Curse

Epinephrine · Oct 26, 2005, 02:30 PM // 14:30

Why consider a pet? What builds can use a pet, and what level of investment is useful? How do you up the effectiveness of a pet? I have played with pet builds since the January BWE or so, and hopefully the other avid pet users out here will concur at least in part with these observations. Any comments are welcome, and I'd happily append more builds, for PvE or PvP to this.

The purpose thus of this mini-guide is to assess the strengh of the pet skills line, to provide a perspective as to which skills are good and which are less-so and to encourage thinking about the ways in which pets fit both in a single player chracter and in a team build, by looking at skills which synergise well with the pet. I've also summed up some pet stats from the various sources, and mentioned where I disagree with them (re: damage and damage modifiers). Hopefully this will help with the selection of skills and foster the creation of novel pet-based builds, and if ANet should happen to think that the skills need rebalancing as a result of this I'd be pleased as punch.

I'll assume that everyone is familiar with the types of pets (if not there are many guides), and with how one acquires a pet (charming).

1.) What are a pet's stats?

All pets are essentially the same, just with a different model - some theorise that spiders may be a little better, but that would appear to go directly against ANet's politics - I suspect the differences were due to the evolution of the pet; there are apparently "evolutions", which can alter their stats slightly toward damage dealing or toward tanking, purportedly adding up to +2 damage for -60 health, or in the other direction getting up to -2 damage for +60 health.

Edit (24Nov2005): The base damage ranges below have been shown by our testing to be inaccurate - corrected ranges will be posted when they are available - testing of all evolutions and all pet types takes time. The damage rates from skills should still be correct, it is merely the base damage that is in question.

The damage range for pets appears to be 15-25, though I have heard 17-28 quoted; I suspect it is 15-28, giving then the same damage as the bow, another ranger weapon - in fact, their attack speed is once per 2 seconds, which would also be that of a bow - putting them right inline with that prediction. So in essence, a pet is a bow, firing without a customization/+15%>50 bonus. The +2 damage quoted for the Dire pet evolution would also correspond roughly to a 15% increase, perhaps to simulate a modifier on a bow?

Pets deal damage based on level of Beastmastery, just like a weapon: That is, you get listed damage at level 12. Level 16 does 110% according to the guide at GWG (1), but I suspect it is in fact 115% of listed damage, just like a level 16 sword, bow, axe or hammer would do (2).

Pets gain 4 AL per level, up to a maximum of 80 at level 20.

A basic pet thus attacks every 2 seconds for 21.5 average damage vs 60 AL at level 12. I really would like to do some serious testing of these to ensure that the numbers are correct, but until a 1vs1 machup area is made it will be difficult to arrange.
Here's a table showing the damage, DPS and DPS under Call of Haste (CoH)for beastmastery 0-12 for a normal level 20 pet. If the info on evolutions are correct, you can add 1 DPS for a Dire pet and subtract 1 DPS for a Hearty pet (1.33 DPS under CoH)

For a single skillslot this isn't bad - even with no skills in the pet at a 12 BM it would be equivalent to having a permanent Conjure Phantasm running, draining away health constantly. They have decent health, equivalent to a player of their level, with possible small variations due to their "evolution". How much good can we get out of the pet?

2.) Reasons to consider the pet

Pets add damage even without using energy - that extra 10 damage a second for no energy is about the cheapest damage you'll ever find; sure, there are signets that do damage, but they can't compare. Pets also draw some fire (sometimes) and provide additional attacks, triggering hit effects for example. If a ranger is using a bow, some of the usefulness of a pet is lost, but pets can be used to perform many of the tasks that a bow might be used for; pets attacks can:
Cripple
Bleed
Skill interrupt+20 second denial
Knockdown (vs casters)
Do additional damage vs enchanted foes
Do additional damage against foes with conditions
Do additional damage to foes with health <50%
Provide energy and adrenaline.

In addition, these attack skills add to the DPS the pet puts out, by varying degrees. Tables follow, detailing the damage caused by each attack, within the skill analysis. Things do get complicated with Call of Haste (CoH)- since it changes the attack period from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds you can actually lose effectiveness with some skills when doing so - for example; the skill Ferocious Strike could normally be used every 8 seconds, or every 4th pet attack; it would thus add 25 damage/8 seconds and generate a strike of adrenaline/8 seconds and 9 energy every 8 seconds at level 12 BM. If the pet is under a call of haste however, the attack period becomes 1.5 seconds, so on the 5th attack at 7.5 seconds the skill still isn't recharged; at 9 seconds the Ferocious Strike gets used again, so it has gone from being every 4th attack to every 6th attack, and it has been reduced from 3.125 DPS(25/8) to 2.778 DPS(25/9); from 1/8th of an adrenaline per second to 1/9th and from 3.375 pips of energy regeneration to 3 pips. Such effects get more complex with the introduction of skill recharge effects like Quickening Zephyr and Serpent's Quickness, so I will leave those situations off the tables.

Energy Burdens are listed WITHOUT expertise - if you know the amount of reduction you have simply multiply the energy burden by the portion of cost you pay; thus, if you have a 13 expertise and are running Bestial Pounce (cost 5, energy burden 1pip) you only pay 2 energy to activate it, 40% of the cost. Your energy burden would thus be 1 pip*0.4 = 0.4 pips. Attack burdens represent the frequency of attack that can be dedicated to the skill; 1/4 means that 1 out of 4 attacks can use it, and the DPS and energy burden are calculated using the maximum number of attacks possible.

3.) The skills (bonuses listed are for 0/12/16 beastmastery)

The Attacks:
Bestial Pounce
Description: Your animal companion attempts a Bestial Pounce that deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If the attack strikes a foe who is casting a spell, that foe is knocked down.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 15 seconds.
Table:http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/2636/bp4ma.png
Analysis: As seen here, the skill adds very little damage, and is chiefly a utility skill. since the timing of these attacks are essentially at best 1.5 seconds (under CoH, averaging to 0.75 seconds) by the time you see a 1 second spell it is too late to try to interrupt it unless your pet happened to just be winding up. This skill is thus mostly useful as a chance interrupt vs fast spells or to puposely take out 2+ second spells.
DPS (12BM) = ~1.1
Attack burden: 1/8; 1/10 under CoH
Energy burden = ~1 pip
Rating = **000

Brutal Strike
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If it strikes an enemy whose health is below 50%, that enemy takes an additional +5/+17/+21 damage.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 5 seconds.
Table:http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/359/bs6mb.png
Analysis: This skill is a damage skill, designed to finish an opponent As is noted, it is incredibly energy intensive, demanding 5 pips of energy without expertise, and 2 pips (40%) even with 14 expertise. While it adds a reasonable amount of damage, the cost per point seems a bit excessive, less than 6 DPS for 2 full pips of energy with maxed out expertise makes this a weak option, but the best damage spiker in the line once a player is down on his luck.
DPS (12BM) = 2.83 (5.67)
Attack burden: 1/3; 1/4 under CoH
Energy burden = 5 pips
Rating = **000

Disrupting Lunge
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +1/+10/+13 damage. If it strikes an enemy who is using a skill, that skill is interrupted and disabled for 20 seconds.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 5 seconds.
Table:http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/8725/dl9lb.png
Analysis: Another utility skill; it is usable much more frequently, and thus is more spammable. While you could choose to aim for a given spell (especially vs long casting opponents) it is cheap enough to run full time vs faster casters and in fact skill users - because of timing it actually only attacks every 6 seconds, but that's 10 shots a minute to try to catch a skill or spell being used. Although the damage bonus is lower than some other skills, the 20 second skill knockout and interrupting ability make this a skill to bank on if you desire a suppressive style of play, and with 13+ expertise it's only 1 pip of energy. I think that this is the best of the non-elite skills in the line.
DPS (12BM) = 2.17
Attack burden: 1/3; 1/4 under CoH
Energy burden = 2.5 pips
Rating = *****

Feral Lunge
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If the attack strikes an enemy who is attacking, that enemy suffers from Bleeding for 3/21/26 seconds.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 10 seconds.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5651/fl5tx.png
Analysis: Really a damage skill, but also a source of conditions; Feral Lunge is a workhorse skill of the beastmastery line - the 1.7 DPS is pretty insignificant, but bleeding is an additional 6 DPS, and thus it is actually ranking highly at 7.7 DPS, provided it isn't overlapping bleeding from other sources. It has a comparatively low energy burden, and plenty of time in between lunges to work in other attacks, as it only uses 1/5 (or 1/7) of the pet's attacks. Because of the prevalence of the bleeding condition however I will only rank it a 3.
DPS (12BM) = ~1.7 (7.7)
Attack burden: 1/5; 1/7 under CoH
Energy burden = ~1.5 pips
Rating = ***00

Ferocious Strike {Elite}
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +13/+25/+28 damage, and you gain Adrenaline and 3/9/11 energy.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 8 seconds.
Table:http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/3716/fs6cj.png
Analysis: This skill is brilliant, and fully deserving of your elite slot in most cases. It isn't really a highly damaging skill, as can be seen by the low boost to DPS, and it is in fact worse under CoH. What this spell does though is ups damage a bit while providing energy and adrenaline - the adrenaline gain isn't huge; it work to a strike every 8 second or so, which is the equivalent of 16% gain in adrenaline if you were attacking the whole time at normal rates. The energy however is quite good; for a non ranger it is a bit limited, as it only gives 1.5 pips of energy gain, though it does damage at the same tme, so one can't complain. For a ranger with 13+ expertise however it generates 2.625 pips of energy while dealing damage, a respectable gain. I don't know that I can give it a rating of 5, as it is not fully an energy tool, and it is definitely not a damage tool, but it is indispensible for rangers wishing to run beast skills and have energy for other activities.
DPS (12BM) = 3.13; 2.78 under CoH
Attack burden: 1/4; 1/6 under CoH
Energy burden = 1.875 pips; 1.67 pips under CoH
Energy generation = 3.375 pips; 3 pips under CoH
Adrenaline gain = 1/8; 1/9 under CoH
Rating = ****0

Melandru's Assault
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If it strikes an enemy with an Enchantment, that enemy and all adjacent enemies take an additional +5/+17/+21 damage.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 10 seconds.
Table:http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/8042/ma6ce.png
Analysis: This sounds like a very powerful skill at first, adding up to 21 damage, then another 21 if an enchantment is up, but the actual damage added works out to a dismal 3.4 DPS at 12 beastmastery, even with the enemy under enchantments. True, it does splash damage around the target, but the damage range is adjacent, the closest range possible, so the odds in PvP of catching a second person aren't great, and the only time you'd get multiples is vs a healing ball. In PvE enchanment-using foes that clump in "adjacent" range are less than common. A fairly costly attack with little benefit; even dispruting lunge outperforms it vs a non-enchanted target in terms of damage, and predator's pounce is just as good vs an enchanted target, minus the ineffectual splash damage.
DPS (12BM) = ~1.7 (~3.4)
Attack burden: 1/5; 1/7 under CoH
Energy burden = ~3 pips
Rating = *0000

Maiming Strike
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If it strikes a moving enemy, that enemy becomes Crippled for 3/13/17 seconds.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 10 seconds
Table:http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/7937/ms2lk.png
Analysis: The 10 second recharge time is too long to make an effective damage engine out of this skill, but it is shorter than the cripple duration. This is a decent alternative to the ranger cripples, being cheaper than a pin down and more easily applied to have continual coverage. As a utility skill I'd give it a 4, but it really needs to be used in conjunction with CoH to ensure being able to get flleeing opponents.
DPS (12BM) = ~1.7
Attack burden: 1/5; 1/7 under CoH
Energy burden = ~3 pips
Rating = ****0

Predator's Pounce
Description: If this pet attack hit, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage and your pet gains 5/41/53 health.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 5 seconds.
Table:http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6836/pp0st.png
Analysis: Although not really a damage skill at first glance (it has the base damage bonus) this skill is one of the top damage dealers in the lineup, with no conditions to it. It is slightly more efficient in energy burden than a skill like Maiming Strike and does nearly as much damage vs an enchanted foe - in fact, the damage per energy is identical, and with the skills now functioning as shouts one may be able to creep even closer to the 3.4 DPS of the other damage boosts. In addition to dealing a fair bit of damage (as these skills go) it functions as slightly more than a 3 pip mending, healing the pet's incidental wounds fairly nicely. As a generally useful skill it should easily find its way onto the skillbar.
DPS (12BM) = 2.83
Healing (HPS) = 6.83
Attack burden: 1/3; 1/4 under CoH
Energy burden = 2.5 pips
Rating = ****0

Scavenger Strike
Description: If this pet attack hits, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage. If it strikes an enemny suffering from a Condition, that enemy takes an additional +1/+12/+16 damage.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 5 seconds.
Table:http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/1307/ss7hw.png
Analysis: A slightly weaker version of Brutal Strike, but with more flexibility. It can't quite match the numbers that a Brutal Strike puts out, but is easier to get the damage from - all you need is a condition, so you can be doing big hits on the target's whole healthbar, not just the bottom half. Personally I like that flexibility - with rangers in the party conditions are often everywhere, and you may need extra damage at the beginning of the fight as well as at the end. As such I'll rate it a little higher than Brutal Strike.
DPS (12BM) = 2.83 (4.83)
Attack burden: 1/3; 1/4 under CoH
Energy burden = 5 pips
Rating = ***00

Pet Skills:

There are only 6 skills dealing with pets; pet skills can modify the way that pet attacks work (Call of Haste), the way that pets experience damage (Call of Protection, Symbitotic Bond, Otyugh's Cry) or deal with healing and reviving the pet (Symbiotic Bond, Comfort Animal, Revive Animal).

Call of Haste
Description: For the next 30 seconds, your animal companions have 25% faster attack speed and move 33% faster than normal.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 25 seconds.
Analysis: This skill is one of the best for upping pet damage - it boosts the base damage by 33%, as well as making the pet much more capable of dealing with enemies who try to flee.
Energy Burden: 1 pip
Rating: = ***** for an attacking build

Call of Protection
Description: For the next 120 seconds, your animal companions have 1/11/15 base damage reduction.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 115 seconds.
Analysis: This skill can greatly reduce damage to your pet. If using your pet as a tank in PVE this is a great skill.
Energy burden: 0.13 pips
Rating = ***** for a tanking build.

Comfort Animal
Description: Heal your animal companion for 20/87/110 points. If your animal companion is dead, it is resurrected at 10%/48%/61% health and all your skills are disabled for 8 seconds.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: 1 second.
Recharge Time: 1 second.
Analysis: This skill is almost impossible to rate. The healing on it isn't great, but then again it's the only heal in the attribute. The revive is horribly inconvenient, as it shuts down your skills, but has a great range on it. It is one of 2 ways to bring a pet back, and so is vital in PvE pretty much; in PvP it may not matter depending on the format.
Rating: N/A

Otyugh's Cry
Description: All animals within 100 feet become hostile to your target and gain +20 armor for 30 seconds. Otyugh's Cry cannot turn charmed animals against their masters or their master's allies. This skill has a 50% chance to fail with Beast Mastery 4 or less.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 30 seconds.
Analysis: This skill is widely referred to as the worst skill in the game, and for its listed ability (turning animals against a target) it is roughly that bad. There are no random animals in PvP, making it useless in that venue, and in PvE the most you might have around is ~3, and generally of such low levels that they don't much matter; three level 5 bears attacking the level 24 Avicara band are dead in seconds, so unless you really need corpses and don't like shooting animals it is not worth using for this power. The 20 AL boost seems to affect pets however, making this a "Watch Yourself" cry for pets. It is thus a useful spell, particularly with many pets around, as it helps each of them and thus becomes quite cost effective.
Energy burden: 0.5 pips
Rating: ***00

Revive Animal
Description: Resurrect all nearby allied animal companions. They each come back to life with 50/410/530 health.
Energy Cost: 5.
Casting Time: 6 seconds.
Recharge Time: 20 seconds.
Analysis: The only way for anyone but the pet's owner to revive a pet, and it comes back at high health. It has a short range however, which involves being quite close to the downed pet, which reduces it's utility. In certain builds this skill may be wonderful, but outside of saving a slot or so in PvE for a fellow ranger I don't see this skill as very useful.
Rating: **000

Symbiotic Bond
Description: For the next 120/264/312 seconds, your animal companion gains +1 health regeneration, and half of any physical damage dealt to your animal companion is redirected to you.
Energy Cost: 10.
Casting Time: Instant.
Recharge Time: 55 seconds.
Analysis: This skill was thankfully changed to be a shout rather than a stance - improving it enormously! Now you can actually run a stance as a ranger (or from your secondary), and the bond to your pet can't be disrupted by a wild blow or the like. This only helps vs physical damage according to the description, and I haven't tested it myself. The skill has been given good reviews by rangers using their pet as a tank; in conjunction with the Call of Protection it makes the pets quite durable.
Energy burden: 0.11 pips
Rating: ***00

Summary: You can spend a lot of energy on a pet, or hardly any at all. The cheapest use for a pet is plainly as a tank - after all, 5 energy for 120 seconds of protection is pretty good, and symbiotic bond on top of that makes for one tough critter. Provided you manage aggro properly you can actually successfully use a pet in this way, and they can be very resilient. This is probably the most economical way to get use out of a pet.

On the attack however the pet can drain a lot of energy very quickly, even with expertise maxed out; you could conceivably be spending 2.4 pips on a single skill, for a pretty small gain in DPS; they aren't the most efficient critters on the planet as a damage source. Boosting pet damage thus is best done through other methods. If you must use pet attacks, try to use the most efficient ones for the job. The Disrupting Lunge is a personal favorite, as it has pretty good odds of catching a few spells over a minute, really hampering any caster you sick your pet on.

4.) Use of the pet.

Pets are a bit stupid - while I like them, I find that they really don't listen very well; they have horrible AI and lack any method of control. So, much like playing with a henchman, you have to know the rules of the pet AI to be able to use (or, place yourself around) him properly. I have a long list of changes I would recommend that ANet make to pet AI.

Pets will respond to a call to attack, much like a henchman does; they will chase the target quite well; unlike a henchman however, they are pretty singleminded - once on the attack the pet doesn't break off easily. They also do not respond to target calls once engaged, unlike the henchmen. They have a nasty habit of standing around sometimes (if they down a foe for example), and you need to call or attack a player to get their attention back, they don't auto-target seek - as well, they will simply stop attacking after a while if you aren't, making them difficult for a monk to use for example. While it might seem ideal to smite off a pet-tank, you must wand the enemies from time to time if you want your pet to continue attacking, and not run back to pace beside you whuffling or howling. The difficulty in getting a pet to switch targets makes some skills less useful - it's hard to spread bleeding for example, if the pet won't switch off the target.

Pets also like to cut their masters off, or to get cut off. Unfortunately, the pathing for them seems really lousy, and instead of moving around the player they will often stand behind you until you strafe, and when attacking will position themselves right in front of you, forcing you to go around your pet to get to the target.

Anyone who has ever used a pet will have been infuriated at some point by the pet blocking you in, or blocking you away from your target; this is however a two way street - pets can block in enemies as well, and since once on an enemy they tend to simply attack from their position, it isn't hard to pin a player using pets. As is often the case, positioning is very important in GW (PvP), and a pair of warriors with a single pet can quite easily triangle-pin a player. Since your pet takes the easiest route to a target the warriors (or simply offensive players, a ranger can do this as easily) need to overtake the target, letting the pet hold the closest position and taking up spots opposite the pet, 120 degrees apart to form the triangle. This is a good thing to practice in the Team Arenas; using a pet with a cripple you allow the pet to attack and you to loop around the victim to pin him in place - the pet will close the box and you can now finish your target off without risk of flight.

Packs of pets can also serve to slow warriors down nicely, preventing them getting to your casters; they don't have the sense to stay in a wall formation, but the sheer press of bodies can make travel difficult for many.

5.) Skills and pets.

Obviously enough, healing the pet is helpful, as is killing the pet's attackers or blinding them, but I would like to focus on the skills that are worth using with a pet in the party, that are somehow boosted by the presence of the pet or have a new use as a result of the pet's presence. One of the first things to note is that a pet is not a party member but an ally. As a result, many spells that would at first seem to help the pet don't: Some of these are:

Divine Healing
Heal Party
Aegis
Martyr
"Watch Yourself"
Dark Fury
Order of Pain
Order of the Vampire

As all of these provide boosts at a party level they are of no benefit to a pet.

So, Ranger skills that are of a benefit to a pet/pet-using team are:
Otyugh's Cry - Otyugh's Cry is obvious, an AL boost for all pets - this tend to help your team out as you will typically (using a pet build) have more pets than your opponent.
Predatory Season - Predatory Season (which I have yet to see played) will provide healing for any creature making attacks, and reduce healing on everyone; Since typically caster based teams do less attacking than melee/pet teams, the melee team derives an advantage by attacking, offsetting to some extent the need for heals. A pet-based team thus nets more health from the ritual than a non-pet-based team does.
Winnowing - Winnowing's advantage is based on numbers - with pets you will most likely have more attackers dealing physical damage, so Winnowing becomes a benefit overall to your party; lots of warriors/rangers/minions dealing physical damage amplifies this effect.
Quickening Zephyr - Ok, an odd one to choose, but I think a valid one. Pets provide damage without any energy expenditure, and QZ is a restricted energy environment; the less you can spend per point of damage the beter, and pets certainly fall in the efficient category, if you aren't spamming Brutal Strike or the like. In addition, the elite skill for a pet is an energy regain tool, and because you can still hit a cost of 3 energy per attack you can deliver the attack every 4 seconds (rather than 8) and up your energy regeneration by a substantial margin; enough to easily balance the QZ if played properly.

Elementalists, as they deal primarily with damage effects and defensive measures, do not have skills that benefit pets in any particular way; It may be worth noting that wards do help pet defenses, but I would hardly consider that a huge advantage.

Monks as well, while able to smite off a pet and use it as a platform for Balthazar's Aura for example, have little synergy with the pet, as their powers tend to be fairly straightforward.

Warrior skills that synergise with pets
I Will Avenge You - As this skill is based on the deaths of allies, with a larger pool of allies able to die it gains some advantage - many IWAY teams bring pets along as free extra damage, and as sources for a bonus from IWAY.
"Charge" - Since this affects all nearby allies it can speed the pets attacks and improve their mobility.
"Shields Up" - As with Charge, this shout also aids all nearby allies.

Mesmer skills that synergise with pets
Blackout - Since this skill removes access to your skillbar, and your target's access to their skill bar it comes down to who is more effective without skills; long lasting buffs are one way to boost your effectiveness during this time, and warriors for example have more damage dealing ability without access to their skills than a caster would typically; since pets are a source of damage that requires no skill use to deal some damage they can be a helpful addition to a blackout build, adding to the damage the player can deal while skill-less. In addition, some blackout builds use echo and a high level of domination to attain a 6 second blackout, while being able to cast blackout every 5 seconds - in such a build the pet skills can be useable; the 1 second casting time of the blackout is a perfect time to trigger a pet attack and/or refresh a pet call; since these are instant casts and do not interfere in the blackout casting they add a bit more damage to the build.
Active interruptions - Along the same principle as above, babysitting a player with interrupts requires that you be ready to cast at anytime, and minimizes damage output during this time; a pet is a way of being able to continue to deal damage at a reasonable rate while babysitting the target; since you can still activate pet attacks you could quite conceivably deal 15-20 DPS with your pet, in addition to the 12 DPS or so from your wand.

Necromancers have several skills which work well with pets, despite the order of Pain and Order of the Vampire not acting as damage boosts.
Corpse exploitation - as the Necromancer uses corpses for many spells, the potential supply of them from pets can be helpful.
Soul Reaping - While not a skill, the pets' deaths also trigger soul reaping bonuses.
Death Nova - Pets provide again, additional chances to have deaths, and thus to have effects triggered upon death.
Barbs - Possibly the best of the damage boosting skills with pets around, this curse triggers with each physical damage attack that hits the target, dealing damage that ignores armour to the subject. With a good level of curses and several physical attackers it can deal an impressive amount of discomfort to a single target.
Mark of Pain - Another very effective spell in some situations, Mark of Pain splashes shadow damage to those around the target, again triggered on physical damage. With pets adding to the attacks on the target this can be a great damage source in any tightly packed area.
Rigor Mortis - While this simply prevents attacks from missing, the increase in number of attacks by the party counts as the same sort of synergism that winnowing offers; by ensuring that the attacks are hitting you amplify attack damage, which is high on your team.
Weaken Armor - Since all pets deal physical damage, boosting pet damage output by 41.42% seems like a good bargain.

Anti-pet skills: Any group worth their salt will have some ways to cut down on pet effectiveness. Pets are remarkably obtuse, and will continue to attack even when hexed with spells that hurt them on attacks. Obviously damage spells are useful, and anti-melee spells in general, but some anti-pet tactics to note are:

Spiteful Spirit, Empathy, Insidious Parasite - pets will continue to attack with any of these on. Particularly annoying is spiteful spirit on a pet, as the one pet can be killing all others and your warriors, oblivious to the situation. Also a pain to find and remove, as a warrior will call out a hex, but the pet suffers in silence.
Greater Conflagration - Since many of the pet damage boosting effcts are based on dealing physical damage, eliminating physical damage defuses these skills.
Healing Seed - While a staple in many monk's books of prayers, the fairly low damage that pets deal per attack is easily countered by a healing seed - moreover, if they are trying to exploit a mark of pain the healing seed at least attenuates that damage.
Channeling - With the number of opponents around a pet-focused caster there is no better energy source than channeling, which can easily allow 5 cost spells free.
Tainted Flesh - other disease spells are good too - with Martyr unable to pull conditions from allies (only party members), the pets continue to suffer and pass the damage to others, making disease a good way to eliminate pets.
Epidemic - For the same reason as above, spreading degenerative conditions on pets is a good way to kill them off; there is no easy way to remove conditions from numbers of pets at once.
Edge of Extinction - Pets are not human, so this effect can be used to eliminate the pets with no damage to the human members, provided you can afford the risk of having players dying. Interestingly, a wolf=a bear=a moa bird as far as Edge of Extinction is concerned, they are all the same species, "animal".

6.) Builds

Obviously there are many pet-based builds out there, and they have varying degrees of usefulness in the various settings of PvE and PvP. Basic tanking pets in PvE are simple to set up, so I won't bother detailing those here. A pet build can be for a single player, as a damage extension and source of conditions/shutdown, as part of a subteam, like the 2 warrior/pet setup for pinning a target, or a whole-team mentality, with everyone using what skills they can to benefit the build. Some example builds (these were Random Arena and Team Arena builds) show how one can use a pet to deliver damage and a condition (like cripple) in order to boost the effectiveness of some odd rangers; in both cases the ranger is working up close, and the pet carries his cripple.

Blackout Ranger/Mesmer
This build is meant to provide shutdown on a character through Blackout while providing damage from the ranger/pet. While Warriors also have good damage without skills they suffer from an energy shortage; Mesmers can take warrior secondary to try to run like this, but the 5 pips of energy required to maintain a blackout is pretty tough for them. A ranger was chosen to take advantage of the efficient (energy-wise) pet damage and the reduction in the cost of Blackout due to Expertise. I won't say that this is in anyway "perfect" but gives an idea of how to work a pet into a build.

Ranger/Mesmer
Domination 11
Illusion 10
Expertise 7+2
Beastmastery 7+3

Charm Animal
Maiming Strike
Blackout
Illusionary Weaponry
Lightning Reflexes
Wastrel's Worry
Throw Dirt
Res Signet

Vampiric Touch Ranger/Necromancer
Again, using the Ranger Expertise for reduction of a secondary class skill, this build seeks to take advantage of the fast recharge time of the Vampiric Touch skill, while generating energy to fuel it from the pet's Ferocious Strike. The 13 expertise lowers the cost per Vampiric touch to a manageable 7 energy, while the pet at 12 Beastmastery generates 7 energy every 8 seconds or so, paying for a good part of the vampiric touch costs. It operates at an energy deficit and has very poor damage once the ranger is out of energy, but in TA or RA it can do a lot of damage pretty quickly to a target, through armour, while maintaining health through the steals.

Ranger/Necro
Expertise: 10+4
Beast Mastery: 10+2
Blood: 11

Vampiric Touch
Throw Dirt
Touch of Agony
Charm Animal
Call of Haste
Maiming Strike
Ferocious Strike (damage+energy)
Resurrection Signet

My thanks to those who have written other pet guides, and to the GW community for continuing their interest in an attribute that in many ways has been neglected.

(1) The Ultimate Pet Guide V 2.0
(2) Game Mechanics, by Charles Ensign

Epinephrine · Oct 26, 2005, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Hmm, spotted a few typos that I would've edited out, but no edit button - Might make it difficult
to revise it if there are changes needed...

Sereng Amaranth · Oct 26, 2005, 05:25 PM // 17:25

Nice research. Thanks!

Valerius · Oct 26, 2005, 07:20 PM // 19:20

awesome info man

i'm sure once ANeT improves pet AI and controls... many will start using pets again...

VGJustice · Oct 26, 2005, 08:32 PM // 20:32

I just wish that pets would get out of the way if you bump into them -_-;;

Thanks for the tips. Maybe I'll try that pet build again.

Sereng Amaranth · Nov 25, 2005, 12:41 AM // 00:41

bump for posterity

Votes for sticky: +1

Pagan · Nov 25, 2005, 12:03 PM // 12:03

Probably the best Beastmaster dmg build :

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=75931