Guild Wars 2

Are these sorts of things the reason why they took away our ability to throw traps? I miss being able to do that on the PvE side of things. =/

emkelly.2371

where did you get that i was bothered by it? all i pointed out was that the OP was correct that rangers have no way to permanently stow the pet and that it would be nice to have a hot key for it or to not be dependent on it. I’m not debating anything.

“Another thing, It would be nice to not have to depend on your pet.”

Is there any reason why most people wouldn’t read this as get rid of the pet? You already don’t have to depend on your pet unless you trait for it. Perhaps you weren’t trying to restart the debate but trust when I say this statement and variations of it have been put forth multiple times and a definitive answer has also been given multiple times by Anet about perma stow. Unfortunately, it always inevitably leads to people then asking for buffs as “compensation” for the pet they chose but then decided they didn’t want.

idevourwater.3149:

Ranger needs the option to stow their pet permanently.

The mechanic is poorly designed and breaks the game. I am not even asking to give bonus dmg or speed.

the pet is a huge liability cuz it doesnt know how to dodge.

in pve you have instances where you could not progress due to this mechanic. The leyleecher in the most recent living story is an example where you could not win because the mob would just leech the life of ur non responsive pet to get back to full. in wvw a necro could epidemic off ur mindless pet and spread it to the zerg, and in pvp people just get free stealth off the pet…. This is not a skill thing. it is poor design…

WE NEED the OPTION to stow!!!please do it!

I won’t speak to WvW or PvP but if npcs are taking advantage of your pet, put it on passive and they’ll generally be ignored by mobs. Also, try using a ranged pet such as the bristleback or the devourer.

emkelly.2371:

Actually he is correct, you cannot stow the pet permanently. if you end up in combat it pops back out, and there is no hot hey to stow the pet. It would be nice if Rangers had one.

Another thing, It would be nice to not have to depend on your pet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Petless-Ranger-Please-Yes-this-again

This has been debated ad nauseam at this point.

TLDR Anet is not inclined to oblige the people who picked the pet class and now want to get rid of the pet. The solution is to reroll if it bothers you that much. And no, I’m not trying to sound mean when I say this.

Eleazar.9478:

I think it has to do more with they don’t know how to use the pets correctly, so they get frustrated and qq about it. I think 40% of being a above average ranger is knowing what your pets do for your, when they should do it for you, and how it should it for you. like one of those youtuber peeps (i summon thee donnee) should make a basic video on some basic pet behavior and some tips and tricks Im always suppriesd when helping a fellow ranger they’re all mind blown, example smokescale does rev sword 3 right out of the gate, so basically you know when you go into combat or swap to the pet boom your now an honorary rev. Wolf and hound do a knockdown out of the gate. This is important stuff to know, pets can make rangers very very strong 1v1ers, even if you just use them for utility

(granted there are alot of pets that should get reworks and yes the ai can be quite annyoing at times but its really not as bad as people make it out to be)

You might be onto something. I wonder if people truly understand that the pet isn’t just a permanent DOT but an actual companion with useful utility and damage that does help us in the long run. I still believe that GW2 has one of the best implementations of pets in an MMO that I’ve seen by virtue of the fact that many of them have abilities that actually do combo nicely with the Ranger and there are some truly useful traits you can use to enhance the pet gameplay. Trying to nail the pet down as a matter of aesthetics is bewildering as the pet is more than just a look and feel, it actually does contribute to the Ranger’s gameplay.

Obtena.7952:

Professions are much more than any single concept that you want to choose. That doesn’t make them hogtied to that single element. I mean, my Guardian is ‘hogtied’ to Virtues … and I don’t even get the option to turn them off like Rangers can with pets. Your statement makes no sense. No profession can just turn off conceptual elements they don’t like. That’s why you get to choose professions.

Well put! On a side note, I’m not sure why he’s advocating for such a huge change if he doesn’t even really main Ranger. If you’re going to trot out the “game design perspective” argument then I imagine the person making the argument would understand just how massive a re-work to the class it would be since it’s a removal of a core mechanic.

Also, regardless of whether someone agrees with the choice to nail Ranger down as a pet spec or not, there should be a point at which that person realizes that different classes are different and that the gameplay being advocated for would best be served by another profession. Otherwise, in all MMOs there would only ever be one class available to play because screw variety and that would make for a boring and short-lived game.

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.

Einlanzer.1627:

Some people just really have no ability to actually hear other people. To some people, the Ranger represents more than a pet class, and playing another class is a poor substitute. I really don’t see how this is such a hard concept to grasp.

Oh, we hear you just fine. You want Anet to spend time and money on altering their concept of the Ranger to fit your personal fantasy because you regret your choice of the pet class and apparently never agreed with it from the beginning but played it anyways. You are attached to the name “Ranger” because you feel it’s supposed to be something else based on other fantasy archetypes but this is Guild Wars 2, not any of those other games or LOTR, or any other media.

For some reason too, you have convinced yourselves that it’s just a simple fix that won’t require a massive rework of talents and balancing as evidenced by statements along the lines of: ‘all they have to do is…’ or ’it’s simple to…’ or (my favorite) ‘if I can come up with XYZ then why can’t Anet do it’.

What we’re saying is not that it will never happen, since none of us can predict the future, but that you need to be making lemonade out of these lemons while you wait for your desired gameplay to maybe be implemented because Anet has already said no, no and no again.

tontonUB.4687:

I totally approve this.
The forced-pet gameplay linked to ranger class is a mmo abuse (it’s anet right to do what they want, even if it’s a bad move, imo).
Pet should be an option.
since GW2 ranger is balanced around the pet, just add a trait called ‘solo ranger’ or ‘pet free’.
- increase all stats by 15% when the player has no pet.

Ranger = must have a pet is an pure invention.
In med-fan culture, famous rangers CAN have a pet, they dont MUST have one.
Ranger is culturally about = wildnerness / stealth / nature magic / beast taming / Bow shooting / hunting / trapping / dual melee.
PET should be a choice, not the basic.

Hope this year, Santa Klaus will bring some new traits to buff / encourage my pet-less beloved ranger …

Gonna say it again. Instead of trying to turn the Ranger into a WoW Marksman Hunter, the easiest solution of all, for both you and Anet, is to reroll into one of the three other classes that give you the range without the pet – Thieves, Warriors, or Dragon Hunters. At the end of the day, you simply don’t want to level another class and want to alter the pet class to suit your own personal fantasy because you disagree with Anet’s original vision and want to apply the fantasy from completely unrelated games and media to this game.

You picked the pet class. You knew it was a pet class when you picked it. Own your choice and do something with the options you have because, at this moment, the petless option isn’t coming any time soon and this game is insanely easy to level up in.

anduriell.6280:

If the devs from anet are out of ideas there are many mmos now in the market that go it right. So just grab and adjust so you can make actually a balanced class that is fun to play and not a frikin borefest were you are locked into just one set of everything and never be able to frikin change.

For the love of God, this class is supposed to be all about roam and positioning and actually is the slowest and clunkiest class in all games in the word. I have never found a class that has the forced pet system so badly implemented and lack of flash.

Anet needs brilliant devs to take over this, because this game without the variety that brings minions in game is a sad boring isometric e sport that nobody could enjoy watching or playing (not a fps to play solo with the action camera, not a real mmo with variety of choices were you can build your player in a completely unexpected way that actually can work)

Rangers aren’t perfect but they darn sure aren’t one of the worst pet classes ever implemented either. That’s some pretty wild hyperbole there.

Jabronee.9465:

It’s hilarious to see you pet lovers are so terrified if Rangers had an option to be a petless class. Read: OPTION which simply means you could use pets as you always does OR stow it completely. But unlike Avoid Combat, Stowing a pet now gives you buffs/dps/cc of the pets u choose to stow. No one suggested to completely removed your fluffies lol.

I dunno, I think it’s more hilarious that you knowingly picked a pet class and want the option to dump the pet and are getting annoyed at people who specifically picked the pet class and, shock of shocks, don’t understand why you don’t just ignore the pet or reroll to a class that is ranged and petless. Also, there is legit nothing simple about what you want.

“Stowing a pet now gives you buffs/dps/cc of the pets u choose to stow.” This sounds very much like a new class to me and I’m still trying to understand why you specifically want Ranger to be changed if you are already playing DH, a class which you claimed to have rerolled to because it gave you the ranged gameplay you wanted.

alain.1659:

I am sorry but your argument is wrong in my opinion. So because anet skipped giving any options till now, we should stop asking? Like the pet names that cannot stay for 3 years and just fixed few months ago? It might be late but players can demand it. We are customers, and we have every right to ask for it. They might not accept it, true, but asking should never be forbidden, or given up.

I can give you options to balance the petless ranger easily with minor changes. If I can do it, a team of devs can do it without breaking a sweat.

Another point is the “design”. I would only ask you to look at elite specs for this part. All professions can do things they were not meant to do. So again it is easily possible for anet to adjust few traits (not even that necessary) and give another f skill ( leaving it empty to choose another utility skill would be enough for many of us).

I understand that you think it is late in game, but with enough demand, a company would supply. We demanded pet names change, it is done. As long as it is not irrational, we should ask for it.

ps: Personaly I gave up playing ranger long time ago. I thought " well this game’s ranger is bound to her pet, so if I dislike it, I should switch to another profession". Although it was a bumpy road for me to find another profession that my heart settles (I always play archer/ranger in frp, rpg, mmo’s…etc) it is done. So we should keep demanding but we should not get our hopes up. I do not think that anet is able to do such a change when there are millions of dire fixes.

It is absolutely your prerogative to keep asking and at least you are realistic enough to know that it most likely will not happen. I’ll not criticize you for having hope. The only problem I have is with the statement: “I can give you options to balance the petless ranger easily with minor changes. If I can do it, a team of devs can do it without breaking a sweat.”

When you are talking about coding an MMO, there is no such thing as “minor changes”. Making name changes stick was a much requested feature that would hardly break gameplay which I suspect is why Anet finally made it so.

Again, you have to take into consideration how the class will be balanced in the game as a whole and while Elite specs do bring lots of new things to each class, you also notice how they synergize with the already existing traits (such as Druid working well with Nature Magic). Considering how many traits include the pet, I’m not inclined to believe that it would be nearly as simple to change as you are implying.

Now, I’m not going to say what Anet might choose to do in the future, they might very well prove me wrong and give you what you want and, if so, that’s great. It might be good or blow up in their face if it winds up drastically altering the gameplay of people who chose Ranger as a pet class. I just don’t want Anet to become the next Blizzard. =/

Einlanzer.1627:

Except nobody is asking for them to be removed. They’re asking for the option of not using them, and have been for the four years since the game launched. I’m sorry, but opposing options is irrational.

Please don’t deliberately misunderstand me. I’m talking about giving people the option to remove pets permanently. As Fluffball stated up above this would still require there to be balancing changes made to please those people, or are you content with removing pets completely and not adding new traits or reworking any of the existing traits that require a pet in the process?

Which is more irrational? Asking for the option to get rid of a core mechanic of a class that it was stated out of the gate was a permanent fixture? Or not addressing the statement that has been said time and time again in this thread that a person has other class options if they want to go bow only.

I’m sorry but no matter how many times I read the reasons why people believe pets should be permanently stowed, I keep hearing. “I don’t feel I should have to reroll another class to get the game play I personally want even though Ranger has been the same from the game’s inception and it’s been said ad infinitum that a petless option isn’t going to happen.”

Ignoring the oft confirmed design of the class and demanding the option even though options already exist is pretty darn irrational if you ask me. You and others simply don’t like the other options and I’m sorry, but that is a personal problem.

P.S. Just to be clear, I agree that the option to go petless should have been available from the beginning but since it wasn’t, this is a “let sleeping dogs lie” situation that is destined to go nowhere because the class is too well established.

alain.1659:

They may be useful but people have the right to dislike them no matter how useful they are. And in my opinion anet should have given the petless option from the very beginning of this game.

Yes, it might have been wise for Anet to have given the option from the beginning…but they didn’t and demanding a petless option now when it’s been a thing for four years is silly. Yes, people have the right to dislike the pets but that doesn’t make them any less unreasonable for asking for them to be removed now at this late date.

It also makes little sense to argue the semantics over whether the class should be called a Ranger or a Beastmaster. Meanings based on other fantasy series are mostly irrelevant because it’s…well, fantasy. Not everyone has the same imagination and not everyone is going to be happy with a particular chosen direction. Frankly, the safest course for Anet is what they have already done which is to give people options for a variety of playstyles across their classes and a fantastically easy leveling up experience. They haven’t locked bows to the pet class alone and you can literally make your character look like whatever you want them to via transmog.

SpellOfIniquity.1780

I love my pets. I understand why a lot of players dislike them but besides their bad AI, they’re strong companions that can provide you with a lot of benefits if you take the time to learn them. Yes a percentage of our damage comes from our pet but that doesn’t mean we’re weak. It means we need to put our targets in a position that allows our pets to reliably attack – hence why we have so many immobilizes, to keep our targets in place. If you’re on a Warrior, do you just start doing Hundred Blades in the middle of a fight and hope every swing hits? No… You CC first. You should do the same for pets with long F2 cast times. You don’t just cast Salamander Drakes F2 which has a 2second (?) cast time and hope it all hits. You lock your target down first.

You can also manipulate pets attack chains by properly managing their active and passive states. I keep mine on passive so that I have on demand CC for example. Wolf always starts with a knockdown at a certain range and same with Smokescale. I keep my Smokescale idle beside me for a period of time so I can send it in for it’s Smoke Assault when it’s most beneficial.

Again, though I absolutely understand why a lot of players dislike their pets, people gotta stop neglecting them. If more people took the time to learn them they might start to love them. My pets have saved my life countless times and although they can misbehave at times, I miss them when I’m on another class.

EDIT: The most recent time my pet saved me was a couple days ago during a duel. Had a really close fight with a Warrior, was forced in to melee range, had 2k health left and him about the same. Literally in the middle of his Arc Divider he got knocked down by my Wolf and downed from the damage. That fight was so close for both of us but my Wolf decided the fight.

This echoes my sentiments exactly. While I don’t think the pets are perfect they are incredibly useful. I love combo-ing off of my pet’s fields. And I often use Beastly Warden when PvE roaming to taunt mobs into a single area with my pet where they can go to town and I can use Barrage to do damage, cripple them, and then either pick them off with my bow or weapon swap to my axe and torch to inflict burns. There is an incredible amount of synergy to be had with pets if you are willing to work with the skills you have.

Einlanzer.1627:

Yeah, I play WoW, and this isn’t true. Sometimes change is good.

Even though I stepped away from WoW, I do keep up with what is going on with the game, including class changes and I’ve never seen Hunters as kittened as they are now or changes that just make so little sense from a balance standpoint. I have friends who have played the game since the beginning that have left because Blizzard is so incompetent. I get that you got something you wanted but change for change’s sake is never a good thing and I’m telling you that, from a human nature and monetary standpoint, what Blizzard did in Legion with the Hunter class on a game as old as WoW was a very foolish thing.

That said, we’re getting off topic. I still think Ranger is one of the better implementations of a pet class that I’ve seen in any MMO and still disagree on the concept of removing a core mechanic from a class to please a minority group that has other options available to them. I’d rather Anet work on improving older pets and making them execute their skills a bit faster versus removing them completely just for the sake of people who are fully capable of putting the pet on passive and ignoring it entirely while traiting for more DPS/utility from the Ranger himself.

Einlanzer.1627:

.I think it’s mostly WoW’s handling of the hunter class that created this perception. Thankfully they converted Survival back into a melee tree.

I have to point this out because it’s a fantastic example of what Anet should absolutely NOT emulate. The hunter community is currently having a meltdown over changing Survival to melee and the spec is ignored and outright derided by a fair number of folks both in and outside of the Hunter class. It doesn’t help that Blizzard is now in the position of ignoring the other two specs and the mechanics they broke with the change to try and get more people to play melee Survival because it’s so unpopular in general.

It’s a testament to just how unwise it is to change a class’s gameplay by attempting to remove a core mechanic that said class is balanced around and doubly so when you are talking about a game that has a few years and an established fanbase under its belt.

Jabronee.9465:

So Rangers are NON archers, snipers, marksmen etc. No wonder park rangers been roaming around with polar bears, brown bears, moas, spiders, pigs, etc nowadays. Sorry my bad.

Well i switch to DH (after purchasing the expansion) cause i see a true potential to be a Bad S sniper trap class (petless) rather than being a Beastmaster class which Anet calls it Ranger.

Edit: i popped by cause i was once a Beastmaster till Anet introduced me to DH. I would love to dust off my “Ranger” but i gotta dust off the pets too lol

Actually, modern park rangers will often roam about with a dog and their job often involves the preservation of local wildlife but that’s neither here or there. My point is that it is nonsensical to say that Rangers shouldn’t be called ranger because they are a pet class. Again, the name Ranger has zero to do with the weapon type a person is wielding and everything to do with them roaming about in a wide open area.

I’m not criticizing you for playing DH, you should play what you enjoy. What I am saying is that Anet’s definition of a Ranger is not incorrect and that you are annoyed at it because you wanted to apply your own interpretation to what the word means to the class and it isn’t being changed to suit you because, for some reason, you chose a pet class and no longer wanted it to be a pet class.

Jabronee.9465:

Beastmaster’s core mechanics are pets. RANGErs core mechanics are their weapons which outputs lethal damage at RANGE.
There are no Rangers in this game. We are Beastmasters.
Btw i shelved my “Ranger” when i start playing DH months ago (smiley face)

That is literally NOT the definition of a ranger. A ranger is someone who “ranges” or roves about. It’s specifically someone who patrols a given area – in modern times we have park rangers who are essentially forest keepers. The name “ranger” never has and never will be specifically someone who fights at range else that class would be called archer, sniper, marksman, etc.

Putting the title Ranger in quotation marks and ‘smiley facing’ because you switched classes to DH – like you made a point instead of demonstrating that you don’t know English – is pretty cringe-worthy.

I’m at a loss here. Ranger was a pet-based class out of the gate and currently one of the most well done ones out of any relevant MMOs to date. It even nudges out the WoW hunter as Blizzard went through and gutted about 3/4 of all pet abilities in its current expansion, simultaneously pigeon-holing hunters into a few specific pet families unless you just want a movable DOT with a pretty skin and seriously kittening off the hunters in the process.

Whether you view the Ranger as a soldier/scout or a nature-loving survivalist, the fantasy presented by Anet always involved a pet unless you’ve decided on your own that it no longer should. That said, I just don’t see where the pet should be removed completely when you can put it on passive, use at least one of its skills on demand, and trait for more power/utility with the other lines besides Beastmastery. It is literally completely ignorable unless you feel some kind of way about having Fluffy following you.

TLDR, If you feel the pet is useless as-is then leave it on Passive, trait for more DPS coming from you directly, and your perception will become reality. The other alternative is to use one of the other classes that can run with a bow and has no pets and if you love leather armor, that’s what transmutation is for.

Oh, if it was for the purpose of Survivability, then I’m a little more okay with the change. Having buffs is no good if the source of them is constantly out of commission. It stinks a bit but the huge range and low cooldown of the spirits now does mitigate being unable to have them follow you around. It was still pretty cool when we could trait it though. =)

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

It was considered strong in PvP because of the zoo effect it would cause, so they removed the mobile aspect from spirits and gave us nothing to compensate for it ever since.

Thanks for the response. It’s a pity they removed that ability as it seemed a way to mitigate our complaints about having lower DPS as well as a fun way to add condition damage to weapons that are normally weak for applying it like longbows.

Looks like the MMO curse of weakening PvE because of PvP struck again. =(

I left the game a while back and recently came back a few months ago and I’m curious as to why Anet removed the ability to trait for your spirits to move and follow you. I’m enjoying the game but wondering why this was taken away.

Did they do it to simplify gameplay or was it simply too strong in PvP?

Hannelore.8153:

I like the solution other pet-based games take. The master and the pet have the same HP pool and attacking one damages the other, thus, the pet lasts as long as the master but is still useful to target, and you can CC it to get rid of it for a while.

This is actually a concept that I’ve considered but never heard of a game implementing. What games and classes are these? I’m genuinely curious.

Dahkeus.8243:

Been playing WoW lately as a hunter and it made me realize how bad the pet mechanics of Ranger are. WoW’s not perfect either, but here’s what I wish GW2 could also pull off:
1) Make all pets equal DPS. In WoW, the only difference with pet performance is their utility skills. This gives a lot more flexibility in being able to choose a pet companion based on flavor/aesthetics instead of just how well it performs. In a game often called “Fashion Wars”, I’m still floored that you get punished for taking a pet because of how it looks.

2) Pets in WoW are optional for one of the specs. I don’t expect this to ever happen in GW2 since the devs think that a pet is integral to the class, unfortunately, but it would be nice to have this option.

3) One spec allows for 2 pets at once and there’s castable spells that summon temporary pets. I really wish there was more done to the Beastmastery talent line to make it actually feel more like you were a “beast master”. For a class that’s distinguished by it’s reliance on a pet, it also just overall feels like just having 1 beast to ever assist at once that plays such a small role undermines the whole point of having a pet in the first place.

Look, I loved hunter in WoW when I used to play it but I stopped playing that game for a reason and, looking at how they are gutting the class, I don’t want the Ranger anywhere near what Hunter is right now. While making pet DPS equal is not a bad idea, I absolutely couldn’t stomach Ranger to be even remotely like the current incarnation of WoW’s Beastmaster because, even though it was my favorite spec, they have since yanked most of the fun things out about it including gutting its utility and crowd control because “hurrdurr you gots lotsa pets” and Hati the idiot second pet gives you “all teh extra DPS”. Trust and believe that you don’t want all of your DPS balance being around having a Necromancer-level crowd of pets that you can sic on folks and don’t forget that it will also multiply all of our pet pathing problems.

As for giving the option to take away the pets entirely, while I sort of understand this, it seems odd considering this is one of the few games where you have multiple classes that don’t have a pet but let you use a bow and arrow. It really shouldn’t surprise you that the devs aren’t willing to remove a core mechanic to a class (one that it was stated upfront the class would have from the beginning) to appease people who, to them, have other options.

Electro.4173:

Its still a pet class.

I agree wholeheartedly that there’s very little connection to the pets themselves and the pet system itself is completely bland and uninvolved, though. I loved the heck out of my Creature Handler back in Star Wars Galaxies. So much variety, having to actually go out and find the pets which were all randomly generated and the process of carefully taming them without getting eaten by their mothers, then actually training them as they grew, even being able to sell them… ‘twas amazing. GW2 doesn’t even compare.

It ain’t gonna change, though. System like that is too complicated for a game like this, especially to try and add in after the initial development phase when the engine is settled. Not to mention all the massive cries of Ranger favoritism that’d be going up if Anet dared to spend all the time needed to develop it. I’ve seen some people who already complain about Ranger’s getting new pets since other classes don’t get anything like that.

… now I want to go and check out SWGEmu again. See if they got Creature Handler working yet. If I only had the time to devote to an MMO like that nowadays.

I still play SWGEmu from time to time and the Creature Handler is vastly improved from where it was two years ago. Taming is much better and I’m pretty sure they have most of the creature abilities and commands back in the game.

On the subject of pets in GW2, I agree that they aren’t as exciting as going out and taming pets in SWG or WOW – although WoW Legion has ruined the majority of pets and abilities and the hunter class is in an uproar over it – but I don’t think they are completely unusable either. They have improved the responsiveness of pet F2 abilities and I play off my pets field abilities (like firing arrows through a poison field from my devourer) more than I ever did in WoW.

I’m also happy that pet names are finally saved so you can make them a bit more personal. However, I do wish the taming mechanics and pet sfx’s and movements were more in depth to make them feel a bit more alive and old pets could do with more buffs so we aren’t shoehorned into specific pets based solely on when they were introduced into the game.

I’m a bit of a pop culture junkie so most of my names reflect that. Here’s most of my pets:

Drakehound – Marmaduke
Hyena – Joker
Alpine Wolf – Fenrir
Sylvari Wolf – Scrunt
Blue Moa – Toucan Sam
Shark – Jaws
Armored Fish – Relicanth
Jaguar – Bagheera
Black Bear – Baloo
Brown Bear – Yogi
Polar Bear – Coca Cola
Forest Spider – Eight Legged Freak
Red Moa – Chocobo
Owl – Jareth
Pig – Orson
Boar – Greedly
Whiptail Devourer – Facehugger
Cave Spider – Charlotte
Jungle Spider – Arachne
Raven – Poe
Ice Drake – Lord Nekron
River Drake – Goomba (live action Super Mario Version)
Hawk – Azrael
Blue Jelly – Smuckers
Red Jelly – Concord

Bonus fun names:
Arctodus – Scare Bear
Murellow – Nair Bear
Eagle – Murica

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Pet ai isn’t meant to replace human control and making the AI to good would be OP.

I don’t see how those of you who want a pet stow power boost option can’t see how it would affect those who choose to use the pet.

The player base believes sheer power is best. It like choosing between batman and superman. While batman can get the job done and has a lot of gagets and utilities to help like a pet ranger. Then you have Superman just Dominating with sheer Power.

Batman is very skilled and takes more skill to do what he does he is just a man who uses the right tool for the job at the right time. That masses what superman because he is perceived to be better. No matter how many times superman fails or dies he is still perceived as better.

I like being a Ranger because it takes skill and isn’t just smash smash. Having a pet stow option would force rangers into a more power role.

This is how it would affect Rangers across the board.

Even though I don’t agree with the comparison between Batman and Superman (the two simply have different styles and abilities and I love them both for their individual talents) I agree with thee rest of what you said. =) I picked ranger because it was a ranged class with a pet and I’d be willing to bet that a fair number of people picked it for the same reason. Forum goers are almost never the majority in any MMO so the argument that most players would get rid of their pet if offered the choice really should be backed up by numbers.

-1 for the option to change what attracted me to the class in the first place because, whether you intend it to or not, it IS going to affect my game play. Better to improve the pets versus throwing my hands up and saying “they’re never going to fix it” when the game is barely a year old.

Rym.1469:

Now we just need that neat sound of constant Fox/Hawk switching
To be serious, leave pet. But make it more as a utility, reducing it’s current damage by 50-75% and giving it back to ranger.

Oh lord, now I’m going to have nightmares about aspect dancing. Lol.

Ragnar.1546:

I wouldn’t know anything about that.

However saying one is better than the other is dependant on your build. If you prefer to melee more you would be in the Scout/Melee type toggle as it would enhance your build.

Seems to me, if a person prefers melee, then A-net should fix the available traits to enhance that play style similar to the way Marksmanship improves range and Beatsmastery improves pets. I tend to be leery of stances/aspects and the like as they run the risk of one becoming the “best” option and the go-to setting. People start expecting you to always run one over the other.

Reminds me a bit too much of the aspect switching in WoW which was frustrating as it eventually became a case of “you are stupid if you aren’t in Hawk at all times”. I’m actually enjoying the ranger a bit more than my hunter in WoW because the pets have unique abilities and so far I am not required to play my characters in what is considered the “best” build.

Still, I enjoy reading suggestions as some ideas are pretty neat. Don’t give up on us.