Best elite specialization for pet/summon focused playstyle?

[Summoner.7381]

Hello, I played the game at launch and enjoyed it for a few months before moving on to other games.  I recently got the hankering to come back and am currently playing a mesmer.  I'm looking at the various expansions and deciding which to pick up first as all of the elite specializations are tied to them.  I love pet/summon based classes so Necro was my first option but from scanning the boards it seems the necromancers elite specializations aren't really focused around minions, so I'm wondering which class is best to use if I want a playstyle focused around a pet or summons.  Any advice would be appreciated as well as a link to any guides that may shed more light on this.

[Dayra.7405]

Mechanist engie from EoD is nearly the only end-game build that uses a pet (jade bot). Is mostly welcome in parties as

• Heal Alac Mech or
• Power Alac dps Mech or
• Condie dps Mech

Soulbeasts (PoF Ranger) usually have their pet absorbed. The other rangers have it, but not sure how much they  really use it.

Some Necro builds still use a golem, but a minion master necro I rarely see anymore

Edited October 1, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Nabbut.7480]

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession

Mesmer is actually very good summoner because his clones are infinite.

Ranger haves one big pet.

Necromancer can walk around with a zoo of pretty mediocre, ugly looking minions.

[Randulf.7614]

Mechanist (engineer) would be the obvious one

[jason.1083]

Pepends on your interpretation of "love pet/summon based classes".

One you already mentioned yourself, Necromancers have their minions, although they are not the epicenter of the profession, depending on the content you want to do, you can make them work, don't feel pushed to follow the meta if you just want to do casual stuff.

Then there's the Ranger, the class where if you forget it's name you can literally just say "the pet class" and everyone will get it. Although not entirely focused around their pet, they integrate them into their skills/traits to the point where everywhere you look there's something for your pet. They swap between 2 pets just like weapon-sets, which they pick from a sizeable selection of them (each pet outside of the starting ones has to be tamed manually). 

Then as other's already mentioned, there's the Mechanist, the EoD elite spec for Engineer. This one is quite different because the core class doesn't account for the Mech that Mechanists bring to the table, thus they have their entire traitline focused completely around it, as a pet class it's quite dependent on their Mech, and if it goes away you basically end up with 2/3 of a class without any access to class mechanic skills. Because of that fact the Mech is basically the strongest summon in the game having access to both DPS and support skills/traits.

Lastly there's Mesmer, as you said you are currently playing, which is a summoner, but ofc it doesn't summon illusions to fight for it rather than just send them to explode themselves on your target or to consume them to make some skills more effective.

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

I would say it really boils down to two specs and both are End of Dragons specs, so the short answer is, pick up that expansion and you will have options for pet focused specs.

Engineer - Mechanist, End of Dragons. Very easy to play and extremely effective in open world PvE with a very easy learning curve. There are also some high tier end-game builds that use mech as well. Plus condi mech is really fun in PvP (read: everyone will hate you because it's condi bunker so sucks to be them).

Ranger - Untamed, End of Dragons. You can play switching between pets and you need to hop between pet/ranger unleashed and actively use the pet skills. Next to Mechanist this is the most "pet involved" elite spec.

Necromancer minions are rather "fire and forget" they just follow you around and attack stuff, using their activated abilities doesn't feel particularly involved (except for worm in WvW/PvP but even then that is a movement tool rather than being used for the pet itself). That said, overall the class is a flavour win. Although no elite spec particularly focuses on the minions, they are mostly associated with the core death magic trait line.

I wouldn't personally consider Mesmer as a pet class due to the temporary nature of the summons skills. If that is what you like then by all means stick with it as Mesmer has interesting builds, and if you get sick of summons you can always go Virtuoso from End of Dragons.

TLDR: End of Dragons is probably the first expansion you want to get to explore pet class options, assuming you're not bothered about tacking the story in any particular order.

[Danikat.8537]

I agree that it depends on what specifically you want from a pet or summon class, beyond just having something with you. It's also important to remember that with a few exceptions elite specs still have access to everything the core profession has, they just get extra options. For example all the Necromancer elites change how shroud works, but they all retain access to minions. The trade-off is that if you're using your utility slots for minions you can't use the elite specs utilities, but that's no different to the core profession where you can't use all the utility skills together.

I think the only ones you wouldn't want to take are the Mesmers Virtuoso elite which removes the ability to summon clones, and possibly the Ranger's Soulbeast which mainly works by merging with (hiding) the pet to gain extra skills.

I think the main ones which use the pet as part of the elite are the Ranger's Untamed spec and the Engineer's Mechanist.

Untamed gives the pet extra abilities and gives the player full control over the normal pet abilities (this does mean more buttons to deal with and more to keep track of in combat, but it's no worse than an Elementalist or Engineer). They can still swap between 2 pets as normal (and choose from all the available pets) and can swap the Untamed and Leashed effects between themselves and their pet to increase damage or defense and change the available skills. It's more complicated to play than other ranger specs, but probably the best one for feeling like you're actually fighting together with your pet instead of just having them there.

Mechanist gives Engineer's a golem to summon and control in combat (as well as fighting themselves) which works a bit like a ranger pet. It replaces the toolbelt with commands for the golem and also gives you signet skills to use, so it can actually make the engineer a bit simpler to play.

[DeanBB.4268]

Anet recently eliminated some fun (ie, not meta) options with the runes change. Once upon a time, I could run around with a bird pet, a bird mini, and a bird summoned from my runes. Or similar scenarios. Options are more limited now.

[Ashantara.8731]

20 hours ago, Dayra.7405 said:

Mechanist engie from EoD is nearly the only end-game build that uses a pet (jade bot).

Nooo....?

@Summoner.7381, I would recommend Mesmer as well. Chronomancer first and foremost to quench your thirst, but even Virtuoso creates a few Phantasms/Clones.

P.S. Mechanist is frowned upon for a reason. 😉 Its "glory days" are over, with the exception of HAM.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[evilcat.6817]

Pet: Ranger is best pet lover, you can choose 2 pets and even swap them offcombat, and you have more utility with pets, many of your perk work in the way you get some and your pet gets some.

Soulbeast merges with pet so that could be not the style. But condition Druid or Power Untamed you still have the pet and it is doing something. Also Ranger  can summon spirits, which are not great and more support team oriented but they are there.

Race: Sylvari has elite summon doggy with 60s duration, not good fighter but good duration, cld like 180s so you have decent uptime.

Summoner: Mesmer have a lot of potencial for summoning, and class interaction with it. Virtuoso have blades so not this spec, but other are ok summoners.

Engineer: There is mechanists, and there is a turret but overall it is not strong summon pet theme, as ranger.

Necro: Scourage with shadow, it is pet, but there is not that much interaction.