So, I have played 21 MMos. From Ultima, to EQ1-2, DAOC,Rift, Conan,SB,WoW and all the rest.This game has terrible pet pathing.Not why I am writing this.

2 things are way off:

1 Pet speed is horrible.

Why do I say this? Any player w/o even speed can more or less... negate any damage by slight movements ( melee pets anyway)pets just miss 99% of the time.How is it that a Lynx that runs 50 M.P.H. is slower then a guy in heavy armor holding 4 weapons usually.( 2 melee ,2 water)Speed of guy in armor with weps...1 MPH ?ALL pets should be faster then players.(ok, code for each type to have diff speeds may be a whole thing.Make ALL pets at least 2x as fast as now.)I do not make games. That said, I would bet in 30 seconds you can make ALL pets double speed.(movement)

2 Beast mastery line: Taking this, you give up so much needed stuff.The boost to pets is not much at all.

How about a flat pet DPS buff of 2-3x ?Taking pet related utilities gimps you.How about better boosts?

Birds miss so much it is crazy.

I only roam,that said : in zergs ...pets are 100% useless and die in seconds ,or less

Rangers are a pet class, how about a semi usefull pet?.

Yea you will probably need a pet buff since you play in full tank builds and rely heavily on it

I really don't understand what it's happen here ... what about was your second comment @FASTCAR.7831. Looks like you are fighting with someone ... with @Levikilla.3076 or ?

I feel like the pets are way to forced on this class, they should have just been linked with the beast mastery trait. If you trait beast mastery your pet shows up, otherwise you don't have a pet. Similar to how GW1 had it.

While the system that guild wars 2 had was arguably better, pets are an intrinsic part of the ranger class here. So yes talking about how to improve our classes mechanic is a good thing the same way it would be good to talk about problems with death shroud or shatters. Talking about how much we don't want pets isn't going to do anything for us since they're here to stay.

Guess pet should be buffed to extent it will be able to solo content while ranger/druid/soulbeast can go watch netflix.

Damage would be nice, the lack of real speed (movement) is a joke

Pets shouldnt be the go to dmg tool. They should give flexability and utility.Id rather want useful pets with reliable hits but less dmg and the ranger gets a dmg buff instead.Better petskills, better targeting, better AI.Some pets should be usable as dmg tools via the F2, others as condi spam, boon support, CC, dmg mitigation etc.Bump up the utility and the reliability and bring them in line stat wise, so they would do about the same dmg and give the F2 the function to utilize the pet to its fullest.Use the archetype system so we can swap archetypes arround to modify the pet stats and give us the abbility to swap arround F2 abbilities within the family (this is mainly cosmetic but it would give them more customization).

Oh for Levkilla (grubby )LOVE)

Can someone explain to me why pets won't get within range before using their special ability? For example, If I use the Lync's Rending Pounce to "leap at a foe and make them bleed" he will literally jump from his current location even if the targeted enemy is 1600 distance away? I don't understand. Is this a bug, or do I literally have to hold off on activating the skill until I see that my pet is within range?

Pets are just terrible

@"Xenash.1245" said:While the system that guild wars 2 had was arguably better, pets are an intrinsic part of the ranger class here. So yes talking about how to improve our classes mechanic is a good thing the same way it would be good to talk about problems with death shroud or shatters. Talking about how much we don't want pets isn't going to do anything for us since they're here to stay.

Not only that but the fact is that Anet HAS given Rangers an alternative way to NOT have a pet to manage ... so the whole "I hate pets ... but I want to be a ranger" has already been addressed as much as it will be by Anet. They made a whole elite spec around the idea ... what else do people want? The thread is like someone never heard of Soulbeast before.

As for movement speed, that is what Sic 'Em is for.

And needing the Beast Mastery tree for pets is no different than needing the Arcane tree for Elementalist, etc.

One thing that would help pets alot is making them able to survive. The way other games do this is to give the pet and the master the same health pool, so that killing either of them takes just as long (and when you dodge your pet would dodge as well, etc.).

The problem is GW2 always tries to go against established mechanics, even when its not revolutionary.

It'll never happen. Whenever rangers get any kind of pet that's viable, PvP players gnash their teeth and complain until those pets get gutted. PvP players only want rangers to be free points. Since Core Game, they're use to it and demand it. And at this point, after what happened with druids, there's no way ANet is going to buff pets in PvP or WvW. Not with the nonstop complaints.

No way.

Did a test last night in OS ( made vid, might UL and post later)Sent my stock regular pet ( lynx in this case) with no buffs or traits on a guardian who had NO speed or superspeed.No food or mod for extra dodges.

in 120 seconds ( did it 3x in a row)With just subtle movements (NOT running away)...he stayed in a 5 foot circle or so, normal dodgesin 120 sec

1 he took 3 hits

2 he took 2 hits

3 he took zero hits..ZERO

Pathing and pet speed is TERRIBLE.Pathing I get,somewhat.A cat that runs 50 MPH is slower then a guy in platemail with 4 heavy weapons...and 4-9 bags..I DO NOT get

With 30% speed buff pet hit him

1 6 times

2 5 times

3 5 times

Bit better, still sad ,useless and terrible

*Birds average 1 hit with 30% speed, zero w/e it.NOT asking for a pet with 10x the dps.Just correct movementEvery pet we have that is'nt fantasy is faster / MUCH faster then a person in armor.

**Devs : I was told you can change pet run / fly speed in literally 10 seconds.This is not a troll or diss, I have played 21 MMOs now.Worst pet mechanic in any game I have ever played...ever.

Just tested Everquest 1 pets...The game from 1999MUCH better pets, in all aspects.(DAOC also...2001 or so)Just saying

Maybe 2x base pets and trait 50-100% more?

shadelang please post for us your duels and small fights.Show us.

@Vasdamas Anklast.1607 said:Guess pet should be buffed to extent it will be able to solo content while ranger/druid/soulbeast can go watch netflix.

Yeah, basically you are asking for an cheap way to deal damage with no RISK to you at all. People don't like having to fight opponents that hide behind AI controlled pets in PVP. I actually find pets pretty strong with their skills and utilities. They should be useful but not the source for damage.

@Kahyos.1437 said:People don't like having to fight opponents that hide behind AI controlled pets in PVP.That's because getting beaten even partly by AI makes people go ballistic, because they're lazy morons who don't want to have to work to deal with them and would rather howl to Anet until they're unable to hurt you.

What they need to do is rework every single pet's skills to give them the level of functionality things like the smokescale have.

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:

@"Kahyos.1437" said:People don't like having to fight opponents that hide behind AI controlled pets in PVP.That's because getting beaten even partly by AI makes people go ballistic, because they're lazy morons who don't want to have to work to deal with them and would rather howl to Anet until they're unable to hurt you.

Well, having a AI pet do damage for you is also a pretty lazy design. And yes, I agree that pets should have functionality like a smokescale.If you want pets to do damage, then the ranger should have to control the pet (much like how you control the pet to use its abilities right now) more to make it more difficult, not just have it chase around your target auto attacking for free hits.That way, it gives complexity and also a "risk" to the ranger by having to micro a pet. This way BOTH the ranger and his opponent will play around/with the pet.

@Kahyos.1437 said:Yeah, basically you are asking for an cheap way to deal damage with no RISK to you at all. People don't like having to fight opponents that hide behind AI controlled pets in PVP. I actually find pets pretty strong with their skills and utilities. They should be useful but not the source for damage.

Okay look, I also believe that some of the older ranger pets need to be looked at if only so that they could see some play in pve/pvp/wvw/whatever, now while I do believe that pets should be buffed I also understand that not everything op is saying should be taken into consideration when talking about how pets should be changed. But I have to say this response is an odd one, I don't in any form understand why it would be a bad thing to have an AI controlled character be a threat to another player. If anything it's just laziness of another player not wanting to consider more then one target in a general pvp engagement as you've described. Hell I guess I could also just say that the entire Mesmer class is based on creating AI controlled characters to fight their opponent while also hiding behind them, and if it's okay for mesmers to have that then why not rangers?

With that out of the way I do agree with what you said partially, I do think some pets should have strong utility that they're able to bring to any given fight. But I also do believe that some pets should be capable of dishing out some damage. I don't want pets to be broken monsters in damage, and it doesn't even really have to be something all that great that they do to get the job done, i just want pets to be in a spot where they're not less threatening then a single mesmer illusion.

@FASTCAR.7831 I don't put things on youtube :) but as I said I stream regularly infact im about to go live now. Feel free to check it out on twitch.tv/shadelang_ Ill be doing pvp for a few hours today.

I didnt think so

@Kahyos.1437 said:Yeah, basically you are asking for an cheap way to deal damage with no RISK to you at all. People don't like having to fight opponents that hide behind AI controlled pets in PVP. I actually find pets pretty strong with their skills and utilities. They should be useful but not the source for damage.

Um . . . a pet is part of a ranger's DPS. In some cases, it is the main source of damage for that class. This makes rangers what they are. If you want to do away with the pets? Fine. But you better increase ranger DPS as well.

Can't have it both ways.

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:That's because getting beaten even partly by AI makes people go ballistic, because they're lazy morons who don't want to have to work to deal with them and would rather howl to Anet until they're unable to hurt you.

Sad, but ultimately true . . . apparently.

Mez pets are AI and people dont cry about themMez pets can have superspeed for gods sake

Rangers are a pet class, the pets should have a 1/2 decent / usefull mechanic.

How about if warriors sword missed 95-99% of the time due to mechanics....would people ask for a fix?

Arden is correct.Damage pets do should be more but we can deal with it. Movement speed is a total joke

Simple fix devs, make pets 50-100% faster baseincase you forgotLynx = 50MPHHuman with armor, 5-9 bags+ 4 weps = 1 MPH, maybeAlso beastmastery needs a re work.The gains are silly.You give up SOOO much for a pet that does 5% ( or less) more dps

PM from a guy that coded Age of Conan "A total re work of pathing and such is massive time and work. To just make all pets move 50-100% faster, I could do that in 15 seconds....one hand, 1 finger while eating a sammich"

Bleh done hereUnless Spvp people talk about this, it wont ever change.Anet does not care at all about us WVW folks.

Why will 90% leave for Camelot Unchained when it drops?This is one of 50+ reasons.