Guild Wars 2

I want to be a beast master that let’s my pet fight alongside me in melee combat, with some ranged potency too. Is this possible or should I just move on?

Yes, this is possible. Rangers a good at melee and ranged combat and dps pets do some good damage.

Another question, can I be this guy?

If you choose Asura, yes. But you can’t ride animals.

arrownin.3128:

Another question, can I be this guy?

That’s a girl actually.

I’d say your best bet is to pick Asura and use wolves and imagination.

Beast Mastery is one of the trait lines of the Ranger and it explores the main mechanic of the class, which is pets. So yes, it’s a very viable option. You even have many melee options in the form of sword, dagger, torch, warhorn and greatsword. Axes are mod mid-range, I’d say.

Yes, you can. Just don’t expect to get into most end game parties where your BM build is next to useless as pets die instantly. Not much better in wvw where most of the time if you try and attack anyone in a zerg your pet will be coming back within seconds having died.

Sadly the ‘main mechanic’ doesn’t function very well in end game situations unless you like solo.

Victory.2879:

Yes, you can. Just don’t expect to get into most end game parties where your BM build is next to useless as pets die instantly. Not much better in wvw where most of the time if you try and attack anyone in a zerg your pet will be coming back within seconds having died.

Sadly the ‘main mechanic’ doesn’t function very well in end game situations unless you like solo.

Id disagree with that. signets and 30 in beast mastery works really well in both high level pve stuff and wvw. As for the pets I run a drake and devourer for wvw and a bear and drake for pve and I find that they don’t die often at all. also you would be surprised just how many people don’t focus ranger pets.

As for op all i can give is play what you enjoy and dont be put off by posts saying ranger is underpowered you should play X instead

Most of the battles I am involved in in wvw involve guild actions against other guilds where being inside all the stuff we lay down is the only way to survive- your pet will go merrily off outside the area and instantly die. And if it isn’t on attack mode then it’s fairly useless anyway (apart from long cast time F2 skills…).

Yes pets survive in disorganised pug zerg fights where everyone stands at max distance spread out all over the place and pets then are quite effective- but most people will just back out of range or lose the pet (which will miss most of the time anyway on a moving target).

I’m told higher level fractals pets are completely useless as they have no agony resistance.

Most dungeons bosses do huge aoe effects and unless you micro manage your pet (and it responds in time- recall doesn’t really work that well) it ends up dead fast.

And I play ranger most of the time, I must be a masochist!