Guild Wars 2

Just tested this with my wolves in WvW the pet f2 ability no longer resets on pet swap. when i brought my first wolf out after 15 seconds the wolf still had 15 seconds CD on the howl. not sure if this is actually a bug fix, but it is definately not on the patch notes

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Just tested this with my wolves in WvW the pet f2 ability no longer resets on pet swap. when i brought my first wolf out after 15 seconds the wolf still had 15 seconds CD on the howl. not sure if this is actually a bug fix, but it is definately not on the patch notes

Ohhhh if that’s the cast that’ll suck bad

My jaw just dropped. That’s insanity if it’s true.

Its definately true. just tested multiple times with different pets.

Yeap, its true

tested it as well

Huge nerf

Frankly I’m not surprised. Didn’t seem right to have a long cooldown, like 40 seconds, reduced to 15 or 20 seconds (for each swap). Perhaps now I’ll look at those two traits in the Beastmaster tree with a bit more consideration.

I’m guessing this is true for the non-F2 abilities as well?

At least explain it in the patch notes for pete’s sake…

deepwinter.9015:

Frankly I’m not surprised. Didn’t seem right to have a long cooldown, like 40 seconds, reduced to 15 or 20 seconds (for each swap). Perhaps now I’ll look at those two traits in the Beastmaster tree with a bit more consideration.

I’m guessing this is true for the non-F2 abilities as well?

Has anyone tested the cooldown on other abilities when swapping pets? Specifically, the insta-knockdown from the wolf?

I just died a little inside.

Taruvoyant.4318:

deepwinter.9015:

Frankly I’m not surprised. Didn’t seem right to have a long cooldown, like 40 seconds, reduced to 15 or 20 seconds (for each swap). Perhaps now I’ll look at those two traits in the Beastmaster tree with a bit more consideration.

I’m guessing this is true for the non-F2 abilities as well?

Has anyone tested the cooldown on other abilities when swapping pets? Specifically, the insta-knowckdown from the wolf?

I just died a little inside.

I’m guessing if the cooldown is nerfed on the F2s it’ll be the same on non-f2’s as well

Like i said, fairly huge nerf

I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.

Taruvoyant.4318:

I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.

I’m sure its a bug like the SB animation was a bug grin

The non f2 skills appear to be resetting. wolf did knockdown attack right out of a 15 second swap, even though the tooltip CD is 40 seconds

So it’s another stealth nerf for ranger?

Taruvoyant.4318:

I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.

Actually, it makes perfect sense.

Weapons don’t share cooldowns, but swapping weapons doesn’t instantly reset a cooldown on the weapon you swapped out. The cooldowns are kept in-tact even when swapped, so that you always have to wait the whole cooldown period before you can use the attack again, swap or no.

Lets use Barrage as an example. Lets say you use Barrage with Longbow, swap to Shortbow and attack for 10 seconds, then swap back to Longbow. Barrage still has around 20 seconds left on cooldown, you don’t get to use it right away again just because you swapped.

Pets now behave in the exact same way. Instead of swapping ignoring actual ability cooldown timers and just resetting them the second the swap occurs, the cooldowns are kept constant even in the background. If you use Terrifying Howl then swap your Wolf, wait 15 seconds, then swap back, instead of the normal 45 second cooldown being ignored and letting you use it again right away regardless of cooldown, you now have to wait another 30 seconds for the entire ability cooldown to occur.

I’m ok with this. Its “technically” a nerf in the way that its worse now than it was before, but it was something that should have never been like that in the first place. Pet swapping was never intended to get around cooldowns.

Electro.4173:

Taruvoyant.4318:

I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.

Actually, it makes perfect sense.

Weapons don’t share cooldowns, but swapping weapons doesn’t instantly reset a cooldown on the weapon you swapped out. The cooldowns are kept in-tact even when swapped, so that you always have to wait the whole cooldown period before you can use the attack again, swap or no.

Lets use Barrage as an example. Lets say you use Barrage with Longbow, swap to Shortbow and attack for 10 seconds, then swap back to Longbow. Barrage still has around 20 seconds left on cooldown, you don’t get to use it right away again just because you swapped.

Pets now behave in the exact same way. Instead of swapping ignoring actual ability cooldown timers and just resetting them the second the swap occurs, the cooldowns are kept constant even in the background. If you use Terrifying Howl then swap your Wolf, wait 15 seconds, then swap back, instead of the normal 45 second cooldown being ignored and letting you use it again right away regardless of cooldown, you now have to wait another 30 seconds for the entire ability cooldown to occur.

I’m ok with this. Its “technically” a nerf in the way that its worse now than it was before, but it was something that should have never been like that in the first place. Pet swapping was never intended to get around cooldowns.

But with your weapon analogy you’re talking about the cooldown on one weapon, but we’re talking about the cooldown on two different “weapons” when we’re talking about pets. In other words, if you use skill 2 on your LB and then swap to SB, SB skill 2 is not on cool down. But as I understand it is with pets now, if you use skill F2 on a feline, then swap to a canine, skill F2 is still on cool down. Different pets should behave the same as different weapons. This is painful to me if it was intentional.

Arenanet, can we please get a response to this? Was this intentional? Will it be put back to the way it was before?

I don’t think thats whats happening. Mind you, I can’t get into the game to check right now (download is still happening and very slowly at that) but I’m pretty sure what the OP was saying was that he used his Wolf’s F2, swapped pets, swapped back expecting the cooldown to have been reset by the swap (as would happen previously), and it wasn’t. Not that pet F2’s are actually sharing cooldowns.

Electro.4173:

I don’t think thats whats happening. Mind you, I can’t get into the game to check right now (download is still happening and very slowly at that) but I’m pretty sure what the OP was saying was that he used his Wolf’s F2, swapped pets, swapped back expecting the cooldown to have been reset by the swap (as would happen previously), and it wasn’t. Not that pet F2’s are actually sharing cooldowns.

OK, if that’s the case then I can see where an argument can be made for it.

Arekai.5698:

So it’s another stealth nerf for ranger?

It’s a pretty massive nerf. It will have a huge impact on the play styles of most rangers. Pets are incredibly unreliable and a lot of rangers use the swap for quickness as well as a free utility skill (which is usually a lot more valuable than any of our actual utility skills, AoE fear, underwater Feedback, ranged immobilise etc) and having access to these skills on pet swap was integral to the way most rangers play.

I’m sick of huge, massive nerfs to the class (shortbow “animation glitch” nerf that is probably the biggest DPS nerf to any weapon of any class since launch) that never make it into the patch notes.

Honestly, they should be making pets better, not worse. I don’t really get much use out of the 10 point pet traits (might stacks are wasted on melee pets with their terrible initiative at engaging in combat) so it won’t be a huge sacrifice going for reduced F2 cool downs, but it just makes this trait choice even more brain dead obvious and reduces the viability of other options, taking traits further into the wrong direction.

I agree with Shiren…

But, I mean, if you think about it – what’s the point in having an F2 with a recharge of more than 20 seconds if the CD isn’t maintained? Just swap, wait for the 20 second swap cd, swap back, right? So this is ‘understandable’ from a game mechanic point of view.

However, there is very little I can say that would express my anger at the ‘stealth’ nature of this. Why would I use a pet with a long CD in spvp now? Severely decreases the utility of pets with F2 CDs of over 20 seconds.

Please clarify Anet.

Electro.4173:

I don’t think thats whats happening. Mind you, I can’t get into the game to check right now (download is still happening and very slowly at that) but I’m pretty sure what the OP was saying was that he used his Wolf’s F2, swapped pets, swapped back expecting the cooldown to have been reset by the swap (as would happen previously), and it wasn’t. Not that pet F2’s are actually sharing cooldowns.

this is what i was saying

The fact is that on a 15 second pet swap cooldown, the wolf howl abilities effectiveness has now been cut in half, because i can only get one howl out of every 2 appearances of each wolf provided i switch immediately when possible. Whether or not it is an intended nerf, or if they are just trying to keep the established tooltip cool down time is debatable, but irelevant. The simple truth is that the effectiveness of long recharge f2 abilities has essentialy been cut in half, and it didnt make the patch notes.

What I find even more saddening about this nerf is not the nerf itself, but the fact that it’s not even mentioned in the patch notes.

It’s the shortbow all over again.

I dunno.
On the one hand, it is quite the change.

On the other hand, most of my exception with it stems from the idea that pet survivability in dungeons is subpar and circumventing cooldowns this way was just a way of working around that to keep your pet useful. Coincidentally some of the harder hitting things in dungeons have been trimmed in order to accommodate the recent waypoint change. In a roundabout way, that’s a buff to pet survivability.

I guess I’ll have to see.

It’s not happening to me. I used a blue moa and a pink moa to check. No shared cooldown.

I would be fine with a fix to the cool down ‘workaround’ if they had also reduced the ridiculous cast times on the pet skills. The wolf’s howl should fire off just as fast as the warrior’s AoE fear, there’s no reason to give it a two second windup other than to telegraph to everyone what is about to happen so they can move away or so it can die before it has a chance to scatter a zerg.

RyuDragnier.9476:

It’s not happening to me. I used a blue moa and a pink moa to check. No shared cooldown.

What do you mean by “shared cooldown”? We’re not saying that using the F2 of one pet puts the F2 of the other on CD, only that the CD persists after swapping pets (which it didn’t before, the skill was ‘refreshed’)

I Hwi I.3408:

RyuDragnier.9476:

It’s not happening to me. I used a blue moa and a pink moa to check. No shared cooldown.

What do you mean by “shared cooldown”? We’re not saying that using the F2 of one pet puts the F2 of the other on CD, only that the CD persists after swapping pets (which it didn’t before, the skill was ‘refreshed’)

Oops, my reading comprehension seems to be off today then. Then again, it’s a Monday, so…

One of the few useful things about pets have been nerfed hard with this change. They might as well just replace them with a 2 second quickness skill on 15 sec cooldown as our class mechnic.

When they nerfed the out of combat swap cooldown one of the reason for that kind of nerf was that they didn’t want to freeze the cd on f2 abilities and wanted to give a brand new pet when swapped… and now we get both nerfs

Ahah ofc guys what did you expect? When they fix (aka nerf) something they don’t even let us know about that.

heh….Guys you’re not getting it

There was this Animation Bug with F2 Pet abilities that needed to be fixed….

Okay, just tested it with my wolf + hyena.
Once I used my wolf’s skill, I switched to the hyena, and I could use her F2 skill as well.
However, when I switched back to the wolf, its ability was still cooling down, similarly to how a weapon’s cooldowns continue when switched.

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Xsorus.2507:

heh….Guys you’re not getting it

There was this Animation Bug with F2 Pet abilities that needed to be fixed….

You of all people should know Xsorsus. Test it yourself instead of making Pain Inverter Volume 12 or whatever you’re on. The cooldown does NOT pause on swap like you guys are trying to say. Rather, it’s a full 45 seconds like it’s supposed to be (whether or not you swap).

Chopps.5047:

This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

No, but it does seriously reduce the utility of any pet that has a CD of over 20 seconds. I understand that all it does is correct for the tooltip – we were getting a free skill use before, sure – but it WAS NOT IN THE PATCH NOTES. Come on, how hard is this? Pets have so friggen many problems, and they don’t tell us that they ‘fixed’ this one?

Chopps.5047:

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Chops, because it seems to be a recurring theme that people are not reading what was intended by my post i will explain it again down here in the thread.

BEFORE TODAYS UPDATE using white wolfs howl would start the 40 second CD. switching pets would then bring up your second pet. That F2 ability would be fresh and ready to go. 15 seconds later when you could switch back to the white wolf, his F2 ability would also be refreshed, rather than having the full 40 second CD.

AFTER TODAYS UPDATE switching back to the white wolf will find you with 25 seconds still remaining on the CD of his howl. You will note that I did not scream about it being a nerf, nor did I say the world is falling apart. I was simply stating that a change was made that decrease the efficiency of pets with long F2 ability CDs, and the change was for whatever reason not mentioned in the contents of todays patch notes.

Chopps.5047:

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

No, all it is is a “fix” that just ends up making an already weak pvp class even weaker. No biggie. I’m sure all the fine folks who relied on cycling through pets to achieve maximum effectiveness* won’t be negatively impacted at all by this.

*virtually anyone who had any hope of getting kills in spvp

I’m not sure if I understand this correct, but I just tested it
And the F2 cool down was like everyone mentioned still running after I switched back to initial Pet. BUT! I could still use the skill even with the cool down running. So this looks like a bug to me.

See video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XapNDJiM760

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Chopps.5047:

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Chops, because it seems to be a recurring theme that people are not reading what was intended by my post i will explain it again down here in the thread.

BEFORE TODAYS UPDATE using white wolfs howl would start the 40 second CD. switching pets would then bring up your second pet. That F2 ability would be fresh and ready to go. 15 seconds later when you could switch back to the white wolf, his F2 ability would also be refreshed, rather than having the full 40 second CD.

AFTER TODAYS UPDATE switching back to the white wolf will find you with 25 seconds still remaining on the CD of his howl. You will note that I did not scream about it being a nerf, nor did I say the world is falling apart. I was simply stating that a change was made that decrease the efficiency of pets with long F2 ability CDs, and the change was for whatever reason not mentioned in the contents of todays patch notes.

No, it’s not 25 seconds remaining. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. The CD timer ticks for the proper CD time now, regardless of whether you swap or not. I know you want your broken, unintended CDs back but you’re not getting it. It was indeed fixed.

How do I know it was ‘fixed’ and not some conspiracy theory stealth nerf? Because why in the heck would ANET make a 45 s CD on something that can be reset to 15 s? That’s clearly not intended play.

And if ranger is so bad and broken, don’t you think ANET would have made major changes by now? Perhaps ANET’s devs know more about the game than us and actually have shown that rangers are competitive?

How do you know ANET hasn’t done this? How can you tell the difference between poor play and a broken class? Because I argue you cannot.

I hear nothing but whining on this forum. But me? I love ranger. I pwn with ranger. I do well, exceptionally well. I’m not bragging. I’m not showing off. I’m saying that ranger is competitive.

Would you guys STOP saying this class is borked? JUST STOP. People don’t want to play in dungeons with rangers anymore due to all the negativity coming out of this forum and out of your mouths.

Most of you don’t even understand the difference between burst and DPS so I’m basically talking to a wall anyways. I guess I’ll walk away now while you guys continue to trash ranger and slander my name.

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Agadar.4931:

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Good, I’m glad. ANET wouldn’t listen to you anyways (because they’re professionals and you’re just some stranger writing on some forum no one cares about but us).

Chopps.5047:

Xsorus.2507:

heh….Guys you’re not getting it

There was this Animation Bug with F2 Pet abilities that needed to be fixed….

You of all people should know Xsorsus. Test it yourself instead of making Pain Inverter Volume 12 or whatever you’re on. The cooldown does NOT pause on swap like you guys are trying to say. Rather, it’s a full 45 seconds like it’s supposed to be (whether or not you swap).

Rofl, i see that joke went over your head ;o)

Chopps.5047:

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Chopps.5047:

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Chops, because it seems to be a recurring theme that people are not reading what was intended by my post i will explain it again down here in the thread.

BEFORE TODAYS UPDATE using white wolfs howl would start the 40 second CD. switching pets would then bring up your second pet. That F2 ability would be fresh and ready to go. 15 seconds later when you could switch back to the white wolf, his F2 ability would also be refreshed, rather than having the full 40 second CD.

AFTER TODAYS UPDATE switching back to the white wolf will find you with 25 seconds still remaining on the CD of his howl. You will note that I did not scream about it being a nerf, nor did I say the world is falling apart. I was simply stating that a change was made that decrease the efficiency of pets with long F2 ability CDs, and the change was for whatever reason not mentioned in the contents of todays patch notes.

No, it’s not 25 seconds remaining. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. The CD timer ticks for the proper CD time now, regardless of whether you swap or not. I know you want your broken, unintended CDs back but you’re not getting it. It was indeed fixed.

Well chops, had you actually read my post before that vein in ur forhead started throbbing out of control and you chucked your mouse across the room, you would see that what I said is exactly the same as what you said. I, like you, enjoy the ranger and think that the class is fine, but could use a few tweaks here and there to really shine. I think you need to take a breath and try some stress releasing activities. Maybe go outside and take a walk? get some fresh air?

Noone is saying this is a conspiracy, just pointing out that changes were made.

Chopps.5047:

Agadar.4931:

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Good, I’m glad. ANET wouldn’t listen to you anyways (because they’re professionals and you’re just some stranger writing on some forum no one cares about but us).

Quote from a dev months back I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements.

Sorry but even the devs disagree with you.

Chopps.5047:

Agadar.4931:

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Good, I’m glad. ANET wouldn’t listen to you anyways (because they’re professionals and you’re just some stranger writing on some forum no one cares about but us).

Have to agree with you 100% Chopps. I’ll keep posting though and try to get constructive and helpful information on the forums. There will always be ragers. Regardless of the status of the profession, the game, the economy, the nation, all of existence, there will be ragers lol.

Chopps you being a little hostile today, whats up?

Boomstin.3460:

Chopps.5047:

Agadar.4931:

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Good, I’m glad. ANET wouldn’t listen to you anyways (because they’re professionals and you’re just some stranger writing on some forum no one cares about but us).

Quote from a dev months back I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements.

Sorry but even the devs disagree with you.

As they have continued to make those improvements, the ranger is no longer the most in need of improvement. Engi and Necro are the most in need, in my opinion.

Jazenn.7526:

Boomstin.3460:

Chopps.5047:

Agadar.4931:

You’re walking away? Good. Finally, we, the people who realize that the class is bad and keeps on getting worse, can continue our discussions without you.

Good, I’m glad. ANET wouldn’t listen to you anyways (because they’re professionals and you’re just some stranger writing on some forum no one cares about but us).

Quote from a dev months back I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements.

Sorry but even the devs disagree with you.

As they have continued to make those improvements, the ranger is no longer the most in need of improvement. Engi and Necro are the most in need, in my opinion.

Necros more in need of improvements than the ranger?

Nice opinion. If only you were right.

What are you guys even talking about? Pet swapping is resetting F2 skills just like it always has, for me.

Stormleaf.1769:

What are you guys even talking about? Pet swapping is resetting F2 skills just like it always has, for me.

i’m guessing ur using cats or birds?