The updated pet build, R/Mo

Now that pet attacks/shouts no longer trigger Zealot's Fire, what is there to do?

PvP/PvE Beast Ranger [aka warrior extention]

10+2 Beast Mastery
8+1 Expertise
10 Smiting
extra to marksmanship+1 for bow req. or what have you...

Call of Haste
Maiming Strike
Scavenger's Strike
Brutal Strike
Melandru's Assault/Call of Protection
Ferocious Strike {E} / Marksman's Wager {E}
Charm Animal
Balthasar's Aura

Depending on preference, you've got some options here for pve and pvp. I've found the 200 DoT to be quite fierce as it's armor ignoring and since the pet is full speed about 100% of the time, you should have no problems getting Balthasar's Aura out rapid fire. What I'm wondering is, is going 16 in beast worth it? [similar to a warrior's weapon mastery, this is beast mastery right?]

You get a boost to pet attack damage as well as increased crit rate. [I THINK you get increased crit rate, but damn anet won't let me see the damage my pet is doing, just myself... ]

might i suggest comfort animal? (for the pet ressing). with so many BM skills you'd want to have some way of keeping your pet alive, if not you're stuck with bal's aura that you'll seldom cast, and a bow with no bow attacks .

O.o and no res sig. your build has the look of my variants from THIS thread (plus a bunch more BM skills).

as for 16 in BM, i wouldnt advise it. rangers are stretched for attribute points to start with. i usually use 13/14 in BM. it might be worthwhile but i'd rather have it a smidge lower and save myself 36 attribute points.

hmm, seems you got no self-healing either. that might be problematic but you'd have to try it out first.

Add Dias The Swift to your friends list if you'd like, we could try out a tandem version of this build

This is a pvp build, monk dependance is core. No res sig. Yes, I'll be on the half of the team that doesn't bring it... No healing for the pet. Who targets pets at all? ^_^

If everyone on your team needs to use a res sig, then you're doomed anyway. Half the team bringing it is my absolute limit.

Ok, 10+2 bm it is... ^_^ Thanks for the info. Anyone else?

Whenever I do Arenas and I see a pet I always tell them to kill pet then imdediatly kill the owner of the pet.

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you cant res anyone but your pet. rangers are pretty low on the priority list so you probably need it.

and idk... do you really think those calls of __ are gonna save your pet? i mean like 2 axe attacks and hes shredded... monks shouldnt be healing pets, they have a hard enough time with 8 people.

my problem with the idea of pets used for anything except dying is that they distract heals. oh and btw i think this might work better as a mo/r, you can smite better and you have better energy, so you can probably dump ferocious for something like SoJ (shield not signet), and annoy people who attack your pet.

all in all this isnt a build i would use but if you really want to....

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Hmm, did some fast skill reading and some quick choices and have found the 3 things I needed to do to keep my pet up and running...

1. Damage
2. Containment
3. Longevity

since it's 3 duties, and I HAD to bring Charm Animal and Balthsar's Aura, I needed to divide them into 6 skills. So 2 skills per role was needed.

R/Mo Long Range Warrior build

10+2 Beast Mastery
8+1 Expertise
7+1 Marksmanship
10 Smiting Prayers
4+1 Wilderness Survival

Ferocious Strike {E}
Melandru's Assault / Troll Unguent
Maiming Strike
Call of Haste
Symbiotic Bond
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Balthasar's Aura

I don't know if it is, but I think Brutal Strike is probably the most damaging attack that a pet has which is tied with Melandru's Assault in terms of damage. Though as far as that is concerned, I think I'll do more dmg vs. someone in arenas more often with Melandru's since Brutal is somewhat weak without their hp being low to start with. However, people have enchants on them most of the time. [heh heh heh, mending...] So Melandru's Assault should easily fit the bill [and splash dmg too].

In Random Arena, where a monk is sometimes there and sometimes not, Troll Unguent, though shitty I won't argue, will keep me going should the pet get clobbered. 50% dmg removed from the pet is NOT a bad idea and is probably the best defense I'll get for my energy. +1 hp regen isn't bad either...

In terms of containment vs. dmg... Stuffing their escape with Call of Haste and Maiming Strike should help with keeping Balthasar's Aura up in their face and to feed this monstrous nuke every 15s, I'd say 2 Ferocious Strikes should be enough.

Anet should allow some form of condition/hex removal to Beast Masters but I guess that'd make them too overpowered. [they get them from a monk secondary but perhaps making comfort animal or a new skill that heals, and cures both conditions and hexes but more expensive would work too]. Thankfully, very very few people would aim at a pet even if told to...

I was using an icey half-moon for my bow due to being a former r/e ice high build, but now that I don't want to be anywhere NEAR my foes, I'd like to try and find a Flatbow of some sort. Something fast, but ranged as well. Sure I'd be missing but who cares? My bow is just there to add to the massive dps the pet with Aura would deal. I'm wondering what bowstring. I'm guessing Crippling since Maiming Strike cripple is affected by my bowstring and Zealous won't help since Flatbow misses vs. a moving enemy usually. [but I'm supposing it crits more since its high arc suggests several headshots...] If not Crippling, what would be a good bowstring to carry? [no % to occur effects please, I don't want a 'chance', I want something certain...] It's of Fortitude... [high armor doesn't really help too much due to my defense being high already...damn armor ignoring degen....]

yknow, im just gonna go adapt your build to 4-4 and try it out you almost have me convinced the pet is invincible

by adapt i mean take out something like call of haste and put in whirling and make sure i have troll. that way i last > 2 seconds. tell ya how it goes ^^

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blah i might take some time to test it... lotsa hoh'ing and were making this new guild and its really weird and yea... might take some time to test it =/

havent forgotten about it tho

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I'd be especially wary of a 4 w/r team of IWAY coupled with Battle Rage {E}

Imagine, frenzied warriors running and gaining double adrenaline repeatedly AS WELL AS OVER 10 pips of energy regen [which counters any enemy degen skills] forEVAR!!!

At any rate, I've tested Symbiotic Bond both for farming and for pvp purposes. I must say 0_0. It will get YOU killled if you're not careful, however, with Troll Unguent [which will only be casted while you're hiding behind a hill like the coward you are], the pet will be nigh unkillable.

I'm considering dumping Ferocious Strike {E} for Marksman's Wager {E}. Why? I get a LOT more energy nailing foes with Marksman's over 12s. then Ferocious, my only gripe is that when you use a pet skill, your ranger immediately stops whatever he's doing for one second. [which is stupid. Why must you stop moving for your pet to do something? What you doing? shouting commands to it?] Can't one shout and shoot at the same time?

I've decided to chuck Melandru's Assualt for Disrupting Lunge. It's just too spammable for me to ignore and it's like a much more dangerous version of Disrupting Chop/Distracting Shot. I pray I have enchant removal on my teammates...

I run a R/Mo pet build, but I don't use the Monk part.
It's focused on disrupting and interrupting, with some damage added into it.

Beast Mastery 12+1+3
Marksmanship 8+1
Expertise (rest)+1
Wilderness Survival (the 1 or 2 att points left)+1
I use a Poisoner's Short Bow of whatever for the faster refire rate.

Disrupting Lunge
Bestial Pounce
Disrupting Shot
Crippling Shot
Apply Poison (just for an added degen damage)
Call of Haste
Charm Animal
Resurrection Signet

Although it leaves me completely open, people still don't have Rangers and its pets as primary targets. It's a good build, not only for the disruption, but because even if you lose your pet, you'll still be able to help your team. Also, with Call of Haste, the pet attacks are fast enough to disrupt a 2 second cast you're watching.

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I said "what" because that's a hypocritical statement...

Anyone with a pet who truely wants to use one for something useful other than dying should treat it as a remote control warrior.

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sigh --, I meant I didn't use the Monk part. My mistake.

There u go. However, by not using the monk part, I'm certain you're losing quite a lot in terms of both versatility and raw DPS..

When you said you were considering dumping Ferocious Strike for Marksman's Wager, what bow were you planning to use so that moving targets wouldn't be as big of a deal?

I loved the idea of using the pet as a remote controlled warrior, but it would seem like in PvP Ferocious Strike would shine over Marksman's simply because the pet would track a moving target better and losing energy due to Marksman's goes against fueling the aura.

I say it would seem because I didn't know if you planned to test the Marksman's bit in PvP... Ferocious is nice since you can tell the pet to go attack something, hit Ferocious well in advance to start the refresh... and then when the pet finally makes the attack reap the benefits... with another Ferocious to quickly follow.

Marksmanship - 8 (9)
Beast Mastery - 11 (15)
Expertise - 9 (10)
Smiting Prayers - 8 (18 dmg per sec Balth's)


Ferocious Strike {E}
Disrupting Lunge
Symbiotic Bond
Call of Haste
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Whirling Defense
Balthazar's Aura

Ah well, going to try it out and see how it functions tomorrow... this version could end up just being good for farming. Something I don't mind. At 14 BM Ferocious nets 10 energy, but I wanted to see if the crits were more noticeable today so I bumped it up to 15.

i'd still take FS over MW. the reason being is that numerous times in pvp i had my target duck around some wall or beneath a bridge where arrows cant reach (thus you loose your precious energy). where as Mittnes my wolf ran down the aforementioned target and swiftly pounced .

all the while i was impeding his movement with meteor (was running the "sun tamer" build at that instant, do a search for it if ya'd like) so that kept my taget's options kind of limited in terms of where/how far they could run off.

Not really to related to your build, which seems to be effective, as ive tested but thought i might as well submit the beast build i run, which seems to work quite well.
Attributes
16 beast mastery
9 expertise
11 marksman
4 wilderness

Ok so as you can tell its primary beast, but the thing i like about it is as a ranger using your bow, your still effective.
Skills

incienary arrows {E} -the reason i have wilderness at 4 is because at 3 WS it burns for 1 second, so at 4 it burns for 2 seconds which is really all that is needed because if your using a short bow like i am there is usually the right amount of time to keep them burning non stop while it is running, also making it 3 second burn requires that you really put your wilderness quite high.

Pen arrow- This was the skill i found worked the best as "your" damage attack, sure brute strike would work alittle better but this build really is about feeling your actully not fully relying on your pet yet having your pet at its best.

Disrupting lunge- This attack really does shine for me as a beast mastery skill, with half the recharge time of distracting and adding damage instead of limiting it. However the problems with it are, you cannot really time it to a skill, like you can with distracting and it also only interupts skills not general actions like dis does.

Res sig- Although some people may disagree i think everyone should equip this skill, athough my play ground is mainly the random arena so thats probably why i have this opinion.

Whirling defense- This is my only protection for myself i bring, it really only counters warriors, well the ones that dont bring wild blow but i still think it saves me afew times, with people changing targets when they see, hmm this ranger seems to be evadeing me

Call of haste, Charm and comfort animal- While i really like call of protection in pvp not many people seem to attack pets and with charm animal healing 110 and reviving to 61% health, it doesnt seem to important to bring it over haste, also it really is a joy to see a monk or something trying to run away from a huge bear running twice as fast Hehe also, good pets to bring are big ones like moa birds and bears, cause it really is funny and makes a round worth it when you see a warrior get stuck behind or besides them, and just sit there for 30 seconds not understanding that they need to take control themselves

But yeah, like i said not really topic realated, but if it can maybe point someone in the beastmastery direction it is sure worth it for me.
Anyway nice pet build you got there with using balthzars, and sure is fun to play

dont waste your points in markmanship if you are using a pet...

I have made a post about this kind of build yesterday at http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=62141, although I just noticed this tread today.

Build I currently use:

Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
-Call of Haste
Energizing Wind
Balthazar's Aura
-Oath shot (E)
-Whirling defence
Res sig

(a - in front of it means you can use another skill of you liking instead)

To be honest, I find my build a bit more effective. Dont waste so much skill slots for pet defence or attacks that basicly just do more damage. If you want to do more damage with mellee attacking that much just use Strength of Honor. As for pet defence, comfort animal is enough: It heals 100+ hp for only 6/7 energy (depending on how much you spend in expertise), and has a very low recast time. Pets dont get attacked a lot, if it takes damage, its mostly because of AoE skills (you have to watch out with those).
I can't believe nobody has even mentioned Energizing Wind yet... Its a BM skill for crying out loud. Instead of 25 energy, you pay 10, saving 15 energy. Not using ferocious strike makes you able to use an other elite skill. Since your using energizing wind, that gives you a longer recharge time (enemy too though), using oath shot isn't such a bad idea. Concussion shot also only costs 10 energy, when it hits, and when both you and your pet are attacking the dazed enemy, not a lot of spells will get through (if any).
It also gives room for a massive 8vs8 pet team with at least 5 pets, all with BA on them, attacking the same target, while the rangers can use their best fun to use bow skills on another target. (lots of physical attack=necro curse bonus! Lots of dieing enemies and pets=bone minion party! This team build is necro play ground! necro is my fav prof btw!). but more about the pet team in the tread I posted yesterday.

BTW: bow string of enchanting= 12 second BA instead of 10. so 20x12=240 dmg per pet (1200 dmg with 5 pets in a short time of 12 seconds every 20 seconds). of couse, this doest include the dmg the pet himself does and the ranger's bow

Try a pure ranger BM. You can toss some disrupting in there. Disrupting Lunge pwns 2_2

Whoo hah!! [I'm not getting UW spider, too damn hard now with the current monsters there ;_;]

Ran a little dmg conversion testing using new stats. Now like a Crit monster warrior! Now that it's been confirmed pet behaves like having 16 weapon mastery warrior.

12+1+3 Beast Mastery
8+1 Expertise
7+1 Marksmanship [min req. for bow]
8 Smiting Prayers (I lose 20 dmg total from Balthsar's Aura however... big whup)

Ferocious Strike {E}
Predator's Pounce
Comfort Animal
Otyugh's Cry
Call of Protection
Charm Animal
Balthsar's Aura
Ressurection

This is the pve version used for either soloing or in a party. When in a party, use Ressurection and if not, sub in Call of Haste for it. Fast moving/attacking pet is awesome. The pet at lvl 20 will have soo much armor protection and damage reduction, that even an Aatxe will take more than 4 swings to kill it. [lol] In pvp, the pve [all on one] thinking is removed and we get Remote Controlled offensive tank warrior.

Ferocious Strike {E}
Disrupting Lunge
Maiming Strike
Call of Haste
Call of Protection
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Balthasar's Aura

If you think you desperately need it, you can sub in res signet for disrupting lunge instead. But you can hack off 180 hp using your Balthasars and the dmg from the F. Strike is quite high netting back 10 e. every 8s. That's CRAZY energy regen. If a warrior decides to stand next to your pet to hit it, Comfort will heal a huge amount and can be nearly spammed due to F. Strike. If we're in random arena, I suppose getting Symbiotic Bond mixed in there somewhere might help in place of Call of Protection. Might want to sub in some points for wilderness survival or healing prayers for Troll Unguent or Healing Breeze to counter the dmg dealt to both of you.

But even with a few points in in healing/wilderness, the regen is still the 'bare minimum' if not non-existant.

Yay for pets!