Pets, and Utility Images

[skystorm.9280]

So while ANET has the challenge of the AI with the current pets provided, the damage modifiers they currently have, and errors with quickness to tinker with what I hope to see in the near future to give our Ranger family a nice treat would be the addition of more pets, and also something small that has been bugging me personally since PoF launch which are the images/name choices of our Soulbeast Stances.

 

First lets look at the pets - I have seen so many fantastic pet models out that are currently in-game but not available for us to tame, and also some discrepancies with some current pets.

So I present a list that I have compiled (if I have missed something holla):

. Juvenile River Drake resembles Rock Drake instead of River Drake

. Scaled Drake to become tameable - who doesnt want a crocodile pet

. Bats

. Basilisk

. Cave Beast

. Chaks

. Crabs

. Eels

. Insects (Wasps, Scutters, Beetles [i want Petey as a pet just saying], etc)

. Karkas

. Marmox

. Raptors

. Rock Dogs

. Skelks

. Skales

. Wargs

. Wind Riders

* Plated Behemoth - elite pet achievement?

* Griffon - elite pet achievement?

* Hydra - elite pet achievement?

 

* What I mean by as an elite pet achievement could be something in the shape of them merely being unlockable via achievements; it ads something new and fun for existing players who are content starved and would be excited to go out and collect a new pet. Or it could be that in order to have them as combat pets you would need to have one of the elite specs slotted in your build?

 

Would be very great to see a patch one day and well whadya know? We get more pets! This opens us up to more builds and diversity/creativity. However, it would also add the load of the above mentioned issue of balancing the pet damage and quickness calcs. Would be nice though.

 

Now as to what I meant by that something has been bothering me since PoF regarding images/name choices of our Soulbeast Stances is that I was disappointing that our super duper cool beast stances weren't exotic animals, or beasts that are relevant to the expansion and the desert theme, but rather Dolyaks, Vultures, Bears, Wolves, and Griffons. I will say personally that I find 3/5 of those fine (Bear, Wolf, Griffon) aesthetically, whilst 4/5 of them are practical and useful (Dolyak, Bear, Vultre, Wolf). If they were going for a typical Ranger-themed-basic-pet choices then Wolf and Bear make sense since those two are actual pets we can tame meanwhile the other 3 are just well a bit random. For one thing vultures, dolyaks, and griffons cant be tamed so instead of channeling something along the lines of the knowledge and study of a pet you have had next to you and using that as a stance would make sense thematically. Secondly, dolyak just seems to 'domestic' something akin to a cow, not very threatening or concerning if you were embody its principles unless you wanted to be an elite supply carrier. Griffon stance, while looking absolutely amazing, is just so lacking in the practicality/usage of it; we already have a lot of access to dodges via our weapons, and core traits + utilities why did we need another one? Its very similar to Daredevil in a way and unnecessary - and now we are stuck with a utility that no one uses. I digress.

 

My point is that these elite specs are supposed to feel and look different and better as opposed to the core ones we have access to and to be honest I really dont like that vulture gives poison - makes ZERO sense. Why not iboga or snake or devourer? Why did they chose the docile dolyak for perhaps the most valuable utility that gives a CC break, immunity to movement impairing abilities, and retaliation and not something truly beastly like the behemoth or Minotaur even? Its so unappealing when I pop that mega useful stance to see this very forgetful beast. I would like to see Griffon replace Dolyak then have Griffon be something else and Vulture stance be changed to different animal. When you click that stance you want to see something awesome and I think they failed with 2 of those whilst choosing Griffon was a great idea visually it failed practically.

 

Why this matters to me is that I agree with so many of us that say that all we essentially got was a stat stick, 3 new abilities , and a gross green whirly aura? The thematics behind merging with your pet to have it become part of you sort of translates into the abilities we gain and the aura is something to be desired but its the honestly those images of the stances and what they represent is what bothers me the most. They aren't things that are complicated to work around - they are simply pictures and words that reflect the thought that was put it into this elite spec. I hope some of you agree and share my thoughts just wanted to get this off my chest and I sincerely hope we get this addressed.

[ChartFish.1308]

Any of the pets you mentioned that doesn't already have a core version (such as drake) i'd be all for. At this point I'd prefer to have a single pet type (owl) instead of a whole family of pets (owl, raven, eagle).

 

While it'd remove archetype selections for some pets (not as if a lot of pet families have the entire selection anyway), it'd possibly make all pets more useful. All the 'unique' pets introduced in HoT and PoF are regularly used, while duplicates (cats, wyverns) never see the light of day.

 

Having a single pet of a single family would make it more unique for sure. Less of which of the seven cats do i want to run today, more of oo, look, a bat! Oo, a friendly chak! Etc

 

Also if anet ever makes an elite spec focused on making the pet good i'd love some elite pets. Big ones too, that almost dwarf you in size. Imagine running around with a almost full sized griffon!

Now you've made me dream :(

[skystorm.9280]

I 100% see what you mean - I'm still holding out for pet skins maybe down the line like how black moa and black widow spider work in a way' we already have pets that pretty much do what they do they just look different.

 

> Having a single pet of a single family would make it more unique for sure. Less of which of the seven cats do i want to run today, more of oo, look, a bat! Oo, a friendly chak! Etc

 

Yup that was exactly what I hope to see one day :)