Guild Wars 2

things that stand out for me as issues on ranger:

• sword #1 root absolutely needs to be fixed, even if it means losing or changing the leap.
• IMO sword #2 would be a lot better if it leapt forwards then backwards.
• traps really ought to be 900 range (needed for ranger to be worth WVWing with)
• entangle ought to be a trap (elite trap)
• pets should move faster by default (or have increased attack range or both)
• pet F2s should generally cast faster
• sword #5 (whirling defense) should permit movement

Revert the pet damage change, shortbow range change, and lessen the cooldown time on dead pets and I’d be pretty happy.

opening strike makes very little sense
ok, let me elaborate my point bit by bit

1) let’s see what opening strike gives
[adept] Cause vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat.
[master] Pets have Opening Strike.
[grandmaster] Opening strike always critical hits.

so, the opening strike offers is: 10 stacks of vulnerability and 2 critical hits. this might useful if you roaming pve killing mobs, but for a long-haul boss fight or dungeon fight against group mobs. all 3 opening strike trait are just close to nothingness.

2) then let’s see what Remorseless gives
[Remorseless] Regain Opening Strike whenever you kill a foe or gain stealth.

Arena Net did notice opening strike give little contribution over rangers’ damage, so they add this trait as a grandmaster major trait, but during a long haul boss fight or group mobs it only provide one more critical strike and vulnerability, comparing with Signet of the Beastmaster (Active effects of signets also affect you.) this trait is not very sensible.

and also please bear two points in mind:

a. opening strike has internal cd, it means under remorseless, if you kill multiple mobs within 1 or 2 seconds, it only gives one opening strike not the number of mobs you kill

3) Marksmanship trait is core spirit value that ranger profession has, and it is the most useful trait for the profession, signet, range and other traits are all very handy, however, it is shame to see such… (excuse me about my language)… such RUBBISH AND NONSENSE setting like opening strike and remorseless exist in this line.

therefore my suggestion is:
a.make remorseless a default value of opening strike, as long as players have opening strike in there trait, effect of remorseless apply.
b. make a new remorseless, the new one works this way: opening strike will stack each time you killed a foe, and remove one stack each time you make a critical strike, every 45 seconds, opening strike will reset.

I am not thinking an op way to buff rangers, but only make it fair and more useful.

After going over the ranger weapons (and their pets) I came up with a few suggestions that I feel would make the ranger less frustrating to play and put them in a better spot. I figured I’d add it to this thread as it helps address some of the issues brought up:

Greatsword:

• Counterattack should cause a stun instead of knockback.
  This would allow the player to follow up with maul and would function well with moment of clarity. This would improve the flow of the weapon, which the knockback it currently has only disrupts.
• Hilt bash should have its range increased to 450.
  The current 300 range isn’t enough to compensate for the skill stopping movement, making it hard to hit retreating opponents.

Longbow:

• Point blank shot should charge up while you hold the key down, and when released will deal increased damage the longer it was held.
  This would give the longbow some burst damage and flow well with stealth, allowing the player to stealth when an opponent gets close, charge point blank shot while in stealth, then come out of stealth with a knockback and damage burst.
• Barrage should allow movement while casting, or should cause immobilize on the first hit.
  This would make it a more viable in-combat skill as currently it leaves the ranger too vulnerable for how easy it is to avoid.

Axe:

• Ricochet should have its aftercast reduced slightly.
  Its current aftercast is excessive which makes it difficult to use other attacks afterwards.
• Whirling defense should blind nearby enemies once every second (from the dust kicked up) and have its retaliation removed.
  Right now the only strong use of this skill is to reflect projectiles, but it also leaves you extremely vulnerable due to the root and nothing to deter melee attackers. Adding blinds in will make it a more viable defensive against melee and projectiles while leaving AoE as a strong counter.

Pet skills:

• Pet skills with long cast times or animations should receive the old quickness (100% attack speed increase) during the duration of those skills.
  This would allow skills which miss far too often to function properly without too much development effort.

Repost from another thread since it’s relevant here:

The rangers changes are really lacking.
The class could do with overhauls in several areas such as shouts, spirits and pet AI. I realize that pet AI probably won’t ever change, but the other 2 can be adressed.
The shouts lack utility and while some can be good (with heavy trait investment and runes), some others are only good on paper.
For instance, guard has a 1 sec cast time, making it a mess. The pet part is also pretty much useless in all situations.
Search and rescue has never worked even once for me, it always failed to revive anyone. And it failed because it did NOT find the dead guys around me, not because the pet was killed or was called back or whatever.
Overall, with a shout build and runes of the soldier, it could be of use in wvw such as what the warriors and guardians have. However, the fact that it grants regen and not healing and mostly the fact that the effects not coming from traits/runes are pretty useless make them really lacking. I’m not saying we, rangers, want to be warriors. However, i do believe the shouts could also grant more utility to groups and at least have one of them less “pet focused”, making the regen part bearable.

Spirits suffer the same kind of comparison sadly. Sure, on paper they look very strong, especially the elite one. However they die so fast that they are near useless. It is very hard to ever revive someone with the spirit of nature since it has a cast animation and requires the spirit to still be alive. The warrior banner revives instantly as it is cast. The healing part of the spirit is mostly useless in pve/wvw since the spirits die so fast and they have bad pathing (same goes for the pets). If you removed the cast animation time from their active effects, it might be a bit better and they could also do with a hp boost in pve/wvw. Since you have already made a difference for the pets, why not do the same for the spirits ?

The pet AI really needs some work. The pathing is really bad and they run far away and come back more often than not instead of just following you. I realize this is probably the hardest thing to change as it requires heavy coding modifications (i work on video games as well). However, this is required and necessary to improve the class as we usually do less damage due to the fact we have a pet. A pet that instantly dies because it goes right into the AoE circles for no reason when you barely moved 1 foot.
This is, again, mostly a wvw/pve issue. I couldn’t talk too much about pvp as i’m only rank 10 there and mostly use it for build/skill testing so i don’t know about the class balance there.

I hope you read my reply and can adress at least some of the issues i pointed out in the near future.

I always knew that Ranger traits were a little disorganized but it just now really hit home. I have been sharing my time between Ranger, Elementalist and warrior …along with sub 80 alts. I do a lot of theory crafting when bored at work.

What I realized when picking traits for my other classes was how difficult it was. There are so many good things that I want to take but can only take 3 choices from a particular tree. Was just looking at the Ranger choices and noticed for some trees I am taking traits that I don’t really want or need…because there is nothing better.

Seriously, try some theory crafting with other classes. It is night and day tougher because of the options and how well each tree syncs with what you are trying to do.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Revert […] shortbow range change[…]

I don’t think the shortbow range should be reverted to 1200 simply because it’s stupid that the longbow and the shortbow share the same range.
However I think the trait “Eagle Eye” should also apply to the shortbow, so you would get your 1200 range if traited and a 5% damage buff.

However, do I remember correctly that shortbow #3 used to give vigor upon hitting a target a while ago?

Dave Pare.2069:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Longbow #5:
This attack is ok but it would be nice if you could cast it while running.
Another nice idea is that you can cast barrage without groundtargeting, so you can shoot it over walls in WvW.

LBskill 5: you’re thinking of a very WvW orientated change here, I like this skill to be graundtargeting. Casting the skill while moving would be the perfection but I think reducing the cast time from 2 ¾ to 2 or 1¾ sec would be enough as well.

I didn’t meant to remove the groundtargeting but adding the possibility to use this skill without groundtargeting.
As example: If you hold your right mousebutton, your character will face and shoot in the direction your camera is facing. So if your looking in a 45° angle upwards, your barrage will go down at the maximum range. If you looking straight up, you will cast barrage upon you.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Dave Pare.2069:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Longbow #5:
This attack is ok but it would be nice if you could cast it while running.
Another nice idea is that you can cast barrage without groundtargeting, so you can shoot it over walls in WvW.

LBskill 5: you’re thinking of a very WvW orientated change here, I like this skill to be graundtargeting. Casting the skill while moving would be the perfection but I think reducing the cast time from 2 ¾ to 2 or 1¾ sec would be enough as well.

I didn’t meant to remove the groundtargeting but adding the possibility to use this skill without groundtargeting.
As example: If you hold your right mousebutton, your character will face and shoot in the direction your camera is facing. So if your looking in a 45° angle upwards, your barrage will go down at the maximum range. If you looking straight up, you will cast barrage upon you.

Shooting over walls just needs the loose “line of sight” that AC’s have. They still ground target, but anything short of a massive wall in front of you won’t keep the skill from working. Though, to be fair, barrage is weak as hell in wvw anyway when everyone runs pvt so it wouldn’t make much difference. Give it the Meteor shower ticks and then maybe…

For the longbow, I see that everybody keeps suggesting, in some way or another, that a charge skill be added to the kitten nal.

My own personal thoughts on that currently is that Barrage should actually be reworked to be the charged skill. A short enough charge would cause an AoE immobilize and next to no damage. The longer the skill is charged for, the more damage and subsequent cripple the arrows would do to that area.

As for rapid fire, I absolute detest the entire design of the skill. It needs to be, as stated many times before, a much shorter channel, and/or fire less arrows. That, or sort of backload some more damage while making the remorseless mechanic more valuable by making Rapid Fire do more damage to foes with vulnerability.

LB #1 should be a charged up skillshot (ground arrow) or AA. if u use it as AA, there is no CD. if you charge it up, there is like a 15s CD or something.

i like barrage. cast time needs to be decreased and first wave of arrows needs to be immobilize. subsequent waves need to pulse cripple + vuln.

IMO barrage would be fine if the channel were shorter and usable while moving.

I would also be in favor of barrage’s damage doubled and it’s duration/pulses halved. WvW is a pain when I crit for 800 damage on pvt heavies and take almost half of that back as retaliation 60 times. I can lose half my health bar and never even be attacked by the enemy zerg while doing far less than an elementalist’s meteor shower or static field would.

More burst and less slow trickle of damage would go a long way toward fixing this and would make the skill provide more pressure than “whoops, better not accrue too much cripple”

I get that small pokes are our thing but it just doesn’t cut it with our only long range aoe skill when we are so starved for AoE in general.

Regarding opening strike i belive it should be a crit debuff on a monster.

Opening strike – affected foe has 10% extra chance to receive critical damage.

Now as for minor traits:
5 pts trait – when entering combat your first attack is an opening strike (8 seconds)
15 pts trait – opening strike raises damage from critical hits by 10%.
25 pts trait – opening strike grants attack of opportunity.

Grandmaster trait – your critical attacks have 15% chance to grant opening strike (3 sec).

New beastmastey trait (you decide the placement in line)- Smell of blood – your pet goes berserk and deals 20% more damage on foes affected with opening strike.

Well this is pretty rough, but more or less how i would do it.

Remorseless needs to be removed as well. This mechanic somewhat works for a thief because they can enter stealth every 4 seconds and have very high burst on demand. The Ranger can only reset it every 12 seconds if they hit with hunter’s shot. And worse still, the class has no burst to call forth so it’s only really ever going to be used with an auto attack or some other attack that does less damage. Similar problems exist with Moment of Clarity. The opportunities to use the trait are few and far between and even if triggered, the number of skills it’s useful to even consider using it on is 1—maul.

I’m also not a fan of barrage one bit. It doesn’t really work well for the weapon it’s on. I’ve said it in this thread and others, that the skill just needs to be moved to a utility and changed to actually be worth using.

If its damage was doubled, immobilized on the first wave, and provided a bleed for each wave of damage, and the channel time was removed or reduced, the skill would be better than Spike Trap with 30 points behind it. On top of this, it would be useful for numerous specs because it’s the only real AE the class has, will work for condition or power builds, and provides strong utility (immobilize).

It’s a win all around and gives the longbow an option for a real burst skill.

Longbow Changes.

LB1. Add chance cripple. Condi affects duration, Precision affects proc rate. It buffs zerker specs, and gives a reason to have condi LB.

LB2. Swap the channel time with Barrage so it’s shorter to give it more burst. Instead of 4 1/2, it’ll complete in 2 1/2 sec.

LB3. Stealth should happen the moment you fire and not based on landing a successful hit.

LB4. Keep the current effects. But attack should do double the damage or immobilize players that are hit doing gap closers. (e.g. heart seekers, swoop, earthshaker etc)

LB5. Swap the channel time with Rapid fire and increase it to it 4 1/2 sec. Change it from 12 volleys of arrows to 8 volleys. Shooter will be rooted for the entire duration of the 4 1/2 channel. Each successive channel’s damage goes up 1%, final channel does extra 10% damage. Animation should change in the last channel, arrows will turn into piercing white beams that rain down instead. Any movement done during the channel will cause the attack to stop and the player will evade flip 300 distance in the direction of the movement.

Good Changes

• Spike Trap (Utility), add smoke combo field.
• Frost Trap (Utility), add pulse base damage.
• Companion’s Might (Trait), now effects the ranger as well.
• Empathic Bond (Trait), moved to Wilderness Survival Master tier.
• Rapid Fire (LB), fires 1 arrow rather then channel skill and deals same damage.
• Pet, F2 will about-face target.

Still waiting to hear about these “amazing” changes.

Flytrap.8075:

Still waiting to hear about these “amazing” changes.

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you…this is Anet. I don’t believe they have any plans for the ranger. They just simply may not be intelligent or creative enough to figure it out.

Paulie.6215:

Flytrap.8075:

Still waiting to hear about these “amazing” changes.

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you…this is Anet. I don’t believe they have any plans for the ranger. They just simply may not be intelligent or creative enough to figure it out.

They probably think that adding combo fields to other traps (something that should have been there to begin with) is going to be received as super awesome innovation.

Unless they rework the pet mechanic, bring Ranger utilities and traits in line with other classes, and/or streamline awkward weapon skills, I’m going to be disappointed.

Flytrap.8075:

Paulie.6215:

Flytrap.8075:

Still waiting to hear about these “amazing” changes.

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you…this is Anet. I don’t believe they have any plans for the ranger. They just simply may not be intelligent or creative enough to figure it out.

They probably think that adding combo fields to other traps (something that should have been there to begin with) is going to be received as super awesome innovation.

Unless they rework the pet mechanic, bring Ranger utilities and traits in line with other classes, and/or streamline awkward weapon skills, I’m going to be disappointed.

Everyone will be disappointed, except for other professions, they get to keep their free kills.

One thing I have to wonder about the Longbow….Is there a single Balance Related reason why Long Range Shot exists in the game in its current form? Same question with the 900 range shortbow, instead of what it’s original range was?

I wish they’d replace rapid fire with something like barrage from GW1. Make it a cone type charge skill that shoots 5 arrows. As you charge it, the spread decreases. At max charge you have about a 10° – 15° total spread. Each arrow applies vulnerability. 2 second charge time, 6 second recharge.

That would solve some of our AOE issues and give us a decent burst skill.

For sword I hope they can implement something that will make the auto attack use the leap animation only when the range to the target makes it necessary.

Fantastic thread, good to see it’s had dev recognition. The Ranger has been the profession at the bottom of the pile since day 1, so let’s hope we see some significant improvements at the next balance patch.

I’ll give my “2 cents”, as the Americans say, on the Longbow. I haven’t had time to read through this whole thread so let’s hope if what I say here has been mentioned before then this reiteration will serve as a boost to the imperative for change.

Longbow

A theme I’m seeing emerging a lot lately is the lack of a solid, viable role for the Ranger. We seem to be drifting between whichever hybrid builds haven’t been nerfed at a given point in time, and it’s probably 95% of the reason we are disliked and shunned by all other professions in WvW, PvP and Dungeons.

The example I’ll choose here is the physical DPS role – The Berserker – probably one of the most popular builds in the game for most professions. A Warrior, Thief, Mesmer, Elementalist, Engineer and Guardian can all provide excellent physical DPS (the Necromancer of course suited much more to good condition-based DPS). However the Ranger falls far short of providing any sort of DPS on a par with the other professions – and this is perhaps in part due to the expectation that the pet will supply the remainder when it simply doesn’t because of numerous issues with its mechanics.

I chose the DPS example is for two reasons:

1. The way in which the longbow skills are structured suggest that it is designed to be a physical DPS weapon used for an all-out damage assault.

2. Berserker (or other similar builds) and high-damage roles are probably the most desirable in the game right now, and the Ranger deserves to excel in this role as well as the other professions.

Skills

Skill 1 – Currently, this is capable of some moderately good damage. However, this is entirely restricted to maintaining the farthest range possible from the target, as well as the ease with which the target may dodge these attacks due to the relatively slow arrow flight. The damage, while potentially moderately good, is not powerful enough to justify these flaws. Players on the Ranger forum are mostly under the impression that LB skill 1 is aimed towards a ‘sniper’ function, and the damage (whether directly implemented to the skill itself or through traits) should be boosted to reflect this.

A couple of popular suggestions for updates to skill 1 (which may be exclusive or inclusive depending on balance issues):

- Increase arrow flight speed significantly or increase damage
- Add the option to ‘charge’ the shot by holding down the skill key; longer charge = greater damage

Skill 2 – Rapid fire is currently too weak/slow to serve as a worthy DPS component. As the OP stated, above all else, rapid fire should provide more DPS than the auto attack. Just as the Warrior’s ‘hundred blades’ does. The key issues Rangers find with rapid fire are that it is too weak and the cast time is too long, with opponents easily being able to dodge the ‘burst’, or just withstand it all too easily.

Proposed changes include:

- Significantly reduce the cast time (ideally; seems the most popular suggestion)
- Increase the damage
- Significantly decrease the cooldown

Skill 5 – This is the Longbow’s primary source of AoE damage. And unfortunately it is heavily flawed. The rooting of the Ranger during the casting appears to be the main issue here, however it appears to also be easily-dodge-able.

Proposed changes:

- Allow the Ranger to move during the skill cast (ideally; seems the most popular suggestion)
- Significantly decrease the cast time
- Gain stability during the casting to help offset vulnerability issues
- Increase the damage.

I’ve picked out the most popular improvement suggestions, however there are some great unique ideas popping up in places. What remains clear however is that this is a weapon – the archetypal weapon of the Ranger in fact – that needs significant changes.

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Are you being intentionally naive or just trolling?

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Are you being intentionally naive or just trolling?

Little bit of both actually, with a little sarcasm thrown in.

Reason for that is, is that the concern is a very legit concern. In what way does removing the root on Barrage makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? In what way does having Rapid fire deal all its damage at once, or even faster makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? And no, there is no reason to ignore any concerns like that and leave Anet to figure that out.

Chrispy.5641:

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Are you being intentionally naive or just trolling?

Little bit of both actually, with a little sarcasm thrown in.

Reason for that is, is that the concern is a very legit concern. In what way does removing the root on Barrage makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? In what way does having Rapid fire deal all its damage at once, or even faster makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? And no, there is no reason to ignore any concerns like that and leave Anet to figure that out.

Skills between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. Traits between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. CLASSES need to be balanced between one another.

Barrage is currently an incredibly weak AE that does more harm than good. It makes no sense on the weapon it’s on for a class that has no other real AE option. It has absolutely nothing in common with what Meteor Shower provides to the Elementalist.

Rapid fire is currently an incredibly weak channel that does only a fraction more damage than auto attack does over the same duration. It’s also a very poor substitute for burst… something the class also is highly deficient in.

How do you expect a power based build for any class to work when it has 1 mediocre AE and 1 unreliable skill to fall back on for burst? Players are trying to come up with reasonable options while working with in the constraits set forth by ANet (half-[censored] solutions that take no thought or effort to implement).

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

[…]

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

If Rapid Fire would be a channeling skill with 1 attack, it would function like the warrior rifle. It’s already in the game. On the other hand there would be some drawbacks to it as well. You just need to dodge 1 skill which would be highly telegraphed.
My words expressed in warrior logic: l2evade or die n00b! lol.rofl.

What about something similar to “Dual Shot” or “Triple Shot” from Guild Wars 1? They were some of my favorite spike skills in pvp and pve.

Also what about more pet sync with weapons/skills/traits? We have a couple weapons that allow 1 unique pet ability on use, i.e. sword auto, longbow #4, etc.

dashin.1025:

What about something similar to “Dual Shot” or “Triple Shot” from Guild Wars 1? They were some of my favorite spike skills in pvp and pve.

Also what about more pet sync with weapons/skills/traits? We have a couple weapons that allow 1 unique pet ability on use, i.e. sword auto, longbow #4, etc.

Stealing from your idea of a throwback to guild wars 1, I think that overall the guild wars 2 longbow should have been designed as the successor to Splinter/Barrage from guild wars 1.

Seeing as how the shortbow already adequately incorporates how most of the competitive interrupt builds played in guild wars 1, besides the fact the interrupts in general in this game aren’t punishing enough to make a playstyle out of, I think that it would have been the best design goal to work towards.

Just my opinion though.

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Are you being intentionally naive or just trolling?

Little bit of both actually, with a little sarcasm thrown in.

Reason for that is, is that the concern is a very legit concern. In what way does removing the root on Barrage makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? In what way does having Rapid fire deal all its damage at once, or even faster makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? And no, there is no reason to ignore any concerns like that and leave Anet to figure that out.

Skills between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. Traits between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. CLASSES need to be balanced between one another.

Barrage is currently an incredibly weak AE that does more harm than good. It makes no sense on the weapon it’s on for a class that has no other real AE option. It has absolutely nothing in common with what Meteor Shower provides to the Elementalist.

Rapid fire is currently an incredibly weak channel that does only a fraction more damage than auto attack does over the same duration. It’s also a very poor substitute for burst… something the class also is highly deficient in.

How do you expect a power based build for any class to work when it has 1 mediocre AE and 1 unreliable skill to fall back on for burst? Players are trying to come up with reasonable options while working with in the constraits set forth by ANet (half-[censored] solutions that take no thought or effort to implement).

Okay, we know that many of Anet’s own solutions to profession balance isn’t any better than what we could come up with. They are terrible when it comes to balance, I get that, but, how is removing the root on barrage going to suddenly balance the Ranger against other professions?

How is turning Rapid Fire into an incredibly telegraphed skill going to balance the Ranger against other professions, and explain why it is supposed to be a burst skill? Why does the Ranger always have to have a burst skill on their weapon? If its because other professions have one on their weapons, then you yourself are comparing skill to skill instead of class to class. You can’t seperate the two.

Awsome thread!

I have some very basic suggestions on pet Changes that I feel should have been in game since launch…

These are the suggestions for already existing pets. Then of course I wish to be able to tame more pets in the future but that’s a different discussion.

• Suggestion for the F-Keys:

F1. “Attack” + “Return”; The pet attacksthe target u attack. the same way it works today. When pressed again it comes back to u and stays passive untill u order it to do something different. It wont attack anything that attacks u when in this mode.

F2. “Special skill”; Working as today but The timing of the fiering and the hit-ability needs to be looked over as the pet tends to miss a lot as it works today.

F3. “Defend” + “Guard”(maybe find Another name for Guard as a skill already has this name): Defend = the pet attacks whatever comes too Close to u within a radius of 600. “Guard” = The pet defends a targeted Ally (in the same way as Defend") that stays within pet range from u. If the ally wanders out of pet range the pet goes into “defend” mode instead. The mode stays Active until any other order is given.

F4. “Hide” + “Summon”; “Hide” = stowing, Works like todays stowing with the difference that the pet only comes out if u are attacked (by something attackable by the pet) going into “attack” mode. Not if u take falling damage. “Summon” = unstowing u’r pet. When this is done it automaticly ends up in passive/return mode and wait for further orders from u.

• It should be possible to see what skills the pet u have chosen, have when u hover the cursor over its portrait in the F-button-menu. Similar to the way its shown in the (K) panel, but without all the stat numbers.

• It should be possible to see what boons/conditions u’r pet suffer from. Either make it like a somewhat smaller party member icon in the left upper corner or Place the information over the pets F-keys. Parhaps the conditions/boons could show when u hover over the F-skills, saving the screen from unnecesary clutter when not wanted. (so that u dont have to search for the pet all over the screen in a mob in order to find and target it)

• Make it optional to hide/show u’r pets name+guild tag. I still have the blue “edges” that shows that it’s u’rs… Apart from that it loosk betetr IMO and reduces clutter info ist helpful in dungeons/instances etc not, to have it showing all the time.

• The (K) panel often pop on Rally/rez, plz remove that bug.

• In the (K) panel where u choose pet, plz make the portraits show the correct pet and sort them by pet type – easier to find what u’re actually looking for when u change pet.

• Plz make pets remember their names. It would make me use more different pets/change pet more often according to situation demands. I don’t Think I’m the only one… Annoying Little detail it is.

• The F2…. Either it fires instantly, causing miss (pet is not at target), not at all, or on contach with enemy. I Think the last one is the best in many cases – on contact. Its not uncommon though that it fires in the wrong direction etc… Pet AoE skills, such as howls could be fired instantly though… same goes for ranged attacks… Moas are tricky as they have both buffing and offensive skills (different target Groups). Maybe they should have AoE instead of cone attack and fire instantly like howls… The animations probably have to be faster in general (both atack and novement – even movement speed a bit) and the pets can probably not rely on the same system as the rest of the Tyrian creatures…. I’m not a programmer but I Think that would solve some problems even if it takes loads of work.

• Underwater, the drake attacks often miss when they fire instantly instead of “on target”… I dont know much about bears and felines underwater as I don’t use them that much… (A “realistic- thing” to me).

• I still get the “Charm” option if i get Close to somebody elses black widow spider, wich is the only pet I dont have (happens to any pet that is not yet tamed by a ranger). Make this annoying bug go away plz…

• Pets that create Poison, chill , fire etc… could have resistance to the same element that they use for dmg. For example; a polar bear, White wolf or an owl could be resistant to chill.

• U can hit all yellow targets. Why cannot the pet do the same even if I order it to? It can only hit SOME of the existing yellow targets. Gates etc is it often simply refusing to touch.

• Make the taming process more interesting. It could be a un-armed fight with the pet u’re about to tame down to 10% Health Before it agrees to come with u. When u engage the “tame” option u get un-armed and have a set of skills special for the taming process. Bypassers cannot interact in any other way than cast healing skills upon u. If the pet is in a high lvl area and u are low lvl compared to the area – prepare for one tough fight.

This would make me so happy!

jcbroe.4329:

Neko.9021:

Erm, I’m still pretty sure that Spirit Ranger is one of the best, if not the best home point bunker in the game. The class certainly needs work but Ranger certainly has a role in team comps as a home defender.

To quote myself from the team composition section: “More prevalent in PvE/Dungeons and WvW than PvP…”

But yes, rangers have always had a working meta build in the PvP environment. Unfortunately, that doesn’t imply build diversity and it doesn’t translate to the rest of the games content, which are two issues that basically every class in the game (except maybe Guardians and Warriors, and even they don’t have the most perfect examples of diversity) faces in some way, shape, or form.

Rangers have always had a working meta build. It is a shame the working build is complete and total AI spirits, where the burning that should last 2.7 seconds lasts 4 and the heals from the spirits have been above and excessive beyond what they were intended. In other words their meta build is viable because all of it’s AI is currently broken in favor of the ranger. This is perhaps the saddest fact. To be viable it needs a build that relies on AI that is broken..yup, that truly is saddest part. Gone are the days rangers didn’t even need pets. Gone are the touch rangers. Gone are the bunny thumpers. Gone are the condition pressure. Gone are the short range ranger interrupters. Gone are the bow preparations. It seems in order to break the trinity, the ranger carried most of that ‘broken’ for everyone else. Really sad to see how far they have fallen.

Chrispy.5641:

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Atherakhia.4086:

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

Are you being intentionally naive or just trolling?

Little bit of both actually, with a little sarcasm thrown in.

Reason for that is, is that the concern is a very legit concern. In what way does removing the root on Barrage makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? In what way does having Rapid fire deal all its damage at once, or even faster makes it suddenly balanced against similar skills? And no, there is no reason to ignore any concerns like that and leave Anet to figure that out.

Skills between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. Traits between classes don’t need to be balanced with one another. CLASSES need to be balanced between one another.

Barrage is currently an incredibly weak AE that does more harm than good. It makes no sense on the weapon it’s on for a class that has no other real AE option. It has absolutely nothing in common with what Meteor Shower provides to the Elementalist.

Rapid fire is currently an incredibly weak channel that does only a fraction more damage than auto attack does over the same duration. It’s also a very poor substitute for burst… something the class also is highly deficient in.

How do you expect a power based build for any class to work when it has 1 mediocre AE and 1 unreliable skill to fall back on for burst? Players are trying to come up with reasonable options while working with in the constraits set forth by ANet (half-[censored] solutions that take no thought or effort to implement).

Okay, we know that many of Anet’s own solutions to profession balance isn’t any better than what we could come up with. They are terrible when it comes to balance, I get that, but, how is removing the root on barrage going to suddenly balance the Ranger against other professions?

How is turning Rapid Fire into an incredibly telegraphed skill going to balance the Ranger against other professions, and explain why it is supposed to be a burst skill? Why does the Ranger always have to have a burst skill on their weapon? If its because other professions have one on their weapons, then you yourself are comparing skill to skill instead of class to class. You can’t seperate the two.

Barrage losing the channel will give the Longbow another way to kite a target and one that isn’t tied to stability. The entire class can’t afford to stand still because it’s not given enough tools to break free of movement impairing skills and being hit by them is catastrophic.

As for burst, It has been said repeatedly that for a power build for ANY class to EVER work there needs to be burst and/or AE. Currently the Ranger class has no real options for either. Until it does, a power build will never be viable.

Personally? I say drop barrage from longbow entirely and replace spike trap with it. Cut 1 second off Rapid Fire’s channel. Give the class a real burst skill for the #5 ability.

Chrispy.5641:

Its funny, and also sinking into sad territory that you guys keep saying the same things (remove root on barrage, make rapid fire a charging skill!), and not one of you have bothered to think about the side effects of what changes like those would do.

Remove the root on Barrage? Well, lets just remove that weakness from all weapon skills, like Meteor shower, Killshot, and hundred blades, and completely throw Position and Timing out the window, because, why not? Who needs time and position management or movement related weaknesses of any kind in an MMO whose entire combat system relies on movement? No one should have any weakness of any kind!

Let Rapid fire do all its damage at once? Well, okay. Lets make Hundred Blades, Unload, Arc Lightning, etc. do all their damage at once as well. Why not? Rangers are suddenly allowed to do it! Warriors, Elementalist, Thieves, Engineers, etc. want to do it too!

I seriously hope you’re just trolling.

1. Barrage is not nearly powerful/useful enough to warrant keeping the player rooted while using it.

2. It’s idiotic to compare rapid fire to skills like hundred blades, because there is substantially more damage output from the burst skills of other professions. Also, NOBODY is suggesting we should make rapid fire a charging skill or let rapid fire do all its damage at once. We simply want either increased damage to bring it more up-to-par with the burst skills of other professions, OR a lower cast time OR a lower cooldown.

3. The Ranger is the profession most in need of a boost, so leave us be.

please remove troll ungent from the game, or give us the same exact healing signet as warriors. We get double the hp regen as a passive signet, for 10 seconds. Its literally a garbage version of healing signet

Also, could some devs please tell me why entangle can be blocked when it specifically says “Unblockable” in the tooltip ?

Atherakhia.4086:

…

Bryzy.2719:

…

(@) – Ranger is my most played profession, so I am not going to just leave you be. If I have a concern about yours or anyone elses balance ideas, then I am going to say something, and I am going to ask about it.

(A) – Explain why Barrage is so weak. The root sucks, but that’s why you should learn to plan ahead. I fire off barrage in a choke point, and while an enemy player is running through it, I switch weapons and continue to hit them with my sword or greatsword, whichever I have equiped at the time. The combined dps from barrage still going off, combined with my pet, combined with my sword, sometimes combined with the traps I layed down beforehand, is more than enough to bring down just about anything, unless the enemy is smart enough to escape, but first they got to cleanse all that cripple and chill I just threw on them seconds earlier.

Barrage isn’t an incedibly weak skill. Its not even sort of weak. It isn’t Over powered either though. Barrage is a skill that requires you to plan ahead before you use it. And, yes, I am saying that your justification for removing the root on barrage is a sucky one.

(B) – Rangers do alot less damage than other professions, and need more burst options. I get that. Its because of our stupid A.I. controlled pets that our damage is so handicapped. So what is your suggestion to fix it? Make the Ranger’s Damage equal other professions, by any means necessary (faster cast times, reducing cooldowns, increasing damage, etc.)?

Okay, sounds good, but where does our pet fit into all of this? If Rangers are able to do 100% the damage that other professions can do, then you have to add in the 20% that our pets can help us do (and thats the low end). So, now we are doing 120% of the damage that other professions can do? While pet AI doesn’t work very well right now, when Anet fixes it (which we all know may be a long time before we see anything. Doesn;t mean you ignore it), where would the balance be? Would we get Re-Nerfed back down, or will other professions get a power buff to compensate?

Chrispy.5641:

Atherakhia.4086:

…

Bryzy.2719:

…

(@) – Ranger is my most played profession, so I am not going to just leave you be. If I have a concern about yours or anyone elses balance ideas, then I am going to say something, and I am going to ask about it.

(A) – Explain why Barrage is so weak. The root sucks, but that’s why you should learn to plan ahead. I fire off barrage in a choke point, and while an enemy player is running through it, I switch weapons and continue to hit them with my sword or greatsword, whichever I have equiped at the time. The combined dps from barrage still going off, combined with my pet, combined with my sword, sometimes combined with the traps I layed down beforehand, is more than enough to bring down just about anything, unless the enemy is smart enough to escape, but first they got to cleanse all that cripple and chill I just threw on them seconds earlier.

Barrage isn’t an incedibly weak skill. Its not even sort of weak. It isn’t Over powered either though. Barrage is a skill that requires you to plan ahead before you use it. And, yes, I am saying that your justification for removing the root on barrage is a sucky one.

(B) – Rangers do alot less damage than other professions, and need more burst options. I get that. Its because of our stupid A.I. controlled pets that our damage is so handicapped. So what is your suggestion to fix it? Make the Ranger’s Damage equal other professions, by any means necessary (faster cast times, reducing cooldowns, increasing damage, etc.)?

Okay, sounds good, but where does our pet fit into all of this? If Rangers are able to do 100% the damage that other professions can do, then you have to add in the 20% that our pets can help us do (and thats the low end). So, now we are doing 120% of the damage that other professions can do? While pet AI doesn’t work very well right now, when Anet fixes it (which we all know may be a long time before we see anything. Doesn;t mean you ignore it), where would the balance be? Would we get Re-Nerfed back down, or will other professions get a power buff to compensate?

Well, you’re completely wrong about my justification for removing the root from barrage as being a “sucky one”. To warrant such a prolonged vulnerability and inconvenience requires a better-than-average skill; barrage is not a better-than-average skill, and any other ranger who has experience with LB will tell you the same. Although many rangers don’t use LB at all anymore because it sucks.

My suggestion has never been to bring the Ranger character’s individual damage up to the same level as all the other professions’. My suggestion was to boost the Ranger’s damage on certain skills to a level that compensates for the lost damage through the lousy pet AI. I also left a disclaimer leaving it to the discretion of Anet (which of course it always is) to decide on the level of damage buff that would come with these suggested updates.

This is one solution. The other solution is of course to address the pet itself; obviously people would like a perma-stow option and for the Ranger’s individual stats to be buffed while stowed, but we all know this isn’t going to happen because of Anet’s stubbornness for this to be the central mechanic of the profession.

Another solution (albeit unlikely because it would probably be too complex) might be to introduce a player-chosen pet stat-scaling mechanism whereby the player may choose the degree to which the pet holds the player’s stats. E.g. you may wish for the damage output to be split 90/10 (i.e. 90% from the player, 10% from the pet) or perhaps 50/50 or 30/70 etc. But again I doubt this would be considered due to the numerous variables involved. The point is, the Ranger profession is centred around a flawed pet mechanic, and THIS is what needs to be addressed if they are too hesitant to give us direct DPS buffs.

Imagine my extreme surprise when I saw the red mark on this topic…

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!

Well, at this point, I would just be happy to perma-stow my pet (and I speak for a handful of other rangers from my guild as well). If y’all can’t figure anything else out like preparations or buffs for perma-stow that at least give us that option.

the next problem is. even if pet ai would not be crap.. powerranger has no “BURST” only sustained dmg. nothing like bullsrush+100B or similar combos on other class.

Okay, so to clarify to some people, Greatsword is the only weapon that actually has “burst” damage for rangers.

The reason why rangers need burst in some form stems more from other game mechanics than anything else. The lack of inherent ability to remove boons like protection (and stability and retaliation to a degree) means that you therefore have to have enough damage to puncture through those boons, or just high defense builds in general.

However, because of the way defensive builds are designed in this game, they are much, much better at handling and bunkering/outhealing sustained damage output than they are at burst damage, because even if the burst damage is reduced as well, it can be less predictable so that when you introduce a players skill factor into the equation, there is actually an opportunity to outplay opponents, where as now, with the lack of burst damage on certain weapons (longbow mainly), it significantly reduces the amount of skill factor needed in order to outplay a longbow user because the damage comes at such small increments and at times is pieced up into so many small hits that it doesn’t ever put out enough damage in a given moment to overwhelm an opponent.

For it’s channel time, Rapid Fire should literally be doing a base of a bare minimum of like 1800 damage (currently it’s 1320). Personally I think it should be a base of 2k damage, since you are firing 10 easily avoidably by side stepping arrows over the course of 4.5 seconds which in that time span means that more often than not you will have to break channel in order to dodge or heal or etc.

More arrows with higher channel time implies a higher risk, harder to land skill (on the spectrum of this game being from like necro marks as the easiest to like long range grenade throwing as an engi being the hardest, which is sad in itself) which should definitely be doing significantly more damage than the autoattack (it does less than 5% more at most, and that’s only in optimal conditions, because interrupting an autoattack with rapid fire is a dps loss).

That or reducing the channel time of Rapid Fire to like 2.5 seconds, which simultaneously makes it better at doing damage but harder to land (faster channel means more arrows missed on dodge), so that the skill resembles more of a “machine gun” burst. Especially since it seems incredibly ironic that Rapid Fire, a skill that has rapid in it’s name, is the slowest channeling skill in the game.

This is how a bow user is suppose to operate. They’re meant to kite:

http://youtu.be/DGiRlGyuMkk?t=30s

I’m more convinced than ever that this class should get a Fast Hand trait like warriors. I’d actually argue that should be no swap cool down for this game across all classes but that’s for another thread. Again, every class has gap closers, range, and CC options. There’s zero need to disable kiting as it’s a L2P issue, not a balance one.

Notice also the channel time of the skills. Fast and furious, or slow and powerful. This is what’s missing from the ranger longbow along with the lack of CC. Lightning reflex doesn’t cut it with the long cool downs.

hooma.9642:

the next problem is. even if pet ai would not be crap.. powerranger has no “BURST” only sustained dmg. nothing like bullsrush+100B or similar combos on other class.

The other big thing is Bull+100b can hurt like hell even if the warrior isn’t full glass. You absolutely HAVE to go full glass to get any kind of respectable maul hit and a glass ranger is about the second most easy kill in the game right after maybe a zerk necro.

Aridia.3042:

This is how a bow user is suppose to operate. They’re meant to kite:

http://youtu.be/DGiRlGyuMkk?t=30s

I’m more convinced than ever that this class should get a Fast Hand trait like warriors. I’d actually argue that should be no swap cool down for this game across all classes but that’s for another thread. Again, every class has gap closers, range, and CC options. There’s zero need to disable kiting as it’s a L2P issue, not a balance one.

Notice also the channel time of the skills. Fast and furious, or slow and powerful. This is what’s missing from the ranger longbow along with the lack of CC. Lightning reflex doesn’t cut it with the long cool downs.

Our ranger looks so slow and clunky by comparison it’s kind of sad. Also, +5 to them for not tethering the stereotypical AI “pet”. Nice to see some game devs are aware it doesn’t actually work as well as it does on paper and definitely doesn’t work in a game with no collision.

Substance E.4852:

Aridia.3042:

This is how a bow user is suppose to operate. They’re meant to kite:

http://youtu.be/DGiRlGyuMkk?t=30s

I’m more convinced than ever that this class should get a Fast Hand trait like warriors. I’d actually argue that should be no swap cool down for this game across all classes but that’s for another thread. Again, every class has gap closers, range, and CC options. There’s zero need to disable kiting as it’s a L2P issue, not a balance one.

Notice also the channel time of the skills. Fast and furious, or slow and powerful. This is what’s missing from the ranger longbow along with the lack of CC. Lightning reflex doesn’t cut it with the long cool downs.

Our ranger looks so slow and clunky by comparison it’s kind of sad. Also, +5 to them for not tethering the stereotypical AI “pet”. Nice to see some game devs are aware it doesn’t actually work as well as it does on paper and definitely doesn’t work in a game with no collision.

On the otherhand, that ranger in the video is just ridiculous. Is he using a machine gun or a bow?

runeblade.7514:

Substance E.4852:

Aridia.3042:

This is how a bow user is suppose to operate. They’re meant to kite:

http://youtu.be/DGiRlGyuMkk?t=30s

I’m more convinced than ever that this class should get a Fast Hand trait like warriors. I’d actually argue that should be no swap cool down for this game across all classes but that’s for another thread. Again, every class has gap closers, range, and CC options. There’s zero need to disable kiting as it’s a L2P issue, not a balance one.

Notice also the channel time of the skills. Fast and furious, or slow and powerful. This is what’s missing from the ranger longbow along with the lack of CC. Lightning reflex doesn’t cut it with the long cool downs.

Our ranger looks so slow and clunky by comparison it’s kind of sad. Also, +5 to them for not tethering the stereotypical AI “pet”. Nice to see some game devs are aware it doesn’t actually work as well as it does on paper and definitely doesn’t work in a game with no collision.

On the otherhand, that ranger in the video is just ridiculous. Is he using a machine gun or a bow?

What you bring up is basically an issue of realism, which is just a whole different can of worms. Some people may not think a bow should function like the video provided shows at times, but at the time time, we’re talking about a game (guild wars 2) with magic and clones and magically appearing bows and axes and grenades being thrown farther than rifles and bows shoot and pets that appear from thin air when “activated.”

I just don’t feel like it is fair to allow a game to be imbalanced because the perception of how a weapon should function in real life holds it back.

Maybe I’m just assuming things but I’m sure most ranger players would be happy with a simple explanation like “the reason why rangers can shoot arrows that fast and use bows the way they do is that they are so in tune with nature and nature’s magical properties that they are capable of imbuing themselves with magical properties that allow them to perform extraordinary abilities with a bow the other classes not as adept with natural magic as rangers would find near superhuman, and be incapable of performing themselves.”

Especially when it’s between a weapon that is balanced but doesn’t function “realistically,” versus a subpar weapon that performs “realistically.”

Just putting it out there, I’m not trying to accuse you of anything or make assumptions about your opinion, or argue about which way is “better,” I’m just sharing my opinion on the matter.

runeblade.7514:

Substance E.4852:

Aridia.3042:

This is how a bow user is suppose to operate. They’re meant to kite:

http://youtu.be/DGiRlGyuMkk?t=30s

I’m more convinced than ever that this class should get a Fast Hand trait like warriors. I’d actually argue that should be no swap cool down for this game across all classes but that’s for another thread. Again, every class has gap closers, range, and CC options. There’s zero need to disable kiting as it’s a L2P issue, not a balance one.

Notice also the channel time of the skills. Fast and furious, or slow and powerful. This is what’s missing from the ranger longbow along with the lack of CC. Lightning reflex doesn’t cut it with the long cool downs.

Our ranger looks so slow and clunky by comparison it’s kind of sad. Also, +5 to them for not tethering the stereotypical AI “pet”. Nice to see some game devs are aware it doesn’t actually work as well as it does on paper and definitely doesn’t work in a game with no collision.

On the otherhand, that ranger in the video is just ridiculous. Is he using a machine gun or a bow?

That is the one thing I love about Asia’s mmo combat is that it’s all stupidly over the top. Everyone moves crazy fast or has absurd attack animations and equipment. It makes it all a lot more fantastical and enjoyable. It’s one of the things GW2 lacks (unless you play thief) and it becomes dreadfully obvious when you use the same weapon sets for 1000+ hours.

Now, I am just spitballing here, but what about the idea of give the ranger a new skill mechanic?
Sort of like how the necro got torment.

I’ve always thought of the ranger of having some sort of stealth like mechanic, yaknow, stalking your prey thru the wilderness sort of deal.
Something half way between stealth and visible, a camouflage of sorts.

Say it grants the player partial transparency, and they cannot be targeted directly by most skills. Pets, minions, clones and turrets will still be able to attack them, and npc’s coild occasionally lose track of them, increasing with distance.

And unlike stealth it doesn’t break when you attack.

Keep it limited, maybe give it to other professions in even more limited capacity, not thieves, they have enough visibility problems as is.

It won’t fix all their problems, not by a long short, but it’s somethimg worth considering. If not this idea, msybe some other kind of mechanic.