A guide to pets, by Jenosavel and Epinephrine

Lol, that's creative, it's a portable res shrine :P

Cute, I'll have to do that next time I need a pet

Guys, i need your experet advice on the way i will take to train further my pet. What i did so far was to train a lvl. 5 Stalker in Alkali Pain as dead (killing foes as a wurm-the pet did not get any hit) up to lvl. 10. I switched afterwqards to the Gates of Kryta killing margoyles ...it has evolved to lvl. 13 as a Playful. What style shall I adopt now to: a) have it evolving to Elder and b) have it evolve to Dire. And please can someone more experienced (and i have seen that there are a lot of people here very active in this post that are indeed very experienced) what are the advantages of having a Dire versus having an Elder?

Thank you very much in advance,

KA

Dire-more damage, less hp. Elder, middle of the road. Hearty, more hp, less damage. It's all in the first few posts on page one of the thread, which you can get to by clicking "<<First". As for the evolution, I don't know those answers, sorry.

Uni, thanks anyway for your reply...i'll wait a little bit then i'll start a random training program and see the results.

KA

I'll post a quick answer:
You can't evolve it to Dire; evolution to Dire has only been observed from Aggressive.
Both Aggressive and Playful can evolve to Elder.
Playful can evolve to Hearty.

There is roughly a 15% bonus to base damage for a Dire pet (compared to Elder), with a 60 health penalty to balance it.
There is roughly a 15% decrease in base damage for a Hearty pet (compared to Elder), with a 60 health bonus to balance it.

Nobody is quite sure what the "best" evolution is, as the effects are varied. Obviously Dires do the most damage, with the least health, while Hearty has the least damage and the most health.

When the guide was written the attack skills did much less damage, so the proportion of the damage the pet dealt that was affected by the Dire/Hearty evolution mattered a fair bit. Now the damage from skills is very large, and this bonus damage is not affected; the hit from an Enraged Lunge will only vary a few points between a Dire and a Hearty pet, but a 120 health difference is pretty substantial. As a result of the increases in pet attack skill damage, more people are leaning toward Elder/Hearty pets, and simply making up the damage with attack skills; the difference between a base 420 health and a base 540 health are pretty important when the pet comes under fire.

An additional complication has arisen of sorts; while it was suggested that Hearty pets are best to tank for a player and that Dire pets may be the best to attack with the lower health of the Dire pet may in fact prioritise it as a target, while the higher health of the Hearty may make it a less favorable target, and thus aggro fewer foes. In a sense then, the Hearty pet may be a worse tank, in that it may gather and hold aggro less effectively.

I'm torn myself, I like the added damage a Dire pet deals, even if it's a small effect. If it's worth having a 16 instead of a 15 in an attribute it may be worth it to have a Dire pet. The flip side is that a Hearty pet does survive better, so it may spend more time dealing damage. Elder is a compromise.

Thank you very much Epinephrine for yor answer. As you have stated, mine has evolved to Elder...and I was a little disapointed. But now I have decided to keep it as it is and i'm even glad it has evolved that way. I think that a lot of rangers that use pets in their builds are also thorn apart between these choices..and until AN decides to allow the Rangers to collect variously evolved pets this will be allway a subject for lively debates.

Thank you once again for taking the time to answer my questions.

KA

hey i heard that lions do slightly more dmg than other pets, does anyone know for sure? or are they the same as others?

NO pet does ANY more or less damage than another pet, this would cause imbalance and imbalance would make ANet very unhappy, and the nerf bat would strike. Hey Ep has anyone figured out the damage types of the factions/nightfall pets yet?

Oh and Khorr to throw in my two cents on what Ep said, Dire is mainly for PvP, Elder is for a little bit of both, and Hearty would be for PvE.

My reasoning behind this is, that in PvP people have learned to not attack the beast but focus on the master. While in PvE some of the mobs may take a less "intelligent" route and attack the pet, and with the large numbers of PvE mobs that can overwhelm a pet that has low health very quickly. Elder is the ultimate middle ground, it can go either way and noth make too much difference, I also believe that raising an Elder Pet is the hardest too, since you have to switch play styles in mid raising a pet..anyway gl with everything. Great job Ep and Jeno, love the guide.

Happy Hunting,
Kij

Yea, I know how you feel. To deal with this I have one of my rangers with a hearty wolf and trained a hyena dire on my other ranger. I don't think I would make another ranger to have a elder pet though.

I duno ^^ in PVP, if its a Rampage Thumper, best to blind the ranger, then kill the pet.

Wow, an amazing guide, I'm sorry I didn't find it sooner. Thanks so much to you two for putting it together. I've always been a fan of pets, my primary character being a ranger, and this just helps with more great ideas and info.

I'm really glad I read through the whole thread and found this before I took any action. After reading most of the posts, I was all prepared to give up my Hearty Stalker for a Dire, something that I was reluctant to do because after all, we survived the sear together and nearly 1 1/2 years of adventuring. After this, it looks like Hearty is still a good option for me, so we're sticking together.

I'd just like to point out that the skill Comfort Animal has changed, as it no longer disables your skills on pet rez. Perhaps its rating deserves a re-evaluation? I've found that using comfort animal to rez and instantly following with a predator's pounce is an effective way to quickly get your pet back into the fight.

I'd be really interested to see what Nightfall has added to all of this. Jenosavel and Epinepherine, you've already put so much effort into this project that I wouldn't ask you to do more, but if it's something you do decide to tackle, I'd be more than willing to offer any assistance I can. Thanks again for an outstanding piece of work!

Too much work for just a pet in just a game :P
IMO, Not worth all that. just play and have fun

Anyways thanks..

What type of damage do reef lurkers do? I didnt see that mentioned in the guide. I'd also like to mention that the level 20 lurkers found in Boreas Seabed (mission) are no longer tameable as stated by GuildWiki.

gah, I think I've asked this question (or similar before). So if it doesn't evolve at lvl15, it won't evolve at all, correct? I've an agressive pet but it didn't evolve at 15

Nice work guys Really Gd Guide

Hey, I am making a Minion Master Guide, and I was wondering if I could use the same format as you guys.

BTW, EXCELLENT GUIDE!

[skill=big]Enraged Lunge[/skill]

FTW!

lol lyra, that's kinda what I said.

More on topic, hey Epinephrine and Jenosavel what kind of pets do you like to use skin wise? I prefer either a Phoenix or a Dune lizard myself, I had gotten attached to Black Widows SSing so many spider runs, but now that I stopped I'm back to my fav phoenix.

What skin...
Well, one of the best I find for BM is Moa. Tall enough to see easily, keep track of it in a fray, very easy to spot attack animation, with the attack animation well synched to the actual attack, making it easier to time using pet attacks.

I happen to like the various cats aesthetically, and my ranger currently has a Dire Melandru's Stalker named Kamuniak, but for ages I had a Moa.

The small pets I find too hard to spot in combat, and you end up having to rely on the damage numbers to indicate when your attacks are resolving; I've had small pets (Crabs, Jahai Rat and such) and just found them tougher to work with. The cats are still a little small for my taste, but I do like them.

If a bear didn't have Brutal Mauling I'd consider a bear; it was my first pet and one I wish I could use, but I can't justify dropping my damage output 30% for the look. It's big, easy to spot and a decent skin, and the atacks are synched to the animation pretty well.

According to guildwiki, Brutal Mauling is an attack and can trigger Paragon Shouts.

Maybe thats what it does.

Iunno, I still wouldn't use it. But I still find that interesting.

According to guildwiki, Brutal Mauling is an attack and can trigger Paragon Shouts.

Maybe thats what it does.

Iunno, I still wouldn't use it. But I still find that interesting.

gotta remember that Guildwiki can have stuff put in by ANYONE.. so I doubt that is completely correct.. perhaps someone should test it and take a screenshot..

It's been tested. The Anthem skills all trigger on attack skills, and the bear uses an attack skill.

Brutal Mauling is a 4 adrenaline attack skill. You can preven a bear from using it by hexing him with Soothing Images, or by enchanting the target with Sympathetic Visage, or other ways to prevent him using adrenaline. You can up the rate of use by increasing the bear's adrenaline gain. I haven't tried blasting a bear with Signet of Rage, but I bet that'd work too, getting the bonus damage.

Despite this potential bonus, bears still suffer reduced damage.

One word:...Woah. Very Nice job. whoops,more than 1 word.

I read the guide Dralspire wrote up, and improvised a little. This is how I changed it, and I think it's quite a bit faster this way.


Monk Hero:
0 Healing
High DF
8+ Inspiration

Ether Signet
Energy Tap
Healer's Boon {E}
Holy Haste
Restore Life

Necro Hero:
High Blood

Blood is Power {E}
Blood Renewal


I buy two pieces of armor from Shing Jea or Kamadan. I apply a superior rune to each, whatever is 100g at the time. I wipe out the area, then get naked except for the 2 armor pieces. This lowers your total HP by 150. You can take warrior secondary for Frenzy and Heal Sig to speed up the pet's kills if you like. I think Elemental Resistance would work also.

Once I build up 60 DP, (vampiric weapons help), it's pretty much a leveling train. 1.5 second resses ftw. If you can get a buddy to leave his char afk, it's even faster. Flag your monk hero on your corpse and make sure they're on the peace mode, you should be able to afk your pet to dire.

Once your pet is 15-20, put your armor back on and tame the sucker.


:Concerns: I actually haven't tried this with a necro hero yet. I just stuck Healer's Boon, Holy Haste, and the res on my monk. She runs into energy issues. It might be possible to forgo the necro, but it makes it harder to solo the area as well. (If that's a concern)
Hope you guys enjoy, and hope this doesn't get nerfed in some way!

First, I'd like to say, to Epinephrine and Jenosavel, fantastic guide! In the nearly 2 years now I've been playing the under-appreciated Beastmistress, I never saw a more thorough and well-researched treatise on Pets than this one, you both deserve major cookies!

I was one of those first brave few to Charm a pre-sear Black Bear in the opening days of Prophecies, and my Blackjack became a constant and much-loved companion, so much so he stayed by my side through thick & thin everywhere I went, all the way through completing the first campaign. After we finally got the 'name reset' function, did I find he was indeed Hearty, as I'd assumed all along, for he was monstrous in size! He dwarfed my diminutive frame by so very much that screenshots of us together were deemed Photoshopped, until the naysayers saw us together in-game. It was only about a month after Factions was released that I finally allowed old Blackjack to retire, he'd been my beloved Bear for over a year at that point, he'd more than earned his battle scars, and deserved a peaceful rest. I was eager at that point to get a White Tiger (to match my 'White Huntress' theme) and train it to Dire, which promptly came to pass, and she is with me still. But all is not well in the woods, I'm now realizing, much to my dismay!

I understand and acquiese to this point, and my Hearty Blackjack suffered even more with his stats, but I'd found that pure damage output was not the best use to put him to, at least in those halcyon days. His enormity had made him the penultimate 'brick wall' to gather and hold the enemy beasts, with proper pre-battle positioning, something I find seriously lacking in the current White Tiger. The same mobs of beasts that, in the past, would get securely 'stuck' before the Bear, now routinely just side-step the White Tiger and come charging at us, as if the cat was a mere treestump!

As you've stated somewhere earlier in this thread, testing the blocking ability of the various Pets wasn't/isn't really possible, with just far too many uncontrollable variables for repeatable accuracy, and only Anet really knows the actual sizes of each Pets' 'bounding box' or underlying skeletal framework... but after all that time with the Bear, my playstyle evolved to rely on his ability to stop them dead, so we could drop them dead. Now with the White Tiger, I find my tried & true learned methods of battle are, for the most part, far less effective than before...

So in that vein, I would put forth that, while the Bears do indeed have somewhat less damage-per-second than the rest of the menagerie, their sheer physical size more than makes up for that shortcoming... it may well be Anet designed them in just that way, not for max damage, but for 'decent' damage with max blockage? I know this is just a theory, but my own observations over such a length of time surely point towards confirming it, if nowhere else than in my mind, and perhaps anyone with the patience to listen to my tirade.

To put it another way: the various birds, reptiles, and cats are at their best in the role of single-target spikers that can tear an enemy apart quickly, the Assassins of the animal kingdom, as it were... while the lonely, misunderstood Bear shines most brightly as the veritable Abrams Tank, a large, imposing, impassable wall that entire mobs of enemies bunch up against and get stuck on, while still holding his own with damage output in a secondary capacity, so the rest of us can tear them apart quickly!

I've become fond of the White Tiger, but... by Melandru, I am so missing my faithful Blackjack these days... *sniff* had I known then what I know now, we'd still be adventuring, and growing old together, side-by-side as we always were...

I noted on the page before this one, Sir Epinephrine, that the Bear remains one of your favorites as well... perhaps 'tis time we both gave them a second chance, with an eye toward defense as opposed to pure offense? Especially if they can trigger on Paragon Anthems and the like now, maybe they'll finally get some much-deserved love that has been lacking up to this point!

Great guide.
One thing though, I dont know if this has been mentioned (didnt read through all 16 pages) but it is still possible to charm bears in pre. http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Black_Bear
I know it works because I have done it succesfully.

Yep, discussion about it on page 6.
Edit: And that was an enjoyable read, thanks Kil Kit

The agressive lions/Lioness in Jahai Bluffs spawn level 12

I have an Aggressive orange tiger lvl 19 it never turned to Dire. Does any one know why.?????????

Simply Amazing job on this tremendous guide. You deserve something others will only dream about for the amount of time you spent on this.

My level 20 Ranger started with 77 deaths. By the time the level 5 Warthog had reached level 20, i had 415 deaths.

415
-77
338


It takes 338 deaths to death level a pet to level 20.

i am tooo lazy to look thru this guide to see if anyone answered this question and its probably a no, but can u get rid of ur heroes pets?

sweet, answered ALL of my questions

Hi guys I wish I'd found this guide sooner!

My question is that I have a Stalker from Proph 16 months ago so I'm pretty attached to her and she is named after my warrior. If I remove her name to see what she evolved into (Elder, Dire or Hearty) can i then rename her with the name she has currently? I don't want to risk losing her name.

Thanks guys

Remote Ranger & 'Cleocatra'

Hi Cleo,
Yeah you can reset and rename your pet as much as you like
Just.. /petname .. to check (I'm guessing hearty)
and .. /petname "name here" ... as always
Good luck!

Thanks Chic !! Yes it was hearty - as is now cleocatra again!

Cheers

can someone plz pm me and tell me the location of black widows? this thread is very helpful but all it says is that they can be foundin the underworld. however where is that? and how do i find it? i hav done all missions exept for last one on that volcanic island (prophecies) so can someone plz pm and giv me directions lmao. sorry guys, exellent thread tho

The black widows spawn at/near each reaper after you've finished their specific quest. Humorously enough, someone made an idiotic post bringing this thread back to life after year today...
read here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3003197


basically 3 quests. kill everything in start chamber, take quest: 'Clear the chamber', kill squids, follow quest pointer killing everything. dont take any new quests yet. head to the vale, kill everything up to and around the reaper's spawn point. go BACK to first reaper and take only 'Restore the monuments of grenth' then go back to the cleared vale and you'll find new friends, kill em. talk to the reaper, get the quest 'Wrathful spirits' and kill all the bad guys in town first! Leave the ranger who wishes to cap near the reaper while everyone else goes to kill the ones on the hilltop. Very soon after the last spirit dies, the spider will spawn (red) near the reaper. Charm it, and go kill some smites while you are there.

Is anyone else as excited as I am about the purported changes in both the beastmastery line (like for example [skill]Otyugh's Cry[/skill] won't be more useless than keystone signet anymore...) as well as the rumored 'pet controls'?

Bears are cool. My sins got a bear that's bigger than here. Fun times going exploring

But, personally my favourite pet is the warthog, with my Warrior having his faithful Miss Piggy as his companion now for 13 months from pre all the way through the 3 campaigns

One thing I do like that they changed since I started playing is that now when you res your pet your skills aren't disabled again, as they were when I started

kind of the same as death penalty for pve pets, since they arent penalized with dp, you get penalized with skill shutdown. and like dp, if you've just recently ressed you have a 'safe period' where even if you die again, no penalty.