Guild Wars 2

It has long been that rangers have wished for the ability to control all of their pet skills but I believe many would compromise for just the ability to control 1 more pet skill, the ones that matter. For example, wolf kd, drake tail swipe, moa heal, spider immob, etc. However, one of the main argument against the implementation of such a system was that it would be too “confusing” for new players. Basically, that new players would be overwhelmed because of having too many buttons.

Yet in today’s ready up we see the elementalist preview in which the elementalist is gaining the ability to control the elemental summon active. This is highly disconcerting because elementalist is more difficult to play than a ranger on the basis that having more buttons is more difficult for new players (as explained in the last paragraph). The elementalist, which has 25 buttons (4 attunements x 5 and 5 for skills 6-10) vs the ranger’s 17 (2 × 5 for weps, skills 6-10, and 2 pet actives) already has 8 more buttons than the ranger is therefore 32% more confusing for new players to play than the ranger.

Nonetheless, the elementalist is getting another skill to control their elementals, and arguably, they would only bring the elite elemental in certain situations (namely in PvP) which makes the class that is 32% more confusing than ranger even more confusing. This disconnect between balancing around new players and around PvP needs to be addressed. It is of my opinion that balance needs to be done in the same manner as to have some sort of coherency for fairness.

Therefore, either the elementalists should not gain the extra ability to control their elementals, or the rangers should get the ability, at the least to control one more pet skill, if not all of them. Personally, I am in favor of the latter.

/Discuss.

Eurantien.4632:

For example, wolf kd, drake tail swipe, moa heal, spider immob, etc.

You already have a button that controls it. The return to master button.

I don’t think its a very fine tuned form of control. Isn’t just going to be like activating an active ability for a necro minion or ranger spirit? And nothing more than that?

They have no more control over their summons than you have over your Spirit actives.

nearlight.3064:

I don’t think its a very fine tuned form of control. Isn’t just going to be like activating an active ability for a necro minion or ranger spirit? And nothing more than that?

Not quite. For necro minions, the actives do override whatever the minion was doing. Bone Minions, Flesh Wurm, and Blood Fiend all blow up, Flesh Golem Charges, Bone Fiend immobilizes itself (attack rotation continues as normal, though), and Shadow fiend starts his haunt that will hit when you wake up tomorrow.

Currently we have no way of controlling our elementals…like…at all. You know those fire elemental powders you can buy in Fireheart Rise to summon a fire elemental? You know how you have exactly 0 ability to control it? That’s how much control we currently have. I honestly see no problem with this. Elementalist has always been one of the “high skill floor” classes, especially when it comes to control key mastery. This just gives us the ability to actually control the stupid summons in some meaningful way.

The original poster isn’t asking for elementalists to not get this buff, guys. He’s using it as a reason why rangers should get more control over their pet. Elementalists are already the most complex profession to play, and yet they are getting an extra button to push. The excuse that an extra button would somehow baffle and confound new ranger players is just insulting at this point.

I see absolutely no reason that rangers shouldn’t have more control over their profession’s core mechanic. Even just the ability to control when the pet uses their secondary special ability would be a huge buff to pet usability and dramatically increase the ranger’s viability in literally every ranger build there is.

Being able to control when drakes use their blast finisher or when moas use their heal would be a HUGE boost to ranger support builds so they can contribute to group fights without relying entirely on spirits, which many on this forum condemn as “passive play” and a cheese build.

The ability to command canines and porcines to do their knockdown would greatly improve the ranger’s ability to control, which would make their long ranged builds more usable as well as improve the effectiveness of their offensive melee builds. Birds also wouldn’t auto-cast Swiftness before attacking, which would improve their usefulness as a burst pet.

Then you have devourers and bears who suddenly have their defensive skills in the player’s control so they can be used at the right time instead of at random, thus making them useful in general. Controlling when the spider lays down the poison field could also be useful for group content so the spider doesn’t drop poison fields over fire fields mid-battle ruining everyone’s day.

Just a little more control of the pet would improve the effectiveness of the ranger profession, turning the pet from a 30% damage drain to a valuable utility skill that any build could make use of. It’d promote build diversity, which is a goal we can all agree on.