This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/guildwars2 by /u/Cao3648 on 2026-05-13 09:54:19+00:00.

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With "The Only Way" released, hidden in the cliffs of Eternity's Garden, there is a little Otter family raising their young.

The scene is quite adorable, a nod to a community person back in the day, and is of particular interest to Ranger players, as we are allowed to steal and abduct befriend one of the Juveniles and journey together.

The Otter pet itself has a decent model and pleasant animations to look at. However, the impression quickly deteriorates once you go in the nitty gritty details and wonder what this pet is actually good at and what kind of build might be interested in using it.

The answer is...nothing and for nobody?

Looking at the skills, the Otter is clearly envisioned as some kind of Heal-Support Pet.

Otter - Supportive Pet 2026:

AA: "Scratch" (just a bit of damage)

F1: "Jet" (Dashes forward in a 600 range, causes 150 CC Damage and a Knockback - 20s CD)

F2: "Innocent Display" (Heals 5 Target in 360 Radius and causes Weakness to foes - 24s CD) F3: "Tail Whip" (Hits 3 Targets at close range for Damage and cripples them - 10s CD)

while at a glance, this doesn't look so bad, let's compare it to the Fern Hound, a pet that's been around for 14 years and barely saw any serious use:

Fern Hound - Supportive Pet 2012:

AA: "Bite" (just a bit(e) of damage)

F1: "Crippling Leap" (Leap at a target and cripples them - 10s CD)

F2: "Regenerate" (Heals 5 targets in a 600 Radius and grants them Regeneration - 20s CD)

F3: "Brutal Charge" (Leap at a foe, causing 2s of knockdown and 200 CC Damage - 18s CD)

As one can see, the Otter appears to be barely a spin on the Fern Hound skillset, with some slight differences, a stat spread that is more geared towards Vitality instead of Toughness, and can also be used underwater. In a Support Role specifically, Ranger builds usually look for Utility in Pets, not raw heals, which makes neither of the two appealing.

At the time of writing, it clocks in at an unimpressive ~500dps on its own without any boons or traits active, which puts it solidly rock bottom compared to it's peers.

Add insult to that, the Otter seems to be it's own kind of family and cannot be boosted via a specific trait like Cats, Canines or Arachnoids can.

The fact that "Jet" let's the Otter overshoot their engaged target, having to waddle back to whatever it attacked before, doesn't help in the absolute slightest.

All in all, this is kinda baffling, since not only do we get a 2.0 version of a very un(der)used pet that was barely improved to an already large menagerie that suffers from to many useless, outdated or overshadowed pets, but the Ranger profession as a whole could have a need for a pet that adds new capabilities to the class.

As the popularity metric of Wingman shows, the Ranger profession as a whole - with exception of the Fractal Evergreen Power Soulbeast - has mostly fallen out of favor and only sees very little play in High End Instanced Content these days, sporting very little unique selling points, lackluster utility, janky class mechanics and overshadowed boon support/boon dps builds. (Dare I even mention to say that Alacrity DPS Druid still is a joke?)

https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/popularity

While pets alone can't fix this, there is plenty of room for new pets to fill in some gaps. Quickness Untamed or Heal Untamed would absolutely welcome a Pet that grants Stability to allies, Druids would probably love some extra Stability as well, or Barrier without a big tradeoff, or extra Resolution/Resistance, Galeshots still clings to CC pets as a lifeline to even be remotely competitive in PvE.

I don't want to make more than these vague suggestions, nor engage in a wider balance discussion of the Ranger profession, just here to say there is plenty of room to still add pets that are worthwile, instead of adding a questionable rehash.

Otter could have been, could be, one of these valuable additions.

Sadly, at the time of writing, this adorable little creature isn't. It appears to be pointless in PvE at least.

That's it for now. I'll close with a TL;DR and thanks if you made it here.

TL;DR

• Otter is cute, Otter is adorable!

• Otter DPS very bad.

• Otter barely a Fern Hound 2.0.

• Otter CC skill puts it out of range for it's Heal and target to attack.

• Heal on F2 doesn't make for a valuable Support Pet.

• Ranger could have a need for new Utility/Boon access via pets.

• At the time of writing, it apparently has no niche to exist.