Guild Wars 2

Emoa and Lawn Moa – priceless. Dang there are some terrifically funny names in here!

Laterly been running with “Aggro Magnet” (wolf) and “Don’t Feed the Norn” (bear)

Yeah, when I was in Afghanistan one of the few ways I could interact with buddies (on the rare occasion I happened to brush up against the internet) was online with an old xbox at the MWR tent. Sure, like 3 fps and latency measured in seconds but it was a small touch with home and that was magic. Don’t know how you can bar players based on geographic location at any point in time. ’Fraid you are simply chafing against one of the inherent problems of playing in a very big world.

If you want true old Norse, then your underwater beastie is Jörmungandr, more affectionately known as the Midgard serpent. Think of a big-kitten poisonous python that, well in the real old norse, could wrap around the world. He and Thor have a big throw-down at the end of all times. But that said, Jörmungandr has some pretty clear references as a “sea serpent” and could be a kitten transform with a very fast serpentine swim rate. Probably be beautiful in the water. Poison bite or spit would be a natural – I wonder about some kind of constrictor squeeze…

A have to weigh in supporting Lazy’s conclusion; while this is by far the very best game I have played (and the list is awfully long) and the dev’s to my knowledge have been wonderful with respect to content issues, I am stunned by the absolute zero-response Anet seems to offer regarding business matters. I had an issue regarding credit card security which I approached first via online channels then direct business correspondence to the President of Arenanet. I have in the past written to company presidents on the scale of Sony and Apple and while it is rare that one will respond directly (save Steve Jobs back in the day, who literally dropped an email saying “problem fixed”) the Prez will normally have an executive assistant who hands it down to a manager who at least offers the courtesy of a response and some effort to treat a customer as a customer. Arenanet has no public phone number according to 411 and has, sadly in my opinion, walled itself off from traditional access. Given that their business model is based on having our trust to use our credit card number for ongoing transactions, and our word-of-mouth endorsement of the game to others, even a modicom of effort to respond like a normal business seems to be in order.

With respect to the specifics of Lazy’s request; the entire world of GW2 is at its core a database. Arena has 100% control of its contents and a 100% ability to track every single transaction in or out. I find it disingenuous to suggest that they are unable (as opposed to unwilling) to modify any record in that database. If they have created an online commodity, i.e. gems, which have a direct real-world monetary value, and do not police or explain the random disappearance of that commodity, they sadly open themselves to at least the allegation of fraud (i.e. “we took your money and your product vanished”) and that would be bad for company and players alike. I hope they find a way to separate the “it is just a game” issues from those that clearly need to serve customers who have paid for a product and who, ideally to Arena, will continue to patronize their business through online microtransactions.

Your “pet” eh? So thats what you call it?

Mine does not sound like a gun per se, but definitely more of a bang or boom than a “twang”. I too would prefer something a bit “stringier”.

This has been an oddly heated topic yet there seems to be an easy answer (well, easy to a guy who admittedly cannot write a line of computer code). In the PRO cloumn are players who want the feel of one pet. In the CON column are people who hate clicking on Revive to find they are rezzing a pet, or other mechanical issues of the sort. Solve both by simply adding a skill button on the pet-owner’s bar “Rez Pet”. If you’d rather swap, swap. But if you’d rather rez, rez. No Rez Flag flying to confuse the neighbors. Seems like that would make everybody happy…

On the scale of priorities….

’nuf said.

So our pets are trapped in an ageless state… and can never really die…

OMFG – Vampire Pets!!! YAY!

Saw a ranger with an Arctodus named “Emergency Food Supply” and just about wet myself laughing. That’s cold man. Real cold.

The word is “HEEL”. My dog IRL knows it. Park by my left foot. Do not stray.
That would solve the run-ahead-aggro issue.

OK, this is very admittedly NOT from a pro-grade WvWvW player, but as a dedicated Longbow-slinger with the Eagle Eye trait, I feel I get pretty good engagement on long-distance targets by being selective. I agree completely that if you wing a shot in a clear sky your opponent will side-step while yawning and watch it thump the grass. But I like to skirt the fringes of the fight and focus on targets “otherwise engaged” – ideally from the flanks, or fire down into the back of the zerg beating on my castle door. If I lead off with a Rapid Shot volley I feel like I can take a pretty big bite before most opponents realize they are being shot at, and that can be a real added edge for the guy punching him face-to-face. Just my two cents.

I think that having only the, hm, “festive” look for the bows was simply a business / design mistake. Setting aside the whole good/bad distinction as a matter of anyone’s personal opinion, I believe very firmly that you did not have to be the Amazing Swami, Reader of the Crystal Ball, to guess that a significant portion of the player base would not be interested in a unicorn bow shooting rainbows. A Light vs Dark option would have likely taken very little effort. That said, I just used the transmute option and consider my bow a “stealth” version.

Here is the subtlety that I believe is causing the erratic results. Some lowbie white grade masks are Bind on Acquire – it does not say so in the game but you can find it on GW2DB. The simple workaround is to buy a lowbie mask off the TP, by definition it will not be soulbound (unless you put it on!!) Transmute that and you should be good.

@Ouspensky +1 on pet armor, that is something I’d spend gemstore money to have even if it was just cosmetic.

As to adding new pets – well for those who love pets, added choices are all fun. “Collect ’em all” rigt? But personally I’d love to see whatever resources Anet has to put on pets to be spent improving pet behaviors – notably towards survivability. I’d love to see my basic wolf act more like a real wolf – they do not fight a target head-on / non-stop, they circle and dart in when the target is facing the other way, drawing aggro to create openings for pack members. I’d give up a good bit of pet DPS from “straight up fighting” to have my pet survive longer. (Yes, I cycle F1 attack and F3 disengage to manually-manage this process, but some degree of that being autonomous would, at least to me, be a nice improvement.)

While not traditional AOE, the trait “Piercing Arrows” gives you a , hm, well a “target multiplier” that can have a big effect on groups if you are attentive to your placement. Fanning multi-shots like the F2 skill from shortbow can ripple a lot of arrows through a great many targets all at once. Toggling from a Longbow AOE and Rapid Fire to Shortbow quick shooting fire can let you play havoc on tightly packed groups.

simplest fix for Anet is simply to adjust the “anchor point” for the pet to have it stay by your side in non-combat conditions. In real life, “Heel” is a basic pet skill.

@Mestev – Hermit crab trap idea is priceless; pretty much a very durable “anchor” hanging onto your leg. Electric Eel effect could be terrifif underwater AOE.

@Eddard – that would be freakin hysterical, so much about the yappy dog being an annoyance that would be a hoot.

Another cool idea would be something that bursts out a swarm of flesh-eating scarab beetles like they had in the Mummy. Omnomnomnom….

@ ErkiB – y’know, that sparks another interesting idea. What about a signet that directly compliments our trapping in some new way? Ideas…?

Well GW2 has done such a marvelous job setting the stage for this kind of creativity. The warhorn hawk attack is a brilliant example of using animals to affect an attack. I just took that idea and played “what if…”. I’d love to see any thoughts others might have. Thanks for all the love!

At various points around the world you will typically find concentrations of specific animal types. Look for one that shows green on mouse-over and has “Juvenile…” as the first word in its name. All you need to do is stand next to it and your F-key option will read “Charm”. Click F and you have added that pet to your stable.

Starting zones are good places to look for new pets, each start zone has some 3 to 5 Juveniles scattered around. Have fun and good hunting!

@Riot – true true, this was just indulging in some idea-storming.

@Nova – yeah, that’d give me the willies to be sure. Might well become a contender for one of the visually freakiest elements in the game!

For my two cents I don’t think anybody can declare that any one thing in a game is right/wrong, better/worse universally. Make a weapon faster and some like, some don’t etc. Whatever. That said, I have always believed that in cases where the impact of a decision does not unfairly hit some portion of the group, the best answer is to always err on the side of letting players choose for themselves. If rezzing pets is slow and inefficient but 10% of the Rangers want to do so anyway (or 20% or 90%, whatever) – whats the harm in giving them that option. Those who prefer to F4 keep doing so as usual, and those who for whatever reason want to rez can do so as well. I think it is a mistake on the part of a game company (or game community) to try to force “what works for some” on others in terms of mechanics if either one is on par with the other.

I am certainly not imposed upon or disturbed if, while F4-swapping like a fiend, I watch a fellow Ranger putting a band-aid on their kitty. Heck I might just stop by with a band-aid of my own.

riku.2091:

Graevarg.4871:

The OP has a valid point that is missed by a lot of the responders. The game is about fun, and just because some love pets, feel they are great, etc., certainly is no reason to make another player follow suit. Nobody else would be impacted by the decision of a player to stow his/her own pet, any more than they are if the pet is put on passive and ignored for the rest of the game. I love my pets and use them heavily, but I support wholeheartedly that players should have the freedom to choose the mode of play they enjoy. That is the basis of good game design and frankly an EASY way for Anet to give some value to a segment of the customer base that would like this choice.

Well, personally, I don’t have a problem with perma stow. But as I pointed out earlier, they should not be “rewarded” with a buff or given a new mechanic to compensate. If the way they want to play includes not using all the tools afforded to them, fine, they don’t have to use them all, but they shouldn’t complain if someone who does use all their tools correctly performs better than they do.

I believe that was specifically mentioned by the OP; he said he did not want anything at all to replace it, just wanted to be able to stow his pet. Cannot see the harm in that. If you believe he is short-changing himself, so be it. If he believe he is liberating himself of a distraction, well, it is his character to play.

I think it was a logical flow:

1 – go out
2 – do special trick
3 – come back
4 – swap with the other pet

First lightning-related nature trap that comes to mind is…

Lightning Rod.
Trap springs a vertical metal bar like a golf flag and lightning comes down from the sky hitting it, ricocheting out to anybody in radius and can leap a given distance – SO if bad guys were grouped no more than X distance apart between any two guys, you could get a very extended “leapfrog” of chain lightning. Visually cool and gives a trap a more amorphous / shapeless area of effect but only if enemy tactics facilitate it so it would be somewhat balanced.

Water… hm most ideas that come to mind right away run too close to our Healing Spring skill.

Darkness is cool but I am grappling with what would produce that as well. (lol “Ranger arrows will blot out the sun” might be a tad OP… but cool. So very very cool.)

Oooh, that is some good thinking and might give us some interesting utility options to support / enhance other classes (who of course struggle with looking pale in comparison with the awe and majesty of Rangers!) ;D Great idea.

If you are really farming in the spirit of the first few answers (lol) then even killing doesn’t mean a whole lot, just tagging. If I was to go farming purely to build a cash supply, I’d stack every bit of Find Magic I could in every place I could. Then tag everything once and let the mob (presuming a good event farmer is running with a pack) do most of the heavy lifting. That’d just seem awfully boring to me.

I concur and just wrote it off as “not really a feature at this time” as I swap pets a great deal. Sad as I’d love to keep some of the names – some as funny but some also as reminders of their abilities when I make quick choices, i.e. zippo for a fire-breather.

Here is a real-life example of wolves in action, doing exactly what is described in the OP above. WARNING – this is NOT for the faint of heart if watching nature’s predators in action is upsetting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3py1xa8p0

I love my pets but concur that the mechanics can be a bit sluggish. At the same time, I can see where Anet has done some remarkable modeling to make the pets look realistic doing their respective tricks. That said, as a player, I’d be willing to trade some behavioral animation for responsiveness. My suggestions would look like this:

1) F2 flushes/interrupts any in-process action, even if it loses the benefit of that action. Timely response of F2 is probably my biggest single wish.

2) Reduce the animation time for most skills. I get that a howl is something an animal cannot do on the run and would accept he stops to do that, but slashes, bites and pounces can happen from a full sprint (as my German Shepherd teaches me every day when we run and rough-house out in the yard). I would be willing to forego “pretty” for responsive when it comes to pets and sadly, in most pitched fights I don’t see much of what my pet at a level of appreciating the beauty of it.

Since pets are ostensibly such a core part of the Ranger mechanic, their responsiveness should arguably be on par with the parallel skills available to other classes.

ooooh? Cool – I will have to expand my search – I have not found them yet. Thanks!

Off to do research!

Octopus trap could be a hoot – not big at all, it simply latches onto the target’s face like an Alien face-hugger spraying ink and blinding the target to some degree until it is killed. That’d be great for those tail-hauling getaways or getting a breather to throw a heal.

I think the mechanics are consistent with the current engine. If the pet’s “target’s target” is the pet itself, the pet will reduce attacks by X % and maintain a greater stand-off distance, jumping in to bite intermittently. If the pet’s target shifts to anything else, the pet goes Cujo and starts mauling the hamstrings, looking to bleed and slow. As soon as the target turns back, the pet goes evasive again.

As I said, I can micro-manage this with F1-F3 but it gets tedious. I’d love to look at my wolf and say “sic ’em boy, but be careful.”

I won’t rehash the oft-posted requests for more Ranger-specific leather armor from a fashion perspective, I think those cases have been well made. What I would offer tho is the idea of armor designed more around the functionality that a Ranger embodies.

Blending in with the wilds is ostensibly our core theme, so perhaps an armor with some degree of “ghillie suit” garnish would be wickedly cool. That would be a case where the dye system could have huge impact as tweaking your garnish to match your surroundings would be an ongoing option.

I also love the idea of a cowl-esque hood that drapes low, largely concealing the face within. That is certainly my visual impression of a Ranger and would fit function as well as fashion.

The idea of quivers filling is as back items is a brilliant idea and I too would not care if there were some visual issues (clipping) with certain armor sets. +1 to the whole idea and a bonus +2 on using the back slot to make this seamless for any class wanting it as a fashion accessory. Since “look” is such a big part of the game, it seems like a no-brainer.

And OMG YES on more non-pirate choices. I love to YARRR with the best of ‘em but it does get a little old. As a leatherworking Ranger I’d love to see more of the classic light / nimble leather one thinks of wrt Aragorn in his Strider days.

The OP has a valid point that is missed by a lot of the responders. The game is about fun, and just because some love pets, feel they are great, etc., certainly is no reason to make another player follow suit. Nobody else would be impacted by the decision of a player to stow his/her own pet, any more than they are if the pet is put on passive and ignored for the rest of the game. I love my pets and use them heavily, but I support wholeheartedly that players should have the freedom to choose the mode of play they enjoy. That is the basis of good game design and frankly an EASY way for Anet to give some value to a segment of the customer base that would like this choice.

I love traps, and as all things in GW2, traps will have to grow along with everything else as the game matures. So what new spin on traps might we see going forward? Some aspects might be simply to add “flavor” as the general utilities are well-represented (i.e. bleed, burn, poison, freeze, etc). But I wanted to toss in one idea – what if Rangers could combine the flavor of taming wild animals with the idea of a trap. Here is my example:

Trap Door Spider (which really do exist)
Sets like a normal trap making a circle on the ground. As a player passes the upper half of the spider bursts out grabbing the target. You’d have a bit of the “Entangle” mechanic in that you gotta kill the spider to get free, and the spider is biting / poisoning in the meantime. In real life these suckers pop up in the blink of an eye and I’d have to think you’d get an OMG moment when that popped up and grabbed you.

11 second vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySXCdcnKBgg&list=LP9u1gsNWMgU0&index=2&feature=plcp

The Beehive
Looks innocuous on the ground but when bumped releases a swarm of stinging bees that will follow the target, producing a different effect than a trap that simply sits in one place. Nice trade-off might be that the target diving in water will dispell the swarm.

Shark Bait (the chum trap)
Underwater item or bubble that contains blood n such; if you pass through the trap it chums the water, drawing a passle of modest-level sharks that will frenzy on anybody in the area, i.e. a bit of an AOE aspect to a trap. (I recognize the dimensionality of water – just tossing ideas here.) A variation on this theme is a more universal “chum” – i.e. any scent-based attractor that does not spawn critters, but draws any nearby critters to the target like a magnet. A smart Ranger could drop those in NPC-crowded areas to pretty horrific effect.

The Skunk trap
On the idea of scents – what about a trap that coats an enemy with something that actually induces harm on his friendlies if he gets close? Tactically interesting if you are suddenly left alone by your buddies who have to keep a distance for some period of time. Trying to rez a stinky player could transfer the effect. I could see a limited condition impact (like the skill-slowing efect of Chill) from the disgusting distraction known to anybody who has gotten skunked. That’d be a great one to drop at a gate in WvW and watch massed attackers scatter covered in funk!

The Yappy Dog
Funny idea but what about a trap meant to detect and reveal sneaks and stealthers? Trap is set, maybe with a longer duration, and anything passing opens the cage releasing a pissy chihuaha that simply goes ape-crazy yapping at the target and moving really really fast (ergo hard to target/kill) – not attacking but raising the alarm. Nice to drop in that back alley when you are facing foreward. Funny as hell anyway.

Just thinking out loud, but I love the idea that our “animal mastery” manifests in things other than just pets, and likewise that traps expand into other nature-related representations. Love to hear anybody’s thoughts…

As I see it at least, when a pet is sent to attack a target, it runs straight to it and engages full on. Thus we see the discussion as to whether pets are too squishy, which largely leads to a buff-oriented request.

Anybody ever watch wolves for real in the wild? They are all about stick-and-move. Stay close, jump in and bite to apply bleeds and cripples, nickle and dime a target but do their best to stay out of reach. As a player, I’d trade a portion of raw DPS for greater uptime and utility and would love to see my less tanky pets (wolves, leopards, etc) play the role of “bleed ’em and slow ’em” as a default or user-selectable auto-attack mode. I can micro-manage that with frequent F1/F3 flips but wonder if the pet can be made smart enough to manage that on their own?

1: if the target is focused on the pet, the pet spends more time moving and avoiding, possibly using barks/growls in what we think of as attention-holding Taunts.

2: if the target turns on the Ranger (or anything other than the pet) the pet gets more aggressive and spends more time laying on the teeth and claws.

A downed pet is no DPS – a balanced behavior model might give more survivability without altering the actual specs (health, toughness) of the pet itself.

Just big sky thinking here but might there be another aspect of the Longbow that could help shine skill #1 aside from damage/speed?

If the LB is meant to be a “heavier caliber” so to speak (flies farther, hits harder) – what about something like a decent chance for a tiny knockback or a momentary cripple that would give a smart Ranger a little better ability to keep distant targets at a distance? (or at least slow the rate at which a distant target can close the gap…)

I concur on the Ranger side – any form of playing with pets would be a hoot.

On a /sleep command the pet could also curl up next to the character. Silly but good fun.

This is an INCREDIBLY important issue that sadly exposes not only the players, but ArenaNet as well to a horrific level of financial liability. There is a high number of accounts being hacked (and don’t jump me about what the percentage rate is, I am merely saying that hacking is a real and not trivial problem). As it stands, if one hacks an account that has a CC attached, the hacker can with no additional info spend REAL money on the gem store and monetize that through the game. I have written to Arena and asked for an immediate fix. I would caution anybody to think twice about putting that info into the system until Anet has a fix in place.