytan Drakehound which can root and knockdown the mob, they will always come after you sooner or later.

I’ve never really used my pet to tank, just provide a bit of extra dmg.

But the class is so bugged now, either you deal with it or move on.

Oh it might also be one of Anets lame attempts to stop botting at the expense of genuine players. Since a lot of bots at the moment use Rangers with Brown Bears.

I’m around level 25. Mobs ignore completely. I don’t hit the mob at all and it still comes after me.

the bots things sounds pretty plausable.

My ranger is level 80, I have run pve open world and explorer dungeons since the patch… my polarbear and my adoctus however you spell it tank fine just as they always have. There are few mobs that refuse to be tanked due to AI but for everything else they are working as they always did.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/points-in-BM-affect-pet-agro/first#post408729

aha! I was onto something.

Well, that kind of sucks for new players. Mobs didn’t use to attack you until you started fighting the Risen. So pets lose aggro even in lowbie areas now?

I found that it makes a big difference who starts doing damage first. So you may want to send in your pet with F1 prior to engaging the mob at range, and see if that makes a difference. Even with Risen in CS, I can send the mob in and get a good 6-8 seconds of pet aggro before they focus on me (at which point they are mostly dead with SB & traps).

I haven’t checked this out TBH recently, but personally I’d prefer it if pets didn’t always try to tank – that’s why they die so quickly. That particularly applies to pets such as birds, which expire on the spot – a tanking bird is absurd.

IMOP some more options would be good – pets should be agressive until they get low on health and then try to evade. Currently, as a ranger you have many more ways to evade attacks than your pet does.

ATM, we can set pets to aggressive, but then they are too aggressive, or passive, when they are too passive – something in between say skirmish mode or darting attacks would work a lot better, in most cases, I reckon.

Never had this rly, I’m level 80 though, I didn’t know its like that for low levels now. In high level maps the ai is smarter. I run with wolves so they knock down enemies and take aggro. I also go ahead to revive someone and send my wolf to fight it won’t draw them to me. I do a ton of damage myself so I often draw aggro but that’s fine bc my pets aren’t there to tank but to provide synergistic offense

lolnotacat.9814:

This is generally the case after you hit level 60 or so. The AI changes tactics and almost always ignores your pet from that point on.

I’ve seen no changes in my pets’ ability to tank (at level 80). I’m running mostly drakes of various kinds, but they hold and can take enemy aggro fairly reliably.

I find enemies will go for my pet more often if I snare and strafe them. I also don’t ever play in Orr any more. The health pools are too high, the mob density is too great, the DR is depressing and the monochrome aesthetics bore me.

Play with your pet in other parts of the world and snare and strafe. Things aren’t so bad there.

1) First of all some of you seem to be assuming that I’m attacking the target, but even if I don’t bother at all, the target still goes after me.

2) For some reason the pet tanking seems to work just fine when I’m doing storyline events.

The reason I’m so annoying is that I started using shortbow with a condition build and going to target’s back to get bleeds on. Really nice with veterans or tougher mobs, but now I can’t even do that

I find that this is a problem mainly with the Risen. They ignore everything around, even a mob of friendly NPCs. It’s really frustrating trying to play with that in a class supposedly balanced around the pet. It’s impossible to flank or do any intelligent positioning. It’s annoying and just plain bad design.

my bear still tanks but yeah i also noticed that things are different
needs to be looked at

Pets want tank , Sb got nerf , For other players ranger = bot and I tried a warrior for the first time last night and it seems every weapon he has preforms ours . At this point why even call him a ranger .It should be a the Wimpy zoo keeping cheater.

I like playing a ranger but at this point in the game he is skill and strengths are fading fast I’m guessing he was the most played class at the start of game and now has to be at the bottom if you don’t count bots . So they should just get rid of the pets already. Thats the only way to soften ranger bots and revamp the ranger so he more playable.

How many people saying “pets won’t tank” actually have a decent amount of trait points invested in Beast Mastery?

Jestunhi.7429:

How many people saying “pets won’t tank” actually have a decent amount of trait points invested in Beast Mastery?

beastmaster tree is absolute crap (besides the first and maybe the second minor trait). 30 points in beastmastery give your pet +300 stats, thats not much… it makes no big difference.

How many people saying “pets won’t tank” actually have a decent amount of trait points invested in Beast Mastery?

I’d like to know the answer to that question too.

Aggro is still a pretty nebulous topic. Especially for us Rangers who have the additional mystery of how it affects the Pet. When we’re talking about it, it’s worth going into the details of our builds a bit, so the forum gets a nice sample to start finding patterns with.

I’m one of the ones who doesn’t have too many problems with Pet Tanking. I’m 30 deep in Beastmastery, and I use Signets.

I have an 80 Ranger and use Polar bear / White Moa pets. I am 20 points deep in beastmastery and my pets DO tank for me about 90% of the time.

I almost always let them get the first shot in. I HAVE noticed that they tend to tank less in Orr…

PS: This is all anecdotal evidence, but pet tanking in general has not been an issue.

it doesnt rly matter if have points in BM or not its about how the pet acts and theres soemthing weird after the last patch

Batlav.6318:

it doesnt rly matter if have points in BM or not its about how the pet acts and theres soemthing weird after the last patch

Maybe what you say is true, I can’t say. But, I think it must help(?) putting points into beastmastery if only because they do more damage/crit? Wouldn’t that help them keep agro, at least to some degree?

Boosting the damage output of your character and keeping the worst possible pet – you are bound to have aggro problems.

Think it through people…

Batlav.6318:

it doesnt rly matter if have points in BM or not its about how the pet acts and theres soemthing weird after the last patch

Unless you have an official source, this is nothing more than hearsay.

:edit:

Since asking how many points people have had 2 people have responded.

Both are at least 20 points deep and neither have problems getting their pets to tank.

I’m not surprised.

never had points in BM and the weird behavior never happened before
also if u read the other posts ull see that pet doesn’t tank even if they dont hit which means high dmg is not the problem…

no problems today will see if it happens again

Hej!

I noticed that if I stack Toughness, pets with low toughness can not hold aggro. It has gotten to the point where when I send a bear to attack a target, and am just standing there myself, not attack or anything, the target will just ignore the bear and walk straight to me and proceed hitting me.

This however does not affect wolves, dogs and devourers, because they still have more toughness then me.

So if you want your pet to hold some aggro, use a toughness heavy pet and/or lower your own toughness. My testing shows that as long as your toughness is lower then your pets, everything is OK.

guess this might be one of those sneaky stealth ways to deal with botters? so that the bot themselves will get attacked and die and can’t do it so easily…..?

Just chiming in, back when I rolled short bow, I ran with 15 BM for QZ and pet swap reduction. I didn’t face any tanking problems until I hit Orr mainly in the Strait of Malchor.

A few more posts, still the only people to mention the amount of points in BM are the ones who are able to pet tank…

Hate to ask, because it reveals me to be a newb, but, what is qz?

QZ=Quickening Zephyr=Quickness
Is 15 points really that deep though? It’s only halfway down the tree.
To put it in perspective, I ran with the following stats:
0/25/20/10/15

I mean if people used QZ as much as they seem to on the other SB thread, why wouldn’t they want half a QZ with a quarter the cooldown?

I have no point in BM, and my pet is able to tank IF it has more toughness than me.
If I use a vitality or power pet, they are being ignored by monster.

I tested this both in low level areas and high level areas.
When I strip naked, everything is OK. When I put on my “Knight” set, I can only use toughness heavy pets.

Thanks Chilly for the Qz tip. I thought it was part of the trait tree, explains why I couldn’t find it.

Orr is definatly seeing my pet tank less, but still my pet mostly tanks. If any one is interested, my traits are 0/30/0/20/20.

You can get QZ from the 5pt BM minor trait Zephyr’s Speed whenever you swap pets.
Combined with the 15pt minor trait Loud Whistle, you could get 2s of QZ every 15 seconds for a total of 6s of QZ every 60s compared to the 4s QZ from the actual skill.
This doesn’t really help burst ability though. Nor does it help melee pets since they have to take a few seconds to run up to their targets before attacking.

I’m gonna try out a 0BM build tonight and see if I notice any aggro changes in the Strait of Malchor.

I tried the toughness thing and it worked. I have no points in BM but once I switched to a pet that had more Toughness than me, he started tanking like normal.

L80 ranger – 30/30/10/0/0 – crit chance reach 70 with 25 stacks of precision – pet used: alpine wolf (unless he dies, in that case it’s the bear)

I’ve completed 4 maps at 100% this afternoon (2 in Orr, 15-25, 25-40), which means a lot of traveling/fighting, and I haven’t noticed any problem regarding aggro, everything seems normal to me. It’s a bit harder in Orr of course but a canine pet helps a lot. And as you can see I’m not using a special pet build. It’s obvious that there’s a problem for several of you but as far as I’m concerned everything is fine. Regarding aggro I mean, still WTB rollback of that stupid shortbow nerf.

Which means that points spent in BM, as well as traits like Master’s Bond will directly increase the pet’s ability to tank as they increase toughness.

And I suspect toughness isn’t the only factor, so I expect increased stats and other traits will further increase it’s tankiness.

It seems like a sound theory.
But I’ve got an odd experience to add to it.

I use Clerics items, so Toughness is a secondary stat in my build, and my pet still tanks. I can wipe my traits entirely, take off my signets, eat some toughness food, and take a low toughness pet – and even when I can get more toughness than my pet (20-50 point difference) it still tanks the majority of the time.

The quality of it is noticeably affected; they lose aggro sometimes and sometimes I gain intial aggro. But by and large I can’t purposefully get a mob to choose me over my pet for the life of me.

Vox, 20-50 points isnt that much. I’d consider this still the gray-area, where some other stats (maybe just the damage output) affect tanking more then the toughness difference.

Im using 30/20/20 and Im passing a bear in toughness by ~200. Thats when it becomes absolutely useless. I sent the bear in, it hits the monster once and immediately the monster turns on me. This happens even when I am out of range with the longbow. I can run circles, with the monster stuck on me and the bear running after the monster, hitting it when the monster stops to cast it’s special. Its like the Benny Hill show really.

A Alpine wolf passes me in toughness by around 300, a devourer by about 700 and they can tank just fine, with me DPS’ing.

P.S these numbers are taken in a lvl 75 area, so counting only affective stats, not max stats.

I forgot to post this last night, but after my Orrian GS run, I have to agree that a pet’s tanking ability has SOMETHING to do with their stats.

I play Ranger because I don’t have to dodge as much. I often don’t feel that being able to dodge twice in a short amount of time is acceptable to me.

Any pet that isnt a tanking pet is useless. I’ve been using the juvenile brown bear since release. I alternate between polar bear and ice drake for my 2nd pet.

Confirmed after the recent patch.

Pets on most occasions don’t tank. Pet is sent in the mob comes straight to me even if I haven’t hit the mob.
Additionally If I pull aggro through proximity and do ZERO Damage/Effects pet then in some instances the mob wont actually come of me even when others attack it. I confirmed this multiple times training botters and pulling the mobs through there line of auto fire.

IS IT…. "LETS DESTROY RANGER WEEK OR SOMETHING?

I’ve noticed no change in pet tankiness. I’ve been using my Raven a lot since I tamed it a few days back and it still draws more aggro, and its definately not a toughness pet.

I do have Beastmaster, but I also have Survival (both at 10, since I’m only level 34).

Could just be a something that effects higher-level experiences though. Maybe at lower levels toughness just doesn’t stack enough on you to make a difference and make you get over the pet.

I gotta say though, I actually would like something like this. Having some way to determine whether your pet or you draw more aggro would be nice, as opposed to just having pets draw aggro all the time. I don’t know if stats are the right way to go about it, since it does pigeonhole you into certain builds, though.

> “Since asking how many points people have had 2 people have responded.
> Both are at least 20 points deep and neither have problems getting their pets to tank.
> I’m not surprised.”

Then here’s a counter-example anecdote. I’m 20-deep, running dual-drake pets (Salamander and Marsh, usually), and I’ve seen the strange behavior when it comes to the Risen, and a few other enemies like oozes. It’s not level-based, though, because even the Risen in the first Claw Island PS quest (Lvl 50) do it, but the 70+ Sons of Svanire in Frostgorge (?) Sound will still aggro onto the pet.

Chosen.8207:

Confirmed after the recent patch.

Pets on most occasions don’t tank. Pet is sent in the mob comes straight to me even if I haven’t hit the mob.
Additionally If I pull aggro through proximity and do ZERO Damage/Effects pet then in some instances the mob wont actually come of me even when others attack it. I confirmed this multiple times training botters and pulling the mobs through there line of auto fire.

IS IT…. "LETS DESTROY RANGER WEEK OR SOMETHING?

Yeah I know how you feel. I’m so frustrated with my Ranger at this time I’m almost ready to go play my wow ranger…lol. At leas the pet AI in that game made sense.

Anyways I hope this gets fixed very soon because it’s just very frustrating doing any sorts of pve.

Jestunhi.7429:

Boosting the damage output of your character and keeping the worst possible pet – you are bound to have aggro problems.

Think it through people…

Batlav.6318:

it doesnt rly matter if have points in BM or not its about how the pet acts and theres soemthing weird after the last patch

Unless you have an official source, this is nothing more than hearsay.

:edit:

Since asking how many points people have had 2 people have responded.

Both are at least 20 points deep and neither have problems getting their pets to tank.

I’m not surprised.

I have 10 in BM and have no issues getting my bear to tank.
Since you are going down the path you are going I also have 30% bigger pet crits and pets heal on crit.