Animal companion

From Guild Wars Wiki

An Animal companion or 'Pet' is a creature that fights alongside a Ranger (primary or secondary) who has captured a charmable animal via the skill Charm Animal. Pets have simple AI that allows them to attack alongside their owners, as well as use Pet Attack skills. In many cases a pet acts very much like a necromancer's minions, with the exception that they are not burdened with inherent health degeneration and have a wide range of skills (you also don't need a corpse to create them). The damage pets do and the efficacy of their attack skills is linked to the Ranger attribute Beast Mastery as well as the level of the pet.

Although pets have various appearances, pets (other than the Black Bear) of the same level are all functionally identical, with the exception of damage types. The Black Bear uses the skill Brutal Mauling, the slow activation of this skill reducing its rate of attack. Pets have a maximum level of 20.

The pets of a primary character can be renamed via the /petname <name> command. However, heroes' pets names cannot be changed. Using /petname without specifying a name will reset the pet's name to its animal type, e.g. Hearty Black Bear.

Pets also grow larger as they gain levels and evolve. Pets don't grow if they don't evolve. An unevolved pet will stay as small as it was when it was charmed. Pets that evolve will only change size once you enter a new zone.

[edit] Acquisition

To acquire a pet on a PvE character, a player must have the skill Charm Animal equipped and not currently have a pet. The player must then locate an untamed animal and activate Charm Animal while targeting it. Provided that the skill's activation is completed while the animal is alive, the player will have a new pet. The pet is bound to the character, and will accompany him/her whenever he/she equips Charm Animal. A similar process applies to pets for Heroes. To Acquire a black bear or regular bear you're going to need one other player that is not an NPC to distract the bear while it trys to use the skill "break charm".

Because Charm Animal causes the target to become hostile, and because henchmen and non-passive heroes will fight against hostile NPCs, players are advised to flag away heroes and henchmen while attempting to charm a pet. Use the Hero Control Panel to 'force' the hero to Charm Animal.

Any PvP character who equips Charm Animal will be given a level 20 Elder Wolf.

See also Category:Charmable animals.

[edit] Controls

Example of the pet control panel.

The Pet Control panel allows a Ranger 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. The pet is locked onto that target, will immediately attack and will 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] Note

• 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.

Anomaly.

When riding Junundu in the Desolation, pets immediately die upon entering the wurm and are resurrected at your location once you exit. However, in the Gate of Desolation mission, pets will receive their own wurm, but cannot attack. However, if you enter a Junundu Wurm Spoor with less than eight characters in your party, and your pet is equipped, the pet will also enter the wurm.

[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 are infused against the Mursaat's Spectral Agony, although titles have no effect on them despite being an extension of yourself similar to heroes.

[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.
3. It is possible to evolve a pet to agressive with level 20. It is not known whether this is intentional or not.
4. It is also possible to evolve Hero pets

Recently, there has 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] 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.

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

[edit] Removal

PvE characters can change their pets by giving their current pet to a Pet tamer NPC and charming a new one, players can change their Heroes' pets the same way.

Pets cannot change their evolution once they're evolved, nor can they be "retrained" by the animal trainer. It takes a few hours to 'train' a pet so think twice about turning in your pet. It is not possible to change your pet's evolution according to your build, so pick an evolution that will most likely fit your purposes.

[edit] See also

• Beast Mastery
• Carlotta (Shadow's pet spider).
• Joe

[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