Pet Menagerie – The Bog-guardian

 

And after an incredibly long break; we’re back again! The second to last installment of Pet Menagerie is here, and this time we’re examining the walking moss heap, the Bog-guardian. Of particular note for this article to determining, similar to the Eagle, whether the requirements to use this pet are worth it. The answer may surprise you.

Or it may not.

Either way, let’s begin.

 

Skills

 

The first skill given to the Bog Guardian is Angry Bees. This skill does a bit of up front damage, and then an even smaller damage over time, ticking every 2 seconds for 10 seconds, with a 30 second cooldown. Although it does have an admittedly cool animation, that’s pretty much the only good thing about it. The damage output is pathetic, really. Leave it on autofire unless you want to be careful about breaking CC.

The second skill is called Root Strike.  This ability does a little damage, but more importantly it hits the target with a +5% Incoming Ranged Crit chance debuff, lasting 30 seconds, with a 30 second cooldown. This one has its uses, obviously if you’re running with a Hunter pal, but also because the Bog-guardian’s primary damage dealing comes from range. It is unfortunate that it only increases the crit chance of ranged skills, but beggars can’t be choosers, and it’s okay considering you can keep it up almost continuously.

The third and final skill learned by Bog-guardians is Bursting Root. The effect is quite simple. It does a bit of up front damage and has a 20% chance of setting off a Fellowship Manoeuvre. Nifty when solo, as those types of stuns override normal stuns present on the target(but does not punch through the immunity), but especially helpful in group content. This one does have a 1 minute cooldown however, so don’t count on it happening too often.

 

The Stats

 

As I indicated above, the Bog-guardian’s DPS is very disappointing, specifically because by having to trait 5 blue to actually use it, you lose a ton of DPS yourself. It does come out at the top half of the pet damage scale, but this is including the various pet buffing traits and set bonuses that come with the 5 blue, so if you insist on going blue line, you’re actually better off with the Lynx or Bear if you want your pet to do damage.

On the upside though, is Flanking. And oh boy, does this guy have it. Exactly how good is dependent on whether he is attacking at range or melee, but in either case the Bog-guardian is almost unrivalled. The sole challenger to his title is the Eagle, and even then only when the Bog-guardian is at range, where he flanks slightly less often.

 

The Verdict

 

And here we are. Is the Bog-guardian worth the restricted trait options? Well… no. Not at all. Not even close.

Considering a large chunk of the blue traits are for buffing your pets(who suck stat-wise as a base, so the increase is very little), and the rest are group focused, using him solo is not recommended. If you want to have the high flank rate, I suggest using the Eagle, as it only takes up one Legendary slot, and you’re free to blow stuff up with the red line. While the blue line may have once been considered the ‘survivability build’, that was less viable after the pets stopped scaling, and became utterly redundant with the addition of Water-Lore. While he may have some okay group utility, it is far overshadowed by having to waste precious trait slots just getting to 5 blue.

My advice? At this point in time, don’t use it, or the blue line beyond the healing oriented ones, for that matter. The sacrifices you make just aren’t worth the benefits, period.

The final edition of Pet Menagerie will be coming up soon(hopefully with less of a delay than this article), featuring everyone’s favourite lightbulb, the Spirit of Nature!