Animal companion

From Guild Wars Wiki

This article is about Animal companions, also known as pets. For miniatures, also known as “minipets” or “minis”, see miniature.

This page contains information about an element of Guild Wars that has changed since the original writing, and may need to be updated to reflect the current state of the game.

Animal companion

An animal companion or pet is a creature that fights alongside a player when the Charm Animal skill (or Comfort Animal in PvE) is equipped to the player’s skill bar. It should be noted that the Charm Animal skill does not provide PvE characters with an animal companion in the first instance as it does for PvP characters, rather it allows the player to charm an animal of their choice, to use as their companion from that point on.

Pets attack alongside their owners, utilizing standard attacks, which can also be boosted with Pet Attack skills. The pets’ AI acts in a somewhat similar manner to that of a necromancers minions, in that they tend to have difficulty in swapping targets and may get easily bodyblocked. However, unlike minions, pets can be directed through the use of the pet interface screen which allows for the pet’s tamer to call their pet to heel, to act defensively or to target one particular enemy.

The damage inflicted by pets is determined by several factors, these include the evolution of the pet, the level of the pet and the number of attribute points invested in the Ranger secondary attribute line of Beast Mastery, which contains the vast majority of pet related skills.

Pets can inflict either piercing or slashing damage, depending on the species of the pet and, in a limited number of cases, the pet's evolution. Beyond this, pets will deliver damage in a uniform manner regardless of pet species. An exception to this is the Black Bear, whose effective damage per second is reduced due to the long activation time of its Brutal Mauling skill.

Pets have been confirmed to grow physically in size as they increase in level, with the maximum level of a pet being capped at 20.

[edit] Acquisition

To acquire a pet on a character or Hero, the character must have the skill Charm Animal equipped and not currently have a pet. The player must then locate an untamed charmable animal in either an explorable area or the Zaishen Menagerie and activate the skill Charm Animal while targeting the desired pet. One may also use the Hero Control Panel to “force” a hero to use Charm Animal and tame the desired pet for that hero. It should be noted that upon attempting to charm a pet, most animals will turn hostile and thus can both inflict damage upon a player and their party and be damaged themselves by the player or their party members. Provided that the skill’s activation is completed while the animal is alive, the pet will become non-hostile and the player will have tamed a new pet. The pet is then bound to the character, and will accompany them whenever they equip Charm Animal, or Comfort Animal.

It is advisable to place heroes on avoid or to flag party members away while charming so that they don't kill the desired pet.

Some enemy rangers are spawned around high-level versions of tamable animals. Typically they use Charm Animal as soon as a player comes within range leaving the animals unavailable to players. However, by flagging heroes and henchmen to the enemy location before any players arrive, the foes will engaged in battle before charming. As long as the animal is not hit by an AoE attack, it will remain passive and thus tamable by players.

Any PvP character who equips Charm Animal will be given a level 20 Elder Wolf, which can be released in favor of another pet species in the Zaishen Menagerie.

Pets can also be unlocked for an account at the Zaishen Menagerie, with Balthazar Faction or Zaishen Coins, or by buying the Pet Unlock Pack, which will unlock all non-prestige pets in the Zaishen Menagerie.

[edit] Changing & retraining pets

Characters (and their heroes) can change their pets by giving their current pet to a Pet tamer then charming a new one. PvP characters can exchange their default level 20 Elder Wolf for a pet that they may have unlocked in their Zaishen Menagerie.

Although pets can not technically be retrained; through the use of the Zaishen Menagerie, one may forfeit their current pet of the undesired evolution for that of one with the wanted evolution as long as that pet tier has been unlocked. The details of which can be found below.

[edit] The Zaishen Menagerie

It is possible to unlock evolutions for specific pet types by talking to a Tamer in the Menagerie Grounds. Unlocks are account wide, and specific to a pet type, unlocking each tier also unlocks all lower tiers. For example a level 20 Dire Phoenix would unlock tier 7 Phoenixes and all lower Phoenix tiers, but it wouldn’t unlock any tiers for other animals. Animals which share an identical skin are unlocked together, for example unlocking a tier with a Strider will also unlock the same tier for Moa Birds, but it will not unlock any tiers for White Moas due to their different skin, or for Black Moas due to both the differences in model and the skin palette.

¹ Aggressive and Playful (levels 12 to 14) or Aggressive, Dire, Hearty and Playful (levels 15 to 20)

² same stats as unevolved

Pets can also be unlocked for an account at the Zaishen Menagerie, with Balthazar Faction or Zaishen Coins, or by buying the Pet Unlock Pack, which will unlock all non-prestige pets in the Zaishen Menagerie.

To tame a previously unlocked pet from tier 2 or above, one must first talk to Wynn and ask her to spawn that specific pet. Tier 1 pets which have already been unlocked, however, can be found roaming the menagerie itself. It is of note that Wynn can spawn Level 20 Playful and Aggressive pets which are otherwise extremely difficult to attain through standard evolution.

[edit] Controls

Example of the pet control panel.

The Pet Control panel allows a player to have rudimentary control over their animal companion. The panel is available by selecting the number beside the pet in the Party Window.

The panel shows a small image of your pet, the three attack modes, the pet’s health and any skills which are currently active on it. While the pet interface is similar to the hero control interface you cannot control your pet using the compass flags.

There are three modes for a pet; “Attack”, “Guard” and “Heel”.

[edit] Attack mode

To enter attack mode you must have a foe selected and within aggro range. When the pet is locked onto that target, it will immediately attack and continue to attack that target until it is killed, or you change the mode. If the target is killed the pet switches to the mode it was in prior to entering Attack mode.

[edit] Guard mode

The pet will attack the target you are attacking in its own time. It does not respond to target calls, unless you are also going in to attack.

[edit] Heel mode

The pet will immediately stop attacking and returns to your side. It will not attack even if you are attacking.

[edit] Pet name

The pets of a character can be renamed via the /petname <name> (or /namepet <name>) special command. However, heroes’ pets cannot be renamed. Using /petname without specifying a name will reset the pet’s name to its evolution (see below) and type, for example, “Hearty Rainbow Phoenix”.

[edit] Basic mechanics and behavior

Animal companions are treated as allies, so skills targeting party members do not affect them. In addition, title skills have no effect on them.

An animal companion will attack the target that its owner is attacking, although there may be a delay before the target switch for the animal companion occurs. An animal companion can be directed to attack a particular foe using the “lock target” command found through the pet control panel.

Animal companions will also earn experience during combat, even when dead and far from the party. Like player characters, their level is capped at level 20. The experience bonus for completing missions and quests, and any effect from experience scrolls, do not apply to animal companions. It has already been reported that the experience gained by a pet is affected proportionately by the number of animal companion allies there are.

[edit] Evolution

Part of this section is disputed. Please see the talk page for relevant discussion.

This info is a temporary placemarker in place of official information. Use at your own discretion. Caveat lector.

1. Evolving an aggressive pet into an elder pet is difficult, and evolving a playful pet into an elder pet is nearly impossible.
2. Extensive research into level 11+ unevolved pets has not been done. However, some reports indicate that it is possible to evolve mid-level pets into Dire and Elder pets.

• It is also possible to evolve Hero pets
• There has also been evidence that the damage dealt to the player may affect the evolution as well.

Bug.

Sometimes when a pet evolves, its name will not update until it is reset with the /petname (or /namepet) command.

[edit] Armor and health

Animals have base armor of level*3+20 and base Health of level*20+80. Thus all level 20 pets have 80 AL. Elder pets have 480 HP and no damage bonus, Hearty Pets have 540 HP (480+60) but deal reduced damage, while Dire Pets have only 420 HP (480-60) but deal increased damage.

Animals have a 33% damage reduction in PvE, and are naturally infused against the Mursaat’s Spectral Agony.

[edit] Damage

[edit] Amount of damage

Unlike weapons, critical hits inflicted by pets do not inflict maximum damage before the multiplier. The damage multiplier for an animal companion’s critical hits is not known, but is suspected to be approximately √2 before rounding.

In PvE, pets have a +33% damage modifier on top of the values stated below.

1. Average damage is based on the data in this thread. [1]

Note: Damage is calculated for 12 Beast Mastery and a level 20 animal companion

[edit] Types of damage

Pets predominantly inflict slashing damage, however a minority of pets do cause piercing damage. It is of note however that certain pets can deal either slashing or piercing damage dependent upon their evolution, for example the White Moa, will deal piercing damage as standard, however if it is a Dire White Moa, it will deal slashing damage. The following presents the various types of pets, organized by the type of damage they deal. As noted above, the amount of damage dealt by a pet depends solely on their level and evolution (and does not depend on their species).

[edit] Death

Animal companions die when reduced to zero health. Each death earns them death penalty in PvP, but not in PvE. Unlike other NPC deaths, an allied animal companion does not leave an exploitable corpse and will not show up as a grey dot on the compass.

At the instant the animal companion dies, the owner loses all adrenaline and all of their skills are disabled for 10..3 seconds (depending the owner's Beast Mastery). This applies only to primary and secondary Rangers; player characters of other professions who have not yet chosen a secondary profession will not suffer this blackout.)

The following skills can be used to resurrect animal companions:

• Comfort Animal
• Revive Animal
• Heal as One (Elite)

Dead animal companions will also resurrect at resurrection shrines after a party wipe.

[edit] Notes

• Pets continue to gain experience outside of compass range.
• Pet attacks and shouts only apply if the pet is in aggro range.
• Pets of heroes will use the same combat mode (Attack, Guard or Avoid Combat) as their heroes, unless you manually change the setting. For instance, clicking the pet’s control button, and selecting Attack (while around enemies, obviously) for a hero monk that is told to avoid combat. One instance of setting that seems to be permanent.
• Pets cannot be told where to go as Heroes and Henchmen can.
• You will not see your pet’s change in size (due to leveling/evolving) until you change zones.
• It is possible to death level a pet.
• If a pet dies in Pre-Searing Ascalon, the player's skill bar is not disabled regardless of whether or not you have a secondary profession. This is also the case in certain PvP missions in which there is no death penalty, such as the Jade Quarry or Alliance Battles.

Anomaly.

When riding Junundu in the Desolation, pets immediately die upon entering the wurm and are resurrected at your location once you exit, even if the party is not full. They do continue to level, however. The exception is in the Gate of Desolation mission, pets will receive their own wurm, but cannot use skills.

[edit] Trivia

• Certain NPCs have their own pets, including:
  • Aurora appears in the Jade Sea with Hector the Crab (if Aurora is added to the party as a henchman).
  • Zho appears in the Norn Fighting Tournament with Onyx, despite Zho's unfortunate history with Black Moas.
  • Sujun can be seen with Ling Wong the panda, during The Red Frog.
• Some NPCs can be seen accompanied by creatures as their pets; although they look like charmed Animals, they are actually other types of creatures (usually beasts and rangers):
  • Old Mac migrates to Kryta with Joe, a Ranger Devourer.
  • Master Seeker Nathaniel and his trusty companion Snow, the Warrior Snow Wolf.
  • Cheswick and his invincible pet: Oink.
  • Shadow is accompanied by Carlotta, a Ranger Moss Spider.
  • Danika and her Necromancer wallow pets: Sheena and Brutus.
  • Nehdukah and his Ranger Warthog: the “Impressive Warthog” Pork Chop.
  • Nicholas Sandford and his constant Dolyak companion, Professor Yakkington.
• A few Ranger bosses are accompanied by their Pets:
  • Royen Beastkeeper has a Crane.
  • Ashlyn Spiderfriend has a Black Widow.
  • Thul The Bull has a Wolf.
  • Milodestus the Wrangler has a Reef Lurker
  • Bolten Largebelly,Dzabel Land Guardian and Tundoss the Destroyer, like all heket rangers, will have Crocodiles.
  • Salke Fur Friend has a White Tiger.
  • Sergeant Behnwa has a Hyena.

[edit] See also

• Charmable animal, which includes a list of pet species by campaign and location.

[edit] External links

• Video of locations of Prophecies pets
• Video of locations of Factions pets 1
• Video of locations of Factions pets 2
• Video of locations of Nightfall pets
• Video of Powerleveling a pet