Guild Wars 2

Hey! Just a question about threat generated by the Ranger and the pet. I have been playing my Ranger lately, getting close to 80 and having fun with it so far! I’m trying to get a grip on how threat is generated when it comes to my Ranger. I usually run in a small group of friends, mostly with a Guardian and a Mesmer, and I often end up getting mobs just stuck to my face. This is especially true when it comes to taking on tougher targets, like if we’re taking on a Champ or such, to the point where I just get sick of constant dodging and decide it’s more efficient to just run in circles, drop some traps, and have them kill it ? At least my pet is doing some damage while I’m in rabbit mode!

My build is heavy BM, so it’s not like I am doing tons of damage…is the pets damage somehow calculated into the mix for threat on the Ranger? I mainly use a cat, and I understand they don’t generate much threat on themselves, or at least that seems to be the case. I usually use a short bow and greatsword, so against mobs that can’t just outright squish me if I miss a dodge (champs) if there is too much threat I just switch to GS and go for it. But in fights where I really DON’T want something in my face the entire time, it’s kinda rough.

Any info or thoughts on this?

There isn’t a normal “threat” system in GW2 like there is in say WoW. What an enemy attack is based on a priority system that may differ from mob to mob.

They attack things that have:
lowest health, lowest armor, most damage, closest target, ect. and those example can be inverse or take multiple things into consideration. Some mobs are just entirely random.

Long story short, you should always be prepared to be active in a fight and not expect your pet to tank everything for you, since it’s actually impossible in this game to tank effectively. Fighting mobs with a lot of health in my experience, I either end up never getting aggro, holding it the entire time, or a mixture of the 2.

The general Aggro/Threat system goes like this.

1. closest target to them
2. who is dealing damage
3. top damage dealers
4. who is using a shield / has more toughness and overall armor

Source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

I’ve found that using a CC such as cripple on a mob will make targets further away from them a much lower priority. It was once said by one of the devs that different mobs have different methods of prioritising targets so I don’t think there is a completely uniform method of aggro.

Realistically a ranger probably shouldn’t ever be aggroed unless melee. Unless pet DPS counts as the ranger’s aggro DPS, a ranger alone should do less damage than most other party members (because they split their damage with their pet). I’m a bit sceptical of whether or not mobs prioritise top damage dealers as much as others have claimed.