Guild Wars 2

I like the idea of ranger pets, I like taming & naming them & having them out and questing with me. If their AI (much like my Necro’s minions) could be fixed, I would be perfectly happy with them the way they are now.

I don’t know that they can fix it, so I propose the following:

1. Pet’s do not aggro and cannot be targeted by enemies (no health bar either)

2. Pet’s have no auto-attack (F1) feature (to balance not being targetable)

3. If you choose to stow a pet, it is stowed no matter what until you choose to un-stow it

4. F1 is replaced with a species specific attack with a CD (could start by using the F2 attacks currently coded), would need a range limitation dependent on pet class

5. F2 is replaced with a species specific defensive buff that is on a CD (exs. raven F2 grants 10s of swiftness on a 20s CD, Bear grants 7s of Might on a 25s CD)

6. F3 switches your pet, F4 is no longer used

7. Pet’s automatically grant a species specific small, passive buff when unstowed (ex., Bear – 5% Knock back chance on Crit or maybe add 25 vitality (scaling, 25 @ lvl 80), Devourer – 5% chance of 5s poison on hit)

My main is a Necro, I don’t use minions because fail, but as a Ranger, it is my profession mechanic. Ultimately, if nothing changes, I’ll tolerate my pet’s behavior and
continue to enjoy a great class, but at the very least… make the pet perma stowable…

On the other hand, I think the above changes would remove the complaints about pets and keep them from being OP by removing the auto attack feature with the ability to target/agro them and instead give us an extra 4 skills (2x per pet) on our bar and a passive buff that makes us feel a bit less under powered.

I would absolutely hate it if they implemented the changes you suggest.

It would make your pet feel less like an actual companion and more like a little sprite that follows you around and occassionally throws you a buff. They wouldn’t actually be participating in battle or anything, no tanking hits, no normal attacking, they’d basically just be an extra couple of utility slots with a special appearence.

It wouldn’t make much sense to have an animal following you around but never have it get attacked nor ever actually engage in combat. They’re flesh and blood creatures, how would they be immune to everything? The only things that are immune to damage are Guardian Spirit Weapons, and they’re just spirit energy so that makes sense. And why would your companion just stand around and watch you get stabbed while doing nothing?

And from an overall profession design / gameplay perspective, it would require a full rework of the Ranger profession since damage output and tanking ability is split between the Ranger himself and his pet right now, and cutting that out would completely mess it up (a lot more than its already out of whack).