Guild Wars 2

Mabuse.2879:

Ariete.6509:

After all of this, are your pets not hitting their targets?

No, they aren’t. Not when the targets are players. Pets stop at maximum range. Even a crippled and chilled player who moves away at all will avoid their attack.

Just to check what I was saying, I went to the Heart of the Mists and set various pets on the moving target golem at the DPS trials waypoint. I haven’t done a complete or thorough test by any means, but I did learn something.

Tail Swipe: Never lands. Drake spins on the spot at about range 400.
Stalk: Rarely lands. Cat flails around in the air at about range 400.
Rending pounce: Sometimes lands, other times cat leaps to nowhere.
Frenzied Attack: Rarely lands.
Dazing Screech: Rarely lands.
Brutal Charge (pig): Never lands.
Brutal Charge (dog): Mostly lands.
Intimidating Howl: Always lands (it’s AoE).

In general, cats, birds, and dogs seem to land most of their auto attacks (including the dog knockdown). The special abilities were less reliable. Bird special abilities usually landed, but it often took the bird a few seconds to get around to it, even as an opener, unless you made sure the bird was right next to the golem when you made the request. In one case, the raven just seemed to wander off in the wrong direction to apply swiftness to a passer-by and forget about trying. Moas and Drakes always miss one of their auto attacks, and only rarely land their special ability. (Tail swipe is a blast finisher, though, so has other uses with traps and bonfires.)

By careful placement of a frost trap I was able to get a Drake tail swipe to land sometimes, when the golem was turning around.

Bear in mind this is on a target golem running in a fairly small course at standard player speed without evading.

When I can persuade a friend and find an empty PvP server I’ll do a few tests on players.

Had someone done this kind of testing before, but more thoroughly, and posted the results? I haven’t seen much in the way of combat log analysis in GW2, and the log seems quite incomplete anyway, so I’m not sure proper number crunching is possible.

Ariete.6509:

Welcome to GW2! Where managing a pet truly matters, where there’s reward/punishment on timing returns and swap pets, where choosing the right pet matter.

when was the last time you brought a ranged pet to fight and walked to a certain spot and “placed” your pet to act as a pewpew turret? Do you use “guard” at all? Shame on you, because the ranger as a whole even though not perfect, is awesome! They even buffed the HP to dumb it down, which i totally was against it and still there’s complaint.

So let me control my pet so I can manage it properly.

Don’t worry though instead of compiling a useful list of changes that would benefit the ranger class as a hole please tell the rest of us what trait points and skills are required to have a pet that actually hits a moving target.

You know what was great about pets in WoW? (Warlock main but still) being able to keybind things like the Fel Guard’s stun and Succubus’ Charm to activate when I wanted it too and instantly. Not have my pet stand there auto attacking only to cast them several seconds afterwards if at all, all the while using every other skill it has at random intervals.

Threads like this are still applicable 10 months down the line ( Numbers are obviously varied since pets were nerfed in the damage department)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Pet-DPS-Comparison/first#post1443880

Keep stroking your ego about being pigeon holed into specific trait and skill usage in order to get your classes defining ability to somewhat work. Don’t worry though, you’re the unique snowflake amongst rangers. Clearly you are the chosen one who will usher in a new age of rangers who will snub their noses at such things like ‘’better pet control’’ and ‘’Pet survivability’’ what are we basic plebeians? We shall have none of that on your watch.

I kind know the answear but can’t help myself to be cinical: did you had agility training on your build or did you had Signet of the hunt equipped? How many times did you chill/immobilize/cripple/knockdown/stuned the circling golem?

I know… i won’t lie i also have a sense of pride for being right, nevermind we’re only humans. Although never forget that forums falso serve to strenghthen the community through the share of knowledge. Just the other day i was offering my positive opinion on the 154279th complaint thread about one handed sword, when i learned an awsome trick from a fellow poster, after 18 months of playing my profession.

After onde more attempt i deleted my lvl50ish mesmer for good. I looked, searched, viewed, tryed many things but that hand full of issues i had with said profession made me eventually terminate the character.
Now i ask: how many complaints on the mesmer forums can you find in my post history?

Anyway i digress. My point still stands, i can only hope my two cents have helped somebody, the way i have been helped by that fellow player tip on sword thread i mentioned

Ariete.6509:

I kind know the answear but can’t help myself to be cinical: did you had agility training on your build or did you had Signet of the hunt equipped? How many times did you chill/immobilize/cripple/knockdown/stuned the circling golem?

Anyway i digress. My point still stands, i can only hope my two cents have helped somebody, the way i have been helped by that fellow player tip on sword thread i mentioned

That would be a valid post, if I was the one who made the thread about the circling golem. A quick glance at the thread would show that while I linked it, I did not create it.

The trick the person told you was for PvE and was relevant to a specific weapon and how to avoid being looped in the attack animation and become unable to dodge.

You however came into a thread talking about improving AI we have limited control over, that is a defining part of our class and a significant portion of our dps and called everyone the problem for not running a specific pet, trait and skill combination.

If Guild Wars is all about choice, pigeon holing a class into a specific combo in order to have it’s ‘’class skill’’ work properly is a terrible design choice.

Maeglin.7416:

Keep stroking your ego about being pigeon holed into specific trait and skill usage in order to get your classes defining ability to somewhat work. Don’t worry though, you’re the unique snowflake amongst rangers. Clearly you are the chosen one who will usher in a new age of rangers who will snub their noses at such things like ‘’better pet control’’ and ‘’Pet survivability’’ what are we basic plebeians? We shall have none of that on your watch.

Sorry my attitude spawned this flurry of sarcasm, Good thing we are all entitled to our opinion. In all cases “during my watch” pet’s still managed to get 71% hp buff, for spirits it felt ok, but for pets i still think it was uncalled for so there’s that.

Ariete.6509:

I kind know the answear but can’t help myself to be cinical: did you had agility training on your build or did you had Signet of the hunt equipped?

I should have mentioned that I tried this with and without agility training and signet of the hunt. No difference.

The pet already move faster than the golem. That’s not the problem. The pets stop to cast their abilities, and depending on the animation length, that puts them out of range. In the case of the cat Stalk ability, it pounces to where the golem was when it started the animation. Speed of the pet does not have any effect on these things. Agility Training and Signet of the Hunt do not speed up the attack animations.

Also, as an experienced PvP WoW hunter, I’m attempting to offer a fairly neutral and systematic comparison, not just complain. This thread seems to be a good place to do that. You keep implying (through rhetorical questions) that we’re somehow all wrong and the pets work fine. You can easily go to the Heart of the Mists and try these things out for yourself.

Maeglin.7416:

Threads like this are still applicable 10 months down the line ( Numbers are obviously varied since pets were nerfed in the damage department)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Pet-DPS-Comparison/first#post1443880

That’s a really great thread, with a very interesting spreadsheet. It seems to agree with my much more limited testing. I recommend anyone curious about which pets to choose on moving targets go and look at it.

I support this. I mentioned awhile ago that perhaps a decent solution would be to give pets their own skill tree like they had in WoW. Turn your pet into dps, tank or a hybrid.

It was nice in WoW because my pet could actually take a few hits from a raid boss before dying. Now they pretty much die when a champ looks at them.

DeadlySynz.3471:

It was nice in WoW because my pet could actually take a few hits from a raid boss before dying. Now they pretty much die when a champ looks at them.

CrossFire.8037:

Ariete.6509:

And those who know me already here’s the… 6th, 7th? (I lost track) challenge: add my gametag, i’m EU, let’s do a <insertcontent> i’ll show you how to keep the pet alive.
Spoilers: nobody takes up this challenge, ppl complaint for the sake of it.

People don’t want to take up this “challenge” of yours because pet management is not hard at all, so i have no idea why you keep acting as if it is.

You see how you answer DeadlySynz.3471 “complaint”? That’s how i feel answering your “issue”, and so does every other Ranger out there who post guides, tips and tricks and thrive to have fun with their own ranger.

Mabuse.2879:

I should have mentioned that I tried this with and without agility training and signet of the hunt. No difference.

I have the same access to the mists and know where the circling golem is. While my pet kills it yet again on the background, i’ll write this: I’m done!

It’s like i’m arguing with the Golem, it goes around and around in circles, after one goes down, another one emerges.

Have it your way.

Ariete.6509:

It’s like i’m arguing with the Golem, it goes around and around in circles, after one goes down, another one emerges.

Have it your way.

Then I have not understood your point, and I’m confused. I never claimed the pet can’t kill the golem. I claimed that many auto attacks and special abilities will miss a moving target. There also seems to be quite a variation between pet types. What is it that you are claiming?

Wolf Legacy.3791:

Anyone who has played Hunters in WoW knows how amazing pets can be. This is why I am here. If Anet wants to rework the pet, PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE PET. A Hunter in WoW also has a ton of mechanics attached to the pet, meaning if the hunter pet died, the hunter would be in a lot of trouble.

You would expect Hunters to be weak in this game right? WRONG! Hunters are known for their extensive crowd control, pet utility, and many actually consider them OP! I know this might come as a shock to some of you, but Anet can make the pet much, much more useful if they implemented some things in GW2 pets that were in WoW pets.

World of Warcraft has a large amount of hunter-pet synergy. There are a number of pet-based skills and customization, micromanagement options & multi-role-filling. WoW pets are also very hardy. The pet controls are also very good, and macroable—you can recall your pet at will by hitting Follow (unless you have DoTs on the target, which makes a pet on Assist ignore you >.>), or position it in place for a screenshot. The pet follows tight on your left side at all times in a proper obedience dog Heel position. They do not kitten around wherever they want like they do in GW2.

WoW pets have an ability which reduces AoE damage by 90%!!!! This is why pets are known as absolute tanks in this game when a hunter is soloing. Not only this, but hunters have a cast-and-forget spell that heals their pet 5% HP each and every second, for 10 seconds, and it has no cooldown at all. If GW2 pets had sturdier pets, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting completely destroyed just because their pet dies, just like Hunters would have a major disadvantage especially a beast mastery hunter. GW2 isn’t WoW, so the AoE reduction doesn’t have to be 90%. Hell, all you have to do is make the pet dodge with you -_-

The pet AI in WoW is also so so so so much better I can’t even begin to explain. The fact that pets actually travel AHEAD of where the players are going, makes it so that they get so much more hits in than GW2 pets does, and therefore, increases the pets reliability on damage output. I can’t tell you how many times a frost mage in WoW froze me in an ice cube but my pet manage to kill it even as he was running away CCing the pet, it’s because the pet got a head start. Did I forget to mention they respond INSTANTLY to your commands?

Pets in WoW have so many abilities to have keep up with an enemy. They have a move that increases their movement speed when activated, very useful for getting hits in. They also have an ability called blink strike if you decide to unlock it, it makes your pet instantly teleport to the enemy on a 30 sec cooldown, how amazing is that? Someone just CCd your pet and now it’s far behind? NP, blink strike!

Pets are NOT a flawed mechanic. PLEASE keep them in the ranger class. Just do it right Anet, I beg of you. If you can’t think of ideas, look at hunters and their trusty pets who could own a ranger pet in pretty much anything

really nice but, doubt it will ever happen.

Problem I note with pet buffs in particular is pet has to be at a complete standstill or the buff doesnt work and goes to cooldown. Probably something similar going on with other specials as well.

Perhaps they could fix this by making the special action override the movement animation and just let it move while animating, even if it doesnt look as pretty, to ensure the ability fires.