Guild Wars 2

This is meant to affect the PvE ranger weapons, but since PvE and PvP didn’t got separated jet, it will also affect the PvP ranger.
However I’m posting this suggestions out of a PvE perspective.
If you want to discuss my ideas, feel free to leave post on this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/The-Weapon-Suggestion-Thread/

Sword

The sword is a very mobile weapon with 4 leaps and 1 evade on 3 attacks.
However the gameplay feels very clunky due to the long cast-/aftercast times and the uninterruptible leaps on the autoattack chain.
I want to keep the mobility of this weapon but also make all of its spells on demand.
So here are my suggestions:

Sword #1:
Remove the leaps on the 2. and 3. autoattack and replace it with some thing else.
I don’t want to have a simple 3hit combo, but I don’t know what would fit to the kit – room for suggestions!
Sword #2:
Hornet Sting is neither instant nor predictable where you will land in the heat of battle.
I would rework this to a double leap, same as the 2. and 3. autoattack now is, which cripples your enemy if you hit him and turns into a tripple leap if you hit an enemy once. This skill would get a long uptime of 10 seconds, so you don’t have to leap immediately after your first leap to use all your charges, and a mediocre long cooldown of 20 seconds, starting after the first leap.
Sword #3:
Serpent’s Strike got an evade and is an instant ability, which is both nice. However the animation is too long. So either the evade time has to increase to match the animation time or the animation time has to be cut to match the evade time.

Axe

The axe is a short range ranged weapon which can do lots of things but outshines no other weapon. It got a pull, a reflect, a slow, pseudo AoE and lots of finishers.
However the damage is rather pitiful.
So here are my suggestions:

Axe #1:
Change the autoattack to melee with higher damage output
Axe #2:
Combine old Axe #2 and #4, so you got an AoE pull which pulls all enemies hit.
Axe #3:
I’m kinda ok with this attack.
Axe #4:
This will be the old axe #1. So you can choose between melee and ranged attacks.
Axe #5:
It’s ok, but it could be stronger. The reflected damage could be doubled, the cooldown lowered or the range increased.

If you don’t like the suggstion of the mainhand melee axe, you could switch axe #1 and axe #4.

Longbow
The Longbow has one of the longest ranges ingame but due to the damageloss of the pet and the range combined with the fact that most classes in PvP or WvW can simply blink to you, the weapon is nearly useless.
My suggestions are focussed around durability, so you can atleast hold your distance to your target.

Longbow #1:
This should be an attackchain like any other melee weapon autoattack.
The 3. attack should cripple your enemy, so you can maintain your distance.
Longbow #2:
Simply too weak. Needs more power.
Longbow #3:
This needs a massive damage increase. Since stealth is pretty useless in PvE and the damage is below the weakest autoattack, there is no point where you want to press 3.
Longbow #4:
I’m debating wether it should be a root or a knockback.
The knockback is a nice way to get rid of defiant stacks. However the root would synergise more with other weapons.
Longbow #5:
This attack is ok but it would be nice if you could cast it while running.
Another nice idea is that you can cast barrage without groundtargeting, so you can shoot it over walls in WvW.

Torch

Noone has aver talked about the torch. Why? Because noone uses it.
This doesn’t have to mean the torch is bad, it just means that there are much more vialbe offhand weapons. This wont change. Therefore my suggestion is:

Make the torch to a mainhand weapon.
Torch #1:
Simply like every other autoattackchain.
It could inflict burning, though.
Torch #2:
I’ve got two ideas so far:
Either you hit one enemy which will cause him to stack burning like warrior sword #4 stacks tornment and leave a firetrail
or this attack will be an explofinisher.
Torch #3:
This one will be a firefield wich either stacks burning or deals a flat amount of damage to enemies within the radius.

…No one uses Torch..

lol

I disagree that ranger longbow’s 3 skill, “Hunter Shot”s stealth is useless. It’s fantastic for transferring aggro onto a pet or allies in pve, as well as a short stealth for running past mobs.

Ltomato.8649:

I disagree that ranger longbow’s 3 skill, “Hunter Shot”s stealth is useless. It’s fantastic for transferring aggro onto a pet or allies in pve, as well as a short stealth for running past mobs.

Thats not how stealth works, you will gain tha aggro back as soon as you’re visible again.
I’ve tried this myself a couple of times.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Thats not how stealth works, you will gain tha aggro back as soon as you’re visible again.
I’ve tried this myself a couple of times.

There’s a short delay period, and your pet/allies need to be attacking.
Try it on a karka. Shoot one with your pet on aggressive, stealth, wait until the karka starts fighting your pet, and you’ll be fine. As with all stealths, channeled abilities will still hit you if you stealth after the channelling starts.

Obviously, some monster and boss AI will still switch aggro back, but it’s still a good tactic to take some heat off of you. If you open with it, you don’t take aggro, so you can use it to run past enemies as long as your pet doesn’t attack. Not only that, but if you take Remorseless, it’s a free refresh on Opening Strike, which applies 5 vuln. That’s 5% damage from your team, which is better than frost spirit’s untraited average of 3.5%.

You’ve tried it a couple times. I run 40, 50 fractals, and innumerable dungeons with this tactic. I have two rangers with world completion. It works.

Another idea was the 1hand spear as non-aquatic weapon.
The suggestion (thread very was small) can be found here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/Spear-as-a-non-aqua-1H-weapon/

What the ranger really needs is another 1H weapon on main hand that would allow for hard CC on the enemy which in turn would allow for pets to more reliably hit them.

Sword was suppose to be this with cripple but I understand the frustrations behind the weapon.

I would seriously consider Mace a good choice for this.

One can be a chain skill which apply something nice on the 3rd hit, perhaps a condition to slow the enemy down to help the pet or a second of pet quickness which you could time for more reliable F2 / damage.
2 can be a hard CC
and 3 can be a throw mace for soft CC

Weapons need further integration to assist pet to hit opponents, It is the least we should get if AI will not be fixed.

These aren’t related to Balance.

But, Someone say Mace? I thought of one already many months ago. Its more of a defensive 1h weapon than a CC weapon though. Here’s the Link for that :::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Weapon-and-Skill-Building/2565291

(also, I agree that Rangers do need a CC weapon so they don’t have to depend on their Utility skills and pets all the time for it)

And someone say, Spear? I had an idea for that as well in the same thread:::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Weapon-and-Skill-Building/2603700

As far as Balance goes, I’ll say what I said before. I don;t think Ranger weapons are in a very badd place, they all have their uses, but some of them could definitely be improved a little (stealth on Longbow #3 for example, since its nearly useless outside PvP and WvW)

Sword #1 Skill Flexibility Improvement Suggestion:::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/PVE-PVP-Ranger-Sword-Flex-Improvement/first#post3478774

It’s just one possible way that could help improve the sword for PvE use.

I disagree on removing leap on sword. Instead, mobs should move around so that the leap becomes useful.