Any real difference between pets?

[Tukaram.8256]

I love my ranger, he is my 2nd favorite avatar to play (necro/minion master #1). He survives better than most of my others, does plenty of damage, and has an awesome feathered hat. My question is about pets.I use longbow/pet and PVE only. I keep switching around on the pets and really don't see much (any?) difference between them. I do not have all the pets, but over half, anyway.

What is everyone's preferred pet and why? I tend to just use my latest, until I get tired of looking at it, and switch back to my crow.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

Pets are not the same. Each has diferent ?F2? ability

[Tukaram.8256]

I saw on another thread that the lynx was pretty good, so I went to Lion's Arch and got one. So far it is fun. I know they have different abilities but damage wise I have yet to see any noticeable difference.

[knite.1542]

They have different stats and different abilities that you might like to use situationally. Just depends on your play style and what you are doing. Do you own the expansions? If you do you will probably notice a much bigger difference from some of those pets.

My favorites for just running around in the open world are the fire and electric wyvern, the smoke scale, and the tiger.

[Tukaram.8256]

I do have both expansions but have never seen the wyverns, my ranger did not do well in HoT. Even my necro never got that far in it :)

[knite.1542]

Yeah HoT maps are a lot more difficult than most of the core maps. Maybe you can ask for help on the lfg or map chat? I'd also be willing to help you collect some pets and things, but I wont be able to play again until next week. I could help you unlock the elite specs as well if you haven't done that.

[Revolution.5409]

@"Tukaram.8256" said:I love my ranger, he is my 2nd favorite avatar to play (necro/minion master #1). He survives better than most of my others, does plenty of damage, and has an awesome feathered hat. My question is about pets.I use longbow/pet and PVE only. I keep switching around on the pets and really don't see much (any?) difference between them. I do not have all the pets, but over half, anyway.

What is everyone's preferred pet and why? I tend to just use my latest, until I get tired of looking at it, and switch back to my crow.

The pets belonging to the same family, all have the same statistics, what changes is their ability f2.

So if you use two birds the damage will be the same, instead if you use a bear and a bird you will immediately notice that the bear is a tank, instead the bird does more damage.

Rangers is a versatile profession, each build has different pets, but I think the favorite pet is smokescale: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Smokescale

[KeyOrion.9506]

Some pets will have an ability to give you boons. Some can give out poison, or cause bleeding on your enemies. Some can cause blindness on an enemy. Some can freeze your opponent to the spot, and others can cause the enemy to run in fear. Each pet has a unique ability that can help you in any number of ways. It's best to just open up the pet panel and read what each pet can actually do.

[Tukaram.8256]

I got the Lynx, it seems fun. The smokescale and wyverns probably ain't happening. Only my necro can do HoT, so Maguma is not a good option for my ranger. I did just join a guild... so... we shall see... :)

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

@Tukaram.8256 said:I do have both expansions but have never seen the wyverns, my ranger did not do well in HoT. Even my necro never got that far in it :)

If you can get at least basic gliding in HoT, you can probably find an HP train (usually on weekends...look in LFG) to join that starts in VB and will get you all the waypoints and HPs in VB,AB,TD, and sometimes DS. That makes life alot easier, since you can WP near where the particular pet is usually found.

As for pets, I like Fanged Iboga and Jacaranda, unless the situation calls for something particular, like CC or blinds. Both are found in Crystal Desert.

[Veryl.1923]

Like always, it depends on what you are doing ingame.Like skills and traits, you choose your style how your hero stays undefeated in Tyria.

A tiger or moa can give your whole team fury or protection,Some pets work better in combination melting with them being soulbeast.

I still favor Smokescale and the PoF stonedeer because smokescale kd's (in lucky situations) and the stonedeer always kd's your enemy when he tries to finish you when you're downed. With the Scale and Deer I've managed to rally many many times in the disappointment of my enemies I KO after I get up.Rangers are stubborn creatures I say.

I played other classes and I know Arenanet wants the community to excel in every class.To me I'm just a casual maining ranger because I get confused quickly forgetting my class ingame.

If you really need two manual KD'S go with stonedeer and electric wyvernIf you feel like the team could use more support, be unique and choose a moa for protection or the sylvarian doggie.

I'd advice focusing in a way of training yourself to try every possibility of your own favored pets, corewise-Specialization wise.The way GW2 works is not only reading the traitlines in your build, but speculate different traits in different modes like soloing story.Keep changing skills/traits on the fly, and that also works with pets.

There are many ways to play ranger, in my opinion it's the most versatile class ingame.Don't be afraid to think what you need and what you want, not what a site like meta-battle or a rusty veteran tells you ;3

[KeyOrion.9506]

I use the Jacarda and Smokescale. Used to use Melandru Stalker exclusively for the boons. If your in a team, your team would prefer boons, so Jacarda (if you use Soulbeast) for the bond heal, and Melandru Stalker for the stacks of Boon.

[magic fly.2041]

I personally am using the red moa and the wolf.

When I need cc or just a backup pet, that's what the wolf is for.

The red moa is my main pet. 15 seconds of fury for everyone is really cool, and considering that I'm using the trait that makes fury stronger, it's important to me to have a good source of it.

In pvp I really like using the jaguar with it's 6 second of stealth and guaranteed critical hits.

Just play around with all the pets. You might be surprised at which ones you like.

[Hynax.9536]

As a soulbeast all pets are unique, each one will give a different combo of archetype (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast#Pet_Archetypes) and set of skills (F1,F2,F3) when merged. This helps a lot when creating builds for wvw/open world.