Pets no longer holding aggro
What was your armour upgraded from? The AI aggro system isn’t fully understood afaik, but things like your toughness, health, potential damage are all factored in. I suspect that you’re beating the bear in terms of priority.
It was a significant gear upgrade to a rare set at 35, but Loki, that would be a real problem if what you are saying is factored in. Like I say I’m at max range, outside the mobs aggro range, not firing. If I’m above the bear, who is attacking, on the treat meter, then something is wrong with the game.
I’d really be interested if someone higher level with good gear has any input on this. From level 1 to 35 I have had a normal pet aggro experience and have been in Mastercraft gear from level 14. The only difference between yesterday when the pets held aggro was an upgrade to a rare set. Again, if I’m at 1200 range and send in the pet without firing, the mob comes straight for me, i.e., I’m higher on the threat meter doing no damage at 1200 range than my pet in melee dealing damage.
You’re not listening to me. Armour and it’s stats are one of the variables that affect your aggro. I’ve got full Rampagers armour on my engineer and use a flamethrower with juggernaut; in some groups in a dungeon I’m utterly ignored no matter what. In other groups with a different party makeup everything is trying to kill me. You yourself have just said you had a significant armour upgrade. I expect that’s affecting the aggro, which will understand that it’s just a pet, so there’s a player nearby.
Loki, I did listen to you and said it would be a problem if what you were saying is correct. That is, a damage dealer, dealing damage, should be higher on the threat meter than a player at 1200 range not dealing any damage. I say that as one who has played mmo’s for years, though not GW and that is perhaps where the dis-connect lies. I guess what I’m saying is GW2 aggro, if it truly is working like this is counter-intuitive. Potential threat really shouldn’t outweigh actual threat, i.e. players or pets actually dealing damage. I don’t know if you played WoW, but if Omen had you at the top in terms of threat you simply backed off the damage-dealing or used an ability to decrease threat or re-direct it to the tank.
Whatever, I tried an experiment. I went into Lion’s Arch and retraited. I left power/precision/crit traits the same but put 5 in Beastmastery. The experience is now like it was yesterday and the pets now hold aggro normally. At least I can now progress without the pain. Thanks for your input.
I posted a thread about this a little while ago. After a patch a little while ago… not the last one, but the one before it, my pet stopped tanking. After a little bit of testing, it turns out that this was only the case for the bear and the moa pet. I now use a wolf, and it tanks fine… I just have to kill whatever it is tanking quickly, seeing as it doesn’t have the kind of health that my bear had. I’m sure it is a bug that will hopefully be fixed in the near future, and then us bear users will be able to go back to using them in PVE… until then, find a different pet to use.
thanks tantalas i was wondering if this was something that hadnt gotten to me yet. i dont use the bear anymore after someone pmed me and called me a bot and reported me for one. i switched to wolf and pig. i love my pig hes got better surviability then my wolf and has a great little knockdown. still trying to figure out what pet i like underwater though
" i dont use the bear anymore after someone pmed me and called me a bot"
I know. But 10,000 bots can’t be wrong on the proper pet for PvE, it’s probably a science to them. I use a polar bear to try to set myself apart from the bots; and, it helps to name it. Bots never name their bears; it’s always ‘Juvenile Brown Bear’. Yeah, being a ranger with a brown bear can get you reported as I’m always with bots it seems. I’m often thankful for them, actually, as they sometimes help with DE’s unwittingly when no one else is around. BTW, I went and tamed a shark and an armor fish for my underwater combo. The shark actually holds up quite well himself.
Now that I’m 80 with full exotics, basically nothing aggros on my pet. In PvE I use a bird and a cat for the most part, and I can send them in from well beyond max bow range, and whatever it grabs will immediately make a beeline for me. I’ve simply incorporated this fact into my strategy as it’s pointless to plan for an eventuality that won’t happen.
On the topic of underwater pets… Jellyfish. Regen cloud + CC. Those things are surprisingly tough for being composed primarily of sweet, sweet jelly. I can’t recall a time that something has actually managed to kill my jellyfish, although I’m sure it must have happened at least once.
Welcome to ranger mechanics at lvl 80. Your pets do not hold aggro anymore.
But actually seriously at lvl 80 you do not want them too. Seriously, if they hold aggro, they die very very fast. So it is better that you hold it.
This isn’t WoW. The class is Ranger, not hunter. Pets aren’t meant to be tanks (although some tank better than others) and you should be able to tank and DPS better than your pet.
Take a good greatsword and enjoy! Forget about pet tanking.
Because no1 do not know the principle of aggro generation in this game, we can say that it’s just randomly. And farther away – pet tanks worse and worse.
Some mobs ignore your pet. Undead mobs (pretty much every mob at level 80) seem to beeline straight for the player and will very rarely turn around to attack your pet.
Running a Beastmastery spec at level 80, pets can hold aggro on most mobs (except undead) with full exotics (minus accessories). When I switch to a more damage oriented spec, it depends on the pet.
Bears stink. I never use them. If you want a good tanking pet, get a hound or a bird. Pick up some of the healing traits for your pet and they’ll never die.
Also, get a red jellyfish. They’re awesome. I use my jellyfish more than any other aquatic pet.
My sylvan hound/wolf combo has no problem tanking. I’m in full exotics at level 80. I even attack first, and then use longbows push back and while they are running for me, they turn and attack my wolf instead. The only issue is that they do not have the survivability of the bear, which was nice.
“This isn’t WoW. The class is Ranger, not hunter. Pets aren’t meant to be tanks (although some tank better than others) and you should be able to tank and DPS better than your pet.”
Yeah, I was actually talking about GW2. And, the pet-tanking mechanic worked fine up until level 35. Every Ranger I’ve seen play in GW2 (at my level) had pets that tanked mobs for them. So, it was a surprise when one day the concept of pet-tank went away in GW2. Again, I was talking about GW2, just using an aggro example from WoW where aggro (once you are in combat—there is the notion of aggro range) is based on threat as measured by the amount of damage you are dealing relative to other combatants.
And, no, in GW2 (or any game I’ve played) a Ranger is not going to be able to tank anything beyond a trash mob or two. The first rule of ranged classes playing as ranged classes (i.e., with DPS) is you never get hit. It’s called kiting, whether in GW2 or any other game. If you see a Ranger standing still and ‘tanking’ you know that that Ranger does not understand his or her profession’s mechanics.
[Edit: I understand that Ranger’s can equip, say, a greatsword or sword and play in and around melee range. They are not ‘tanking’, they are striking and evading like a Mesmer does in melee. Tanking implies taking the focus of a mob, intentionally, and using abilities or build to avoid or mitigate damage and regenerate health.]
(edited by Raine.1394)
“This isn’t WoW. The class is Ranger, not hunter. Pets aren’t meant to be tanks (although some tank better than others) and you should be able to tank and DPS better than your pet.”
Yeah, I was actually talking about GW2. And, the pet-tanking mechanic worked fine up until level 35. Every Ranger I’ve seen play in GW2 (at my level) had pets that tanked mobs for them. So, it was a surprise when one day the concept of pet-tank went away in GW2. Again, I was talking about GW2, just using an aggro example from WoW where aggro (once you are in combat—there is the notion of aggro range) is based on threat as measured by the amount of damage you are dealing relative to other combatants.
And, no, in GW2 (or any game I’ve played) a Ranger is not going to be able to tank anything beyond a trash mob or two. The first rule of ranged classes playing as ranged classes (i.e., with DPS) is you never get hit. It’s called kiting, whether in GW2 or any other game. If you see a Ranger standing still and ‘tanking’ you know that that Ranger does not understand his or her profession’s mechanics.
Actually, Rangers can make darn good tanks via the evasion mechanic. Sword and dagger combo is amazing for just such a thing. Greatsword also makes a darn good tanking weapon in combination with QZ. If you use greatsword AND sword/dagger you can tank like a champ.
[Edit: And I’m not talking about tanking trash. I’m talking about tanking bosses and champions.]
“Actually, Rangers can make darn good tanks via the evasion mechanic. Sword and dagger combo is amazing for just such a thing. Greatsword also makes a darn good tanking weapon in combination with QZ. If you use greatsword AND sword/dagger you can tank like a champ.”
As you were posting I was adding an edit to my post clarifying what I mean by ‘tank’ and ‘tanking’ as all professions have the ability to deal damage in melee range. As I said I was speaking of played a ranged profession as ranged. And, technically, they are not tanking, they are striking and evading. They would last at most seconds with the focus of a Champion—they really are not designed for tanking—and, technically, no profession is. See my edited post.
“Actually, Rangers can make darn good tanks via the evasion mechanic. Sword and dagger combo is amazing for just such a thing. Greatsword also makes a darn good tanking weapon in combination with QZ. If you use greatsword AND sword/dagger you can tank like a champ.
[Edit: And I’m not talking about tanking trash. I’m talking about tanking bosses and champions.]"
Responding to your edit: You are talking then about standing toe-to-toe with a champion or boss for how long? Any cooldowns around evasion involved that might make tanking face to face with the full focus of a champion or boss for 10 minutes a bit untenable? We might be dancing around differing definitions of tanking.
I’ll chime in here, I’m a level 80 ranger with a mixture of gear. I did a bit of testing earlier and found that regardless of how far away I sent my pet (if you target a really far enemy and manually attack it) the mob would attack my pet until it reached a certain amount of health (somewhere around 50%) , at which point the enemy would just come right at me, even from what I estimate to be a range of 2000. This is extremely infuriating because of the bad pet AI and it more than halves my potential damage.
“Actually, Rangers can make darn good tanks via the evasion mechanic. Sword and dagger combo is amazing for just such a thing. Greatsword also makes a darn good tanking weapon in combination with QZ. If you use greatsword AND sword/dagger you can tank like a champ.
[Edit: And I’m not talking about tanking trash. I’m talking about tanking bosses and champions.]"
Responding to your edit: You are talking then about standing toe-to-toe with a champion or boss for how long? Any cooldowns around evasion involved that might make tanking face to face with the full focus of a champion or boss for 10 minutes a bit untenable? We might be dancing around differing definitions of tanking.
Talking about standing toe-to-toe with a champion or boss until it’s dead. It’s not easy and it requires excellent timing and near perfect use of abilities, but it can be done.
I’ve been messing around with greatsword and sword/dagger quite a bit lately and it’s pretty awesome for PvE. The build I’m using right now isn’t perfected, but I’ve been able to go toe-to-toe with most champions and bosses for extended periods of time. Don’t quite have everything down pat just yet, so I don’t always win. I’m pretty sure that once I get used to timing the evades it’ll be much more effective.
The main thing about the build is that you have on demand evasion from the following abilities with the sword/dagger build I’m using:
Hornet Sting (6.5 second CD)
Serpent’s Strike (12 seconds)
Stalker’s Strike (10 seconds)
Lightning Reflexes (36 seconds)
Swap to your greatsword when you’re in a pickle and swap your pet at the same time for six seconds of quickened auto-attack evasion (use QZ after the swap), pop Counterattack, Hilt Bash, swap back to your sword/dagger.
There really isn’t “traditional” MMO tanking in GW2, so really the only viable definition of tanking is being able to stand toe-to-toe with something and avoid/mitigate most of the damage being done. There aren’t really any taunts, so you have no way of forcing aggro on to yourself.
Well, if you are having fun with the tanky Ranger, learning the capabilities, testing the limits, and meeting with some success more power to you. GW2 gives a lot more opportunities to stretch your profession than any mmo I’ve tried to-date. That’s really what a game is about.
BTW, thanks for the tip about the jellyfish. I just picked up a red and a blue one (collect them all!) and will have one out on my next undersea adventure.
Different mobs aggro based on different factors. Learn what makes a particular mob tick, and be ready with different options depending on what a particular mob does. I use longbow and either sword/warhorn or greatsword. This gives me long-distance offense, AoE, and CC…plus close up defense and damage. Mostly I can handle anything that happens with the longbow. If they stick to my pet, I own them from range. if they come at me, I pepper them until they get close and then send them away with skill#4. By the time they reach me again (especially with that spike trap they landed on), they are dead.
Many of the most substantial differences between GW2 and previous MMOs are somewhat subtle until you realize how pervasive they are. One such difference is the fact that mobs in this game don’t all act / react the same way. Aggro mechanics aren’t 100% the same across every encounter. You’ve got to stay on your toes. If you want to make some super-specific build and have a set “rotation” of abilities and just rinse/repeat 389071234231 times…you’re probably going to have a surprise once in a while in this game.
I actually love the fact that mobs will do unpredictable or more “human like” things on some occasions. If you were doing PvP, the other player would never stick to your pet. Some mobs will move so that you can’t get behind them…others will try to kite you. It’s a great improvement over previous games. Obviously it’s still not like a human opponent, and once you learn the specific things a particular mob does, you can be ready every time. It’s good practice, though…if you go over to WvW you’ll want to know what to do when the opponent doesn’t follow the script.
(edited by Fozzik.1742)