wolf – its fear special can save when youre downed. fun to send it long distance at a group that’s balled up. also good as an extra mechanic to allow you to do more dmg or to get an extra second to heal etc. its awesome.
hyena – special summons another one. good meat shield. has cripple and likes to knock down peeps. the KD can also save you when youre downed. works good in smaller fights because youll do that much more dmg and have a little bit more cc from the extra one.
all i ever use really. sometimes i might use a bear or cat. sometimes devourers. sometimes i mess around with forage. usually these two though. like 99% of the time.
Typically I am using my Brown Bear (really tanky and removes a condition on demand) and Blue Moa (really tank and gives buff for -33% damage….great in WvW gate-defense bursts).
Honestly, unless you like the idea of micro-managing a pet (EG offense, avoid combat, offense, avoid combat), then anything tanky (high HP) is ftw.
And yes, I’d say the blue Jellyfish is probably the most surprisingly awesome pet. Armored fish is pretty sweet, too.
the two wolves, love their knock downs and they seem to time it so well, interrupting skill casting. they’re extremely durable but have great attack. i watch it like tank 5 mobs on it at once… and it takes care of itself because of its relatively strong attack, so the wolves can clear out things before its at risk. fear skill rocks. the alpine wolf i kind of have it because its gorgeous LOL. Else, I would like to use the hyena + summon as well like someone mentioned above.
two devourers for bosses, they tank well and are ranged so relatively can survive longer and seem really smart too
two drakes for underwater because of their frost nova and boil aoe, sucks to be swarmed underwater so the aoe helps. I heard good things about jellyfish so i will want to try it again. but when i first used it it seemed to die often
I used to use two birds but I’m not beastmastery specced enough so they tend to die. Heard good things from people with the appropriate build though
on an interesting note, i seem to be going in pairs now including weapons XD two melee sword sets for almost everything and then two bows for tougher boss battles/pvp
When I run dungeons I often switch to spiders. Range is so important when it comes to aggro. It’s not even an issue of survivability at that point, avoiding stupid pulls from pets (or setting off the blossoms in Twilight Arbor – even when they are on avoid, sometimes the pet is a massive hassle and a huge hindrance, it really needs it’s own special rules for aggro and triggering traps etc).
Rarely will I use a bear unless it’s on trash. Most bosses will destroy a bear just as fast as anything else, if I can get away with a bear I can usually just use a wolf or a cat. I sometimes use pocket buff pets in fights where I know I can’t send the pet it. Putting them on avoid and using the stalker’s might buff or the red moa’s fury buff on cooldown and swapping them out every 20 seconds for quickness is often the only contribution they will have to many fights because pets are a hindrance more than a help in many situations.
In general PvE I bring an eagle or hawk and usually a stalker, lynx or wolf. I don’t care for aquatic pets and won’t until we have otters or something mammalian that makes sense underwater.
Personally I’m a big fan of the Jungle Spider for both PvE and WvW. First thing I did after creating my sylvari ranger was to run to Morgan’s Spiral and tame one. Having 2 roots (one autocast and one F2) is really nice plus the AoE poison field. Also since it is ranged it doesn’t have as huge a problem hitting things. I have been playing around with the devourers too, but I still think I like my spider better.
For second pet it is mostly situational:
- Wolf for the AoE fear both in PvE and WvW since it can really scatter a large group and buy you time. Just wish it casted faster. Also all canine-types have knockdown on auto-cast which is really nice. Before I got my wolf I was using a Drakehound, which was also very good IMO
- Raven is also our only way to Blind that I’m aware of so it comes in handy for WvW and dungeons to eat up some of the big hits.
- Red and Blue Moas if I’m defending in WvW. The AoE protection and fury is always nice. Only problem is the duration is so short. Protection is supposed to be 10 secs and only lasts 4.
I have never been a big fan of bear-type pets, IMO anything they can do other than damage soak can be done better by other pets.
For aquatic I use Armored Fish due to the F2 stun and tankiness and Shark for the Fear autocast and Frenzy F2 ability. My shark’s name is “Way Bigger Jaws”.
Fast way to get armored fish is under Lions Arch in the sewer.
I really like seeing in threads so many pets being used. Other games the pets are much closed to being the same all the way down the thread.
I do switch my pets up once in a while and find utility in them each time.
Current for PvE I have been using Eagle and Salamander, Shark and Devourer. For WvW I use wolves/eagles/devourers/cave spider.
With my deep Beastmastery spec I use my hawk almost exclusively. If I’m in a dungeon I’ll use a devourer for the added toughness and range or a drake for the AoE.
Birds regenerate massive amounts of health through Carnivorous Appetite and actually become ‘tankier’ than the tank pets. It’s awesome. It’ll probably get nerfed.
wolf – its fear special can save when youre downed. fun to send it long distance at a group that’s balled up. also good as an extra mechanic to allow you to do more dmg or to get an extra second to heal etc. its awesome.
hyena – special summons another one. good meat shield. has cripple and likes to knock down peeps. the KD can also save you when youre downed. works good in smaller fights because youll do that much more dmg and have a little bit more cc from the extra one.
all i ever use really. sometimes i might use a bear or cat. sometimes devourers. sometimes i mess around with forage. usually these two though. like 99% of the time.
Cant tell a wolf to terrifying howl when you’re downed :|
Yeah you can use F2 abilities while downed, and you can ALSO switch pets. This can be really annoying to down you in pvp.
Switch pet to wolf as soon as you’re downed and then interupt the finish.
Next, your pet is attacking and will do it’s knockdown.
When they get up hit F2 for the fear.
When they get back to you your interupt is available again.
For PVE, the Murellow is really awesome. Its F2 is a AOE poison which is really helpful. As part of the bear family its inherently very tanky, and can soak a ton of damage. For my second pet I either use a wolf (knockdowns, fear, chill, etc), a moa (defensive/offensive buffs with their screeches), or a bear if I need another tanky pet.
