Guild Wars 2

Rather than buffing pets as a whole, why not just give pets a boon-like effect that negates a large percentage of AoE damage?

Prysin.8542:

may i remind you, that we have yet to see if Robert has “failed” us or not…

Based on the state of the game it is safe to say he has.

I think any of the topic discussed in this thread were not going to be even considered for at least a month so at least we have someone bring up the fact that there are problems.

As Robert has stated he is not on the balance team (is it even a team, I was in the impression it was more of a duo, but I digress) so he can not really fail us anymore than any other person who enjoys playing ranger can.

Olaf Soul Can Haz.4689:

Rather than buffing pets as a whole, why not just give pets a boon-like effect that negates a large percentage of AoE damage?

Please read all red posts.

Bailey.6892:

Prysin.8542:

may i remind you, that we have yet to see if Robert has “failed” us or not…

Based on the state of the game it is safe to say he has.

He isn’t even on the class balance team. Hrouda only manages some areas in dungeons, so saying he “failed us” is just wrong. You guys should appreciate that some of the Devs actually talk to us like normal people, its very rare on these forums.

Aslo please avoid bringing StoG related posts to this thread. StoG is all about PvP while this thread is about PvE.

Chopps.5047:

neverborne.4736:

…

That’s funny you think ranger is so broke. That’s all I play, 1300 hours, over 200 dungeon runs, hundreds and hundreds of skill points, all on ranger. I don’t do open world and I never once farmed Cursed Shore (eww, open world). I’m a big dungeon guy. I’m also an oldschool hardcore gamer who was playing truly broken mechanics in games like D&D, Cosmic Encounter, and Magic the Gathering…all likely before you were born. I don’t know if that qualifies me to say that “I think you need to practice more and learn more about the game’s mechanics”? But that’s how I feel.

Edit: i think I have over 350 dungeon runs, I never counted, but I felt like I ran 1000 dungeons when going for the lodestones and gifts of might and magic.

While I kind of agree with you, my main concern here is that even when mastered (and yes I claim that so give me hell) rangers cannot outperform or come close enough to any of the top classes. I usually like this jack of all trades master of none style of play, but given that this game has no clear tank-spank-support roles ranger just comes short of other classes. I think this is how most people feel about it now, because mastering the class just does not feel as rewarding.

Wayfinder.8452:

Aslo please avoid bringing StoG related posts to this thread. StoG is all about PvP while this thread is about PvE.

I think the information presented in the State of the Game is relevant as they have stated that currently they are trying to keep as much transparency between game modes (PvE and PvP) so that it is easier to switch between modes and still understand what is going on.

Don’t expect too much from Robert Hrouda. Only see him as someone who is relaying issues to the developers who can do something about it.

The problem is that those other developers aren’t even remotely interested in coming here to discuss anything. Robert Hrouda is our only way of having issues come to their attention.

Don’t you dare take it out on Robert Hrouda if nothing comes of the Ranger in the next couple of years. It’s not his fault those other developers couldn’t care less to come here on their own.

Hey Robert,would u kindly add this new point into the list if you think its reasonable.Most people might think its not related to dungeon but they probably didn’t know Bloody Mary from CM explore dungeon path 1.

A Ranger Pet hound has a good sense of smell,even though an enemy can hide in stealth,the pet should still be able to smell,track and attack that enemy. Other profession handle enemy stealth by using AOEs,hopefully ranger can use their pets instead since our aoe is mostly utility dependent,not weapon skill dependent like other professions.

My ulterior motive is to be the bane of thieves actually haha

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Hey Robert,would u kindly add this new point into the list if you think its reasonable.Most people might think its not related to dungeon but they probably didn’t know Bloody Mary from CM explore dungeon path 1.

A Ranger Pet hound has a good sense of smell,even though an enemy can hide in stealth,the pet should still be able to smell and track that enemy. Other profession handle enemy stealth by using AOEs,hopefully ranger can use their pets instead since our aoe is mostly utility dependent,not weapon skill dependent like other professions.

My ulterior motive is to be the bane of thieves actually haha

Considering that Stealth currently has no counter, I see this as a very reasonable function for our pets. Be it in dungeons against stealthing opponents or anywhere else.

PRECISION RATIO:

Some thoughts on ratios. I think one of the things that gimps Rangers a bit is ratios on Precision/Crit. What do I mean by this. Well Rangers damage is split between pet and ranger. This means that points spent in Precision/Crit do less for Rangers than they do for other classes. Because the amount of additional damage done by a Crit is based on the base damage your doing which is less.

EG. 50% extra damage on a Crit from an attack that does 100 damage would be 150.
with a rangers attack of 60, it is only getting 90 damage for it’s 50% in Crit.
[Please Note: these are not actual numbers, they are just there to try and explain the issue]

This could be fixed by altering the ratio of Crit Chance based on stats put into it. IE you get more Crit Chance for putting 30 points in Precision, than a Warrior doing the same, so they do a similar amount of extra damage for their 30 points.

I don’t know if this has been said before, if so ignore it, but today once more the pet problem has shown itself quite clearly. Pets become a burden to me and the whole party instead of being something useful, I was even asked to pt pet away because it was acting so annoying (which unfortunately I could not). The problem is pet vs jade maw. The jade maw targets dead pets, making the fight a lot longer and making it extremely annoying to the point where they wanted me to put it away, this should really be fixed. Also in the harpy fractal with the towers, if your pets gets caught by one of the attacks you get pushed down, which is also extremely annoying, of course you can hide your pet, but only when out of attack mode, which is another problem pets tend to bug this so even though you are out of a fight and so is the pet, you do not leave attack mode. Things like these should not happen, a pet should be an asset not a burden.

Pets just behave extremely bad in dungeons which is really starting to annoy the heck out of me.

smitske.4912:

I don’t know if this has been said before, if so ignore it, but today once more the pet problem has shown itself quite clearly. Pets become a burden to me and the whole party instead of being something useful, I was even asked to pt pet away because it was acting so annoying (which unfortunately I could not). The problem is pet vs jade maw. The jade maw targets dead pets, making the fight a lot longer and making it extremely annoying to the point where they wanted me to put it away, this should really be fixed. Also in the harpy fractal with the towers, if your pets gets caught by one of the attacks you get pushed down, which is also extremely annoying, of course you can hide your pet, but only when out of attack mode, which is another problem pets tend to bug this so even though you are out of a fight and so is the pet, you do not leave attack mode. Things like these should not happen, a pet should be an asset not a burden.

Pets just behave extremely bad in dungeons which is really starting to annoy the heck out of me.

Robert Hrouda said the jade maw should NOT target dead pets, that’s a bug.

As for the Harpy Fractal I always quickly equip guard and have my pet stand at the bottom of the stairs so I can get up without him, I found that stowing your pet also works for this if you’re beastly enough to not get hit.

“A Ranger Pet hound has a good sense of smell,even though an enemy can hide in stealth,the pet should still be able to smell and track that enemy. Other profession handle enemy stealth by using AOEs,hopefully ranger can use their pets instead since our aoe is mostly utility dependent,not weapon skill dependent like other professions.

My ulterior motive is to be the bane of thieves actually haha[/quote]"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!! GOOD JOKE!
They just nerfed the ele because their movementspeed was as good as the thief.. THAT was their reason to nerf them. So you see, thieves are supposed to be the untouchable predator in this game, end of story. Its like.. if i made a game and like one class, then i will make him wastly superior to any other classes and leave it at that. If you prefer som other class cause you like the other playstyle so be it, your dead. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

Durzlla.6295:

As for the Harpy Fractal I always quickly equip guard and have my pet stand at the bottom of the stairs so I can get up without him, I found that stowing your pet also works for this if you’re beastly enough to not get hit.

I havn’t played fractals in a while on my ranger, but didn’t the last patch “fix” Guard to not work this way anymore?

Rengaru.4730:

Durzlla.6295:

As for the Harpy Fractal I always quickly equip guard and have my pet stand at the bottom of the stairs so I can get up without him, I found that stowing your pet also works for this if you’re beastly enough to not get hit.

I havn’t played fractals in a while on my ranger, but didn’t the last patch “fix” Guard to not work this way anymore?

No, the “fix” (stupid change I despise) prevents you from putting your pet on anything you’d need to jump up onto/off of. The Harpy Fractals lightning part is a ramp you simply walk onto.

Granted your pet is useless on the platform section, unless you’re standing on the platform with the harpies which is practically a death sentence because they’ll throw you off.

Durzlla.6295:

No, the “fix” (stupid change I despise) prevents you from putting your pet on anything you’d need to jump up onto/off of. The Harpy Fractals lightning part is a ramp you simply walk onto.

Granted your pet is useless on the platform section, unless you’re standing on the platform with the harpies which is practically a death sentence because they’ll throw you off.

Oh, he meant the lightning stairs.
I don’t see the problem here, just stow your pet (it will come back out if you get hit, but if you get hit its too late anyway).

What I was refering to was the steps with the harpies.
I used to slot Guard on that section so I could send my pet on the platforms with harpies, not sure if it works after the last patch though.

I do like the idea of a ranger stance that would increase damage,but you can’t summon pets…I could see people using this in WvW and dungeons. that way you could just tweak the buffs inthe stance and maybe add some new spells that only work in that stance. possible ideas are skills that allow you to kite as a petless ranger… or just do great single target damage (thinking of PvE bosses).

Overall…the class seems like it needs an overhaul since it seems to hard to tweak what’s there. (?)

Rengaru.4730:

Durzlla.6295:

No, the “fix” (stupid change I despise) prevents you from putting your pet on anything you’d need to jump up onto/off of. The Harpy Fractals lightning part is a ramp you simply walk onto.

Granted your pet is useless on the platform section, unless you’re standing on the platform with the harpies which is practically a death sentence because they’ll throw you off.

Oh, he meant the lightning stairs.
I don’t see the problem here, just stow your pet (it will come back out if you get hit, but if you get hit its too late anyway).

What I was refering to was the steps with the harpies.
I used to slot Guard on that section so I could send my pet on the platforms with harpies, not sure if it works after the last patch though.

Yeah I did the same as you, now Guard is literally a worthless skill, your pet can no longer get to an area using guard unless it can run there.

I have only been playing GW2 for about 4 weeks now and have not played any dungeons yet so take this for what it’s worth.

I played SWTOR for 14 months and there you run with a companion (kind of like a pet with more depth and abilities). I don’t recall any of my companions in SWTOR pulling mobs while following me around. I controlled my positioning if I wanted to avoid a pull and it didn’t seem to matter if my companion was closer to a mob than I or not. They certainly didn’t run ahead and jump another group while I’m finishing off the first one (or at least I don’t recall this being an issue).

I cannot tell you how many times I end up saying out loud while playing GW2, “Stop being such a kitten, Paddington!” to my bear as he runs off and starts attacking another group when I am trying to head in another direction. I can see how this would be extra frustrating in a dungeon.

So my (probably naive) question is, do pets have to aggro mobs, even when in passive mode? If this was changed, would there be a downside? It wouldn’t address pet AR, viability and all that, but it would allow a team to have more control over what gets pulled and when. Would this small change help anything?

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Hey Robert,would u kindly add this new point into the list if you think its reasonable.Most people might think its not related to dungeon but they probably didn’t know Bloody Mary from CM explore dungeon path 1.

A Ranger Pet hound has a good sense of smell,even though an enemy can hide in stealth,the pet should still be able to smell and track that enemy. Other profession handle enemy stealth by using AOEs,hopefully ranger can use their pets instead since our aoe is mostly utility dependent,not weapon skill dependent like other professions.

My ulterior motive is to be the bane of thieves actually haha

It kinda of tracks already. If you send a pet to attack prior to the stealth the pet will be on him the moment he unstealths. Combined with culling fix and the proposed cool down before restealthing we should be in a decent place after this next patch, at least in this regard.

The current situation and discussion so far about the pet seems rather hopeless.

Robert Hrouda states:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

We tried giving them reduced damage from AOE/attacks, and it opened up other problems – mainly that a team of 2 rangers could take on almost any boss in a dungeon by smart swapping of pets and letting the pet take aggro. It’s unfortunate, but we can’t just increase and decrease numbers until pets are perfect – we’ve tried really hard, but numbers are not going to fix pets without letting them break everything. We have to look deeper into mechanics, AI, player actions, and skills.

In short, increasing the pets numbers makes them too powerful as they can tank too much damage, so the solution has to come from micro-management and skill changes.

But on the other side, these things would not solve the problem for most players as others like Gutbuster have stated:

Gutbuster.8745:

Often it’s difficult enough to know exactly when you need to dodge in order to avoid some damage, with a pet dodge you’d be required to not only keep track of your own position but also your pet’s exact position which also trying to see your pet amongst all the spell graphics surrounding bosses getting nuked, seeing red circles on the floor which may be behind the boss since that’s where your pet is, camera angles etc the list goes on a bit. In addition you’d also have to hit your own dodge key as well as an additional F key or any other key bind you have.

The same concept also applies to every aspect of pet management as a solution. Expecting us to manage the pet so heavily (more like babysit) would require too much effort and attention for the vast majority of players. However that’s not to say some better management options would be nice to have, but they are not the solution to pet survival and viability.

What I feel needs to be done is to find a solution that allows the pet to survive with only minimal management, yet not be overpowered.

In my opinion this can be achieved by decreasing the aggro pets draw while toughening up their health and damage reduction. This way the rangers pet could be very resilient without creating situations where they could hold the attention of and tank enemies.

In addition, a pet attacking should not make NPCs considered to be in combat. This way players cannot send in their pets alone to take down an enemy; a player needs to be fighting the NPC as well otherwise the NPC will gain health recovery.

Bri.8354:

In my opinion this can be achieved by decreasing the aggro pets draw while toughening up their health and damage reduction. This way the rangers pet could be very resilient without creating situations where they could hold the attention of and tank enemies.

In addition, a pet attacking should not make NPCs considered to be in combat. This way players cannot send in their pets alone to take down an enemy; a player needs to be fighting the NPC as well otherwise the NPC will gain health recovery.

This would break my game. I hate it when pets can’t hold aggro, and the idea of a mob getting to recover while I’m down but my pet is still attacking is awful. I see why someone would like your ideas, but I’d have to quit playing.

Bri.8354:

In my opinion this can be achieved by decreasing the aggro pets draw while toughening up their health and damage reduction. This way the rangers pet could be very resilient without creating situations where they could hold the attention of and tank enemies.

In addition, a pet attacking should not make NPCs considered to be in combat. This way players cannot send in their pets alone to take down an enemy; a player needs to be fighting the NPC as well otherwise the NPC will gain health recovery.

That’s a pretty good way of destroying beastmasters though. A major point of playing that way is the ability of your pet to hold most of the mob’s attention.

Daemon Hawk.9406:

This would break my game. I hate it when pets can’t hold aggro, and the idea of a mob getting to recover while I’m down but my pet is still attacking is awful. I see why someone would like your ideas, but I’d have to quit playing.

Sorry, I don’t think I explained myself well enough. I don’t want a flat decrease in aggro, but a change in how pet aggro works to prevent issues like Robert Hrouda was concerned with. This change in aggro can be handled in many ways, such as activating on certain pet swap situations, and I’m sure its possible to achieve while still allow pets to function as people enjoy.

As for my second suggestion, this shouldn’t have any impact unless your sending your pet out at large distances to fight alone. NPCs won’t start recovering if you go down in combat unless that NPC was never in fighting range in the first place.

I could live with an aggro change that only affected dungeon bosses, if it allowed a “middle path” that enhanced pet survivability in dungeons. Others might have an issue.

I don’t understand the point of your second suggestion. What problem are you trying to solve? There is already a limit on how far you can F1 your pet, and how far you can get from a pet in combat before it magically appears at your side.

It would break most uses of “Guard”, and the extended attack range of “Sic ’Em”. Would you also propose changing turrets to only attack what their owner is attacking? Necro minions? Other summons? Why?

I don’t think we should undermine the ability of the pet to tank in order to secure steady DPS. At least, not like this.

A Pet’s HP bar isn’t just some unfair arbitrary restriction standing between you and your 40% DPS. It’s a resource you can spend on diverting attention. It’s one of the two major reasons this mechanic involves a separate entity and you don’t just use skills directly.

Any change that takes place can’t just be focused on making sure pets aren’t a DPS liability, it has to go beyond that and make the pet mechanic a benefit.

For example;
It may not be the case that pets can be diversions as we classically know them in this game. PvE higher level content and tanking being what it is, and the pet’s presence in PvP being so ignorable. Maybe they have to achieve similar results in a different way.

Maybe pets don’t have Health and Aggro to determine how long they’re up and contributing, maybe they have Energy instead. Maybe all pets spend a small amount of energy on their autoattack which has a Crippling effect, and if we choose to expend more energy and shorten the duration of the pet we can have them use their F2’s and family skills. That way the pet can do something similar to diversion by keeping an enemy snared in PvE, and has a base use in PvP. But in such a way that removes Health from the equation entirely, meaning the pet is no longer affected by the environment no matter how dangerous it becomes. Because it’s also no longer effectively immobilizing enemies, working with a pet requires some basic kiting in solo play making pets less strong in openworld PvE , less bot friendly, and less likely to automatically duo boss encounters.

Something more like that. So that we’re not just focused on ‘getting our 100% back’, but making the pet itself something we want to work with and use.

Daemon Hawk.9406:

I don’t understand the point of your second suggestion. What problem are you trying to solve? There is already a limit on how far you can F1 your pet, and how far you can get from a pet in combat before it magically appears at your side.

It would break most uses of “Guard”, and the extended attack range of “Sic ’Em”. Would you also propose changing turrets to only attack what their owner is attacking? Necro minions? Other summons? Why?

Currently you can send a pet in to fight at over 3,000 range and the enemy will only attack the pet. If multiple players do this they can fight without any risk. I suggested this because of concerns that this tactic would trivialize content if pets received a survivability increase.

I can see how some things like guard could become useless in PvE if this was implemented though. Perhaps there is a better way of handling this.

Easiest fix for pets would be to be able to call one out as soon as one dies, rather than face up to a minute without any sort of pet, which is the real problem.

Open world is easy to control too- give bosses/champs some AI so when a ranger swops out the pet that was about to die the ranger gets attacked, which will stop the ‘make pets stronger and they can tank anything in the open world’.

Trouble is, devs seem to think everyone plays out in the open world or running dungeons, whereas all the problems with the class come out in pvp and especially in wvw.

Bri.8354:

Daemon Hawk.9406:

I don’t understand the point of your second suggestion. What problem are you trying to solve? There is already a limit on how far you can F1 your pet, and how far you can get from a pet in combat before it magically appears at your side.

It would break most uses of “Guard”, and the extended attack range of “Sic ’Em”. Would you also propose changing turrets to only attack what their owner is attacking? Necro minions? Other summons? Why?

Currently you can send a pet in to fight at over 3,000 range and the enemy will only attack the pet. If multiple players do this they can fight without any risk. I suggested this because of concerns that this tactic would trivialize content if pets received a survivability increase.

I can see how some things like guard could become useless in PvE if this was implemented though. Perhaps there is a better way of handling this.

2 25 MB bears, 2 Moas (with compassion training), and a jaguar are capable of ripping just about everything apart with no help from their masters other than a heal… It was fun, but I felt dirty doing it lol.

PS: this was in Honor of the Waves, and CM explos, it was hilarious, I use HaO for this and was supplying Beary Bearington the 25MB brown bear.

Aridia.3042:

Verdelet Arconia.6987:

Hey Robert,would u kindly add this new point into the list if you think its reasonable.Most people might think its not related to dungeon but they probably didn’t know Bloody Mary from CM explore dungeon path 1.

A Ranger Pet hound has a good sense of smell,even though an enemy can hide in stealth,the pet should still be able to smell and track that enemy. Other profession handle enemy stealth by using AOEs,hopefully ranger can use their pets instead since our aoe is mostly utility dependent,not weapon skill dependent like other professions.

My ulterior motive is to be the bane of thieves actually haha

It kinda of tracks already. If you send a pet to attack prior to the stealth the pet will be on him the moment he unstealths. Combined with culling fix and the proposed cool down before restealthing we should be in a decent place after this next patch, at least in this regard.

I forgot to mention the pet should be able to attack whilst the enemy is in stealth _. Thanks for pointing out

I think in wvw all classes benefit from stat stacking much more than the ranger and the meta for all other classes is much more customizeable and mature than the ranger. This is why they suck in wvw , but are good in spvp/tpvp where kitten is actually balanced. My experiences atleast.

I think in dungeons we need 1 utility specific to dungeon group play or something, but it just seemslike pets are the only issue here (aoe dmg , perma stow option).

To be honest with you, i just think rangers are kitten in wvw because most are just op in wvw. Dd eles can stack regen so much , guardians the same, and the confusion dmg is ridiculous all of which we dont have really (no conf at all except from a pet with a long cast time and cone based , lol good luck trying t coordinate that kitten on a good person) unless we go full survivability and hit like a noodle. I tested dueling the same classes i dueled in wvw, and they lost everytime because it’s more balanced in spvp/tpvp , same builds and everything and im not complaining because i won only in spvp / tpvp , that clearly shows you how op these classes are WHEN compared to rangers so im not asking for these changes because I won, I was willing to accept it even if i DIDNT win but I did, and it brought up some decent questions that I had to ask.

So it like comes down to 2 things, buff rangers up to the current meta of wvw in conjunction with other classes or make the regens on those classes / confusion halved like it is in spvp. I actually wondered why dd ele only get nerfs in spvp to be honest with you but yea.

I may get negative responses from this , but this is kind of how I see it atleast from a 1on1 perspective which is primarily what I do other than spvp/tpvp now.

@Ryan, I personally like grabbing a warthog pet in WvW, and then using “Throw Gunk” (item it digs up) which is essentially a Chaos Storm on roids that can apply up to 18stacks of confusion if the RNG is in your favor, it’s amazing against WvW zergs because it has a pretty mild animation so no one really moves out of it.

Warthog and Siamoth … two pets I’d use all the time if they improved how forage works … they even have a knockdown on a 40sec cooldown just like my dogs … and a bleed … just their knockdown has a much longer cast time and shorter range (why?!)

Sebrent.3625:

Warthog and Siamoth … two pets I’d use all the time if they improved how forage works … they even have a knockdown on a 40sec cooldown just like my dogs … and a bleed … just their knockdown has a much longer cast time and shorter range (why?!)

Their KD is an AoE (hits up to 5 targets I believe), and is longer than the wolfs.

I haven’t used a pig in a while, so this is all stuff I learned via these forums.

My idea for a fix is a bit of a merger of different ideas here that dont include general AoE resistance (since the devs seem to be set against that).

1. General health boost to pets
2. Cooldown on pet swap reduced and death penalty greatly reduced.
a) Pet swap at 15 sec (10 with trait).
b) Death penalty reduced to 20-30 seconds).
3. Base pet damage reduced to around 15% of the rangers damage.
a) BM trait stats adjusted to boost pet up to 40% of ranger damage at 30 points.
4. Pet UI increased in size
5. Permanent stow button for traveling and jumping.
6. Permanent name change or at least loose the “juvenille” once tamed.
7. Fix F2 abilities so they are more instant and override any auto sequence of other abilities.

What about something like this : There’s no increase on the timer if the pet is dead. It’s always 20(15)s, but if a we swap when our pet is dead the new one will get a death penalty that reduces its core stats by 50% for 5 secs.

I think a real simple fix would make the recall function almost like a dodge with a 5/8/10 (debatable) sec cooldown. Your initial recall is going to be either on pet low health or on a hard hitting ability windup ability anyway so no additional buttons needed. When you recall you yourself are already dodging out of harms way as well so it helps in those “stay out of fire” times.

Dogs/bears/drakes leap/charge back to you.
Birds fly up into the air (like harpies) appearing next to you.
Spiders/Devours burrow and come up next to you.

Anytime its on cooldown would be the regular recall. Throw in a slight speed boost to help pets stay on target and reduce some of the cast times on f2 abilities and you have some nice improvements without helping bots or allowing pets to take on dungeon bosses.

Edit: Also, I do think there are times when stowing a pet would be nice such as role playing, puzzles, aggro avoidance, etc. but no compensation for stowed pet.

Bri.8354:

Daemon Hawk.9406:

I don’t understand the point of your second suggestion. What problem are you trying to solve?

Currently you can send a pet in to fight at over 3,000 range and the enemy will only attack the pet. If multiple players do this they can fight without any risk. I suggested this because of concerns that this tactic would trivialize content if pets received a survivability increase.

Makes sense. Thanks for explaining it. I get the problem you’re trying to solve — I can already AFK-solo some group event champions, and that does feel cheesy.

Durzlla.6295:

2 25 MB bears, 2 Moas (with compassion training), and a jaguar are capable of ripping just about everything apart with no help from their masters other than a heal… It was fun, but I felt dirty doing it lol.

PS: this was in Honor of the Waves, and CM explos, it was hilarious, I use HaO for this and was supplying Beary Bearington the 25MB brown bear.

That does sound entertaining. And cheesy. I can see how a mixed group of pets could help support each other.

How far were you able to get? On which paths?

Daemon Hawk.9406:

Bri.8354:

Daemon Hawk.9406:

I don’t understand the point of your second suggestion. What problem are you trying to solve?

Currently you can send a pet in to fight at over 3,000 range and the enemy will only attack the pet. If multiple players do this they can fight without any risk. I suggested this because of concerns that this tactic would trivialize content if pets received a survivability increase.

Makes sense. Thanks for explaining it. I get the problem you’re trying to solve — I can already AFK-solo some group event champions, and that does feel cheesy.

Durzlla.6295:

2 25 MB bears, 2 Moas (with compassion training), and a jaguar are capable of ripping just about everything apart with no help from their masters other than a heal… It was fun, but I felt dirty doing it lol.

PS: this was in Honor of the Waves, and CM explos, it was hilarious, I use HaO for this and was supplying Beary Bearington the 25MB brown bear.

That does sound entertaining. And cheesy. I can see how a mixed group of pets could help support each other.

How far were you able to get? On which paths?

Waves we only tried it on the purely land based one (the guys with moas didn’t have any jellyfish which baffled me), but we were able to clear the whole thing with it, and then CM we did all 3 paths, we had some issues on the Necromancer Bandit Boss at the end of one of the paths (2? i think?), but after we hammered down the pet positioning we had no issues with him.

PS: My utilities were a stone and storm spirit + sig of renewal, i know the guy with the panther had Sick’Em and QZ (idk the 3rd) and then the other Bear had Guard and the 2 moas had S&R, idk what the other utilieis the other Bear Owner, or the Moa Owners had.

Durzlla.6295:

Sebrent.3625:

Warthog and Siamoth … two pets I’d use all the time if they improved how forage works … they even have a knockdown on a 40sec cooldown just like my dogs … and a bleed … just their knockdown has a much longer cast time and shorter range (why?!)

Their KD is an AoE (hits up to 5 targets I believe), and is longer than the wolfs.

I haven’t used a pig in a while, so this is all stuff I learned via these forums.

the pigs are good, only drawback is too much cooldown on Forage, and too little survivability…
Even for a game, it doesnt portray how rugged pigs are iRL…. GW2 pigs is like RL puppies and kittens, they have their uses, their strength, but are hopelessly dependent on their “mother”.

EDIT: Boar also is really good. the Skull item it digs up has AOE fear that is really powerful… not to mention it has my favorite item of all…. Rock….
Nothing is more OP then throwing rocks at people…

Prysin.8542:

Durzlla.6295:

Sebrent.3625:

Warthog and Siamoth … two pets I’d use all the time if they improved how forage works … they even have a knockdown on a 40sec cooldown just like my dogs … and a bleed … just their knockdown has a much longer cast time and shorter range (why?!)

Their KD is an AoE (hits up to 5 targets I believe), and is longer than the wolfs.

I haven’t used a pig in a while, so this is all stuff I learned via these forums.

the pigs are good, only drawback is too much cooldown on Forage, and too little survivability…
Even for a game, it doesnt portray how rugged pigs are iRL…. GW2 pigs is like RL puppies and kittens, they have their uses, their strength, but are hopelessly dependent on their “mother”.

EDIT: Boar also is really good. the Skull item it digs up has AOE fear that is really powerful… not to mention it has my favorite item of all…. Rock….
Nothing is more OP then throwing rocks at people…

I thought pigs were on the sturdier side (tied with moas), I may have to play with the pigs a but more to see how they are…

PS: does their bleed skill still throw up 10 bleeds for 3s or was that nerfed?

We will see soon enough if and what changes they will put out for the ranger . Irrelevant of balance changes , pathing and AI fixes should be a priority . A player should have the most control possible over any and all segments of his character .

Also, if pet is on passive mode, it should take significantly reduced damage or no damage at all , this is just my opinion . This way in dungeons you could swap to support pets and actually be usefull to the team . Perhaps even give passive bonuses depending on the class of pet

dragonhawk.3258:

My idea for a fix is a bit of a merger of different ideas here that dont include general AoE resistance (since the devs seem to be set against that).

1. General health boost to pets
2. Cooldown on pet swap reduced and death penalty greatly reduced.
a) Pet swap at 15 sec (10 with trait).
b) Death penalty reduced to 20-30 seconds).
3. Base pet damage reduced to around 15% of the rangers damage.
a) BM trait stats adjusted to boost pet up to 40% of ranger damage at 30 points.
4. Pet UI increased in size
5. Permanent stow button for traveling and jumping.
6. Permanent name change or at least loose the “juvenille” once tamed.
7. Fix F2 abilities so they are more instant and override any auto sequence of other abilities.

So let’s see now. More health without the ability to better heal pets is not a good solution, unless the health pool is boosted by 1000%. Not sure it’s good even then.

So you want our pets to do even less damage (3 above) without giving anything in return? Lousy suggestion.

remove our pets n replace them with the champion mobs in the pve world,doesn;t matter if i can;t control them,at least they don’t die in one shot and they can definitely hit their targets hehe

Robert has left the ranger forums.

Here’s a question I have. I get it (sort of) that we shouldn’t be able to use Guard to put our pets on walls (although a bird would certainly not have that issue). But, why is it that if we’re on the wall, we can’t put our pets on the ground to attack our targets outside the keep? That makes absolutely no sense and greatly reduces our usefulness in tower or keep defense. How did that make it through “balance” testing?

Bird in the game don’t really fly; they “walk” on invisible stilts, for the purpose of determining where they can and cannot get to. If your other pets are blocked by a fence, your bird is too. Flying is just an animation, but it’s still earthbound. Drives me bananas, but GW1 was the same.

Daemon Hawk.9406:

Bird in the game don’t really fly; they “walk” on invisible stilts, for the purpose of determining where they can and cannot get to. If your other pets are blocked by a fence, your bird is too. Flying is just an animation, but it’s still earthbound. Drives me bananas, but GW1 was the same.

So you’re saying a programming technique explains it all? Hmmm, ok.

How about the part concerning pets not being able to leap off walls? We can do it and if we do the pet leaps too. But, it can’t do that independently? This is the biggest issue I have with ArenaNet communication. I understand that they can’t go into a lot of detail about “upcoming changes” (see the Jon Peters thread) but there is NO reason they shouldn’t be able to explain changes already made, especially as it concerns nerfs that make zero sense to those that play the class.

Pedra.4381:

How about the part concerning pets not being able to leap off walls? We can do it and if we do the pet leaps too. But, it can’t do that independently? This is the biggest issue I have with ArenaNet communication. I understand that they can’t go into a lot of detail about “upcoming changes” (see the Jon Peters thread) but there is NO reason they shouldn’t be able to explain changes already made, especially as it concerns nerfs that make zero sense to those that play the class.

I don’t think the pets actually leap off the wall with you, it’s more like they get too far away and then teleport to your location, like they do if they get hung up normally.

If there was a way to make pets leap off cliffs with you, then people wouldn’t be calling for the perma-stow functionality nearly as much because pets would actually be following you down instead of pathing through the group of hostiles you’re trying to avoid.

edit – typo

Paken Kai.5970:

Pedra.4381:

How about the part concerning pets not being able to leap off walls? We can do it and if we do the pet leaps too. But, it can’t do that independently? This is the biggest issue I have with ArenaNet communication. I understand that they can’t go into a lot of detail about “upcoming changes” (see the Jon Peters thread) but there is NO reason they shouldn’t be able to explain changes already made, especially as it concerns nerfs that make zero sense to those that play the class.

I don’t think the pets actually leap off the wall with you, it’s more like they get too far away and then teleport to your location, like they do if they get hung up normally.

If there was a way to make pets leap off cliffs with you, then people wouldn’t be calling for the perma-stow functionality nearly as much because pets would actually be following you down instead of pathing through the group of hostiles you’re trying to avoid.

edit – typo

I appreciate your input, but I don’t want to get hung up over symantics. I don’t care if the pet leaps off the wall, teleports off the wall, or gets beamed down by the Enterprise. What is the in-game rationale for the pet not being able to attack a target on the ground that is outside a tower or keep?