Essential Pets for a Versatile Ranger
Illconceived Was Na.9781
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What pets would you recommend as essential for a versatile ranger to charm, one who wants to spend as little time looking for pets in all the right places?
- For both condi & power builds.
- For fractals & raids (let's assume that covers open world PvE)
- Formerly "good" pets probably make sense, too, since we know the balance pendulum keeps swinging.
I just started a new ranger and realized that I haven't spent any time playing it because I don't want to spend much time taming pets. (Been there, done that on another ranger already. If you'll pardon the pun, the adventure of seeking them all out has lost its... charm.) Naturally, I can look up all the builds on MetaBattle, SC, DT, and so on. I thought maybe the experts & experienced rangers here might have personal preferences or their own short-list of favorites.
I don't mind if they are easy or challenging to reach. The goal is to keep the number of pets to the minimum without sacrificing adaptability.
Thanks in advance.
"Face the facts. Then act on them. It's ...the only doctrine I have to offer you, & it's harder than you'd think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, ...FACE THE FACTS. THEN act." — Quellcrist Falconer
Comments
Check https://discretize.eu for ranger fractal builds.
Check https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/ranger/soulbeast/power/ for Raid builds
and https://metabattle.com for everything else.
All 3 list best pets.
Your best thing is just to look up the builds and make yourself a short list.. you'll need to check the wiki on where to find them anyway..
Most of them use Rock Gazelle, Moa, Electric Wyvern and then a few others thrown in.
I would add smokescale to the above for casual solo/wvw. Iboga, bristleback, lynx and warthog for condi. Owl is more of a wvw/solo sustain and speed choice. Personally not a fan of jacaranda but it seems like a popular pick. Maybe fern hound if you want to power or condi druid: it's weird in that its regen acts as if you applied it and charged ca.
Land pets are pretty well covered, though I do like my canines and often run a Wolf or a Drakehound (Rurikton, DR) because I like the front-loaded CC on swap when I'm doing lazy solo PvE.
For underwater, I like the Armor Fish (by the Breachmaker in LA) for a solid CC hit. I'm not too wild about any of the other underwater options, and usually take a River Drake for power or a Lashtail Devourer for condi. I won't take a Shark, because I hate having to figure out where underwater enemies are after they've been feared.
Good luck, have fun.
Owl is one of the most used Soulbeast Pets in PvP and usually paired with either a pig/siamoth or smokescale.
The speed is nice, but the leaps on the way to nodes or to get out of a bad situation is amazing and the heal is clutch.
mhm, ok, sure, whatever you say, no after you, I insist, no really, please, be my guest,
Oh for sure. I tried giving pve/wvw advice because PvP doesn't require taming?
Oh yeah.. haha, my bad. I saw the "favorite pets" and probably ignored the rest.
mhm, ok, sure, whatever you say, no after you, I insist, no really, please, be my guest,
OK..this is from personal play...not based off any meta or anything...though it sounds like I may be doing things very similar to some of the metas.
On my power SB...you can't go wrong with the Smokescale for its knockdown and Smokescreen, plus the merge skills are on point for some quick "drive-by" melee damage. I also like the Rock Gazelle and Jaguar...I also use the different pigs when I am out to just aggravate people...:)
On my weird, off-the-wall, Condi Ranger, I use an Ice Drake and the Alpine Wolf, and sometimes the Polar Bear. I based him as a Chill monster...and its fun, but sometimes its overkill and I keep chill maxed, at the sacrifice of some damage, but that's a whole other discussion.
For a ranged condi-style...I have used Devourers and Spiders to some good effect...but that would be your call based on your playstyle and if you want general condi, or something specific.
Brown Bear is a good support pet if you need some cleanse in a party for like a Fractal...does his job and still deals good damage. Bristleback is a good range partner.
I'm a firm believer to use the pet that compliments what you are trying to do...not just because it may be the "meta". Unless that's what you are wanting to do. But it doesn't sound like it.
Most of these are easy to get, the most difficult, IMO, is the Smokescale only because he is gated behind an event.
Always willing to help others if I am able. Catch me in-game. I'm a dirty-casual with 2 kids in college, so I am on at odd times. lol
Thanks everyone for their suggestions. Here's the list I've come up with based on the comments and re-reviewing the main build websites. Anything that you'd cross off? Anything essential missing in your opinion?
Terrestial
Black Moa (requires 15 points in the GW1 HoM)
Bristleback (requires HoT)
Brown Bear
Drakehound
Electric Wyvern (requires HoT)
Fern Hound
Iboga (requires PoF)
Jacaranda (requires PoF)
Lynx
Murellow
Owl
Pink Moa
Rock Gazelle (requires PoF)
Smokescale (requires HoT)
Warthog
Wolf
Aquatic
Armorfish
Lashtail Devourer
River Drake
I hadn't noticed until attempting to put the list together that Snowcrows doesn't actually list pets for half their builds. They assume a raider will know which pets to take (which is reasonable considering their target audience). DT does and MB sort of does (although you have to recognize the icons and they don't always make it easy to find recommended alternatives). On the whole, I can imagine it's a lot harder for a player new to the game than for a veteran new to ranger gameplay.
updated: per @Bright Oblivion.2856's suggestion, included requirements for the pets
"Face the facts. Then act on them. It's ...the only doctrine I have to offer you, & it's harder than you'd think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, ...FACE THE FACTS. THEN act." — Quellcrist Falconer
As someone with 6 Rangers, I suggest charming them all... I know it's not exciting, but it's better to have them all available than not.
https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/62658/alliance-design-that-stops-the-qq
https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/62555/putting-fun-back-into-designs-and-balancing
https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/9804/idea-wvw-only-movement-skills
I agree it's better than only charming some. You're right to recommend reconsidering that.
But... I can't summon the enthusiasm for that; been there, done that. So I'm aiming for a more manageable, smaller list. Later, once I've got a useful build, I'll do some exploring and update the menagerie.
"Face the facts. Then act on them. It's ...the only doctrine I have to offer you, & it's harder than you'd think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, ...FACE THE FACTS. THEN act." — Quellcrist Falconer
Shortest possible PvE only pet list:
CC
Rock Gazelle
Electric Wyvern
Power
Smokescale
jaguar
Condi
Warthog(also CC)
Lynx
For my second ranger, I went with
My aquatic pet list is the same except for River Drake; took a shark instead.
I feel pretty well-equipped for any pve situation on that toon with this list - be it condi, power, or heals. I think I tamed a drake or two literally because they were standing in my path, but I didn't go out of my way to look for anything outside this list
One thing I'll point out (in case a new player looks at this list) is that the black moa is only available if you've got 15 HoM points. So if you've never played GW1 or are on an account that's not linked, you won't have it available.
Not a problem for you, I expect, but maybe others trying to use it as a reference of what pets to get (like I was).
Good point.
"Face the facts. Then act on them. It's ...the only doctrine I have to offer you, & it's harder than you'd think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, ...FACE THE FACTS. THEN act." — Quellcrist Falconer
I've never understood why Salamander Drake wasn't a more favored pet.
F1 is a cleaving 1k per-hit self-heal attack on a 10s timer, F2 is a blast finisher
I pretty much stay merged all the time on my condi sb, blast my own fire fields, and the heal attack + heal on poison + numerous sources of poison, I am quite bunkery even when built more for dmg.
Definitely get all pets, it takes a bit of time but imo it is worth it. Pets I run are:
Druid (Whenever I have teammates around - Fractals, Raids, Open World events, I use all variants from heal to power/condi)
Condi Soulbeast (Open World, Raids)
Power Soulbeast
Generally, I believe that one way of spotting a good druid in fractals and to a lesser extent raids is whether they swap pets to adapt to the situation and the group. Although given how good Iboga is (it is bonkers on Largos or Desmina), swapping too much doesn't help either. Regarding the Fern Hound - i believe that it's pretty trash because it offers no utility other than regen and you can cap regen for your group with either Healing Spring (amazing condi cleanse) or Water Spirit (good for single druid in raids) and/or Warhorn. The only boss where you could justify Fern Hound is one that requires no cc or utility and even then imo you better deal dps with your pet.