TPvP - Ranger Balance

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Hi, I’ve been playing ranger for almost 2 years in TPvP I have rather good understanding of every build, its strong points and weakness. Ranger is currently the worse class in Team Que.

Currently it’s mix of weapon skills and few odd traits that are making its extremely hard for us to break into the meta with a decent build.

Here are list of improvements we require:

Weapons

Warhorn

  • Hunter’s Call – 50% damage increase or applies Vulnerability with each hit.
  • Call of the Wild – Reduce the CD to 30, improve the might to 3 stacks.

Axe (Offhand)

  • Whirling Defense – Make the skill usable while moving.

Greatsword (The damage out of this weapon is sub-par even in a full Berserker build)

  • Auto-Attack, 10-20-30% damage increase.
  • Maul – Improve damage. (Even with full Berserker and Hunt+Wild both used with int rune it still hits less the Rapid fire, that’s massive investment for a skill doesn’t even hit hard.
  • Swoop – Change the evasion duration to 3/4.
  • Counterattack – Improve the damage by 50%, this skill should punish its foe, highly telegraphed so it’s easy to see coming.

Sword

  • Auto Attack – 10-20-30% damage increase per attack.
  • Monarch’s Leap – 100% damage increase.
  • Serpent’s Strike – Improve the range of the attack. If you use this skill it puts you so far out of range of the target it won’t land the poison. The only way is fix the range of the skill.

Traits

  • Tail Wind – Should work outside of combat. This will give rangers better mobility which is badly required.
  • Trap potency – Also Removes Boons per pulse.
    This change is a must, currently Trap Ranger is forced to take 3 traps and loses any type of survival (Stun breaks, condition remove, invon).
  • Invigorating Bond – Reduce to 15 seconds CD. Improve the heal to scale up to 2k with Compassion Training traited.
  • Strider’s Defense – Change to Reflect’s projectile rather then destroys or this skill will never be used ever.

All these changes are required, every single weapon change I’ve stated I have tested with current good builds. None of these changes will make any of the weapons over powered. This won’t bring us back into the meta fully but it will help allot.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

(edited by Sol.4310)

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Posted by: Chaith.8256

Chaith.8256

Traits

  • Tail Wind – Should work outside of combat. This will give rangers better mobility which is badly required.
  • Trap potency – Also Removes Boons per pulse.
    This change is a must, currently Trap Ranger is forced to take 3 traps and loses any type of survival (Stun breaks, condition remove, invon).
  • Invigorating Bond – Reduce to 15 seconds CD. Improve the heal to scale up to 2k with Compassion Training traited.
  • Strider’s Defense – Change to Reflect’s projectile rather then destroys or this skill will never be used ever.

All these changes are required, every single weapon change I’ve stated I have tested with current good builds. None of these changes will make any of the weapons over powered. This won’t bring us back into the meta fully but it will help allot.

Yeah I agree with everything that you’re saying.

Also, Strider’s Defense actually needs to be changed how it functions, lol… currently it’s just impossible for me to play around, as a non-ranger attempting to use Ranger, at least..

I mean, blocking 20% of projectiles while you spam Sword1/Greatsword1?

How about 100% block to frontal projectiles cast from outside 600 range, while executing a melee attack? This way, you’d still get turned into a pincushion if you turned your back to run.

Forum Lord Chaith
Twitch.tv/chaithh
New Twitter: @chaithhh

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Posted by: Frenk.5917

Frenk.5917

I agree with everything OP and Mr. Fancy Eyebrows ( <3 Chaith) said, especially Strider’s defense change.
The only thing that left me a little bit unsure is the “Improve damage on Maul”, whch I believe is already a very good source of Spike Damage, especially if used in combo with GS#5.

Frenk – EU
All is vain

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

@ Frenk.5917, GS#2 only does around 4k crit’s to light golem with full zerker build.

(Bugged/Broken) Moment of Clarity doesn’t work so you don’t do any extra damage from #5-#2 combo.

Say you took Wild+Hunt+Int Sigil and critical hit with your Maul at best 7-8k damage, but that requires 6/6/0/2/0 full zerker paper thin and you can only do that every 48 seconds, so you can’t call that good burst.

The LB will still do more damage with its burst skill without using Wild+Hunt and doesn’t require full zerker paper thin setup and you can do that every 10 seconds.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

Imo GS 5 needs a cooldown reduction since it is hard to hit. Agree on Warhorn and Axe Offhand.

I think in general would benefit greatly from more access to interrupts. Imagine something like Sharpening Stones would daze for 0.5 sec for the next 5 attacks instead of causing bleed.

Both bows are fine now but most other weapons are somewhat lacking. The real needed fix would be a pet/shout rework though. Remove all the bad pet traits and add stuff that buffs weapons.

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Posted by: vashio.6297

vashio.6297

I think the main focus of buffs that the ranger needs

1. Better options to gain swiftness outside of combat(Your Idea with Tail wind would be great)
2. Traps really need to combine traits or adjust the current to have more utility( I personally really miss playing trap ranger).
3. Fix sword auto attack so you can dodge mid attack(I remember them saying they were fixing this issues but what happened?).
4. Better Pet control so we can actively control all its attacks also show boons/conditions on the pet on the hub.

Its always a gamble when increasing damage on weapon sets its a better approach to find/search for other things the classes just needs fixing or polish before increasing damage.

Sol
I always enjoy reading your posts and what you come up with and enjoy the ideas you come up with and glad you take so much pride to help the ranger class.

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Posted by: Atherakhia.4086

Atherakhia.4086

Some of the stuff I agree with, but are you sure the main problem behind the Ranger not getting into the meta is damage? I’m more concerned with what the class is capable of doing for their group and how it defends itself on point.

I don’t think increasing 1h sword’s damage is a good idea. It already does great damage. Similarly, it’s hard to justify increasing GS’s damage if you don’t increase 1h sword because then they’d both do the same damage. I’d much rather see the utility on GS improved than see its damage increased.

Your other changes for 1h sword seem great though. It would be nice if Hornet’s Sting lost the delay in cast and it was put on Monarch’s instead (or perhaps Hornets had an AE, 1 second blind). But a burst skill on 1h sword is absolutely needed. With SS, it just needs to track better. I’m not sure the range is the issue. It just goes too far around.

For greatsword, I’d rather see a blast finisher on maul (but that’s unlikely because it’s probably OP), and also add additional range on hilt bash so it can be used more reliably. Would be nice if Two-Handed training trait provided Fury to the group as well.

I’m also curious if you have any strong opinions on Shortbow? It could really use a high power attack and some help in the condi coverage area. Increasing the stun duration to 2 would also be nice. Pick one of the attacks to triple damage on for some small burst potential.

Your trait changes seem fine. I’m not sure Rangers should need trap potency to get active boon removal though. Right now most classes either have strong ways to stack boons on themselves or ways to counter boon application in someway. Rangers really don’t have either (unless we consider stacking boons on the pet). I say make all ranger traps pulse as some don’t, but make them only pulse for 3 seconds. Each pulse removes a boon.Trap potency can double the pulses to 6 seconds.

On the Ranger forums some people suggested changing Strider’s Defense to simply reflect projectiles whenever the Ranger dodges. Seemed fun but I’m not sure how ANet feels about Rangers being the best counters to Rangers.

I’d also like to see something more done to allow a power oriented melee build sustain better on point. At least if maul was a blast finisher they could blast a poison trap for AE weakness. What if a trait existed that gave the animal attacks (Maul, Swoop, Serpent Strike, etc) a secondary effect? Perhaps in NM line?

The last thing I’m curious about is how prevelent spirit spam is these days? Is screen clutter still a problem?

(edited by Atherakhia.4086)

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Posted by: Ragnar.3916

Ragnar.3916

and maybe just think about all the nerfs made on ranger in the past and simply change them back to there old state.

natural vigor back to 50% maybe, just because there is other professions with much better survive/heal and much better damage and much better vigor uptime then ranger ever can heave…

change back all spirit nerfs, because you just made them from useless to useful and back to completly uselss (where is the sense behind this kind of thinking?)
why the hell it’s a problem to heave a spirit (you heave to waste an utility slot) with 3 seconds burning every 10 seconds.
but an engi easy heave access to 7!!! seconds of burning with balthasar runes and only need to crit every 10 seconds AND don’t need to summone a spirit which can die for this. ye and well, don’t forget the good block, vigor and perma swiftness, stealth, blast finishers, low heal cooldown, pull blah blah blah on this build.

i also don’t know why the spirit of nature got this hard nerfs (1 second not able to cast after you summon it (all spirits at least…), and decrease of the healing power when it anyways is not so hard to interrupt and die really fast in teamfights allready)

why the hell i need to trait 30 points into beastmaster to get the trait zehpyrs speed when you allready nerfed quicknes hard in the past, there is no sense to trait 30 points and waste them for this trait at the moment…

really just/first simply aned should start to watch this profession and think about there senseless horrible nerfs they did in the past…
some of them completly destroyed good builds on this profession was fun to play and now it’s just time to unnerf all this misstakes was done in the past…
because they buffed/changed so much in the past made other professions so much superior.
(and of course buff useless traits on ranger aswell, classic problem on all profsessions)

they did the same on elementalist, why not on ranger.
only bring him back to his old state would be a good help and not much work for the devs right now…

but ye, ofc don’t forget the old problems on the weapons pointed out in this topic allready, becaue they are completly ture and also need a hard buff because they never worked well since release in this point…

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Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

I never really understood striders defense. I mean even if it would reliably reflect projectiles … ranger has to survive classes that are faster than him but thief mostly hits melee and mesmer doesnt use that much projectiles.

Maybe it should be some kind of evasion similiar to mesmer that triggers on the next attack after a dodge roll. Like 1 sec distortion. This is a greatmaster trait in a very offensive traitline.

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Posted by: Staffordshire.1752

Staffordshire.1752

My suggestion to the problem is making 1 change in the condi survival route to make it more useful in teamfights.

The grandmaster trait survival of the fittest should apply to both traps and survival skills, this gives us more teamfight pressure while not having to give up our best condi clear option.

ive made a larger topic in the ranger section

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Posted by: Azure.8670

Azure.8670

I agree with everything except the axe 5. Moving wouldnt really change much, instead you should be able to cancel it into a power spike type attack, either a melee hit or axe 4 minus the pull

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Posted by: Chaith.8256

Chaith.8256

I agree with everything except the axe 5. Moving wouldnt really change much, instead you should be able to cancel it into a power spike type attack, either a melee hit or axe 4 minus the pull

Moving would change everything. Lmao.

You could cripple people and basically whirling axe on their face, and them unable to retaliate with projectiles. You could also be able to move out of AoE and still keep the reflect going.

Forum Lord Chaith
Twitch.tv/chaithh
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Posted by: Azure.8670

Azure.8670

I agree with everything except the axe 5. Moving wouldnt really change much, instead you should be able to cancel it into a power spike type attack, either a melee hit or axe 4 minus the pull

Moving would change everything. Lmao.

You could cripple people and basically whirling axe on their face, and them unable to retaliate with projectiles. You could also be able to move out of AoE and still keep the reflect going.

yeeeaaaaa no. I mean, if people want it, then its cool by me, but it seems worthless. Would you have full, regular movement speed or be slower? if youre slower, then its dumb, if you have regular speed, people will complain its a chessy crippling moving reflect. I dunno

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Posted by: Chaith.8256

Chaith.8256

I agree with everything except the axe 5. Moving wouldnt really change much, instead you should be able to cancel it into a power spike type attack, either a melee hit or axe 4 minus the pull

Moving would change everything. Lmao.

You could cripple people and basically whirling axe on their face, and them unable to retaliate with projectiles. You could also be able to move out of AoE and still keep the reflect going.

yeeeaaaaa no. I mean, if people want it, then its cool by me, but it seems worthless. Would you have full, regular movement speed or be slower? if youre slower, then its dumb, if you have regular speed, people will complain its a chessy crippling moving reflect. I dunno

Yeah it doesn’t cripple. But we agree now that it would change things significantly.

Forum Lord Chaith
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New Twitter: @chaithhh

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Posted by: BlackBeard.2873

BlackBeard.2873

Ranger has a lot of capabilities that overlooked, and isn’t THAT far off from being competitive. I DO think one of the biggest drawbacks for power ranger is the lack of a good heal for the spec. Troll Unguent isn’t great on zerker, its better for sustain. Healing spring has a pretty long CD and traps you in place to maximize effectiveness – not an amazing choice for power ranger. Heal as One has an insanely long cast time and the pet healing doesn’t really matter that much.

A suggestion I have heard that makes a TON of sense is:

Make Heal as One a survival skill, and decrease the cast-time to 3/4 s.

That gives power ranger a viable burst heal (which you need for burst builds) that synergizes really well with a survival build to get some pretty good condi clear.

I am not sure the ability to pressure is the problem at the moment, but don’t really have the Ranger experience to say if these numbers are great or not. I get worried any time I see “Increase by 30%…100%, etc.” Maybe more gradual buffs?

(edited by BlackBeard.2873)

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

@BlackBeard.2873, I really like that idea. It would open up http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjUq0yaHLmsQ1ag9gadAUAndrhw9BXEtdJjqC-TpBFwACuAAA3fgxhAAxRAoaZAAPAAA

But the reason I asked for Sword/Horn/Axe changes is to help open up new builds. We currently locked into running LB/GS Berserker as our Power build. There is no other weapon setup.

Now look at it this way. “if” you could run Sword/Horn or Sword/Axe over GS it would open up different Utility options.

You could take Sword/Horn -Healing Spring combo.

LR/Stone/Renewal is the goto for Power Rangers outside of Survival of the Fittest. Now say they changed S/H you could drop Renewal and it opens up that slot for E.g. QZ to combo with Barrage/Rapid fire combo in a big team fight.

Sword/Axe with improvement’s would become viable Power option as well. Opens up combo’s like Hornet Sting – Monarch’s leap followed with Whirling Defense it will channel almost duration of the cripple soon as it’s down followed up with Path of Scars into weapon swap Rapid Fire. Currently there aren’t any combo’s you can do on this weapon setup. You could even Path of Scars into Whirling Defense.

Also say your target is running away and for E.g. they are 1600 away from you, about-face Hornet Sting followed with Monarch’s Leap closed half the gap into path of Scars which would put you at a decent range to land the pull right into your whirling. The combo’s go on depending on what your trying to do.

Now is that OP far from it as it requires player skill and timing to land such combos.

Tail Wind This skill is something I would like to see work outside of combat, the skill still has 9 second internal CD so your not going to have perma swiftness.

Invigorating Bond

Reason I asked for this change was I wanted us to be contender for back-point again. Currently War/Ele/Engi running Cele setups are your best options for back-point. Now I want you to take look at a build I designed around the idea of becoming back-point build which is on par with current builds.

Build I designed around the improvements: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8fjMqUwa/KWsw1aAMhqdB0pBw7cYUrZXNbBTWA-TZBHwAAOIAGeCAd2fQwJAAZZAA

Now if you break the build down, most back-point builds these days offer some support for team mates outside of 1v1’s so when fight does become 2v2 they can support there team mate while keeping to there 1v1 build. Currently BM Ranger has weak options.

So change Invigorating Bond.

You now have team support outside of your 1v1 build, Healing Spring + Invigorating Bond + Renewal. This will bring you on par with current back-point builds.

Let’s break down the damage from the build, it require might stacking so you are now a hybrid build. Current problem with running this build it won’t work as a hybrid your better off dropping might stacking and all your power and going full conditions. Which then results in you being sub-par at back-point.

So with improvement to Sword it lets you build around being hybrid allot better which is your best option for back-point. I won’t go into full details but as you can see this build would work.

I’ll leave it at that see how it goes.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Trap Ranger and what roll does it serve it’s a team damage spec. High condition pressure with great control, with decent skill cap and good risk vs reward. Currently only real team damage build we have is Power Ranger, you can’t count Spirit Ranger it’s a Team Support spec with low condition damage.

Trap Potency – Also Removes Boons per pulse and the weapon changes how will this effect our trap build.

Now I’ve ran Trap Ranger allot in both Solo and Team que for fairly long time. I know the builds inside and out. Now the problems I’ve found there are to many gaps between the damage application to make the lack of survival worth it. Rabid isn’t a viable option anymore, so we have resorted to Carrion or Celestial amulet.

I will try my best to explain what I’m trying to get across so I might go into detail on few parts so you understand.

You are require to run 3 traps which takes up all your Utility Slots leaving you open to allot control effects which are rampart in team fights. You could drop Viper’s Nest for LR but you lose fairly large chunk of damage.

Trap’s have a base damage which pulses depending on the trap. Spike trap only Pulses once Flame trap 3x and same with Viper’s Nest. Now that’s total of 7 raw damage pulses over duration of 3 seconds. Your going to avg 100-400 damage each pulse now say your target has Protection which there is a decent chance that damage becomes so low its worthless. So traps are now only good for there condition output.

You Apply Poison/Burning/Bleeds/Cripple and 1 second immobile’s. Now if you way up your options that really isn’t impressive. You could take a Warrior with LB and apply all these conditions from 2 skills on LB #F1/#5. So whats the point of taking traps when a class that doesn’t require taking 3 Utilities Slots to apply the same damage.

So this is where Boon Remove on pulse comes into play. It sets the build apart and add’s it counters for current Cele/Might meta. Currently to require Mesmer or Necro to remove boons so in a Team Fight where you require that boon remove what would you rather take Trap ranger with no boon remove or Mesmer or Necro that has boon remove.

So lets say boon’s are remove on pulse. We now have a viable team damage spec that’s on par with current boon remove spec’s.

Brings us to next part that alone won’t bring Trap Ranger back into the meta. Buff’s to Offhand Axe, Sword, Horn and Tail Wind will boost the build back into the meta.

Axe/Axe – Sword/Torch or Axe/Axe – Sword/Horn. Now both builds are different in many way’s the backbone is built differently both built around current amulets that are viable. These builds are currently un-viable until they make some changes.

*Axe/Axe – Sword/Torch requires Carrion
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnX8fjEqUua7KerQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WgkittenBbQBraA-TZRHwAe2fYwRAIwJBAZZAAPAAA

*Axe/Axe – Sword/Horn requires Celestial
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHPxG2IjKlr2ui3KUtGwQoa3CBbJwOAigJ41xWwqG-TJhHwAEeCAb2fAwJBwYZAA

You could use SB in the build but I found the Trap Ranger works best when your swamping weapons every 10 seconds, this isn’t a dueling build its meant to be team fighting pushing.

Would these builds be OP far from it. There is plenty of counter play to beat the Trap Ranger. But this would really give us some options you could mix and match and really design a build around your team comp.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

(edited by Sol.4310)

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Offhand Axe.

Whirling Defense has great damage but unless you can move it will never be any good and makes the weapon worthless.

Take look at a trait called, Horned Axes requires main hand axe but the bonus works better with offhand axe. So your forced to take Axe/Axe to run that trait, but that current weapon setup is sub-par, Rangers defense doesn’t come from blocks and blinds ours comes from protection/dodge and evades on weapon setups. That weapon setup isn’t effective you can’t move/dodge/evade while using #5.

Now this bring’s me back to changes I stated.

Fix Moment of Clarity, Improve the Greatsword, change the #5 on Axe and you now have viable Power build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAnXRjEqUwaFLOsw1aAChaVA0eFK2Ugd8OAPQC/q89A-TpBFwACOBAn2fgxhAAxRAoaZAAPAAA

Not saying this would be best build I’m using it as E.g. to get across what I’m trying to improve on the ranger and why.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: BlackBeard.2873

BlackBeard.2873

Lot of information there, Sol. Not gonna pretend to be a Ranger expert, but I do have some opinions on some of the proposed changes.

As far as some of the changes:
- Counterattack – I don’t think this thing should do 50% more damage. That would be MORE damage than maul currently. It’s also not really hard to land, as it will instantly proc against any melee opponent before they can really react. Perhaps it just needs a little longer range as it, from what I recall in my forays into ranger, it can often out-of-range.?
-Monarch’s leap: Not sure this is meant to be a high-damage skill. Mainhand sword is mostly taken as a defensive weapon with all those juicy evades. Low-damage is fair given the mobility potential and evasion of the first skill.
-Serpent strike: How about we just make it use the pathing from flanking strike. This also improves the mobility of MH sword as untargeted flanking is faster than just running forward.

One problem I see in having traps remove boons on pulse is that it basically makes every trap into well of corruption, but way better b/c of shorter cooldown. Being able to remove that many boons AOE puts the boon removal of trap ranger higher than necro and mesmer. Also, I don’t think boon removal is really a ranger thing. This feels more like a knee-jerk response to the current meta than actually the proper response.

It might be better to add some defensive capabilities to deploying traps or within the field of procced traps.

(edited by BlackBeard.2873)

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Lot of information there, Sol. Not gonna pretend to be a Ranger expert, but I do have some opinions on some of the proposed changes.

As far as some of the changes:
- Counterattack – I don’t think this thing should do 50% more damage. That would be MORE damage than maul currently. It’s also not really hard to land, as it will instantly proc against any melee opponent before they can really react. Perhaps it just needs a little longer range as it, from what I recall in my forays into ranger, it can often out-of-range.?
-Monarch’s leap: Not sure this is meant to be a high-damage skill. Mainhand sword is mostly taken as a defensive weapon with all those juicy evades. Low-damage is fair given the mobility potential and evasion of the first skill.
-Serpent strike: How about we just make it use the pathing from flanking strike. This also improves the mobility of MH sword as untargeted flanking is faster than just running forward.

One problem I see in having traps remove boons on pulse is that it basically makes every trap into well of corruption, but way better b/c of shorter cooldown. Being able to remove that many boons AOE puts the boon removal of trap ranger higher than necro and mesmer. Also, I don’t think boon removal is really a ranger thing. This feels more like a knee-jerk response to the current meta than actually the proper response.

It might be better to add some defensive capabilities to deploying traps or within the field of procced traps.

Counterattack – Max DPS build will still only get you around 2-3k damage and that’s if it “critical” hits. that’s against a light armor target that has no protection. Now say they have protection and some toughness. Now do the maths its rather bad damage for such big telegraph which good players see coming and stop attacking. If GS became a strong meta weapon how long do you think it would take before people catch on to what Counterattack looks like.

Monarch’s Leap – Currently its serving as better option of bad options. If you run offhand + main hand weapon you have Axe which is conditions and sword which is nothing currently, has poison 2 evades and some low base damage, now say your using it in a Condition build buffing the damage won’t change much it’s still going to be low damage in a condition build. I’m all about opening better build options rather then being forced into set builds due to bad weapon setups.

Now say your using it with a LB Zerker build, currently when you change to sword/horn or sword/dagger or sword/torch or sword/axe you do so little damage your giving your target 10 seconds to do whatever they want. Now say your using it as defensive weapon, why would you take Sword/Horn over GS when it does more damage and has evade and 5 second block and a stun? So wouldn’t smart option be buff 1 skill which requires skill to land to do damage.

I don’t get why you think Sword is defensive weapon, other classes have blinds and blocks on there burst weapons…. Look at our GS for E.g…

I don’t think boon remove on traps is acting as knee-jerk to current meta, if you think a Trap Ranger with them changes is going to beat a Ele your wrong. Say the Trap ranger becomes meta build. A good d/d ele knows trap ranger means traps around him so open with burning speed pop the traps and go on your way. Back in the day we used to use traps to counter ele’s we can’t now and adding boon remove won’t change that.

It’s risk vs reward. To get that type of boon remove requires you to take full trap’s means any control effects are going to wreck you. Fear Necro will eat you alive, Mesmers with GS/Staff won’t have a problem vs you. Warrior’s are 50/50 that battle is something you won’t know who will win. If there Shout Warrior, all your going to do is break there Might Stacking, you won’t be able to kill them. Engineer and Thief will have a problem, but they always have had problem vs Trap Ranger so nothing will change there.

Now compare Trap Ranger to Cele Rifle Engi. Seems balanced to me…

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

@sol
Moment of clarity requires you to interrupt an enemy attack to get the +50 % damage for the ranger. Hilt bash (gs5) still give +50% dmg to pet, regardless of trait.

Ranger is currently viable in TPvP, but it is dependent on group comp. It can sub out a thief or second ele, but cannot sub out warrior, DD cele ele or mesmer without compromising team flexibility.

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

@sol
Moment of clarity requires you to interrupt an enemy attack to get the +50 % damage for the ranger. Hilt bash (gs5) still give +50% dmg to pet, regardless of trait.

Ranger is currently viable in TPvP, but it is dependent on group comp. It can sub out a thief or second ele, but cannot sub out warrior, DD cele ele or mesmer without compromising team flexibility.

It’s been very buggy trait for me rarely proc’s. That could be due to being aussie so the 240ms I get always misses.

Prysin your always posting ranger is fine and its viable and I’m starting to think you don’t understand the ranger at all.

Take look at the rolls required in most viable team comps.

Burst – LB/GS is decent, but GS and not being mobile really hinders the roll compared to Mesmer with portal or thief being able to rush across the map. In terms of Damage I say we up there with Mes and Thief but we let the team down in other areas. If Power Range became meta in Top Tier team’s all ele’s would change to S/F and hard counter us.

Roamer/Backpoint – Ele/Engi/War out shine us in this roll big time, offering Team Support, there more mobile and there damage in 2v2 is far better then currently Survival builds we have to offer. Maybe if our pet’s didn’t take such large hit from pet damage nerf we would be in a better position.

Bunker – Guard/War/Ele offer best bunker builds. Ranger doesn’t have a good bunker setup.

Team Support – We have Spirit Ranger and that’s it. Which players finally understand how to counter it’s still decent build but nothing like it used to be.

Ranger is viable in Solo Que, but not viable in Team Que.

I’ve gone over every single build we have to over and played it relentlessly in Team Que to get firm grasp of the build I’ve spent countless hours dueling meta builds used in team que. I’ve gone as far making every single class and learning there builds to know them inside and out so when someone says we are viable class in Team Que I get the feeling all they do is play ranger…

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

I think flavor wise troll unguent would be the better survival skill and I think it works well even in a berserker spec.

Heal as One is just an underwhelming healing skill though that needs something unique. Maybe “Heal for X. For the next 10 seconds heal yourself by 50% of the damage your pet takes. 20 sec cd.” Would work nice with all the damaging conditions transfer, AoE dmg the pet takes would actually be beneficial and most importantly it would be awesome with Protect Me which desperately needs something to compete with SoS. You could even think about making Heal as One a shout.

If Power Range became meta in Top Tier team’s all ele’s would change to S/F and hard counter us.

This is very accurate. I mean competitive players hardly complain about power ranger because it is rather easy to counter just by playstyle. But in general people dont even consider it that big of a threat to adapt the meta. Yet some people already demand LB nerfs.
If anything the melee weapons should try to catch up with the LB buffs. Swoop into Hilt Bash/Maul can actually be nice if it connects but Hilt Bash being the bottleneck there needs a lower cooldown and in general if we had an utility skill that interrupts to interact with MoC that would be great. I miss gw1 interrupt potential of ranger and ranged supression (beside dmg) would actually be a nice niche for the class.

(edited by Dojo.1867)

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Posted by: Ryan.9387

Ryan.9387

Good suggestions all around.

Ranger | Elementalist

(edited by Ryan.9387)

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Posted by: TheLargeUnit.2793

TheLargeUnit.2793

I would like to see Warhorn #4 apply a 1 second blind every time a bird comes down to hit the foe. I think that this would make it a valid survivability utility that the Warhorn was otherwise lacking.

Achmed Afro Thunder ~ Six Ft Pole Achmed ~ Dharok The Ravenous
Long Live [ASAP] Zerg: The greatest guild that ever was or will be.

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

I would like to see Warhorn #4 apply a 1 second blind every time a bird comes down to hit the foe. I think that this would make it a valid survivability utility that the Warhorn was otherwise lacking.

When you talk about Survival you need to factor in few things why would you be blinding someone with #4. “Normally they are about to land a burst skill or you want to counter play”.

  1. would have to be reworked currently has a cast time so making it blind wouldn’t make it an effective skill at all. There isn’t any counter player, blinding them for the duration of 12x would be over kill.

To me the skill should be used as a burst skill reasoning behind it, currently offhand axe and warhorn are our only offhand DPS weapons. Axe/Sword main hand is to low on damage to be viable in a power build. So buff damage on #4 so you can catch them foe’s running from you.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

I would like to see Warhorn #4 apply a 1 second blind every time a bird comes down to hit the foe. I think that this would make it a valid survivability utility that the Warhorn was otherwise lacking.

When you talk about Survival you need to factor in few things why would you be blinding someone with #4. “Normally they are about to land a burst skill or you want to counter play”.

  1. would have to be reworked currently has a cast time so making it blind wouldn’t make it an effective skill at all. There isn’t any counter player, blinding them for the duration of 12x would be over kill.

To me the skill should be used as a burst skill reasoning behind it, currently offhand axe and warhorn are our only offhand DPS weapons. Axe/Sword main hand is to low on damage to be viable in a power build. So buff damage on #4 so you can catch them foe’s running from you.

The birds apply the blinds over a certain duration. Not the overall duration stack is what matters but that it gets reapplied while the birds attack effectively removing enemy damage for 2-3 sec. Certainly decent for 1on1 but warhorn would still need more might stacks for 5 (1 stack is a joke) and propably some really good warhorn specific trait similiar to warrior. I actually think they should replace most of the useless pet traits (and nearly each of them is useless) with traits that buff a certain weapon.

Maybe: Using a warhorn skill refills 25% of endurance for allies in 600 radius.

Ranger needs more team utility. Giving allies next to you an additional dodge if you use both skills seems appropriate and would make ranger less of a 1on1 class.

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

I would like to see Warhorn #4 apply a 1 second blind every time a bird comes down to hit the foe. I think that this would make it a valid survivability utility that the Warhorn was otherwise lacking.

When you talk about Survival you need to factor in few things why would you be blinding someone with #4. “Normally they are about to land a burst skill or you want to counter play”.

  1. would have to be reworked currently has a cast time so making it blind wouldn’t make it an effective skill at all. There isn’t any counter player, blinding them for the duration of 12x would be over kill.

To me the skill should be used as a burst skill reasoning behind it, currently offhand axe and warhorn are our only offhand DPS weapons. Axe/Sword main hand is to low on damage to be viable in a power build. So buff damage on #4 so you can catch them foe’s running from you.

The birds apply the blinds over a certain duration. Not the overall duration stack is what matters but that it gets reapplied while the birds attack effectively removing enemy damage for 2-3 sec. Certainly decent for 1on1 but warhorn would still need more might stacks for 5 (1 stack is a joke) and propably some really good warhorn specific trait similiar to warrior. I actually think they should replace most of the useless pet traits (and nearly each of them is useless) with traits that buff a certain weapon.

Maybe: Using a warhorn skill refills 25% of endurance for allies in 600 radius.

Ranger needs more team utility. Giving allies next to you an additional dodge if you use both skills seems appropriate and would make ranger less of a 1on1 class.

Not a bad idea, your right about one thing but "useless pet trait’s. Just take look at Skirmishing trait line that is filled with so many useless traits its unbelievable.

What I hate most we won’t see single improvement to the ranger, it drives me mad how long we have waited for minor changes to trait’s and weapons that us as players see but dev’s seen like that refuse to listen.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

With useless pet traits I mean most traits that focus on the pet, not just BM traitline. The one that increases pet crit dmg by 30% is ok. Others that increase pet healing power, boon duration, movespeed, condi duration are plain bad imo and should be replaced. And since pet in general is really not promising for viable builds I would chose the save way and keep pet traits in BM line (that still needs improvements ofc) and exchange most other pet traits with stuff that imporves ranger himself.

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Posted by: McWolfy.5924

McWolfy.5924

In wvw rangers one of the greatest weaknes is the mobility. I think rangers have the worst escape/engage ability. Even necros, guardians can keep a distance. A thief/mesmer/warrior/ele never lose against a ranger if he decide to escape. I think this is a bad thing.

WSR→Piken→Deso→Piken→FSP→Deso
Just the WvW
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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

@Sol
How to put this. Ranger is viable, but not preferred?

We can fill a slot for other professions, and the whole “poor mobility” argument is just plain wrong. Rangers got very good mobility, however you gotta use the right weapons (GS or Sword). If you do not, their mobility is indeed quite meh. Now, we do not have spammable teleports like a thief, so no we cannot beat a thief at mobility, what we got going for us is range, while the thief is fast, it needs to close the gap almost to melee range, while we can engage further out, this applies to all our weapons, even the GS has a 1200 range ranged attack (GS4, throw blade. Does quite decent damage if using opening strikes. Seen it crit for 3.5k).

We cannot provide the unique support of a mesmer (mass invis/portal), but we can grant reliable boosters in the form of spirits. While spirits are being hard countered by hambow, it is capable of holding it’s own against other builds, perhaps not the old spirit build, but ive seen rangers using spirits even with celestial.

Now, certain professions just do things better then rangers, engineer and guard will always hold a point better, DD Ele is better at contesting, Hambow is a better “sidekick”. Still this does not exclude us, it limits us, but there is still builds out there, builds that you most likely have not tried yet.

It is no secret that our bleedstacking build has been around since 2012, but it was only “meta” after ROM played a ranger with that build. So what does that mean? It means that our strongest builds are just not publicly recognized. What’s the next build to be called meta? Who knows, probably won’t be known before some big name plays it.
Still does that mean that our builds are not “good enough”? Just because a top rank player hasn’t tried or recognized it? No. It only means it has yet to become “mainstream”.

So yeah, for the time being, we are perfectly " viable ", but we are not preferred. Mostly because people are unsure how to integrate a ranger into their team, partially because of prejudice towards rangers and their “lame kitten pewpewpew builds”.

As for what i play, in TeamQ.
Staff support Ele
Hambow/Banner Regen Bunker(just a build i am testing for lulz but i like it)
Power/Condi/Trap Ranger
DPS Mediguard (havent been playing this for a while though)
and most recently i’ve started trying to learn Celestial Rifle engi (not been having much progress with that one yet)

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

@Prysin.8542

Let’s start off with “poor mobility”. We have a Gap Closer’s where as other classes filling the same roll has Gap Closer’s and high upkeep on swiftness outside of combat. I don’t want to waste anymore time on trying to explain ranger mobility anymore feels like i’m bashing my head on a brick wall.

Now for the wall of text, that was allot of random pointless information.

We are not perfectly “viable”, for god sake its not that we aren’t preferred the problem is when you break it down we are sub-par to current viable options it’s that simple. So you can live in your delusional world of Ranger’s being viable while rest of player base try’s to get the class improved.

Rather then trying to say we are viable most of us ranger’s trying to point out where we need to be improved and why. I swear your always making post’s about we are viable but that’s all you say. Not once have you detailed a post about how and why…

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Someday.3650

Someday.3650

I agree with Sol on pretty much everything. Also, anyone who doubts about the mobility problem with ranger is either not being honest or haven’t played enough other classes like elementalist, warrior, thief, mesmer and enginer, which have extreme mobility without making sacrifices. I could see one class being the king of mobility, but when almost everyone except the ranger is good at it looks like we’re being punished for some noticeable advantage in another field, like for example gurdians and necros being extremely good at survival. We’re not the kings of burst, bunker, dps, sustain and pretty sure we’re not the kings of utility. So what is exactly that thing we have? The pet?

Right now the ranger feels like the low skill class to introduce people who start the game. Low skill cap weapon (longbow), low risk (range) and high reward while playing on the lower tiers (arenas and wvw pug zergs), mixed with some sort of “collection” (most of the pest are just that, something you collect but you won’t use because of the RNG and not being able to control the skills).

(edited by Someday.3650)

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Posted by: Flitzie.6082

Flitzie.6082

Thats some crazy damage buffs for the swords.. Wow. 10-20-30% on Sword auto. Sweet jesus.

I do like the look of all of this but It would need some serious testing first
The only things I’d currently like to see getting changed are:

  • Sword Hornet Sting: Instant please, like the warrior sword leap. The delay is horrible imo.
  • Axe (Off) Whirling Defense: Its duration is currently to long, we cannot move and it feels clunky and very situational. Remove the channeling. Make it a 3/4s cast time and then it spins on its own for the full duration while we can move around, attack and even swap weapons. As a compensation, maybe lower the damage?

And give the ranger some sort of 25% movement speed that is not a signet or rune. Then rework signet of the hunt passive for whatever. Attackspeed maybe.

In all honesty, if any profession should have baseline +25% move speed then it is the ranger. Isn’t a ranger all about being in the woods, mobile… running around, kiting ?
If thats too good, make it a minor trait in Marksmanship or Survival or something.

You touched the shiny, didn’t you?

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Posted by: McWolfy.5924

McWolfy.5924

What i can image is to rework signet of hunt to stack the bonus with other things. For example swiftness or rune speed bonus and change a minor marksmanship trait to let you walk backward at normal or nearly normal speed

WSR→Piken→Deso→Piken→FSP→Deso
Just the WvW
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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

A minor that boosts movement with bows and mainhand axe. If we get that, a lot of our mobility in non gs/sword builds would be covered. 25% movement, non stackable.

As for most of the stuff outlined in this thread. I agree that the proposed stuff is neat and somewhat justified, however unlike some, i do not see the need to always look at profession design and balance when a lot (not all) of the stuff people (in general) complain about falls under the “get good or get rekt” category. Needless to say, i am not so good that i do not struggle with things, so i too gotta get better, or get rekt.

Call me delusional all you want, I’ll still believe that skill should matter more then ease of play.

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: thefantasticg.3984

thefantasticg.3984

I’ve played almost exclusively in PVE, dungeons and fractals with my Ranger… I want these changes in PVE too, pls. kthxbye.

RNG is a bell curve. Better hope you’re on the right side.

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Posted by: infantrydiv.1620

infantrydiv.1620

As a long time ranger main, gotta agree with most of these changes.

Ranger needs easier access to mobility other than going warhorn or traveler’s runes.

Warhorn 4 I’d actually like to change so that it summons birds that attack any enemies within range just once for say 1-2k damage. Imagine a bird that does essential a slightly weaker f2 ability on all nearby targets Could have an AoE cap of 5, and would make the Warhorn strong in team fights and less vulnerable to retaliation.

I’d still like Sword auto attack changed so that it doesn’t root me in place and prevent me from dodging.

I’d like to add dual functionality to traps where Snake trap removes boons and ticks 5 times. Fire trap blinds and burns over 4 pulses. Chill trap applies maybe both weakness and chill. Then change the cooldown to be even shorter on Spike trap.

Tail Wind working outside of combat would be awesome. Or a trait that gives 15 seconds of swiftness when swapping pets (would be similar to Engie’s kits trait)

Ranger//Necro

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Mobility for the ranger is a big thing for me and many Rangers I’ve spoken with. We have signet of hunt but with changes over time to ranger and other classes running this skill just doesn’t work. It works well with combo like bird F2 and Maul but this is where problem starts.

the best way I can explain this is hunt active effect only works with bird f2 in a bunker build and only works with maul on gs in a glass build. Then the cool down becomes a problem rather long for but of extra damage. Now you compare that to might stacking and you at a loss massively. Rangers are rather bad for might stacking wouldn’t be so bad but for some reason our scaling in damage is really bad.

So then what are you left with tail wind which is a in combat trait, to me changing this trait would be our best option doesn’t give us perms swiftness but having 50% more mobility out of combat would be a dream.

Terms of traps not sure what we can do there, the damage from trap builds are really good but the survival is next to none. With how every class is now not having active condition remove and stunbbreaker you get wrecked. I like to compare trap ranger to shatter Mesmer both have it extremely hard you take any focus and you as good as dead. Left unchecked and you damage out put rocks.

Pipe dream would to have them out in a kit setup, that way we could take defensive skills. How would you make this work but without making it op. For starters you wouldn’t make it work as weapon swap but what you would do is give the kit a internal 9sec cd. E.g you active traps lay traps then swap back to weapons ur kit goes on a cd. But that’s a pipe dream I dont think it would ever happen.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Atherakhia.4086

Atherakhia.4086

Hunt needs to just change outright. The class already has a DPS increasing signet in Wild, there’s little reason to have another one. Especially when Hunt just feels like a lazy option in comparison. Ideally it would be some defensive/utility oriented thing so the Ranger had something valuable to provide its group.

As to the trap kit, I agree with the way you want to approach it. The only way to keep it balanced would be to limit the number of traps a Ranger can lay down at once with the cooldown as you described and have each individual trap have a separate cooldown so a Ranger can’t just spam something like frost every 10 seconds. For example, you use a trap and the kit goes on a 10 second cooldown and the trap goes on a 30 second cooldown.

A lot of the issues you describe in this thread are issues in WvW too. The Ranger does great when roaming with a group of Rangers or running in a zerg, but when you try to do something organized (GvG, Guild Groups, and Zerg Busting), the class just doesn’t work.

(edited by Atherakhia.4086)

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Posted by: jcbroe.4329

jcbroe.4329

Good suggestions so far.

For traps, I agree, but I’m not sure that the buff would be extensive enough to make them a competitive option. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the teamfight improvement would be massive utility with AoE conditions+boon removal, but the potential of traps themselves is lacking.

Particularly, Spike Trap could stand to see a higher bleed stack be applied. Viper’s Nest doesn’t really do enough, even for it’s reduced cooldown, so I was thinking maybe some other condition should get added to it, like a base 1 second Weakness per pulse (2 second traited). Combined with it’s poison field combo capabilities, that should make it worth it’s cooldown. Flame Trap is only just good enough with a reduced cooldown, but it’s passable. Frost Trap, I really don’t have any good ideas. I like the idea of frost aura being given to the user on trap use (not trigger), but people may not like/agree with that.

Shouts too are mostly just terrible. There is protect me, and a guard gimmick. Sic’ Em has some WvW gimmick use too, but I mean, “shout ranger” at this point is never going to be a viable thing (when people say it now, they really just mean a ranger that spams guard with a single trait build). I think that at the bare minimum shout use should give some worthwhile boons to AoE teammates (outside the trait). Guard maybe giving a short protection duration and/or retaliation (I already know how people will respond to the idea of rangers getting “more” protection). Sic’ Em with might and/or fury. Etc etc.

As for Signet of the Hunt, the simplest solution is just to make the active a stun breaker. I mean, would there be better options? Yes. But a constant movement speed increase that right now almost never gets used for the active in the majority of non-gimmick builds (aka its swapped on and off in WvW) being changed so that at least it can be used in a fight for a little more than a 1 time damage boost on a not worth it cooldown would be nice.

That covers all the basics as far as I’m concerned. And, I mean, EVERY class needs some sort of trait overhaul imo.

Poison Master is the last thing I’ll mention. While it has potential, I’ve just found it to lack something as a GM slot. One thing I was thinking is that Poison Master could additionally give the effect of “foes affected by your poison also have reduced boon duration” and it be like x% duration (maybe like 25% maximum, 33% if I wanted to be generous and also unfairly biased towards my main).

Whoever mentioned Power builds not having a good heal (cba to scroll), I 100% agree. Heal as One is just facepalm bad and any sort of love it gets to make it viable, especially for a power build, would do wonders for build versatility.

Jroh | Former SOAC Ranger Podcaster | Platinum Division Top 100 Player
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Posted by: infantrydiv.1620

infantrydiv.1620

It would be cool if Hunt had some sort of hyper-mobility function, like making you immune to movement impairing conditions (chill,cripple,immob) for 10 seconds, and increasing movement speed by 50% (take this off of Signet of the Wild and add it to Hunt), as well as being a stunbreak. Then it might start to be worth taking over Renewal/Stone, allowing for extremely fast disengage and also would be strong for BM builds if it affected your pet.

Ranger//Necro

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Posted by: Yelloweyedemon.2860

Yelloweyedemon.2860

I agree with some parts, with others not so much.

First of all, sword does not need a buff. It would break PvE, but even without minding PvE, it would still be too powerfull for PvP.

Warhorn needs a revamp, that’s no-brainer. Hunter’s call (4) is just useless/time-bomb (retaliation and have fun^^), and #5 is far too weak for it’s cd.

GS does not have a place in tPvP in my opinion. It is a pure power two handed weapon, that relies on 1 single skill. A skill that is one of the easiest skills in the game to evade. Even if that hits, it does what? Highest I’ve had it crit is 7.4k on a zerker mesmer, while SotW was on. (And that was on 6/6 build on my part). After that, the ranger is useless untill he re-changes weapon or maul get’s off cd. Again, Maul should not land on experienced players.

I also agree about axe #5. It should be usable while moving.

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Posted by: Sol.4310

Sol.4310

Signet of hunt, for me something like next 5 attack are unblock able so they can still counter you using blinds, dodge and invons now that would really help with melee builds would also combo better with signet of wild meaning hunt would be worth taking in some builds.

Saizo Sol – Ranger
Twitch – Aussie Streamer

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Posted by: Atherakhia.4086

Atherakhia.4086

If unblockable, will daggerstorm still reflect them? I could see that being a bit overpowered if not.

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Posted by: Archon.6480

Archon.6480

I like many of the ideas in this thread. I kind of agree that we don’t have a decent role in tpvp at the moment, though it pains me to say. From quite a few games in spvp, I see the d/d elems, hambows, guardians filling these roles. It’s not that we can’t handle 1v1 situations—I believe we have advantage here, it’s in the group fights we start to suffer. Try to unseat a good hambow and mediguard together.

What about the useless pet skills. I mean come on, the requirements to make these land are rather silly. Try to get a drake to hit a d/d elemental or thief. Between the time you start the skill and the time the pet fires, your foe will have jumped behind, to the side, back in front, then 45 degrees to the left of the pet who then blindly releases his attack in the wrong direction.

The reason everyone runs wolf is that its skill is the only one that works reliably when you need it. How about making the pets move a little faster so they can engage in combat and give them better skills for group support. Things like AoE daze, stun, weakness, etc. get rid of abysmal 240 range—up it to 600, reduce cast time, reduce recharge time, and retire “cone” attacks.

As it stands, the pet is the least important thing I consider when facing another ranger. It’s an after-thought and I don’t think this should be the case.

Edit: I agree with Sol on weapon changes, but need to think about trait suggestions more.

Jade Quarry – Esparie
Illustrious Exhausted Primordial Legendary Druid, and Mesmer for fun
PvE | PvP (1500)| WvW | Fractals | Dungeons

(edited by Archon.6480)

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Posted by: Sarision.6347

Sarision.6347

As it stands, the pet is the least important thing I consider when facing another ranger. It’s an after-thought and I don’t think this should be the case.

Ideally you are right, since pet is our profession mechanic, but we all know how the PvP community is going to react if the devs buff pets.

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Posted by: Tragic Positive.9356

Tragic Positive.9356

Warhorn

  • Hunter’s Call – 50% damage increase or applies Vulnerability with each hit.
  • Call of the Wild – Reduce the CD to 30, improve the might to 3 stacks.

Axe (Offhand)

  • Whirling Defense – Make the skill usable while moving.

Greatsword (The damage out of this weapon is sub-par even in a full Berserker build)

  • Auto-Attack, 10-20-30% damage increase.
  • Maul – Improve damage. (Even with full Berserker and Hunt+Wild both used with int rune it still hits less the Rapid fire, that’s massive investment for a skill doesn’t even hit hard.
  • Swoop – Change the evasion duration to 3/4.
  • Counterattack – Improve the damage by 50%, this skill should punish its foe, highly telegraphed so it’s easy to see coming.

Sword

  • Auto Attack – 10-20-30% damage increase per attack.
  • Monarch’s Leap – 100% damage increase.
  • Serpent’s Strike – Improve the range of the attack. If you use this skill it puts you so far out of range of the target it won’t land the poison. The only way is fix the range of the skill.

Traits

  • Tail Wind – Should work outside of combat. This will give rangers better mobility which is badly required.
  • Trap potency – Also Removes Boons per pulse.
    This change is a must, currently Trap Ranger is forced to take 3 traps and loses any type of survival (Stun breaks, condition remove, invon).
  • Invigorating Bond – Reduce to 15 seconds CD. Improve the heal to scale up to 2k with Compassion Training traited.
  • Strider’s Defense – Change to Reflect’s projectile rather then destroys or this skill will never be used ever.

Totally Agree with Warhorn. I feel like it lacks both support and damage. It only gives a blast finisher on… 35 second cooldown? That’s a disgrace.

Off-hand Axe is clunky. The improvement on no.5 would definitely help. and not make it OP. The DPS is low regardless. I’d be fine to trade Vulnerability Stacks for mobility on this one.

Greatsword is not that bad in damage for the utility it brings. It gives roughly 30% damage mitigation… And Maul has a 6 second cooldown. Damage boost would be fine, but don’t forget that for a semi-hard hitting ability it has a short cooldown. Not sure if it needs that much of improvements.

Onto the sword: Mostly the Monarch’s Leap damage increase is needed. You really feel especially punished for using it offensively. You really should be rewarded for using it in another way than detarget-escape. The no.3 evade is clunky. Needs polishing. I don’t feel the exact need of boosting it’s passive DPS.

Traits suggestions sound fine. The trap Ranger is too vulnerable for the AoE he brings. More offensive or utility power is surely needed. Not the defensive. It must have it’s trade offs.

To sum up: I believe that Power Ranger builds are still kind of fine. Rangers possess tunnel damage. Not Burst Damage unlike other classes. In a long run comparison – Rangers might even outshine other classes, but will not get the chance since the enemy will not live that long in a Zerk Meta (PvE… Power Ranger in PvP is just a no-no).
The steady passive increase on damage might evaluate number problems in maths and stuff, but the quality of life improvements like reliability and Especially Monarch Leap rewarding pattern should step into the world of Rangers.

“Observe, learn and counter.”

(edited by Tragic Positive.9356)

TPvP - Ranger Balance

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Dojo.1867

Dojo.1867

Signet of hunt, for me something like next 5 attack are unblock able so they can still counter you using blinds, dodge and invons now that would really help with melee builds would also combo better with signet of wild meaning hunt would be worth taking in some builds.

What do you think about letting the next 5 attacks daze for 0.5 sec each.

TPvP - Ranger Balance

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Ryan.9387

Ryan.9387

Signet of hunt, for me something like next 5 attack are unblock able so they can still counter you using blinds, dodge and invons now that would really help with melee builds would also combo better with signet of wild meaning hunt would be worth taking in some builds.

What do you think about letting the next 5 attacks daze for 0.5 sec each.

So to get this straight.
1s stun (autoattack1)
2s stun (autoattack2)
3s stun (autoattack3)
4s stun (autoattack4)
5s stun (autoattack5)
6s stun (hilt bash)
9s boarf2 or wolf fear
11s-13s chain stun ends.
Throw in shortbow 5 for extra 2s stun.

Please no.

Ranger | Elementalist