Guild Wars 2

Aomine.5012:

Wuselknusel.4082:

Lazze.9870:

Musha.4025:

I am either missing something entirely, or this is going to be another disappointing ranger elite spec. I REALLY hope it’s the former.

I’m baffled people still think druid was a disappointment. Not to your liking, sure, but it’s a great elite spec nontheless.

And we’re not gonna get another “boring heal spec” down the line. That’s reassuring. No?

The Druid disappointed in the way that it has about as much Ranger in it as a Guardian. ANet went out of their way to sidestep the pet. You could slap the Druid onto any other profession with only minor changes and it would work, because the Ranger did not benefit from the Druid.

It’s not about benefit, but about the class mechanic synergy.

For example, Berserker uses Warrior’s core mechanic: Adrenaline to function.
Reaper uses Death Shroud as its mechanic.
Chronomancer uses shatter as its mechanic.
Tempest uses Attunement overload as mechanic.

For Druid, it’s not about pet mechanic or spirit or anything related to ranger.
It’s about attaching a brand new class mechanic on another class – > attaching a new bar and new transformation to a class.

Literally any class can get Druid and it’d work fine because there’s nothing about Druid that synergize with core ranger mechanic. It’s like a new class being forcefully attached to an existing class.

Exactly, and in that the Druid is actually the worst thing that could’ve happened to the Ranger, as it allowed ANet to completely ignore the core Ranger and the issues the pet has.

Lazze.9870:

Musha.4025:

I am either missing something entirely, or this is going to be another disappointing ranger elite spec. I REALLY hope it’s the former.

I’m baffled people still think druid was a disappointment. Not to your liking, sure, but it’s a great elite spec nontheless.

And we’re not gonna get another “boring heal spec” down the line. That’s reassuring. No?

The Druid disappointed in the way that it has about as much Ranger in it as a Guardian. ANet went out of their way to sidestep the pet. You could slap the Druid onto any other profession with only minor changes and it would work, because the Ranger did not benefit from the Druid.

In that sentiment, the Druid was actually the worst thing that could happen to the Ranger, as it allowed ANet to never address the core issues the pet has.

Prophet.1584:

Soulbeast mode, for lack of a better term, doesn’t look like its something that is intended to be camped. What I mean is you may start a fight with your pet out and dps’ing, swap to SB to use skills and swap back out or maintain it for an attack chain. The same way we swap weapons might be the better way to look at how to use this. SB provides more play options, not to just sit in it, similar to what weaver will be for ele.

I guess we will see soon, but that doesn’t sound exciting at all.

Manijin.3428:

Wuselknusel.4082:

Durzlla.6295:

Musha.4025:

And how is the loss of all those attributes that exist on the pet, even for 1 second, elite?

Elite specs are not upgrades, they’re a variation of the base class, the part of soulbeast that’s “elite” is being able to fuse with your pet and use some of their abilities at your own whim, as well as gaining access to MH dagger and stances.

I just logged in to say what the kitten?
Of course Elite Specs are meant to be upgrades to the main profession, their entire point is to be an upgrade to the main profession. I mean, the Druid isn’t and that is the entire reason why it sucks, but for any other profession the elite spec is clearly an upgrade.
I can vividly remember the rage of some people complaining about the elite specs being superior in PvP and you see almost noone not using an elite spec at level 80. How anyone could seriously suggest that the elite specs are not meant to be upgrades is beyond me.

Actually, he’s right. The fact that ANet was TERRIBLE at balancing this until more recently and made them too powerful doesn’t change the fact that they were originally intended to simply be options that further specialized your character in a particular niche. They’ve started reigning in some of the specs recently, and it’s a good idea.

That is not true at all. ANet isn’t bad at balancing, they can be good at it, the problem is just that they don’t see the merit to allocate enough resources to continued balancing efforts. Elite specs are deliberately over tuned because they are expansion sellers. And the only reason why they are reigning in the old specs is because they were leaving not enough room for the new specs (like the Tempest, a support spec, had the best damage or the Reaper, designed as power spec, turning out to be a condi spec).
You just have to look at what elite specs offer to see this. They give you access to a new weapon, 5 new skills and are usually enhancing the profession mechanic. If that is not a straight upgrade, then I don’t know what is.

My opinion is that the Soulbeast will disappoint, because it entirely sidesteps the Ranger’s core mechanic, the pet, yet again, as did the Druid. ANet will again be able to ignore the sorry state of the pet compared to all other core profession mechanics, because the Soulbeast is not reliant on the pet, as is the case with the Druid as well. For a profession that is supposed to work in tandem with its pet, the devs sure do everything they can to not having to deal with it as much as possible.

Durzlla.6295:

Musha.4025:

And how is the loss of all those attributes that exist on the pet, even for 1 second, elite?

Elite specs are not upgrades, they’re a variation of the base class, the part of soulbeast that’s “elite” is being able to fuse with your pet and use some of their abilities at your own whim, as well as gaining access to MH dagger and stances.

I just logged in to say what the kitten?
Of course Elite Specs are meant to be upgrades to the main profession, their entire point is to be an upgrade to the main profession. I mean, the Druid isn’t and that is the entire reason why it sucks, but for any other profession the elite spec is clearly an upgrade.
I can vividly remember the rage of some people complaining about the elite specs being superior in PvP and you see almost noone not using an elite spec at level 80. How anyone could seriously suggest that the elite specs are not meant to be upgrades is beyond me.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

For the base ranger complaints: What’s more likely to get something like porcines buffed? Complaining about base ranger pets? Or complaining about the inherited skills in soul beast being bad? This isn’t a get rid of pets so pet balance doesn’t matter. It’s forcing pet skills to be more relevant to balance than ever before. Seriously don’t get some of the negativity here.

But will it make the pets better? Will the cast/aftercast times be affected? Will the pet be more reliable? More versatile to use?

Or will it just get shoved to the sidelines, as you don’t have to use it anyways?

Shadow Phage.9084:

As for Soulbeast, I will say the concept is interesting enough. Whether or not ANet can actually execute on the concept is the big question for me. Look at their execution of the ‘healer’ concept for Druid. To me, Druid was (and still is), a clunky mess that is held together more by stats than any sort of synergy or interesting gameplay.

The thing with the Druid is that it isn’t a Ranger specialization, it’s just a specialization. You could add it to any profession and it work just as well. The Ranger’s profession mechanic did not play into the Druid at all.

As I’ve expected, they once again managed to sidestep the pet as mechanic and any problem it currently has. Core Ranger continues to have the weakest of all core profession mechanics, which will have an impact on gameplay, unless the Souldbeast can sidestep the pet permanently.

I’d still plug my own suggestion as a necessity to make the pet fully functional. I’m not saying that this would replace any of the QoL updates mentioned here, but it would make the pet more versatile and responsive, to the point where even I, who thinks that the pet is currently useless above all else, would say that it’s a proper profession mechanic and worthy of the notion that the Ranger and the pet are a team, and not just a normal profession with a kitten mechanic.

I am suggesting to allow the pet to be sent to guard locations or to follow allies, which would not only mean a huge versatility buff in PvP and WvW, but it would also make the pet better in raids and allow for the Druid specialization to be fully integrated into the pet. It would allow the player to control the actions of both Ranger and pet to a level that is precise enough to gain an advantage by having the damage and utility of the Ranger split into two entities. It would make me enjoy playing the Ranger and not make me ask myself what I could’ve achieved with the same skill on other professions.

The idea that pets are worthless is an outdated ideology

Pets are useless.

I’m just going to ramble about my favorite topic, the pet. Clearly it’s bad, ANet has with the development of the Soulbeast sidestepped the issue of a dead-end profession mechanic, not once but twice now. Clearly the devs have not the needed time at their hands to make the Rangers profession mechanic worthwhile and expandable.

If there is one thing you should’ve learned from the Druid, then it’s that ANet is very aware of the Rangers shortcomings and that they decided to not care at all. It really baffles me how the devs managed to sidestep everything the Ranger does (poorly) by designing the Druid to interface as little as possible with the core Ranger.

On pets:

While I do agree that most of them need a close look at their skills, there’s simply no denying that, I also resent the notion that that would make pets great. Even if all pets would be equally viable, pets in general would still be the worst profession mechanic. If any other profession uses its unique mechanic, something is going to happen. When the Ranger uses his mechanic, the pet has to to run to its target and it has to hit its target to achieve any effect. So the Ranger’s mechanic is not only delayed, but also unreliable, as it is dependent on many ifs to align to do what it’s meant to do. It gets even worse if you tell the pet to use its skill, because you have to add the question if the target stays in range until the pet finishes casting and if the ability achieves the desired effect. If your wolf is fearing the target in the opposite direction of you wanting it to, you have essentially wasted the fear.
The simple fact is that even ANet gave away that the pet is a kittenty mechanic by completely sidestepping it with the Druid. I’d go even further and say that the Druid has almost no connection to the Ranger. You could take that traitline, the weapon and the glyphs, put it on a different profession and it would hardly matter. The pet is in dire need of mechanical changes, or ANet will be stuck with buffing the pet’s damage so that it atleast hits hard in the rare occasion that it hits, until a playstyle get popular that allows the pet to hit more reliably, the pet gets nerfed again and the cycle continues.

That is why I advocate for being able to send your pet to locations via ground targetting, so that the player can circumvent, or make up for kittenty pathfinding, so that the questions if the pet hits and if the pet uses its skills in the right angle can be eliminated by the player.
I envision the player to play with the pet, not around the pet. I want to be able to set my pet up for situations I know are going to come and not just react when those situations do finally come (As one example, if I see a Thief stealthing in the distance in PvP or WvW, I want to be able to move my pet between me and the Thief in preparation of the ensuing fight which currently I cannot do).

I’ve updated my thread in which I go into way more detail on how I’d implement such a ground target feature with how the Celestrial Avatar could be integrated into the pet, just follow the link below if you are interested.

Edited content above.

Based on what exactly the pet is lacking on, for example sufficient means to control it, we then can give focussed feedback on how to fix those problems.

A DPS test can in no way judge or indicate a mechanical issue.

Or to prove it wrong

Hi, I’d like to create a chart of the pet’s sphere of influence compared to the Ranger’s sphere, to get a good overview of what exactly the pet as mechanic adds to the Ranger.

The chart is meant to visualize what the Ranger without the pet is capable of, what the pet adds to the Ranger and where the Ranger’s and the pet’s proficiencies overlap.
This will hopefully help to make feedback more focussed and exemplify shortcomings of the current iteration.

In order to help me, you have to ask yourself two questions for each mechanic the pet offers:

“Does it enhance the capabilities of the Ranger, regardless of its balance?”
If yes, then the mechanic gets added to the exclusive part of the pet’s sphere. If not, then it gets added to the conjuction of the Ranger’s and the pet’s sphere.

“Does the balance of said mechanic make it worthwhile?”
If yes, then the sphere of the pet gets bigger, if not, then it gets smaller.

The best outcome of this would be that the spheres are as disjunct as possible and the pet’s sphere as big as possible. The worst outcome would be that the pet’s sphere would be engulfed by the Ranger’s sphere, which means that the pet as profession mechanic does not anything meaningful to the Ranger.

As a start and as an example, I’ll try to fit the damage the pet does into this chart.
The pet was responsible for around 30% of the Ranger’s damage. This is most likely no longer the case, given the numerous changes over the yeaers, however the pet still accounts for quite a bit of damage. As it is not additional damage, this would be slotted into the joined part of both spheres.
The pet has had a lot of issues of applying the damage, as it was too slow to keep up and had too clunky animations to hit. This has been improved in the latest patch, but it is still nowhere as good or as effective in getting the damage out as the player is. So the size of the pet’s sphere will be smaller than the Ranger’s one. The only part excluse to the pet is the fact that it can attack a second target, but given that this is rarely used, this is just a minor point.

If we get a comprehensive chart, I’d be interested to see if my suspicion that the pet adds little to the Ranger, compared to what other profession mechanics add.

Yep, I did. I shamelessly used the AMA to present my suggestion, and I will continue to do so in future AMAs. You can read my suggestion if you follow the link below. I had to realize that a well written and (hopefully) well thought out suggestion is not enough. You usually need almost a riot to get things to change.

By the way, if you have ideas on how I could improve my suggestion, I’d love to hear it. But to get the devs to consider this, we need to constantly remind them, so they know that it’s something the players want.

I’d change the Ranger like this.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Its very unlikely though that anety will improve control and mircomanagement for pets, because it seems that they want to make the game easier, not more complicated. Pets that work on “autopilot” are more likely to happen.

That is why I made sure that everything you could do with the current implementation works just as well with my suggestion, with the notable exception of having to press F1 for 3 seconds, as the easiest way to get your pet to return to you, instead of pressing F3.

I can understand that the pet should do more damage and I do feel the same, but I think that the pet should be more than just another source of damage. It should be a fully fledged utility tool.

For example, every time I try to break a breakbar by myself, I struggle as a Ranger, since most of the hard-hitting CC is on pets. My suggestion would make that CC easily accessible to you.

Another example is the positioning in a fight. I can use my wolf’s fear against enemies, but I can only control when my pet is going to use it, not where. Against stealthed enemies pets are currently completely useless, because even if you know where the enemy might be, getting your pet to use its F2 at that position is more than just a hassle.

And a simple damage- and survivability buff wouldn’t fix that.

Irijia.6073:

I like the suggestions about being able to control what your F2 ability will be (looking at Spiders and their poison cloud ability that you can’t control) but I think altering the F3 Follow command would actually be a large hit to QoL. It sounds like it would be needlessly over complicated to get the functionality back via your suggestions. I also like the pet stances suggestion but, honestly, before more controls are introduced I’d rather they buff pets and make them scale better with new content. Not everyone will care how much fine control they have over their pets but they would definitely notice better DPS/Survivability of our furry and scaly friends. Also, give pigs something more useful than Forage because I never see anyone running with them and I find myself avoiding the entire species.

I personally don’t think that forgoing the F3 key as return command would be a huge hit, especially the survivability can be increased by being able to send your pet to a current location. With this, it will be way easier for you to make sure your pet isn’t standing in AoE’s or gets cleaved down.

As for the pet’s DPS and skills, that is another can of worms I don’t want to open in this thread.

Dadnir.5038:

Before a mechanism rework, Anet need to balance pet skills so that they don’t have indecent cool down and induction time. At the moment a lot of pet’s skills are useless and sometime they even are a burden (quickening screech I hate you). Pet skills also need to be balanced against each other.

While I agree that many pets need a touch-up as well, I’d still say that my suggestion should take priority. Many pets that are currently not used have great abilites, but due to them being uncontrollable, those pets see no use.

To know which pets really need a rework, I’d implement my suggestion first to see which pets are still lacking afterwards.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Wuselknusel.4082:

ArenaNet has said that they don’t want to tinker with the base mechanics of the game anymore

When did they say that?

I don’t know when exactly they said this, but somewhere around the HoT release.

I can understand that there are people who want to play the Ranger without pet, but those people have also to understand that there are just as many, if not more, players who want the pet to stay.

ANet could just make it so that the pet wont come out when you hide it, but it wont help you, since the pet still accounts for damage, which you would lose, and neither would it help inexperienced players, who hide the pet and then wonder why they do less damage.

So why don’t you, instead wanting to remove the pet, come on over and help me improving the pet?

Ranger: Something that improves the (AoE) damage.

Well, that would certainly be no unreasonable thing to ask for, I agree.
I’ve added that to my first post.

Questions you might have and Answers I would give

“Your suggestion requires a lot of work. Why would we want to that?”

Instead of repeating myself by saying that it would give the player so much more control over the pet, I will give some specific examples in the hope of you coming up with some of your own as well.

• Positioning your wolf ontop of a shadow refuge to pressure the enemies inside it.
• Leaving your pet at an entrance of a camp in WvW to alert you of incoming enemies.
• Your Necro teammate needs more pressure to condibomb an enemy? Command a pet with CC to aggressively protect the Necro.
• Want to participate in a “protect …” event, but also farm the nodes nearby? Let your pet guard the ally to alert you to and fend off enemies.
• If caught in an AoE, you can command your pet to take the fastest way out of the danger zone.
• When chasing a fleeing enemy, you can send your pet to the position you expect that enemy to be, rather than letting it just mindlessly chase that enemy.

“Why replace F3? That is lost functionality right there!”

That is correct, but the positive outshines the negative. Most pets have very powerful secondary skills, which you can’t easily predict when they are used currently, let alone control when or where they used. If the player could control those, the pet would get way more effective.

• Canines have a ranged knockdown
• Drakes have AoE knockback
• Birds have swiftness
• Dragons have AoE knockback
• Smokescale has blind field

This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. In most fights you are not reliant on being able to recall your pet faster than what my suggestion would allow, however having control over these skills could shift the way the Ranger is played in a huge way.

But I’ve also added the suggestion to give the option to rebind the F3 key, or any other key, to letting the pet instantly return to you, for those who really don’t want it.

“The pets are useless, even with your proposed changes. They need buffs!”

I’m not saying that I disagree, and there are some clear candidates, like procines, that need a revamp. But most of the time it’s not that the skills of the pets are bad, but that those skills have long windup times and huge tells, which make the pet miss their skills more often than not. My suggestion would give the player the ability to control where and when those abilities are used. Making those skills then actually hit could be a part of the gameplay. The Ranger has to make sure to keep the enemy in place while the pet activates its ability.

I’ve tried my dearest to not make any aspect of the pet more clunky than it is today. I know ofcourse that the removal of F3 as return button comes at a cost, but I think that the gains are greatly outweighting the costs. If I’ve overlooked some glaring issues, I’d encourage you to let me know!

Continued below…

Disclaimer: This is a heavily edited version of my first proposal, which can be found here.

ArenaNet has said that they don’t want to tinker with the base mechanics of the game anymore. I can understand that, yet I feel that there is one mechanic that needs to be looked at one last time: The Ranger Pet.

I think the pets needs to be better controllable by the player to be a worthwhile addition to the player and not just another method of dealing damage.

Here is what I’d do to the pet to increase its effectiveness:

Keybindings
F1 – Repositioning Command
F2 – First Skill
F3 – Second Skill
F4 – Pet Swap

Combat Modes
– Aggressive
– Defensive
– Passive

UI changes
– Display all pet skills with their respective cooldowns
– Add an independent indicator for when your pet enters combat

Detailed description:

Continued below…

Every time I agreed to switch to another map because “my map was unpopulated” in the last couple of days, I got switched to a map that was even less populated. It actually got me killed several times because I was switched from a map with a location secured to a map where that location was not secured and I spawned amidst hordes of enemies.

Not once was I moved to a map that seemingly more active players than the one I got moved away from.

Aww, TP flippers are losing money… how bad. What would this game be without those fairy-like creatures hoarding tons of gold…

I’d rather say that some of those “whales” that had hoarded wood logs did panic after WP released his video and sold all of his wood.

I hope WP releases videos on other “niche markets” aswell.

I feel awfully reminded of something… If I could only remember what it was?

Oh, I got it, I already made suggestions how to fix the sword and the pets over half a year ago.

Pet update
Sword update

Here ya go ANet, no need to thank me. Just don’t wait another 3 years, ok?

Edit: Now that I think about it, there could be another improvement added to the sword suggestion I did back then. The third jump of the Hornet Sting skillchain I suggested could knock enemies down for a short duration. Because why not. It would certainly leviate some of the “I can’t stick to my target” complains.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You either completely misunderstood my post, didn’t read it fully, or are intentionally twisting my words to suit your own needs.

Let me give a tl;dr version so you don’t do any of the above. In order of your proclaimed “contradictions” that I made:

• Sylvari do seem to be freed minions, no different than Glint and by extension Glint’s children, the Crystal Spiders, and the Crystal Guardians seen in GW1.
• I said that there is no proof that dragon minions cannot be corrupted by an Elder Dragon – and indeed, there is none.
• I said that freed minions, by all appearance, cannot be corrupted again by the Elder Dragon that originally corrupted them. I did not, however, say that they cannot be corrupted by other Elder Dragons. For all we know, a sylvari disconnected from the Dream can and would be corrupted by Jormag, Kralkatorrik, etc.
• I explained how Mordremoth did not corrupt the sylvari, but did manage to take control in a more subtle manner than corruption. We see this in how a mordrem guard react the exact same way that Canach does when going to Rata Novus’ underground tunnels – both say that “the voice is quiet down here” (paraphrasing since both say the same thing differently).

You said that Sylvari seem to be freed minions, which does mean that Mordremoth should not have any control over them. But he does, due to the fact that the Sylvari are still dragon minions.
I believe that elder dragons don’t corrupt beings that have been freed, which we know two of, not because of the fact that they have been freed, but because they were too powerful to be corrupted. Their willpower was strong enough to resist the dragon.
The fact that they are freed minions had nothing to do with it.

Both because the fact that there is just one other occasion where an elder dragon corrupted self-aware beings against their will, and that was when Kralkatorrik flew south, and even there we have an example of someone who was able to resist the dragon’s corruption: Almorra Soulkeeper.

It was confirmed that Almorra actually stood outside of the Dragonbrand in an interview. The book just portrayed this poorly.

Dragon minion grunts are for all dragon minions effectively mindless. The lack of mindlessness is what was supposed to make the mordrem guard so much more devastating. Even regular mordrem are supposedly mindless. The exception to this mindless rule are lieutenants and champions – the more powerful they are, the more corruption was given to them, which also makes them more intelligent and capable of doing more things, including directing the weaker and dumber dragon minions.

I don’t know of anything that says all kodan are self-aware. We only see two, iirc, that are, and they could easily be considered “more powerful dragon minions”. And not all kodan have a connection to Koda – only the Voices do. And where the heck do you get that Koda is connected to Jormag?

That was not the point I was making. I said mindless beings can’t resist the dragon, since they have no mind and that only self-aware beings have the chance to resist.

And you say I’m the one taking the willpower thing too far.

Elder Dragons have shown time and time again to be able to corrupt anyone, and their personalities after being corrupted are completely different in almost every case. We see many cases of individuals going “the Elder Dragons must die” and after corruption going “you will serve the Dragon!” Willpower has nothing to do with standard corruption. But Mordremoth’s affect on the sylvari wasn’t standard corruption (just like how Jormag doesn’t typically do standard corruption).

We know from the Sylvari and frankly from any elder dragon that once you have fallen for it, you can’t turn back. So there is only one chance for you to resist. The fact that many haven’t resisted shows that it is hard to resist, the fact that Glint or the Tree weren’t corrupted shows that it’s possible.

The Pale Tree doesn’t have prophetic nature at all – the Dream, however, which is entirely different from the Pale Tree, does allow glimpses of the tangible future. And Glint had hers when she was a dragon champion serving Kralkatorrik – she used that power to help defend Kralkatorrik, as explained in Edge of Destiny.

Yet both are powerful beings, which would explain why they were able to resist the corruption.

Except for how it explicitly stated to be protecting against Mordremoth?

Why would Mordremoth have a piece of himself resist him?

Where is it told that the white stag has anythng to do with the protection of Mordremoth?

He explicitly states he has no Dream and no knowledge of what the PC or other sylvari are talking about when talking about the Dream and Nightmare multiple times. Poorly written or not, it’s a fact that he has no Dream.

He also explicitly states that he feels “a great sense of distance and loss”.
now, what do we know both about the protection the Pale Tree offers and Mordremoth’s influence? Both grow weaker over distance.

If the Dream is a part of Mordremoth, how could the Pale Tree possibly control a piece of the Elder Dragon?

Because like the Pale Tree has no control over it, Mordremoth hasn’t either. He is the source of the Dream, but the Pale Tree was able to “pervert” a part of it. Just like the Nightmare “perverted” a part of the Dream.

If the Dream comes from the sphere of power that Mordremoth represents/has control over, then it isn’t a part of Mordremoth at all. You just contradicted yourself. Again.

Why should there be a difference between the sphere and the elder dragon? The sphere represents all energy of that energy type. The elder dragon is just the peak of that.

You don’t get disconnected from the internet because you can’t remember you have it – using your (rather poor, IMO) analogy. Nor does any other sylvari, regardless of distance to the Pale Tree, ever feel disconnected from the Dream to the point of feeling nothing – which is explicitly and multiply what Malyck says.

Mordremoth is able to influence (not control) sylvari through the Dream because he is the Elder Dragon of Minds. The Dream is linked to sylvari minds. 1+1=?

But if you’re in the middle of the Sahara with amnesia, you neither have internet, nor can you remember it. I’ll admit that if Mordremoth is the ED of Minds, that he may be able to use the Dream’s link. Wich would then leave the question why all other races are completely unaffected. Zhaitan was able to use the corpses of all races, except from Sylvari. Why does Mordremoth then seem to be weaker, evnthough it was said that he is stronger than Zhaitan?

And what is your theory then?
Why do Sylvari have a Dream, if it’s not connected to Mordremoth? How would the Pale Tree have been connected to it? Where lies its source? Why, out of all races, does only the dragon minion race have a connection to network that not only is really hard to disconnect from, but also is prone to the attacks of the very elder dragon that created them? And if the Dream is not created by Mordremoth, shouldn’t the Mordrem Guard’s memories be uploaded to the Dream of the Pale Tree? Why don’t we hear anyone speak about it?

And back to my old question, why does the Nightmare behave like corruption, when it’s said that the members of the Nightmare Court “just” want to be free of the Tablet?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Wuselknusel.4082:

There are already minions of different elder dragons fighting one another in the open wirld occasionally and we can assume that there have been encounters between minions from different dragons, yet there is but one instance where we ever see beings being corrupted twice or more. And that is in CoE, where the Inquest was researching those energies. In the open world we never saw anything like that.

Not counting sylvari, where do we see dragon minions fight? The only time they come close to each other is the mordrem invasion in Iron Marches – one spot in there, even, and they don’t fight. The branded remain within the Dragonbrand, and the mordrem remain outside of it.

We never see any encounter between minions of different Elder Dragons, except for in CoE, and only in CoE do we see a combination of dragon energies in a being. Three times.

Wuselknusel.4082:

We also know for a fact that energy from different dragons is opposed to each other,

Pure speculation, not fact. If it is a fact, please provide a source. Because I’ve never seen it and the only “explanation” for this so called “fact” is that the dragons’ orbs are on opposite sides of each other on The All – but when the Elder Dragons encircle Tyria in a 2d depiction of The All, of course they’d be on opposite sides! But nowhere is it said they have opposite energy. It’s nothing more than player supposition.

Just another bandwagon theory like how the Exalted were mursaat.

Wuselknusel.4082:

which is a result of the fact that the dragons try to consume all magic, which includes the magic of other elder dragons.

It’s also pure player speculation that the Elder Dragons would try to consume the magic of other elder dragons. Developer statements actually state that how the Elder Dragons view each other is fully unknown because there is no interaction observed.

Further, this statement is contradictory. Corruption is a result of Elder Dragons consuming magic. If they cannot corrupt another dragons’ minions, then they cannot consume another dragons’ energy.

Wuselknusel.4082:

And again. The Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth. The Pale Tree is a minion factory of Mordremoth. The Sylvari are the only race that is immune to other elder dragons. The Sylvari are the only race connected by the Dream. Mordremoth is using this connection as backdoor. Other elder dragons also have a connection to their minions.
So the only plausible explanation is that Mordremoth has access to the Dream, if not even is the source of it.

Sylvari are freed minions of Mordremoth, and therefore do not function like Mordrem.

Even the Mordrem Guard do not function like ‘true’ Mordrem. If they go distant enough, they regain their original sanity as seen for one of the story achievements in Act 3. In other words get a mordrem guard far enough away from Mordremoth, and they will act the same as they ever did. This shows an interesting thing: Mordremoth did not re-corrupt sylvari. He just gave them impulsions – as explained both by dev blogs and by Canach, he did this by implanting thoughts and making the sylvari think said thoughts were their own. It would be as if you heard a voice in your head that came in your own tone telling you to burn all the things. Some folks hearing this will think “that’s not how I am” but others will go “yes… burn all the things!” This is the situation with the mordrem guard.

As for their physical appearance, it was established with Canach that extreme changes to personality or one’s situations can change their physical appearance. Canach went from a light green skinned, white-leaf head (which we saw in both The Lost Shores and S2E7’s flashback) to a dark green skinned, cactus head with a ‘beard’. With the implanting of thoughts changing their actions and convincing them to do things, sylvari would undergo an “extreme change to personality and/or situation” which in turn changes their physical appearance.

It’s not corruption – it’s taking advantage of a sylvari’s physiology.

Which actually makes sense given that Mordremoth didn’t try to corrupt the Pale Tree nor did Kralkatorrik try to corrupt Glint. This shows that dragon minions once freed from control cannot be recorrupted by the same dragon. Other dragons? That’s a question to be had. With the Dream being the protection for the sylvari, the only way to know for sure is to toss a Soundless at dragon corruption.

Back to your comment:

• Sylvari are NOT the only race with access to the Dream – see the White Stag – and not all sylvari are connected to the Dream – see Malyck. Of sylvari, only the Pale Tree’s sylvari has known access to the Dream.
• We know Mordremoth has access to the Dream – that’s how we attack his mind, his access to the Dream.
• We know Mordremoth isn’t likely to be the source of the Dream, as the Dream gives the sylvari PC a Wyld Hunt to kill Mordremoth when the Shadow of the Dragon attacks the Tyrian summit. Mordremoth would not give an order to kill itself. Furthermore, the Dream and Nightmare are both stated to act as defense against Mordremoth.

Disregarding the fact that you did contradict your own claim by saying that Sylvari are freed minions and that freed minions can’t be corrupted again, which would mean that Mordremoth should not be able to control Sylvari, I do think that you shouldn’t stretch the fact that willpower can help you resist to an elder dragon too much.
Both because the fact that there is just one other occasion where an elder dragon corrupted self-aware beings against their will, and that was when Kralkatorrik flew south, and even there we have an example of someone who was able to resist the dragon’s corruption: Almorra Soulkeeper. Almost all other dragon minions we know of are either not self-aware or joined the dragon freely, with the exeption of the Kodan, eventhough they also have a strong connection to Koda, which itself is somehow connected to Jormag. This could explain the fact that neither Mordremoth, nor Kralkatorrik tried to kill the Pale Tree or Glint, instead of corruption them: Because both Glint and the Pale Tree have too much willpower to be corrupted. It is also worth noting that both have a prophetic nature, which would probably help resisting an elder dragon.

But back to your responses:
The reason for the White Stag’s existence, is unknown, yet it is in no way proving that the Dream is not part of Mordremoth.
Malyck is not something you should argue with, because we either don’t know enough about him, or he is just poorly written (Speaking of: Why does he look like ‘our’ Sylvari?).
To understand why Sylvari not born from the Pale Tree have no connection to it, you have to think about the Dream like the Internet. The Pale Tree is the provider. Without a connection to the Pale Tree, you don’t have acess to the Dream.
Considering this, it makes even more sense that the Pale Tree is protecting the Sylvari by shielding the part of the Dream she has control over from Mordremoth.

And I do think that Mordremoth is the source if the Dream, or rather the energy he represents is the source. But as we know, he doesn’t have control over the Dream entirely. It could very well be that the Dream is giving Wyld Hunts based on the experiences the Sylvari have carried into the Dream, rather than being decided by Mordremoth.

I also don’t know how the Dream should protect you from corruption. Your internet connection doesn’t stop you from getting viruses, so why should a backdoor in your mind help with that? It is much more likely that if you have one type of dragon energy inside you, you can’t be taken over by another one.
The corrupted in CoE are an exeption for that. Just like a fridge can make a space artificially cooler, something that wouldn’t happen without the fridge, the Inquest was able to corrupt a being twice, something that would just not happen under normal circumstances.

And I could keep arguing based on that that Malyck has a Dream, he is just too far away to notice it and his amnesia stops him from remebering his Dream, and I could keep arguing that Mordremoth is the source of the Dream, or is atleast part of the source of the Dream, since he is the only elder dragon that is able to control Sylvari through the Dream.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Wuselknusel.4082:

The Dream is no protection. What protected the Sylvari against elder dragons is the fact that they already are dragon minions. What protected them against Mordremoth was the Pale Tree.

-sigh-

There’s no source for this claim that “they are dragon minions” being any form of “protection” and you’re wrong about the Dream. It was explicitly stated that the Dream and Nightmare was protection against Mordremoth, and the Pale Tree/Ogden heavily implied it was protection against all Elder Dragons.

Wuselknusel.4082:

It was said multiple times that the Pale Tree is what is protecting the Sylvari. The Pale Tree does that through the Dream. However, the Dream itself does not grant any protection.

You have it backwards.

The Pale Tree can protect the sylvari because of her connection to the Dream. The Dream is the connection and the Pale Tree is the conduit – not the other way around.

And willpower is also a factor – and implied that distance to Mordremoth as well.

There are already minions of different elder dragons fighting one another in the open wirld occasionally and we can assume that there have been encounters between minions from different dragons, yet there is but one instance where we ever see beings being corrupted twice or more. And that is in CoE, where the Inquest was researching those energies. In the open world we never saw anything like that.

We also know for a fact that energy from different dragons is opposed to each other, which is a result of the fact that the dragons try to consume all magic, which includes the magic of other elder dragons. Their behavior can be compared with predators. As long as ther are enough hunting grounds, the dragons will try to stay away from each other. however, if the hunting grounds dwindle, they will have to fight each other.

And again. The Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth. The Pale Tree is a minion factory of Mordremoth. The Sylvari are the only race that is immune to other elder dragons. The Sylvari are the only race connected by the Dream. Mordremoth is using this connection as backdoor. Other elder dragons also have a connection to their minions.
So the only plausible explanation is that Mordremoth has access to the Dream, if not even is the source of it.

I now have completed VB with 2 characters, both have not gotten their reward yet.

Diovid.9506:

Wuselknusel.4082:

smekras.8203:

Assuming there are other Trees not claimed by Mordry (do we have any proof of that? other than the possible one, Malyck’s) what do other sylvari have to be protected against? The Dream/Nightmare only protected the Pale Tree sylvari from Mordry’s influence (and as far as we know nothing happened to it) but it’s not like sylvari in general need protection against stuff more than any other race does.

The Dream is no protection. What protected the Sylvari against elder dragons is the fact that they already are dragon minions. What protected them against Mordremoth was the Pale Tree.

No. It was pretty clearly stated/shown in the story that what protected against Mord was the combination of the connection sylvaris (at least, non-soundless sylvari) have to the dream/nightmare on the one hand and stong willpower on the other hand. It is speculated that two additional things protected sylvari against Mord, namely a strong pale tree (which ceased to be the case after the attack of the shadow of the dragon) and distance from Mord (which ceased to be the case for many sylvari when they traveled to the jungle to fight him).

It was said multiple times that the Pale Tree is what is protecting the Sylvari. The Pale Tree does that through the Dream. However, the Dream itself does not grant any protection.

smekras.8203:

Assuming there are other Trees not claimed by Mordry (do we have any proof of that? other than the possible one, Malyck’s) what do other sylvari have to be protected against? The Dream/Nightmare only protected the Pale Tree sylvari from Mordry’s influence (and as far as we know nothing happened to it) but it’s not like sylvari in general need protection against stuff more than any other race does.

The Dream is no protection. What protected the Sylvari against elder dragons is the fact that they already are dragon minions. What protected them against Mordremoth was the Pale Tree.

For me the Nightmare Court is way too radical to be allied with anyone not thinkong like them. Their methods just bear no relation to what they are fighting.

To give an exaggerated real-life example, the Nightmare Court is like ISIS. Both fight fanatically for their goals, both hate what they are fighting and both treat their prisoners equally bad. Saying that the Nightmare Court would ally with the Tyrian races, would be like saying that the ISIS alies with Russia to fight the USA.
And to be clear, I’m pretty certain that that will never happen.

And yes, the enemies in the open world might be exaggerating their hatred towards others, however then we should be able to see a more nuanced approach in the personal story. But we don’t. To the contrary, the personal story paints them even darker. If it’s the knight that is killing newborn Sylvari, or the Sylvari lover, that had his love interest turned into a member of the Nightmare Court. All those stories depict the Nightmare Court as pure evil, but it doesn’t stop there, they repeatedly tell you that there is no cure for being a part of the Nightmare, that you can’t turn back.
They don’t say that the Nightmare Court is a bunch of fanatics, they say that they are lost.

The thing is that the Nightmare Court not only is depicted pitch black, but also that it is evil for no reason.
I mean, if you don’t want to live under the rules of Ventari, then leave. I bet those Sylvari corsairs are also not living by Ventari’s rules.
Or you could simpy ask the Pale Tree herself! I mean, those rules should ensure peace. All Sylvari should understand that. I live in a democracy, and eventhough this democracy is “forcing” its rules onto me, that doesn’t meant that I don’t understand why we need such rules or that I would rebel against them. It is not like the Pale Tree tells the Sylvari to go out and murder each and everyone part of the Nightmare Court.

The Nightmare Court just makes no sense. On one side they are depicted as the most evil thing there is, on the other they are shown as reasonable enough to forge alliances.
And I wont buy into any discussions about “how the Nightmare Court just wants to be free from the tablet”, as long as the Nightmare is shown as something you can never escape from once you have fallen for it.

The Nightmare is no dragon corruption, yet it behaves like one.
Once a Sylvari has fallen for the Nightmare, it seemingly can turn back.

The Nightmare Court hates the Pale Tree and its teachings and loves torture.
The members of the Nightmare Court love the Nightmare and hate everyone not part of it to an unreasonable amount , as shown formidably by Faolain, but are reasonable enough to forge an alliance against Mordremoth?

They helped Scarlet attacking the whole world but now want to save it, just because Mordremoth would enslave them, something Scarlet would never do?

It is said that they just want to be free from Ventari’s teachings, but that bears no relation to how they treat people not part of the Nightmare Court.

What is the deal with those people? Is there a greater plan behind it, or just bad storytelling?

just give the Ranger more control over the pet and 9 of 10 problems the Ranger has with its pet are gone. I have already made suggestions on how to deal with that and I think that if it gets implemented in that way or a similar one, it would be enough to make pets a worthwhile mechanic. however, that doesn’t mean that some pets, like the porcine, need an overhaul.

Passive procs are a problem in general. But it would be cool to see active traits in the effect bar of the pet.
They could even display the effect bar on your UI above the pet’s health.

I think it could have great synergy. For example, if you put your pet in defensive mode and let it follow a dolyak in WvW, that pet would start attacking everything that is attacking the dolyak. So your pet would probably be enough to kill the random mobs that spawn along the way and it would be able to alert you, if an enemy player tries to kill it.
Another example would be, if an allied player tends to get hit by conditions or projectiles, you could send him your brown bear to clear conditions and that the player can use your bear as cover.
And if we look into the future, the ability to let your pet follow an ally would allow ANet to create a pet centered around support. For example, a pet that could stunbreak the one it is following would benefit greatly from this.

And I thought about another QoL change aswell. I think, if you send your pet to a location, while it is not in Avoid Combat mode, it should attack once when it reaches that location and continue attacking, if it hits something stealthed.

I think this feature is needed, because your pet is currently completely useless against stealthed units and it wouldn’t be OP, since a usual player can also tell if he is hitting a stealthed enemy.

As the title says.

Let your voice be heard! Vote for my suggestion and get the best of both worlds! And other fluff! Blunt self-advertisement! Yay!

WHAT? TWO? That’s like… twice as much as one!

I’d lose one reward from what I would get when beating the event. And ANet would have to put work into relocating the pets, so they would be better off with just leaving them as they are, because it wont be such a big deal to get them as some people in this thread want to make it to be. Noone ever complained about other pets, such as the wolf, which can only be found in the eternal battlegrounds map. But now that you can’t just walk up to the pet it is a problem? If people think that it is “unacceptable” that Anet “locks off” a part of the Ranger’s profession mechanic, they would have to demand that the Ranger has to get all pets from the getgo. Otherwise Ranger would be “hindered” because they have to collect their profession mechanic one by one. But noone does that because noone cares. Only now people care, because they are unwilling to put in the effort of getting the pet. That is the only double standard around here.

Tigaseye.2047:

Wuselknusel.4082:

I’m really tired of “arguing” with you. You defy everyting that is not your opinion. You aren’t even able to accept that no bigger company ever would let junior employees decide important details. And yes, the placement of the pets of the Ranger are important. Just let me tell you this: You are wrong. And if you would put the effort you are currently wasting here into getting the pets, you would probably already have one.

That makes two of us.

Nothing any of you guys have said here has made any real sense, or has been backed up with logic, or evidence.

You don’t bother (or are unable) to answer any of our questions, or concerns, relevantly and/or appropriately.

All you are, basically (or sometimes, literally), saying is “Suck it up, or leave.”.

So, if you no longer want to bother repeating yourselves, for the umpteenth time, that is very good news for everyone involved.

You come here and expect us to “prove” our opinion, while you are doing not more than defending your own opinion? Why is it so bad that you don’t get the pet immediately? Why can’t you wait two weeks until even the last idiot has figured out how to complete the event? Go play Minecraft if you want everything immediately, don’t annoy me with your attempts of “casualising” even the last bit of content left that poses some challenge.
I have told you now four times how you can get your pet tomorrow: FIND A GUILD!
But everything you do is continue to cry and flame the devs. There are countless of people who will have the pets sooner than you, just because you are wasting your time here.