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Pet
This article is about the ranger's animal companions. For the miniature creatures sometimes called "minipets", see Miniature.
Pets are permanent, A.I.-controlled NPC allies which constitute the Ranger's special mechanic. Each pet belongs to a family of pets, such as bear, which determines its attributes and three of its four pet skills. Its species, such as a polar bear or a brown bear, determines a unique, user-controlled skill. Its type, aquatic, terrestrial or amphibious, determines which environments the pet is able to operate in.
The ranger has some control over the actions of their pet: they can set the aggressiveness of the pet, order it to attack a particular target (perhaps while they attack another target), stop attacking and run back to them, and activate the user-controlled pet skill. Otherwise the pet will attack its owner's target or whichever enemy is attacking its owner, and will automatically determine which of its 3 other skills to use in combat. If the ranger moves too far away, the pet will stop fighting and follow. If the ranger is in the downed state, they can use their pet to help in rallying them while absorbing part of the damage that may still be coming their way.
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[edit] Acquisition, management, and customization
- See also: List of pet locations
A ranger can tame one of each type of pet, and can choose before entering combat which two pets they would like to use (two terrestrial pets and two aquatic pets, with only one pet active at any given time).
Any friendly animal (green nameplate) whose name begins with Juvenile can be tamed (charmed) by the ranger, unless it already belongs to another ranger, by approaching it and using F or double-clicking it. After a short conversation, the pet will follow the ranger. Every area in the game, including cities, contains a number of juvenile pets to tame. Some pets, such as the Juvenile Black Widow Spider or Juvenile White Raven, are duplicates of similar pets in terms of functionality, but with a different appearance. They are special achievement rewards intended for players of Guild Wars 1, and cannot be obtained otherwise.
Pets can be stowed using the button to the left of their portrait, and will automatically show up again when the ranger enters combat. Switching pets is done by clicking the button to the right of the pet's portrait.
The Pet Management panel can be accessed by clicking your current pet's portrait above your skill bar or by using a shortcut key, which defaults to K. From here you can view the attributes and skills of the currently activated pet, rename it, and pre-select 4 pets you wish to use (the same way you assign skills to slots). The 2 upper slots are used for terrestrial pets and two lower ones for aquatic pets. Amphibious pets (drakes, for example) can be placed in any of the 4 slots.
You can rename the 4 currently slotted pets. To rename a pet, swap to it then click on the quill icon to the left of the pet's name. You have to be underwater to rename your aquatic pets and view their attributes and skills.
[edit] Pet attributes and skills
Pets have a set of attributes very similar to characters. A pet's level is always the same as the ranger's. Their attributes and damage will scale with their level. In addition, a number of ranger traits can enhance pet damage, attributes and behavior.
Pets within the same family share a special feature such as the ability to knock down enemies, or do AoE damage, poison foes, buff allies, attack from range, attract aggro, etc... In addition all pets within the same family share the same attributes. Some pet families have high health, others high toughness or power or precision.
All pets have 4 skills based on their family and species. Each family shares three skills (the 3 rightmost skills in the pet panel) which are characteristic of that family and which the pet uses automatically during combat. In addition to these family-based skills, each pet has a unique user-activated skill, the F2 skill.
See the list of pet skills or pet attributes
[edit] Pet interaction
The ranger's mechanic bar provides the ranger some control over the actions of their pet:
- F1 commands the pet to attack the current target.
- F2 activates the user-controlled skill of the pet.
- F3 calls your pet back to you.
- F4 swaps pets.
[edit] Combat mechanics
The ranger and his pet are one. The ranger's damage and survivability depend on both being present, although the pet can handle normal mobs alone, most of the time. Rangers and pets enter and exit combat together.
A pet will only attack an enemy if it is commanded to, it is attacked, its owner is attacked, or its owner attacks the enemy.
Pets can be healed and buffed, mostly just like players. The pet's red health bar is shown just below its portrait.
Pets can "see" an enemy as soon as it appears, sometimes before a player can see it on screen due to drawing lags, and will attack the invisible enemy if it attacks the ranger or the pet. This can be very useful information as to the position of the still hidden enemy.
[edit] Downed & defeated
A pet cannot be downed; it goes directly to the defeated state and limps back to its owner. It cannot be healed in that state, except when under the effect of Signet of the Wild, and then only slowly. Defeated pets cannot be revived like player characters; they are automatically revived after combat ends and after swapping pets, or by the Lick Wounds skill.
[edit] Swapping pets
The ranger can switch to his second pet at any time with F4, allowing for quick adaptation during fights. The base recharge time for switching pets during combat is 20 seconds and extends to 60 seconds if the original pet was defeated. If you cannot heal your pet, try to swap before it is defeated, so you never have more than 20s delay between swaps and to avoid having to fight without a pet.
Pets should also be chosen because of their special abilities. Some pets can buff, heal and protect the player character when near. Others can poison enemies, do AoE damage or tank.
[edit] Aggro and tanking
Some pets can attract and hold the aggro of normal NPCs, allowing them to take most of the damage. The remaining pets usually do not attract normal NPC aggro at all while soloing, i.e. they can deal damage without being purposefully hit by normal mobs. (See the discussion page for more information).
- Tanking pets: Drakes, Canines, Devourers, and Armor Fish.
- When a defeated tanking pet limps back to its owner, aggro will follow. However, swapping pets to another tanking pet will break and reset aggro for the new pet.
- You can pull an out-of-range mob by targeting it and ordering your pet to attack it with F1, then calling it back to you with F3 thereby causing the mob to come to you.
- To retreat from combat while your pet is fighting, move a distance away from the action and swap pets. This will take you out of combat.
[edit] Stowing pets
A pet can also be "stowed" (or put away) by clicking on the down-arrow button in the pet bar while not in combat.
- Use this to avoid having your pet attract enemies. It is also useful in tight areas where a large pet can obscure your vision.
- Pets automatically reappear after entering a new zone or entering combat.
[edit] Reviving the owner
A ranger's pet can help revive him when he is downed:
- The ranger will rally if his pet kills a foe.
- While downed, the Lick Wounds skill will command the pet to revive its owner (and itself if necessary) and take some of the damage. Use the Bandage skill at the same time to revive faster.
[edit] Families and species
There are twelve different families of pets each with one or more similar species. All pets within a family possess identical stats and skills, except for a user-controlled pet skill, which is different for every pet. Families and species are listed below according to their type of evironment.
[edit] Terrestrial
[edit] Amphibious
[edit] Aquatic
[edit] Locations
Pets can be found in every region and every zone of the game. The list of pet locations also includes an abbreviated list for those wishing to charm each animal with the least amount of effort.
[edit] Notes
- The game only remembers the custom names of the four pets in the current array; names are reset to the default name if they are swapped out of the cycle.
[edit] Trivia
- Armor Fish and Sharks have skills and attributes unlike any other family of pets, making them the unique members of their ranger pet families.
Slots 
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Weapon • Healing • Utility • Elite |
|---|---|
Shared 
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Chain • Shout • Signet • Transform • Trap |
Activation type 
|
Channel • Charge • Sequence |
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Virtue • Consecration • Meditation • Spirit weapon • Symbol • Tome • Ward |
|
Burst • Banner • Physical • Stance |
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Tool belt • Device kit • Elixir • Gadget • Turret • Weapon kit |
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Pet • Pet skills • Spirit • Survival |
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Steal • Deception • Dual wield • Stealth Attack • Trick • Venom |
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Attunement • Arcane • Cantrip • Conjure • Glyph |
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Shatter • Clone • Glamour • Manipulation • Mantra • Phantasm |
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Death Shroud • Corruption • Mark • Minion • Spectral • Well |
