Guild Wars 2

Prysin.8542:

jcbroe.4329:

So basically, making the pet hit more reliably even if it would mean numerical adjustments to any damage needed would be better than how pets currently work?

If pets had 70~100% hit rate rather then the current 15-25%, they would do so much DPS, that certain builds would be over the top.
My Beast Cannon Build is pretty much over the top if the target doesnt keep moving. Trapper, BM Bunker and Remorseless builds will be insane.

Which is why you balance them straight FPS style, either they are accurate but weak, or inaccurate but strong.

I’m just asking what peoples preference would be with that question, I know it’s worded weirdly now that I read it haha.

jcbroe.4329:

Prysin.8542:

jcbroe.4329:

So basically, making the pet hit more reliably even if it would mean numerical adjustments to any damage needed would be better than how pets currently work?

If pets had 70~100% hit rate rather then the current 15-25%, they would do so much DPS, that certain builds would be over the top.
My Beast Cannon Build is pretty much over the top if the target doesnt keep moving. Trapper, BM Bunker and Remorseless builds will be insane.

Which is why you balance them straight FPS style, either they are accurate but weak, or inaccurate but strong.

I’m just asking what peoples preference would be with that question, I know it’s worded weirdly now that I read it haha.

We should have both I think. Birds and dogs would hit more reliably bot not that hard, while boars and bears would hit harder but would be harder to land, sort of like maul.

nagymbear.5280:

Probably wouldn’t be the new meta for bunker rangers, just wanted to highlight that its a pretty big change we are talking about. Also see SoW and SotH would pigeonhole power rangers, because there aren’t many burst skills to begin with (maul, path of scars, ist there anything else). One of those damage buffs would need to go, and probably a lot of other changes necessary as well. It sounds like 1 change, but it would have a huge impact probably.

You’re right, and the way I see it with this situation, dropping the damage boost on Signet of the Wild would be the way to go, since there are a lot of suggested traits and weapon improvements that would ultimately help out power builds.

Having an irremovable stability is probably powerful enough.

Just an idea thread though, and I do like your ideas and appreciate you pointing out potential oversights like this.

Just lots of good discussion all around (crosses fingers for a red post to jump in with their thoughts).

nagymbear.5280:

jcbroe.4329:

Prysin.8542:

jcbroe.4329:

So basically, making the pet hit more reliably even if it would mean numerical adjustments to any damage needed would be better than how pets currently work?

If pets had 70~100% hit rate rather then the current 15-25%, they would do so much DPS, that certain builds would be over the top.
My Beast Cannon Build is pretty much over the top if the target doesnt keep moving. Trapper, BM Bunker and Remorseless builds will be insane.

Which is why you balance them straight FPS style, either they are accurate but weak, or inaccurate but strong.

I’m just asking what peoples preference would be with that question, I know it’s worded weirdly now that I read it haha.

We should have both I think. Birds and dogs would hit more reliably bot not that hard, while boars and bears would hit harder but would be harder to land, sort of like maul.

I immediately +1’d this.

under the current system without knowing what is in place for horizontal progression…

-can’t fix pet? then option to perma stow pet.

-won’t perma stow pet? then create and give access to indestructible spirit versions of pets that provide passive self and team boosts. these spirit pets should not attack or draw agro either. the tech and stuff is there so make something happen.

-lots more damage across the board and some impactful/threatening burst would be good too.

-more aoe attacks.

-fix the way sword functions already.

-lots more stealth like a thief.

-better condition removal. could be tied in with stealth abilities like a thief.

thanks, have a great day/evening and make it so!

Prysin.8542:

jcbroe.4329:

So basically, making the pet hit more reliably even if it would mean numerical adjustments to any damage needed would be better than how pets currently work?

If pets had 70~100% hit rate rather then the current 15-25%, they would do so much DPS, that certain builds would be over the top.
My Beast Cannon Build is pretty much over the top if the target doesnt keep moving. Trapper, BM Bunker and Remorseless builds will be insane.

Let’s just for the sake of discussion compare warrior/ranger with a made up damage number.

If warrior damage is 100, what is ranger damage compared to that?

1. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every fourth/fifth attack = ? damage
2. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every second attack = ? damage
3. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every attack = ? damage

I would think that ranger total damage was calculated from the beginning to be ranger+pet hit all of their attacks, just like any other class.

Nerfing pet damage (again) only to allow them to land attacks more reliably would mean a BIG nerf to PvE, where this is not (normally) a problem. Or should there be another split?

In PvP, a change like this would mean a nerf vs bad to mediocre players, and a buff vs good players.

Question is, is it really ok to have such an unreliable class mechanic, with so much damage tied to it, but it only works “15-25%” of the time?

OGDeadHead.8326:

If warrior damage is 100, what is ranger damage compared to that?

1. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every fourth/fifth attack = ? damage
2. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every second attack = ? damage
3. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every attack = ? damage

I would think that ranger total damage was calculated from the beginning to be ranger+pet hit all of their attacks, just like any other class.

That is the way they are doing the math, problem is pet hits less then 25% of the time and is normally dead (in WvW at least) through 3/4 of the battle on a 60 second timer is it? Leaving us with 30% less damage for a full minute during a battle. Not only that but we don’t even hit all the time with ranged weapons because of the constant sidestepping to evade our arrows and if they are standing on a pebble we get a obstruction message or out of range message even if they are not obstructed or out of range. I love it when I can’t hit someone below me from the fort wall with a bow and arrow because they are out of range but if I could spit, I’d nail them in the forehead! They need to give ranger’s 100% of the damage control, pet’s do not work, they stated this already, and they also stated that they do not plan on fixing it any time soon. We’ve waited a year already, it’s time for us to receive our full damage and screw the pet!

Sword [PvE] : The auto attack root is incredibly jeopardizing and the long delay on #2 and #3 make them unsatisfactory as replacement dodges in many situations. Please consider changing for PvE. There is little to no upside to the root effect. Rarely any enemies will run away from you in PvE and if they are you can just run to them normally.

This is my biggest issue with ranger. There was a dev post earlier on the ranger thread where the dev said he thought he had an idea but then discussed with the team and they thought it was “interesting functionality” or to that effect. I’m sorry but maybe in PvP that could be the case, but there are no situations that I can think of endgame PvE where the rooting effect of the sword auto is more than a detriment to both yourself and your team (of course it is still good DPS but why is the root there?). You need to dodge in many end game areas if you want to stay alive and if you want to move you should be able to use the keyboard WASD. I can understand that certain skills can function this way – but not an autoattack! It’s a skill that needs to be able to DPS without putting yourself in some serious danger.

One way people currently deal with this is to either turn off auto attack or use a channeled skill to interrupt the auto chain, both of which are unwieldy and both of which still produce a delayed dodge because you have to finish the current sword attack if it’s on #2 or #3 in the chain (which will be maybe 0.2s) before you can actually start dodging.

Akisame.9508:

OGDeadHead.8326:

If warrior damage is 100, what is ranger damage compared to that?

1. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every fourth/fifth attack = ? damage
2. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every second attack = ? damage
3. Ranger hits every attack, pet hits every attack = ? damage

I would think that ranger total damage was calculated from the beginning to be ranger+pet hit all of their attacks, just like any other class.

That is the way they are doing the math, problem is pet hits less then 25% of the time and is normally dead (in WvW at least) through 3/4 of the battle on a 60 second timer is it? Leaving us with 30% less damage for a full minute during a battle. Not only that but we don’t even hit all the time with ranged weapons because of the constant sidestepping to evade our arrows and if they are standing on a pebble we get a obstruction message or out of range message even if they are not obstructed or out of range. I love it when I can’t hit someone below me from the fort wall with a bow and arrow because they are out of range but if I could spit, I’d nail them in the forehead! They need to give ranger’s 100% of the damage control, pet’s do not work, they stated this already, and they also stated that they do not plan on fixing it any time soon. We’ve waited a year already, it’s time for us to receive our full damage and screw the pet!

great points and love that last sentence!

Lamir.6702:

Sword [PvE] : The auto attack root is incredibly jeopardizing and the long delay on #2 and #3 make them unsatisfactory as replacement dodges in many situations. Please consider changing for PvE. There is little to no upside to the root effect. Rarely any enemies will run away from you in PvE and if they are you can just run to them normally.

This is my biggest issue with ranger. There was a dev post earlier on the ranger thread where the dev said he thought he had an idea but then discussed with the team and they thought it was “interesting functionality” or to that effect. I’m sorry but maybe in PvP that could be the case, but there are no situations that I can think of endgame PvE where the rooting effect of the sword auto is more than a detriment to both yourself and your team (of course it is still good DPS but why is the root there?). You need to dodge in many end game areas if you want to stay alive and if you want to move you should be able to use the keyboard WASD. I can understand that certain skills can function this way – but not an autoattack! It’s a skill that needs to be able to DPS without putting yourself in some serious danger.

One way people currently deal with this is to either turn off auto attack or use a channeled skill to interrupt the auto chain, both of which are unwieldy and both of which still produce a delayed dodge because you have to finish the current sword attack if it’s on #2 or #3 in the chain (which will be maybe 0.2s) before you can actually start dodging.

it needs to be changed for all game modes.

For the sword, I was hoping that adding a blind to sword 2 on the initial evade would alleviate any frame issues the skill is currently having, since it is a clunky skill to use for an evade because of the evasion frames occurring after the hornets/bees/whatever are thrown out, and you then have to wait for your character to begin leaping back before those evasion frames set in.

However, I’m split on the issue with the sword autoattack. On the one hand, I appreciate how unique it is as a weapon and I personally enjoy the gameplay it provides. On the other hand, it does have some gameplay restrictions and even though the weapon is unique, I personally would prefer that unique gameplay to not be centered around the autoattack, and to not be locked into an autoattack by animations.

So while conceptually I enjoy the idea of the sword and physically I’ve grown accustomed to it and can handle it’s current iteration, I find that overall, I would prefer that no weapon in this game be designed around having maximum damage output just by autoattacking, and that you shouldn’t get “locked” into an action by automatic animations (which is why the only “solution” to the sword issue is to turn the autoattack off, unless you enjoy losing control over your character).

Lamir.6702:

Sword [PvE] : The auto attack root is incredibly jeopardizing and the long delay on #2 and #3 make them unsatisfactory as replacement dodges in many situations. Please consider changing for PvE. There is little to no upside to the root effect. Rarely any enemies will run away from you in PvE and if they are you can just run to them normally.

This is my main issue also. Working around it is certainly possible in many situations, but it makes no sense to me that I need to wait for a leap animation to dodge, when sometimes I’m literally standing inside the mob I’m attacking.

Many good idea’s but like always I can almost 100% say we won’t see a single change based on the idea’s of many rangers whom know the class inside and out.

What we will see if more hard counters buffs to skills we didn’t want nerfs to skills that didn’t require nerfing.

So ask yourself why bother, to get the Ranger into a good state with many viable builds it would take them at-least 2-3 years as we can already see it seems to take them forever to make changes.

Sol.4310:

So ask yourself why bother, to get the Ranger into a good state with many viable builds it would take them at-least 2-3 years as we can already see it seems to take them forever to make changes.

Who’s gonna wait that long? They got three months until ESO comes out. Wish I could say more about ESO but I can’t. And if I get tired of ESO (or even if I don’t get tired of it) we have Everquest Next coming out by the end of this year I think it is. Haven’t seen SOE fail in an everquest title as of yet (thus the nickname Evercrack, and yes, I still play my Ranger and SK in EQ1). Unless something amazing happens with the dev’s and this profession, they will be loosing at least one person here to these new games, and I’m sure that I won’t be the only one. I’m not claiming that there will be a mass exodus or anything like that, but loose a few people that spend some change in their marketplace and they will feel the pinch.

But that is a bit off topic, and the changes I have suggested shouldn’t take that long to implement if they are truly looking into pleasing their customers or at least temporarily applying a band-aid to the problem until they can rewrite the pet code from scratch which is what they should have done from the first place, kitten, they have had a full year already to rewrite that pet code! I think we have waited long enough already!

Sol.4310:

Many good idea’s but like always I can almost 100% say we won’t see a single change based on the idea’s of many rangers whom know the class inside and out.

What we will see if more hard counters buffs to skills we didn’t want nerfs to skills that didn’t require nerfing.

So ask yourself why bother, to get the Ranger into a good state with many viable builds it would take them at-least 2-3 years as we can already see it seems to take them forever to make changes.

Honestly it’s a very selfish reason why I continue to post stuff, it’s so that when I’m ready to move on and away from this game, I will be able to do so knowing that I did as much as I possibly could to give ANet feedback to help them improve the game and be successful.

Because I know that if I stopped posting, then even the slightest chance of getting any of the changes I believe the class needs would go right out the window lol.

At least this way, if the class never gets the changes it needs (or that I perceive it to need), I’ll be able to say that it honestly isn’t from a lack of trying.

jcbroe.4329:

Sol.4310:

Many good idea’s but like always I can almost 100% say we won’t see a single change based on the idea’s of many rangers whom know the class inside and out.

What we will see if more hard counters buffs to skills we didn’t want nerfs to skills that didn’t require nerfing.

So ask yourself why bother, to get the Ranger into a good state with many viable builds it would take them at-least 2-3 years as we can already see it seems to take them forever to make changes.

Honestly it’s a very selfish reason why I continue to post stuff, it’s so that when I’m ready to move on and away from this game, I will be able to do so knowing that I did as much as I possibly could to give ANet feedback to help them improve the game and be successful.
*
Because I know that if I stopped posting, then even the slightest chance of getting any of the changes I believe the class needs would go right out the window lol.
*
At least this way, if the class never gets the changes it needs (or that I perceive it to need), I’ll be able to say that it honestly isn’t from a lack of trying.

To the part I bolded, same here.

Any more ideas anybody?

Any contribution is more than welcome

jcbroe.4329:

8) Trait reorganization stressing hybridization over heavy investment – This one seems pretty straightforward too. Basically, Signets, Spirits (more so previously than now), and Traps all require 30 trait points to make otherwise pretty mediocre utilities useful (only 20 with Spirits now). Heck, signets don’t even work on the player without a grandmaster trait. For rangers, this is probably the biggest hindrance to build diversity that needs to be addressed. The utilities already require heavy investment in the utility slots to be worthwhile (Traps and Spirits both typically work better with at least 2, to even 3 slots). Adding another 30 point trait requirement on top of that makes ranger builds have to build with heavy investment in order to be successful, for the most part. Just as Spirits Unbound was moved down to the master tier, Trap Potency and Signet of the Beastmaster really should be looked at for similar reworks/repositions to open up more build opportunities.

I don’t have any ideas but this does need bumped to stay on the first page. Come on red post, where are you??

I do feel pigeonholed into taking heavy 30-point investments in WvW just to survive, without any great payoff. 30 point investment in MM to get six seconds of invulnerability once in a while? (If any ranger is using other signets for Signet of BM, please say so but that’s the only one I use.) The rest of the MM trait line is a mess, especially the minor traits. No big return there. 30 into the WS line does yield some payoff with Bark Skin, which is what I opt for over Empathic Bond. (I know, shame on me for not using EB but the passive random removal doesn’t cut it for me… Bark Skin saves my hide.) So I’m running 30/x/30/x/x just to survive… doesn’t leave me a lot of options for build diversity now does it?

Yea, Traits is another can or worms but before we open that can, I would like to see if ANet would at least give us a response on the pet situations and our suggestions for temporary fix until they are able to do something meaningful with the pets. And no, the pets right now are NOT meaningful, they are useless! Even using a ranged pet last night in a zerg fight, my pet died from a heart attack before the battle even started!

Suggestion:
Combine Trap Potency and Trapper expertise together and put it in master trait, then ranger need only 20 points to get it. If you want to go 30 for trap, add another grandmaster trait for trap — Each trap apply reveal for 4 sec. (Imagine in the real world, if a thief is caught by a trap, shouldn’t he be exposed? Shouldn’t it take him some time to get out of trap-revealed?)
It gonna make ranger more useful (as an anti-stealth class) but won’t break the balance at all.

im writing about power/crit based ranger (i think, that condibunker (bm, spirits, trapper) are in a realy good place compared to powerranger) based on my experience in spvp/wvw, especially with greatsword and longbow

in my opinion greatsword and longbow are to slow compared to shortbow, sword, or other classes weapons….everytime im playing my ranger with greatsword and longbow i have the feeling, that im trailing behind my enemys, or beating them very slowly, but just in comparison to other classes like thief (burst), mesmer (burst), ele (burst), warrior (burst), engi (burst), mm necro and off guard

even if high burst with greatsword is possible i need to land the hits proper, otherwise the fight lasts very long, becouse besides the burst the attacks are slow and even if its possible to hit very hard with the longbow from far behind, the weapon becomes very hard to handle, when the enemy is in melee range and all classes have skills, with wich they are in less than 1 second in melee range….so it is nearly impossible to gain range advantage, except the enemys arent noticing you (same problem with shortbow)

on other side a high amount of dmg output lies on the pet, wich is easy to outplay through porting and kiting (and easy to kill with a lot of aoes, even if a ranger have 2 pets, without the pet the dmg is missing), this means that this dmg amount is absent, no other class has such a disadvantage….and some utility skills can kill the pet by using them….and again, no other class has such a disadvantage

the powerranger is in a state were bullscharge/frenzy warriors were before the balance patches, and i think, that powerranger needs similar changes to become serious competitive

my suggestions would be to reduce the casttime on greatsword and longbow,
make all skills useable while moving,
increase the weapons dmg by decreasing the pets dmg,
utility skills shoudnt kill pet

im playing powerranger, becouse i enjoy to play ranger, especially with a greatsword, if i want to play serious im playing another build (bm, spirits), or i am changing the class

What matters is DPS. While longbow and greatsword may attack slower than say a shortbow, the DPS is reasonably close. The issue has always been a lack of burst and AE. No power class in any game can ever function without burst and/or AE.

The only form of burst available to the Ranger overall is really Maul. However, switching to greatsword to Maul someone has fail written all over it. For starters, Maul is probably the most telegraphed skill in the entire game so it’s VERY easy to avoid. On top of this, every other skill for the GS, including the auto attack, is more useful defensively than offensively. So you switch to greatsword and are stuck for 10s with a pitiful weapon.

It’s funny but even if ANet just gave Rangers a weapon swap cooldown trait like Warrior’s have more people would at least try to use a power Ranger in this game. It would still be ineffective because Maul burst alone isn’t enough, but it wouldn’t be total fail like it is now.

At a bare minimum, a power Ranger simply doesn’t have the tools to stand on its own against the other classes in this game. They will always outshine it.

It desperately needs some real, on-demand burst.

Atherakhia.4086:

It’s funny but even if ANet just gave Rangers a weapon swap cooldown trait like Warrior’s have more people would at least try to use a power Ranger in this game.

I’d like such a trait, but knowing the history of this class, Tail Wind and Furious Grip would most likely be nerfed to the ground. Give one thing, take away two things…

Atherakhia.4086:

What matters is DPS. While longbow and greatsword may attack slower than say a shortbow, the DPS is reasonably close. The issue has always been a lack of burst and AE. No power class in any game can ever function without burst and/or AE.

The only form of burst available to the Ranger overall is really Maul. However, switching to greatsword to Maul someone has fail written all over it. For starters, Maul is probably the most telegraphed skill in the entire game so it’s VERY easy to avoid. On top of this, every other skill for the GS, including the auto attack, is more useful defensively than offensively. So you switch to greatsword and are stuck for 10s with a pitiful weapon.

It’s funny but even if ANet just gave Rangers a weapon swap cooldown trait like Warrior’s have more people would at least try to use a power Ranger in this game. It would still be ineffective because Maul burst alone isn’t enough, but it wouldn’t be total fail like it is now.

At a bare minimum, a power Ranger simply doesn’t have the tools to stand on its own against the other classes in this game. They will always outshine it.

It desperately needs some real, on-demand burst.

This. All of this. Pretty much everything about the Ranger needs some serious looking into. The OP has given ANet a good place to begin looking, and it’s things like this (weapon swap cooldown) that could be a great end result for Rangers to feel a little more balanced. As it is now, we simply don’t compare with other classes on things that Atherakhia mentioned like burst, AE, etc. Then there’s on-demand condition cleanses…

Seeing this thread hit the second page makes me feel like ranger’s have finally given up on Anet and are tired of repeating themselves and are waiting for the greener pasture coming out in April.

akisame ill just tell you this much… playing a nightblade in ESO is far from the same thing as running ranger in Guild Wars 2… I played the Beta and i liked it… ill however keep playing Guild Wars 2 even post launch as ill alternate between the two game.

Dont give up on balance yet people keep working so we get heard.

Akisame.9508:

Seeing this thread hit the second page makes me feel like ranger’s have finally given up on Anet and are tired of repeating themselves and are waiting for the greener pasture coming out in April.

I don’t know that it is necessarily true, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

6) Pet class that harms pets, contradicting by design

I want to touch on this point. You routinely read on the forums that pets account for X% of the ranger damage. Some even like to exaggerate the number to 50%. I don’t know what the actual percentage is, all I know is, it’s a fact that rangers have lower weapon coefficient vs other classes, so it’s reasonable to assume the way the weapon damage is balanced, pet damage is being taken into account.

In light of this, why is there pet down time at all?

The penalty for ineffective use of pets by not swapping should not be dps loss via pet down time but it should be the player not being able to use the pet of his or her choice. Rangers should have multiple pairs of pets to swap on the fly (e.g. Wolf + Spider; Bear + Drake; Eagle + Boar etc.) to ensure 100% pet up time.

So instead of being pet less for a minute, you should be able to swap into another pair of pets, the penalty being you don’t get to use the pet utility of your choice when they’re down.

This could also play into traiting in BM, like the way eles trait into Arcana, the cool down for the pair swap back to the one with the wounded pet would be lower the deeper you trait into BM.

F1 = toggle for attack/retreat
F2 = pet utility, same as currently
F3 = cycles through pet pairs.
F4 = swap pets within the pair, same as currently

Second issue is the pet buffs. We know pet damage is being taken into account as part of the total damage, so they’re expected to attack.

If that’s the case, why are F2s counter productive to use?

For instance, LB users need 1k range to get optimal damage. But when you send your stalker/red moa out to attack, none of the F2 buffs will reach the pet owner. But if you keep your pet on passive to try and self buff, you lose the dps you’re expected to get via the pet damage. All F2 buffs of this sort are counter intuitive to use for range weapons, LB/SB/Axe.

F2 pet buffs should ignore range for the pet owner and should be guaranteed to benefit the owner.

Aridia.3042:

6) Pet class that harms pets, contradicting by design

I want to touch on this point. You routinely read on the forums that pets account for X% of the ranger damage. Some even like to exaggerate the number to 50%. I don’t know what the actual percentage is, all I know is, it’s a fact that rangers have lower weapon coefficient vs other classes, so it’s reasonable to assume the way the weapon damage is balanced, pet damage is being taken into account.

Shortly after the game came out one of the Dev’s mentioned that our class is balanced around the pet damage and the damage was a number between 30 – 40 percent. Many people did exaggerate it to 50% but in all honestly it’s most likely closer to 30-35%. I wish I could remember the exact amount but I honestly can’t recall, so when I quote the number’s I just say 70/30 (ranger/pet) so people don’t think that I’m pulling number’s from my kitten like saying 50/50 which is hard to believe.

It just sucks that we are the only class that has to deal with a broken AI to be responsible for 30% of our damage. On top of that, the broken AI is normally in a down state doing 0 Damage. ANet really needs to rework this class and give it a class mechanic that actually works like everyone else.

Akisame.9508:

Seeing this thread hit the second page makes me feel like ranger’s have finally given up on Anet and are tired of repeating themselves and are waiting for the greener pasture coming out in April.

I just didn’t want to keep posting “for the sake of posting” if you know what I mean.

@Everyone;

I love that the conversation is still going and in a positive direction without me, ummmm, “commentating” on everything posted. I’ve been super busy with real life events this week, but it’s good to see that people think a thread like this is meaningful and to see people supporting each others ideas and just overall being able to see that no matter what specific change is addressed, the direction the change is trying to push the class is agreed upon as far as what the class lacks and what it needs.

I hope the devs are at least periodically checking this thread and jotting down notes in a notebook somewhere, if they don’t feel the need to make their presence known. As opposed to just proposing changes that can be patched into the game, people have actually tried to use their powers of deduction to breakdown the strengths and flaws of the ranger class and then talk about areas that can be improved upon and have even provided specific examples of changes that can be implemented.

I sincerely hope that such a constructive effort has at least gained some attention.

@Topic specifically;

What do you guys think for a ranger as far as being single target based or AoE based? For instance, thieves are all about doing damage to a single target, while eles are more designed around hitting multiple targets.

Should rangers be more single target based than AoE based? Is the game balanced well enough to make distinctions like this between classes when it comes to balancing? Or is the game in a state where single target damage and AoE damage are so close together that when all other things equal, you choose the class with more AoE? If so, is that a problem that affects how the ranger balance significantly enough that if a larger disparity was created between AoE and single target damage, ranger would be in a more balanced place?

Any thoughts?

This is the first lengthy thread I’ve read in a while and I agree with every single point.

The pet mechanic would be a simple fix in my opinion:

F1: Attack target, Return to me (Toggle)
F2: Damage based ability
F3: Support/utility based ability
(F4):Guard/avoid combat

Both the F2 and F3 skills should be made to immediately override whatever else the pet has queued.

For a lot of pets this would be pretty simple to do. For example, a Raven pet’s F2 would be its current ability and its F3 would be its Swiftness (slightly toned down so as not to have perma swiftness, say 8 seconds on 20 second CD)

If I could have anything else I wanted I’d also ask for:

-Cool pet auto attack chains (three parts, with 3rd hit dealing big damage). This would be a cool way to promote skilled play by the ranger trying to lock down an opponent while his pet completes an auto chain

-More variety in terms of pets including condition based pets, pure support based pets (almost 0 damage), and reworked attacks so that there were no duplicate pets

-A rework to longbow and shortbow

-Active condition clearing added and Empathic Bond moved to Adept Tier (now: Your pet removes one condition every 10 seconds)

-A shout rework! (PLEASE)

I would simply like to get a developer to give some perspective on their view of the state of ranger balance.

In particular, at this point, are they looking at fixing pets (now or down road) or working around the current pet mechanism for balance?

Are they comfortable with the current builds many of which are not mixing bows/melee?

Do they feel that the ranger being good in some aspects of the game is balanced even if other aspects of the game the class is relatively weak?

From a thief perspective rangers are just too easy to stick too. The melee specs can be a bit more tricky but they lack punch. Really they should give bow skills some more positional movement (warps) and up the melee damage done.

infantrydiv.1620:

The pet mechanic would be a simple fix in my opinion:

F1: Attack target, Return to me (Toggle)
F2: Damage based ability
F3: Support/utility based ability
(F4):Guard/avoid combat

Both the F2 and F3 skills should be made to immediately override whatever else the pet has queued.

There is a bigger problem to pets. Even if you do the changes you say, the pet AI is handled by the server, not the PC side, so you have the lag time. The bigger problem is that pets are using the AI for game MOB’s. Because of this, they stop before they attack to do an animation. Because of this pause, by the time the attack happens, the person it was attacking is no longer standing there because he’s moving. In PvE this is not a problem because your putting a dumb AI against another dumb AI. In sPvP you do not see it as badly because your standing in one place trying to contest a point, you’ll only see it when chasing after your opponent or something similar where your moving. However, in WvWvW it becomes obvious the flaw of this system. Since in WvW people are running all around the map, no need to contest a small point, your opponent is always in motion, thus your pet doesn’t get any hits in unless you can root them down somehow, which our rooting ability is on a VERY long CD and it’s easy to break out of. Especially a D/D thief, all they have to do is hit #5 and they are out of the vine.

In order to fix the pet they will have to do one of two things.
1.) rewrite the pet code as what it’s suppose to be, pet code, instead of leaching off of other code. They wrote the code correctly for mesmer clones, they wrote the code correctly for necro pets, but they got lazy and leached ranger pet code from the game AI and now we’re broken. However, rewriting the pet code will take a lot of resources, something that ANet has already said that they refuse to do. They rather have their resources working on new content/living world rather then fixing our class. I can understand, one class, one small population of the player base, new content, the entire player base, I’ll give them that one.

2.) Since they acknowledge that pets are not working as intended, and they acknowledge that they will not be attempting to fix the pet’s because of the time/resources required and that any patching they try on the current system will cause problems with other AI NPC in-game, then it’s time to remove the handicap from the ranger. In other words, instead of splitting ranger damage 70/30 as it is right now (70% ranger/30% pet), they should move full damage, 100% to the ranger. We know they can remove and lower damage on pets without breaking the system because they have already nerfed pet damage without breaking game AI. They can leave the pet in the game but as a utility. So your Hyena will still do the KD’s for you when it actually lands it. Your spider can still shoot poison at range. Your bear can still remove conditions from you, you’ll still have all the utilities that the pets bring into the game, they just won’t provide any direct damage since the ranger/PC will now have full control over their damage like every other class. This can be a ‘band-aid’ until they do have the time and resources to rewrite the pet code correctly. Hopefully when they do rewrite it, my bird won’t be afraid of flying up the keep wall to attack my target or down the keep wall (another handicap the ranger’s have because of the pet).

Kadin.2356:

From a thief perspective rangers are just too easy to stick too. The melee specs can be a bit more tricky but they lack punch. Really they should give bow skills some more positional movement (warps) and up the melee damage done.

I’ve definitely suggested this before since there was a skill like it in the first game (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Strike_as_One) which I would love to see implemented in some form, basically you and your pet swapping places.

I think the best implementation of this would be to have it be a secondary effect on the end of guard, which would help specs both offensive and defensive. Tell the pet to go guard, then activate, and you swap places with your pet (1200 range).

Fantastic post.

Hopefully the devs take notice.

Changes incoming.

At least that’s what the livestream said.

Not that outside of the bug fixes/nerfs (they are bug fixes that result in lesser capabilities than what is currently available) any information was actually given.

The devs seemed excited though. More excited about ranger changes than I have seen them look and react since launch and the state of the game streams. Hopefully that implies good things.

Some teasers would have been nice, but ehhh, the upcoming patch notes will speak for themselves. Hopefully some of the issues mentioned in this thread are addressed and/or some of the suggestions are taken. It would be nice to see.

Akisame.9508:

Seeing this thread hit the second page makes me feel like ranger’s have finally given up on Anet and are tired of repeating themselves and are waiting for the greener pasture coming out in April.

One can only take constant refusal to address the actual issues for so long before you just stop expecting anything to come of it. I gained a bit of hope when we finally got a blast finisher on WH5 but it will take an actual fix of 1HS like they just hinted at to really restore any of my faith in them.

At this point I just kind of hope that any grand sweeping changes they do will trickle down to help the ranger class in some way but the incoming zerk/powerbuild balancing affecting WvW (why exactly anet? Do you just not want to try?) is eroding that faith as well rather quickly.

So I heard the EB’s gonna be “fixed” because apparently it works even when the pet is defeated. Always thought it becomes instantly useless when the pet goes down.

Oh well, I hated the trait all the way back when the devs changed it to condition transfer from removal.

As far as I’m concerned, the pet mechanic is appalling and completely unfitting. I don’t think the ranger is balanced around the assumption that the 1-2 attacks a melee pet successfully lands cover the difference in its sidestepped auto attacks. No, even with a mere 200ish extra damage on my auto attacks.. in so many situations for example where a mesmer could blink, and I would gap that distance with swoop or reverse sword 2.. and land 5-6 auto attacks before the pet can even catch up (and its attacks still liable to miss when it tries after its long waddle..) considering attack frequency then over the course of 25-30 seconds I’d still have done far more damage than even the drakes can cover with the occasional tail sweep and f2 they land. I don’t know about you all, but I personally don’t enjoy at all being the only class that is incapable of bringing its full power attacks to bear against moving targets. If I use my skills to cover the distance a kiting player makes, cut them off and hit them I DESERVE to do 100% of my character damage, not 70%.

To be even more of an annoying tease, the ranged pets despite having a higher hit ratio from less chase time have such lower damage that it can’t make up any difference unless you redistribute damage into the ranger with at least half glass, which makes you extremely susceptible to dying in situations glassy builds on other classes are more equipped to deal with.

And when I say unfitting, I also mean this.. as another ranger once mentioned in the ranger forums. How do we synergize with the pet? How do we work together? How are with this “champion of nature” they seem to think we are, fighting as one with our pet? Our best condi removal involves turning our pet into a disease bag, protect me disables the pet from attacking just and gives it all the damage you receive on a class that has large cooldowns on pet swaps. By nature the class mechanic promotes trying to keep the pet alive, but some utilities and traits promote the exact opposite.There is no attack that does anything like “You and your pet teleport to the enemy and attack as one” or anything with any semblance of synergy. The pet amounts to nothing more than 30% of our damage redirected into a clunky AI. No amount of babying it, no amount of cripple, chill, stun will enable it to land the amount of attacks it needs to on w,s,a,d spamming player. In all the best ranger builds the pet is an afterthought in, and the more you invest in the pet the less returns you get due to aforementioned problems. We have to sacrifice our heal at times that we desperately need to use on ourselves to keep the pet alive when it should logically have a player controlled heal of its own to keep it alive, like other games do. The only suggestions around lately to help the pet survive certain pve aoe rich encounters and the aoe rich environment that the devs are likely to entertain are those suggesting adding skills that work like a reverse protect me so that we can redirect its damage to us to make our evades have an affect on it.. which is a HORRIBLE IDEA. We should not have to sacrifice a skill slot just to make the pet do something it needs to be able to do without cost to the player.

But whatever. I’m done. I’m done with the back and forth arguments in the ranger forum, and the ignored suggestions by countless rangers. And the terrible suggestions by people who have gotten so used to being short-changed that they immediately offer up suggestions of at best half-baked skills knowing that’s the only thing that can get through. I’m done having player’s exploit the stupidity of the AI in the pet and use my own classes mechanic AGAINST me by effectively perma nerfing 30% damage when they move right, the very class mechanic that is supposed to support me. Unless a truly significant change gets announced in the next balance patch then I can tell you.. from now on I will be playing a class that is not built around defective AI. From now on, I am going to be the one taking full advantage of the pet AI in fighting rangers on a different class. And when I slaughter them, I will party them and tell them to not be ashamed, at that it is a substantial difference in class mechanics that cannot be surpassed through any amount of skill unless you roll a disgustingly boring build that revolves around spending 15% of its time puking out condition stacks and the other 85% running its kitten off while those ticks slowly whittle down their foes.

This class is a joke, and I’m done. I’m sure someone will say good riddance too, so be it. I’ve played ONLY ranger, on the competitive level for over a year. I spent months of solo roaming perfecting my craft, yet this class is simply less rewarding for skill than others.

i fully agree with everything. ranger was horribly designed and not even tested before release it seems. what a mess. an entire profession that’s still in late alpha. this thread is important.

after 1000+ hours, numerous guides and testing in spvp, WvW roaming and GvZ environments, my ranger Ikiro became a mule for my guard and necro. i abandoned the profession because this company has no clue what to do with it! get someone with some vision in charge of it and fix it.

i want my pet to be a primal extension of my ranger, not some gimpy tag-along that smacks a target for 700 damage when he feels like it. in WvW, pets need to have aoe capabilities (utility and/or dps), perma stability and some serious aoe resists.

spirits and the petting zoo: basically a mockery of a dead profession and of spvp. little glowing trees running around. why not wisps that orbit the ranger and imbue his arrows as passives, or shoot out as active abilities to give combo fields and boons? why doesnt the pet have a spirit that powers me up in some way? and why do i have to swap pets? why cant i have just one that does something well? can i ride my pet, shapeshift or exchange spirits with it? can i have ANYTHING cool?

this doesnt even scratch the surface. but i implore the designers to go back to the drawing board and study cohesive, successful and interesting professions like the guard, ele, warrior, mesmer. even the engie and necro have come into their own! they look and feel like SOMETHING. and the ranger remains the only pile of jumbled mess and unfinished ideas.

Detharos.3157:

The only suggestions around lately to help the pet survive certain pve aoe rich encounters and the aoe rich environment that the devs are likely to entertain are those suggesting adding skills that work like a reverse protect me so that we can redirect its damage to us to make our evades have an affect on it.. which is a HORRIBLE IDEA. We should not have to sacrifice a skill slot just to make the pet do something it needs to be able to do without cost to the player.

Only horrible thing here is your core belief that your defenses sit monstly on utility slot bar, and not weapon skills.

That being said it’s my idea and here’s clear and common logic behind it:
your melee weapons (sword, greatsword, offhand dagger, offhand axe) offer lots of build in evades and other defenses. regular dodging doesn’t take up any slot skills either. Nor does the command for you to guard your pet (it’s to be a profession mechanic under F3 button, not slot skill).

If you use the bow or axe? Then you’re most likely miles away from your pet and you can call it back to you to evade aoe, or swap it if that’s impossible. Or still use my “pet ward” mechanic with regular dodge or shortbow #3 evade.

All of the above without taking up a single utility slot. If you wanna know more then do some real reading on it – link in my signature.

mistsim.2748:

…snip…

What happened to your bunker ranger vids on teh tubez? It was great inspiration for me, and I loved watching them from time to time.

Edit: nvm, found’em. Dunno why I didn’t find them a while back.

Edit, edit: Some are missing though… music issues?

oh and yeah, livestream did confirm they will fix ranger sword #1 problem with dodges.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Detharos.3157:

The only suggestions around lately to help the pet survive certain pve aoe rich encounters and the aoe rich environment that the devs are likely to entertain are those suggesting adding skills that work like a reverse protect me so that we can redirect its damage to us to make our evades have an affect on it.. which is a HORRIBLE IDEA. We should not have to sacrifice a skill slot just to make the pet do something it needs to be able to do without cost to the player.

Only horrible thing here is your core belief that your defenses sit monstly on utility slot bar, and not weapon skills.

That being said it’s my idea and here’s clear and common logic behind it:
your melee weapons (sword, greatsword, offhand dagger, offhand axe) offer lots of build in evades and other defenses. regular dodging doesn’t take up any slot skills either. Nor does the command for you to guard your pet (it’s to be a profession mechanic under F3 button, not slot skill).

If you use the bow or axe? Then you’re most likely miles away from your pet and you can call it back to you to evade aoe, or swap it if that’s impossible. Or still use my “pet ward” mechanic with regular dodge or shortbow #3 evade.

All of the above without taking up a single utility slot. If you wanna know more then do some real reading on it – link in my signature.

You’re kidding yourself severely if you think I have any l2p issues or don’t know that. I’m running with sword AND greatsword. I use Sword 2, sword 3 and greatsword 4 in addition defensively VERY WELL as well timed evades, in addition to extremely good timing in my normal dodge rolls which I have a extremely high frequency on with. Furthermore I have protection on dodge roll. I personally have never had an issue with PvE, but many rangers frequenting dungeons complain about it all the time.. I don’t run fractals but they do, and I assume their compaints do have a foundation. About AoE, here’s the thing: If you pull your pet back, you’re losing out on damage time. Which IS NOT THE ISSUE for me ironically, because in a midst of a zerg battle for example, I don’t ever send my pet into anything I wouldn’t expect to survive. I can and do in the middle of every fight from 1 vs 1 to 1v v x and group roaming, use f3 to pull my pet to me and path it away from certain AoEs. Yet there are some situations that are unavoidable, you do know that right? For example, if you, at least while playing a full melee build, waste the time to pull your pet to take yourself and path it around EVERY SINGLE BOMB against say, a bombing or grenade spamming kiting engi.. then you’re not applying enough pressure to take them out, and are liable to go down overtime to the few attacks they do land or simply keep yourself up. You can say “You have a ton of evades”. No kitten bro, but I’m running a full melee build. I’m going to take more hits than someone kiting around to ranged distance, I have to close distance just to attack. I’m going against the fighting style that this very class was built for, BUT THAT ISN’T EVEN THE ISSUE. I still do incredibly well; better than the majority of the rangers out ther. In the past months, I’ve proven myself one of the best solo roaming rangers on my server. Just about every other ranger I’ve fought in my roaming has paled in comparison. I have no issue with pet control. NO AMOUNT of pet control can instantly gap the distance from a melee pet to the new location of your foe if they use a distance creating skill and kite, no amount of skill can make your pet able to move and attack simultaneously; Something I and all players are able to do WITH OUR CHARACTERS to begin with. Other characters move and attack simultaneously with 100% of their strength but as a ranger, if you fight a moving foe with a melee pet you attack and move simultaneously with only 70% of yours. That’s the only truly major issue in this class.

So no, I have no problems with pet control and using f3 to help my pet survive. Controlling my pet perfectly not only with f3 recalls, but with positioning it with guard and even setting up drake f2 ambushes with guard; while constantly having permanent protection and regeneration applied to an already respectively tanky pet; the drakes. Most of the builds that take down my pets successfully are direct counter-builds to begin with. My pet is almost never dead + on cooldown. If it does go down, I virtually always have pet swap up.

But enough of this. I call my pet back with f3, I utilize the “Guard” skill better than every single one of rangers I’ve encountered. I fully utilize my evades and on evade protection for survival, and have very high levels of passive healing (In exchange for some damage utility) building up while I evade/block. Chances are I use my defensive evasion better than you can begin to imagine. In addition to that I have protect me for those extreme situations and my pet RARELY dies, still. So what is the issue?

The issue is that melee pets are not equipped with the skills they need to get a good hit ratio against moving targets, and that ranged pets have no high damage options.

All of the above I fully utilize; Passive healing, evades, block, protect me (And cancelling protect me when I want to stun break but don’t want my pet to suffer; you can do that by hitting f keys you know.).

So again, my only real major issue with pets is their inability to effectively contribute to your character’s damage against a moving target. People use melee pets on the understanding that 85% of their auto attacks wouldn’t be able to be sidestepped. Since you seemed to take it that way, I assure you that this isn’t an l2p issue. I’ve successfully overcome in more ridiculous odds than you can begin to imagine, without needing a cheesy evasive condi stacking build. With a build that actually takes skill to properly utilize in comparison. Sure I’m tanky, but I have to actively attack and expose myself to danger just to damage my opponents. A condi build can jut stack bleed poison, burn and run away all day.. which is too easy a playstyle for me to enjoy.

The ranger’s strengths revolve around evades and controlling the positioning of a fight in regards to its position respective to its enemies by carefully utilizing skills like “Swoop” and reversing the sword 2 by hitting your esc key for double the distance creation. I do all that. But even if I can win a lot of 1 vs 3s where 1-2 of my opponents froze up for a brief enough period to bring my full might to bear; the countless 1 v 1- 1 v x you’ll lose simply because your enemies all know how to kite ONLY because of the sole fact that your pet can’t keep up; when you reach the very pinnacle of power ranger play, you will see how annoying this issue is. My build amongst most ranger builds would stand out as one of the best designed to synergize with the pet; supporting the pet with very effective buffs and disabling my opponents to increase its successful hit ratio. I’m not calling myself a ranger god, but my skill is far beyond your average condi whipping evade build. There are other changes I’d love to see to allow for more build diversity, but the only critical has ever been the pet and the lack of control of it. Every other classes’ class mechanic is by comparison, much better designed.

Pets needing to be able to attack and move simultaneously, like players, IS an issue and will continue to be THE issue that holds back more rangers than any other issue with this class. Just because I can make a good spider-bow build or condi spamming kiter doesn’t mean the other good builds out there; which is THE MAJORITY of the ranger build diversity.. should be hurt in PvP or WvW just because the pet was desiged far too easily kiteable. Why no distance closer skill like a charge on melee pets? It needs a utility to catch its foes just like any melee player does, and does have. Why rooting auto attacks? It needs to be able to move and attack simultaneously to land hits just like players do. These are changes that don’t need to overhaul the whole AI system to be executed.

If you wanna know more of how a pro uses a ranger; then hit me up, and take a look at my build in the ranger forums to get an understanding of just how crucial dodge rolls and evades are to my build. Hint: I even use Healing as One just to proc more vigor to dodge more. If you want tips on how to play ranger effectively; even with a build the class is not designed to suppor;t and how to make your skill on ranger count, hit me up with a private message and I’ll happily share some of my tricks so you can step up your game. Here’s one to start, drakes have at least far less issues in comparison to other melee pets because their attacks cleave, yet even they fail hard against many skilled kiters and players with good movements.

All these huge pet issues are in addition considered with the sheer amount of pets which are rendered near useless to bad design. Moa heal being AI controlled means it will almost always fire off at times that are not at all helpful in the very mobile realm of Player vs player combat.. it only ever works properly when stacking melee on easy dungeon mobs and bosses.. the conditions to trigger its AI to use the heal are poorly designed which makes moas only truly good for shooting bows from the safety of a tower wall. Lashtail devourer f2 is significantly weaker than drake f2s, yet has more than double the cast time. The evade on devourers is completely useless. If a player specifically targetted your pet just for the sake of killing it, that would not be enough to keep it alive; it’s evade time does not match the animation time which makes it bad by evade standards, and it simply doesn’t need it making it lose out on a potential extra damage, condition or cc lockdown skill. Porcine F2 has too much delay to be feasible in a fast paced player vs player environment.

With all due respect, Zeffthewicked, you’ve completely missed the my point. All pets should of been equipped to properly contribute to the class from release, but they continue to hold even the most skilled rangers back. Anet thinks an AI overhaul is needed but they never even try to equip the pets with skills that compliment doing their jobs right to begin with. If I have to say it in a TLDR form; THE PETS DO A GOOD JOB VS STATIONARY TARGETS. THEY ARE HORRIBLE WHEN THE TARGET MOVES. The issues all happen when the enemy moves. Before you think how to buff AI for pets, logically you would try giving the melee pets distance closer attacks and those of a less rooted nature, which would in theory enable them to do much better against moving targets while contributing in the same way against stationary targets; nothing gets overpowered, nothing gets broken if it works as I expect it would. It doesn’t take rocket science to get pets to where they need to be, it takes devs using their head.

I’d HAPPILY eat some evasion nerfs AND condition damage nerfs to this class if it meant melee pets could hit their enemies accurately even when they move, and close the distances a good player will create as quickly as I do with melee characters.

And Zeff, I’m sorry if I sounded disrespectful. I’m just frustrated with these issues, because they are simply not issues skilled play can overcome. I want my skill to count; if I’m good at closing the distance on a kiting foe, I deserve to do my full damage and not have 100% character damage periods not limited to whether or not my pet has caught up to my foe and doesn’t have its attack sidestepped to merely hitting a or d keys. That puts too much control of the fight in the enemy’s hands; they are able to mitigate huge amounts of ranger damage just by moving around wisely; even if the ranger himself lands the majority of his attacks, the pet not landing its attacks will throw off his damage numbers and severely limit on almost every fight his ability to use his full damage.. and in fights against pro players that are always moving even while they attack, the pet can be nullified by upwards of 90% of its attacks being sidestepped.

Listen Detharos, i can understand your rage, little makes a man more furious then inability to solve problem via his skill and ingeniuity. But if you click my idea you will notice that:

a) it has [PvE] in title. I don’t do pvp and don’t like WvW much and don’t assume to fix things there
b) nowhere do i say pets should be slow or not have ability to pursue target
c) i posted a separate idea to give rangers torment, though for bows. You’re more experienced in PvP area feel free to suggest if you find the idea good.

My pet ward idea is build around giving melee ranger’s pet a meaningful defence that will greatly boost it’s survivial & damage (pet stays on enemy, as you deal with the hit), at the price of player’s skill to make it happen. Unskilled player will get himself killed fast, but that’s fine, since i belive ranger should be a demanding class to play, and greatly rewarding one to those that pick up the gauntlet.

I don’t mind pets running faster, reacting faster to commands, having protection on dodge or even aegis on dodge. But i do feel that giving them ranger level defense under player’s full control, along with full consequences for failing is a great way to go, especially given how devs state then can’t mess with their AI guts.

As for skill, my ranger is lvl 42, so yeah i’m a ranger in training. Still i got my screwes together to know using call of the wild after healing spring means a nice aoe heal for myself and my pet + condition remowal, popping rampage as one for stability (especially with extra boon duration) is a great idea, as it using hunter’s call right after to make your pet into petinator:> Epic was the time when i did ac at lvl 36, and asked ele to drop the lightning hammer, then rampage, healing spring and lighthining+ blast ownage on those burrows. I sure didn’t fail at my end of sending those burrows to obllivion;)

And that’s just a small part of fun i’ll have with my awesome ranger:)

That aside, on the topic – signet of hunt active is utter garbage. One pet hit being 50% stronger once every 30 secs?? For a precious utility slot?? What the?

Greatsword hilt strike offers same for less cooldown, with damage and daze/stun in the package, without taking up any utility slots! And swiftness is not that hard to get for a ranger!

Make that active: 10 seconds of 50% stronger pet attacks, or something near that. Something that makes me think about accually using that active and not wondering why signet like this exists at all…

@ZeftheWicked;

I agree with the overall idea of your change, but 50% more damage for 10 seconds with signet of the beastmaster and the active of signet of the wild has the potential to be way over the top for the amount of damage you will be able to do for a sustained period.

That being said, when there are suggestions like this, it leads to a very obvious conclusion; if rangers need this type of availability to damage increases, then the weapon skills and/or pets aren’t doing enough damage on their own and the weapons should be buffed up instead of the utilities, or else you shoehorn builds into specific utility and trait choices, which reduces build versatility overall.

That being said, I definitely agree with the functionality change to Signet of the Hunt being “your pets next x attacks do y% more damage” or “for the next x seconds, your pets attacks do y% more damage.”

However, the bigger problem I see with making this change is that it leaves Sic’ Em completely and totally overshadowed. Any thoughts on how you would change Sic’ Em to accommodate for the changes to Signet of the Hunt?

My personal suggestion for Signet of the Hunt is to turn it into a stunbreak while keeping it’s current functionality. Being able to slot a movement signet which can double as a stunbreak and be used to create a “big” hit sounds very reasonable to me, especially on the utility bar compression side of things.

nagymbear.5280:

mistsim.2748:

…snip…

What happened to your bunker ranger vids on teh tubez? It was great inspiration for me, and I loved watching them from time to time.

Edit: nvm, found’em. Dunno why I didn’t find them a while back.

Edit, edit: Some are missing though… music issues?

i had an issue with Google+ so i disabled my account. i have to upload some clips for my guild so the old vids are back now and the account has been reactivated.