The Pet Guide

by Jenosavel and Epinephrine
We do not own Guild Wars or any content in it, merely this collection of useful information.
All right to Guild Wars belong to ArenaNet and NCSoft.

Table of Contents

Introduction / Background Information

1. Acquiring a pet: The Charm Animal skill
   
2. Location of pets
3. Statistics of pets
4. Pet evolution
   1. Training Your Pet for a Specific Evolution
      1. Summary
      2. Damage taken, deaths, or healing?
      3. Damage dealt by the pet?
      4. Controlling the damage done to the pet
      5. More than just a build
      6. Unevolved pets
      7. Choosing which enemies to level on
   2. Sample training builds
      1. Dire
      2. Hearty
   3. Evolutions and Statistics
5. Combat effectiveness
   1. The Skills
      1. The Attacks
      2. Pet Skills
      3. Summary
      4. Use of the pet
      5. Controlling pet aggro
      6. Skills and pets
      7. Anti-pet skills
   2. Builds
6. Footnotes

Introduction/Background Information

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? Where do you get a pet?

This guide is an attempt to answer all questions about pets and provide the fullest explanations regarding pets, pet use, and pet attributes. While other guides have been written on the subject they have in the past been full of speculation and not been rigorously tested, as well as lacking in completeness. To ensure the data is correct, nearly every element has been tested and notes on the testing techniques and data are available through the footnotes, so that suspect data/conclusions can be identified. Please bear in mind that guides may become out of date and take into account the publication date of the guide – subsequent patches may well change aspects of the guide.

Rather than wait till the end, we’d like to make some acknowledgments to start with: Thanks to Dragon Incarnate for the original Ultimate Pet Guide, the first work of its kind, and to Valerius for his role in maintaining Dragon Incarnate’s work in the more recently updated pet guide. A big thanks to Daegul Mistweaver for his help with damage values on various foes, which helped kick start the true damage testing; I look forward to your treatise on damage. Of course, the support of our guild (Servants of Fortuna!) through testing has been invaluable, with much time donated to our efforts and help with finding appropriate testing areas. The community has provided insights into many of the issues in this guide, and we of course thank the pet loving community for the time and energy put into pet related posting. Hopefully the new information gleaned from all this testing will be useful, and will settle many debates about pet functionality and usefulness. We’ll start with the basics:

Aquiring a Pet: The Charm Animal Skill

To get a pet requires the use of the Charm Animal skill; at most stages of the game this is only possible as a Ranger/* or */Ranger character, as the Charm Animal skill is a ranger skill. In the tutorial stage of the game the quest from Master Ranger Nente grants this skill, both to ranger primaries (R/*) and to those wishing to try ranger skills – as such you can charm a pet without being a ranger or ranger secondary, though only in this beginning stage of the game.

To charm an animal one simply activates the skill while targeting an animal. The animal will close the distance and begin attacking, but you should not move as it will stop the skill from completing.

Some creatures will display a notice that they are not animals; these creatures cannot be charmed. Moss spiders are likely the first “animals” that are met by most rangers that are not “animals”. At least one type of animal has a charm breaking ability – the pre-searing Black Bears have a skill that allows them to interrupt attempts to charm them. While it was once possible to bypass this through careful timing of knockdowns it is no longer possible; the only source of charmable bears is post-searing.

You cannot charm a pet if you already have a pet, and there is no way to release your pet save the dialogue with Jarrel the Tamer. Jarrel is located by Master Ranger Nente in pre-searing, and just outside the gates of Ascalon in post searing. Visiting him and selecting the appropriate option removes your current pet. He will compensate you for your pet with a token amount of 100 gold if your pet was level 20.

You cannot get around the single pet restriction – using Echo while charming a pet will duplicate the Charm Animal skill upon completion of the first Charm Animal, however neither copy of Charm Animal on the skill bar will work to capture a pet, as there is a pet currently charmed.

It is possible to have a pet while not having Charm Animal on your skillbar. Provided you have charmed a pet in pre-searing as a non-ranger primary, using the skill while trying the ranger skills (but not having accepted the ranger as secondary class), you can visit another trainer in an instanced area and try a new secondary (or select a secondary) – all ranger skills will disappear from your skillbar, but your pet will remain so long as you stay in the instance. Even passing to another instanced area will cause the pet to disappear; we can conclude that the existence of a pet is checked for upon entering an instanced zone. Other methods to have a pet without having Charm Animal on your skillbar are to replace Charm Animal when unlocking a skill in an instanced area or through the Ranger path quest in the Crystal Desert. No matter which method is employed to have a pet without Charm Animal present on the skillbar, the pet will vanish on crossing an instance portal.

You cannot charm a creature that has already been charmed. There are some areas in the game in which enemies will charm animals to use against you. These animals can’t be charmed back, even after the death of their master.

Once a pet is charmed you can name the pet with the /petname or /namepet command; without any text following the command it simply resets the pet name to the default, which can be handy to check pet evolution, while using /petname YourPetName would result in a pet called YourPetName. Pet names are limited to 12 characters in length.

Location of Pets

There are several types of animals charmable by a ranger. A list of pets and their locations are found below:

Strider/Moa: These tall birds are found in the area around Ascalon, both pre- (Strider) and post-searing (Moa); they are most likely ratites, resembling the ostrich or rhea in that they are tall, flightless birds with well developed leg muscles, but larger like Aepyornis maximus, armed with a heavy slashing beak. Typically several level 1 Striders are found in the area around Ashford in pre-searing, while level 3 Moas are found in the hills around the area and even in mission instances in the early post-searing game (Old Ascalon, Regent River Basin etc…). One particularly fast way to get a Moa is to enter the Fort Ranik mission, as there are Moas patrolling the area where the first Charr are found.

Wolf/Snow Wolf/Elder Wolf: The level 2 wolves are found in the area around Ashford Abbey and as well in Regent Valley pre-searing. In post-searing, the level 5 Snow Wolves are found in the north Shiverpeak Mountains (Traveler’s Vale, Iron Horse Mines, Anvil Rock etc…) – the area of Anvil Rock has numerous Snow Wolves, and often one spawns right at the Ice Tooth Cave entrance, making for an easy capture. The Elder Wolf is one of the few pets post-searing that has already evolved and is available at a higher level. It starts at level 15 fully evolved, and is only found in Spearhead pass. Capturing an Elder wolf here may require a bit of luck: they are charmed quickly by the Stone Summit Rangers in the area, and once charmed by a dwarf they aren’t available to you. They sometimes spawn out of range of the dwarves, however, and can be easily acquired after combat in these cases. Wolves howl from time to time, an endearing trait to some, an annoyance to others.

Warthog: The Warthog can be found both pre- and post-searing; in pre-searing they are common just north of the wall. Since there is a quest to cross the wall anyway this is as good a time as any to capture a level 2 Warthog. Should you miss that opportunity they are again available post-searing at level 5; however, they aren’t found until the Kryta/Maguuma areas of the game. My favorite place to catch one is just outside The Wilds, as one will frequently spawn by the resurrection shrine and you can thus capture it without facing a single foe. The Warthog makes whuffling noises that are much less intrusive than wolf howls, and is the smallest of the pets.

Melandru’s Stalker: Likely the first pet the ranger tames, the Melandru’s Stalker looks rather like a dark panther. It starts at level 5 in both pre- and post-searing, and is found in Regent Valley in pre-searing and in old Ascalon in post searing. Not a particularly noisy animal and of medium size, it is an attractive companion to many.

Lynx: The lynx is nothing like a true lynx from our world, resembling a mountain lion but clearly an evolutionary step away from other felines – it seems to possess only three claws on its paws. Similar in size and behaviour to the Melandru’s Stalker, it is a less common choice, perhaps due to its colouration. Lynxes are found in Kryta, around Bergen Hot Springs, Beetletun, the Ascalon Settlement and various other areas, and are level 5.

Bear: Bears exist both pre- and post-searing, but the pre-searing bears are not charmable. Bears are the largest of the pets available, being bulkier and more imposing that the smaller pets. Found in the southern Shiverpeaks, but as far north as Lornar’s Pass, bears are level 5 in the wild; to catch a bear I typically leave from Port Sledge and simply run east – there is nearly always a bear within a fairly short run.

Dune Lizard: Dune lizards are first (and only) encountered at level 5 in the Crystal Desert. Looking somewhat like a monitor lizard or iguana, they are powerfully built, low bodied lizards with somewhat short tails (for a lizard) and a crest on their heads. Heroes Audience is my favourite settlement from which to capture a Dune Lizard, there is nearly always one wandering near the entry and often within range of your Charm Animal, eliminating any risk from the enemies in the area and allowing solo capture.

Spider: The only charmable type of spider so far in the game is the Black Widow (the Moss Spiders are NOT charmable) – the Black Widows are found only in the Underworld, and are rewards from certain quests. The only animal found at high level other than the Elder Wolf, the Black Widows are always level 20 and evolved when found – it seems to be a random evolution, as Elder, Hearty and Dire Black Widows have all been found from the same spawn point. Unlike the counterpart in our world, the Black Widow is non-venomous, but makes up for it by being the size of a dog.

Statistics of pets:

All pets share the same base health progression, the same AL progression and the same base damage progression (the word base is used here as the pet evolution can change these figures, and the level of the Beastmastery attribute will change the damage actually dealt much as weapon mastery changes the damage dealt by a weapon, but does not alter its base damage). There are however differences between pet attack speeds, contrary to other published data on pets, and the damage types are here reported correctly, as opposed to the erroneous claims of the Prima guide and other sources.

The base health of all pets is 80+20/level, resulting in the following table of health values.(1)

Pet Level	Health
1	100
2	120
3	140
4	160
5	180
6	200
7	220
8	240
9	260
10	280
11	300
12	320
13	340
14	360
15	380
16	400
17	420
18	440
19	460
20	480

The base damage range of all pets depends on the pet’s level, and is displayed in the following table; the distribution is also available and is clearly nonlinear. The notes include the statistical tests.(2)

Pet Level	Minimum Damage	Maximum Damage	Mean Damage	Distribution + Statistics
3	3	7	3.9	Level 3
4	3	8	4.9	Level 4
5	4	9	5.6	Level 5
6	5	11	6.7	Level 6
7	5	12	7.3	Level 7
8	6	14	8.4	Level 8
9	7	16	9.2	Level 9
10	8	18	11.1	Level 10
11	8	19	11.4	Level 11
12	9	21	13.1	Level 12
13	10	22	13.7	Level 13
14	11	26	15.5	Level 14
15	12	27	16.3	Level 15
16	13	30	18.0	Level 16
17	14	32	18.8	Level 17
18	15	35	21.3	Level 18
19	16	37	22.2	Level 19
20	17	41	24.4	Level 20

The armour level (AL) of the pets is likewise determined by the pet level. Pet AL progression is listed in this table. The figures for level 1 and 2 pets are not verified, due to the difficulty of testing the AL at such low levels, but are presumed to follow the pattern. You will note that this differs from the assumed change to pet AL – the AL bonus was added to base pet AL, boosting pets of all levels – pets receive 29.3% less damage at any given level since this (very welcomed) patch.(3)

Pet Level	AL
1	23
2	26
3	29
4	32
5	35
6	38
7	41
8	44
9	47
10	50
11	53
12	56
13	59
14	62
15	65
16	68
17	71
18	74
19	77
20	80

Pets vary in the type of damage delivered. The following table of damage types shows the type of damage associated with each pet. The Prima Guide had a list of damage types which were largely accurate, but incorrect in some cases. The correct types are listed below. The entries that differ from the Prima Guide are in italics. Note that no pet deals blunt damage.(4)

Pet Type	Damage type
Strider	Slashing
Moa	Slashing
Wolf	Slashing
Snow Wolf	Slashing
Dune Lizard	Piercing
Bear	Slashing
Warthog	Slashing
Melandru’s Stalker	Slashing
Lynx	Slashing
Spider	Piercing

The most striking difference in pet statistics is in the pet attack speeds. As can be seen, the pets are invariant excepting the type of damage delivered, and it turns out, attack speed. The attack speeds are recorded as such. A note – the Moa/Strider does initially have a higher attack rate than the other pets. This difference in attack speed disappears on leveling, approaching the other pets in speed. The Bear's brutal mauling slows it's attack speed, but does not add any damage.(5)

Pet Type	Attack period
Strider	2.14
Moa	2.14
Wolf	2.14
Snow Wolf	2.14
Dune Lizard	2.14
Bear	2.61
Warthog	2.14
Melandru’s Stalker	2.14
Lynx	2.14
Spider	2.14

In summary; initially on release of the game claims were made that one type of pet was tougher, another faster and so on, to balance them. Gaile Gray said in an interview:

As we can see however, this was an exaggeration. In reality pets differ very little, with only two types of damage being delivered, with all pets having the same exact AL, health and damage. The attack rate is the sole variable in effectiveness, and isn’t balanced by any compensating factors – a Bear is simply the worst pet due to its slower attack rating. All other pets are equally effective - to mention this again however the Black Widow does not have a poison attack - it is no more effective than any other pet.

Pet evolution

Pets undergo evolution up to twice in their existence, to our knowledge. These evolutions occur at level 11 and at level 15, and it has yet to be shown to occur after this level, though isolated reports of level 20 pet evolution has been reported. The evolutions happen immediately upon leveling to 11 and 15. Evolutions are a way for the pet to vary slightly from others of its ilk – it alters the pet statistics slightly. It would seem that the evolutions also are associated with the size changes observed – that pets change sizes at 11 and 15, and perhaps again at level 20 – there is no doubt that pets do grow throughout their experience – a level 20 Strider is MUCH larger than its level 1 counterpart, but as pets don’t tend to stand still very well it is very hard to come up with exact figures and observations. In this section we will address the process of evolution, facts and fallacies about evolution and finally statistics on evolved pets.

Training Your Pet for a Specific Evolution

Summary

The current, common understanding of pet evolution is that your pet’s state exists on a slider. One side of the slider has the Hearty pet with high defense and low offense. The other side has the Dire pet with high offense and low defense. In the middle lies the balanced pet, the Elder. It is commonly believed that the pet taking damage and being used under a low Beast Mastery stat shifts it towards Hearty, while dishing out damage and being used under a high Beast Mastery stat shifts it towards Dire. These ideas are common knowledge for good reason: they have a lot of truth to them. Since there are numerous posts and articles already written with precise methods that can be used to train up a specific pet evolution, I will only touch on training methods briefly at the end of this section. Instead, I would like to devote this space to shedding some light on why certain training methods work and others do not. Thus, I will focus on individual factors that influence how the pet evolves.

• have the pet deal more damage than you to move it towards Dire
• allow the pet to take a lot of damage to move it towards Hearty
• healing has no direct impact on the pet’s evolution
• damage received is a key factor in determining the pet’s evolution
• use Call of Protection combined with Symbiotic Bond or Otyugh’s Cry to minimize damage taken
• how a build is used can be nearly as important as the build itself, pay attention to how you play!
• a pet that won’t evolve simply means it already has the Elder’s stats, even though it will never have a prefix
• level your pet on enemies that deal direct damage which can be easily prevented
• avoid leveling your pet on enemies that use degen or armor ignoring damage

Damage Taken, Deaths, or Healing?

It is difficult to test whether it is damage taken, damage healed, or deaths sustained that pushes the pet towards Hearty. However, it appears to be damage taken, rather than the other two, which is the key factor. To test this, a pet was raised to level 10 as an Aggressive pet with all variables remaining constant from my previous successful Aggressive pets. This included the pet being forced to deal 100% of the damage dealt to enemies. Then, it was taken outside of the Temple of the Ages and made to stand in poison until it died. Once dead it would be revived, allowed to naturally regen its health, and then killed again the same way. Rinse, repeat. Upon turning level 11, the pet was Playful rather than Aggressive. The same test was repeated with a second pet, only this time the pet was not allowed to regen to its full health before being poisoned again. Although it sustained the same number of deaths, it took considerably less damage. Surprisingly it still came out Aggressive.

With respect to the healing of the pet, a different test needed to be done. This time, the pet was leveled to 11 by the same method as the previous two pets, but was the subject of much healing through Comfort Animal, Predator’s Pounce, and Heal Area. Although the pet was not allowed to take damage it was still healed. The pet came out Aggressive, thus proving that healing alone has no direct impact on the pet’s evolution. Most likely, previous connections between healing and pet evolution where a side effect of a pet taking too much damage.

Damage Dealt by the Pet?

A factor which has been attributed to a pet moving towards Dire has been a high pet damage output in relation to the damage output of its master. Note the key phrase here: in relation to its master. Using points in Beast Mastery is all well and good when attempting to move a pet towards Dire, but it may not be enough by itself. Theory suggests that the pet must put the player’s damage to shame. Dumping out any points in other weapon attributes is a common way of achieving this. Also, one might simply not attack. The pet will defend its master and itself so long as the attacking foe is not at range, and thus the player does not actually have to attack for the pet to start killing enemies.

While the damage output ratio between the pet and its master is undoubtedly an important factor, it must be noted that it is not the only factor. High damage sustained by the pet can override a high damage output ratio, as was illustrated in my first test where the pet was made to deal 100% of the damage but still came out Playful. In fact we do not know with certainty that it is the ratio of damages; the interaction is difficult to untangle as pet kills, damage and experience rate are all tied together, and damage dealt by the master by definition reduces the damage the pet deals, as the enemies die sooner.

Controlling the Damage Done to the Pet

If damage sustained by the pet is so important in determining its evolution, what are the best ways to mitigate damage? When seeking a Dire pet, as much attention should be paid to this question as to how you will make your pet dish out damage. Since it is damage taken, and not healing or even number of deaths, that seems to push the pet towards Hearty, minimizing the damage that the pet endures is vital. Symbiotic Bond and Call of Protection are therefore immeasurably helpful. Via these two skills you can nearly eliminate all damage dealt to the pet. At extremely low levels, Otyugh’s Cry can be added to the mix to make up for a low natural Armor Level. Since Call of Protection’s effect is linked to Beast Mastery, a high Beast Mastery stat will not only allow your pet to deal better damage, but also minimize the damage it takes. Therefore a high Beast Mastery stat has a dual sided benefit when trying to train a Dire pet.

More Than Just the Build

Another matter I would like to mention is the importance of the play style itself rather than just the build used. It may sound absurd to some, but a Dire pet can still be attained with no points in Beast Mastery and no pet attacks equipped. It is extremely difficult, but has been done. Similarly, a Hearty pet can be attained with full points in Beast Mastery. The key is in the way the player plays, such as whether it is the player or the pet at the forefront of battle. If the player charges in and makes a target of himself, it will push the pet towards a Dire evolution. However, if the player hangs back and sends the pet on ahead, it will push the pet towards a Hearty evolution. This is most likely due to the simple fact that the main target sustains more damage than the one that comes in behind; thus, if the pet is always being sent in ahead it will be targeted more often and will inevitably take more damage, pushing it towards Hearty. While this detail will not make or break your pet’s evolution, it is nonetheless important to take note of. In a situation where the pet is on the brink and you are having difficulty getting it across the line and into the category that you want, a detail such as this may make all the difference.

Unevolved Pets?

One evolution predicament that has, to my knowledge, not been previously explored is that of the unevolved pet. It does occasionally happen that upon reaching level 11, the pet’s base name does not change. This means that even after resetting the pet’s name it has neither the Aggressive nor the Playful prefix. These unevolved pets will not evolve at a later time; they are fixed at the base name for the duration of their lives. They are not secretly one of the evolutions, and instead remain without any of the modifiers associated with the different evolutions. This means that it is the equivalent of an Elder pet, for the Elder pet has no modifiers either. Knowing this, the cause of getting an unevolved pet is as one would expect. If upon hitting level 11 the pet still remains in the middle of the slider instead of to one side or the other, it will remain unevolved. The most common method of keeping the pet balanced through these early levels is to use a build which levels up the pet very quickly without allowing it to deal or receive much damage at all, such as a Necromancer minion-master who happens to bring along a pet. Another means to the unevolved pet is to make the pet deal great amounts of damage and take quite a bit of damage as well. This is more difficult, as it is hard to tell how much damage the pet should take and dish out to be balanced, and it is harder still to keep the ratio right. An example of a possible method would be to level the pet up while keeping its damage taken at nothing and forcing it to deal 100% of the damage. Then, upon each level-up of the pet, take it outside of Augury Rock and let the Hydras kill it once. Another successful method of getting an unevolved pet was to train the pet for 1 level as an Aggressive and 5 levels as a Playful. Another easy way to get an unevolved pet is simply to level the pet while it is dead; a dead pet deals no damage and suffers no damage. The range for experience is apparently unlimited – even if the pet doesn’t show the leveling it will level when you get within range of the pet again, or if you cross an instance portal/map travel.

Choosing Which Enemies to Level On

Most masters of pet evolution will recommend one of two areas in the entire game when trying to evolve a pet. These are: the Minotaurs outside Ice Tooth Cave and the Mergoyle Wavebreakers outside of Gates of Kryta. These enemies have no mystical qualities about them that make them better for training pets with. What they do offer is an easily controlled environment. Since pet training can be a delicate process with many different factors influencing how the pet evolves, you will want to control as many variables as possible to maximize your success. The enemies are no exception, and choosing an enemy with an easily predicted and countered damage type is very helpful. Warriors and elementalists offer direct damage that can be easily reduced through Symbiotic Bond and Call of Protection. They do not degen or condition your pet, which can wreak havoc with its training. They conveniently have no means to protect themselves against your own condition spreading, and come without friends of other classes to mess you up. Additionally, they are of a low enough level that your own character shouldn’t be in danger of dying from them, yet a high enough level that your pet can still level all the way to 15 on them if you so choose.

You do not need to level your pet in either of these two spots to train the pet you want, although they will make your life easier. If you choose to go elsewhere, remember to avoid enemies with any of the following: degen hexes, degen conditions, blinding, armor-ignoring damage.

Sample Training Builds

Dire

For training pets towards Dire, Call of Protection is a necessity. Symbiotic Bond and Otyugh’s Cry will be helpful for the same reasons as Call of Protection is; however, all three may not be necessary beyond the early levels of the pet. As for pet attacks, the elite Ferocious Strike is wondrously helpful. The additional energy gained from it will allow you to use pet attacks more frequently. Another pet attack that should be considered is Feral Lunge. This will allow your pet to deal damage against foes whose armor is still too high for it. Also, if you choose to fight foes who are heavy on spell casting, Disrupting Lunge is a good skill to consider. Not only will you deal damage with it, but you can prevent damage as well.

Generally speaking, you should only need one or two slots for self-defense. I suggest that one of these be Troll Unguent. The other may be a stance such as Whirling Defense, or an armor buff such as Armor of Earth or Physical/Elemental Resistance.

Ranger/Mesmer vs. Minotaurs
Beast Mastery: 12 + 3 + 1
Expertise: 12 + 1
Wilderness Survival: 3 + 1

Ferocious Strike {E}
Feral Lunge
Symbiotic Bond
Call of Protection
Comfort Animal
Charm Animal
Troll Unguent
Physical Resistance

Hearty

For Hearty pets, you have the freedom to bring almost any solo build you want. As long as you keep your Beast Mastery low, send your pet in ahead of you, and let it earn some experience while dead, you should be just fine.

Ranger/Elementalist vs. Minotaurs
Expertise: 9 + 3 + 1
Wilderness Survival: 8 + 1
Marksmanship: 11 + 1
Earth Magic: 8

Poison Arrow {E}
Penetrating Attack
Dual Shot
Ignite Arrows
Armor of Earth
Troll Unguent
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal

Evolutions and Statistics

Evolutions are more complex than initially thought; while the health information was accurate, rather than a flat damage adjustment it is observed that the bonus in damage varies with the level of the pet in question. The health adjustments for pets are indeed:

+30 health for a Playful pet
+60 health for a Hearty pet
-30 health for an Aggressive pet
-60 health for a Dire pet

As such, the table of pet health levels is as follows (6):

Pet Level	Playful/ Hearty Health	Unevolved/ Elder Health	Aggressive/ Dire Health
1		100
2		120
3		140
4		160
5		180
6		200
7		220
8		240
9		260
10		280
11	330	300	270
12	350	320	290
13	370	340	310
14	390	360	330
15	440	380	320
16	460	400	340
17	480	420	360
18	500	440	380
19	520	460	400
20	540	480	420

As far as damage is concerned, the damage range and average damage shifts with each level, and the damage adjustment doesn’t seem to level off until level 14. As of level 14 it becomes a ~15% bonus/penalty to damage, and this rule is followed right up to level 20. The following table indicates damage ranges and average damages for the various evolutions (7).

Pet Level	Playful/Hearty			Unevolved/Elder			Aggressive/Dire
	min	max	mean	min	max	mean	min	max	mean
11	8	18	10.9	8	19	11.4	8	20	12.0
12	9	21	12.1	9	21	13.1	10	22	13.1
13	9	21	13.2	10	22	13.7	10	24	14.3
14	10	25	14.7	11	26	15.5	12	29	17.7
15	10	24	14.2	12	27	16.3	13	31	18.4
16	11	26	15.7	13	30	18.0	14	34	20.6
17	12	27	16.9	14	32	18.8	15	35	21.4
18	13	28	18.1	15	35	21.3	17	40	23.8
19	14	32	18.8	16	37	22.2	18	41	25.1
20	15	35	21.1	17	41	24.4	20	46	28.1

As can be seen from the damage ranges and the average damages the effect of evolution isn’t a simple +2 to damage, but is instead approximately a +/-15% at level 20; the table of ratios shows that at low levels of aggressive/playful the damage adjustment is smaller, but grows. While the percentages aren’t exact, given the standard errors the ratios a 5% adjustment for levels 11-13 and 15% for level 14-20 lie within a 95% CI. (8)

Pet Level	Hearty/Elder	Dire/Elder
11	- 4.6%	+ 5.3%
12	- 4.0%	+ 4.1%
13	- 3.4%	+ 4.4%
14	- 4.6%	+ 14.2%
15		+ 12.9%
16		+ 14.4%
17		+ 13.8%
18		+ 11.7%
19		+ 13.1%
20		+ 15.2%

Combat effectiveness

A basic pet thus attacks every ~2.14 seconds for ~24.4 average damage vs. 60 AL at level 12 beastmastery, for 11.4 DPS with no other skills used. Use of Call of Haste increases this to 15.2 DPS, so a pet can with minimal spending prove to be an effective attacker.

Here's a table showing the damage, DPS and DPS under Call of Haste for beastmastery 0-12 for a level 20 pets.

BM Level	Damage Adjustment	Hearty			Unevolved/Elder			Dire
		Mean Dmg	DPS	DPS (CoH)	Mean Dmg	DPS	DPS (CoH)	Mean Dmg	DPS	DPS (CoH)
0	35.6%	7.5	3.5	4.7	8.7	4.1	5.4	10.0	4.7	6.2
1	38.6%	8.2	3.8	5.1	9.4	4.4	5.9	10.9	5.1	6.7
2	42.0%	8.9	4.1	5.5	10.3	4.8	6.4	11.8	5.5	7.3
3	45.9%	9.7	4.5	6.0	11.2	5.2	7.0	12.9	6.0	8.0
4	50.0%	10.6	4.9	6.6	12.2	5.7	7.6	14.1	6.6	8.7
5	54.5%	11.5	5.4	7.2	13.3	6.2	8.3	15.3	7.2	9.5
6	59.5%	12.6	5.9	7.8	14.5	6.8	9.0	16.7	7.8	10.4
7	64.8%	13.7	6.4	8.5	15.8	7.4	9.8	18.2	8.5	11.3
8	70.7%	14.9	7.0	9.3	17.3	8.1	10.7	19.9	9.3	12.4
9	77.1%	16.3	7.6	10.1	18.8	8.8	11.7	21.7	10.1	13.5
10	84.1%	17.8	8.3	11.0	20.6	9.6	12.8	23.7	11.1	14.7
11	91.7%	19.4	9.1	12.0	22.4	10.5	13.9	25.8	12.1	16.0
12	100%	21.1	9.9	13.1	24.4	11.4	15.2	28.1	13.1	17.5
13	104%	22.0	10.3	13.7	25.4	11.9	15.8	29.2	13.7	18.2
14	107%	22.6	10.6	14.1	26.2	12.2	16.3	30.1	14.1	18.7
15	111%	23.5	11.0	14.6	27.1	12.7	16.9	31.2	14.6	19.4
16	115%	24.3	11.4	15.1	28.1	13.1	17.5	32.3	15.1	20.1

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

Reasons to Consider the Pet

Pets add damage even without using energy - that extra ~11 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. 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 of 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/8seconds and generate a strike of adrenaline /8seconds 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 table.

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 that is how the DPS was calculated.

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. Visual: A cloud of green sparkles in the air around the pet that falls to the ground and forms a pentagon over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 5. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 15 seconds. Analysis: As seen on the tables, 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 maybe .75) 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 only thus useful as a chance interrupt vs. fast spells or to purposely take out 2 second plus 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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a triangle with the point forward over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 10. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 5 seconds. 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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a square with a corner forward over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 5. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 5 seconds. Analysis: Another utility skill; it is useable 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. Visual: An upward spiral of green mist that starts out wide and tightens in as it rises. Energy Cost: 5. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 10 seconds. 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 3/9/10 energy. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a square with a side forward over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 5. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 8 seconds 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, it in fact is 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 time, 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 indispensable 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

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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a square with a corner forward over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 10. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 10 seconds Analysis: The 10 second recharge time is too long to make an effective damage engine out of this skill, but 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 fleeing opponents. DPS (12BM) = ~1.7 Attack burden: 1/5; 1/7 under CoH Energy burden = ~3 pips 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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a triangle with the point backwards over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 10. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 10 seconds. 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 catch a second person aren't great, and the only time you'd get multiples is vs. a healing ball. A fairly costly attack with little benefit; even disrupting 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

Predator's Pounce

Description: If this pet attack hit, it deals +5/+17/+21 damage and your pet gains 5/41/53 health. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a pentagon over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 5. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 5 seconds. Analysis: Although not really a damage skill at first glance (it has no bonus damage for example) 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 it's 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 enemy suffering from a Condition, that enemy takes an additional +1/+12/+16 damage. Visual: A cloud of sparkles around the pet that fall to form a hexagon over a pale disk. Energy Cost: 10. Casting Time: Instant. Recharge Time: 5 seconds. Analysis: A slightly weaker version of Brutal Strike, but with more flexibility. It can't quite match the numbers than 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 health bar, 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

Summary Tables of Skill Effectiveness

	Bestial Pounce		Brutal Strike		Disrupting Lunge		Feral Lunge
BM	Bonus	DPS	Bonus/ Cond.	DPS	bonus	DPS	bonus	DPS
0	5	0.31	5/10	0.83/1.67	1	0.17	5	0.50
1	6	0.38	6/12	1.00/2.00	2	0.33	6	0.60
2	7	0.44	7/14	1.17/2.33	2	0.33	7	0.70
3	8	0.50	8/16	1.33/2.67	3	0.50	8	0.80
4	9	0.56	9/18	1.50/3.00	4	0.67	9	0.90
5	10	0.63	10/20	1.67/3.33	5	0.83	10	1.00
6	11	0.69	11/22	1.83/3.67	5	0.83	11	1.10
7	12	0.75	12/24	2.00/4.00	6	1.00	12	1.20
8	13	0.81	13/16	2.17/4.33	7	1.17	13	1.30
9	14	0.88	14/28	2.33/4.67	8	1.33	14	1.40
10	15	0.94	15/30	2.50/5.00	8	1.33	15	1.50
11	16	1.00	16/32	2.67/5.33	9	1.50	16	1.60
12	17	1.06	17/34	2.83/5.67	10	1.67	17	1.70
13	18	1.13	18/36	3.00/6.00	11	1.83	18	1.80
14	19	1.19	19/38	3.17/6.33	11	1.83	19	1.90
15	20	1.25	20/40	3.33.6.67	12	2.00	20	2.00
16	21	1.31	21/42	3.50/7.00	13	2.17	21	2.10

	Ferocious Strike		Melandru’s Assault		Maiming Strike		Predator’s Pounce		Scavenger’s Strike
BM	Bonus/ Energy	DPS/ EPS	Bonus/ Cond.	DPS	bonus	DPS	Bonus/ Heal	DPS/ HPS	Bonus/ Cond.	DPS
0	5/3	0.31/0.38	5/10	0.5/1.0	5	0.50	5/5	0.83/0.83	5/6	0.83/1.00
1	6/3	0.38/0.38	6/12	0.6/1.2	6	0.60	6/8	1.00/1.33	6/8	1.00/1.33
2	7/4	0.44/0.5	7/14	0.7/1.4	7	0.70	7/11	1.17/1.83	7/10	1.17/1.67
3	8/4	0.50/0.5	8/16	0.8/1.6	8	0.80	8/14	1.33/2.33	8/12	1.33/2.00
4	9/5	0.56/0.63	9/18	0.9/1.8	9	0.90	9/17	1.50/2.83	9/14	1.50/2.33
5	10/5	0.63/0.63	10/20	1.0/2.0	10	1.00	10/20	1.67/3.33	10/16	1.67/2.67
6	11/6	0.69/0.75	11/22	1.1/2.2	11	1.10	11/23	1.83/3.83	11/18	1.83/3.00
7	12/6	0.75/0.75	12/24	1.2/2.4	12	1.20	12/26	2.00/4.33	12/20	2.00/3.33
8	13/7	0.81/0.88	13/16	1.3/2.6	13	1.30	13/29	2.17/4.83	13/21	2.17/3.50
9	14/7	0.88/0.88	14/28	1.4/2.8	14	1.40	14/32	2.33/5.33	14/23	2.33/3.83
10	15/8	0.94/1.00	15/30	1.5/3.0	15	1.50	15/35	2.50/5.83	15/25	2.50/4.17
11	16/8	1.00/1.00	16/32	1.6/3.2	16	1.60	16/38	2.67/6.33	16/27	2.67/4.50
12	17/9	1.06/1.13	17/34	1.7/3.4	17	1.70	17/41	2.83/7.83	17/29	2.83/4.83
13	18/9	1.13/1.13	18/36	1.8/3.6	18	1.80	18/44	3.00/7.33	18/31	3.00/5.17
14	19/10	1.19/1.25	19/38	1.9/3.8	19	1.90	19/47	3.17/7.83	19/33	3.17/5.50
15	20/10	1.25/1.25	20/40	2.0/4.0	20	2.00	20/50	3.33/8.33	20/35	3.33/5.83
16	21/10	1.31/1.25	21/42	2.1/4.2	21	2.10	21/53	3.50/8.83	21/37	3.50/6.17

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, Symbiotic 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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a hexagon over a pale disk. 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. Visual: Sparkles on the ground that form a triangle over a pale disk. 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. Visual: Yellow-green bubbles. 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. Visual: A yellow and green burst. 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 it's listed ability 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. Visual: No visual effect. 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. Visual: An 8 pointed star with a hole in the middle of it around the player's waist. 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 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. If you 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.

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 and pet controls.

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 single-minded - 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 very well – in addition, 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 for 6 seconds.

Controlling Pet Aggro

Most people will be aware that attacking a target will cause your pet to attack it as well. A less commonly known thing, however, is that any attack directed onto you or your pet will initiate attacks from your pet so long as the attacker is nearby. Otyugh's Cry will not initiate attacks from your pet. Although pets don't often switch targets, when they do, the order of target priority appears to be as follows:

1) the master's attacked target
2) target currently attacking the pet
3) target currently attacking the master
4) weakest enemy group (when multiple groups engaged)
5) weakest enemy monster
6) nearest foe

From time to time, pets appear to disregard this order of priority, and it may be that there is an element of randomization involved when the pet is allowed to choose its own targets. Nonetheless, this general order gives a good idea of how to expect your pet to behave.

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, 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 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.

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 dealing physical damage amplifies this effect.
Quickening Zephyr - Ok, an odd one to choose, but I think a valid one. Pets can provide damage without any energy expenditure, and QZ is a restricted energy environment; the less you can spend per point of damage the better, and pets certainly fall in the efficient category, if you aren't spamming Brutal Strike. 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 include:

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 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. On low armour opponents this boost is larger than Barbs, on warriors Barbs is the better option.

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.}

Greater Conflagration - Since many of the pet damage boosting effects 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 (without skill use) 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 dieing. Interestingly, a wolf=a bear=a moa bird as far as Edge of Extinction is concerned, they are all the same species, "animal".

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 these are in anyway "perfect" but they give 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
Resurrection 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/Necromancer
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
Resurrection Signet

Footnotes

(1) Pet health was tested in 2 ways – the principal method was timing the death of the pet when standing in poisoned water. This required stopping and restarting the stopwatch for higher level pets, but the results were normalized by testing our own health (a known amount) using the same method, which corrected the data (it was reading off expected values by roughly 4-5 health, but the same bias showed up when timing our own deaths). To confirm the results, the pets were retested by raising them in the poison and timing the period to death with beastmastery 0 and beastmastery 3, using Comfort Animal to raise them to 10% and 20% of their health respectively. While this broadens the timing error by making health disappear much more quickly it eliminated the periods without poison, and hence provided a second measure of pet health, which fortunately coincided with the first.

(2) Pet damage testing was done versus Jade Scarabs in the end (though it was originally being done vs. skeletons for damage type testing reasons – the conversion of damage from AL56 to AL60 was however causing some concern about rounding errors). Testing with spells and with wild blow confirmed that they have an AL of 60; in addition, they are level 20, so the critical hit rates should be normalized for against foes in PvP. The testing was done at 12 Beastmastery, in order to find the pet’s true base damage. You may have noticed that damage ranges were listed that are quite broad – if pets get critical hits they seem to vary in damage – the damage range was thus taken as a whole, and the average damage includes any critical hits that the pet generates. Damage distributions are available for each evolution at each level, to show the pattern of the data. Over 10,000 hits were recorded vs. these enemies to derive these values, so the errors are quite small. The fact that all pets (regardless of type) deal the same amount of damage was confirmed with simple t-tests of differences of means; no pairing failed to reject the null hypothesis that they come from the same distribution. Yes, I know that I could have done an ANOVA if I wanted, but I was analysing as the data came in, and I didn't really feel like doing more.

(3) The AL of pets was more difficult to confirm, but ended up being easy. First we needed to ensure that the pets have a “flat” AL, that is, the same AL vs. all types of damage. To be fair, we only confirmed that physical, fire and cold were the same, using damage from wild blow (a constant), greater conflagration and winter. Damage to the pet can be observed easily through symbiotic bond, so one simply needs to find an enemy that deals known parcels of damage. Once that was confirmed the solo Hydra outside Augury Rock was used, as it will always open with a known amount of damage from a fireball/meteor. Having tested the damage on an AL60 character, we could then quite easily calculate the pet AL at each level.

(4) To test the damage types of the pets we needed to find creatures that responded differently to the various damage types. The Skeleton Rangers outside Bergen Hot Springs were brought to my attention by Daegul Mistweaver, as he had noted that they were vulnerable to blunt damage and resistant to piercing damage. These resistances were confirmed and data was recorded vs. these foes. The skeletons (after some testing) were shown to have an AL of 56, +20 vs. piercing, -20 vs. blunt. All animals tested showed the same damage (t-tests failed to reject differences of means between them) excepting the Dune Lizard and the Black Widow, both of which scored ~30% lower damage. This suggested that either all animals do blunt with the Spider and Lizard dealing slashing, or that all animals dealt slashing excepting the Spider and Lizard, which deal piercing. The exact types were confirmed via use of Greater Conflagration; this did not change the damage dealt by most animals, but increased the damage from the Spider and Dune Lizard to the same range as the other animals. Each pet was at level 20 with 12 Beastmastery; a total of ~2300 attacks were recorded against the skeletons, providing a very clear picture of the damage ranges and distributions should anyone wish them.

(5) The speed results are from two tests, the first was timing 100 strikes - if you allow for a miscount of up to 1 strike in either direction you get an estimate of the error. The error on this testing resulted in a range of ~2.12-2.17 for each pet type (excepting the bear, which was 2.60-2.62); the other test was a count of strikes over 5 minutes, resulting in 141 strikes mostly, but once or twice on a species I'd get 140. 300seconds/141strikes = 2.13; 300seconds/140 strikes=2.14, it has a smaller error due to the longer period, say 2.12-2.15 or so, adding a strike in either direction. That's pretty much the same range. Estimating experimental error and measurement error isn't easy. I suspect we're talking a miscount of +/- 1 though. The bear counted 115 attacks over 300 seconds, so 2.59-2.63 seems like a very safe estimate of its attack speed. Animals were tested at level 5 and level 20, to ensure speed stayed the same. The sole creature that varied was the Moa/Strider, which begins at level 3 with an attack period of ~1.6 seconds, but drops from there, reaching 2.14 seconds by level 17.

(6) See note (1) for details, the testing was reproduced for Hearty and Dire evolution pets.

(7) See note (2) for details, the testing was reproduced for Hearty and Dire evolution pets.

(8) Confidence interval for the ratio of damages is calculated using the standard error of the quotient Q=A/B, where A and B are the mean damages. The standard error of Q is
SEq=Q(SEa^2/A^2+SEa^2/B^2)^0.5

Damage Tables

	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6	Level 7	Level 8	Level 9	Level 10
Mean	3.881356	4.852459	5.62963	6.663265	7.270492	8.369565	9.193237	11.08759
Standard Error	0.080892	0.086065	0.12963	0.131303	0.128584	0.134912	0.136993	0.210418
Median	4	5	6	7	7	8	9	11
Mode	4	5	6	7	7	8	7	10
Standard Deviation	0.878708	0.950616	1.166667	1.299832	1.42026	1.830031	1.970992	2.462885
Sample Variance	0.772128	0.903672	1.361111	1.689564	2.017139	3.349014	3.884808	6.065801
Kurtosis	0.928549	0.739749	0.995457	0.585444	0.921981	1.190839	1.487948	0.536131
Skewness	1.004043	0.946691	0.96128	0.71067	0.846202	1.025102	1.171882	1.024494
Range	4	5	5	6	7	8	9	10
Minimum	3	3	4	5	5	6	7	8
Maximum	7	8	9	11	12	14	16	18
Sum	458	592	456	653	887	1540	1903	1519
Count	118	122	81	98	122	184	207	137
Confidence Level(95.0%)	0.159119	0.169295	0.25499	0.258281	0.252934	0.26538	0.269475	0.413907
95% CI of mean
Minimum	3.722237	4.683164	5.37464	6.404984	7.017558	8.104185	8.923762	10.67368
Maximum	4.040475	5.021754	5.88462	6.921547	7.523426	8.634945	9.462712	11.5015

Unevolved / Elder	Level 11	Level 12	Level 13	Level 14	Level 15	Level 16	Level 17	Level 18	Level 19	Level 20
Mean	11.44128	12.58009	13.66254	15.45954	16.2695	18.01289	18.78378	21.29274	22.18087	24.43966
Standard Error	0.144166	0.156319	0.137635	0.175817	0.184435	0.179331	0.180598	0.212013	0.197801	0.216872
Median	11	12	14	15	16	18	18	21	22	24
Mode	13	11	14	12	18	20	14	23	24	27
Standard Deviation	2.416669	2.375846	2.473598	3.270391	3.097191	3.532403	3.805438	4.381032	4.338122	4.67157
Sample Variance	5.84029	5.644645	6.118685	10.69546	9.59259	12.47787	14.48136	19.19344	18.8193	21.82356
Kurtosis	0.966575	1.960256	0.488867	0.658656	1.277026	1.367836	1.486422	1.385925	1.312555	0.814455
Skewness	0.889697	1.091506	0.652034	0.855195	0.922527	0.902916	1.102658	1.097109	0.956798	0.798675
Range	11	12	12	15	15	17	18	20	21	24
Minimum	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Maximum	19	21	22	26	27	30	32	35	37	41
Sum	3215	2906	4413	5349	4588	6989	8340	9092	10669	11340
Count	281	231	323	346	282	388	444	427	481	464
Confidence Level(95.0%)	0.283585	0.30749	0.270736	0.345844	0.362796	0.352755	0.355248	0.417044	0.389088	0.426602
95% CI of mean
Minimum	11.1577	12.2726	13.3918	15.11369	15.90671	17.66013	18.42854	20.8757	21.79178	24.01305
Maximum	11.72487	12.88758	13.93328	15.80538	16.6323	18.36564	19.13903	21.70978	22.56996	24.86626

Playful / Hearty	Level 11	Level 12	Level 13	Level 14	Level 15	Level 16	Level 17	Level 18	Level 19	Level 20
Mean	10.944186	12.07767	13.21072	14.74149	14.22184	15.71052	16.89	18.09627	18.77929	21.13043
Standard Error	0.1422741	0.138822	0.159916	0.170165	0.175214	0.196938	0.212679	0.184383	0.182731	0.230273
Median	11	12	13	15	14	15	16	18	19	21
Mode	9	11	15	16	15	18	17	19	22	16
Standard Deviation	2.0861473	2.440284	2.583535	2.917730	2.999189	3.433732	3.683720	3.308638	3.500633	4.277146
Sample Variance	4.3520104	5.954986	6.674653	8.513152	8.995137	11.79051	13.56979	10.94708	12.25443	18.29398
Kurtosis	1.5252541	1.533878	1.471724	1.847455	0.765137	0.649200	0.373186	0.151786	1.140537	1.170950
Skewness	1.0598303	1.112808	1.001870	1.043043	0.937102	0.903288	0.884940	0.543152	0.838071	0.993015
Range	10	12	12	15	14	15	15	15	18	20
Minimum	8	9	9	10	10	11	12	13	14	15
Maximum	18	21	21	25	24	26	27	28	32	35
Sum	2353	3732	3448	4334	4167	4776	5067	5827	6892	7290
Count	215	309	261	294	293	304	300	322	367	345
Confidence Level(95.0%)	0.2798624	0.273073	0.314566	0.334726	0.344658	0.387390	0.418355	0.362693	0.359445	0.452963
95% CI of mean
Minimum	10.664324	11.80459	12.89616	14.40677	13.87718	15.32313	16.47164	17.73357	18.41984	20.67747
Maximum	11.224048	12.35074	13.52529	15.07622	14.56650	16.09791	17.30835	18.45896	19.13873	21.58339

Aggressive / Dire	Level 11	Level 12	Level 13	Level 14	Level 15	Level 16	Level 17	Level 18	Level 19	Level 20
Mean	12.04023	13.06107	14.27586	17.71814	18.39002	20.59226	21.43213	23.84375	25.12958	28.12454
Standard Error	0.171437	0.152054	0.144076	0.234240	0.181851	0.223748	0.219168	0.250524	0.263702	0.352442
Median	12	13	14	17	18	20	21	23	25	28
Mode	10	14	14	19	21	23	19	19	29	32
Standard Deviation	2.261411	2.461211	2.57328	3.769741	3.818887	4.101379	4.164195	4.909261	5.333057	5.823306
Sample Variance	5.113979	6.057559	6.62177	14.21094	14.5839	16.82131	17.34052	24.10084	28.4415	33.91090
Kurtosis	1.362448	1.612594	1.31390	0.67462	0.752294	0.910204	0.998549	1.646423	0.626945	0.622731
Skewness	0.984071	1.044739	0.82357	0.949998	0.872399	0.942217	0.912447	1.179566	0.899356	0.855810
Range	12	12	14	17	18	20	20	23	23	26
Minimum	8	10	10	12	13	14	15	17	18	20
Maximum	20	22	24	29	31	34	35	40	41	46
Sum	2095	3422	4554	4589	8110	6919	7737	9156	10278	7678
Count	174	262	319	259	441	336	361	384	409	273
Confidence Level(95.0%)	0.337228	0.299409	0.28346	0.461266	0.357406	0.440129	0.431118	0.492798	0.518720	0.693277
95% CI of mean
Minimum	11.703	12.76166	13.99239	17.25688	18.03261	20.15213	21.00101	23.35095	24.61086	27.43126
Maximum	12.37746	13.36048	14.55933	18.17941	18.74742	21.03239	21.86325	24.33654	25.64830	28.81782

Distribution of Damage by Level (links above)

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Level 11

Level 12

Level 13

Level 14

Elder Level 15

Elder Level 16

Elder 17

Elder Level 18

Elder Level 19

Elder Level 20

Playful Level 11

Playful Level 12

Playful Level 13

Playful Level 14

Heary Level 15

Hearty Level 16

Hearty Level 17

Hearty Level 18

Hearty Level 19

Hearty Level 20

Aggressive Level 11

Aggressive Level 12

Aggressive Level 13

Aggressive Level 14

Dire Level 15

Dire Level 16

Dire Level 17

Dire Level 18

Dire Level 19

Dire Level 20