Guild Wars 2

as the only class who can really do it, if you sat on a spawn point and let your pet do all the work, would GMs be against that? It doesn’t fall under botting, but I feel they may call it “exploiting”

You’re automatically kicked for inactivity, so you can do this only for a limited amount of time.

DesertRose.2031:

You’re automatically kicked for inactivity, so you can do this only for a limited amount of time.

Plus, it’s not like you can collect drops or anything while afk. EXP is already bad and would become like 2 per kill after half an hour or so.

and plus your pet would die if you were in a place with the appropriate level, and it gets attacked by a few mobs… lol. But it does serve as a good guard in a relatively safe area ^^

Well other people explained why it wouldn’t be of much benefit, so I doubt ANet would really mind. However having a pet does allow you to go afk in the middle of no where, when needed, as you can leave your pet to defend you. This is a slight bonus because you don’t have to travel back to a way point etc. if someone’s suddenly ringing your door bell, unlike other classes.

Problem with pets:

Usually alone, they’ll get torn up. And then whatever was brutally beating your pet will come for you, so when you return from AFK you’ll be in mangled pieces across the floor.

If you had a pet with 30 points in beast mastery and a 25 stack of masterbond sure your pet will kill just about anything near you… however, if you pull say 3 mobs, or 2 mobs and one has a knockdown/pull (stupid undead in Orr) then your pets gonna be hurting, with you following shortly after… it’d be an awful way to farm, you’d get awful ExP no loot, kicked from the game (thereby wiping your pet of his masters bond) after like 15 min, all in all, awful thing.

A Beastmastery pet with Carnivorous Appetite is a thing of beauty. I’ve gone AFK before to come back to a pile of twinkling corpses around my player and my hawk sitting there preening.

Despite the hyperbole from the “pets stink” crowd, Ranger pets are awesome. I leveled up Beastmastery and never had any issues with my pet. I felt like a chainsaw going through a stick of butter once I got some of the nicer traits.

If you totally ignore your pet (putting zero points in the BM line or avoiding all pet traits), why would you be surprised when your pet sucks?

nldixon.8514:

A Beastmastery pet with Carnivorous Appetite is a thing of beauty. I’ve gone AFK before to come back to a pile of twinkling corpses around my player and my hawk sitting there preening.

Despite the hyperbole from the “pets stink” crowd, Ranger pets are awesome. I leveled up Beastmastery and never had any issues with my pet. I felt like a chainsaw going through a stick of butter once I got some of the nicer traits.

If you totally ignore your pet (putting zero points in the BM line or avoiding all pet traits), why would you be surprised when your pet sucks?

I agree pets are awesome in the world but once you step in a dungeon, keeping pets alive is a challenge no matter how you spec. That’s their weakness. Dungeons and AoE’s. Other then that, pets are easy to manage and do great damage (dps pets) or do great tanking (bears). I find that most of my time in dungeons is spent monitoring my pet and keeping it alive, not enjoying the over all Ranger class and ability.

is AFKing legal?

No, rangers are required to spend 24 hours per day at their computer.

:P

@krojack

That’s why you take ranged pets into dungeons and swap. A lot. I usually only lose pets in dungeons if I’m being careless.

nldixon.8514:

@krojack

That’s why you take ranged pets into dungeons and swap. A lot. I usually only lose pets in dungeons if I’m being careless.

Yes I know but I would like to use any pet I wish when in a dungeon. I use a crit build and love the DPS a Jaguar (or any cat) puts out yet I’m forced to use a range pet? A simple fix would be to have pets take 75-90% reduced AoE damage from NPCs. No other change would be needed.

@krojack

Usually in dungeons, my bears die quickly against most bosses. But then again, so do players who are standing in melee range. At least if my bears can take a few hits before dying, that’s a few hits the others in my group didn’t have to take.

I think the bigger problem in dungeons is accidental pet agro.

Every class has to reduce their damage output in exchange for dungeon survivability: swapping out attacking skills for defensive ones, switching to ranged attacks while their HP recovers or whatever. With rangers you have to look after your pet. It’s loads easier than any of the other classes I’ve played, and much less punitive when I make a mistake.

I have afked at a way point to come back 20mins later and gained half a level due to my pet participating in events that had mobs randomly attack me :P

There is a fine line between exploiting and clever use of game mechanics :P