Guild Wars 2

Anyone who’s played the Ranger class in GW2 may have noticed how inefficient and seemingly broken the spirits are. Even more so for those who played a Ranger in GW1.

The first big issue that is noticed is just how easily killed the spirits are. In GW1 they were very durable, in some missions when an NPC ranger summoned a spirit the whole team would divert their attention to killing that spirit. But now, spirits die in one or two hits from just about anything.

The second issue is the effect cooldown. For spirits that only last 60 seconds, 10 seconds between effect triggers is MASSIVE.

The third and final issue is the Elite skill Spirit of Nature. This skill is a 30pt elite skill is out preformed by any other classes group heal/condition removal.

So here are my proposed changes to fix these issues.

• Increase all Spirits base health and armor
• Spirits apply protection to self every second
• Remove the 10 second cooldown from Spirit bonuses.
• Reduce the activation Effect Cooldowns on all utility spirits to 15-20sec
• Change the effect of Spirit of nature to:
  - “Summon a spirit that heals allies, cures conditions on allies, and grants allies a chance to gain regeneration and aegis on hit. Command the spirit to revive and cure conditions on nearby allies.”
  - Healing: ( 10 + lvl * 8 ) {1 = 88 | 80 = 720}
  - Effect Cooldown: 5 seconds (only applies to the chance on hit effect)
  - Regeneration: 6 stacks, 3 seconds (Matched to Healing Spring)
  - Aegis: 5 seconds
  - Remove conditions from allies in range every 10 seconds
  - Heals allies in range every second
  - Duration 80 seconds
• Spirits Benefit from Ranger’s Attributes
  - Healing Power – Healing from Nature Spirit is increased
  - Boon Duration – Boons from Spirit of Earth and Storm Spirit last longer
  - Condition Damage – Burning from Sun Spirit has a higher base
  - Condition Duration – Conditions applied by spirit effects and activations last longer
  - Precision – Increases spirit effect activation chances
  - Toughness – Increases spirit armor rating
  - Vitality – Increases spirit health
• Change the effect of Storm Spirit to:
  - “Summon a storm spirit that grants nearby allies a chance to gain swiftness and quickness when attacking.”

I believe these changes would solve the issues with spirits and make Spirit of Nature deserving of it’s elite status.

I agree on buffing the elite spirit, but that seems like too much. Maybe regen on hit but take anyone with rapid strikes and constant aegis becomes overwhelming in a group. I think the cooldown is the biggest issue with that spirit. Make it survive a little better and lower the cooldown to like 180 seconds and then it could be more reasonable (all rally skills have a long cd).

NinjaEd.3946:

I agree on buffing the elite spirit, but that seems like too much. Maybe regen on hit but take anyone with rapid strikes and constant aegis becomes overwhelming in a group. I think the cooldown is the biggest issue with that spirit. Make it survive a little better and lower the cooldown to like 180 seconds and then it could be more reasonable (all rally skills have a long cd).

Thats why I suggested putting the effect cooldown for the elite while removing it on the utilities. Aegis is lost after your hit, so 5 seconds of aegis can easily only last for 1 second… though maybe Aegis should only last 3 seconds and have a 10s cooldown for Aegis aplication 5s cooldown for Regen?

Panda.1967:

NinjaEd.3946:

I agree on buffing the elite spirit, but that seems like too much. Maybe regen on hit but take anyone with rapid strikes and constant aegis becomes overwhelming in a group. I think the cooldown is the biggest issue with that spirit. Make it survive a little better and lower the cooldown to like 180 seconds and then it could be more reasonable (all rally skills have a long cd).

Thats why I suggested putting the effect cooldown for the elite while removing it on the utilities. Aegis is lost after your hit, so 5 seconds of aegis can easily only last for 1 second… though maybe Aegis should only last 3 seconds and have a 10s cooldown for Aegis aplication 5s cooldown for Regen?

Idk, looking at it long enough it makes sense but most skills are pretty straightforward. Adding all these effects going at once across multiple players just doesn’t seem necessary. The survivability fix yes definitly, they die way to quick for their long cd. Maybe proc regen on hit and increase its healing ability but idk.. the aegis on hit with all that seems too much. All in all, +1. Spirits on ranger are pathetic, just like the pet ai is. In fact ranger needs to be put on a drawing board and looked at long and hard, until someone decides to give them long awaited buffs they deserve.

NinjaEd.3946:

Panda.1967:

NinjaEd.3946:

I agree on buffing the elite spirit, but that seems like too much. Maybe regen on hit but take anyone with rapid strikes and constant aegis becomes overwhelming in a group. I think the cooldown is the biggest issue with that spirit. Make it survive a little better and lower the cooldown to like 180 seconds and then it could be more reasonable (all rally skills have a long cd).

Thats why I suggested putting the effect cooldown for the elite while removing it on the utilities. Aegis is lost after your hit, so 5 seconds of aegis can easily only last for 1 second… though maybe Aegis should only last 3 seconds and have a 10s cooldown for Aegis aplication 5s cooldown for Regen?

Idk, looking at it long enough it makes sense but most skills are pretty straightforward. Adding all these effects going at once across multiple players just doesn’t seem necessary. The survivability fix yes definitly, they die way to quick for their long cd. Maybe proc regen on hit and increase its healing ability but idk.. the aegis on hit with all that seems too much. All in all, +1. Spirits on ranger are pathetic, just like the pet ai is. In fact ranger needs to be put on a drawing board and looked at long and hard, until someone decides to give them long awaited buffs they deserve.

Alright… I guess Aegis is a bit much… though maybe applying Aegis as part of it’s command ability might be reasonable… I’ll just scrap the Aegis idea though

Ok so someone mentioned something to me in-game today that made a pretty good point…

Currently Healing Spring negates the whole point in Spirit of Nature, leaving the only useful aspect of Spirit of Nature it’s revive ability… and like the utility spirits it to dies in one or two hits from anything. Building it to match healing spring’s Regen and Condition removal as well as giving it up to 720 healing per second for 80 seconds would most certainly give this elite it’s usefulness.

Another change I’d like to add to the changes is to allow Spirits to benefit from the ranger’s stats.

Healing Power – Healing from Nature Spirit is increased
Boon Duration – Boons from Spirit of Earth and Storm Spirit last longer
Condition Damage – Burning from Sun Spirit has a higher base
Condition Duration – Conditions applied by spirit effects and activations last longer
Precision – Increases spirit effect activation chances
Toughness – Increases spirit armor rating
Vitality – Increases spirit health

Make spirits non killable like warriors banners…

ANYTHING to make spirits (and expecially shouts) more viable for Rangers…

Dante.1508:

Make spirits non killable like warriors banners…

I’d love that… but that solution sadly would be asking for to much… if they were made unkillable then the Command abilities would become Sacrifice instead… and the Trait to trigger command abilities on death would have to be changed as well.

I never use spirits as range and moving targets makes their hit rating pretty low and long reuse timers make them feel like they mostly just take up space that could be for something useful. I guess for a really long kill it makes sense but I like playing the whole game.

Seraki.2753:

I never use spirits as range and moving targets makes their hit rating pretty low and long reuse timers make them feel like they mostly just take up space that could be for something useful. I guess for a really long kill it makes sense but I like playing the whole game.

With how spirits are now they aren’t useful at all really. The long cooldown makes them better for use in tough fights but that is negated by how quickly they die, and the internal cool-down on their effects making them only trigger 6 times max throughout the lifespan of the spirit.

now that I think about it… the 30pt Trait that makes spirits mobile… it should increase their duration too IMO.

I think spirits should be able to move without having to trait it. Combat is fast and short, so why should I wait for 60 secs to build up another spirit if I am not traited for them to follow?

Better yet , how about let the spirits last forever until they are killed and have them follow you. Possibly work like engineer turrets?

Change the trait from allowing the spirit to move with you to last indefinitely. Then make the spirit move with you by default. It’ll be like a second pet. In this case armor should be increased and the skill cooldowns to remain the same.

Otherwise, if the spirit is rooted with the trait unchanged, buff both armor and skills of the spirits.

I like most if not all of your ideas, the only thing you forgot though, is that Storm Spirit’s passive effect is utterly USELESS. “35% chance to apply swiftness on hit” is garbage. 1-2s Quickness would be much better.

jwaz.1908:

I like most if not all of your ideas, the only thing you forgot though, is that Storm Spirit’s passive effect is utterly USELESS. “35% chance to apply swiftness on hit” is garbage. 1-2s Quickness would be much better.

I actually havn’t used Storm Spirit myself… though you bring up a good point… Swiftness on Hit is utterly useless… Quickness would be better. I’m not sure why I didn’t bring up that spirit in my original post… I don’t even bother using that one because it’s of no use at all…

Added to the OP.