Guild Wars 2

This thread is intended as a bunch of realistic suggestions and tweaks to ranger to solve a number of issues:

-Power based builds being weak for Pvp/Roaming
-Reliance upon 30 in Wilderness Survival for Empathic Bond in a PvP setting
-Pet clones and worthless pets
-Slow pet F2s
-Bad power scaling on a number of weapons
-More emphasis traditional Ranger boons and conditions such as regeneration, swiftness, vulnerability, cripple and chill
-Makes pets better for team support with improved F2 abilities and better beastmastery traits

Marksmanship
IV New Trait : Hunter’s Focus – Critical hits with longbow skills now have a 33% chance to grant might for 8 seconds, 1 second ICD
V Predator’s Instinct – Added 10 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds
VI Beastmaster’s Bond – Reduced ICD to 30 seconds from 60
IX Beastmaster’s Might/Signet Mastery – Combined into one trait (3 stacks of might & 20% reduced signet cooldown)
XII Remorseless – Regain opening strike whenever you kill a foe or gain stealth. Opening Strikes now remove a boon

Skirmishing
V Companion’s Might – Increased Might duration from 5 seconds to 7
IX Honed Axes – Axes do 10% more damage. Critical hits with axes have a 33% chance to cripple for 2 seconds.
XI Trap Potency – Now moved to Wilderness Survival XI, Replaced with: suggestions for new GM traits

Wilderness Survival
II Healer’s Celerity – Replaced with new Empathic Bond
V Expertise Training – Increased condition damage bonus to 500
VI Wilderness Knowledge: Now also affects Marksmanship III Keen Edge ICD
XI Empathic Bond: Moved to Wilderness Survival II – Pets now remove 1 condition every 10 seconds from you, and also from up to 5 allies in a 360 radius Note remove, not take. Empathic Bond replaced by Trap Potency

Nature Magic
II Concentration Training: This trait is broken and needs to be fixed, it currently does nothing for a lot of pets
VIII Evasive Purity: Reduced ICD to 5 seconds
IX Greatsword Training: Increased damage to 10% bonus
Grandmaster Minor: Bountiful Hunter – Now increased damage by 2% per boon instead of 5% if you have a boon

Beastmastery
I Speed Training: Reduces cooldown on Pet Skills by 20% (from 10%)
III Shout Master: Shouts now also remove 1 condition from all allies within a 600 radius
IV Compassion Training: Pet healing attributes are increased by 350. Activating a moa pet now grants 7 seconds of regeneration to all nearby allies
VIII Stability Training – Ursine, Porcine and Armor Fish pets now grant 3 seconds of stability to nearby allies when activated, 600 radius
IX Intimidation Training – Now applies an addition 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds
X Vigorous Training – Added 5 seconds of Swiftness in addition to Vigor
XI Zephyr’s Speed – In addition to quickness, now removed chilled/crippled/immobilize when swapping pets.

Weapon Skills
Axes
#1: Ricochet – Increased base damage by 25% (still decently below the power of thief shortbow auto)
#5: Whirling Defense: Unrooted, Now lasts for 4 seconds with 8 attacks instead of 5/12
Greatsword
Evade removed from chain, replaced with 3 stacks of vulnerability, damage increased by 20% on each attack
Maul – vulnerability removed, bleeds returned to maul
Swoop – Now evades all attacks for the duration
Longbow
Barrage – Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 30
Dagger
Stalker’s Strike – Evade reduced to 1/2 seconds from 1 1/4 seconds. Added two stacks of Torment for 3 seconds. Reduced poison from 10 seconds to 6 seconds
Utility Skills
Shouts
“Protect me!” – Your pet now takes half the damage you would take for 6 seconds (reduced from 6), CD reduced to 40 seconds from 60
“Sic ’Em” – Reduced recharge to 35 seconds.
“Guard” – suggestions wanted
“Search and Rescue” – suggestions wanted
Spirits
Stone Spirit – Reduced base protection duration to 2 seconds (from 3 seconds)
Frost Spirit – Bonus damage increased to 20%
Nature Spirit – Active will now only remove 2 conditions on nearby allies (compared to 5)
Healing Skills
Heal as One: Is now a shout, Cooldown increased to 25 seconds, now removes Poison, Bleeding and Burning
Water Spirit: The passive proc now also removes one condition

Pet Changes
Dogs: Design philosophy – Strong skirmishers whose howls can have a dramatic effect on both team fights as well as solo play
Alpine Wolf – Reduced F2 (Chilling Howl) Cooldown to 25 seconds from 30, more in line with Krytan Drakehound
Fern Hound – F2 (Regenerate) base heal increased to 1500 from 1000
Hyena – Power scaled to that of a normal pet, F2 (Howl of the Pack) now applies weakness to foes within range for 5 seconds, 25 second cooldown

Birds: Design philosophy – Strong solo fighters with damage mitigation and soft CC used to shut down single targets
White Raven –
Hawk -
Eagle -
Owl – F2 (Chilling Slash) increased chill duration to 4 seconds from 3

Cats: Intense single target pressure with powerful attacks and the ability to stick on the target with gap closers
Lynx – F2 (Rending Pounce) cast time decreased to 1/2 second. CD decreased to 25 seconds
Snow Leopard – F2 (Chilling Pounce) cast time decreased to 1/2 second. CD maintained at 30 seconds
Jungle Stalker – F2 (Mighty Roar) cast time decreased to 2 seconds from 3

Drakes: Design philosophy – Offensive skirmishers with devastating activated attacks
Reef Drake – F2 (Sonic Shriek) functionality changed: Emit waves of discordant sonic energy to confuse foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto)
Ice Drake – F2 (Frost Breath) funtionality changed: Breath a wave of frost, damaging and chilling foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto) CD increased to 30 seconds
Salamander Drake – F2 (Fire Breath) functionality changed: Breath a wave of fire which burns foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto)

Bears: Design philosophy – Tanky group fights with good downed body cleave or group support

All bear attacks now cleave

Arctodus: F2 (Rending Maul) functionality and name changed: “Fury of the North”: Unleash a fury of six brutal cleaving strikes each chilling your foe for 1 second. Cast time 3/4 second, duration 2 seconds. This attack should deal between 3-6k damage depending on beastmastery traits/opponent defense ratings.
Polar Bear: F2 (Icy Roar) cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 45
Black Bear: F2 (Enfeebling Roar) functionality and name changed: “Fury of the Grove”: Unleash a fury of six brutal cleaving strikes which weaken and cripple foes for 2 seconds. Cast time 3/4 second, duration 2 seconds. This attack should deal between 3-6k damage depending on beastmastery traits/opponent defense ratings.
Murellow: F2 (Poison cloud) functionality and named changed: “Noxious Cloud”: Added 2 seconds of weakness in addition to 2 seconds of poison, 7 pulses.
Brown Bear: F2 (Shake It Off) cooldown reduced to 20 seconds

Devourers: Design Philosophy – Fast ranged attacks with a focus on conditions
Whiptail Devourer: Increased auto attack speed by 25% (from 1 second to 3/4 second), F2 (Poison Barbs) cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15, cast time reduced to 1 second from 2 1/2
Carrion Devourer: Increased autoattack speed by 25%
Lashtail Devourer: Increased autoattack speed by 25%, F2 (Rending Barbs) number of barbs increased from 7 to 9, cooldown reduced to 25 seconds

Spiders: Design Philosophy – Accurate single target duelists with the ability to hamper enemies through timely venom use

Porcine Family
Currently every pig is a clone of the same design ideas needed

Moas
Are currently underrated in my opinion, possible cooldown adjustments, attack functionality changes are needed.

i am surprised. i thought the most Suggestions would be absolutely opbut.. i like ur thinking. most of them are really good and creative.

ur idea to honed axes could need a ICD
i am critical to changes regarding EB and traps
shout master would be the 6th of soldier rune. idk if this is okay and when with 10p in bm is it maybe too easy to get
i really like stability training. is like the ele master trait solid rock.

personally i dont like the dev idea regarding greatsword. gs is defensive and we would loose sustain without gs evade on AA.
maul dont need the bleed. its strong enough.
good change for stalkers strike
idk why the elite spirit nerf seems a bit too much.

fat plus for drake ideas. really good suggestion. make them really usable in wvw
the attacks of arctodus and black bear seem a bit to strong for me.
the easiest way to make them more attractive when the bonus item is in f2 place like thiefes have. maybe with an option to give the effect an allie too. but donk know how

the rest of ur ideas are good or i have no opinion yet

snow.8097:

i am surprised. i thought the most Suggestions would be absolutely opbut.. i like ur thinking. most of them are really good and creative.

ur idea to honed axes could need a ICD
i am critical to changes regarding EB and traps
shout master would be the 6th of soldier rune. idk if this is okay and when with 10p in bm is it maybe too easy to get
i really like stability training. is like the ele master trait solid rock.

personally i dont like the dev idea regarding greatsword. gs is defensive and we would loose sustain without gs evade on AA.
maul dont need the bleed. its strong enough.
good change for stalkers strike
idk why the elite spirit nerf seems a bit too much.

fat plus for drake ideas. really good suggestion. make them really usable in wvw
the attacks of arctodus and black bear seem a bit to strong for me.
the easiest way to make them more attractive when the bonus item is in f2 place like thiefes have. maybe with an option to give the effect an allie too. but donk know how

the rest of ur ideas are good or i have no opinion yet

Thanks for the feedback!

It’s true that shout mastery might need to be broken into two traits, because a ranger running protect me, guard and empathic bond could remove a lot of conditions while being really tanky.

I’m thinking that I’d actually like to see the two trap traits both moved to Wilderness Survival with Martial Mastery being swapped with Trapper’s expertise. This would buff greatsword power builds and make it so that trap ranger became more viable for team fighting.

I wouldn’t mind keeping the evade on the Ranger GS if the auto could be made to not feel like hitting your opponent with a noodle…

Realistic Ranger changes

runeblade.7514:

Realistic Ranger changes

You left out the normal nerfs all I see there are the usually steath nerfs.

i also hoped this thread is without people who left hope in cdi xD
but i think they open it again. they said they close it for now. for me it sounds like a temporary close.

haha a noodle xD
but i strongly believe EB will stay in GM and when the traps will be moved to WS there will be no longer trap rangers because EB is too strong to change it for a trap trait.
i think markmanship is a better place for traps. they just need to bqlwnce the issue with conditionduration. i think with better base dmg of traps and a slight lowered condi duration on trap GM trait this would be okay i think.

In my opinion (note that it’s my opinion). Your changes makes ranger overpowered here.
You are right in one thing, Ranger need a bit more damage bonus but you add too much damage everywhere.

Marksmanship :
hunter focus : you are creating here a second “warrior play GS cause that’s the best weapon to deal damage whatever you’ll try” Just replace “warrior” by “ranger” and “GS” by “LB”. This will be totally broken PvE wise and this will hurt PvP/WvW a lot. It’ll be really easy to maintain a very High number of might stack with longbow.
Merging signets trait may be a good idea though.

Skirmishing :
I feel that companion might is already in the right place and I’m playing as a beastmaster. It’s not a necessary change. 5s instead of 3s was already an handy buff.

Wilderness survival :
Here your change on Empathic bond is totally OP. This is already a trait that is really good and at his place as a grandmaster trait.

Nature magic :
Nice change, I really like all of them. But maybe this will become a bit to much an “I must have 25 point in this branch”.

*Beastmastery : *
A bunch of change that may be interesting (support wise). But I’d rather see a flat damage bonus for pets which are part of our damage but gain nothing from our damage bonus.

Weapons :
Too many changes here to be really objective. GS may be a bit op, same for LB with a the shortened cool down on barrage.

shout :
I’d really like to see a “guard” as a more reactive skill which would grant distorsion to my pet instead of setting a zone to protect to my pet but… well whatever.
Heal as one change feel appealing. I think just promoting this healing skill as a shout could make it really good for some builds. Maybe this don’t need the other fancy changes.

Pet change :
Way too many changes here. Your idea for bears may be a bit op (they are tanky they don’t need to do tons of damage).
What I’d like to see would be more things like :
Pet shout being instant even if this mean a reduction in boon or condition duration. Plus this kind of change would address the lack of responsiveness of some of our F2 skill. All pet that use shout would become reactive.
Porcine F2 should be replace by the discovered object after using “forage”.
Devourer : 25% on auto attack is a bit much. 10% should be less op. Don’t forget Devourer hit 2 time on each auto attack, with rampage as one it’s already a really good combo.

Well that’s all.

i read again and have new critics

dadnir is right with hunters focus
i like the idea from fake patch notes with eagle eye but that would be make power ranger probably op without changes. lesser proc, lesser might duration or a little icd would make it more balanced. but just in pvp/wvw. i think its not important for pve. maybe then rangers do enough dmg for dungeon farmer.

i didnt noticed that the effect of honed axes changed more then the idea with cripple.
in combination with ur dmg buff on mainhand axe it would feel like i through a big hammer on foe. could be too strong. it should be more in line with other weapon bonuses (5/7%)
and means A/A then 20% more dmg?

Expertise training is not needed. in cdi some talked about dmg pets on condi builds are foo strong. maybe with power builds with condi pets and this trait the same.

bountiful hunter is difficult. plsy on warhorn and u have 6%. then with prot on dodge or boons from runes up to to ten percent. and in dungeon and zergfights even more because u hqve almost all boons all the time.
with 1% per boon it would be a nerf. i think 5% is absolutely okay.

intimidation training was the trait for spiddrs and dogs right?
this trait has other problems. why they give us cripple on f2 that concentrate on immob chill and fear? we loose a big part of that effect because the other debuffs are stronger and negates cripple half of the time

guard is weak for its effect but when the effect changes the cd needs to stay.
when not that would kill the shout ranger who use it for perma swift and regen.
i would love to see something with blind. mqybe the pet is invisible because they rolled in dirt and the first attack blinds foes for a small amount of time.

fern hound change with the heal buff on traits would be a bit to strong. i mean its a aoe heal with over 1500 heal. idk how that howl triggers with heal power.

that are my new minds

snow.8097:

i read again and have new critics

dadnir is right with hunters focus
i like the idea from fake patch notes with eagle eye but that would be make power ranger probably op without changes. lesser proc, lesser might duration or a little icd would make it more balanced. but just in pvp/wvw. i think its not important for pve. maybe then rangers do enough dmg for dungeon farmer.

i didnt noticed that the effect of honed axes changed more then the idea with cripple.
in combination with ur dmg buff on mainhand axe it would feel like i through a big hammer on foe. could be too strong. it should be more in line with other weapon bonuses (5/7%)
and means A/A then 20% more dmg?

Expertise training is not needed. in cdi some talked about dmg pets on condi builds are foo strong. maybe with power builds with condi pets and this trait the same.

bountiful hunter is difficult. plsy on warhorn and u have 6%. then with prot on dodge or boons from runes up to to ten percent. and in dungeon and zergfights even more because u hqve almost all boons all the time.
with 1% per boon it would be a nerf. i think 5% is absolutely okay.

intimidation training was the trait for spiddrs and dogs right?
this trait has other problems. why they give us cripple on f2 that concentrate on immob chill and fear? we loose a big part of that effect because the other debuffs are stronger and negates cripple half of the time

guard is weak for its effect but when the effect changes the cd needs to stay.
when not that would kill the shout ranger who use it for perma swift and regen.
i would love to see something with blind. mqybe the pet is invisible because they rolled in dirt and the first attack blinds foes for a small amount of time.

fern hound change with the heal buff on traits would be a bit to strong. i mean its a aoe heal with over 1500 heal. idk how that howl triggers with heal power.

that are my new minds

I think you guys are right about Hunter’s Focus. I’ll add a 1 second ICD and change the Might duration to 8 seconds. This will prevent people from stacking tons of might with Longbow 2 & 5. This should equate to: If someone runs with 50% might duration, the most might they can get is 12 stacks, and that’s only if they land a critical hit every single second for 12 seconds in a row.

I disagree with the damage buff to axes being overpowered though. Right now in PvP I can run a full glass ranger and be dealing around 800s with the Axe auto attack. Thieves with 3300 power would be dealing around 1400s with shortbow auto and would still be much less squishy with their on demand ports and stealth. A 30% increase to Ricochet would be make a full glass ranger deal about 1000-1100 damage on Axe auto which feels about right in my opinion. Axe 4 is the only attack that scales well with power in my opinion.

As for expertise training, this trait is hardly ever taken due to the fact that no pets really do substantial condition damage. Adding an extra 150 definitely would not make pets overpowered.

I agree Guard needs a change, it’s just too strange feeling and doesnt really serve a purpose other than being on a short cooldown for getting regeneration

Buffing the fern hounds heal by 500 again brings it closer to the more powerful attacks of the wolf and krytan drakehound. I currently don’t see anyone at all running this pet, so I doubt we are suddenly going to see it become OP because the healing got increased by approximately 25 per second.