Hi there !
The last update have, once again, increased the health of ranger spirits and their chance to proc their effect. This is all well and good but I can’t help but feel like this proc chance doesn’t make much sense in the first place because of that long 10 seconds cooldown. Can’t we just have the effect be consistently activated every 10 or more seconds and then balance this cooldown rather than the proc chance ? I feel like balancing a cooldown would have a much more meaningful impact on gameplay than nitpicking over this relatively useless proc chance.
Of course this means a little rework for Spiritual Knowledge, but I’m not the only one saying spirits need a rework anyway and that a little increase on their stats once in a while isn’t truly changing anything about them.
Their passive effects aren’t so game-changing and their active effects are too small and slow to cast to be reliable outside of PvE. I’ve seen some interesting discussions on the forums about quality of life improvements and the spirit’s survivability with or without Spirits Unbound. There was one that suggested to have spirits be more like engineer turrets that can be picked-up and repositionned. From my own experience Spirits Unbound usually helps my spirits survivability a lot, but sometimes I wish I could indeed switch that trait on and off so that I can keep them away from occasionnal dangers.
Personally, I feel like something’s missing from GW2’s spirits. Their theme : changing the environnement to give the ranger an advantage.
This was very present in GW1, not visually, but mechanically. The spirit’s effects affected everybody, not just allies or ennemies, and the spirit gave you the advantage if you had picked an appropriate build. There was no visual effectof the ground becoming muddy terrain or frozen soil, and you couldn’t see favorable winds blowing through the trees, but the idea that you influenced the environnement over a large area was very present.
Now, this idea of affecting both allies and ennemies wouldn’t work in GW2 for obvious grieffing reasons, but GW2 is all about positionning and very visual skills so I believe spirits could be more than buffing machines with tiny aoes to add the missing flavor.
I think the elementalist’s meteor shower is a good example of what I mean. By casting this large, long duration AoE before engaging they set up an area where they will have the advantage because their ennemy is likely to be hit by a meteor or two if they stay within. Wouldn’t it be interesting if your Storm Spirit actually summoned a storm with lightning randomly striking over a large area ?
So, mixing up all aforementionned idea, here is how I think spirits could be made more interesting gameplay-wise.
All spirits move and follow the ranger by default. When moving, they can only apply their passive buffs to nearby allies, but the ranger can use the skill a second time to root them at their current position. When rooted, the spirits will still apply their passive buffs but will also set up a large AoE in which smaller AoEs strike at random locations. Using the skill a third time unroots the spirit, back to moving mode.
Sun spirit :
Adds burning to an attack every X seconds.
Rooted : sun rays randomly strike the area, blinding foes they hit.
Storm spirit :
Gives swiftness every X seconds.
Rooted : lightning randomly strike the area, dealing damage.
Frost spirit :
+ Y% damage on hit every X seconds.
Rooted : small areas of frozen ground randomly appear in the area, chilling foes.
Stone spirit :
Gives protection every X seconds.
Rooted : small areas of muddy terrain randomly appear in the area, crippling foes.
Spirit of Nature is the only spirit that works well in its current state, but maybe it could work the same way as the others. It would still heal allies over time and, when rooted, it would also heal downed allies over time and regularily cure a condition.
This would of course mean that all spirit-related traits should be redone… except Vigorous Spirit but this one is really a bad trait. It feels like a requirement to play spirits instead of adding something to the gameplay. I’d much rather have something that adds some useful functionnality rather than this sort of unimaginative traits.
Anyway, I think all rangers will agree that spirits need to be worked on thoroughly and not just getting some insignificant increases on some of their stats. Having a whole category of skills be officially subpar is quite sad. I say officially because of that interview where devs admitted that ranger spirits had been nerfed too hard and it made me think about this : http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Smiter%27s_Boon_%28PvP%29
I hope to see spirits becoming a fun and useful addition to our builds