*Updated* Ultimate Pet Guide

Ultimate Pet Guide - V2.0


-- :: BEASTMASTERY :: --

At 0 BeastMastery (BM), your pet does 35% damage and at 12 BM it does 100% damage. Weapon masteries after 12 have diminished power increases. It's really just not worth the trouble, the expense and the drain on your HP to go up to 16 on weapon mastery attributes. BeastMastery seems to follow the pattern, so you should be good at 12 BM, unless you want to crank the most out of your pet heals and attack skills.


Attribute Level --------- Pet Damage Increase

0 --------- 35.60%
1 --------- 38.60%
2 --------- 42.00%
3 --------- 45.90%
4 --------- 50.00%
5 --------- 54.50%
6 --------- 59.50%
7 --------- 64.80%
8 --------- 70.70%
9 --------- 77.10%
10 -------- 84.10%
11 -------- 91.70%
12 -------- 100.00%
13 -------- 104.00%
14 -------- 107.00%
15 -------- 109.00%
16 -------- 110.00%

*Pet damage is tied to your level of Beast Mastery. The higher your attribute level is the greater damage your pet does.*


Base Damage:

Level 5 Pet = In Testing
Level 10 Pet = In Testing
Level 15 Pet = In Testing
Level 20 Pet = In Testing

All pets have the same base damage


Armor Levels:

Level 1 Pet = AL 4
Level 2 Pet = AL 8
Level 3 Pet = AL 12
Level 4 Pet = AL 16
Level 5 Pet = AL 20
Level 6 Pet = AL 24
Level 7 Pet = AL 28
Level 8 Pet = AL 32
Level 9 Pet = AL 36
Level 10 Pet = AL 40
Level 11 Pet = AL 44
Level 12 Pet = AL 48
Level 13 Pet = AL 52
Level 14 Pet = AL 56
Level 15 Pet = AL 60
Level 16 Pet = AL 64
Level 17 Pet = AL 68
Level 18 Pet = AL 72
Level 19 Pet = AL 76
Level 20 Pet = AL 80

All pets have the same AL and Health


-- :: Inherit Names :: --

Inherit Names and what they do are still widely debated. There are many theories on what each evolution gives. This seems to be the common theory.

Aggressive --> Dire or Elder
Playful --> Hearty or Elder

Aggressive = +1 Damage / -30 Health
Dire = +2 Damage / -60 Health

Playful = -1 Damage / +30 Health
Hearty = -2 Damage / +60 Health

Elder = +/- 0 Damage / +/- 0 Health


Evolutions

Pets will evolve into either the Aggressive or Playful evolution at level 11. They will then proceed to evolve into either the Dire, Hearty or Elder evolution at level 15.

Playful --> Hearty

To make your pet follow this evolution path, you should have 0 points into BeastMastery. Just equip Charm Animal and let your pet tag along while you level it with whatever build you are using. Even while your pet is dead, it will still be gaining experience points. A Hearty pet is much larger then an Elder or Dire.

Aggressive --> Dire

To make your pet follow this evolution path, you should be focusing on BeastMastery. Put atleast 9 points into BM and equip your skill bar with BM skills. Your pet should be doing most of the damage and killing and try not to let your pet die too often.

Playful --> Elder or Aggressive --> Elder

To make your pet follow this evolution path, you should play one style until your pet evolves at level 11 and then play the other style until it evolves at level 15.


-- :: Misc :: --

- To change your pets name, type in : /namepet <insertnamehere>
- To reset your pets name, type in : /namepet
- Pets do not receive a Death Penalty when they die
- Jarrel the Tamer is located just outside of Old Ascalon, if you wish to tame another pet and already have one, you may give your current pet to him. Once you release your pet, you will not be able to get it back. If you give up a level 20 pet, he will give you an additional 100 gold!

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If I have made any mistakes, please let me know. Thx

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-- :: Credits :: --

I'd like to thank the following for sharing their knowledge on pets and for doing tests to make sure the information we have is accurate.

- Dragon Incarnate
- Jenosavel
- Epinephrine
- shifteleven

Available Pets:

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Black Bear



- Slashing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Shiverpeaks

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Black Widow Spider



- Piercing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Found in the UnderWorld after setting the reaper free at the monument near the tortured spirit village

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Dune Lizard



- Piercing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Crystal Desert

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Lynx



- Slashing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Kryta

Melandru Stalker



- Slashing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Reagent Valley
- Post-Searing - Found in Old Ascalon near Gate Guard Hollis (entrance to the Breach).

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Moa Bird



- Piercing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Ascalon Fields

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Snow Wolf



- Slashing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Not Available
- Post-Searing - Shiverpeaks

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Strider



- Piercing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Ascalon Fields
- Post-Searing - Not Available

*The Strider will evolve into a Moa Bird at level 3*

Warthog



- Blunt Damage
- Pre-Searing - Northernlands
- Post-Searing - Maguuma Jungle

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Wolf



- Slashing Damage
- Pre-Searing - Ascalon Fields and Reagent Valley
- Post-Searing - Not Available

In case anyone wonders, Valerius has permission to make multiple posts since the images were "unpostable" in a single post.

I know it is documented everywhere that the attack bonus for the Dire pet is +2 and the attack bonus for the Elder pet is +3. However, I've done my own testing of the relative damage between an Elder and Dire since the update making their damage visible, and those values are very clearly incorrect. I took a level 15 Dire and a level 15 Elder out into Old Ascalon and let them beat up on 5 different varieties of enemies while only having 1 point in Beastmastery (I had a rune and didn't feel like making new armor just for the test). I carefully documented the damage range reached on each foe killed until each of the pets had killed 24 of each type of enemy I was dealing with. By that point, definite damage ranges had emerged, and the Dire undoubtedly has higher attack than the Elder by approximately 1.142%. 1.142% of 15-28 comes out to be approximately a +3 attack bonus.

I didn't come up with exact damage values for the Dire or the Elder because my purpose was only to test the preconcieved notion that the Elder is better on all counts than the Dire pet. Nothing else ArenaNet has done has created one uber anything, and as such I didn't believe pets would be subject to such imbalance. My test fulfilled its purpose and illustrated that while the Dire pet's health may be significantly reduced in comparison to the Elder, it has an attack boost to counteract that.

Ok, I'm confused as to why you, or the original topic, decided to call 'damage at attribute 0' base damage, and then also say that damage at attribute 0 is only 35.6% of base damage, while attribute 12 is 100%.

Either attribute 12 is the base damage, or attribute 0 is, it can't be both ways. However you choose to arrange it, BOTH sets of data have to use the same base, not 2 different ones.

So, (assuming that at attribute 12 that damage is 17-28) either the percentages should be as follows, and the base damage numbers should remain the same;

0 --------- 100%
1 --------- 108.80%
2 --------- 117.60%
3 --------- 128.52%
4 --------- 140.00%
5 --------- 152.60%
6 --------- 166.60%
7 --------- 181.44%
8 --------- 197.96%
9 --------- 215.88%
10 -------- 235.48%
11 -------- 256.76%
12 -------- 280.00%
13 -------- 290.12%
14 -------- 299.60%
15 -------- 305.20%
16 -------- 308.00%

Or the percentages should remain the same and the base damages should be listed as (Numbers derived from original numbers /.356);

Level 1 Pet = 8-14
Level 2 Pet = 11-17
Level 3 Pet = 14-22
Level 5+ Pet = 17-28

If the math is done correctly. Regardless, I know at 12 beast mastery that my pet isn't dealing 6-10 damage, so something is wrong from the original post, even if only labels were written poorly.

I have been wondering about dire as well... it made no sense that with -60 hp one would still be bad in damage comparing to an elder, which didn't make alot of sense. Was the attack speed different by any chance?

And also... from my own experience with Otyr's cry, that thing does NOT effect your own pet but only the pet in the wild. My thought was, if the pet was not made to target the thing, obviously the pet is pretty much uneffected by the skill, therefore I didn't push on with the test. If someone want to test if the armor still do add on, feel free to do so =P

I wasn't testing for attack speed, so I couldn't say definitively on that. It has appeared to be the case in the past, however, that varying attack speeds between pet types were aesthetic, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was no real difference in attack speed here either.

Also, I haven't exactly tested Otyugh's Cry, but from my casual observation (as 90% of my time in-game is spent soloing with my pet) its armor buff does apply to your pet. The difference in health loss is quite easy to pick out when there are 3 griffons beating on your pet at once.

It is unfortunately true, however, that Otyugh's Cry doesn't make your pet attack your targetted enemy. I think it's important to note that it doesn't make the animals in the area attack your target either though. It makes them aggressive towards your target, which is a small but prominent difference. This just means that they won't mingle happily, not that they will rush in to kill that particular enemy. Usually the level 5 critter will wander around until it notices the group to which your targetted foe belongs (this is usually instant unless your positioning is interesting, the short range makes it hard to hit both an enemy and a nearby critter without the two being on top of one another, but I have seen it happen), at which point it will then rush to the closest enemy of that group and start attacking. The enemy the animal attacks and the one you cast Otyugh's Cry on are rarely the same one. The restriction seems to be based around the group rather than the individual enemy. Since your pet already is aggressive towards enemy type monsters, it's no surprise that Otyugh's Cry doesn't propell it into action.

Personally, I would like to see a couple of things. 1) I would like Otyugh's Cry to become enemy specific rather than enemy group specific. 2) If no other pet control commands are on the way, I'd like to see Otyugh's Cry work as a means to send your pet into battle ahead of you. 3) In order for the above to function, Otyugh's Cry would have to see an increase in range. Having to move into aggro range to cast it won't help you send your pet into the action first.

EDIT: With regards to the pet evolution paths, the Hearty pet can still be gotten instead of the Elder with 12 points in Beastmastery. I'd like someone to verify my observations, but it seems that the problem occurs when one puts equal focus on Marksmanship and Beastmastery (12 points in each, skills from both lines being used). I think this is important to note, since a 50/50 Marks/Beast build that uses the remaining points in Expertise seems to be common. Few people are willing to give up their bow, and during the training phase of one's pet this can cause an evolution you don't want.

I thought the more damage dealt by your pet the more likely to turn Aggresive/Dire, and the more damage taken the more likely to turn playful/hearty.

well... yeah... i already have that listed in my post

Isn't the wolf available post searing at Nothern Shiverpeaks? Like just outside Ice Cave?

that would be a Snow Wolf

I Just wanted to mention the fact that pets evolve at Level 20 Also. I tamed a Elder Black widow and now that u can reset pet name to see its evolution, I found that mine has evoled in a Hearty Black Widow.


PS. U can See the Pets name Before you Tame it (hold alt or high light target), SO yes I know it was a Elder Black widow when I Charmed it. And Yes it turned into A Hearty Black Widow

pets should not evolve again after level 15. i solo a lot with my pet and it has not changed from it's Hearty stage. my guess is you got a Hearty Black Widow before the recent update ( the one where you can now reset your pets name to default ) and you had already named your pet so you couldn't tell which evolution stage it was at? iono...

I'm going to back Valerius up on this one. I've soloed with my pet for a tremendous number of hours and it's never budged from Hearty.

I find it unlikely, but not impossible, that someone tamed an Elder Widow before naming their pet. From my experiences, people always jump to name their Melandru's Stalker as soon as they first get it in Pre-sear. Only later do they wonder what evolution it might be at. Of course, up until the recent patch, if you'd named your Stalker in the beginning, you wouldn't actually have any idea what evolution your spider was at when you tamed it. It would have kept the name from your previous pet.

I'm not saying that this is what happened here -afterall, by now you could have tamed one after the patch- but I think it's quite likely.

I followed the rules to getting a elder black widow spider, but on finding it it was dire, and not elder. any1 else have this experience. And will it evr become elder? I still kinda like it cos it is even more rare.

when the Black Widow Spider spawns from the statue after completing w/e quest... it can spawn as either Dire/Hearty/Elder

i myself have a Dire Black Widow Spider and no... it won't evolve into an Elder

A Pets run speed is not tied to its’ level. As of the August 25 Update, the base run speed was increased by 20%.

From: http://www.guildwars.com/news/gameupdates.html
“Pets: Increased pets' run speed by 20%; increased pets' armor to 80 at level 20”

I somehow doubt that a +20 bonus is granted at lvl 20. I would think this implies that they now gain 4 AL per level rather than 3.

thx man... i ll change that right now

mmk... that would make a lot more sense... and that's what another player was saying to me ingame... i ll change that too

I agree that this makes a lot more sense than one giant boost at level 20 and no buffs at all up until that point. If the original post up there's going to have AL per level listed, it should probably be changed to the increments of 4.

http://guildwarsrealm.net/modules.ph...topic&t=67#289

You should take some information form that page ther to add to it!

ugh... most of that info in that thread is wrong soo...

So, do Elder Pets get no damage modifier, or +3 damage as stated on previous thread?

That's a good question which I'm not sure anyone can answer directly. To my knowledge, no real test of pet attack values have been done yet. Only recently has there been the patch making the damage visible and thus somewhat testable. It's still quite hard to control all variables and thus do such a test with any accuracy. However, it's possible to test the relative damage between the pets rather easily. Those tests have shown that the Dire pet does more damage than the Elder (see my above post for the details). Therefore, if the Elder did indeed have a +3 damage, the Dire would need to have a damage boost greater than 3, instead of only 2.

Thanks, I don't know how I missed your earlier post.

That's great news, I wanted to be consistently agressive with training my pet, and not be penalized for it!

So are you saying there's no difference between pets except for the type of damage they do?

You got it. Well other than asthetic differences, of course. Also, the bear will use its "brutal mauling" special attack, but it does not appear to do more damage than its regular attack. Also, there was a rumor that the spider had a small chance of inflicting poison, but I believe that has been disproven.

Rumours have also been made of the dune lizard using the skill " Final Thrust".

I have a dune lizard, and I have never noticed any difference in it's attack methods.

I just thought everyone would like to know that the pets respawning has been fixed! Pets now will ressurect with the party at a res shrine, and if they were still left alive when the party respawns, the pet will teleport to the res shrine with whatever hp it had left.

Let me be the first to say a heartfelt, "Thank you ANet!"

I believe "Brutal Mauling" knocks down.

And previously, you could capture a bear pre-searing. It required two people, and a very specific set of skills, but it was possible. Not sure about now (rumours of it being "fixed"). Linkity link link.

- Brutal Mauling does not KD

- u can no longer Charm Pre-Searing Black Bears... ANeT made that change a couple updates ago

just wondering..... can i get the snow wolf in the northern or southern shiverpeaks?

and anyone know a place where they "always" are?

You can find them in both; the easiest place is probably right outside Yak's Bend; if you want a head start on training them though, go to Copperhammer Mines and head north toward where Thull the Bull spawns; there are wild Elder wolves there (level 15) and they can be charmed.

What about the Bear? I have seen them in the Southerns Shiverpeaks, but dont remember seeing them up north.

I hope they are up north, I have a long way to go with my new char otherwise!

To my knowledge they are only south, but can be reached through Beacon's Perch by going south briefly - you would need an escort most likely (unless you are exceptionally tough, the enemies are level 22-24...), but there are bears in the area.

Thanks! I will keep that in mind and go Bear hunting once I reach there!

na, My Black Widow was a Elder when i tamed it and of course since i named it i wasnt able to check its evolution till update. but once update came out i checked and found that it is now a Hearty Black Widow. I also Have a Dire Black Widow with my Ranger, I can set both the Hearty and the Dire at 12 to compare and I see no dmg diffrence between the two.

Nightbreed, you are most certainly wrong. I suggest you do some more testing because there is certainly a difference in attack damage between Dire and Elder.