Guild Wars 2

This started off as a shout question topic , but i have changed my mind . I want to suggest a radical solution to the PET FIX group of topics .

Every class has a special set of skills that is makes it unique , but this skill set only builds on the class and it never takes away from the effectiveness of it . Ranger Pets do , when you lose a pet it like you have lost a leg … or both .

Now i fully understand that the developers want the pet do be a significant part of the profession , and i agree with that . But pets dying sure does not help .

So my suggestion would be this :

1)All pets are invulnerable to damage

2)pets can be affected by non damage status effects : chill , cripple , stun, knockdown ..etc

3)Beastmastery trait line would give incremental bonuses to pet damage and critical chance

4)pets would benefit from any and all boons naturally .

5)fix creep agro so that pets cannot be abused

So what would this accomplish ??
Pets would serve as a consistent addition to the ranger , it would offer no downsides in dungeons . In WvW and sPvP it would still be avoidable either by kiting or by using status effects on it .

Thoughts ??

I dare say it, they would be actually useful?

Conceptually interesting, however, I see a hunter putting on a sigil of the hunt to run about and keep their distance up while the pet just gnaws away on an opponent in PVP. The exploit potential for a pet receiving absolutely no damage is too big.

My biggest recommendations for pet usefulness?

Cleave: Melee cleave for pets to match the melee being used by a player and provide us additional AoE options where we otherwise lack it for most of our ranged choices.

Pet Scaling: Permit the pet to scale along with the ranger armor and weapons with the Beastmastery trait line. This way the pet remains just as competitive as the ranger.

AoE Avoidance: Add a static AoE avoidance/mitigation for the pet so that, while they can’t double tap evade, they can survive a little longer in situations where melee is going to sap the pet far too fast.

And this is simply to make the pet more useful. To add some boons and benefits to a party, Anet would need to make a determination; is the ranger the giver or the pet? Personally I would like to see the concept of the ‘spirits’ reworked to instead offer a trait line that emphasizes a pet to offer buffs and boons.

I.E. Nature Magic imbues your pet with the ability to provide additional boons to your party and the ability to remove conditions depending on scaling. Instead of a ‘spirit’ mechanic, it would help, again, focus the ranger on their pet without sacrificing our ability to provide support to our allies.

Maybe if you lowered their damage and/or removed them from aggro tables? there would probably still be ways to abuse something like that though but maybe.

I don’t have too much of an issue keeping pets up though and I generally run cats but then again there’s always times when nothing you do can save them only as late as today my stupid pet killed himself in HotW (part 2?) the one with the quaggans at the time I had him recalled and on follow when he just decided to run the other way straight into the kitten aoe and explode, it’s times like that when you wonder why you work so hard to keep that idiot alive.

I had an idea, now just for fun imagine this pets removed pets gone in place we get the option of loading our arrows/swords/axes with bleed/poison/fire etc via the F1/F2/F3 and so on buttons…. aaaand…. I think I just made an elementalist doh!

If they were to make the changes you suggest, especially the damage immunity part, they would have to make one more for balance.

I agree that it should be one of two ways..

Rangers are on par with other players on their own and have the pet be extra while keeping the lack of survivability.

Or

Keep the pet as a requirement to be on par but make them tough as nails to take out.

I think the issue that they want to avoid with pets with too much survivability is to avoid rangers being able to solo content that wasn’t meant to be soloed.

If they made the pet damage immune but subject to certain effects, then two things will need to happen.

1. In PvE, mobs would ignore the pet and the ranger would have constant aggro.

2. The pet can not travel any farther from the ranger than the ranger can attack. So if the ranger is using a melee weapon, the pet will not run off to attack the enemy but will instead stay by the ranger. If the ranger uses a long bow and starts hitting a target at 1500, then the pet will go out to 1500.

I believe, that with the current level of survivability, that we should be doing 75% of what other classes do without our pet and 125% with our pet.

Deamhan.9538:

If they were to make the changes you suggest, especially the damage immunity part, they would have to make one more for balance.

I agree that it should be one of two ways..

Rangers are on par with other players on their own and have the pet be extra while keeping the lack of survivability.

Or

Keep the pet as a requirement to be on par but make them tough as nails to take out.

I think the issue that they want to avoid with pets with too much survivability is to avoid rangers being able to solo content that wasn’t meant to be soloed.

If they made the pet damage immune but subject to certain effects, then two things will need to happen.

1. In PvE, mobs would ignore the pet and the ranger would have constant aggro.

2. The pet can not travel any farther from the ranger than the ranger can attack. So if the ranger is using a melee weapon, the pet will not run off to attack the enemy but will instead stay by the ranger. If the ranger uses a long bow and starts hitting a target at 1500, then the pet will go out to 1500.

I believe, that with the current level of survivability, that we should be doing 75% of what other classes do without our pet and 125% with our pet.

Omg, this, i’ve been preaching for this FOREVER, no other prof in the game becomes “on par” with the others for using their mechanic, they tend to excel over the others in a certain area when using it.