The Glade 4.0

Guild Wars 2 is nearing release and I was contemplating my triumphant return to the Ranger class in an MMO. I dont think I've had one as a main since the original EQ.

Problem: heavily tied to a pet. The devs have mentioned you'll definitely want your pet out. I'm not a big pet fan personally. If it's really well done I suppose I can get past it but we'll see. Was wondering what other people thought. Would having a pet make you more or less likely to play a Ranger?

Here's the official site resources for the GW2 Ranger:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/p ... s/ranger/#

If you scroll down you can play the 5 videos on the sidebar to see the pet and class in action. As an alternative look at the Thief:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/p ... ons/thief/

Click on "Cluster Shot", second video down.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Less. Both for theme and the inevitable pathing reasons.

If it is anything like GW 1 you had enough options not to have to have a pet. Also GW pets were pretty low maint irrc

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I forget what weapon/item it was but I liked having my stupid summoned wolf in EQ1.

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Mistwalker! Yeah but that was a sometimes thing, this would be a pet you have virtually at all times. Dog, Bear and some Chocobo looking thing. Also can have water pets like a Shark, which sounds cool...

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

I like the idea of pets and enjoyed having them with my Hunter in WoW.

I like pets as a small part, but I think the Ranger should be functional without it. More flavor/interest than core abilities.

But then, I'm a fan of a Ranger that can be pushed into multiple roles, depending on spec and gearing, allowing people to go more into one area or another as they like.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I don't object to pets for Rangers, but they should be an option, not mandatory for the class to be effective. WoW at least did not offend my sensibilities by calling hunters "Rangers", at least not in the name of the PC class.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Part will depend on how much it seems like it's me & my pet killing crap, vs. me micro-managing the pet (and not really doing much myself). How fiddly is the pet stuff vs. how fiddly the other Ranger abilities are. If I need 37 hotkeys to play it, then I will be less enthused.

I'm also interested in the Engineer. Honestly, I'll be playing both I'm sure.

I don't like the pet aspect, it's a bit to Druish for my tastes.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

"Funny. The class doesn't look Druish."

I never cared much for pet classes in MMOs. Only in my last days of WoW did I actually play a couple pet classes to 85 (affliction warlock and unholy DK). Neither one of those I'd classify as a full pet class like a hunter or demonology warlock. But I did have fun with them (especially the DK, which eventually turned into my main).

If the ranger's pet is more like a minor DoT (how I viewed EQ shaman pets, my warlock pet, and my DK pet), then I'm fine with it. If all their powers and abilities revolve around maintaining the pet and the pet does an extreme portion of the damage, then I will like it less. Rangers should be the center of the dps attention.

Anything else and you're just a glorified dog trainer.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

From what I can gather, the pet is basically a DoT but you (the Ranger) can cast a special ability of it at will. i.e you push F3 and the pet does a knockdown or removes curses rom you or whatever.

The pet can also rez you in PvP which is handy.

Also, if your pet dies you can instantly summon an alternate pet. When you switch back to the original (after some cooldown) it has full health again.

So, we'll see. I'll try it. I keep looking back at that Thief video though and it looks so damn cool with the little Asura and the Bow and the mask and the shadow step teleport shot thing.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

All of this. The mere notion of a pet doesn't offend me for a ranger, particularly if it's pitched more as "the Ranger is attuned to nature, and attracts kindred spirits to keep him company in his primarily solitary life in the wilds" than "the Ranger seeks out, subdues, masters, and trains wild predators to aid him." The former feels like a ranger, the latter (which is how the Hunter class always struck me in my viewings of WoW from afar) feels, exactly like Numbuk said, like a glorified circus trainer.

Likewise, I don't like classes where the appeal of the pet is to essentially act as a proxy, executing your abilities for you, etc. I want it to be fire and forget, not developer-sanctioned and client-integrated dual boxing. The smarter the pet AI, and the fewer abilities that need to be micromanaged to get the best efficacy out of them, like stuns, taunts, etc., there are, the more I'll be okay with it. Short cooldowns and smart targetting and autocasting (and the short cooldowns set the requisite "intelligence level" of the autocasting lower) are necessities for what I would deem acceptable in a ranger pet.

Vanguard gave rangers pets, and they worked for me there. They were literally like a DoT with a few HP. SWTOR does a passable job with damage and healing pets; you do your thing, and they do theirs. The nature of healing classes in SWTOR makes me find the pets less attractive there, because you end up having to babysit them as a significant amount of your work -- they're doing as much or more damage than you are, and taunting off you, so you need to keep them alive. Thus, my interest in playing Sawbones on my Scoundrel plummeted when I switched him from a grouping character to a solo one, and I respecced him to a DPS tree because I didn't want to play healer for Corso.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

After soloing a dps class to 50, then leveling a tanking class, I have to say that it was a breath of fresh air leveling a healing class. Granted, I am not healing Corso's annoying ***. I am healing Khem Val's far less annoying ***.

When I am playing a healer, I am not looking to output damage. My focus is on seeing how efficient of a healer I can be. Are my heals big enough? Are they critting enough? Am I ensuring my HoTs aren't falling off? Are the spells casting fast enough? I only attack the mobs when healing isn't necessary. Personally I'd prefer not to do any damage at all and let Khem do it all.

So I do not mind healing my companion in the slightest, especially since it allows me to focus on becoming an efficient and awesome healer while still doing all of the solo content. In other MMOs, leveling as a pure-and-fully-specced/geared healer is less than ideal (and usually downright sucky). In this game, leveling a healer is probably the most fun I've had. I can take on mobs or groups of mobs that my DPS characters wouldn't even dare to try. It may take 10 minutes, but I can down champion mobs that were never meant to be soloed.

So while I may not have the feeling of "Wow! Look at how big that number of damage is that I just did!" as a healer, I do get an equally (if not better) feeling of destroying mobs that would wipe the floor with anyone else. Their survivability is very strong. My downtime is next to nothing (90% of the time it *is* nothing). That is why soloing a healer is a hell of a good time. YMMV.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Archer ranger = meh for me. Id love to be a melee ranger with a pet along for flanking/whatever bonus the game has

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1 more vote for "pet is fine so long as it's not mandatory and/or too maintenance-intensive". I found the Ranger in GW1 to be pretty enjoyable with or without the pet and have always been happy to more or less ignore my Affliction Warlock's pet to do his own thing in WoW, so I'm expecting the GW2 Ranger to be fine.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Not a fan of pets. Especially the ones that require management.

Standing around healing a companion got kinda old after a few levels. I didn't really feel as heroic anymore.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I had a mage in EQ and I played a warlock in WoW. I am not opposed to pet classes as a general rule.

The WoW hunter is a beastlord, not a ranger. I did not play a beastlord in EQ, and I did not play a hunter in WoW.

Take from that what you will.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Ranger in EQ, Rogue in WoW, Rogue in Rift(Bladedancer/Riftstalker/Nightblade), Ranger (briefly) in LOTRO...

I imagine if I played EQ2 I would have been a Swashbuckler.

I like Sword/Dagger or Sword/Sword, No pets, and tend to think avoidance > *

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Holy shitsnacks!

I did like that Gnoll Slayer sword that summoned a wolf pet. But other than that...not needed.

Even in D&D, I gave up on a companion. Not worth it.

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Raell Kromwell

Hunter was by far my favorite class in WoW...but I wouldn't call it a ranger.

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Pets are fine for a ranger. Rangers have pets in DnD, so yeah. Melee or archery, doesn't bother me(I tend to go archery because I don't like dual wielding). Choices are nice.

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