Guild Wars 2

The only reason I have stuck around this game for so long is because of the combat system. It is very smooth and enjoyable. Even though I am considered to be a top tier player I grew to that status through my ability to 1 v 1. Although it was a personal goal to succeed at 1 v 1s I find myself to be incredibly hindered at top tier play. The reason being, I am a ranger and my pet holds me back.

Pets,= are great 1 v 1. Being able to have those extra 4 skills to hinder my opponent coming from another source than myself is wonderful. However, at top tier team queue where my team and I are rarely fighting against another ranger the pet is a huge hindrance. 1 v 1’s rarely happen because there isn’t usually a need for them, and if they do happen they never go to completion as someone always comes into help.

The reason I say the pet is a hindrance, is because If I were to be playing another class, I could more effectively help my team. This can be shown in two separate scenarios; we need to lock down our target and I need to peel an enemy off of my ally. In either of these scenarios my team and I cannot afford to wait that extra 2-5 seconds for my pet to do what it needs to do. I need that fear, that knockdown, that immobilize in an instant. If I were on another class then I could have access to those types of skills within my 3/4 of a second cast time. Which is practically on demand relative to my pets.

As a ranger, I do not bring much to a team fight. The only reason ranger has been run for so long is simply because Spirit of Nature is so strong. Finally, people have learned that it can be interrupted, and more often now (with all the might going around) the spirit can just be killed very quickly.

Compared to other classes, ranger doesn’t have great mobility (teleports; making ranger quite horrible on kyhlo because the pet spends 90% of its time running around (even with god tier pet control because the enemy can just kite it up and down the boxes)). Ranger doesn’t have good aoe, the only aoe is traps which leaves the ranger with NO survivability. Ranger has decent single target damage, but why would you want that single target damage when you can just use a class with some cleave and do more damage to everyone?

This leaves the ranger with 3 viable options.
Option 1: Homepoint but be a hindrance to your team in anything more than a 1 v 1 (because another class would bring more)
Option 2: Team fight as DPS as power ranger. But you need crazy peels, you cannot cleave when a guardian rezzes (shield bubble block arrows, barrage isn’t enough dps, gs is too weak), and GS is a poor weapon yet the only viable option to pair with a lb.
Option 3: Spirit of Nature (rez bot), (staff ele can support better and hold side nodes better).

There are 2 main reasons for these issues that prevents the ranger from being truly viable at top tier play

1. Pets: WE MUST BE ABLE TO CONTROL ALL OUR SKILLS AND THE PET MUST USE THE SKILL WHERE IT IS! NOT TRY TO GO TO THE TARGET! But this won’t happen because we must cater to casuals who, somehow, can handle the 25 ele skills, and anywhere from 14-30 skills on engi.

2. Poor trait layout/Weapon design: every class suffers this a little.

Frankly, I find it ridiculous that the ranger cannot be allowed to control every pet skill or AT LEAST ONE MORE! When looking at all the classes we find:
Necromancer: 24 skills.
Ranger: 17 skills.
Mesmer: 19 skills.
Thief: 16 skills.
Guardian: 19 skills.
Warrior: 16 skills.
Engineer: 22-26 skills on average.
Elementalist: 25 skills.

Now, ranger has similar amount of skills as many of the other professions. But when we look at the other professions we find they all do something WAY better than the ranger. Thief, more damage, more escape. Guardian, more sustain, more support. Warrior, more everything. Mesmer, more damage more escape.

Ranger cannot keep up with these classes. Honestly, many classes struggle to keep up with ele/engineer imo because they have twice as many skills as most of the classes. These classes can be equipped for any and all scenario, while the ranger has to pick and choose what he would like to do best and in the end, another class could do that roll better.

The ONLY thing that can make the ranger viable, is to make it remain the jack of all trades, and allow for full use of pet skills.

Not only does this help the ranger in PvP but also in WvW/dungeons where skills such as bear endure pain, moa heals, etc can be used WHEN NEEDED.

I am capable, of playing with my pet to so that I can synergize with my pet’s #4 skill (4th skill, aka skill on the far right in the pet panel). I am also capable of using f3,f1 to constantly keep that skill on cd for when I need it. IT IS A NIGHTMARE. Which makes me wonder, is the typical casual really so bad that we cannot be allowed the control of at least that skill, or will ranger forever be doomed to a sub par roll in every aspect of this game?

The reason for that is that they only have 4 slots for the f skills and programming more would be.. eherm.. “to much of a hassle” or something like that. Yeah, thats a cool reason isnt it <<
But for whatever reason the ranger has with the agressive/passive switch already one more button than any other class but which isnt bindeable to a key.
I agree it sucks especially on the khylo part, pet path finding never was so annoying.
I also wish we could at least switch which pet skill we want to activate with f2. I would love my drake to make his breath whenever he feels like it but instead having control over when he does his kitten blast finisher. Heck we cant even see the boons and conditions the pet has.
Every AI build suffers from these problems, all because of this kitten , static, written in stone interface which doesnt leave any room for that they are so proud of.

it’d be better if they made the pet able to “jump”, like go up and down surfaces we can (basically like running up and down the crates when ordered/when i go up them)

also, i play spirit in tpvp just cuz that’s what most rangers run, but I’ve also found that trap works surprisingly well too

here’s the build i use, ive gotten many ppl asking what it was so here it is… lol:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAsf3YjEq0ya5K2rQ1agDhqdJ8rjA7A4BigXFbGXlStK-TJhHwAPLDQ4kAA4JAAa/BA

u can swap a battle sigil out for corruption, but i found that battle is more consistent overall, not only because you have to take the time to kill people (with that weaponset), but also because if you die, you lose the bonus… ive found that with that build, i can maintain 9-12 stacks of might up consistently in a fight, doing the math, its only a slight dps loss than 6-9 stacks of might with 25 stacks of corruption

also, i personally like lynx pet, but snow leopard works well too, and the f2 according to the tooltip hits a LOT harder

i agree with this topic,
but i think the pet is not the only reason for the bad spot of ranger actually.

maybe anet can finaly start to care about the ranger after 1 year of doing nearly nothing for this profession?
of course it will take time to look on this profession, they did it for warrior, now they can do it for ranger aswell!

there was a ranger cdi topic and some ranger players just wonder to see zero results of it.
poison master don’t count, it’s just a joke to take it into a grandmaster trait and then also in wildnes survival.
pet rework also don’t count, it’s a bug fix should have done after the beta and
it’s still not work well after the last patches.

would be nice to get some informations finaly what is going on.
actually it looks just like this cdis was a bad fool.

about the pet controll,
i would also like to controll the 2 important skills of the pets myself.
of course sometimes my wolf do some amazing random knocks, but i like to time things like this by myself…

i also would prefer to see the cooldown of my passive traits like empathic bond and the stun break in general,
that would give me the chance to take some safe stomps, because i know my passive stun break is still ready or not.
also would safe me for misstakes like using signet of renewal at the wrong moment, because my passive condi remove was ready again.

Oidmetala.8426:

i agree with this topic,
but i think the pet is not the only reason for the bad spot of ranger actually.

maybe anet can finaly start to care about the ranger after 1 year of doing nearly nothing for this profession?
of course it will take time to look on this profession, they did it for warrior, now they can do it for ranger aswell!

there was a ranger cdi topic and some ranger players just wonder to see zero results of it.
poison master don’t count, it’s just a joke to take it into a grandmaster trait and then also in wildnes survival.
pet rework also don’t count, it’s a bug fix should have done after the beta and
it’s still not work well after the last patches.

would be nice to get some informations finaly what is going on.
actually it looks just like this cdis was a bad fool.

about the pet controll,
i would also like to controll the 2 important skills of the pets myself.
of course sometimes my wolf do some amazing random knocks, but i like to time things like this by myself…

i also would prefer to see the cooldown of my passive traits like empathic bond and the stun break in general,
that would give me the chance to take some safe stomps, because i know my passive stun break is still ready or not.
also would safe me for misstakes like using signet of renewal at the wrong moment, because my passive condi remove was ready again.

I agree, with you. Shared anguish isn’t too much of a hindrance because I usually have a pretty good idea if it is up or not, but empathic bond and signet of renewal is brutal. Too many times have I had my condis cleansed by empathic bond miliseconds before using my signet. The poor game design really sucks with such a great engine.

Professions by skill options:
Necromancer: 10 base weapon, 5 utility, 4 from DS (which locks off utilities)
Ranger: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 2 actives from pets
Mesmer: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 4 from shatters
Thief: 10 base from weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from steal/bundle
Guardian: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 3 virtues
Warrior: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from burst
Engineer: 5 base weapon, between 5 to 5 to 17 from utility, 4 from toolbelt
Elementalist: 5 base weapon, 5 to 21 from utility, 15 from attunements.

Please keep your facts straight, true engie and ele on average have 4 more skills as options, but they require a timing/its compensated by them being gated behind other actives.

Compared to other classes, ranger doesn’t have great mobility – yes 4 leaps are truly little, compared to lets say necros 0

Lets then list other defense:

AoE projectile reflect pre 25/20s

Evades at – 1 pre 3s, 1/2 pre 8s, 3/4 pre 9, 1 and 1/2 pre 10s, 3/4 pre 15s and 3/4 pre 40 (AKA only a bloody evasion thief can get that high invul uptime)

3s Block every 15 seconds (if you dont let the enemy hit you under 150 range, then its cc against the target)

Now while i do agree that a OPTIONAL (aka little checkbox) for difference between ai control and player control should be applied for all pets, you know that full pet control for ranger would require across the board nerfs on pets for stuff like the Warhogs and Dogs brutal charge and the Moa heal cry.

Still support the notion of aspects, which remove the pet as a form of damage (subsequently buffing our own damage output so there is no waiting time), but that aspect choice (taken from gathering pets) is something which can be switched to retain the utility the pet would normally provide.

This solves:
-Pet kiting and the slowness and delays on pet skills/damage.

-WvW structure interference (your pets cannot attack up, or more importantly, DOWN keep walls while attacking/defending against players even if you can), pets getting stuck.

-AoE damage problems/no active mitigation (obvious pet deaths)

-Solo archer theme/roleplaying problems.

-Solo archer/ranged DPS stylistic play.

ANet needs to stop being so stubborn and understand that pets are simply too poorly implemented and too forced upon the ranger class to keep them as they are. Pets need to change – or simply be able to be removed – entirely in order to preserve a competitive s/tPvP/WvW environment for all of the classes.

Andele.1306:

Professions by skill options:
Necromancer: 10 base weapon, 5 utility, 4 from DS (which locks off utilities)
Ranger: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 2 actives from pets
Mesmer: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 4 from shatters
Thief: 10 base from weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from steal/bundle
Guardian: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 3 virtues
Warrior: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from burst
Engineer: 5 base weapon, between 5 to 5 to 17 from utility, 4 from toolbelt
Elementalist: 5 base weapon, 5 to 21 from utility, 15 from attunements.

Please keep your facts straight, true engie and ele on average have 4 more skills as options, but they require a timing/its compensated by them being gated behind other actives.

Compared to other classes, ranger doesn’t have great mobility – yes 4 leaps are truly little, compared to lets say necros 0

Lets then list other defense:

AoE projectile reflect pre 25/20s

Evades at – 1 pre 3s, 1/2 pre 8s, 3/4 pre 9, 1 and 1/2 pre 10s, 3/4 pre 15s and 3/4 pre 40 (AKA only a bloody evasion thief can get that high invul uptime)

3s Block every 15 seconds (if you dont let the enemy hit you under 150 range, then its cc against the target)

Now while i do agree that a OPTIONAL (aka little checkbox) for difference between ai control and player control should be applied for all pets, you know that full pet control for ranger would require across the board nerfs on pets for stuff like the Warhogs and Dogs brutal charge and the Moa heal cry.

This is a PvP post. Please don’t come in here saying that I need to get my facts straight. a ranger in 1 build, can potentially have sword 2, LR or LR and swoop for mobility. Granted, these are decent skills, but considering on maps where classes can just straight teleport up ledges, these mobility skills mean nothing. Not to mention, the lack of perma swiftness, allows certain classes like warriors to be able to keep up even though we have these mobility skills.

As for the number of skills IN A GAME. ON AVERAGE. The ranger can have 17 active skills, while elementalist has 25, and engi 22-26. So you’re right on the weapon swap, I didn’t consider that.

5 from weapons, 1 from heal, 3 utilities, 1 elite = 10 skills.
Profession skills: 1-4 depending on class.
Ele: Has therefore, 14 base skills. For the attunements, each of those 4 skills gives another 5 skills. So, since attunements aren’t “active” and the ele starts in 1 attunement we have 3 skills for the ele that give 5 more skills each = 15 skills.
That means, ele has 10 base skills + 15 skills in a match = 25 skills.

As for engi, if you’re running a viable build, you either have bombs/nades, or nades/toolkit. Therefore, engi has the bast 14 skills, but the kit is not an active skill, and therefore gives you only 4 more active skills (5 new skills – 1 utility). As you can see, each engi has 14 skills – 1x + 5x skills (x being the number of kits) Since most (all) engis run at least 2 kits we have, 14 + 4(2) = 22 skills, and since a lot of engis run a third kit they have 26 skills.

So as you can see, I have my facts straight, eles have 25 active skills in a match, engis have 22-26. = 5-9 more than ranger. ON AVERAGE, not 4.

Sure, ranger IS GREAT at holding a node 1 v x with the right build, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about balance and the fact of the matter is potentially holding a node in a 1 v x situation is not what makes something viable at top play. We have subpar AoE, we have sub par single target damage, we have sub par mobility, we have sub par boon rip, WE HAVE SUB PAR TEAM FIGHT. When we do have decent team fight (DPS ranger) then we have sub par survivability (and even damage). The only other decent “team fight” is spirit of nature, that’s not even the profession! THAT IS A SINGLE Skill.

Giving ranger access to the full range of pet skills might bring the ranger up to par because it would be able to lock down targets/peel for itself. Sure, moa heal is “strong” but so is ele cleansing wave (x2 from dodge roll). Sure, warthog kd is strong, but so is earthquake. Sure, wolf kd is strong, but so is diversion shatter. Seriously, giving the ranger access to pet skills would MAYBE make them viable, no where near OP. But if they are OP, I will be the first to ask for nerfs.

The point is, ele and engi, have access to more skills, more options, making them better in a team fight. All I want is ranger to have access to that 1 more pet skill (pet #4) because it will help the ranger be more viable in top tier PvP play. I don’t see how giving full control of these skills would make the ranger OP, they can already be put on CD with f3/f1 to be used when the ranger needs it. But that is unsatisfactory to do because at top play sometimes I need that skill in the next 2s, not the next 5 that I now have to wait because I had to interrupt the skill putting it on that 5s cd.

I do agree that beside spirit builds there is not much ranger can do in team fight.

Having more usable pet’s skill wont hurt but i currently don’t have a problem with it right now. ( I dont use pet for CC so )

I think pet responsive is perfect right now but it wouldn’t hurt if it goes even better so…

im not so sure about that mobility thing though …. ranger has a lot already unless you play things that have none of them.

You know what’s more broken and cheese then having too much skills available to you?

having skills with no CD.

i’ve always dreamed about warriors having more skills like f2 f3 f4 or 2 phased skills, but nah, anet like to buff passives. and people like to believe pressing more buttons = more skilled, not.

before we get started on giving us the rest of the pet skills on our f keys… lets work on the actual skill they did give us. the f2.

so they “fixed” pet responsiveness which made them actually use the skill when we told them to. great. but it still doesn’t work as well as they wanted it to…

the cast times are still too long… sure i can press f2 on my wolf and it’ll start channeling it immediately… LOL

well that’s fantastic, it “used” it when i told it to but now i still have to wait a second and a half before i actually get the effect

so wolves (canines in general) open with their knockdown. nice. so the pet takes time to get into range, then uses its knockdown skill. that’s good right?… LOL again. by the time the wolf uses finishes channeling its 1 1/4 second cast time for the knockdown, my target already moved out of range of the rooted pet and boom. i missed out on potential damage, knockdown, and a chance to get in some damage of my own while my target is cc’d…

so before the dev’s (they won’t anyways) give us the rest of our pet skills to control/choose, let’s ask for our f2 to be fixed… again.

I have 8 free keybinds on my ranger (without counting the 12 free buttons on the Naga) that I would love to fill up, if only there was something to bind on them. I still remember old WoW arenas where you needed 35-50 binds on average to avoid clicking mid-fight like a… well like a clicker. Now I got 17… Seventeen! 17! One-next-to-Seven! Gimme something to work with.

I agree with this even though i dont play a ranger.

Plz don’t post builds or gameplay advice in this thread. These issues are not something that can be corrected by playstyle changes. They are fundamental to our class design.

Here is what I imagine for pet change:
f2 when pressed will change the f1-f4 keys to:
f1-pet skill 2
f2-pet skill 3
f3-pet skill 4
f4-back to “old” pet control menu.

Aside from that rangers really need a rework to our traitlines to support varied builds. Eles get core traits like blasting staff for 10 points. Rangers need 30, two traits, and our utility skills to use traps.

Rangers are in the dump…

Finally a constructive thread on these forums.

I think the F1 and F3 commands can be compressed into one command easily. Press F1 once to make the pet hostile, and press it again to make it passive and return back to the owner. This would also resolve the issue of having to press the “Hostile > Passive” button on our pet interface that currently does not have it’s own keybind.

This way we can have 1 free function command button. For the free F3 space, I would recommend putting all the slot 4 skills that pets have within this command. Canine Knockdown, Avian AoE Swiftness, Moa Harmonic Cry, Drake Tail Swipe, etc.

This would be a step in the right direction, without dramatically altering the keybind functions too harshly and allowing Rangers to control the most powerful, currently passive, skills that pets formally controlled on their own.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Finally a constructive thread on these forums.

I think the F1 and F3 commands can be compressed into one command easily. Press F1 once to make the pet hostile, and press it again to make it passive and return back to the owner. This would also resolve the issue of having to press the “Hostile > Passive” button on our pet interface that currently does not have it’s own keybind.

This way we can have 1 free function command button. For the free F3 space, I would recommend putting all the slot 4 skills that pets have within this command. Canine Knockdown, Avian AoE Swiftness, Moa Harmonic Cry, Drake Tail Swipe, etc.

This would be a step in the right direction, without dramatically altering the keybind functions too harshly and allowing Rangers to control the most powerful, currently passive, skills that pets formally controlled on their own.

^ THIS.

Eurantien.4632:

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Finally a constructive thread on these forums.

I think the F1 and F3 commands can be compressed into one command easily. Press F1 once to make the pet hostile, and press it again to make it passive and return back to the owner. This would also resolve the issue of having to press the “Hostile > Passive” button on our pet interface that currently does not have it’s own keybind.

This way we can have 1 free function command button. For the free F3 space, I would recommend putting all the slot 4 skills that pets have within this command. Canine Knockdown, Avian AoE Swiftness, Moa Harmonic Cry, Drake Tail Swipe, etc.

This would be a step in the right direction, without dramatically altering the keybind functions too harshly and allowing Rangers to control the most powerful, currently passive, skills that pets formally controlled on their own.

^ THIS.

I agree, this would be wonderful.

Additionally, if all or most hidden ‘abilities’ (ie: shared anguish, empathetic bond, warrior’s “last stand”) had an icon to display when they’re going to pop (empathetic bond would have a timer like time-stack condis do, while shared anguish would have an icon more like opening strike) to allow for the player to be aware and the enemy to counter play. With the option of hiding these (defaulted to be off), as they can cause quite the screen clutter for the inexperienced.

(Oh and let me see my pet’s boons and condis!)

shadowpass.4236:

before we get started on giving us the rest of the pet skills on our f keys… lets work on the actual skill they did give us. the f2.

so they “fixed” pet responsiveness which made them actually use the skill when we told them to. great. but it still doesn’t work as well as they wanted it to…

the cast times are still too long… sure i can press f2 on my wolf and it’ll start channeling it immediately… LOL

well that’s fantastic, it “used” it when i told it to but now i still have to wait a second and a half before i actually get the effect

so wolves (canines in general) open with their knockdown. nice. so the pet takes time to get into range, then uses its knockdown skill. that’s good right?… LOL again. by the time the wolf uses finishes channeling its 1 1/4 second cast time for the knockdown, my target already moved out of range of the rooted pet and boom. i missed out on potential damage, knockdown, and a chance to get in some damage of my own while my target is cc’d…

so before the dev’s (they won’t anyways) give us the rest of our pet skills to control/choose, let’s ask for our f2 to be fixed… again.

I can’t help but wonder if they’re afraid to give shorter casting time to the pet skills because they think pets will deal too much DPS. Which I think is silly. All a player has to do to avoid the pet is move. And if PvE enemies get chomped quickly, welp, that’s just too bad, especially considering zerk warriors already do that.

I agree with Eurantien, and I absolutely agree with merging the F1 and F3 into a toggle for pets.

I’ve mained ranger in both GW1 and GW2 forever now, and not only have I been forced to witness the class become completely and totally be reworked to be less interesting, engaging, and effective, but I have watched other classes simply acquire functions that were unique to the ranger in GW1 leaving them with nothing nearly as unique or effective to work with.

So, that being said, I’d like to add my own perspective on some things. Not to say I disagree with Eurantien at all, just a different perspective.

I don’t actually think there are any issues with our Greatsword at all. When going full melee and combined with S/X (usually dagger), the greatsword is a very decent damage tool and a strong bursting weapon in the right build. You can extract from that then that the issue lies with the Longbow.

The Greatsword truly is not a defensive enough weapon right now to be coupled with the Longbow, but there isn’t really a better option than the Greatsword because too much damage and burst capability is lost otherwise. So, if the longbow were a different sort of weapon, maybe either a more burst heavy weapon, it could be combined with a more defensive swap set of S/D and be a viable combination at that point.

However, my suggested alternative, since the greatsword already functions as a decently strong burst tool for us, is to make the longbow more control based. One of the biggest issues I’ve found is very similar to what I would consider a damage guardians issues are; which is that rangers lack lockdown abilities on opponents allowing them to negate a lot of our damage.

Making the longbow a more control based weapon would be a boon for more than just adding more play and more burst options combined with the greatsword, it would also give more options to the weapon to lock people down and hit them with the very constant, no burst style damage that the longbow outputs, and would give a third benefit of gaining some defense through appropriately and skillfully using the lockdown on the weapon.

Sorry if it’s a lot to read. I personally would think that would be the best option, and a control based longbow would add some interesting plays to teams as well I believe, being able to make plays as a team on a single target and being able to contribute something more than just damage, for instance, as well as the weapon combining with other weaponsets, like S/D, to make it more of an evasion style constant damage nuisance (I call it the “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” playstyle).

It could be argued whether or not the game really needs more control based effects, but in reality that’s a different balance discussion of “are control effects where they need to be right now” and not a valid argument for whether or not the suggestion actually benefits the class and fixes any of the discussed issues.

Edit: Also, when combined with the right pets, rangers do have “enough” control options, but then the discussion of the effectiveness of pets gets put back into play, which I believe Eurantien and others are discussing and full force, and I would simply say that I support everything Eurantien said, and can back the ongoing discussion.

See, I’m under the impression we have enough lock down with our pets but we just can’t control them.

As for the lb vs gs. I find GS only good for mobility and burst but it greatly lacks in the effectiveness of the block or the hilt bash. I think the animation for hilt bash should be smoother so it can be used on targets running away (if they are in ranger) and I think gs 4 should be reworked in order to block multiple melee hits. Personally, I want the counter attack gone but the GS throw to be either a daze, stun, or kd so that we can maintain the the CC (when only targeted by 1 melee person) but gain more defensive capabilities for this weapon and its associated builds.

Eurantien.4632:

See, I’m under the impression we have enough lock down with our pets but we just can’t control them.

As for the lb vs gs. I find GS only good for mobility and burst but it greatly lacks in the effectiveness of the block or the hilt bash. I think the animation for hilt bash should be smoother so it can be used on targets running away (if they are in ranger) and I think gs 4 should be reworked in order to block multiple melee hits. Personally, I want the counter attack gone but the GS throw to be either a daze, stun, or kd so that we can maintain the the CC (when only targeted by 1 melee person) but gain more defensive capabilities for this weapon and its associated builds.

I would be absolutely fine with that, though I’ve always wanted to see the thrown greatsword be an immobilize, so that even though it loses play from moment of clarity, Stability can’t negate the control effect.

I’d personally love to see the lowest tier of the longbow autoattack removed, the highest tier shaved a tiny bit, and rapid fire be a bit more burst oriented, and with a shorter channel time. Combine that with turning LB 3 into a two part skills so that the first part, you just stealth, no arrows shot or anything (so that it’s a guaranteed stealth) that also effects the pet, and then either add Point Blank Shot as the 2nd part of the skill and open up the 4th skill slot for a new skill, or a shot that immobilizes for a short period of time.

I’m always back and forth about what I want to do with Barrage. The skill itself is fine, but in truth it’s kind of the skill that is least like the other skills on the longbow, and changing it to something different could definitely make it more efficient, just as slightly altering the skill could, or even just leaving it. I would like to see it changed so that it functions like Meteor Shower though, if it doesn’t. I get the impression that it doesn’t, but essentially, canceling the channel early shouldn’t drastically reduce the amount of hits by as much as I feel it does versus the whole channel. Never tested it, could just be the impression I get.

^^^^^^ WOW. I love those ideas, ima add it to my “Power to the Rangers!” thread if u don’t mind =D.

Also, I agree with Eurantien. Gs4 throw should be a knockdown. I mean, by a logic standpoint, you are literally, chucking your greatsword at someone… I think it’d do a little more than just cripple them for 5 seconds.

But then you have the next poster quoting my “logic” part of this post and argue every other logical/illogical thing in the game. So please, save yourself the time and don’t.

lol.

Eurantien.4632:

1. Pets: WE MUST BE ABLE TO CONTROL ALL OUR SKILLS AND THE PET MUST USE THE SKILL WHERE IT IS! NOT TRY TO GO TO THE TARGET! But this won’t happen because we must cater to casuals who, somehow, can handle the 25 ele skills, and anywhere from 14-30 skills on engi.

Amen to that…
Was one of the main reasons i stopped playing my ranger.

Lets take ranger from WoW as an example. There you had a nice long pet par and autocast mechanic.
Who was lazy could just put evrything on autocast ( how its on gw2 pets on default ).
Who wanted to be better hotkey’d more important abilities and put less important ones on autocast.
But hardcore players had options to use everything on their own…

Why we are forced to use the lazy person’s pet in GW2 is something i just can’t understand.

Also, another thing i have always wanted for pets is to give them dodge immunity while you dodge yourself.
Would give nice boost to pet’s survivability. Nice way to avoid those 1 shot deaths that happen on pets.

I think first we should aim for some smaller steps.
First we need more group utility on f2. Make the howl type skills both boost allies and debilitate enemies. Cooldowns need to be adressed, they are way too long in most cases.
Then we can start reworking the core functions.