So ... which pets are good for aoe dmg?
Most drakes have a aoe/cone f2 skill.
Wolves get a good aoe fear
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Drakes are the only AoE heavy pets. Their basic attack hits an arc in front of them (like most player melee attacks) and their F2’s are usually AoE based, though given the startup time very difficult to aim.
Once they actually get fixed to use their other special abilities properly, they’ll also have a full AoE spin attack. At the moment they’re bugged and won’t use either of their natural special abilities though.
Other pets usually only have 1 AoE ability. Murellow’s have a PBAoE poison field, all spiders have a poison projectile volley that creates an AoE poison field at impact, Carrion Devourers have an F2 thats very similar to the spider’s volley (except 1 shot) while Whiptail Devourers have a spreadshot poison F2. Alpine Wolves and basic grey Wolves have AoE howls, but they do very little damage and are mostly for applying conditions. Underwater, Jellyfish have a very nice AoE F2.
In general, pets don’t really excell at AoE damage though. Even Drakes aren’t going to be AoE juggernauts or anything (even once they’re fixed).
Yea, as others have said, drakes are really the go-to pets for AoE damage, but if you’re doing something like WvW, there are some situations where it may be better to have a ranged pet since sending a pet into a big zerg is often like dropping a toad into a blender.
If you do take a ranged pet, any spider will periodically drop an AoE poison, but you can also bring a Carrion Devourer to get an AoE poison as your F2 ability so that you can have a bit more control over it.
For aoe damage, especially in raids in wvw, forget your pet- by the time it reaches the people you want it to aoe it’s either crippled, bleeding or already dead.
The problem with spiders etc is their range seems to be very short, they fire so slow that it misses 90% of the time and it will chase after whoever you target, missing all the while.
Pets are great in wvw- when you are facing a very small group that stand in one spot! As soon as they move your pet will start missing, and unless you specc’d in BM your pet is so squishy it will die to any decent damage.
Victory, Beings Lost On Borderlands (BLOB), SFR & Gandara (inactive)
Jellies are the gods of the sea. Seriously, they can even tank on top of the kitten it applies to all enemies around it. Best part, if you have 2 jellies and traited 15 into BM you can use it every 15 seconds to really melt mobs.
Outside that I’ve heard drakes hit like a truck if you can CC for it, haven’t messed with this much because I prefer the CC of wolves and single target melting while I focus on weakening the surrounding mobs with GS.