————————–
- Beast Mastery (gwrg3a) -
————————–
Note: The words Pet and Animal Companion are used interchangeably in this guide
but the nomenclature used by Guild Wars is “Pet”, so I try to adhere to that
name as much as possible.  Though oddly enough, the skill descriptions say
“Animal Companion”.

This is the main attribute for Rangers who wish to focus on a pet, but it also
contains a few non-Pet skills.  Just as Marksmanship is the focus of a Ranger
who does damage with Bows, Beast Mastery is the focus of a Ranger who does
damage through his/her Pet.  There are several useful Nature Rituals in the
Beast Mastery line, and Tiger’s Fury is a popular stance linked to this
attribute.

Pet Mechanics
=============
Note: Much of this information was gleaned from the work by GammaRay and
SonOfRah.  The research is still going on in this matter, so stay tuned.

Note: Further research has been done by by Jenosavel and Epinephrine.  They
have done some incredible work and debunked a lot of speculation about pets.

Increasing Beast Mastery increases the damage done by an Animal Companion, in a
similar manner as Marksmanship. In other words, a Beast Mastery of 12 will
allow a pet to do full damage to a target with an AL of 60.  Each point of
Beast Mastery offsets 5 points of AL, and 40 points of AL doubles/halves the
damage in each direction.  Points above 12 Beast Mastery undergo diminishing
returns.  For more information on damage mechanics, hop to the Marksmanship
section [gwrg3c].

The base damage dealt by a pet (unmodified by its evolution) correlates well
with its level.  A level 3 pet deals 3-5 damage, while a level 20 pet deals
17-28 damage.  However, it seems that in the case of critical hits, pets can
deal a varying amount of damage (i.e. it is not always the maximum base damage
of the pet).  Beast Mastery and evolution adjusts this damage.

All pets get 3 Armor Level per level, so at level 20, Pets have a base Armor
Level of 60.  A level 20 Pet has the same amount of Health as an unmodified
character of the same level.  In other words, a pet has a base Health of 80,
with 20 additional Health per level.

Note: As of the 8/25/05 Update, Pets now have an AL of 80 at level 20.  This AL
increase is global, which means the AL of a pet is equal to 20 + Level times 3.
Also, they have an additional 25% running speed.

It seems that pet choice is a mostly matter of cosmetic preferance rather than
a matter of strategy.  The only main difference is that each pet does a
different kind of damage, based on its type.

Pet Damage Types
—————-
* Black Bear - slashing
* Lizard - piercing
* Lynx/Stalker - slashing
* Moa Bird - slashing
* Snow Wolf/Wolf - slashing
* Spider - piercing
* Strider - slashing
* Warthog - slashing
Note that previously it was listed that Striders and Warthogs had different
damage types.  This has been subsquently proven to be slashing instead. (Thanks
to Jenosavel and Epinephrine)

Canthan Pet damage types are unknown so far, but probably match their Tyrian
counterparts.

Pets cannot cause Bleeding, Poison, or other conditions without the aid of a Pet
attack skill.  Thus, the Spider does NOT cause poison, nor do Warthogs cause
bleeding.  These are just rumors.

As of the 9/29/05 you can now see how much damage your pet is doing. Very cool.

Pet Evolutions
==============
Occasionally when a pet levels up, it “evolves”, changing its stats slightly.
Evolutions do not change the appearance of a pet, although a pet will change
size corresponding to its level.  When a pet evolves, it will gain a prefix to
its name (if you haven’t renamed the pet using /petname or /namepet).

Pet Evolution Prefixes
———————-
* Aggressive - about +5% Damage, -30 Health
* Dire - about +15% Damage, -60 Health
* Elder - +0 Damage, +0 Health
* Hearty - about -15% Damage, +60 Health
* Playful -about -5% Damage, +30 Health

Exhaustive attempts to prove that an Elder pet is better than other Evolutions
have been proven to be false. Elder pets seem to be the equivalent of unevolved
pets.

The damage bonus (or penalty) from an Evolution isn’t an exact number, but
rather a percentage multiplier that increases/decreases damage, with the percent
changing as a pet levels up.  At level 20, with a Hearty/Dire evolution, this
percent is close to 15%.

Pets typically evolve at around level 10-13 and have a second evolution at
around level 15-17.  More evolutions can happen, however, depending on unknown
parameters.  Although the “paths” of evolution aren’t fully known, a few have
been discovered:
* Pet -> Playful -> Hearty -> Elder
* Pet -> Playful -> Elder (?)
* Pet -> Aggressive -> Dire
* Pet -> Aggressive -> Elder (?)

It is thought that letting the pet take a lot of hits makes the pet into a
Hearty or Playful evolution, while letting the pet deal a lot of damage
(compared to the master) in combat gives it an Aggressive or Dire evolution.
Once on an evolution “path”, you can’t go back.

Note that there used to be a trick in which folks would charm a pet, cancel the
charm before it finishes, and have the hostile animal kill them repeatedly near
a shrine.  After a couple of hours, the pet will have gained enough XP to level
up to 20, complete with Dire status.  Unfortunately, this trick was removed in
a June 2006 update which removed the ability for creatures to gain XP from
killing characters.

Miscellany
==========
Pets gain XP at the same rate as their master, but it is prorated by their
level.  This is only important when the Pet’s level is different from the
Master’s level… a 20th level character killing a 13th level creature will get
zero XP, but his 13th level pet will get 100 XP from the kill. Apparently, pets
can learn through osmosis.  Even more disturbing is the fact that pets gain XP
while they are dead.  So don’t worry if your pet dies during a mission and you
can’t raise him… it is still leveling up along with you.

You can rename your pet using the /namepet (Pet Name) or /petname (Pet Name)
emote.  Pet names are limited to 12 Characters.  Good times, but if you rename
your pet, you will not know what evolution the pet is in. As of the 9/29/05
update, you can now just type /namepet and it will rename your pet back to the
default so you can figure out what Evolution it is in.

Pets CANNOT be raised by a normal Resurrection skill or the Resurrection Signet.
They can only be raised by Comfort Animal or Revive Animal.

Overall, any combat skill possessed by the ranger is duplicated in the Beast
Mastery line as a “Pet Attack”, a special attack that is executed by the pet.
In general, these attacks are extremely cheap in Energy and Cooldown Time, and
have effects that equal or exceed existing attacks.  The only disadvantage is
that they require a pet to execute.  A Beast Mastery specialist can easily
Bleed, Interrupt, and Tank an opponent using the pet and the combat skills in
this line. Pet Attacks were updated on 9/29/05 to “function just like a shout”.
I’m not sure what this means, other than perhaps that pet attacks can be used
concurrently with any other skill being cast.

Beast Mastery tends to hog a lot of space on the skillbar. Between Charm
Animal, Comfort Animal, and Pet attack skills, it is difficult to squeeze in
anything other than Beast Master skills when focusing on this attribute. Given
the general ineffectiveness of Pets in the late PvE game (although the June
29th update gives them the equivalent of infused armor, thus keeping them alive
when you are up against the Mursaat) and the fact that pets need to be kept
alive to make use of them in PvP, many Rangers skimp their points on this
attribute by the time they reach Lion’s Arch or beyond.

Some Skill highlights:

Charm Animal
============
This is the main skill in the Beast Mastery line.  You only have a Pet if you
have this skill equipped in your skillbar.  To get a Pet (if you don’t already
have one), you must use this skill on an appropriate animal.  This immediately
makes the animal hostile, so be sure you can survive its attack, and that your
other party members don’t attack the animal, killing it before it is charmed.
The 10 second casting time is rather long, which makes charming an animal
during combat impractical.

If you have a current pet, you CANNOT charm a new one. If you wish to change
your animal companion, you need to hand it over to a tamer. The main tamer in
Post-Searing Tyria, named Jarrel the Tamer, is just outside the gates of
Ascalon City.  There’s also a Tamer next to Master Ranger Nente (who gives you
Charm Animal) in Pre-Searing Ascalon.

List of Charmable Animals (Prophecies)
————————————–
* Dune Lizard (found in the Crystal Desert) Level 5
* Warthog (found in the Maguuma Jungle, Pre-Searing Northlands)
* Lynx (found in Kryta) Level 5
* Stalker (ONLY found in Ascalon, near the Shrine of Melandru in Regent Valley
  Pre-Searing or near Gate Guard Hollis Post-Searing) Level 5
* Snow Wolf (found in the Shiverpeaks) Level 5
* Strider/Moa Bird (found in Ascalon) Level 2-3
* Black Bear (found in the throughout the Southern Shiverpeaks) Level 5
* Elder Wolf (The pet of “Thul the Bull” in Spearhead Peak) Level 15
* Elder Black Widow Spider (Underworld) Level 20
* Wolf (found in Pre-searing Lakeside County) Level 2

List of Charmable Animals (Factions)
————————————
* Tiger - Throughout Shing Jea island, Pongmei Valley
* White Tiger - Between Tanglewood Copse and Arborstone
* Crane - Throughout Shing Jea island, Pongmei Valley
* Reef Lurker (red) - Around Cavalon
* Reef Lurker (blue) - Shenzun Tunnels, Pongmei Valley
* Black Moa Bird - Charmable after Beak of Darkness quest in House Zu Heltzer
* Phoenix - Charmable after the last mission of the game in Divine Path

LIst of Charmable Animals (Nightfall)
————————————-
* Crocodile - Lahtenda Bog
* Flamingo - Churrhir Fields, NW coast of Plains of Jarin, Issnur Isle
* Hyena - The Alkali Pan, The Ruptured Heart
* Jahai Rat - Grand Court of Sebelkeh, The Mirror of Lyss, Vehtendi Valley
* Lion/Lioness - Yatendi Canyons, Barbarous Shore
* Warthog - Plains of Jarin, Fahranur, The First City

How (NOT) to Charm a Pre-Searing Bear
————————————-
Black Bears in Pre-Searing Ascalon can be targeted with Charm Animal.  However,
they also possess a skill which allows them to break the charm attempt.  In
previous versions, one could capture the bear with a combination of Bane
Signet, Hammer Bash, and Faintheartedness to keep it busy.  However, it has
recently been patched, so now it is nearly impossible to capture a pre-Searing
Black Bear (research is still being done). Sorry, folks.

Update: Apparently, some folks have been able to “trap” a Bear between a
partner’s pet and themselves, allowing the Ranger to Charm the Bear because the
bear would not be able to move into range to use Break Charm. The research
continues…

Update: Another method is to have the Bear attack a friend, and have that friend
run away from you. You activate Charm Animal just as the Bear is leaving your
skill range, and the Bear will continue to follow the friend.  When it comes
time to “Break Charm”, the bear will not be able to interrupt you.

Finding an Elder Black Widow
—————————-
Elder Black Widows are a special pet that can only be found in the Underworld.
They are made available after you get the chest quest reward for the quest
“Wrathful Spirits”.  This quest is given by the Reaper of the Forgotten Vale,
who appears after finishing the quest “Restoring of the Monuments” from the
Reaper of the Labyrinth.

I’ve taken the liberty of making a map of the beginning part of the Underworld,
which you can find at this link:

http://img206.echo.cx/img206/883/underworldmap7uf.jpg

I want to charm a Rabbit/Devourer/Swarm of Bees/(insert animal here)!
———————————————————————
Sorry, you can’t. The only pets that can be charmed are listed above on the
table.

Factions: What about the Pandas?
——————————–
A lot of folks have asked about Pandas in Cantha.  The official line that I’ve
read is that it is illegal in a certain populous country (the Panda is
indigenous to this country) to portray a Panda being mutilated or killed, even
in a video game.  Thus, it would have made things difficult for Guild Wars to
be sold in this country.  The end result is that Pandas can’t be captured to be
used as pets (and potential meat shields).  This makes me wonder about the
Panda combatant in the Tekken series of fighting games.  Or any other game with
cartoon Pandas, for that matter.

Nightfall: What about Pygmy Hippos?
———————————–
There used to be Pygmy Hippopotamus pets in the Lahtenda Bog during the World
Preview event.  They have since been removed for unknown reasons, although it
is speculated that they have been removed because they are an endangered
species, similar to the situation with the Panda and the changed Crane graphics
in Factions.  They have been replaced by Crocodiles, apparently.

Nightfall: Do Jahai Rats cause disease?
—————————————
Occasionally, you’ll see Jahai rats use a “Gnaw of Sickness” attack, similar to
the Brutal Mauling attack of the Bears.  It has not been confirmed whether or
not this attack causes disease or any other status effect, but it certainly
adds fuel to the fire of an old rumor…

Comfort Animal
==============
There are only two* skills that can revive a Pet, Comfort Animal and Revive
Animal.  Comfort Animal is received at the same time as Charm Animal and thus
is usually the pet resurrect of choice, simply because of availability.  In
general, I would think carefully before adding this to a skillbar.  If you are
heading into PvP or a Mission, then the skillbar slot is probably better served
by a different skill.  If you are exploring large regions of land, then take
along Comfort Animal to revive your pet on those long treks far from a
convenient city. “Casual” beast masters who don’t focus on Beast Mastery should
never take this skill along.

As of April 29, 2006, skills are no longer disabled for casting this, making it
a lot more useful than it was before.

* As of October 27, 2006, this short list of pet resurrection skills includes
the skill “Heal As One” (Elite)

Call of Protection
==================
An underappreciated buff for your pet, Call of Protection gives a straight
damage reduction bonus to your pet, allowing it to live much longer and survive
in tough combat situations.  It lasts for a whole 2 minutes (and has a recharge
time almost as long), and gives an incredible amount of damage reduction for
a small amount of Energy.  The main problem is the opportunity cost of taking
up a skillbar slot, especially since Beast Masters already have problems with
skillbar space, needed for Pet Attacks and other Ranger skills.

Ferocious Strike (Elite)
========================
This Elite skill in the Beast Mastery line is actually rather lackluster, other
than the fact that it’s the only Elite available in Prophecies. You gain
adrenaline (which is only useful for Warrior/Ranger or Ranger/Warrior
combinations) and some Energy.  This is a good Energy management skill for the
Ranger (who lacks good Energy management in general), but overall it may not be
worth selecting as your Elite skill.

Edge of Extinction
==================
It’s been a while since I’ve updated entries in the Prophecies/Core Beast
Mastery section, but I feel that Edge of Extinction deserved an entry,
especially in the realm of Cantha.  Edge of Extinction is a spirit that causes
damage to all nearby creatures of the same type whenever any creature dies.
The main utility of this skill is to soften up the rest of the monsters in a
homogenous group.  The area of effect is rather wide, and you can really do
some major damage.  It is a great skill to use against Mursaat, Afflicted, and
Charr.

If you do enough area effect damage to multiple opponents, however, sometimes
you can cause a chain reaction that will wipe out ALL of the monsters of the
same type in the area when one dies.  This chain reaction effect is often used
in various farming builds, including the “Grawl Bomb” build.

Be careful when laying this spirit around human monsters, as when they die, all
of your human teammates will be affected.  Sometimes, you can even cause the
same EoE chain reaction, but instead of killing your enemies, you kill off your
whole team!  It takes careful thought and consideration when using this spirit
in any given area.  Also, this spirit is anathema to Minion Masters.  When you
have a Necromancer using Minions in your party, leave this spirit at home.

In PvP, this spirit can cause major havoc, especially in the Hall of Heroes and
Alliance Battles (which have a large amount of human opponents).  As a spirit,
it cuts both ways, but if you have a lot of healing, then it typically hurts
the other teams more than you.  Alternatively, you can lay one deep in enemy
territory while your teammates are safely outside its radius.

Note: As of the August 17, 2006 update, this skill has been nerfed.  It now
only affects creatures with 90% Health or below.  This greatly limits the
utility of the skill, although it still has some use in PvP and farming.

Fertile Season
==============
Most people who grab this spirit are awed by the increase in maximum health
and armor offered by it.  On paper, the stats look good, and it lasts a long
time due to the fact that it’s a Spirit.  However, since it IS a spirit, the
bonuses apply to both your party AND to all monsters within its radius, making
it significantly harder to kill most monsters.  Leave this spirit at home,
folks, unless you want to be mauled by stronger, more armored versions of your
enemies.  On the other hand, a Necromancer might find this spirit useful.

Otyugh’s Cry
============
At first glance, this appears to be a bad skill.  Animals aren’t found in many
locations, and even then, they tend to be low level.  However, the 20 Armor
bonus applies to all animals, including your pet.  This reduces damage by about
20 to 30 percent to your pet (as well as other pets owned by your allies).  It
also lasts for 30 seconds (with an equally long cooldown time), fairly lengthy.
It requires a target, because of the “main” ability (which in my opinion is
secondary to the armor bonus). Also, you need at least a 4 Beast Mastery to
make effective use of it without failure.

I have not seen a Otyugh anywhere in the lands of Tyria, although I suppose the
devourer line of creatures resembles the “classic” Otyugh monster.

Tiger’s Fury
============
This skill is one of the best “increased attack speed” stances available in
Guild Wars.  It is less useful for spellcaster classes (as it disables non-
attack skills while in use).  It is also a bit expensive at 10 Energy, but with
a high Expertise, this can be negligable.  More points in Beast Mastery extend
the overall duration, giving you more seconds of berzerk attacking.

Factions Beastmastery-linked Skills
===================================

A variety of skills have been added to the game with the release of Factions.
Along with many new pet attacks and nature spirits, there are some interesting
additions that increase the variety of tools at a Beastmaster’s disposal.

Enraged Lunge (Elite)
———————
This Factions Pet Attack packs quite a punch.  For every recharging Beast
Mastery skill, it deals bonus damage, up to a total bonus of 80!  Of course,
with this sort of power, the skill is an Elite, and makes a nice replacement
for Ferocious Strike (the previous “Core” Elite).  The cooldown is only
5 seconds, allowing you to quickly attack again with devastating spike damage.
You may want to have a line-up of Pet Attack skills that have a longer cooldown
time, such as Pounce, Savage Pounce, and Bestial Mauling.  Energizing Wind can
help slow down the cooldown as well, but it isn’t friendly to your casters in
the group.

Note that this skill counts for every recharging Beast Mastery skill, not just
Pet Attacks.  Thus, the recharging Call of Protection, Tiger’s Fury, or any
other support skill that you may have running in your skillbar counts for the
Enraged Lunge damage, including Enraged Lunge itself (since there is typically
a delay between activating the skill and the pet using the attack).  Tiger’s
Fury/Bestial Fury is especially lethal, because it counts as a recharging Beast
Mastery Skill and causes both Charm AND Comfort Animal to recharge, adding 3
recharging skills for the price of one activation, with very little downside.

Heal as One (Elite)
——————-
A useful heal in the Beast Master’s repetoire, it is one of the few ways Rangers
can heal directly.  It is an Elite, and thus takes up your Elite slot. The 10
second cooldown makes this skill less useful than Monk heals, but it heals a lot
of damage at higher levels of Beast Mastery skill.  I’m more inclined to leave
this one at home (it IS an Elite), personally, but if you have trouble with
healing or you want a substitute for Troll Unguent that also benefits your pet
and you don’t mind sacrificing your Elite slot, you can give this skill a try.

The difficulty, of course, is finding this skill.  It has only been seen in Yeti
beastmasters and Luxon Rangers, and no boss has been identified for those folks.
Stay tuned for more details…

Update: Salke Fur Friend in Melandru’s Hope, southwest of Jade Quarry has this
skill. Apparently, the skill was missing before a patch fixed it.

This skill was updated on October 27, 2006 to have a faster cooldown time (10
seconds), but more importantly it now resurrects your pet.  This allows you to
save a skill slot normally devoted to Comfort Animal, as well as gives you an
effective self-heal.  With the great Elite pet attacks, I still am inclined to
leave this one, but it may prove to save you some slots in an already cramped
skillbar and possibly prove to be effective for solo hunting.

Poisonous Bite
————–
This is another useful skill in the line of Pet Attacks. It’s simple, it costs
5 Energy, and has a reasonable cooldown of 7 seconds.  All it does is afflict
the target with poison through a Pet Attack, making it one of the few direct
ways to “zap” an opponent with the Poison condition.  This is generally one of
the new Factions Beast Mastery skills that I keep in my skillbar.

Note: A Poisoner’s bowstring won’t add to the duration of poison on this skill.

Viper’s Nest
————
Here is a novel skill: A trap in the Beastmastery line.  It does some piercing
damage and adds the poison condition to the victims that trigger it.  While a
Beastmaster’s repetoire doesn’t really require trapping, it can be useful in a
pinch, especially if you don’t have many points invested in Wilderness Survival.
One trick that you can use is bringing a Poisoner’s bow or melee weapon. The
Poisoner’s mod increases the poison length on this skill, even though you don’t
physically attack with your weapon.

Nightfall Beastmastery-linked Skills
====================================

Nightfall adds a handful of skills for the Beastmaster.  They are fairly
redundant, but interesting.

Heket’s Rampage
—————
This is yet another stance (like Bestial Fury and Tiger’s Fury) that increases
attack speed.  The difference is that it is canceled when you use an attack
skill, instead of “blanking out” your non-attack skills.  This limits its
general usefulness in builds that rely on standard attacks for DPS, but it is
cheaper in Energy than its Fury brothers from the other games.

Rampage as One (Elite)
———————-
This Elite skill gives you the package deal… increased attack speed AND run
speed for both you and your pet.  However, it costs an expensive 25 Energy
and has a cooldown longer than its duration.  You only have enough “juice” for
a short burst, and the expense may break your Energy bank, so to speak.  With
other choices for Elites and better ways to increase your own attack speed,
you might want to give this one a pass.

Strike as One (Elite)
———————
This Elite Shout is a straight damage increase, a very rare bonus in Guild Wars
indeed.  It gives your next 5 attacks a small amount of increased bonus damage.
This increases your DPS by an average of about 3-5 points, depending on your
build.  It is cheap and recycles fast. However, it takes up your Elite slot.

Toxicity
——–
The token new Beastmastery Nature Spirit in Nightfall is a bit lackluster. It
simply adds more DoT to conditions that already DoT, much like Lacerate in
Factions.  At least this spirit is not an Elite.  If you are a DoT nut, this
Spirit can make your Poison or Disease a bit more virulent, so you won’t have
to do as much “stacking”.  It certainly has more utility (even with few or no
attribute points) than Lacerate, and it’s not an Elite.