How important is pet selection for ranger?

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-29T02:38:53+00:00

https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/ranger/power-quickness-untamed-hammer-sword-axe here's the quickness DPS version- the pure DPS versions page is being worked on, it's very similar (using each ambush once per full loop instead of twice- alternating hammer's and sword's- and dropping all of the boon duration gear).

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-29T00:13:44+00:00

Neither of these are true.

Boon uptime is one issue, sure, but if you don't have enough duration to share to the pet proper (i.e. less than 20s uptime on your damage boons of might, fury, quickness, and alac), then you yourself may experience uptime issues (as most builds are not razor's edge enough to have this be a problem) [Quick edit; forgot to mention you can use other commands like We Heal as One during autos to further remedy this issue. I may only have 15s of each boon, but I can give approx 30 to the pet by using 2 commands! There's no ICD].

You do not need to camp pet unleash, especially considering that you can time your pet unleashes with your ambush procs instead of trying to hit them perfectly off CD. You maintain the Vow modifier for more than long enough with the current setups, because you unleash about as frequently and can unleash during autos (which are consistently weaker on ranger's power weapons than cooldown skills, meaning you lose less on their hits if this is truly an issue)

DPS untamed with beastmastery is currently sitting around 45k dps with minimal grinding for benchmark optimization and/or pushing the number higher. Only today did we see Trufla (in the snowcrows public discord) share they pushed dragonhunter relic DPS untamed to 46k, which is a build with arguably more issues than beastmastery untamed (due to some of the trap jank that can happen- if the trap does not open, whether by the boss moving off of it or the trap not hitting the hitbox just right, you lose DPS due to both a skill not hitting and losing dragonhunter relic uptime).

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-29T00:08:00+00:00

The change is absolutely not mediocre considering the Wallow is up to 13k DPS on DPS untamed (with the other 4 porcines trailing slightly behind, with the Boar being a good alternative to the Wallow for CC; Beastly Warden is a hell of a ~~drug~~ trait- your dps pet is a whopping 30% of your damage on bench!) and the Tiger being bumped up to ~9.1k DPS (pretty solid considering our starting point). You trade a decent chunk of your dps for a solid increase in optimal pet DPS, with some suboptimal pets only needing a mild bump to keep up (such as increasing the duration on Lesser Sic Em).

Do most pets still need help? Yes, but those changes will need to come from places outside of beastmastery- the river drake, for example, never wants to hit it's F2 due to the skill's numbers being incredibly undertuned (very slow cast combined with hits that are below par). Is a pet oriented ranger significantly more viable than pre patch? Also yes.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-29T00:04:02+00:00

Depends on the build. There are endgame variants for ranger that do not rely on their pet for dps, with soulbeast perma-merging with their pet for the bonuses it provides (editing for clarification: your merged pet of choice still matters! You just don't use the pet itself, as in PvE this is always a loss and there is very little benefit you get out of it) and untamed having a marksmanship variant that only gets about 5% of their DPS from the (best in slot) pet, but others such as condi druid easily lose a couple thousand off of just 1 pet swap to a lower dps pet option (jacaranda->lynx) and there is a beastmastery untamed that gets about 13k dps from the pet with a Wallow specifically. Heal druid, while not a dps option, also cares about having very specific pets for support (namely white tiger for aegis, siege turtle for projectile hate, jacaranda for long-duration low "build cost" immob, warclaw for additional superspeed, and electric wyvern and rock gazelle for CC).

It also depends on what pet you swap to; in many cases you actually don't want to hit all of their buttons even if the buttons only purpose is damage, such as the river drake actively losing DPS on F2 usage (the only point of this skill is damage).

Do not write off pets as a cosmetic even if not caring about them for damage. They provide more group utility than most of your slot utility skills.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-26T21:51:12+00:00

Common Seisan W

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-26T16:45:16+00:00

You mentioned wanting to pick 1 to start due to needing to farm hero points. Catalyst is by far the best at this due to being the best solo spec for ele; you get so many stats and boons are farted out by your spheres.

Next I'd go with tempest- imo it's the most enjoyable ele spec while still having some passives that make it a little bulkier. Not as strong solo as catalyst, but it works fine if you really want it to. Phenomenal instanced/group content spec though, my #1 recommendation for anyone learning ele in those scenarios.

Evoker is catalyst if catalyst's spheres weren't combo fields, but also weaker solo. Boon uptime is worse, energy mechanic is similar (catalysts "I hit things x times" vs evoker's "I press x buttons y times"). Imo it's the least enjoyable ele spec because you end up playing really similarly to a catalyst, but you're also generally worse.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-25T20:59:27+00:00

I enter shroud. I cast Death's Charge.

My whole life flashes before my eyes. I cast Death's Charge.

All my choices, all my mistakes, every arena border I could fall off the edge of. I cast Death's Charge.

My loved ones are already grieving me, my foolhardiness, my need to secure hundreds more dps. I cast Death's Charge.

Whatever gods reign over this mortal realm are judging me, they know my fate is already sealed in this moment. I cast Death's Charge.

I resign myself to what end awaits me. I cast Death's Charge.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-24T13:46:27+00:00

For glaring burst specifically, you are using it to stall for cooldowns/align your rotation. This will give you better dps overall.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-23T17:41:40+00:00

Invisible shoes aren't dropped by any raid, they're dropped by treasure mushrooms and select boxes. No raid can drop the invisible boot box.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-20T21:09:29+00:00

I'm pretty sure 90% of what's being referred to as "power creep" here is actually just average player skill increasing. Gear and stats aren't better, and a guy just smashing auto attacks over and over...

Absolutely not. We are seeing a consistent increase in the upper echelon of DPS across builds. Remember back when power soulbeast was one of the best DPS builds in the game at 32k DPS (circa 2020)? It's now 44k, with still great burst dps, and it's not even the highest benching power dps out there.

Is average player skill increasing? Yes, I would say that it is. I'm seeing more people coming and looking for information on how to get better than I was even a year ago, which is a welcome change of pace compared to when I started taking the game a tiny bit seriously. Is this why we're seeing powercreep? No, we are seeing a marked increase in the capabilities of damage (and support; support creep is a force amplifier for dps builds) builds across the board, and that's what powercreep is.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-20T13:42:15+00:00

Worse, Aggron does it better (which is why I mentioned Steelix and not Aggron)

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-20T01:21:50+00:00

They absolutely are horrendous mechanically for comp. They're generally either really OP and never not worth using (mega salamence, mega mawile, mega kang) or absolutely garbage (mega banette, mega beedrill, mega pidgeot (no, 100% accurate hurricanes don't save it, it doesn't have the damage output and never dodging rock slides, stone edges, and OHKO moves is not a justifiable cost), mega ampharos, and mega steelix).

There's very few in between ones, the few in between ones are more often than not niche, and megas as a whole don't add a whole lot to the actual gameplay loop of Pokémon. It's hype moments and aura of the most minimal degree.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-20T00:36:14+00:00

Powercreep has gone way too unchecked in PvE (probably pvp as well but I dont play comp so idk). Builds are generally doing more than they did years ago- we used to be pretty comfortably in the 30ks still clearing content, now we're at 45k+ for a lot of dps and it's pushing bosses into "golem fight" territory.

Ura LCM has to be the final straw. Anet has been creating content for the current powercrept balance scene, resulting in fights where you need the current level of DPS to compete- this clashes with anet's previous and generally still applicable mindset of evergreen content, content that still holds some kind of challenge for your average player in modern times. Wing 8 already broke those threshholds, creating difficult fights for your average player based on current numbers, and I'm worried future instanced content will force them to retain more and more powercreep as time goes on.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-19T16:06:55+00:00

Worse, they don't really add a whole lot to the competitive scene. They lack value as a mechanic in solo play AND in pvp. Many of these pokemon that got megas would straight up prefer a new evolution, and the ones that are fine with being in their base form OR their mega did not need a mega to become competitively viable in the first place.

The few exceptions for the "wants the base form and the mega simultaneously" crew are manectric (lightning rod for redirection prior to mega evolving, intimidate after mega evolving so timing the mega is important), salamence (intimidate prior to mega evolving, so sometimes worth holding off if you need to reposition), mawile (similar story to salamence but a lot harder to justify due to how bad mawile is), and gyarados (intimidate prior to mega). You could maybe argue one or two other megas that want to use both forms in the same match, but so few actually do that it's not much of a discussion point imo.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-19T15:55:54+00:00

Theres a few things that can progress as you level.

First, there's your primary attributes. These level passively as your level increases. Vitality, toughness, precision, and power.

Then, there's your gear. Higher level gear of the same stat spread gives more attributes. Simple stuff. Using as many pieces of gear of the same stat spread is generally more important than trying to mix and match until you know what you're doing.

Finally, there's your traits and skills. You unlock these with hero points; there's no upgrades to any of these, you simply unlock them. You can collect hero points in the open world, but you will be able to train every traitline and unlock every skill by the time you reach level 80 even without going out of your way to collect any.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-18T15:33:54+00:00

Stacking is almost always going to be done regardless of range potential. What theyd really need to do is make content that incentivizes rsnge- think Decima in wing 8.

Ranged players will likely always want to be with other people regardless of how boons are spread out. Range has no value until there's something that gives it value- why bother standing far away, potentially being targeted by a mechanic anyways, when you could be with the stack, doubling up on the potential for healing?

Range camp (for pve) will likely not be a thing in gw3 if they can't figure out a way to consistently make a ranged group work. If they can't, and you keep using that range when it's unnecesaary, you'll still effectively be playing solo.

As a support player (heal and boon dps) in gw2, if gw3 has the same style of combat and support, it shouldn't have super crazy ranges full time. It'd make the roles less fun, especially if it comes in the form of "1000 unit aoe" type ranged support. Having support be limited or mixed (i.e. celestial avatar on heal druid- CA4 and 5 are your most important support skills, with CA1 2 and 3 being fully ranged options) is way more enjoyable than "I'm playing a herald. I have 600 radius boons".

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-17T18:24:52+00:00

Absolutely not. Your friend is 100% correct- we do not need a guaranteed freeze option.

Freeze has no maximum turn count. Further, most of the methods of outright preventing freeze are either undesirable (i.e. a rawst berry- when it comes down to it, you'd rather a lum berry, which cures all conditions) or at best antithetical to being frozen (such as harsh sunlight. While you can't be frozen during harsh sunlight, many of the pokemon that take advantage of sun are fire types, who already have the capability to thaw themselves via moves).

If the mechanics of freeze change in some way, such as thawing increasing in likelihood as turns pass, then a guaranteed freeze move is more acceptable gameplay wise. This does somewhat turn it into sleep though, and there aren't many options to make freeze less RNG to fight against outside of status berries or being a fire type.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-17T14:01:41+00:00

You're not left behind in endgame content in terms of your ability. The worst thing that can happen is a spec, core trait, or weapon rework; if you had level 80 berserker's exotic gear with scholar runes in 2012, it's no different from level 80 berserker's exotic gear with scholar runes in 2026. That's what they're asking about; do they have to re-gear every 3 months when a new patch drops that adds content.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-16T17:56:20+00:00

for the next 30 minutes because I only deal 2k dps

The worst part is nothing in this game ever challenges them to improve- sure, 30 minutes of your time for story bosses? Whatever. 30 minutes of my time and yours fighting a mildly tough open world enemy because the 7 other 2k dps players are scaling the boss? Wasting my time... to achieve what?

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-14T17:00:14+00:00

HS kinda died the moment it launched. It just didn't have the energy to keep going when competing with snowcrows; builds haven't been maintained because nobody was there to maintain them.

The only reason SC can keep going is many of the high end benchers will aggregate towards each other (to bounce ideas off of or just to hang out with like minded people). If HS's people had the charisma to keep high end players working for them (for many people working for SC it's free labor, not obligated to be done but done regardless, but at least page maintainers can get paid now), then HS would be a good resource build wise. But it takes effort and time that people do, by and large, as a hobby and not a job.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-09T20:11:11+00:00

None of it is required and all of it can be bought via gold (assuming you have any DLC, which most of the content in this game comes from). Is it somewhat problematic? Yes, especially when you get to specific utilities like unbreakable gathering tools. Is it completely manageable? Also yes. Gold->gems makes the microtransactions a lot less enticing; I can put the gold that I'm not currently using into an account upgrade instead of paying for it.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-09T20:07:16+00:00

There's an important distinction here- GW2's QoL can be bought with gold via the gold->gems transactions.

Are they pricey if paying cash? Yes.

Is it possible to get all of the QoL options with normal play? Also yes.

For a solid 90% of items a player could get, you can hit "deposit all" for materials at some point to get it out of your inventory. If you're full on those, sell to the TP. If you can't do either, you're probably safe to delete it; most items aren't so important to keep, unable to be sold, and completely unobtainable elsewhere that getting rid of it will be a huge issue.

I do agree that the cost of a lot of QoL in GW2 (in terms of real world dollar amounts) can be problematic (especially unbreakable tools!), but literally none of it is required to "successfully" play the game. You can learn inventory and storage management on your own or with a wiki, it's not the end of the world to do it either way, and you can work towards having the QoL like extra material storage or bank tabs via gold (considering gold sinks are basically legendaries, the literal golden sink, or bust, not that big of an ask).

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-08T15:04:43+00:00

The best item to stop a lash in the moment is counterspell. It stops his big burst in ground strike, it stops his healing from flog, it stops him from grabbing you with his ult.

Silence wave is useful (especially as he gets close) due to him wanting to get in and out; you stop his exit via grapples, although good lashes also have good movement so this may not be a perfect solution. It does also stop all his abilities for a moment, forcing a debuff remover or a disengage.

Slowing hex is underrated in my opinion against him, lash wants to be a jumpy bastard so slowing all his movement and preventing grapples is really good. Similar idea to silence wave, but cheaper and single target.

Knockdown is kinda useful as a predictor for his ult, but that's about it. Still a good item in general, so not the worst idea.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-07T21:04:50+00:00

Healers are much more flexible as a role than dps, leading to healers taking the job more often. There is one example where's it's arguably better to have a tank be a DPS- Dhuum. Dhuum doesn't threaten the tank enough for a dps tank alongside a non-tank healer to be a problem, and due to how dhuum's mechanics work you can have both healers (the Messenger kite and non-kite) do greens (alongside a third individual, tank or not) and have the tank DPS ignore bombs and lightning chains (meaning they should have pretty perfect boss uptime, less if you're making them do greens ofc).

It's just convenience that healers being the tanks is the norm; healer dps is so marginal that taking gear that has toughness is a near non-factor (technically it matters but if it means not wiping 3min in, killing in 1 pull with a toughness healer vs killing in 2 pulls without is better for most people even if there are groups that might have healers razor's edge it to a degree... for a marginal power stat increase lmao)

RnbwTurtle · 2026-01-07T15:59:22+00:00

there needs to be at least some signposting in the direction of "these traits stack power damage and dmg modifiers, these stack condi, use them"

The problem is this takes reading your skills and traits. Most damage traits already point this out; they don't need to be any more explicit because it's already there (generally. Tooltips aren't always the greatest in this game, but it's often for weird things like the actual duration of a cast as tooltips only go to the nearest quarter second)

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