Guild Wars 2

Keep in mind, this is just coming from my point of view, but I am little disappointed with the Rangers update, particular, not being able to resurrect your animals during battle. Does this not kind of diminish the Rangers defense? From what I’ve seen playing with my girlfriend who’s the Ranger class (I am a warrior), but before hand, we’d always be striving to revive her pet when it died, as it would pull more agro then myself away from us, while we go all out on let’s say Champion monsters.

In my personal view, this was a stupid decision on your part ArenaNet, making the only way to revive a Pet out of combat, and or switching to another pet, which could just as easily die within another 10 seconds. So, what’s up with this update? I see this not as a good thing, rather just a poor decision on your part, to make Rangers feel let’s say… “Less useful” while in a group, or just playing solo, as the Pet is what takes the damage, or most of it, while soloing as well.

Again, this is just my personal opinion about the update. Do any other Rangers out there, feel that this was a fair, and just update?

do what i do, 2 Bears. Polar and Brown

Yeah i dont know why they made that change….

Its not like you can resurect your pet while attacking or moving, you had to make a tacticle decision as to whether it was worth it or not to revive your pet durring battle. Now that decision is made for us?

Humor.5763:

Keep in mind, this is just coming from my point of view, but I am little disappointed with the Rangers update, particular, not being able to resurrect your animals during battle. Does this not kind of diminish the Rangers defense? From what I’ve seen playing with my girlfriend who’s the Ranger class (I am a warrior), but before hand, we’d always be striving to revive her pet when it died, as it would pull more agro then myself away from us, while we go all out on let’s say Champion monsters.

In my personal view, this was a stupid decision on your part ArenaNet, making the only way to revive a Pet out of combat, and or switching to another pet, which could just as easily die within another 10 seconds. So, what’s up with this update? I see this not as a good thing, rather just a poor decision on your part, to make Rangers feel let’s say… “Less useful” while in a group, or just playing solo, as the Pet is what takes the damage, or most of it, while soloing as well.

Again, this is just my personal opinion about the update. Do any other Rangers out there, feel that this was a fair, and just update?

Stopping to rez a pet during combat was always the height of pointless endeavors. It takes FOREVER, by which time the pet swap is already available again if you’ve somehow managed to burn through both pets on the same encounter.

It was a sensible update. The way it was before had some Rangers believing dropping everything to rez their pet instead of just swapping out was somehow a good idea.

I have no issue with this update. You have to get good at controlling your pet. Know when to swap them and when to make them retreat back to you when they are taking heavy damage.

I can’t tell you how many times I use F1 and F3 to command my pet to attack/retreat. It is extremely important to monitor that.

Rezzing your pet mid-battle in almost every case was a bad decision. Because of this, Anet just decided to remove the option because it was causing problems and tricking players that did not know better into making bad decisions.

I really hate the change. Let US decide if/when to revive our pets. We don’t need you to decide for us.

xarallei.4279:

I really hate the change. Let US decide if/when to revive our pets. We don’t need you to decide for us.

Would you like the game to stop making other sensible decisions for you as well?

Right now it automatically decides you want to attack hostile mobs. Would you prefer an option to hail them as well? Perhaps attempt to trade with them?

The change itself stems a lot from people accidentally trying to res your pets instead of interacting or looting. I can tell you it is quite annoying. First because I’m trying to loot while killing gotta love my naga mouse. Second because Why should others be punished because you let your pet die.

Pets cannot dodge. This is not your fault. That is the root of the problem. Pets are too squishy and the game mechanics that promote skillful guild wars style play do not mesh well with a traditional pet AI. Pets were a short sighted mistake on their part as the middle ground is impossible to find. Thier AI is a relic of former mmos and something needs to be done to prevent them from running lemming style to their deaths.

It was removed because it got many, many complaints during the betas and stress tests.

Not just from rangers who found themselves rezing their pet every time they went to loot or rez someone else, but from pretty much everyone else who kept getting stuck rezing pets mid-battle when it was a really bad idea to stop and stand there defenceless, or would see the downed icon and rush across the map only to find it was someones pet which they hadn’t bothered to rez themselves because it was so slow.

Honestly until I saw this topics I didn’t notice they’d taken the option away because I’d completely given up on rezing them in favour of swapping.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Humor.5763:

Keep in mind, this is just coming from my point of view, but I am little disappointed with the Rangers update, particular, not being able to resurrect your animals during battle. Does this not kind of diminish the Rangers defense? From what I’ve seen playing with my girlfriend who’s the Ranger class (I am a warrior), but before hand, we’d always be striving to revive her pet when it died, as it would pull more agro then myself away from us, while we go all out on let’s say Champion monsters.

In my personal view, this was a stupid decision on your part ArenaNet, making the only way to revive a Pet out of combat, and or switching to another pet, which could just as easily die within another 10 seconds. So, what’s up with this update? I see this not as a good thing, rather just a poor decision on your part, to make Rangers feel let’s say… “Less useful” while in a group, or just playing solo, as the Pet is what takes the damage, or most of it, while soloing as well.

Again, this is just my personal opinion about the update. Do any other Rangers out there, feel that this was a fair, and just update?

Stopping to rez a pet during combat was always the height of pointless endeavors. It takes FOREVER, by which time the pet swap is already available again if you’ve somehow managed to burn through both pets on the same encounter.

It was a sensible update. The way it was before had some Rangers believing dropping everything to rez their pet instead of just swapping out was somehow a good idea.

A large portion of ranger damage is the pet, having it dead is a bad idea. Meaning that rezzing it would bring back your lack of dps.

The biggest problem with the ranger is that the pet is 30-40% of total damage.

Metsuro.2689:

A large portion of ranger damage is the pet, having it dead is a bad idea. Meaning that rezzing it would bring back your lack of dps.

The biggest problem with the ranger is that the pet is 30-40% of total damage.

I’m aware of how much of my total damage is accounted for by my pet, which is why I use F4 before they die. I’ve had both pets down about a half dozen times in almost 80 levels, and in none of those cases would taking 20 seconds of time out to rez them have been an intelligent decision.

Ohh if only pets could rally on kills as well… I think allowing that would be a step in the right direction for the most part. Seeing as anyone wanting to go pet specs really need their pets to get any benefits. Also yea the A.I. being suicidal unless you can control your pet very well and not against overwhelming odds is helpful to a very short extent considering how important dodging and making more evasive decisions is required to play gw2 effectively. If your pets can help you rally why not share that bond?

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

A large portion of ranger damage is the pet, having it dead is a bad idea. Meaning that rezzing it would bring back your lack of dps.

The biggest problem with the ranger is that the pet is 30-40% of total damage.

I’m aware of how much of my total damage is accounted for by my pet, which is why I use F4 before they die. I’ve had both pets down about a half dozen times in almost 80 levels, and in none of those cases would taking 20 seconds of time out to rez them have been an intelligent decision.

And you are only looking at half of the problem. I solo alot. I usually end up fighting 8-9 mobs at once. By the time I kill them all they are rezzing. The inability to rez while i’m being attacked just means I’m losing damage and have no way to recover it without running away.

Metsuro.2689:

And you are only looking at half of the problem. I solo alot. I usually end up fighting 8-9 mobs at once. By the time I kill them all they are rezzing. The inability to rez while i’m being attacked just means I’m losing damage and have no way to recover it without running away.

Oh for GODS sake, no I am NOT looking at “half the problem”. Admittedly, I did not take your fundamental inability to your control your aggro into account, but that’s not really relevant to the discussion at hand.

Just CYCLE YOUR PETS. The F4 button is part of your class mechanic, you’re meant to be using it. If you’re running two cats and have zero points in BM, and pulling 10 mobs at a time, and then coming in here and moaning that you can’t spend 20 seconds on your knees soothing your dead pet while said 10 mobs beat the hell out of you, then the change to pet resurrection is the LEAST of your problems.

I am telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. Others are telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. ARENA NET is telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. What will it take to convince you? Fiery letters in the sky?

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

And you are only looking at half of the problem. I solo alot. I usually end up fighting 8-9 mobs at once. By the time I kill them all they are rezzing. The inability to rez while i’m being attacked just means I’m losing damage and have no way to recover it without running away.

Oh for GODS sake, no I am NOT looking at “half the problem”. Admittedly, I did not take your fundamental inability to your control your aggro into account, but that’s not really relevant to the discussion at hand.

Just CYCLE YOUR PETS. The F4 button is part of your class mechanic, you’re meant to be using it. If you’re running two cats and have zero points in BM, and pulling 10 mobs at a time, and then coming in here and moaning that you can’t spend 20 seconds on your knees soothing your dead pet while said 10 mobs beat the hell out of you, then the change to pet resurrection is the LEAST of your problems.

I am telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. Others are telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. ARENA NET is telling you rezzing your pets was pointless. What will it take to convince you? Fiery letters in the sky?

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

Metsuro.2689:

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

ArenaNet

This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically.

We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway.

Anything else I can help you with today?

There is no problem with this change. Use your F1, F3 and F4 abilities. Using F4 BEFORE the pet dies will allow a very short cooldown to a swap again. Use your healing skill to help heal your pet too, troll unguent is fantastic. I’ve never had any problems with this, even using pets that have lower health.

Fast traps, fast traps, fast traps, cannot stress this ability enough. I have yet to see my friend use his ranger pet during an encounter with a champion in a completely hostile area (where ADDS/ additional enemies) are in such an abundant amout that even leaning one way too much can pull nothing but death to you and your party. Traps are completely underrated, especially when coupled with other crippling/ debilitating abilities. Use_those_fast_recharge_traps! I understand ranger dps from pets, I’ve played with (and watched) my buddy go from 1 to 80 and is just several pets shy from having them all. He knows what he’s doing. He’s never relied on his pet as ‘fool-proof-dps-mechanic’. Always traps. They are and in themselves the best offensive/defensive/ OH S*** RUN! abilities to have boosted and on deck in these later zones/ maps.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

ArenaNet

This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically.

We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway.

Anything else I can help you with today?

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

They dont want you rezzing in a single pull until the end. In a long drawn out fight against a boss or anything where you are stuck without a pet for a minute or more because they are both dead is a bad.

Knowing when to rez and when not to was something easy to learn.

Which again, goes back to my point about you knowing nothing.

Metsuro.2689:

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

Uh…I’m not without a pet, guy. F4. Healthy pet. Pet hurt? F4. New healthy pet. Pet hurt? F4. Pet one is now recovered. Repeat ad infinitum.

Try pulling less than 10 mobs next time and see how that works for you. Or don’t, fill your boots. I have to admit this has been fairly hilarious though, so thank you.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

Uh…I’m not without a pet, guy. F4. Healthy pet. Pet hurt? F4. New healthy pet. Pet hurt? F4. Pet one is now recovered. Repeat ad infinitum.

Try pulling less than 10 mobs next time and see how that works for you. Or don’t, fill your boots. I have to admit this has been fairly hilarious though, so thank you.

Oh fighting a boss that two shot your pet? f4 in a new one. Oh… it was 3 shot? Ok wait out that 50 seconds left on the swap timer.

Oh swapped before it died? Ok oh no… your other pet just got 1 shot? Enjoy 15 more seconds of less damage while…. waiting to swap to a pet that will trigger a 1m swap cooldoown.

Stop talking until you learn more about the mechanic.

I never once rezzed my pet in battle, and I feel like the pop up to rez was just annoying. If you are fighting a boss that kills your pet so quickly, how can you possibly think it’s worth it to spend 30 seconds rezzing so he can fight for 5 seconds?

The most troubling part of that switch to me is it’s showing us that ANet will patch a bandaid rather than fix what’s really wrong.

The problem was that everyone was screaming about when they’re tryin to loot they’re stuck rezzin your dead pet instead.

The source of that problem is the loot button being inseparable from revive, talk, interact, etc.

Instead of fixing the poor design, ANet decided to add more abitrarily unfun design and make pets unrezzable in combat. Didn’t really hurt rangers much imo, just F4. But it didn’t solve the real problem.

Metsuro.2689:

Oh fighting a boss that two shot your pet? f4 in a new one. Oh… it was 3 shot? Ok wait out that 50 seconds left on the swap timer.

Oh swapped before it died? Ok oh no… your other pet just got 1 shot? Enjoy 15 more seconds of less damage while…. waiting to swap to a pet that will trigger a 1m swap cooldoown.

Stop talking until you learn more about the mechanic.

Oh we’re talking about BOSSES now, I see. A few seconds ago we were talking about the “8-9 mobs” you routinely pull, and apparently need to rez your pet during the middle of. I see now the conversation has switched to bosses. My bad.

Yeah having both pets dead in a boss fight is kind of annoying, but I’m not sure why you think taking your own DPS out of the fight instead of just waiting 20 seconds for the timer to come around is a worthwhile endeavor. Are you DPSing with a level 5 axe?

Because in this fantastical scenario you’ve presented us with in which your pet is routinely getting 1 shot before you can hotswap them out, you’re literally reviving your pet every 5-6 seconds. That’s fantastic man. I can totally see why you’d want that back.

spayced.2016:

I never once rezzed my pet in battle, and I feel like the pop up to rez was just annoying. If you are fighting a boss that kills your pet so quickly, how can you possibly think it’s worth it to spend 30 seconds rezzing so he can fight for 5 seconds?

He doesn’t. It’s an illusory scenario he’s moved on to after trying the “I routinely pull 8-9 mobs” tact and getting mocked for it. He just didn’t think it through before posting it.

spayced.2016:

I never once rezzed my pet in battle, and I feel like the pop up to rez was just annoying. If you are fighting a boss that kills your pet so quickly, how can you possibly think it’s worth it to spend 30 seconds rezzing so he can fight for 5 seconds?

In a dungeon, ranger pets are better suited for search and rescue but this means they may likely die as they are rooted until its finished.

Which is the point, pets don’t dodge and always run in straight lines.

Metsuro.2689:

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

ArenaNet

This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically.

We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway.

Anything else I can help you with today?

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

They dont want you rezzing in a single pull until the end. In a long drawn out fight against a boss or anything where you are stuck without a pet for a minute or more because they are both dead is a bad.

Knowing when to rez and when not to was something easy to learn.

Which again, goes back to my point about you knowing nothing.

Let’s say your pet dies. You switch pets and this puts pet swap on a 30 second CD. After that 30 seconds, you can swap back to your other pet which is alive. If you can’t keep your second pet alive for 30 seconds, you’re not doing very well. Secondly, it takes about 10-15 seconds to revive a dead pet while in combat. So technically if you only keep your second pet alive for 15 seconds, you’re in the same position if you tried to ressurect, except you get to dps instead of stand their defenseless.

You sound like an idiot, defending your position on ressurecting a dead pet in the middle of combat.

Doesn’t it sound silly to stop all your dps for 10 seconds, just to have you pet alive for 20 seconds?

Lets say your pet does 5k damage in 20 seconds. You do 10k damage in 20 seconds.

That’s a total of 15k damage in 20 seconds. Then you spend 10 seconds ressurecting your pet. 30 seconds you do 15k damage.

Now lets say you leave your pet dead. 15k damage in 20 seconds. Pet dies. PET SWAP. you do another 7.5k damage with your next pet in the following 10 seconds.

22.5k damage vs. 15k damage over 30 seconds. Hrm…

Fateless.6985:

Let’s say your pet dies. You switch pets and this puts pet swap on a 30 second CD. After that 30 seconds, you can swap back to your other pet which is alive. If you can’t keep your second pet alive for 30 seconds, you’re not doing very well. Secondly, it takes about 10-15 seconds to revive a dead pet while in combat. So technically if you only keep your second pet alive for 15 seconds, you’re in the same position if you tried to ressurect, except you get to dps instead of stand their defenseless.

You sound like an idiot, defending your position on ressurecting a dead pet in the middle of combat.

Doesn’t it sound silly to stop all your dps for 10 seconds, just to have you pet alive for 20 seconds?

Lets say your pet does 5k damage in 20 seconds. You do 10k damage in 20 seconds.

That’s a total of 15k damage in 20 seconds. Then you spend 10 seconds ressurecting your pet. 30 seconds you do 25k damage.

Now lets say you leave your pet dead. 15k damage in 20 seconds. Pet dies. PET SWAP. you do another 7.5k damage with your next pet in the following 10 seconds.

22.5k damage vs. 15k damage over 30 seconds. Hrm…

Dude, it’s hopeless. I tried. You tried. Let him do his thing. You have to admit it’s pretty f’in funny.

Fateless.6985:

Metsuro.2689:

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

ArenaNet

This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically.

We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway.

Anything else I can help you with today?

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

They dont want you rezzing in a single pull until the end. In a long drawn out fight against a boss or anything where you are stuck without a pet for a minute or more because they are both dead is a bad.

Knowing when to rez and when not to was something easy to learn.

Which again, goes back to my point about you knowing nothing.

Let’s say your pet dies. You switch pets and this puts pet swap on a 30 second CD. After that 30 seconds, you can swap back to your other pet which is alive. If you can’t keep your second pet alive for 30 seconds, you’re not doing very well. Secondly, it takes about 10-15 seconds to revive a dead pet while in combat. So technically if you only keep your second pet alive for 15 seconds, you’re in the same position if you tried to ressurect, except you get to dps instead of stand their defenseless.

You sound like an idiot, defending your position on ressurecting a dead pet in the middle of combat.

Doesn’t it sound silly to stop all your dps for 10 seconds, just to have you pet alive for 20 seconds?

Lets say your pet does 5k damage in 20 seconds. You do 10k damage in 20 seconds.

That’s a total of 15k damage in 20 seconds. Then you spend 10 seconds ressurecting your pet. 30 seconds you do 25k damage.

Now lets say you leave your pet dead. 15k damage in 20 seconds. Pet dies. PET SWAP. you do another 7.5k damage with your next pet in the following 10 seconds.

22.5k damage vs. 15k damage over 30 seconds. Hrm…

While a pet is a large portion of the overall damage, lets not forget that they have other things other than just damage. Healing, CC, Buffs, ability to rez others… Can’t do any of that if its… you know… Dead… Which is common in boss fights, or large group fights. Because pets, are useless. They cannot run but in a straight line and can never dodge from damage.

Metsuro.2689:

Fateless.6985:

Metsuro.2689:

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

Anet is not telling us rezzing our pets is pointless in combat. They are telling us people whine to much trying to loot during combat. If rezzing our pets was pointless in combat we wouldn’t have to worry about it would we? They’d revive on swap like they used to in bwe1. But thats not the case is it?

ArenaNet

This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically.

We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway.

Anything else I can help you with today?

And of course you have no idea what you are talking about. Being without a pet at all is better than taking less than 10 seconds mid fight to rez your pet? Just stop talking. You have no clue what you are talking about.

They dont want you rezzing in a single pull until the end. In a long drawn out fight against a boss or anything where you are stuck without a pet for a minute or more because they are both dead is a bad.

Knowing when to rez and when not to was something easy to learn.

Which again, goes back to my point about you knowing nothing.

Let’s say your pet dies. You switch pets and this puts pet swap on a 30 second CD. After that 30 seconds, you can swap back to your other pet which is alive. If you can’t keep your second pet alive for 30 seconds, you’re not doing very well. Secondly, it takes about 10-15 seconds to revive a dead pet while in combat. So technically if you only keep your second pet alive for 15 seconds, you’re in the same position if you tried to ressurect, except you get to dps instead of stand their defenseless.

You sound like an idiot, defending your position on ressurecting a dead pet in the middle of combat.

Doesn’t it sound silly to stop all your dps for 10 seconds, just to have you pet alive for 20 seconds?

Lets say your pet does 5k damage in 20 seconds. You do 10k damage in 20 seconds.

That’s a total of 15k damage in 20 seconds. Then you spend 10 seconds ressurecting your pet. 30 seconds you do 25k damage.

Now lets say you leave your pet dead. 15k damage in 20 seconds. Pet dies. PET SWAP. you do another 7.5k damage with your next pet in the following 10 seconds.

22.5k damage vs. 15k damage over 30 seconds. Hrm…

While a pet is a large portion of the overall damage, lets not forget that they have other things other than just damage. Healing, CC, Buffs, ability to rez others… Can’t do any of that if its… you know… Dead… Which is common in boss fights, or large group fights. Because pets, are useless. They cannot run but in a straight line and can never dodge from damage.

This is a completely different point than you were arguing earlier. If they’re so bad and useless, why would you waste your time reviving them in combat?

I’m giving up now, but next time, please argue the same point the whole way through.

The pets have gotten a major buff since beta, and thanks to that my pet drake was only dying every so often- I just figured it was a bummer I couldn’t get the extra smidgeon of exp from reviving it after battle..

Of course now that I have a devourer it seems to last so much longer (propably because toughness+ evade+ knockback)- if it’s tempting death I use my heal or switch.. Doesn’t always go according to plan but as long as I don’t get too kitteny (like trying to solo a champion or a pack of something I haven’t killed tons of already.) I do swell enough not to die unless I jump off a cliff.. Exept when underwater.

Disclaimer: I am a huge pet friend and I love the way how you have to watch out for them. So I am not flaming here and I know that a true ranger has a steep learning curve to get their pets done right. Still, there are a few problems here. Let me line them up:
Pets only attack from one direction… a straight line. We Rangers have a hard time to make sure the pet gets where it needs to, by having it avoid combat, get into position, and manually attack. But what for? The enemy turns randomly and the entire positioning is for naught. Due to this case, the following happens:
In larger fights / against strong single enemies pets die, even bears, like regular melees do. This leads to a situation where your pet just drops, and then you swap it. Now your swap is on 60 seconds instead of 20, your pet goes into fight (even after repositioning for a better angle) and boom… it is dead again. No, it does not help to play the jumping game of heel-attack-heel to avoid large attacks of the enemy, because due to the response times, it often dies while retreating anyway. Sometimes you cannot avoid your pet to die in these fights, not even bears. Also, being forced to use pets with a lot of vitality to make up for their nonexisting “awareness script” is kinda sad.

Now we sit at a 50+ second cooldown timer, assuming it dies between 3 and 10 seconds into the fight. Resurrecting your second pet would take less time than waiting for the 50+ seconds to count down.
Do I want to have it re-implemented that pets are able to be resurrected again? Yes and no. Only the RANGER who is the owner should be able to revive the pet, perhaps even at higher rates. This way others do not get punished for being locked into the resurrection animation if they do not want to.

The next problem is the pet being an unintelligent sitting duck. So many enemies have the ability to move around WHILE attacking while the majority of our pets do not. I talk about auto attacks here, just in case.

Another problem is, that thanks to this update, we are not allowed to swap our pets out of the fight without this 20 second cooldown. What is the sense of doing so? Trying to keep out of combat and cycle through different pet abilities? If so, why don’t you just prevent pet exchanging while it has its special skill on cooldown?

Next thing: I stow my pet away. Once I activate it, the swap cooldown is running off 20 seconds. What? Am I now punished for wanting to keep my pet away for a moment so it does not do crap or because I do not want to have it in the way right now because it is killing my immersion or perhaps the roleplay?

I agree that the update was misguided but from a pvp perspective. I use a wolf (aoe fear) and krytan drakehound (immobilize). My problem with the update is that I use the drakehound to initiate 1v1s and but if I am running with my teammates into larger group battles I initiate with my wolf. In both of these situations I want to have the correct pet out for the initial fight to get their skills off then switch. The 20sec out of combat cooldown restricts my ability to have the correct initiating pet out and limits my performance.

For Example: (before the update) I see a warrior guarding mine and I have my wolf out. I switch to the drakehound and immediately use the f2 to immobilize as soon as stability is used on the warrior. As soon as my pet gets off his immobilize I swap to my wolf to aoe fear as soon as stability is not on the warrior and hopefully get a second knockdown as well as triggering my Zephyr’s speed trait. In this situation I am usually able to survive long enough to take down a dps oriented warrior.

After the update either I wait 20 secs to engage the warrior (hurts my team as It takes longer to take the point when I delay the fight and gives him more chances for reinforcements) or I would need to lead the fight with the wolf. Because swapping to my drakehound puts my wolf on a 20 sec cd this creates a long period of delaying my cc and I have generally already taken too much damage from a high dps warrior to be able to still survive and win the fight.

Another example of needing a different pet first would be if I need the wolf first for a teamfight instead of the single target immobilize of the drakehound. In either of these cases before the update I could swap before entering combat and proceed into the fight. After the update I am limited in using my class ability to what I think is its full potential.

We should have a decision on what pets to use, as of right now the decision is No pet, 2 bears, or dead pets. This along with our final 2 trait lines is class breaking, we need these things fixed so that the Ranger actually has choices.

its supposed to sting when you loose a pet quit trying to make no consequences for making tactical errors in game.

I’m glad it’s gone, it was annoying having other Rangers pets getting in my way that didn’t understand swapping and the return to me command

Also getting a ranged pet and learning to kite will improve your pet’s lifespan

The pet rez thing isn’t a big issue really – it takes so long to revive the things that swapping is often preferable.

However, the 20 sec CD even out of combat does bring up another point – ALL “on swap” abilities should work at all times whether or not in combat. Period. The way the traits were originally done, the devs understood to balance the traits against pet swap CD in combat. Now that the CD exists out of combat, the swap benefits should as well.

I have to admit, rezzing your pet is almost never a good idea. At the same time I don’t see any reason they should have removed it. Why remove a tactical choice even if it is a bad choice most of of the time?

If it was to compensate for their troubled user interface that would be even worse…

The sad truth is that giving a 20 second CD to pet swapping while out of combat makes it pointlessly aggravating to compare pet abilities and stats. And this was done only to combat a relatively harmless exploit.

The worst part of the patch, by far, was Arenanet’s removal of pet revival. This change makes us useless against bosses except when using 2 bears (and we were already weak in dungeons). Players weren’t complaining that they were given the option to revive their pets, they were complaining that it took as long as reviving a player (and the pet would die so quickly that it was never worth it). Pet’s represent (roughly) 30% of a Ranger’s damage output and survivability.

Here’s what they should have done (and should still do):
1. Get rid of the 20 second pet cooldown while out of combat and, instead, don’t finish the cooldown for pets’ abilities when switched.
2. Allow Rangers (and other players) to revive pets, with the process taking 1/3rd (or even 1/4th) the time it takes to revive a player.
3. Reduce the pet swapping cooldown when a dead pet is active to 45 seconds from 60 seconds (it is way too punishing for a class which needs its pet alive to stay relevant).

Some people were farming revive stats for the Title (Combat Media I think?) via getting their pet killed intentionally, bringing it back. Reviving it, then sending it off to die again. Rinse, repeat.

Or at least that’s what I saw. I’m sure there were more reasons to it. But if you want the most out of your pet. You will need to build your character around being a superior beast master. That is, to get and use the animal based signets with the beast master trait, using commands, using the active effects of the signets and switching your pet all at the right time. Not to mention using the right pet for the right situation. That is, Bear for tanking. Snow leopard/Jaguar for some serious DPS (They’re a crit based animal that can really do some damage)

Keeping my pet alive is fairly easy to me. If pets are giving you that extra trouble that you don’t need. I’d suggest not using them. (Of course that’s not an option as of yet, I suppose you could use them for the cosmetic appeal, no?)

iPhoenixi.4793:

Some people were farming revive stats for the Title (Combat Media I think?) via getting their pet killed intentionally, bringing it back. Reviving it, then sending it off to die again. Rinse, repeat.

Or at least that’s what I saw. I’m sure there were more reasons to it. But if you want the most out of your pet. You will need to build your character around being a superior beast master. That is, to get and use the animal based signets with the beast master trait, using commands, using the active effects of the signets and switching your pet all at the right time. Not to mention using the right pet for the right situation. That is, Bear for tanking. Snow leopard/Jaguar for some serious DPS (They’re a crit based animal that can really do some damage)

Keeping my pet alive is fairly easy to me. If pets are giving you that extra trouble that you don’t need. I’d suggest not using them. (Of course that’s not an option as of yet, I suppose you could use them for the cosmetic appeal, no?)

The problem with this is that it makes Rangers essentially a one-build profession, which isn’t in the spirit of the game. Pets are just not resilient enough, which has been pointed out since beta. It’s this that needs fixing, as it would largely deal with the res issue (in that pets wouldn’t die so frequently), and the limiting of pets to particular types if you simply want them to live long enough to be useful in any prolonged encounter, pve orpvp, and the requirement of having to pet swap continuously, which again I don’t think is in the spirit of the game. Pet choice and swapping ought to be primarily about strategy, not primarily about having keeping your pet alive.

Please Anet, fix pet’s hp and resilience.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Metsuro.2689:

Oh fighting a boss that two shot your pet? f4 in a new one. Oh… it was 3 shot? Ok wait out that 50 seconds left on the swap timer.

Oh swapped before it died? Ok oh no… your other pet just got 1 shot? Enjoy 15 more seconds of less damage while…. waiting to swap to a pet that will trigger a 1m swap cooldoown.

Stop talking until you learn more about the mechanic.

Oh we’re talking about BOSSES now, I see. A few seconds ago we were talking about the “8-9 mobs” you routinely pull, and apparently need to rez your pet during the middle of. I see now the conversation has switched to bosses. My bad.

Yeah having both pets dead in a boss fight is kind of annoying, but I’m not sure why you think taking your own DPS out of the fight instead of just waiting 20 seconds for the timer to come around is a worthwhile endeavor. Are you DPSing with a level 5 axe?

Because in this fantastical scenario you’ve presented us with in which your pet is routinely getting 1 shot before you can hotswap them out, you’re literally reviving your pet every 5-6 seconds. That’s fantastic man. I can totally see why you’d want that back.

spayced.2016:

I never once rezzed my pet in battle, and I feel like the pop up to rez was just annoying. If you are fighting a boss that kills your pet so quickly, how can you possibly think it’s worth it to spend 30 seconds rezzing so he can fight for 5 seconds?

He doesn’t. It’s an illusory scenario he’s moved on to after trying the “I routinely pull 8-9 mobs” tact and getting mocked for it. He just didn’t think it through before posting it.

A big +1 ., this has been very entertaining

I agree with alsmost everyone in this post that Metsuro.2689 need to learn ranger combat mechanics.

ill be 80 today and call me slow or whatever but it took me about 20 levels to figure out pet swapping is a key ingredient to the ranger class as important as swapping attunements is to elementalist or warriors using the f1 ability…rangers are meant to swap pets during combat sometimes every 20 seconds on coooldown…i use a moa and a fern dog right now and the only time i have issues with them dying to quickly is before i react to swap them or the cd is down (20sec) is the super omg champion world bosses, and i am pretty sure that is probably intended. and even when i am killing 5-6 enemies at a time i do not ever have a time when my pet is dead(with the exception of the aforementioned omgwtf champion world bosses)

the change here has gone un-noticed for me …

Ranger is dead profession, whereas i have high lvl ranger i dont play it

Ombra.6741:

Ranger is dead profession, whereas i have high lvl ranger i dont play it

Often when I find something isn’t to my taste, I also rush to the internet to pronounce it “dead”. I suspect part of the reason is I enjoy sounding like an utter clown.

Ombra.6741:

Ranger is dead profession, whereas i have high lvl ranger i dont play it

i disagree completely and i am not sure where you are getting your information from, Ranger is actually very commonly played and i see them all the time in Spvp but i guess since you are making global statements like these you probably didnt understand the ranger class as well as basic argument tactics. i am level 80 now and still love the mechanics and abilities of the class and in Spvp i find that while thieves and mesmers can eat me up one v one i can hold my own and win most of the time against anyone as long as i dont make mistakes

xarallei.4279:

I really hate the change. Let US decide if/when to revive our pets. We don’t need you to decide for us.

Actualy we don’t decide, we jut want then alive without doing nothing.
I like this way, i found it funky when i saw my pet alive, tough:
“-Does signet of the Wild heal that much so fast?”

This was definitely a good move on their part. Rezing pets in combat took way too long, if you were able to do it, fine, but you were wasting everyone else’s time because by the time it came back you could instead have been doing a ton of damage and had him swapped out, recovering, and almost ready to go by that point.

The important part was how annoying it was in a large fight to have multiple dead pets wandering around, being confused for dead players at best, getting in the way of looting or environmental interactions at worst. That needed to change.

For my two cents I don’t think anybody can declare that any one thing in a game is right/wrong, better/worse universally. Make a weapon faster and some like, some don’t etc. Whatever. That said, I have always believed that in cases where the impact of a decision does not unfairly hit some portion of the group, the best answer is to always err on the side of letting players choose for themselves. If rezzing pets is slow and inefficient but 10% of the Rangers want to do so anyway (or 20% or 90%, whatever) – whats the harm in giving them that option. Those who prefer to F4 keep doing so as usual, and those who for whatever reason want to rez can do so as well. I think it is a mistake on the part of a game company (or game community) to try to force “what works for some” on others in terms of mechanics if either one is on par with the other.

I am certainly not imposed upon or disturbed if, while F4-swapping like a fiend, I watch a fellow Ranger putting a band-aid on their kitty. Heck I might just stop by with a band-aid of my own.