How much good to Pets do? (Ranger Pets)

I'm just curious, has anyone been able to figure out how much good Ranger Pets do? Are they worth having? Is there a big difference on the kind of pet you have (cat, wolf, etc)? Or does it all really just depend on your Beast Mastery skills? Thanks.

well, like in most of these games that allow people to have pets, it's always a trade off bewteen how many attribute points ou want to spend on your pet vs how many you want to spend on yourself.

generally, i prefer to spend attribute points on the damage i do, rather than spend them on the damage my pets do. so for me, my pet means a little extra damage, but i don't really depend on it to get me through anything.

i don't have any hard numbers for you of what a ranger can do dps-wise with his pet as my ranger is only lvl 11.

i have a pet and i still wonder its not easy to tell since their damage doesnt show. My bear with 5 points in beast master doesnt do squat and i cant see wasting more points in it and skill bar room for skills that are *meh*. Basicly they still suck i just keep mine around because he looks cool and tanks a bit.

Ranks in Beast Mastery will make your pet hit for more damage, and the pet will get critical hits more often. I think I have like 2 ranks in Beast Mastery - it's just not important to me how much damage my pet does. What is important to me is that my pet takes the heat off me, and that has nothing to do with Beast Mastery. How much abuse your pet can soak is entirely dependant upon the pet's level. Some people say certain pets tank better than others, but I have yet to see any evidence of that.

Good question! I rely on my pet quite a bit. Like said previously, it does take the aggroe of yourself while you send barrages of arrows on the mob. Also I load a spell (can't remember the name of it) that increases the dammage done by your pet. Also my pet is level 17, so he can handle most mobs leveled under him. One good thing also is that you can send your pet against one foe then while he is attacking it, you can easely switch to another, thus you are basically attacking 2 mobs at the same time. Once the pet's mob is killed, he will automatically switch and help you out. Also they heal very fast and cost almost nothing to rez when they die. And of course, you never have to feed them!!! So it is worth the extra help.

Only disavantages is that you loose a couple of spots for the spells because you always have to load your heal pet and your mez pet skills in order to take him with you in the instances. Also, he tends to get in the way sometimes blocking you or team members in some tight areas. I even got stuck against a wall and a monument because my pet was right next to me and I could not move, and that time I was playing solo with henchmen and could not get unstuck, so I had to warp back to town and start over!!! I really don't use my second proffesion that much, so putting skills points in Beast Mastery is not a major problem for me.

Basically, I have never gone out adventuring without my pet, he tanks well and is always there to take on the aggroe in thight situations. It's all in the way you decide to play.

Funny thing though, the Ranger Henchman (woman) does not have any pet when you take her along!!!

Cheers!!!

I have to say that I love my pet... I also Find that I'm grouping up with people much lowerlevel then me and usually my pet does a much better job tanking then them.. lol.
Also I find that as a Ranger I'm all in my primary for the most part so the points in Beast aren't much of a big deal... also they help with Tiger's Fury, and Energizing Wind which I love to cast with Serpent's Quickness... who doesn't like free Double Shot for free?

Haven't had my pet out since level 15 or so. In the higher level areas of the game he tended to get hurt badly and he only seemed to help when I was soloing against lower level mobs. I reallocated my points into smiting prayers and never looked back. The AE smite damage is much more effective than my pet ever was.

well level 20 and i still take my pet out. if i go back to 'lower' level areas he does a ton more damage than me with only 3 in beastmastery (can tell looking at the health bar drop) and though he doesn't do so much damage in level 20+ areas, he still lives long enough to save my life most of the time.

yeah that's how i view my pet...you won't find me spending points on beastmastery unless they are left over points, but he buys me time, and if i only have 1 skill (calm pet) i can rez him if he takes a dive...better him than me.

It really depends on your Beast Mastery, the level of your pet, and the level of the mob your going up against to know how effective your pet is. If your pet is a low level, meaning low life, going up against higer level mobs, then it isnt going to be that effective. It also depends on what buffs/skills you have for your pet.

Personally, if you don't depend on him for survival or damage output, then it isnt worth the extra slots he takes up on your skill bar. Those extra slots could be used for Res Signent incase a party member dies. I've replaced my pet skills with Res Signent and some interrupt skills and I don't think Id ever change it back.

I think that the Beast Mastery (pet) skills are severely underestimated. There is a large range of pet-related skills that are extremely useful, and for the most part low-energy-cost.

Some examples of pet skills that you can get early on in the game:
- Feral Lunge. Does extra damage and causes bleeding when the target is attacking. At rank 10 in Beast Mastery this will cause a total damage of 133 (avg. 10 base + 15 + 18 seconds bleeding), for an energy cost of just 5. This is great against attacking warriors in PvP.
- Predator's pounce. Does extra damage, and heals the pet. At rank 10 in Beast Mastery, this does +15 damage, and heals the pet by 35. if you use this skill regularly, you have a self-healing pet that never needs extra attention. This again for an energy cost of only 5.

So, although a pet requires 2 extra skill positions to be used (Charm Animal + Comfort Animal), their range of skills make them useful for much more than just an easily killed tank.

Nice, BrokenSymmetry...

I never use my pet. Haven't room in my skills bar for Charm Animal (which you must have equipped for your pet to appear) and any pet skills. I find I can do more damage and keep myself healthy using those slots for my own skills.

I keep my beast mastery high and use a pet in PvP. Generally people target me instead of the pet so if I get in trouble I just run around and let the pet do the killing, if they stop to attack the pet then I can turn around and pepper them with arrows.

Pets are a lot like players in this regard. Most people will tell you pets suck at tanking and damage, but that's because they generally expect pets to deal 20+ damage with 0 beast mastery, and tend to think they can't tank to save your life or theirs, because most people try to expect them to act as assassins with 80 armor instead of 70, and take the beatings like a regular warrior would. Beast Mastery level does matter, unlike most people say, but not simply to increase pet damage, it also increases the effectiveness of pet defense ( call of protection, symbiotic bond, and otyugh's cry are the big 3 pet-defense skills.) Pets have a purpose that most people miss, getting more concerned about their pet's overall damage output, rather than their ability to keep from falling over dead. Pets are multi-purpose though, since they work roughly like players. Are you a ranged-attacking class with low armor? You'd want to take charm animal, comfort animal/heal as one for healing and ressurection, and symbiotic bond/call of protection to make it durable. If you're a melee class, mobs would automatically target you, since you hold higher priority in the enemie's eyes rather than the pet, so you'd want a damage role for the pet, charm animal, comfort animal/heal as one, and some pet-attack skill. So it depends; what role do you want your pet to perform? And does it even have the correct skills to do so??? As for me, I have heal as one with call of protection, as well a hearty pet, so it can reduce the base damage of attacks by 15 (level 10 beast mastery), making melee do almost 0 damage, and having a noticable effect on spell damage (But not quite as big as melee) though still being able to soak up the damage. Vital Blessing I use as a permanent +147 health at 10 protection prayers, with a pet that has 540 health unmodified, so it can better absorb damage that is too large for call of protection to feasibly reduce, getting a pet with 687 health and 15 base damage reduced... makes for quite a tank, even if the enchantment gets removed somehow. It costs me half my skill bar, but in the end I get something close to a second player that doesn't do a spectacular load of damage, but takes an absurd beating.

I know you're supposed to use search, but use it wisely (i.e. check the OP date). This thread is nearly 3 years old... leave it be!

Rofl...
You rezzed an almost 2.5 year old thread.

Oops, lol. Time to start checking the OP dates. >_<

+1

good necro

There are diffrences Between Certain Pets. But it's not the pet that matters it's the way you leveled. See the wiki. here is a Extract from the wiki:
* Hearty: -(~12-14)% damage, +60 health
* Playful: -(~5)% damage, +30 health
* Elder: -0 damage, +0 health
* Aggressive: +(~5)% damage, -30 health
* Dire: +(~12-14)% damage, -60 health

Please see http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Pets for more info

If you reset your pet name you can see what it leveled into. Think the first level that it makes a difference is level 12 and then again at level 20.
type '/petname' to reset - i think

05-18-2005, 10:31 PM

......

So, old... apparently from before people realized that pets aren't all that great. Sure they have some good uses, but generally they're limited by the fact that you have to spend two extra slots, as well as others to keep your pet alive.

The worst is people who bring pets, but don't put any points into Beast Mastery. Seriously, it's just stupid, almost like bringing [wiki]Signet of Agony[/wiki] with no Blood Magic or condition removers.

I would like to use my pets more often and have run a beastmaster build a few times but its not easy to fit the build into normal pug playing.
They are imo invaluable in the early game stages when party size is small.


As for ressurecting a very old post sometimes a new player is between a rock and a hard place.

Make a new post about something that's been posted on before invites sarky comments from players along the lines of oh no not again it's all been said.
You also get moderator comments saying they should have done a search before posting.

On the other hand if they do the search and reopen an old post they also come in for critisism.

Well listen up, this game changes by the month and what was posted a year ago may no longer be true.
If someone wants to ask a genuine question have a little charity and answer rather than ignore.
Ignore rather than flame.

Not especially lecturing to the posters on this thread, its something that's been on my mind for a while.
We as a community are in danger of stifiling new ideas and views on the game by appearing unforgiving in our rules on posts.

Anyway it's how I feel, thanks for listening.

Since this thread has been ressurected .......

A lot of people bring a pet as just a "meat shield". Try running a dedicated BM build, where at least 3/4 of your bar is BM skills. You pet IS your primary weapon and you add some auxillary damage.

My guild has several players that have tried this and really like it. We have even formed parties of 3 or 4 BM's and had a lot of fun.

I always keep my crab out, greatest tank there is. But i run a lot of beastmaster skills, heal as one rarely leaves my bar.

On a sillier note i gave all my heroes crabs too, crab army!!, no need for warriors. You ll be suprised how much damage they do and take(and i dont have a lot of beastmaster points on my heroes)

mzzls

Pets can eat up damage. They have 80 AL and lots of HP. And they do not suffer DP in PvE.

They take up 2 slots at least, and when they die, you need high Beast Mastery or your bar is unusable for quite some time. The higher BM, the more HP they have when you resurrect them.

I usually run 13 Expertise, 12 BM, 12 Marksmanship when I use a pet. BM is like Weapon Mastery for your pet, a Dire pet does some damage on its own and soaks up damage. Due to the low 420 HP it also takes a lot of aggro away from the party. Hero/Hench Monks also heal pets, so they have their use.

Unfortunately the synergy with MMs is broken, they no longer leave corpses.
But Barbs/Mark of Pain and other Hexes can still benefit from having some more meatbags punching on the target.


In general I have moved away from pets. I prefer to add Lightning Reflexes and Whirling Defense for PvE, especially if we already have a corner-blocking warrior or SY spammer. Instead of pets I invest some 10 points in channeling magic for Splinter Weapon. If you have more rangers, adding splinter Weapon to a pet is a good idea unless you have Barrage/Volley or someone with Cyclone Axe yourself.

I'm only level 9 but I think having a pet is worth the two skill places used up but mainly, as said before, to take the attacks off you so that you can gain that important advantage over a group of enemies.

For Ranger primaries pets can be a powerful tool, if you know how and when to use them.

However for most all secondary rangers a pet is simply a liability.

Actually, I'm glad this post was re-opened because I was just doing a SEARCH for information about the usefulness of pets myself! Rather than start a new one, aren't we supposed to look for a thread that already is discussing a particular topic?

For my specific interest: aside from B/P, or bunny thumper builds, is a pet useful for - in my case - a Rit primary, for instance? My Rit has a lvl3 Tiger I got doing the beginner quests at Shing Jea, but never used. I only ever see Rt/R Splinter builds, but no Rt/R beast builds. (I know - not really viable, and why play with sub-par builds?) That said, I would like to level up my Tiger just to have it as a cool companion when I want! (It's no different from questing and spending tons of platinum on Obsidian Armor. Functionally, it makes no difference. So, why do it? Because it's cool!)

If anyone has a useful - doesn't have to be "game winning" - Rt/R build that utilizes pets, I'd be interested! (And I assume weapon spells work on pets, right? Haven't tested it yet.) PvE, please! And I have all 3 campaigns, but not EotN.

Thanks!

I run a rt/r with a pet. Wep spells can be cast on the pet as well as ancestors rage. Great Dwarf wep is a good one for the pet.
Make sure your pet is dire so that he attracts enemies and will be your tank, this will make the enemies surround your pet for ancestors and possibly splinter wep on it.

Try something like this:
Only put 10(overcomes weakness) max in bow and get a q9 bow, the rest in spawning/channeling with leftovers in beast

Volley
Spirt's Strength
Splinter Weapon
Ancestors Rage
Great Dwarf Weapon/Warmongers/Nightmare Wep
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Death Pact Signet/Distracting Shot/Poision Tip Signet/EoE

So true….in RA I seem like most to ignore the pet. The good beast keepers have you kiting in a couple seconds once you notice the health drain. It’s my own fault thinking I am against 4 targets instead of 5………. So I deserve to die if I do not show respect to the pet

I have run a Ranger primary as well as secondary through Prophesies Factions and into Nightfall.

My experience is mixed, while its useful to have a pet at times it does demand a huge commitment to the pet for it to function as a fighting beast rather than just a distraction in the fight.

First you need to put a lot of points into beast mastery this greatly limits the points you can put into other areas.
Once you commit points to expertise for energy management and bm your pretty lucky to have much left for Marksmanship.

Then there are the 8 skills you have 2 are already taken up with pet skills and you probably need 4 more to have decent pet atack defence and protection.

If you comonly take res as a skill that leaves 1 spare for other use.


The bottom line is use the pet as a distraction and remain more or less a fully functioning ranger with good useful skills or leave all the attacking to your pet.
The main problem with that is the inability to order the pet to attack an enemy without entering the agro circle and becoming a target yourself.
Unless thats been changed since I last ran my pet.

wow, poor thread got brought back from the grave twice.

R/P Spearchucker ftw! (with pet ofcourse)
With brutal Strike my pet can do upwards of 60dmg, and with poisonous can poison for 17secs, def useful.

Original question.... how much good do pets do?

simple answer - best use for a pet is as support DPS on a weapon-wielding ranger - thumper/packhunter etc. By themselves, pets suck far too hard to be any good.

When farming, I have 4 characters (all with Ra primary or secondary) and 4 pets (white tiger, polar bear, iguana, and flamingo).

You get the benefit of extra damage and meat shields without the pets claiming the loot.

Pets are an all for nothing thing for them to be useful. You have to either spend a ton of points for them to be good or only put your spare points in there just to take aggro off you. For them to be useful in combat you need to have the points to put into BM. Also you have to have two skills slots for Charm and Comfort animal or just Charm.

qft

if ur holding a staff...
then ur pretty much bein useless

in pve...
pets r nice to get an extra source to trigger daze from bha
or if theres a barbs/mop nec on ur team...another trigger for that
bodyblock/tanking purposes, etc

but really....a pet will never be as good as a human player
and it should be that way, rite?
so i wouldnt recommend creating a pure bm buid

For a Rit/Ranger the most you can hope for with your pet is to treat it like an extra spirit.

Bring a weapon spell or two and some spirits then your basically just healing the pet to keep all your skill from reseting.

You wont be dealing much damage, but it can be fun and the pet + spirits if they actually hit the same target at the same time can stack up a decent DPS.

Pets are pretty good if you know how to use the Beastmastery Skills very, very good.