Guild Wars 2

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Everyone knows power ragers are screwed in this game right off the bat because:

a) you need at least 2-4 other power rangers for it to work
b) no megazord

Nuff said.

just laughed my head off.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Great feedback, everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve flagged this thread for the designers to check out.

Thanks for keeping it constructive!

Thank you!

Rangers all over the world thanks you. You are the best Allie!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!!

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

(this is a post I made over a year ago)

While I fully agree that Ranger Traits are probably the worst random collection of crap, here is a small list for some of the other changes the Ranger needs in my humble opinion

• A Camouflage utility (be it as an opener or escape) – 3s Stealth + 10s Swiftness (similar to the Wintersday Scout ability). Could replace the active effect on Signet of the Hunt because currently that active effect is pretty pointless.
• Point Blank Shot: Change name to Sniper Shot and add a secondary effect. If you tap it once it will function as it currently does, but if you choose to press and hold the ability, it will channel and fire one shot dealing massive damage (as per the Wintersday Scout ability).
• Signets should apply their active component to Pet and Ranger by default without requiring you to use Signet of the Beastmaster.
• A utility or effect that allows Rangers to see stealthed targets. At present time stealth has no counter and is not fun to play against. The Ranger would be most befitting to provide that counter (being a tracker and having pets). See the video on Counterplay: http://youtu.be/BRBcjsOt0_g
• [i]for the above, if signets would apply their active effects to Pet+Ranger without the need for Signet of the Beastmaster, that Grandmaster trait could be changed to Sight of the Beastmaster, allowing stealth detection as a passive ability and make stealthed targets appear in a similar fashion as we now see stealthed allies (that Predator like camouflage) if players spend 30 points in Marksmanship and choose the trait[i]. In my humble opinion the Ranger should be the direct counter to a Thief.
• Some signet active effects need a rework because some of them are pointless (even dangerous) to use (try Signet of Renewal with Signet of the Beastmaster active).
• Some shouts need a rework as they mostly revolve around sacrificing your pet (~30% of your damage potential) at present time.
• A ‘fix’ for all the OBSTRUCTED messages when firing arrows when there’s absolutely no reason for them to become obstructed.
• More reliable AI and pathfinding for our pets and being able to hit moving targets (maybe increase their effective attack radius and cleave?).
• 75% reduction of AoE damage for our pets (with the option to trait it to 95%).
• F2 abilities that fire near-instantly. The pet just has to cancel any current action and immediately go through the F2 command.
• Some traits need to switch position as it makes no sense in having Trap traits in Skirmishing when they should be in Wilderness Survival. Same with traits like Martial Mastery which should have been in Skirmishing instead of Wilderness Survival. As stated above, trait lines are just one gigantic mess at the moment and make no sense nor offer any form of synergy.

Well in anticipation of this thread actually being read, here are my desired changes.

[Minor/Short term]
Weapons:
Greatsword

Block should made block all melee attacks up to the full duration and not just one. The melee range “Counter-attack” should be used at any time desired within the blocking period by hitting the 4 key again, much in the same way the sword can be thrown, only triggering a different effect in melee range.

Swoop: As Jon Peters suggested he was considering, I think adding evade to the move is an actually great idea.

Auto attack: In the event of the evade being taken out of greatsword auto attack, I’d like to see it having a cripple effect added to its auto attack and some higher AA numbers to reflect its speed difference in comparison to say, the one handed sword.

Axe- Offhand

Whirling defense should allow for some movement, just like thieves’ dagger storm ability. In the future, I think all such whirling attacks on all classes should be enabled with at least some movement.

Path of Scars: I think it’d be nice if the projectile speed could be upped a little. Currently, it feels like it’s a bit too easy for returning axe to be sidestepped.

Universal ranger signet active modification
All valid signet actives(Obviously with the exception of signet of renewal) should by default buff/effect the ranger himself, and be traited to include the pet… instead of the opposite as it is currently.

Utility Skills

Signet of the Wild: As others highlighted, signet of the wild seems a bit underpowered in terms of healing. Being a utility skill obviously it shouldn’t rival Healing Signet. That said, hitting 120-ish per second on high healing power builds is a little on the low end. Maybe if the starting point was raised to 100-ish instead of the 60 some odd that it is currently, we could see easier placement of it in more builds.

Lightning Reflexes: LR should be made to cure immobilize, with that effect initiating very briefly before its movement itself if possible.

Sick Em: I’m running a shout build, and yet sick em’ still doesn’t feel viable for me, much less for most builds. Perhaps the cool down is slightly too long, or the effects slightly below where they need to be. Please examine this skill and come up with some improvements for it.

Search and Rescue: For merely functioning as supporting downed players (and not fully dead ones anymore) and with the pet no longer teleporting past obstacles.. I feel that long cool downs on this skill have become inappropriate. Please consider reducing the cooldown and adding some new effects.

Pets

New fifth skill-distance closer skill for all melee pets

Currently, its far too easy to cut melee pet damage down to almost nothing by kiting with w,s,a,d ..much less when you consider distance creator skills like blink being used. All melee pets should have a distance closer skill added as a fifth skill slot, just as all melee built characters have some manner of distance closing skills.The attack should cover a distance similar to swoop to deal with the gaps teleporting, strafing/kiting, backflipping and dashing opponents create in the middle of a fight. (Also factoring in that the ranger himself is doing such movements and his opponents are chasing him creating a distance for the pet to gap.) It should offer damage similar to a basic pet auto attack hit, and be on approximately 8-10 second cooldown tops.

Specific pet changes

Devourer: Overall devourer physical damage should be increased. Currently it offers nothing that the spider can’t essentially do much better, outside gambling on the rare poison proc.

The devourer evade should be removed. It simply has no function, and merely cuts downs.

Some of the devourer F2s need attention. In particular, the lashtail devourer. Overall it does completely inferior damage when compared to a drake f2, yet it has double the cooldown. Other seem kind of underwhelming. The devourer with the poison barb f2 for example, is a letdown. Most of the times, enemies will not be meleeing your devourer, but you the ranger.. so “shotgunning” with it is simply not possible in most cases and makes the effect rather irrelevant.

Moa: Moa heals need to be controllable for them to function as viable skills, just like the buffs.

Porcine: Some speed-up is needed of the f2 process. Currently the delay is too large to be viable in most fast-paced combat scenarios.

Also as a general complaint, some pet skills seem too telegraphed in comparison to the damage allotted. Especially some of the pouncing ones. It’s like giving out a yell before shooting off a water pistol. I think the damage on these skills are still appropriate enough, but they simply need to activate faster.. especially the ones where stun is involved.

[Major/Longterm]
Pet AI fixes, The major Pet f2 tweaks already previously discussed

Someone said this earlier in the thread but if it is SO difficult to make the pet work since buffs can potentially make it OP. wtf don’t they just make them into passive buff companions that don’t do damage. Give the ranger his 100% dps with the pet as a passive buff with an on press ability on F2 for each pet and then start balancing from there.

Make the pet un-targetable have it throw out buffs, heals etc what ever, gold find, etc suddenly Ranger can now have a utility spot in groups as well.

Its pretty obvious at this point that the pet cant be brought to an acceptable level why bother crafting all these complex pet ideas. Gut it and call it a day. Were not going to be getting super complex human like pet AI, lets call it a day. Still the “pet class” you still have your trusty buddy but minus the headaches of worrying if he is missing his attacks or dead.

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

If anet was considering a pet rework I think it would be cool if pets were stowed away by default. The players F1 skill could be a calling to the pet. For 20 or 30 seconds the pet you chose would come flying into battle with you and it would be invulnerable. In this case, like now, pets would need a massive buff. They should be something other players fear once the rangers calls them out. The other mechanics of it can be whatever, like the rangers F2+ skills could call out other pets letting the ranger have some options or they could be skills of the F1 pet. For now I’m thinking the pet "whistle” as it would be called can be used every minute or so but maybe there could be something more interesting to it rather than time.

Substance E.4852:

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

Its not that, its that most threads involving the Ranger, even those with good ideas, end up turning into a flame fest by the second page, normally in the direction of Anet. This thread has actually been constructive for over 200 posts. Thats seriously a new record when it comes to rangers.

Also, I haven’t left a comment on this thread yet, but, pretty much this when it involves pets.::::

Someone said this earlier in the thread but if it is SO difficult to make the pet work since buffs can potentially make it OP. wtf don’t they just make them into passive buff companions that don’t do damage. Give the ranger his 100% dps with the pet as a passive buff with an on press ability on F2 for each pet and then start balancing from there.

Make the pet un-targetable have it throw out buffs, heals etc what ever, gold find, etc suddenly Ranger can now have a utility spot in groups as well.

Its pretty obvious at this point that the pet cant be brought to an acceptable level why bother crafting all these complex pet ideas. Gut it and call it a day. Were not going to be getting super complex human like pet AI, lets call it a day. Still the “pet class” you still have your trusty buddy but minus the headaches of worrying if he is missing his attacks or dead.

Not that I agree with that whole comment, but, I think that pets are the main reason why there is so much trouble when it comes to balancing Rangers, and before Anet makes anymore changes or bandaids to the Ranger class, Pets are where they need to start first.

Chrispy.5641:

Substance E.4852:

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

Its not that, its that most threads involving the Ranger, even those with good ideas, end up turning into a flame fest by the second page, normally in the direction of Anet. This thread has actually been constructive for over 200 posts. Thats seriously a new record when it comes to rangers.

Just rangers? :P

Hammerguard.9834:

Chrispy.5641:

Substance E.4852:

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

Its not that, its that most threads involving the Ranger, even those with good ideas, end up turning into a flame fest by the second page, normally in the direction of Anet. This thread has actually been constructive for over 200 posts. Thats seriously a new record when it comes to rangers.

Just rangers? :P

Okay, its a new record in general, for any profession. The Flame war usually starts by the 50th post for any of them normally.

Chrispy.5641:

Substance E.4852:

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

Its not that, its that most threads involving the Ranger, even those with good ideas, end up turning into a flame fest by the second page, normally in the direction of Anet. This thread has actually been constructive for over 200 posts. Thats seriously a new record when it comes to rangers.

There have been plenty of constructive threads in the Ranger forum. People just don’t bother anymore because being civil didn’t do anything.

The very fact that they had to tell the devs to even look at this thread says more than enough about how much they care about what we have to say or suggest regardless of how we frame our ideas.

Substance E.4852:

Chrispy.5641:

Substance E.4852:

Hammerguard.9834:

They have to be flagged for anyone to care?

:/

Welcome to life as a Ranger player. The only staff member that acted like we exist left the company a while ago.

Its not that, its that most threads involving the Ranger, even those with good ideas, end up turning into a flame fest by the second page, normally in the direction of Anet. This thread has actually been constructive for over 200 posts. Thats seriously a new record when it comes to rangers.

There have been plenty of constructive threads in the Ranger forum. People just don’t bother anymore because being civil didn’t do anything.

The very fact that they had to tell the devs to even look at this thread says more than enough about how much they care about what we have to say or suggest regardless of how we frame our ideas.

Also consider the vast difference in player opinion on how to balance the Ranger class, differing from the very simple, to complete redesign. Some people say get rid of the pet completely and replace it with a new mechanic, some just want a permastow option with a buff. Others want a reworked AI. Others want only one pet out and expand its skillset. And Others just want simple, small fixes(Im in this section).

This thread has actually managed to stay away from pretty much all of that for the most part, and the actual talk of balance has been the main subject. And I’ll leave for the night by giving my opinion again, that

….in order for the Ranger Class to truly be balanced, the very first thing that needs to be looked at isn’t our rooting sword, or our easy to kill spirits, or our traps that do no damage. Its the pets, and our low weapon damage compared to other professions.

Edit : And our lack of team support (aside from spotter, frost spirit and other spirits, natures voice, search and rescue, signet of renewal, healing spring, pet support F2’s, etc.)

Allie Murdock.8152:

Great feedback, everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve flagged this thread for the designers to check out.

Thanks for keeping it constructive!

@jcbroe.4329, I must be dreaming.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Great feedback, everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve flagged this thread for the designers to check out.

Thanks for keeping it constructive!

I have 4 parking tickets in my car….just because I read them doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything with them.

Hopefully you prove me wrong and ante ACTUALLY helps this class.

Hammerguard.9834:

If anet was considering a pet rework I think it would be cool if pets were stowed away by default. The players F1 skill could be a calling to the pet. For 20 or 30 seconds the pet you chose would come flying into battle with you and it would be invulnerable. In this case, like now, pets would need a massive buff. They should be something other players fear once the rangers calls them out. The other mechanics of it can be whatever, like the rangers F2+ skills could call out other pets letting the ranger have some options or they could be skills of the F1 pet. For now I’m thinking the pet "whistle” as it would be called can be used every minute or so but maybe there could be something more interesting to it rather than time.

Ranger does some dramatic pose, points in the air — ‘FLUFFY! I choose you!’

The screen goes dark.. neon lights start to flash. 1000 Spirit Wolves come charging in from off the screen and do a 1000 hit combo on the opponent… then comes fluffy, the cute little spirit wolf puppy yapping.

Then an announcer in James Earl Jones’ voice comes up and says ‘Ultimate Comboooooo’

Yea… I think I need a new pair of pants.

But anyway… I just want to reiterate what I mentioned way back on page 1 or so… this class needs A LOT of work and is no where even remotely close to the stage where simply adjusting numbers or fine tuning skills and traits will work.

Entire trees make no sense. Nearly every utility skill requires an enormous investment in traits before it’s even worth considering. The entire class mechanic doesn’t work. There’s no burst or AE which makes a power option impossible to ever consider.

I really wish the developers could just tell us at a very high level what it is they hope this class will eventually be able to do and some areas they’re working on improving. After a year I think ANet needs to let go of their fear that we will have a panic attack when something discussed doesn’t actually happen. We’re completely in the dark playing a class that is, for all intents and purposes, still in an alpha stage of development. Please share something with us…

If we have to keep pets active. at least make the pets that can fly… actually fly up walls and keeps!

or give us the option to not have pets but have a passive bonus to the ranger (depending on the pet we have stowed.)
Bear = 10% less dmg
Jaguar = 10% more damage
Spider =+ 10% condition duration

being a ranger with a pet at the moment is like decreasing our level by 10

i like the idea of having pets being called for 30 seconds- 60 seconds by pressing the F1 button
F1 = DPS pet
F2= Defensive pet
F3 = Condition pet
F4 = Utility pet

each with different skills that benefit the ranger for a cooldown.

if the Developers are reading this,
please hurry up.
i, like many have quit this game because i chose Ranger as a main.

( i check back now and then, hoping the problems have been solved)

Chrispy.5641:

Edit : And our lack of team support (aside from spotter, frost spirit and other spirits, natures voice, search and rescue, signet of renewal, healing spring, pet support F2’s, etc.)

and aside from: fury, might, regen, swiftness, vigour boon , waterfield with condition strip + vulnerability, immobility, weakness, chill, fear, knockdown dmg reducing for our group. we are really in a bad spot for group support.

The only real problem the ranger has is his pet.

In PvE (dungeons) it dies because it cant dodge those telegraphed skills
In WvW (zerg) it dies in AOE
In WvW (roaming) it cant hit moving targets
In PvP its OP in condition builds, because it gives condition builds high direct damage burst.

A funny fact is, that the pet when its moad by a mesmer, hits everything, because it has a range of 250 instead of 130.

I would suggest:

• give melee pets 250 range, faster projectiles to ranged pets
• some sort of block evade every few seconds to help in dungeons
• AoE damage reduction
• scaling with ranger stats

And then lower the base health and tweak the damage of the pets.

This thread gives me hope, that the ones responsible for ranger-balance can do their work better.
It’s also a very serious thread about ranger’s weaknesses and some good hints for doing it better.
Still hoping for my favourite class to be in balance with other classes (maybe at march-patch? please?)

I don’t know if you’ve played FF12 and liked it but if you do, you probably going to like my suggestion.

If ANet ever manages to switch the control over the Pet AI to the client, I would have some Pet AI update suggestions to make.

So if you’ve played FF12, you may remember the gambitsystem.
Thats exactly how I want to control my pet.
For those who don’t know what I mean:
The gambits where an easy and fast way to “programm” the AI of your characters.
They are arranged according to their hierarchy.

As example: The first instruction (gambit) will be executed as long as the requirement is given (e.g. “retreat when below 20% HP”). If the requirement is not given, the second instruction will be executed as long as its requirement is given (e.g. “attack nearest foe”). So you can not only control how your pet will behave in certain situations but also remap your F1-F3 keys.

Nice to see a dev post in this thread..

I thought of it and i dont see any reason for Remoseless to be a Grandmaster trait..

Beastmaster’s Bond is a worthless trait cause its uncontrolable (you can decide when your pet will reach 50%) and it has a low benefit compared to other adept traits..

We need a little help with Guard shout

Pets need a massive help..Its the first thing i will change-improve…

Thank you for your time

The best thing A-net could do right now is make some base damage increases on a few weapons (greatsword auto, MH axe auto) and a few trait compressions (signet of the beastmater shouldn’t exist, quickdraw should be merged into piercing arrows). A few traits could also be buffed a bit, such as beastmaster’s bond. Currently, you gain three stacks of might and fury when your pet reaches 50% health. This doesn’t really make any sense as to why you gain an offensive boon when your pet is low on health. It should instead activate upon an enemy reaching 50% health.

One thing that I think is very important is that shouts are reworked completely. As it stands, guard literally is useless aside from the trait. Sick em could be useful but due to pet AI issues and the fact that pressing f1-4 removes the buff makes is lackluster. Sure, it is niche when used on an enemy who stealths, but even then it doesn’t help much. Protect me is fine as it is although it may result in pet suicide, which should be looked into. And there is no reason to take search and rescue at all.

I also think that a few other utilities could use some looking into as well. Signet of Renewal actually has a nice active effect, but 1. It may result in pet suicide 2. Your pet must be within 600 range of you to activate 3. Does nothing when traited with SotBM 4. Does nothing if your pet is dead.
I don’t think any skill should become useless if your pet is dead. It really is unfair considering that my pet dies most of the time because of the game mechanics and not my inexperience.

I also think we need additional ways to remove conditions. As it stands, empathetic bond is just a transfer to the pet which indirectly affects us. So is SotW’s active. Healing Spring is good for sPvP when fighting on points, but otherwise, it can be hard to stand in the field when an enemy if actively engaging you. And evasive purity is decent I guess, but I never see anyone use it, probably due to the placement of the trait and the more usefullness of spirit traits.

Also I want to mention that Rapid Fire NEEDS to be made a burst skill. I think the weapon is in a decent spot right now after all the buffs, but it still lacks in dps. This skill really must become a burst skill to put the weapon into a good, balanced state.

Lastly, I want to say that, to make this class better, as it is lackluster (979 hours won’t lie to you), you must move away from reliance on the pet. The pet IS holding this class back, and the best thing you can do is move away from it. I’m sorry if your intention was to create a perfect class of human ai pet interaction, but it isn’t working and never will work.

Edit: Oh, and as some QoL improvements, please increase the projectile speed on Crippling Talon and Path of Scars.

The simple fact that rangers don’t even have the top RANGED DPS is a bad sign…warriors do better damage at range than rangers… hell even THEIR BOW SKILLS ARE BETTER.

Thieves SB skills are better than Rangers…

It’s embarrassing when the profession is called a RANGER yet there is other professions that have better skills with SB/LB….

Also, given the fact that Anet has publicly stated pets can’t be fixed… can we start a petition to just either,
A). Perma stow and give the ranger a buff while pet is stowed
B). Designate a group of coders to give pets their own code outside of AI mobs… they deserve this… let pets dodge when their masters dodge!!!
C). Buff the pets. I’m talking in terms of surviviablity (they die in the blink of an eye…..) and in terms of skills. You have given the master 1 SKILL to control from his pet 1!!!. Expand the skill bar for pets for the love of god. Let me do more things with my pet. I don’t want this embarassingly slow AI to use a blast finisher before I dropped my fire or water field… I don’t want the pet randomly using skills.. Give the master REAL CONTROL over his pet. Not 1 lousy skill….

Pets have got to be in the worst place for a class specific mechanic… They provide very little utility (some might or fury is all about i use it for…which heck, ANY class can get easily).. they do have some conditions they can only use ONCE….after that its usually a 30-40 sec cd and by that time, the pet will already be dead unless you stay in 1500 range and in that case, you are doing trash DPS lol.

Pets are great if you are doing solo content and need someone to tank for you i guess??(who the heck does solo content in this game?)

Anet devs, Just give me one reason as to why I would WANT or NEED to have a pet in a Dung/Frac/WvW/sPVP, just ONE reason Anet. All other class specific mechnics have some great utility and support.. there is None here with pets and it’s holding back the full potential of the ranger class…

Just to throw in my 2c as a SW/WH Ranger, I am currently running a Support (Buffer) build with Spirits, so my suggestions will revolve around that.

These suggestions are entirely from a PvE bias, I haven’t delved deep enough into PvP to make any fair comments on it.

1. Traits
I feel the Beastmastery trait line is lacking in viable options, my favorite thing about it would be the passive Healing Power -> Power, which I would love to use, but I can’t get rid of any of my 20 points in Nature Magic/Wilderness Survival/Marksmanship, and sadly 10 points does not cut it.

Some traits I would like to see, not under any specific tree would include;
*Cooldown Reduction for Spirits
*Pet to automatically and immediately begin reviving when downed
*Spirits with Unbound Will to move toward target to cast their offensive spells (Obviously leaving Water Spirit and Spirit of Nature at your side)

2. Weapon Skills
I’m not the first to say I want to see more available weapons (Melee staff/Nature magic mace), but there are a few current skills I believe should be altered;

*_Sword auto-attack_, I know this has been spoken of before, but I find that my evade doesn’t evade instantly, it should cancel any current attack to evade, particularly the auto-attack!

*Warhorn “Call of the Wild and Hunter’s Call, I find Call of the Wild to be a fantastic ability, but it seems quite weak, I would suggest Regeneration be added to the given buffs or a duration increase, or even allow it to poison and burn the target (Keepin’ it Ranger natural).
Hunter’s Call could use a change also, I find it’s long cast time is only useful for getting back into position from being displaced by the auto-attack of my sword, although the damage is great I find that it isn’t a very engaging skill at all and something more exciting could be there. E.g. Fury Buff, Cast time reduced, Damage reduced, Cooldown reduced to 20s.

3. Slot Skills
*_Storm Spirit_, could also have an added Immobilize to it’s on-use ability, fits in with the whole Lightning scene and would make for a more viable slot choice.
– Add damage to Sun Spirit and Frost Spirit on use abilities.

*_Quickening Zephyr_, reduce base CD from 60s to kitten .

*_Muddy Terrain_ to be replaced with Barkskin, granting protection for 10s and stability for 5s on a ~35s cooldown.

*_Sharpening Stone_ to also increase base damage of the next 5 attacks by 25%

4. Pets
Add more pet skills for each pet, giving us variety, choice and utility options in each pet. Allow us to equip it’s skill like a slot skill would work. E.g. The wolf can have Terrifying Howl OR his “new alternative”, Call Pack which could summon multiple weak wolves for a short duration.

for me the biggest problem we have right now is pets. If pet’s are not working and as ANet already acknowledged that they are not working as intended and they do not plan on fixing them, then that means it’s time to remove them. Sorry your idea for a pet class didn’t work but you need to pull the ranger out of the gutters and the only way of doing that is by getting rid of the pet. If you don’t want to get rid of the pet completely then please remove the pet damage and give it to the ranger’s so our DPS will no longer be handicapped by 30% or more, as it is right now. You can leave the pet in the game as a utility tool for all I care. Once that is done and we test it out we can move forward from there on what will need buffs and what would need nerfs. For instance, rapid fire on LB should have a shorter channeling time because as it sits now, we can do the same DPS using our skill #1. And please for the love of god, don’t nerf skill #1 just to make rapid fire look better, please, actually FIX rapid fire.

PS. Thank you for the response Allie, it’s much appreciated.

Suggestions:
1. Rework condition removal. It is uniquely perverse to make our only condition removal also destroy our core class mechanic through condition transfer. No other class has this ‘feature.’
2. Make condition removal ALWAYS work. Signet of Renewal doesn’t work when pet not in range. Increase the range to 1,200. Why not? Guardian condition removal has a large range…

3. Make signets apply to rangers by default and have us trait to make it apply to our pets. Maybe have it be the 5 point trait in the BM line (which is currently useless)

4. Move empathic bond to a lower trait or give us other condition removal options. This is ESSENTIAL for build diversity. Otherwise we are locked into 30 in NM.

5. If you can’t fix the pet AI, then SIGNIFICANTLY increase their speed, by like 50%. Stupid but fast would work (only WvW and PvE—would be unbalanced in spvp).

6. Make F2 skills fire instantly. How would having the wolf’s fear ALWAYS cast when you want it be overpowered? It SHOULD always work—it can be counted like every other fear through stability. Same goes for immobilize, etc. Many other classes have similar abilities which always work. Our pet abilities which are on lengthy cooldowns should always fire.

Xuven.2917:

4. Pets
Add more pet skills for each pet, giving us variety, choice and utility options in each pet. Allow us to equip it’s skill like a slot skill would work. E.g. The wolf can have Terrifying Howl OR his “new alternative”, Call Pack which could summon multiple weak wolves for a short duration.

As much as I would love to see this, as long as pets cannot hit their targets because their targets are moving, then this is useless. If ANet cannot get the pets to actually hit moving targets then the pets should be removed until they have the resources and time to rewrite the pet code. They have already acknowledged that pets are not working as intended and that they will not fix them. We’ve had this broken mechanic, this handicap for over a year now, it’s time to remove the pet until they rewrite pet code. Sorry, I’m tired of my ranger being the punch line of every joke in the WvW chat

arrow speed should be increased at least 100-200% or remain current speed but auto-guided.
Right now, long ranger shot can still be easily dodged 100% by simply moving vertically at 1000+range.

Pets and sword auto attack should be high priority for fixing… I absolutely LOVE sword on ranger, that being said, the auto attack chain has killed more than anything else in this game… I can’t evade when I actually tell the system to evade.. this has to be fixed.

Pets are the core mechanic that needs serious re-work and ASAP… its been LONG overdue and their have been great suggestions in this thread and if Anet does not deliver in this next balance patch, i will just flat out give up on ranger. there is no reason to continue playing it when literally every class is flat out better in every aspect of the game.

the most hilarious thing I find about Anet’s idea of pet is… lets give the ranger the ability to basically KILL his own pet by putting the only viable condi removal in a 30 point trait that , in fact DOES NOT EVEN CONDI-REMOVE. It’s a condi-swap for gods sake, we have zero, ZERO condi removal.

Everything is transfered to the pet and thus killed. And boom, there goes our “class mechanic”

Wake up devs… how hard is that to see that rangers absolutely dismal in soooo many aspects of the game

PART 1
In these days I was thinking about changes I would like to see to Ranger class (mainly for Power and PvP orientated Rangers).

First of all, the “almighty” pet:
• the A.I. isn’t very good, we know that, but I think there may be other solutions to fix the problem without having to rework the entire “pet system”. For example, the pet would have better chances to hit something (besides the air) if the attack speed of our omnipresent fellow was buffed by default or added to a trait or something.
What about the “agility training” Skirmishing trait (VI) would not only give a 30% increased movement speed for pets but also a…let’s say 10-20% attack speed for them as well?

• Then, let’s talk about the F2 pet skill: it would be actually amazing if it would activate the first time the button is pushed, not after the fourth try!!!!!!! (I often die in Pvp just because my wolf decides that I don’t need him to send my opponents away with fear even if I told him to do so by pressing multiple times F2….very annoying).

Secondly, I would really love to see some more “might options” for Ranger: skills or traits I don’t care, but I would love to have the possibility to stack a bit of might from time to time without having to pop my elite, Rampage as One (and hoping that my pet hits a couple of times to buff me with some might – most unlikely to happen); or without having to spend 20 point in Marksmanship, taking the useless trait “beastmaster’s might”, running three signets and having to activate all three of them at the same time in order to have….hold to your seats….9 stack of might for 15 sec, 0 utility left, and 0 chance to survive the fight. Please don’t tell me I forgot the combo fire fields from torch or trap…cause…well, I can’t use them to buff might solo (only 1 finisher blast on warhorn on a 35 sec CD; and maybe the blast finisher from drakes, if you’re lucky… very lucky…very veeeeery lucky).

PART 2
Almost forgot about Condition removal skills!!! Ranger have a really good trait for condi removal (talking about “emphatic bond” of course)…but let’s be honest, if didn’t want to take it?
Let’s analyze the options:

• “Healing Spring” skill: probably the most powerful healing skill in game (after warrior’s HS, or at least as good as that skill is), but not a reliable remove condition in terms of PvP: in order to use it properly (and remove 5 conditions if I’m not wrong) you should stay inside the water field for 10 seconds, which is really a gamble in PvP. In conclusion: great healing skill and a helpful conditions removal but not enough good to be the only condi removal skill to take.

• “Signet of Renewal”: passively cures a condition every ten seconds (good) and actively removes all conditions by sending them all to our pet (and most likely killing him)…if he is alive….and reeeeeeally close to you.

• Last (and least I would say) the fantastic, “not-doing-any-damage” Brown Bear and his “Shake it off”: a 2 conditions removal in a 600 radius and a 25 CD….not so bad you would say, the only problem is the fact that the command of the F2 skill from pets just pops properly only once every three times (sometimes even by putting the skill in CD without actually working in advance).

In conclusion (for what concern condition removal), I think there are far too many “if” in Ranger’s condition removal skills.

One word for “Tail wind” Skirmishing minor trait: c’mon let’s make it work even out of combat, please.

At this point, I would like to thank with all my heart whoever read up to here, I wouldn’t have gone so far honestly…

PART 3
Finally, a few suggestions on LB and GS skill changes I would think of.

LONGBOW:
• 1 (Long range shot): adding a few more damages at max range (1000+) would be nice (5-10%?)
• 2 (Rapid fire): due to the fact that the cast time is insanely long (4½ sec) and the skill is incredibly easy to dodge, I would add a 2-3% increase damage per hit, at least.
• 3 (Hunter’s shot): why not adding some effect to the skill? Like gaining N stacks of might for N seconds on a successful hit while invisible after the use of this skill (only with this skill, not everytime stealth is gained)?
• 4 (Point blank shot): making this skill hitting all targets in a straight line will make it too OP?
• 5 (Barrage): it would be awesome to use this skill while moving or at least having the cast time reduced a bit, no?

GREATSWORD
• 1 (Slash – chain): adding some effect on a successful hit? Like 1or2 seconds of Vulnerability or Weakness maybe?
• 1 (Slice – chain): same as above?
• 2 (Maul): maybe reducing the visibility of the animation or the cast time (from ¾ second to ½ second for example) would help to land the strike because it is very easy to dodge by now.
• 3 (Swoop): why not adding a N seconds swiftness boon after the leap (even if it does not hit a target)? Would give a lot more mobility, no?

Well, that’s it….I said everything I wanted to say, and more. I want to clarify that I’m not expecting so many buffs to only one class in the next balance patch but seeing some changes in this direction would make me optimistic about the future of the Ranger in GW2 (maybe I was too generous with this class, I admit it).

I’d really appreciate some feedbacks, what do you think about my suggestions?

Sorry for my English anyway!!

Dave Pare.2069:

First of all, the “almighty” pet:
• the A.I. isn’t very good, we know that, but I think there may be other solutions to fix the problem without having to rework the entire “pet system”. For example, the pet would have better chances to hit something (besides the air) if the attack speed of our omnipresent fellow was buffed by default or added to a trait or something.
What about the “agility training” Skirmishing trait (VI) would not only give a 30% increased movement speed for pets but also a…let’s say 10-20% attack speed for them as well?

No, Right now ranger’s have to trait into everything in order to make them viable, because without the traits, their useless. If we are going to have to trait into our class mechanic in order to make it viable, it’s USELESS! Either it get’s fixed right off the bat or remove the useless pets! There is no in between. I’m tired of having to trait into things to make them useable, I don’t see any other class having to drop their points into a trait they don’t want in order to make their class mechanic viable, we shouldn’t have to either.

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I have not found any better suggestion that will solve the pet issue then this because all suggestions are like what you just said, traiting. Or doing things that Anet already said they will NOT do because it will break NPC code’s so I don’t even know why they are mentioning those changes. Yes, Anet said they want ranger to be a pet class, which is why I said they could leave the pet in as a UTILITY! nothing more, nothing less. Have the beast master trait line improve those utilities, like instead of 35 second cooldowns you now have a 30 second cool down on the f2.

Bottom line is pet damage needs to be removed and given to the ranger, the pets are unreliable and Fail in their ability to provide the 30% damage they are suppose to provide. In WvW they fail in zergs, they fail in keep defense, they fail in keep attacks, they fail in AoE damage…overall, they are an EPIC FAIL and need to be removed or address in someway. we have dealt with this failure for over a year, enough is enough.

Some Sword suggestions:

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.

Other weapon suggestions (e.g. LB, Torch, Axe):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/The-Weapon-Suggestion-Thread

Hello there!

I’m new to the ranger forums as I haven’t been playing mine for a while due to how underwhelming it felt leveling up but I recently started playing him again.

Now, I understand that managing your pet is part of the way your supposed to deal damage but, you deal so little damage yourself that it a feels very passive.

I cannot hope to read all of the ideas in this forum to see if this has been proposed but, I have an idea that could be explored as a replacement for the current pet mechanics; using your pet as an attack modifier.

What if your weapon attacks were modified by the “class” of pet you’re using? Wolf would give more attack, bears defense, drake could be condition damage, etc. I feel that having your pet react to your attacks instead of being an auto-attack AI gives a better feeling of control to the player and those “combo” attacks would give out those big numbers player expect when hitting a mob with over 3k attack.

I think, this could combine really well with an idea of pets as summons as well.

I’m sorry its not very fleshed out but, I mostly wanted to know if you guys had already thought of something similar?

Akisame.9508:

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I totally agree with you 100%. The fact is (unfortunately) Anet already made it clear that they’re not removing the pet from Ranger class nor will they rework the A.I.

The best thing I could think of was a solution in order to put this potentially 30% damage from pet to any use. The core issue with pets is that they die quickly and they do not hit a moving target, so buffing a 20-30% both attack speed and movement speed (with or without trait I don’t care at this point) will contain, at least, the problem of the pet never hitting!! (that would also be logical: a wolf or a bear or a jaguar runs definetly faster than a man)

You could also choose your battles… which is more important to the class overall? The pet hitting things more reliably or the F2 being responsive enough to go off when you press the key and not 5 seconds later?

I’d argue F2 responsiveness is the larger problem and tackling that in unique ways is feasible. Detach the F2 from the pet completely. Make it summon a spirit pet at the Ranger and .5 seconds later that spirit pet does whatever the F2 is supposed to do.

Truthfully speaking, as a WvW player, I can’t even tell you the last time I cared if my pet actually did damage. All I care about is the howls and leaps going off as planned. Give me a way to use these reliably.

Dave Pare.2069:

Akisame.9508:

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I totally agree with you 100%. The fact is (unfortunately) Anet already made it clear that they’re not removing the pet from Ranger class nor will they rework the A.I.

The best thing I could think of was a solution in order to put this potentially 30% damage from pet to any use. The core issue with pets is that they die quickly and they do not hit a moving target, so buffing a 20-30% both attack speed and movement speed (with or without trait I don’t care at this point) will contain, at least, the problem of the pet never hitting!! (that would also be logical: a wolf or a bear or a jaguar runs definetly faster than a man)

Or give ranger or pet a detect skill — e.g. ppl can’t stealth within 600 range of it. That will balance the current stealth meta and will give ranger a small place to live in WvW.

Dave Pare.2069:

Akisame.9508:

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I totally agree with you 100%. The fact is (unfortunately) Anet already made it clear that they’re not removing the pet from Ranger class nor will they rework the A.I.

The best thing I could think of was a solution in order to put this potentially 30% damage from pet to any use. The core issue with pets is that they die quickly and they do not hit a moving target, so buffing a 20-30% both attack speed and movement speed (with or without trait I don’t care at this point) will contain, at least, the problem of the pet never hitting!! (that would also be logical: a wolf or a bear or a jaguar runs definetly faster than a man)

This might be a wild idea here, but has anyone at ANet ever considered separating Ranger pets from their npc animal versions?

The way I see it, the ‘juvenile’ pets and their npc versions are all linked. So a change to the pet would currently also result to a change in their npc counterpart. However, if they would all be added to a new separate ‘juvenile’ sub-class, they could then be reworked separately. This would allow ANet to fix the unresponsive F2 as well as ability to reliably hit targets etc. etc.

I mean, it’s the same way that Nightmare Court and Toxic Alliance npc’s are each part of a separate subsection. And a change to one would not affect the other.

I mean, we have a select number of pets to choose from (all with the ‘Juvenile’ header) so why not create a new group for them and move them there. Much easier to fix issues from entities in a separate group without having to worry about causing global issues to the whole animal kingdom of Tyria.

Guys, I fixed ranger a while ago..

I rolled a sword/dagger sb thief that never stealths and doesn’t use blinds, shadow steps I pretend are jumps and I recruit new guys to be my pet for a day.

Try it!

But in all seriousness, all I need is pet to be gone. I don’t know if someone posted this already, but why is pet not the first minor trait in beastmastery with major nerfs and make bm trait points scale it to where it is nowish with a 25/30 investment. This is a bandage I would support, despite it being that.

Or they could actually make the AI challenging…

Snow.2048:

But in all seriousness, all I need is pet to be gone. I don’t know if someone posted this already, but why is pet not the first minor trait in beastmastery with major nerfs and make bm trait points scale it to where it is nowish with a 25/30 investment. This is a bandage I would support, despite it being that.

Or they could actually make the AI challenging…

That, which I would completely fine with, or ANet has to buckle down, separate the normal NPC AI from the pet AI and move the petcontrol to the client.

How about this for pets…
merge f1 and f3 into on button (has been suggested a ton already)
Bind a damage/combat related skill of pets to F1 and bind a utility skill on F2.

Some examples:
Bears: F1 defy pain, F2 current F2
Birds: F1 current F2, F2 Quickening screach
Canines: F1 Brutal Charge, F2 current F2
Devourers: F1 Tail lash, F2 current F2
Drakes: F1 Tail swipe, F2 current F2
Feline: F1 Maul, F2 current F2
Moas: F1 Harmonic Cry, F2 current F2
Porcine: F1 Brutal Charge, F2 current F2
Spiders: F1 Entangling web, F2 current F2 (stun/daze for jungle spider/black widow)

Also at the same time make F2s ground target aoes. Since this is already in the game (look at Guard) this just might be something that can be done.

Dave Pare.2069:

Akisame.9508:

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I totally agree with you 100%. The fact is (unfortunately) Anet already made it clear that they’re not removing the pet from Ranger class nor will they rework the A.I.

The best thing I could think of was a solution in order to put this potentially 30% damage from pet to any use. The core issue with pets is that they die quickly and they do not hit a moving target, so buffing a 20-30% both attack speed and movement speed (with or without trait I don’t care at this point) will contain, at least, the problem of the pet never hitting!! (that would also be logical: a wolf or a bear or a jaguar runs definetly faster than a man)

How does this:::

Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.

and this:::

Since you asked so nicely. The underwater skill is an instant skill which doesn’t not require the AI to change it’s think state, as it can fire off during other actions. The land skill plumbs into our animation system which requires the drake to change it think state and execute a new order to the animation system. Both AI think state and animation can’t be running 100% of the time on every creature on the server for obvious reasons (it would create massive CPU usage and generate tons of skill lag) Animations are masked by client side blending, but the AI stuff has no way to be masked. We can make special cases for Ranger Pet F2, but doing so requires time and testing.

Always end up turning into this:::

Anet said that they wont touch Pet AI, period!

???

Dave Pare.2069:

Akisame.9508:

Anet already said they will not touch pets because it will break lord knows how many more things with NPC’s in game. That leaves two options, 1.) removal of the pet and the lost damage being returned to the ranger. 2.) rewriting the pet code which they said they do not have the resources to do right now. So the only option I see is option 1.) removal of the handicap!

I totally agree with you 100%. The fact is (unfortunately) Anet already made it clear that they’re not removing the pet from Ranger class nor will they rework the A.I.

The best thing I could think of was a solution in order to put this potentially 30% damage from pet to any use. The core issue with pets is that they die quickly and they do not hit a moving target, so buffing a 20-30% both attack speed and movement speed (with or without trait I don’t care at this point) will contain, at least, the problem of the pet never hitting!! (that would also be logical: a wolf or a bear or a jaguar runs definetly faster than a man)

Ok, to the first point you made about ANet making it clear that they will not remove pets from ranger. There is a difference here. They said pets are broken, they said that they do not have the resources to fix pets, which means they don’t have the resources to rewrite the code. However, them removing pets is not a resource problem, it’s a stubborn issue that they have. They won’t remove it because they don’t want to, not because they can’t. Big difference there. And it’s not even a matter of removing pets. We know they can remove damage from pets, we know this because they nerfed the pet damage once already in the past. So if they remove the damage from pets, pets will now be solely utility based. Now they can increase the factor’s in our weapons which they reduced in order to compensate for the 30% the pet was suppose to give. We know they can do this because recently they gave us a little bump on longbow. From here it’s just a matter of changing the trait line for BM. F2 refreshing faster, Skills lasting longer, etc. This is all doable with minimal resources. However, rewriting pet AI is long and intense requiring major resources. Big difference.

As for the second part you put down, if they can get the pet to hit moving target’s by doing those changes then fine, but that has to be done WITHOUT traiting for it because it’s our mechanic that should work to begin with. I can see traiting for avoiding area effect, but not as a grandmaster trait, that’s just BS.

another suggestion for powerranger:
the knockback on counterattack is unfortune. without knockback and simply a knockdown a powerranger could follow with maul. esp against as example who used blindfield + heartseeker to stealth.