Animal companion


 * For information about so-called "mini pets", see: Miniature
 * For information about necromancer minions, also sometimes called "pets", see: Minion

Characters can obtain an animal companion (also known as a pet), using the Charm Animal skill. These animals fight as melee attackers alongside the character, who can use skills specific to animal companions to augment their abilities. As the Charm Animal skill is a ranger skill, it is generally only possible to play with an animal companion as a primary or secondary ranger.

Pet evolution
Generally, the pet evolves at levels 11 and 15. However, in certain cases this has varied; such instances are rare and not fully understood, though leveling up while dead does seem to delay evolution to the next time the pet levels up. Other times the pet name does not update appropriately; in this case, name your pet, then reset the default name with /namepet or /petname. Which evolutionary path the pet takes is dependent on the play style of its master leading up to the pet's evolution and is still undergoing research.

The following factors are believed not to be involved in pet evolution:
 * Amount of healing on the pet
 * Levels of monsters fought
 * Number of times the pet died
 * Number of foes killed by the pet

The following are observed to have some correlation with defensive evolutions (playful/hearty):
 * Low ratio of damage dealt by pet versus damage by owner
 * Amount of damage taken by the pet
 * Amount of damage taken by the pet without killing the pet

The following are observed to have some correlation with offensive evolutions (aggressive/dire):
 * High ratio of damage dealt by pet versus damage by owner
 * High absolute damage dealt by pet

Getting a pet
Pets are character-specific; each character must charm their own pet, and cannot be shared with other characters. To obtain a pet you must use Charm Animal on an animal. Heroes may also charm an animal either as a primary or secondary ranger.

Be warned: when you use Charm Animal to charm a pet, it will attack you (however, they will do minimal damage - don't panic). Heroes and henchmen (AI characters) will attack the pet you are attempting to charm once they become hostile. For this situation, it is best to use the waypoint system to move your AI characters away so that the character charming can do so without the risk of the target being killed accidentally by the AI. If you only have heroes in your party you could also set your heroes to "avoid combat".

Whenever a character has Charm Animal equipped, their pet will tag along when they are outside of cities and outposts.

Provided you do not get rid of the pet as described below, the pet is permanently linked to your character; even changing from a ranger secondary profession does not sever this link; when you change back to a ranger secondary and equip Charm Animal the pet will be unchanged.

All PvP characters have elder Wolves, which cannot be lost or replaced.

A hero can also get a pet by equipping Charm Animal. First clear the area around the pet. Then Order all heroes/henchmen away from the area. Use a flag to bring the desired hero within range of the pet. The player then targets the animal to be charmed. Left-click on the hero's number in the Party Member list to bring up the hero's skill bar, and select Avoid Combat, Charm Animal, and Lock Target. The hero will then use Charm Animal and will have a new pet.

Getting rid of your pet
It is not possible to charm a new animal while one already has a pet. The only way for a character to get rid of a pet is to give it to a Pet Tamer. Heroes' pets can be replaced in the same way.

For details, and a list of tamers sorted by campaign and location, see: Pet Tamer

Note: Some screenshots of Guild Wars: Eye of the North showed a listing of heroes that included a number of pets. It is unknown if you will be able to capture and keep multiple pets or if this was some sort of developer tool.

Pet rules

 * Pets are not party members, only allies.
 * Pets are a type of creature according to Edge of Extinction and other skills that affect creatures.
 * A pet will always attack the same foe as its owner (sometimes changing target with a delay) at a rate of one attack every two seconds.
 * Pets receive death penalty in PvP (as of the Thursday July 13th update).
 * When a pet dies, its location does not show as a grey dot on the compass.
 * Pets can only be resurrected with Comfort Animal, Revive Animal, Heal as One, or a Resurrection Shrine. Resurrection skills targeted on players cannot target pets.
 * If a pet is unnamed (see below), its name may change as it levels up and evolves (i.e. a Melandru's Stalker may become a Playful Stalker). Note that the name change still occurs if you give your pet a custom name, it is just not displayed. If you later erase your pet's custom name, the 'upgraded' name will be displayed instead of the original one.
 * Pets gain experience and level up from combat, to a maximum level of 20. They will gain experience in this way even while dead, regardless of the distance to the dying foes, but the party screen will only update the level when the pet is within radar distance of the master. Pets do not gain experience from quest rewards or mission completion, and are unaffected by experience scrolls. The whole of pets are considered as another party, thus, the experience earned by your pet decreases proportionnally to the number of pets in the alliance.
 * Some pets may not follow you until you level them a couple of times.

Pet attacks
A pet's damage is relative to the amount of attribute points invested in its owner's Beast Mastery attribute, with diminishing returns for rank greater than the owner's Level/2 +2. Pets attack roughly once every 2.15 seconds and inflict critical hits at a rate that depends on the owner's Beast Mastery attribute. Pet critical hits do not use the same damage formula as other critical hits, the most prominent difference is that pet critical hits have a damage range rather than inflicting &radic;2*max damage.

With 12 points invested in Beast Mastery:
 * a level 20 Hearty pet does 15-35 damage per hit against an AL 60 target; with the critical hits removed the base damage is 15-25
 * a level 20 Elder pet does 17-41 damage per hit against an AL 60 target; with the critical hits removed the base damage is 17-29
 * a level 20 Dire pet does 20-46 damage per hit against an AL 60 target; with the critical hits removed the base damage is 20-32

In order to assess expected damage the average damages need to be known, with 12 points invested in Beast Mastery:
 * a level 20 Hearty pet does an average of ~21.1 damage per hit for ~9.8 DPS at base attack speed
 * a level 20 Elder pet does an average of ~24.4 damage per hit for ~11.3 DPS at base attack speed
 * a level 20 Dire pet does an average of ~28.1 damage per hit for ~13.1 DPS at base attack speed

Different types of pets do different types of physical damage.

Slashing damage is dealt by
 * Black Bear
 * Black Moa Bird
 * Crab / Reef Lurker (blue)
 * Crab / Reef Lurker (red)
 * Crane
 * Flamingo
 * Hyena
 * Jahai Rat
 * Lion / Lioness
 * Lynx
 * Melandru's Stalker
 * Moa Bird / Strider*
 * Tiger
 * Warthog*
 * White Tiger
 * Wolf

Piercing damage is dealt by
 * Black Widow
 * Dune Lizard
 * Crocodile
 * Phoenix

* The Prima Guide has listed these types of pets as doing a different type of damage, and many other fansites copied that information. However, actual testing shows the information in the Prima Guide to be incorrect. For discussion on this matter, see here.

Health and armor

 * All pets have the same health and armor based on their current level.
 * Pets have the equivalent of infused armor.
 * The armor can be modified via Otyugh's Cry.


 * Health = Level &times; 20 + 80
 * AL = Level &times; 3 + 20

Pet Evolution Stats

 * Hearty: -(~12-14)% damage, +60 health
 * Playful: -(~5)% damage, +30 health
 * Elder: -0 damage, +0 health
 * Aggressive: +(~5)% damage, -30 health
 * Dire: +(~12-14)% damage, -60 health

It is commonly believed that an Elder pet has a damage bonus of +3; however, attempts to validate this have shown that an Elder pet does indeed do less damage than a Dire one.

Damage Comparisons.

Black Widows are always level 20, and spawn with a random evolution. Black Moas have been observed with the properties of the Elder evolution.

Have a look at the Guide to evolving a Dire Pet if you want a dire pet.

In order to get an Elder Pet, a way that guarantees success (but is very difficult to accomplish) is to train it while making sure that neither you nor your pet deal/receive damage until it is level 15.

Pet skills
It's also a good idea to bring along some other pet-related skills. Some skills like Poisonous Bite along with Scavenger Strike can make a good combo.

Pet naming
A primary character's pet can be given an individual name with the commands "/namepet " or "/petname ". Both commands, when used without anything following it, will reset the pet's name to its default state. A pet's name can be up to 12 characters long. Note that an individual name will also carry over to a new pet. Pet name does not affect a pet's evolution, it will simply mask the prefix displayed until you reset the name to default. Multiple pets, unlike players, can have the same name. Heroes cannot rename their pets.

You cannot change the name of your pet in the middle of a PvP match. You may, however, change it while in any PvP outpost or the Isle of the Nameless.

Pet growth
Prophecies, Nightfall, and Eye of the North pets generally grow as they increase in level, while Factions pets generally stay the same size.

Pets confirmed to grow
 * Dune Lizard
 * Moa Bird / Strider
 * Snow Wolf
 * Warthog
 * Black Bear
 * Flamingo
 * Crocodile
 * Jahai Rat
 * Lion / Lioness
 * Melandru's Stalker
 * Lynx
 * Hyena
 * White Wolf
 * Black Wolf
 * White Moa
 * Polar Bear
 * Mountain Eagle
 * Raven
 * Rainbow Phoenix

Pets confirmed not to grow
 * Black Moa (always level 20)
 * Black Widow (always level 20)
 * Phoenix
 * Tiger
 * White Tiger
 * Crab
 * Crane
 * White Crab

Related skills
The following skills involve animal companions:

Pet attacks

 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
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 * (elite)

Pet healing/resurrection

 * (elite)
 * (elite)

Pet buffs

 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)
 * (elite)

Trivia

 * Charmable Animal Companions removed from the game so far include the Fern Lizard from Prophecies (a browner cousin to the Dune Lizard), the panda (presumably due to international relations though it is still in the game - just not charmable), the red crowned crane (though still in the game and still called a Crane with a white neck and blue crown - the skin was changed presumably due to animal rights relations), and the Pygmy Hippopotamus (due to technical problems with the animal's model).