Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’d like to create a chart of the pet’s sphere of influence compared to the Ranger’s sphere, to get a good overview of what exactly the pet as mechanic adds to the Ranger.

The chart is meant to visualize what the Ranger without the pet is capable of, what the pet adds to the Ranger and where the Ranger’s and the pet’s proficiencies overlap.
This will hopefully help to make feedback more focussed and exemplify shortcomings of the current iteration.

In order to help me, you have to ask yourself two questions for each mechanic the pet offers:

“Does it enhance the capabilities of the Ranger, regardless of its balance?”
If yes, then the mechanic gets added to the exclusive part of the pet’s sphere. If not, then it gets added to the conjuction of the Ranger’s and the pet’s sphere.

“Does the balance of said mechanic make it worthwhile?”
If yes, then the sphere of the pet gets bigger, if not, then it gets smaller.

The best outcome of this would be that the spheres are as disjunct as possible and the pet’s sphere as big as possible. The worst outcome would be that the pet’s sphere would be engulfed by the Ranger’s sphere, which means that the pet as profession mechanic does not anything meaningful to the Ranger.

As a start and as an example, I’ll try to fit the damage the pet does into this chart.
The pet was responsible for around 30% of the Ranger’s damage. This is most likely no longer the case, given the numerous changes over the yeaers, however the pet still accounts for quite a bit of damage. As it is not additional damage, this would be slotted into the joined part of both spheres.
The pet has had a lot of issues of applying the damage, as it was too slow to keep up and had too clunky animations to hit. This has been improved in the latest patch, but it is still nowhere as good or as effective in getting the damage out as the player is. So the size of the pet’s sphere will be smaller than the Ranger’s one. The only part excluse to the pet is the fact that it can attack a second target, but given that this is rarely used, this is just a minor point.

If we get a comprehensive chart, I’d be interested to see if my suspicion that the pet adds little to the Ranger, compared to what other profession mechanics add.

So, you want – as well as others to help you – do this just to affirm a suspicion you have?

Or to prove it wrong

It should be pretty easy to figure out exactly what percentage of the damage comes from the pet on either a typical PvE relatively non-moving target or a PvP moving golem. I suspect it’s not anywhere close to 30% for PvE in viper or berserker gear. For PvP, I dunno, maybe, since mender’s staff does like 1 DPS.

I have my pet attack separate targets from me all the time in WvW or PvP, I don’t know why you said that was a rarely used feature?

I don’t see the point. I see the 2 questions you want people to pose, but at this late stage in the game: What does this accomplish or do other than affirm or disprove a personal suspicion?

You’re better off conducting your own tests, present your data, and see where it goes from there. Otherwise, you might as well doing something that presents data other players can use such as updating the DPS chart post-patch where Guild Wars Hub’s charts left off.

A DPS test can in no way judge or indicate a mechanical issue.

And yet, what does what you are intending to do accomplish? If there is proof that indicates that a pet adds little or much to the profession in comparison to other professions, where does it go from there?

Based on what exactly the pet is lacking on, for example sufficient means to control it, we then can give focussed feedback on how to fix those problems.

Thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps place that response in the first post, as that was the piece I was missing as to the goal of your proposal, aside from personal curiosity.

I assume feedback would have to be realistic, or low-hanging fruit, based on past responses (or lack thereof) of Anet?