Is it me or are ranger pets still way too squishy? The bear seems to be decent, but I see a lot of people run around with pets in the "downed" state because the need to revive them seems to happen way to often.

I'd like to see the ranger pets get buffed or have better self healing. I'd also like to see the pet special abilities have the option to be put on autocast. 

When I played WoW this was my favorite website, http://www.wow-petopia.com/. Does anyone know of a website dedicated to GW 2 pets?

Originally posted by enoch420

When I played WoW this was my favorite website, http://www.wow-petopia.com/. Does anyone know of a website dedicated to GW 2 pets?

i havent seen one yet, but this is a starter

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Pets_by_family

Originally posted by stevebmbsqd
The pet system in GW2 is really weak. I rolled a ranger and I just couldn't get into it. It didn't feel like a ranger or even a hunter for that matter.

same actually ranger was the only class of the 8 i didn't care for

Originally posted by enoch420

Is it me or are ranger pets still way too squishy? The bear seems to be decent, but I see a lot of people run around with pets in the "downed" state because the need to revive them seems to happen way to often.

I'd like to see the ranger pets get buffed or have better self healing. I'd also like to see the pet special abilities have the option to be put on autocast. 

When I played WoW this was my favorite website, http://www.wow-petopia.com/. Does anyone know of a website dedicated to GW 2 pets?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_pet_skills

That's you're best bet for info on pets atm. I don't know of any full sites dedicated to just pets.

As for the squishiness of pets, there's a lot of factors. First, it depends on the type of pet. Bears are probably the tankiest of the pets, birds are probably the weakest. If you spec into beast mastery, your pets can get to be pretty beefy. Also, the pet mechanic offers up to 4 pets (2 land, 2 water) and not a lot of rangers really take advantage of this. Swapping pets gives you a new one with 100% hp. If you swap back later, your original pet will be at full HP again.

Not sure about the autocast thing. I haven't actually tried that myself. I want to say it's possible, but I'm actually not 100% on that. Either way, it should have its own auto-cast. Overall I'm kinda annoyed with how pet skills pause what your character is doing in order to cast the pet skill. I wish they had their animations tied just to the pets and not the character.

- Overall, there are ways in which they could improve the pets, definitely. As for their survivability I think they are close to where they should be.

What little i've played so far, as a Ranger... Its pretty much a guarantee for my pet to be beaten to hell and the mob to come after me then.

Which leads to me having to run the hell away.

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

What little i've played so far, as a Ranger... Its pretty much a guarantee for my pet to be beaten to hell and the mob to come after me then.

Which leads to me having to run the hell away.

Yea this happens to me almost everytime I pull more than two mobs at a time. I think WoW had hunter pets down pretty good. I do switch pets when they start getting low on hp, but my gripe is that they get low hp way too fast. I love the way pets look and move in GW 2, even more than WoW's. Loque Nahak is kinda hard to beat though. :) 

I'm an animal lover in real life so I hope that down the road ranger pets become a bigger part and a more important part of the ranger. Please read this Colin J. :)

Originally posted by Fusion
might be in PVE, but in sPVP, they need a major health/toughness nerf

See in PvP I think they're ok, but they're usually not much of a factor. Enemy pIayers seem to just ignore my pet and demolish me. I haven't PvP'd a whole lot yet so you could be right. They're also leveled to max level in PvP so they have a lot of health. I personally thought they should do a little more dps in PvP. I guess that's why I'll never work on balancing their game. :) 

Hi I'm ranger level 25. In most fights, my pet is pretty decent tanker.

I have 2 signets on, one which increases the defence of pet and myself

And another which provides regenaration of myself and pet. Both of these are passive. Usually in any DE, my pet can survive  quiet easily with the help of my heal. 

The only place my pet ever dies is when we're taking on a boss or so and even then I can usually avoid death by simply pressing F3.

Pro Tip: Swap out pets right when one pet has about 10% hp left. That way your cooldown for bringing the initial pet back into fight is 20 seconds as opposed to 60 seconds if you let it die first. 

I feel many people don't use the swap function often. Swapping pets is crutial and another form of strategy to the ranger. Here are some reasons below.

- Full health upon swapping.

- Downed pets can't be swapped in or out and they'll be fully revived. 

- Allows to pull your pet out of damage AoEs instantly. 

My most recent experience with pets was opposite, I found them much more tanky. My friend's bear was tanking for both of us really well, at least until too many things started attacking at once. But that's the way the game works. I think this is the real problem people are having.

In GW2, if you stand there while shit's beating on you, you will die. Naturally, pets in this same situation, will die (and they do). They don't have the intelligence to dodge and roll like you do, and if they did (because I know you're thinking, "But they should!") people would then end up complaining that they don't have control of their pet, or that it's rolling over cliffs, or aggroing other things while dodging around, etc. You can't just overpower the pet to compensate for this, because then the PvPers will rant and rave, righteously so.

IMO, the ideal would be to leave it like it is now, but make pets insta-revive once combat ends. That way they're always up and ready to go, because they actually serve their purpose just fine now as combat initiators and buffers when used correctly. The annoyance comes in having to constantly revive them. Get rid of that, and they'd be fine.

edit = not to be rude, but if you need to run away because your pet died, you're a terrible Ranger. Rangers are NOT their pets; they are more than powerful on their own with the pets merely providing backup utility similar to the Mesmer's Illusions and the Elementalist's spirits. Get a bow and put a melee weapon in the other hand, and roll some faces.

Originally posted by enoch420

Is it me or are ranger pets still way too squishy? The bear seems to be decent, but I see a lot of people run around with pets in the "downed" state because the need to revive them seems to happen way to often.

I'd like to see the ranger pets get buffed or have better self healing. I'd also like to see the pet special abilities have the option to be put on autocast. 

When I played WoW this was my favorite website, http://www.wow-petopia.com/. Does anyone know of a website dedicated to GW 2 pets?

there is a huge difference in GW2 pets and WoW.  honestly i definitely appreciate the pet system in WoW much better.  the capturing of pets, the development of pets through size, strength, and pet trees.  plus the vast amounts of types of pets, and that there are rare pets lying around for you to tame.  always went with banglagash in stranglethorn vale myself, and he would get HUGE by the time he maxes out in size.  having a site dedicated to GW2 pets would seem kinda irrelevant since its such a small task.  it would be better to just use the wiki.

Lots of rangers run around with dead pets because they don't swap them when they can or don't have another pet to swap with.

Pets are not supposed to be as tough as players or even the ranger himself. They arn't for tanking, they are an extra mechanic with skills that need to be considered in a Ranger's build. Rangers are far from being squishy and if someone can't survive when their pet is dead then they really need to reassess their combat style.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

IMO, the ideal would be to leave it like it is now, but make pets insta-revive once combat ends. That way they're always up and ready to go, because they actually serve their purpose just fine now as combat initiators and buffers when used correctly. The annoyance comes in having to constantly revive them. Get rid of that, and they'd be fine.

That's a good suggestion.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

You can't just overpower the pet to compensate for this, because then the PvPers will rant and rave, righteously so.

In PVP, they're already way more than they should be, they should be ignorable for the purpose of focusing on the ranger itself, but currently they're like a 2nd player gnawing your ass with decent damage, insanely high health (for a pet) combined with rangers themselves being the "survivalist 101"

But all things accounted for, you can't possibly balance a game with so many classes for both PVE and PVP, the game will be an endless buff / nerf this and that untill the end of time. I already see the "e-sports" sinking like the titanic because of the endless balance issues on games with class/skill mechanics.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

My most recent experience with pets was opposite, I found them much more tanky. My friend's bear was tanking for both of us really well, at least until too many things started attacking at once. But that's the way the game works. I think this is the real problem people are having.

In GW2, if you stand there while shit's beating on you, you will die. Naturally, pets in this same situation, will die (and they do). They don't have the intelligence to dodge and roll like you do, and if they did (because I know you're thinking, "But they should!") people would then end up complaining that they don't have control of their pet, or that it's rolling over cliffs, or aggroing other things while dodging around, etc. You can't just overpower the pet to compensate for this, because then the PvPers will rant and rave, righteously so.

IMO, the ideal would be to leave it like it is now, but make pets insta-revive once combat ends. That way they're always up and ready to go, because they actually serve their purpose just fine now as combat initiators and buffers when used correctly. The annoyance comes in having to constantly revive them. Get rid of that, and they'd be fine.

 

edit = not to be rude, but if you need to run away because your pet died, you're a terrible Ranger. Rangers are NOT their pets; they are more than powerful on their own with the pets merely providing backup utility similar to the Mesmer's Illusions and the Elementalist's spirits. Get a bow and put a melee weapon in the other hand, and roll some faces.

Lol, I don't think you're rude at all dude. Ranger melee combat is super awesome. I use a sword and warhorn as my melee set. 

What you said about pets aggro'ing mobs did bring up another issue I have with pets in GW 2. A lot of time my pet is like 5-10 yards in front of me when I'm running. When I stop near a mob they usually pull because they're way too close. Probably an easy fix, I just hope it does get fixed.

Originally posted by Zooce

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

IMO, the ideal would be to leave it like it is now, but make pets insta-revive once combat ends. That way they're always up and ready to go, because they actually serve their purpose just fine now as combat initiators and buffers when used correctly. The annoyance comes in having to constantly revive them. Get rid of that, and they'd be fine.

That's a good suggestion.

In wouldn't work right in large scale PvP. The ranger could just run away a little behind their own zerg so that they exit combat mode, get the insta-rez and then run back in way less than 30 seconds.

Originally posted by Vannor

Originally posted by Zooce

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

IMO, the ideal would be to leave it like it is now, but make pets insta-revive once combat ends. That way they're always up and ready to go, because they actually serve their purpose just fine now as combat initiators and buffers when used correctly. The annoyance comes in having to constantly revive them. Get rid of that, and they'd be fine.

That's a good suggestion.

In wouldn't work right in large scale PvP. The ranger could just run away a little behind their own zerg so that they exit combat mode, get the insta-rez and then run back in way less than 30 seconds.

True, I was about to add a clause about it causing issues with pvp, but I've not much experience with that as I spend most my time testing pve so far- figured I would leave it up to someone more knowledgeable to point out.  I do think it would be nice for PvE though.