Guild Wars 2

Thats what i told to a friend that just bought GW2 and wanted to start a Ranger.I hear a lot that pets are broken and stuff.No they are not.They need some fixes in the pathing and avoiding some aoe in dungeons but defenitly is a very effective mechanic in rangers.
Stop thinking of pets as a extra condition.They are not and they shouldnt be.Im specc BM for both pvp and pve and im doing just fine.Got a Jaguar and a Frost kitten and i fine.I mean think about it,Jaguar attacks in stealth,with a 100% crit chance and doing like 3-4k dmg each time.If you think this isnt a good mechanic you are bad player.
Yes i know they cant attack moving targets and their animation are kinda slow.
Well how about improve your skills?I always kite enemy in the range of my pet,i use a lot of cc to slow him so my pet can attack him.
Oh wait i said that Jaguar can attack from stealth…so they enemy doesnt even know what is hitting him.Isnt easy enough this for you?
Somewhere i heard about a lone wolf skill.Without pet dmg only from the rangers alone
Well have you ever heard of the Jungle Stalker?Have you ever heard about the F2 skills in pet.
Yes they buff you.I dont know whats your opinion but 5 stacks of might aint bad.After it can die in peace.
I will say it again.They need some fixes..
But YES . Pets are very usefull and a very effective mechanic.Dont ask to improve your pets,improve your skill and movements

Your pet responds to your commands at some point in the next zero to three seconds and you have no way to manually use 2/4 of its abilities.

One of the most mentioned issues with the Ranger is that you cannot “play your pet”.

The abilities are just fine as they are.Yes they responce late cause they have a casting time.Try using they ability while you under the effect of QZ.or by skill or by traited pet swaping.They responce instantly.This is what i do,after i swap to Frostkitten i press F2 and the skill goes just fine.Otherwise im trying to keep the enemy in the range of the skill while my pet charges the leap.The same goes for the flame drake but im not using it cause i like the crit of my cats.He does a lot of dmg with the F2 tho.the thing you are missing is that you shouldnt expect from the pet to move to the way the enemy is but to put the enemy in the way the pet is.You will be awarded,it requires skill but thats all about in GW2.If you want a constant attacking pet,like having an extra condition i can think of some mmos (cough….WoW….cough).What i notice is that a lot of ppl think the prof of ranger as another Hunter or something.Im using some long range weapons to make some numbers while my pet does a constant +20% dmg.Its not gonna happened and im glad that it wont.The thing with the ranger and pet is that if you are skilled enought the pet will do this extra dmg and it would be more that 20%

Your the 4th or 5th ranger who claims they know something the thousands of other rangers don’t. Pets have alot of things wrong with them. They cant attack while on the move, f2 abilities are bugged although they are very good. They are not late because of casting time, they are late because the f2 button response is off 85% of the time resulting in holding the button or spamming it.

I mostly use hawk & eagle because they hit hard and have high vitality. They hardly ever fail to cast their F2 skill. I just know that it may take 1-2 seconds for the bird to land the attack. The only time it fails to cast is when the bird is interrupted by a stun or knockback or something. You know, like happens to every other player trying to use a skill with a cast time.

I just have to laugh at how hard dard is trying, and proving he can play a ranger better than the other thousands of rangers out there. Go join a sPvP and after a few hundred games comment again. Skolvikings yes there is a cast time to skills and we are all well aware, the F2 skill just does not start ‘casting’ when we click it, as the pet prioritises other actions or its next action and you have to wait for that to finish.

Yeah, sorry Dard, but pets are not that great right now. If you’re fighting one enemy, yes they work great. How often are you fighting just one enemy? If you’re 70+ and have made it to Orr then you know that you’re almost NEVER fight one enemy. Learning how to kite mobs is more of a friend than your pet. At the moment pets are just cannon fotter as far as I (and many others) are concerned.

First of all im 19 rank in PvP.I have made more that 300 sPvP matches,and some tourn too
Im 80 lvl for about a week
Ive never had any lack of F2 responce.Ive notice that when the Lynx is far away from the enemy he/she runs near him to execute the leap.And there starts the casting time,it responce,just its not a instant 10k dmg skill like most of you would want.The casting time starts from the time the enemy is in the range of the skill and its logical

Im TRYING to play a better ranger and day after day im realizing that im becoming better in handling the pet.And being awarded for this.The pets do alo of dmg

Even in groups theres some pets with great aoe skills.The lighting drake for example

If you want,like i said,a usual pet system where it attacks all the time for a medium dmg theres other mmos (cough….WoW……cough)
Here in GW2 skill pays you off

I don’t have any problems with my pets in Orr. In fact, if both my pets die… Or if I had my pet on passive and forgot to change it before engaging mobs… I notice immediately because the mobs aren’t going down as fast and my health will be dropping much more quickly. And that’s been my experience in Cursed Shore.

No doubt pets have bugs, but they are viable for certain builds. If I set my traits to 0/0/30/10/30, then in Cursed Shore, I can send my hawk out to F2 and attack 1 or 2 enemies solo, and 90% of the time the mobs die without me doing anything more than watching.

Yes, that’s PvE. Understood, but PvE is half the game and important to a lot of people. Not everyone is interested in PvP.

I’ve read many posts from people trying to help explain how pets can be good in dungeons, PvP, WvWvW but they just get flamed. How is it bad to have a pet that can do some damage, can distract and divide incoming damage, can buff us or crit them, even without putting any points into BM? How is that bad? Why should pets be able to attack moving targets, instantly cast F2, never lose aggro but never die to aoe damage or boss attacks? My gosh, that would make rangers the GODS of GW2!

<RANT>

There are good warriors and guardians that get one or two shot killed by bosses. For heavens sake, pets should too. There are most classes that can’t withstand a ton of aoe damage very long. Why should pets? There are other classes that can’t hit moving targets with some of their best skills either (such as aforementioned aoe). Why should pets be any different?

Well… It’s broken in dungeons because my pet is always dead. Really? What about ranged pets or passive mode? Or what about your bear or bird tanking one or two boss hits, that you and your group didn’t have to endure? Or what about the poor warrior that doesn’t want to be forced to equip a rifle or longbow? That poor warrior gets one shot by the big mean boss and is completely ineffective with the way he wants to play his toon. He shouldn’t be forced by ANet to play a certain way that the developers say. It’s not fair and the boss should be nerfed or the melee options improved. Right? /sigh

</RANT>

I personally think that ArenaNet was pretty sinister. They gave each profession many different options for traits, skills, stats, weapons. Then they developed game content that would force professions to switch and use different options. Like the melee ranger having to run SB in dungeons. Or the warrior that can choose to either be on his back, or equip the kitten rifle against certain bosses.

Pets are viable in most situations. They’re rarely a negative. At worst, they aren’t as good in certain contexts. Just like the warrior completely geared out in the best melee armor in the game, with a legendary sword, getting one shot by Balthazar in Straights of Devastation unless he takes out his yellow rifle and dances away from the red circles. Pets are sometimes uber, sometimes not. They can always be a positive, but requires certain style of play in certain circumstances.

Significant changes to the pet mechanics would seriously affect game balance. So for now, if you don’t want to adapt your play style for the pet and that harms you in the things you like to do in GW2, maybe rangers aren’t your thing.

Mr Skolvikings.5132 knows what hes doing..;)

the other can just follow us or sit here and wait till they start hitting moving targets.We are moving forward

You can run anything in Orr and be fine. Orr is not a problem. The problem is WvW , Dungeons, and sPvp. Even dungeons are not that bad on pets, Bosses are for sure. I farm orr constantly and have no problems with my pets. Its when I am in sPvP or WvW or Dungeon bosses the pet instantly gets gibbed.

Now I am not talking about small skirmishes in WvW, I am talking about larger battles your pet will not survive, even defending tower walls.

This also does not explain that

1. f2 response is terrible.
2. No attacks while in motion
3. No porting / jumping off cliffs or small drops.

I have logged 350ish hours and am 80 percent done with the dreamer. I am not quitting my ranger anytime soon. But these YOUR BAD YOUR DOING IT WRONG threads are nonsense. Proven bugs > your beliefs or PVE posts.

@Speno,

1. Yes, F2 response is buggy at times. To be positive, it’s way better than it used to be. It does still need improvements though, no arguments here. But I do think a lot of the time people complain about their F2 not working, thinking they should press F2 and nothing can stop it from casting. That’s not how the game mechanics work. The worst the F2 works for me is when my hawk decides to cast a swiftness buff right as I’m pressing F2. The F2 should interrupt whatever else they’re casting and immediately switch to casting the F2 if the pet is within range of the target, or the pet should immediately interrupt what they’re doing and start moving into range to cast F2 as soon as they are in range. I definitely agree with that.

2. Pets not attacking moving targets is not a bug. It’s a game balance decision by ArenaNet. I suspect it’s currently working exactly as intended. I would bet money that pets will never be able to fully attack moving targets (my birds often do attack moving targets, but most other melee pets have more trouble with it). Rangers will need to learn how to immobilize targets or utilize the immobilize done by teammates, as I really don’t see this changing anytime soon as it would significantly affect game balance.

3. Yes, this is a problem. But in no way is it a major issue affecting my gameplay. For me, it’s just an annoyance similar to the lack of a permanent pet stow option for jumping puzzles.

To follow up on the F2 bug…

I thought of another example. If I equip the longbow and cast barrage, one of three things is going to happen:

1. I cast the full barrage skill by letting the yellow bar go all the way to the end.
2. An enemy does something that interrupts me from finishing the full cast.
3. I manually push another longbow skill, or switch to another weapon, in the middle of the barrage cast. Which interrupts that cast and cuts it off short.

Generally speaking, the same thing is true for all our weapon skills. If I’m auto-attacking with the shortbow and press the #2 skill, it stops auto-attacking and fires off a poison volley. That’s the way it works.

Our pets should respond the exact same way to us pushing any of the F-button skills. For example, if I press F2 and then press F3 before my pet can finish casting their shout, the pet should be interrupted from that and instantly try returning to me. If I press F1 and order my pet to attack a target, and the pet is busy casting one of it’s 1-3 skills when I push F2, the pet should be interrupted from their 1-3 skill and immediately start attempting to cast their F2 skill. And the pet’s F2 skill should only be interrupted by some type of CC on the pet, or by a dodge or something of that nature. Finally, in my opinion, the F2 ability SHOULD NOT be able to be defeated simply by pressing AWSDQE. Simply moving or running doesn’t prevent a warrior’s killshot from hitting me in the back of my head (unless I managed to run out of range), but interrupting the warrior during the cast, or a well timed dodge, does prevent that bullet from hitting me. I think pet’s F2 should work in a similar way, but pet’s 1-3 attacks should not hit moving targets as that would really change the game balance.

enough of these useless posts by noobs who havent even set foot into tpvp. listen, no one cares about rangers and PVE. you can go 0/0/0/0/0 with or without a pet and still faceroll through all of the pve content.

pets are not fine. no, it’s not us. it’s the terribad pathing. any fool can juke a pet by changing angles sharply. pets are melted by stray aoe, both in PVE and pvp. these issues need to be addressed.

The class is called ranger, not petster.

nerva.7940:

enough of these useless posts by noobs who havent even set foot into tpvp. listen, no one cares about rangers and PVE.

Wrong. I care about pets and PvE.

Preferring not to play PvP doesn’t mean someone is a noob. But saying that does indicate you’re a… EDIT: never mind, it’s not worth stooping to that level.

I’m just going to go play the game and be happy. No point arguing with you guys about stuff that we have no control over anyway. Especially when some people (cough nerva cough) are going to start calling us noobs because we don’t play PvP, while others who do play PvP say they have found ways for Rangers and pets to be viable and effective in PvP. So I have to question who the noob is, but whatever. The thread is getting testy and I imagine a mod is going to step in. So for those who are being reasonable but disagree, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

sounds good man. i’ll continue to advocate for the profession, you can continue to live in fantasy land where youre not outclassed by every single profession in the game in every single way.

@nerva – Okay. I’m glad your idea of what makes a good ranger only revolves around PvP and includes you degrading yourself with name calling. I’m quite sure the adult employees of ArenaNet are going to be swayed by your eloquent posts. LOL

Now you can have the last word if you want, because this really is my last reply to you. In fact, I might utilize the forum ignore feature for the very first time! You can reply with “who cares” or “good riddance” or whatever you want, because I won’t see it.

looks like i hit a nerve. maybe youre not as happy with the ranger as you’re pretending to be.

Dont flame nerva,we all respect your opinion but if you discuss with us we may all find something in the end

I have been a 80 FOREVER with lots of PvP kills….let me tell you something man..

Pets are almost useless in PvP/WvW.

The end.

Dware.4259:

I have been a 80 FOREVER with lots of PvP kills….let me tell you something man..

Pets are almost useless in PvP/WvW.

The end.

Agree.
Posts in the spirit like “and I’m fine, that just you do not know how” touches me. The post about devourer living good in arah – sounds like an anecdote. He dies on the first AoE of mage or illusionist, in ~2-5 sec, because between pressing F3 and the way he really starts to retreat, usually held 2-3 sec. On lupic NO pet live more than 10 seconds. Even OMGbear with 30 points in BM

This is why posts like these enrage me. They simply don’t speak from enough experience. And on top of that he’s telling me to l2p.

The OP is so right. Pretty much how i play also. I swear people need to spend time looking at just what their skills and traits do. I laugh every time i come to the boards and read the complaints people are having. Then i read a post like the OP wrote and it seems like it just goes over peoples heads because they don’t get it.

I love my Ranger, and don’t pvp. Pets do need some work. They run way out in front of you when you stop, and aggro stuff. They can’t attack while moving (which makes them useless when you’re kiting). Some pets’ F2 skill cast faster then others.

Granted these aren’t game breakers (at least for me) but they make pets annoying at times.

Even l2p won’t fix these issues.

I dont know if im experience enough for guys like nerva but when i see an aoe i move..And i move my pet too…I turn on avoid combat and i send it only when i want.I found it easy to control it in that mode,the pet doesnt start running when i take a target and start attacking,is waiting till i press F1 or sick em..When i press F3 they stay close even if i start attacking again.And never had any problem

Stopped reading the first few lines in, " I hear a lot that pets are broken and stuff.No they are not.They need some fixes", how do you fix something that isn’t broken? All arguments after that line are invalid.

PvP wise the pets are a bad thing to have cause they are able to make certain class skills hit when you’re alone. This is why I want the Ranger class to be able to get certain traits that allow you to run around petless and perhaps have some advantages out of that.

PvE wise there isn’t much to complain besides they need a dodge roll when i dodge roll but this is also important for PvP in my honest opinion.

@Dardamaniac You said it’s easy to get him to chase you with F3 but when you see an enemy cast a certain animation in PvE it’s often too late for the pet to run out of it and if it does manage it’ll usually be sitting at 5% health dying on the followup aoe of some kind. Only way I have seen to get past this issue is swapping my pet right after i rolled away and sent in the new pet and do the same thing when the animation happens again.

@ Propayne.8314
Let me give you a real life example and true story.I need to fix my nose diaphragm.
Its not totally broken.im not breathing so well,i snore but i can live with it.
I need to make a operation someday.But till then i can still breath and have a total normal life.
So this is how you fix something thats its not broken

@Leviatana.8107
The first time i encounter a boss i cant keep my pet alive a lot.But after a few times i can predict when it will start to cast the aoe.Sometimes you may keep a timer

@Dardamaniac.1295
I can easily read the abilities after I have done a boss a few times though some are still somewhat unpredictable the animations often is a cue for me to do one of those 3..2..1… dodge! kind of things however the pet reaction time between his last auto attack and retreating is often too long for him to turn around and get out far enough of the abilities these boss mob cast thus I have learned to time my pet swap with my dodge roll which works most of the time. I traited 15 points into beastmastery to get a shorter cooldown on the swap and that severely helps to keep it alive.

I’m sorry.
I can give you a game example. If I remove all utility skills, reset all traits and put my pet in passive, I can safely go kill mobs in Orr. I can kill someone one by one, or even 1 by 2 in pvp. My pet is broken and does not work well, and they are slowly. My utility skills are almost useless in its majority. My weapon is weak. But I can live with that!

So … Does the fact that I can live with it, do my pet right, my weapons strong, and my abilities useful?
No.
If I come to the forum and create a topic on “Hey, yesterday I killed 3 people with no skills, traits and pet. Ranger’s okay. You just do not know how to play!” – ranger get better? All of that is this thread – pure bragging and bullying.
I personally consider myself awesome player. I can really do this what is written. But I understand that my pet is broken, skills badly balanced, some of them are only needed for the equation number of other classes, my damage weak because of the pet, etc. I can live with that. But I do not want. I want it to be fixed. Most of people share the same desire. If you yourself admitted that the pet needs to be fixed, the debate is about nothing, only about who can play cooler. In the spirit of “look! I ride a bicycle with no hands”.

MeGaZlo.9516
My pet is broken and does not work well, and they are slowly. My utility skills are almost useless in its majority. My weapon is weak.

Actually some of us disagree with this.We are not claiming that they are broken but you still can live with it.We are saying that aint bad enough to be unplayble
Its like the example i gave with my nose diaphragm.If it was totally broken i wouldnt live.But as bad as it is now i can live normally and enjoy my life as anyone can.
And nothing is prefect,dont except total balance.Neither here nor anywhere

So.. and? Did you read my post? Where I said that the rangers are unplayable?

You said:
My pet is broken and does not work well, and they are slowly. My utility skills are almost useless in its majority. My weapon is weak. But I can live with that!
So … Does the fact that I can live with it, do my pet right, my weapons strong, and my abilities useful?
No.

If your pet was broken,you weapon weak and your utilities useless its pretty logical that the Ranger would be unplayble and you couldnt live with that!

Anyway stay in topic guys,its about the rangers pets

Rangers are walking around with a broken leg. Legs are a crucial part of mobility for most organic lifeforms. While there are ways to get around with a broken leg (crutches, wheelchairs, etc) it takes far more effort to do so.

For you to come here and state that “Rangers are fine; learn to play” is the equivalent of stating “I can get around just fine with a broken leg; learn to use a wheelchair.” Throughout your posts, you’ve admitted to the bugs and limitations of the pets; however, you continue to belittle and criticize those who disagree with your argument that “Rangers are fine.”

As a core mechanic of the class, as outlined by the developers themselves, the Ranger pets are in a weak and sorry state and cannot be counted as viable options. They are broken, the same way a leg is broken. Nevertheless, just as there is obvious potential that a broken leg can heal and walk normally again, so to do pets show potential to work as intended once the developers patch them up. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking that day has come already.

But I also said, “If I remove all utility skills, reset all traits and put my pet in passive, I can safely go kill mobs in Orr. I can kill someone one by one, or even 1 by 2 in pvp.”.
This game has NOTHING unplayable. This advantage of the game. It is not the dignity of your class.
But… Can you claim that your pet is working perfectly? That all your skills are excellent and useful?

We made this a philosophical conversation..I dont want to insult you or anything

@MeGaZlo.9516
“Can you claim that your pet is working perfectly? That all your skills are excellent and useful?”
No but i wouldnt expect this in no way

@deepwinter.9015
“Rangers are walking around with a broken leg”
Well i wouldnt be so harsh. Its not broken,just a little crooked.I never said that its broken.I said need some fixes

All right. You think that it’s a little bit. Many people think that it’s a lot. You can ignore the imperfections. Others are not even going to TRY to ignore it.
You’re not going to expect that your class and pet will be fixed. Others do not even going to play this class until it will be fixed.
But they do not come to the forum with posts like “pet are completly broken, it infuriates me, and all of you who continue to play – are blind fools.”
But you have come here with the same post. And, in a sense, found a fool anyone who does not want to play with unfinished class. Exactly in this you are wrong.

Dardamaniac: I don’t know who you are; I have a very vague idea of what you want from this profession. If you are looking for praise, I can tell you I have none to give. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long MMO career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people in PvP and PvE. If you admit that those who are min/max’ing the Ranger class are finding it lacking, that will be the end of it. I will not debate you, I will not pursue this topic. But if you don’t, other players will drag this on, this topic won’t go anywhere and you will lose this debate.

…I’ve always wanted to do that! On a more serious note. Dardamaniac, if you think rangers are fine, that’s great! Keep on keeping on, but keep in mind you’re not going to change the minds of thousands of other Rangers who’ve done the math and found the profession wanting. Core mechanics are not working as intended and this cripples the class. Stop with the “learn to play.”

To the OP – I bet you would be pretty upset if you couldn’t hit moving targets….so why are you content that your pet can’t?

Pets are not useless. They work in PvE (except against one-shotting bosses) and they work in PvP, if you manage them properly.

I do have some problems with my pets. I usually run drakes (personal preference/ role playing), and their F2 skill usually misses. Nor do they use their tail whip, unlike their wild cousins. And the pathing AI is sometimes really stupid.

But, most of the time, my drakes hold aggro, and do fair damage. I have no trouble killing stuff, and can take down many people 1v1 in PvP.

I do run a longbow, and try to stay at distance. Even in Orr, 4 out of 5 times, my drake holds onto the enemy’s attention. If the mob charges me, I knock it back, where the pet often grabs its attention again.

I suspect my success may be due to the longer range of my longbow. I don’t think shortbow puts me far enough away from the target to keep out of aggro range.

In WvW, I use both long and short bows, depending on circumstances.

While I think rangers need work, I think many complainers are just too lazy to think for themselves. When someone says “I can only use a short bow” or “pets suck”, it’s group-think talking, not reality.

Of course, I expect to get replies accusing me of lying, or being a noob, or whatever. Which is fine. Such respondents can let their blood pressure rise and complain; me? I’m having fun and success with my ranger.

See this is why I love my Wa-Ranger, …..soooo much ranged DPS fun with 2 pets, and my Pets are a Fern Hound…not the Junior one, and a Fleshreaver, though I need to kill 25 enemies to satisfy the condtion to summoning Fleshreaver…and fern hound has 60 sec cooldown….still they are pets, Oh and in case you were wondering I’m talking about a ranged warrior class lol.