Guild Wars 2

Mirage.6754:

(TLDR at the end)
As many rangers know, pets are meant to be a rather significant part of the ranger’s DPS; that is made clear when comparing the weapon skills we can use compared to the other classes’. In itself, I feel that is a really good concept for a pet that’s our profession mechanic!
I do not remember the exact % of our damage they are supposed to represent, but I will take a guess that it is around 15-20%.

With that number in mind, I’d like to have you take a look at one pet in particular, the new Smokescale pet. Most rangers I’ve talked to felt that the pet did a LOT of damage.

But is it really THAT much?

The main offender is without a doubt it’s Unrelenting Assault, the same skill Revenants get. Indeed, it doesn’t take much testing to realize that it can deal 8-12k damage in that single multi-hit attack.
That attack, however, has 24 seconds cooldown, with a 2 seconds casting time (I’m assuming the CD starts rolling after the skill ends, but would require additional testing).
Another characteristic is the multi-hit part of the attack, which divides it’s damage between multiple targets if there are multiple available. It stays true to the single-target-dps nature of the Ranger, while also being able to hit multiple targets for lower damage (think “Lead The Wind”, to make arrows pierce; instead of being lower damage, it is just harder to line them up with the arrows).

An easy comparison would be “Rapid Fire”, Longbow 2 on ranger. It has a 10 seconds cooldown, dealing 6-8k damage without Might, depending on critical hits (Marauder amulet in PvP on a light golem). Which means 18-24k damage in 30 seconds. With Quick Draw, however, it is possible to do that skill about 5 times in 26seconds, with another weapon in the 2nd weapon slot. That skill alone therefore can reach 30-40k damage in 26seconds. In average, that is 35k Damage with that skill alone.
Adding the damage of auto-attacks in-between (or Barrage, LB5), it adds up to around 40-45k damage for the longbow in that 26seconds period.
Adding with the other weapon’s damage (I’ll assume 3-4k/2seconds for 10seconds using a Mainhand-sword’s auto-attack), we reach a total of 55-65k damage in 26 seconds, for an average of 60k on a SINGLE TARGET, which CAN be moving.

Adding the pet’s auto-attacks during that period, which are about 1.5k/2seconds, as long as the target isn’t running (we know how much pets miss their targets when they move); assuming 1/2 attacks actually hit, that is 1.5k/4 seconds on a moving target, for ~20seconds, so 6,5k. On a stationnary target (when does that ever happen in PvP? And even in the little raid time I’ve tested, enemies were moving around a fair bit), we could assume it is 13k.

TLDR:
ALL OF THESE ARE WITHOUT MIGHT CALCULATION
Smokescale vs a Single Target over 26seconds:

6-10k Unrelenting + 6,5-13k auto-attacks/other skills
Total: 12,5-23k damage, depending on target’s movement and crit. hits

Ranger player vs a Single Target over 26 seconds:

40-45k longbow + ~15-20k second weapon (sword Auto was used for that number)
Total: 55-65k damage on single target, regardless of movement

Smokescale therefore does ~22.5% of the ranger’s DPS in that same time. With the 15-20% number I’ve estimated, the Smokescale could afford being nerfed by about 10%, but anything more than that would land in the “excessive nerf” zone.

erm nope right now most of the pets are balanced around 15-30% of the ranges dps with Jaguars being the 30% with the might ontop , with the smokescale at 22.5% as you worked out this is quite fair and Even.

the main problem is people are not use to Unrelenting Assault, yet as when the Rev was tested i did not see many Revs at all using this skill often enough or hit often enough to warrent any Major threat.

with Pet Ai consisdered with that 2second cast time only the first person will see the charge he will dodge while the other won’t see it due to the Los effect Caused by other players as to why it can cause quite a lot of damage , quite alot of people in PvE are still running Zerker gear when they don’t necessarily need to with the new Elite specs in play , in Pvp in other thread one person said the 9-10k was too much he got hit by the first one not evading or dodging followed by the other two which each caused 2-3k each .

avoiding the first hit avoids the other 2 and if you do get hit its time to use A Stability+stunbreaker to get out of the way so the ranger or druid can;’t follow up with a CC chain.

compaired to other pets the damage is quite even when a wolf can Leap/charge for 8-12k buffed up in a single attack vs 10 in 3 attacks chain which is avoidable and deals the same amount as a fully buffed wolf. risk vs reward you risk the whole attack missing but if the first hit hits, your rewarded with Multiple target hits.

which is why i see how the Ranger is turning , the pet is no longer ignorable and people have had 3 years of this Ignore the pet mentalitiy because of " cleave" now they have to focus and pay attention.

the damage is fine , just like any first Beta people don’t know what the druid does and get hit hard by these type of attacks and perceiving this as too powerful.