To pet owners/should I keep my pet?

I’m playing as a R/N level 10, and have a pet “Sparky” that as ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve grown kind of attached to. Anyway, to use at him, I need at least two slots in the skills bar, and seeing as I just picked up feral lunge maybe even three. I also placed a rune of major beast mastery on myself so that went up from 4 to 7.

Now the problem is, Sparky is pretty effective in a fight, (and without him I really suck!), however with all those slots used up, I obviously have to neglect other stuff. I have been using ignite arrows, powershot and penetrating shot for my main Ranger combo, with deathly swarm and vampiric touch for the necro skills. I have to keep troll unguent for healing, so I’m not sure what to do as there goes all my slots. It seems like I’m always running out of mana as well, so I’m getting my ass kicked a lot.

Has anyone else played this type of combo? I hate to dump poor Sparky, and wondering if I stick with beast mastery if it may pay off in the long run.

Greatly appreciate any replies

Well, either do all beastmaster or go with no pet (people who like the middle don't flame please, this is just from what I have read in the builds section) is my opinion.

yes it's all or nothing! If you want to follow through be prepared to give sparky at least 5 skill slots! My Mr Feathers takes up 6! And you have to have like 12 points of beast mastery. Plus pet attacks don't use that much energy, so it will help with the running out of energy.

I think you're stretching your attributes too far. The skills you describe come from wilderness survival, marksmanship, death magic, and blood magic. Toss in beast mastery and that's 5 stats, then assume you have some expertise (which most/all rangers should) and it comes out to 6. Most people don't put points in more than 4, and I try to stick with 3 as a ranger. Instead of picking a bunch of skills that look cool and putting points in their attributes, pick 3 or 4 attribs and use skills from them. Expertise should probably be one, as it's your primary attribute and helps out all the ranger skills. You might try curses and use skills that work on physical damage, i.e. barbs or mark of pain, as your pet always does physical damage. But you may find, as I have, that it's not very good to be an "impure" (using non-ranger skills) pet ranger.

You can try going without the pet for awhile then switch back. It won't hurt anything, besides the pet not getting XP during that time.

As Usagi said, it's almost an all-or-nothing proposition. I tried taking my pet out near the Bergen Hot Springs, and it was an effective endeavor until I had BM pumped up to at least 10. And my skill slots took up 6 BM attributes as well, most pointedly things that heal Bagheera (my Stalker). After that, I tried him as I've used him before...a 0-level tank. Well, that doesn't work either because mobs at that point make mincemeat out of the poor kitty. Be prepared to sacrifice for your pet, because, in essence, it is your second life bar.

As far as my attributes go, I'll agree with Artini. Hell, as it is, I'm spreading to all 4 Ranger attributes (mostly only for Tiger's Fury though), and that decreases what I can put into expertise.

Try to find the balace which feels right for you. That's what refund points are for. However, I'll admit to the coolness of having a pet that towers over the smaller people in Tyria. Funnier as well when they get beat down by small dwarves. =D

Well i don't know what you people are doing but my pet works very well and i have just TWO BM skills on my skill bar Charm and heal animal. I use BM marks and wilderness along with death magic for my R/N.

What about expertise? I find it hard to accomplish *anything* concerning a Ranger primary without some expertise points. I'd almost want to sacrifice Marksmanship to make do with less energy usage.

I also played a R/N and honestly, up till the desert I always had my pet. I only used 2 slots for him, and always ask the monk in the group if they can res/heal your pet. Sometimes they can/will sometimes not. Either way its nice to save a slot if posible. Also by doing this your really don't need to put many points into beast.

I grabbed a bear at level 9, and the only reasons I'm keeping him out are:

1. It pisses my friend off, him being a level 20 ranger and STILL hasn't grabbed a bear even though he's been wanting one (I just led the henchies through the troll ice cave outside Droknar's in Talus Chute while I ran ahead and charmed the bear so they wouldn't kill it).

2. I want to get it to level 20. Just so I can pull it back out when I'm in the lowbie areas for show.

Edit: I'm very disapointed that when the animal dies, my skills become unavailable and any skill I was in the middle of casting fails.

I had the stalker pet you get from doing a mission pre-searing, and for most of ascalon (pre and post) he was a higher level than me. But when I got to the Northern Shiverpeaks, I stopped using him, as I had better skills to use, and I didn't like the 8(10?) seconds of no spells when the pet dies (often).

I want to thank everyone for your answers, especially Tellani.

Thank you for pointing out that ignite arrows was a wilderness skill. I assmumed that it was markmenship, DOH!. Once I removed that and put in dual arrows along with power shot and now called shot, it has made a HUGE difference.

I had no points at all in wilderness, and this was probably the reason I was getting owned.

just drop the stupid pet. They are not that effective for pvp or pve.

Your only lvl 10 ..... around lvl 18 I was using 6 pet slots and two heals.... then my friend it is time to reconsider. All or nothing it would seem which kind of sucks cos the pets cant be managed well and they use sooo many skills.

In short ........ pets are not a viable secondry in later stages of the game.

My ranger is lvl 20 and so it my pet and it has saved my life MANY times and I don't see the point in expertise as i rarely if ever run out of energy so why waste point in a skill I don't need or use. I never bothered with any of the extra attacks as my pet seems to do just fine on his own. I find ignite arrows very handy as it has an AOE effect that is usefull against crowds.

has anyone suggested a second skill bar just for pets? would have to keep charm and rez in your main but having one for all the pets attacks would be nice, doesnt even have to be 8, maybe 4-6. just a thought.

Thats a terrible idea. Having a pet is not free therefore rangers should not have a free companion.

What cost do you pay for pets? I didnt pay to get one, I dont pay for any upkeep, there is no armor to buy for them. Sounds like they are free now.

Oh you mean having to use skill slots as a cost! well my suggestion already accounts for that, it doesnt change a thing, you still need to use 1-2 slots on your ranger just to have it out and alive. I suggested a skill bar for my EXTRA CHARACTER which I am playing. 1-4 slots for some pet attacks would be nice and would waste even more of my limited energy pool. Free my a s s! that is hardly free.

wow i feel sorry for your pet ~ ~

Any good beastmaster understands why we don't get extra slots for skills, and there is no reason to make the build overpowered. If you think it's a hassle to put in skills for your pet then don't waste your time having one.

an extra skillbar for the pet alone isn't necessary, but make the pet controls better. Give us an extra bar wich contains things like: stances, guard and attack.

Stances would be:
- Aggressive: your pet will attack every enemy in his aggro range.
- Passive: your pet will never attack an enemy, only when issued the attack command.
- Stay: your pet will stop following you.
- Follow: your pet will follow the selected target.
- Guard selected: your pet will follow the selected target and attacks everything that attacks that selected target.
- Guard area: this will put your pet in a sort of stay mode, your pet will attack everything that comes in his area that he guards.

Attack: this command will send in your pet to attack your selected target.

This makes it just two buttons in that bar. One drop down for the 'stances' and one with 'attack'. Also make it possible to see what buffs are active and what debuffs are used on our pet.

Ydyp's idea actually has merit. It'd be a little more plausible for more beastmasters to show up if a pet were somewhat more controllable. It's also bad times guessing which buffs and debuffs are currently on the pet.

Soldier of Rabbits (UsagiNoSenshi) I gotta group with you sometime, just to see how a beastmaster does it. =P

BTW, seems a lot of Rangers just bring the pet for cosmetics. The pet dies, and we usually just keep going...sad.