"You and Your Pet"

[Chrury.4627]

Hey guys. Today I'd like to bring up a conceptually small idea that could have big QoL and buff potential.The phrase "You and Your Pet".We can't directly affect the stats of our pets through gear or weapons. What we can do is trait and slot skills that improve them. So what if we just made more of those improve the pet as well?

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Here are some examples of how this little phrase could slot into some more skills and traits:

• Hunter's Gaze: You and your pet gain might when you strike a foe based on their health percent.
• Farsighted: Projectiles fired by you and your pet deal increased damage. Damage is further increased on foes above the range threshold.
• Hunter's Tactics: You and your pet gain increased chance to critically strike while attacking from behind or the side.
• Vicious Quarry: Fury grants you and your pet ferocity and additional increased critical strike chance. When struck while below the health threshold, gain fury. When your pet is struck while below the health threshold, it gains fury.
• Taste for Danger: You and your pet gain increased vitality. You and your pet gain expertise based on vitality. (The expertise conversion is already there.)
• Evasive Purity: Dodging removes a damaging condition and a non-damaging condition from you and your pet.
• Wilderness Knowledge: Survival skills have reduced recharge, grant fury, and remove conditions from you and your pet.
• Druidic Clarity: Becoming celestial avatar removes conditions from you and your pet.
• Natural Stride: Reduces the duration of movement-impairing conditions on you and your pet. You and your pet's movement speed is increased as long as you have none of these conditions.
• Second Skin: Conditions inflict less damage to you while you have protection. Conditions inflict less damage to your pet while it has protection.
• Essence of Speed: When you gain quickness, increase the duration of other boons affecting you. When your pet gains quickness, increase the duration of other boons affecting it.
• Predator's Cunning: When you apply poison to a foe, steal some health from them. When your pet applies poison to a foe, it steals some health from them.
• Oppressive Superiority: You and your pet deal increased damage to foes at a lower health percentage than you. Conditions you and your pet apply to foes at a lower health percentage than you last longer.
• Sharpening Stone: You and your pet bleed foes with your next ten respective attacks.

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There are a few more here and there that could get the same treatment but they generally involve gaining a boon. With WHaO and Fortifying Bond, I think those are less necessary.

In short, I think adding more "You and your pet" can only improve the class. And if some changes would make pets almost impossible to kill, we could always shave down pets' passive damage reduction a bit. The only real risk is skill/trait descriptions becoming a bit unwieldy. :)

Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Edit: Added Wilderness Knowledge and Second Skin to the list.Edit 2: Added Taste for Danger and Predator's Cunning.Edit 3: Added Essence of Speed and grammar tweaks.

[Ephemiel.5694]

Wouldn't this mean Soulbeasts would get most of those twice?

[Wondrouswall.7169]

What do you mean by shaving down the "pets' passive damage reduction"? You mean the one in PvE?

Also, add Wilderness Survival fury and condition removal to that list.

[Chrury.4627]

@Ephemiel.5694 said:Wouldn't this mean Soulbeasts would get most of those twice?Not necessarily. Soulbeast only just got the damage bonus from Loud Whistle on Tuesday. This and the other Soulbeast interactions (which is a whole 'nother thread worth of discussions) leads me to believe that merged effects are set on a case by case basis. ANet could add, add half (See merged Pack Alpha), or ignore the pet's bonus while merged.

@"Wondrouswall.7169" said:What do you mean by shaving down the "pets' passive damage reduction"? You mean the one in PvE?

Also, add Wilderness Survival fury and condition removal to that list.

Yes, that pets take less damage if not targeted... thing. Funny, I'm not seeing it on the wiki tho.Oh Wilderness Knowledge? Sure, I could see that.Now if only there was something good in the Empathic Bond slot. Does anyone use that trait? Maybe if Second Skin got the "you and your pet" treatment...

[Wondrouswall.7169]

I'm not sure why you would want it reduced. It's a 90% reduction when it's not targeted, which makes it nearly impossible for it to die. Why shave that down with how much bosses hit and throw AoEs around - with some designed to 1-2 shot players - especially when pets take 100% full damage when targeted.

[Chrury.4627]

I was thinking more about some of the simpler boon only traits that would make it even easier to support your pet. In particular, one I didn't have in my list up there:

• Oakheart Salve: Gain regeneration when you suffer from bleeding, poison or burning. While you have regeneration, you take reduced damage.

That with "you and your pet" plus the many ways to gain/give regen, as well as the Nature Magic traitline could possibly make your pet literally unkillable. Whether that's ok or not is up to the devs, but I could totally see the damage reduction knocked down a bit if it was easier to support the pet actively.

[Wondrouswall.7169]

I'm still not seeing why though. Look at all the defensive traits if they were to affect the pet, only Oakheart gives a 5% damage reduction while the rest deal with conditions. In PvE, most bosses burst players down through direct damage.

Then, you already have anyone taking NM giving pets protection on top of the 90% non-target reduction. PvE players mostly take DPS traits unless solo play, and even then, pets die in some encounters because they are being targeted by harder hitting champs found in HoT and PoF.

Why even bother bringing it up when Rangers fought for that change for years, and even then, it was first introduced as a 95% reduction before it was shaved down to 90%.

I don't see the point in it when these traits applying to the pet are simply a good QoL thing and would have a significant impact in modes where there is no damage reduction and pet performance scales horrendously the larger the engagements are like in WvW battles.

[InsaneQR.7412]

First and foremost:Wondrousswall is right, we dont have to shave down the dmg reduction.Second: Jupp i like the idea that pets need more trait to affect themThird: Add predators cunning to that list and taste for danger.

[Chrury.4627]

You make some good points. I only brought it up because all of these, QoL or no, would be buffs. And buffs generally need nerfs somewhere for the whole balance thing. But that's off-topic for this thread.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:Third: Add predators cunning to that list and taste for danger.

Taste For Danger is an easy one to add. It's already halfway there with the expertise conversion.Predator's Cunning is... yeah I guess that would work. I would expect that the bug where poison fields from your pet trigger the Ranger's Predator's Cunning would be fixed in such a case.

[TheWolf.1602]

essence of speed should get the you and your pet treatment

[InsaneQR.7412]

@Chrury.4627 said:You make some good points. I only brought it up because all of these, QoL or no, would be buffs. And buffs generally need nerfs somewhere for the whole balance thing. But that's off-topic for this thread.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:Third: Add predators cunning to that list and taste for danger.

Taste For Danger is an easy one to add. It's already halfway there with the expertise conversion.Predator's Cunning is... yeah I guess that would work. I would expect that the bug where poison fields from your pet trigger the Ranger's Predator's Cunning would be fixed in such a case.

Yeah or all poison applications from pets heal you too. Eitherway it would be nice.