Guild Wars 2

Specific Game Mode

Pv[all]

Pet Design

Proposal Overview

This proposal seeks to fix a fundamental flaw in ranger design. Currently in Fractals, dungeons, and large open world events such as Lion’s Arch at this time, pets die fast with many dying after a single hit or two and far faster than commands can save. In terms of damage and utility they are minor with single person content being the biggest benefit to their abilities. Many groups in Fractals and Dungeons ask rangers to place pets on passive even going so far as to Ostracize the whole Class for this fact. This proposal seeks to change the dynamics of pets, making them more easily commanded and increasing diversity in pet choice for encounters.

Goal of Proposal

The goal of this proposal is to increase the utility, viability and overall community satisfaction with pet design. With current design on pets they feel unfinished and are an element of a class that is sorely in need of reworking. The below functional changes should help to bring the pet more utility while maintaining a unique feel of the class.

Proposal Functionality
How I propose this is done is a shift in pet design: First, make pet names stick when not on current use list. It will make Rangers more invested in their pets in general. Second, Having the pet take less damage from AOE attacks will make their damage more meaningful and presence have more impact. Third, have buff list for each Pet or pet family for Rangers to choose from allowing for two Skills per pet. This makes pet management more important as pets give out more influence on the battlefield. Forth, have some pet skills usable when the pet is down. This does not mean all skills but some Passive effects such as might or fury. This would maintain some management of pets even when the pet cannot attack. Lastly: Pet AI requires some work with many world Boss encounters pets and even pet skills like hounds or Mist wolf do not attack as they see no spot they can. This needs fix as currently it makes the events seemed glitched.

Associated Risks

The main risk I see is the time for these changes to truly effect the negative perception placed on Rangers due to this oversight. While the goal is to increase the utility and community perception of rangers the damage one might say has been done and so any change made will take time to change this perspective to a positive one. The other risk is giving too much for utility skills on the pet bar. But this could be minimized by overlapping skills and minimal choices. Finally the only other risk I can see would be a lack of testing these changes and thus leaving the pet potentially worse off as a result.