Guild Wars 2

Cecilia.5179:

Game Mode: All
Proposal Overview:
Rangers lack Easily accessible condition removal, which seems weird, since a master of the wilderness should know how to cure illnesses. Also, ranger heals are underwhelming in general.
Goal of Proposal
Improve ranger heals to match their purpose.
Proposal Functionality

• Heal as One: Reduce cooldown to 15 seconds. Reduce cast time to 3/4 second. Heal as One is a bland heal with a long cast time. Reducing cast time and cooldown brings it onto par with its effects.
• Troll Unguent: Reduce cooldown to 20 seconds. Add a condition removal. As an antibiotic, it seems natural for this to remove conditions. Gives rangers a solid option to counter the powerful condition metagame of PvP. In my opinion, the cooldowns of all ranger heals are too long.
• Healing Spring: Increase radius to 360 (at least). Increase cast-time to 1 second. For a support AoE, its radius is way too small to help anyone but yourself without forcing everyone to stack. I never understood why the support AoE has the fastest cast-time, but nerfing it might a bad call considering ranger’s state. Its current setup really doesn’t match its seemingly intended purpose.
  Associated Risks
• Troll Unguent buff may make regen rangers too tanky
• Introduces another counter to conditions
• Rangers may trade out Healing Spring for Troll Unguent on their builds reducing its presence.

I think “Heal as One” is the one which should be reworked in order to become an active remove condi healing skill: maybe like giving a 100% reduction to condition duration for a few seconds (5 sec.) when used. It will not become a condi. removal but it would be different from any other healing skill while still being useful against conditions.

PvP

Access to torment OR confusion

improving shortbow

I think one of These conditions would be cool for the ranger.
I think the #4 shortbow could apply torment or the #5 shortbow some seconds confusion. Not both at same time.
Maybe with MoC we can get some seconds of confusion on stun or some stacks torment on predators instict, Just some ideas where we can get it

I just ask for one of them.
Its really easy for a ranger to stack bleed, poison and burn. With confusion AND torment it would be too strong, condition overload.

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Entangle should AoE knockdown foes and deal damage instead of ticking bleed and immobilized.

Goal of Proposal
Ranger will have reliable way to utilize entangle.

Proposal Functionality
Currently, entangle is too easy to escape from. Allow ranger to use it as an AoE interrupt will make this skill far more powerful and useful.
Associated Risks
This skill becomes very strong and may make rangers a good killer.

pvp

Blind on warhorn #4

the ranger have less Access to blind. Okay we have the sun Spirit and our birds, but the birds are random and the Spirit effect is just local and easy to evade.
Warhorn #4 would be good for it to apply some seconds of of blind. The Animation of the attack itself is really good for blind.

Nuzt.7894:

And what about those people who like the Class but not the pet aspect of it ? Should your opinion trump theirs ? What I was suggesting was basically having the option to stow the pet permenantly if YOU choose to do so. The pet would be more powerful if you traited for the pet to be powerful, just as the Guardians Virtues are more powerfull if you choose to trait them that way, same can be said for every other class in the game..

Being able to stow the pet permanently is fine by me, but it should always be a self-nerf, there should be no counterbalancing buffs associated with it that would make a petless ranger as strong as an untraited pet-using Ranger. It should not be balanced as an equal way to play the class, it should just be an option for people that really insist on going that route, just like a Thief that insists on never Stealing, or a Necro that insists on never using DS.

Specific Game Mode
PvP (since players are not stationary)

Proposal Overview
Remove most of the damage from pets. In exchange, rebalance all ranger weapon skill damage around the ranger doing 95% of the damage. Make the attack target (F1) rollover to call back. Make F2 and F3 both be controllable attacks. Maybe they can serve different functions then (say one is a damaging attack and one is more of a utility skill. Make these a ranged/leaping/AoE skill so they have a much better chance to connect. F4 can remain swap pets. Make stow pet keep the pet stowed, even in combat.

Goal of Proposal
Since pets don’t seem to hit their targets very well causing the overall damage of the ranger to suffer against players, this would move control of the damage back to the player. Pets could then be chosen based more on their controllable attacks ratber than hoping that it fills out the rest of the ranger damage. This would also allow for pets to be stowed and have it only affect some of the utility of the ranger. This would allow them to control fights against classes/builds like X/D thieves who can CnD easily off the pet. Make a keybind for stow/release pet and put a CD on it.

Associated Risks
Rangers might deal more damage by themselves. Pets might not even need to be used as you could have them permanently stored (similar to GW1 where you needed to equip an ability to use pets but weren’t forced to). This would minimize having to reprogram AI to hit and dodge better. Some of the traits would have to be redone since pets would be largely more utilitarian with some of them having spike damage.

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview
Change various names, and skill animations to better convey the Ranger theme as being one that ‘draws from nature’. (see details below)

Goal of Proposal
This is largely a suggestion to combat the ‘lack of theme conveyance’. That i think hinders the ‘feel’ of the ranger. In all honesty, when I look at the ranger skills, I hardly get a ‘naturey’ feel (and to top that I even play a Sylvari Ranger). This to me is in part due to the naming of certain skills, that make the ranger ‘feel’ like a ‘mini elementalist’ instead of a ranger.

By simply changing various names, and skill animations to better convey the Ranger theme as being one that ‘draws from nature’ the ranger as a whole can benefit from a stronger theme profile.

Proposal Functionality
The following name changes could already do a lot to combat the ‘mini elementalist’ feel.

Signet of Stone → Signet of Bark

Frost Spirit → Mountain Spirit

Stone Spirit → Marsh/Bog Spirit

Storm Spirit → ‘this one is reasonably ok’

Sun Spirit → Desert Spirit

Water Spirit → ‘this one is reasonably ok’

I would have loved to see these skills reflect certain Tyriagraphical areas in the game, like f/e Shiverpeak Spirit, Maguma Spirit, Crystal Desert Spirit; but unfortunately not all spirits can be appointed to a certain region, unless they get entirely reworked, this offers a nice alternative that takes us ranger slightly away from being a mini-elementalist

Spike trap → Change the icon and animations to ‘wooden spikes’ instead of these metal speartips.

Associated Risks
Some players that dislike a nature’y Ranger might feel alienated from their profession. Though I think this risk is fairly minimal. Most players that actually care for theme instead of functionality would more then likely welcome these changes, and those that play for functionality couldn’t care less, as long as it works as intended.

side note I have limited myself in this suggestion to a minimum, because I think it would be to much to realistically expect if I were to go any further with this suggestion, but if you wonder non the less, you can take a look here: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedback:User/Arghore/GW2_Ranger
Some of these suggestions are obviously outdated, but there are various (mainly the spirits as this suggestion seems to focus most on those) that could still be viable.

game mode
pve
proposal overview
rangers should have better supporting skill and more damage for two hanged weapons

goal of proposal
traps, aoe, shouts and weapons

proposal functionality

1. all traps can be activated by ranger in order to create field out of combat.

2. with trait, <skirmishing VIII Trapper’s Expertise>, traps can be throw 900 units.

3. all traps have base damage, snake traps should have each snake have damage, they will vanish in certain time or be killed.

4.longbow 4 skill barrage should affects 10 units.

5. All shouts need redesigned in order to be more useful, they should be providing more boons especially stability and might. current shouts are not too useful concerning their contribution to pve scenario and group support.

6.short bow skill #2 <poison volley> and axe skill #2 <splitblade> should have efficient damage in a cone area in front of rangers, not each projectile have damage. they also need more damage.

7. axe skill #1 <recochet> should reduce the ainimation time, in order to co-work with its attack speed. now <recochet>can be cast1 time per seconds, but according to its 1/4 seconds casting speed, it should cast 2 times per seconds at least. this is critical problems for axe

8. axe skill #5 <whirling defense> can be cast while moving

9. longbow skill #1 <long range shot> should attack twice per second, its projectile should fly more faster. and with certain trait, longbow should stack might boon for ranger with chance for each critical hit.

10. longbow skill #4 <point blank shot> should be are charged shot, the longer player hold, the more damage and more distance it will make to its target(s)

11. shortbow skill #2 <quick shot > should also apply stealth to ranger. and short bow should have more base damage.

12.sword skill #1 chain skill should not root rangers, they should move and dodge without problems.

13. All greatsword skills should have more base attack

14 greatsword skill #2 <maul> attack speed should be faster. it should be a blast finisher

15. warhorn skill #5 <call of the wild> should apply stability instead of might

16.warhorn skill #4 <hunter’s call> should inflict blind or bleed if critical hit.

17.dagger skill #5 <crippling talon> should be piercing. and all dagger’s should inflict more damage.

potential problems

might need minor adjustment for pvp

Specific Game Mode
PVE

Proposal Overview
Greatsword damage change.

Goal of Proposal
Bring the ranger greatsword in line with other defensive weapons.

Proposal Functionality
The greatsword auto attack chain has very weak damage. While it is true that it is a defensive weapon, the damage on other defensive weapons doesn’t suffer nearly as much for their added survivability.

Change power coefficients on auto attack chain from 0.55, 0.55, 0.65 to 0.8, 0.9, 1.0. This brings the ranger greatsword coefficients in line with other defensive melee weapons, such as the ranger’s spear and the guardian’s hammer.

Associated Risks
Might affect PVP balance? Does anyone use greatsword in PVP?

I hope Dev are absorbing all of this.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
Remove range knockback from Point Blank Shot. Increase damage by significant amount.

Goal of Proposal
Rangers get bad reputation for using Point Blank Shot when they shouldn’t.

Proposal Functionality
Exchange knock back for one ‘back-stab-esque’ skill that fires quick and fast. Used at close range to wreck enemies.

Associated Risks
May be criticized for being stronger than backstab because it is 900 range.

Specific Game Mode PvP (and by extension all others modes)

Proposal Overview
Figth usefull Longbow auto attack

Goal of Proposal
A realibly autoattack for longbow more responsive and with more thoughtful-like usage

Proposal Functionality
Divide damage only betwing 100% distance and 50% distance. Add a fact at 50% distance or less were the LB will do less damage but will have more crit chance.

The current autoattack has no sence beside a lore idea. This “little” change will make longbow a more deep weapon in skirmishes for both, the ranger and her/his foe.

Associated Risks
No risk a first galce, must be tested of course.

CONSUMABLES SHOULD BE SHARED
With Rangers’ high reliance on their pets for complimentary support or reinforcing their own chosen role, pets should benefit from any consumables the Ranger uses.

No Ordinary Dog Chow
Pets should inherently duplicate any consumable buffs their master acquires – when a certain percentage of Ranger functionality is expected to be coming from their pets, having the pet not benefit creates a clear disparity between Rangers and professions that operate as a single being. The current situation is equivalent to Warrior burst skills ignoring Power from food or a Guardian’s virtues not being updated after eating. Plus the image of a Ranger sharing a portion of his meal with his trusted pet is simply too cute to ignore. Submit to the cute. You know you want to.

Fluffy! Don’t Eat that!
While a straight copy of the consumable effects is both simple to understand and easy to plan tactics around, its possible that pets would gain too much proportional benefit due to the lower base values for their attributes. If this is problematic, a common scaling factor can likely be determined and applied. There are also a number of foods which have no practical effect when applied to an NPC (e.g. proc on dodge; magic find). There will be both favorites and less ideal choices that emerge from this change, which could cause a shift in Ranger eating habits .

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Rework Search And Rescue.

Goal of Proposal
When this skill becomes viable it may be seen to used. As of currently, no ranger uses it and groups do not request rangers to use it.

Proposal Functionality
Make it effortlessly do what it is intended to do without range constraints and other bugs associated.

Associated Risks
Rangers may be able to support groups well enough that certain counter-play to pets must be used.

“General” Profession and Combat Notes
-Professions and combat need a huge reinvestment. I’m sure out of the $100,000,000 earned over the past year you all could negotiate to get some resources and fix the most important aspects of this game.
-The slower than a turtle paced profession development philosophy and continued trait number reshuffling are not healthy for the game. Time to shift philosophy gears and speed up implementation.
-Condition/CC/KB/KD stacking needs stricter limits and timers between reapplication after being cleansed should be introduced.
-High burst and damage attacks need to be toned down period. 1 or 2 hit kills from players or “normalish” npcs should not exist.
-HP disparities between professions should be reduced.
-Thief weapons should be on timers like everyone else.
-Stealth rules and counter stealth need a major rework.
-Each profession needs equality in condition removal and movement.
-Research City of Heroes for major tips and inspiration on how to improve professions, weapons, weapon customization, build diversity and options, combat, conditions/cc, kb/kd, stealth, …, …, …, everything.

Ranger specific stuff below…

PvX Ranger Proposal Overview
-Less DoT/Condition damage and more “raw” damage across the weapon board.
-If you are not willing to make the damage changes suggested above, then you should increase attack speed for all ranger weapon attacks.
-Traits are all over and placement on many does not make sense. Neither does bleeding more only from the side or back, but that’s another story.
-Petless ranger option. Sorry, I know it will take work and resources, but it needs to happen.
-Idea while typing… Reorganize and fix traits. Choosing or not choosing Beastmaster Trait line becomes the pet/petless ranger option. Pet out provides whatever % damage debuff to Ranger but acts as an aoe buff for self and team. Idk, but better than what is going on now.
-Fix sword attacks finally by cutting out the gimmicky movements. Think about Thief dagger #2 inspired clean attacks and evasions.
-After you rework stealth, Rangers need more. Call it camouflage or whatever, but it’s fitting for this profession.

Goal of Proposal
To improve professions and combat in this game.

Proposal Functionality
My general suggestions proposal works fantastically awesome in relation to the current design of GW2 and increases player retention and game revenue.

Associated Risks
There are no risks or problems with my proposal. I do not need assistance from other members of the CDI.

Associated Rewards
Devs are happy because ncsoft is happy because players are happily spending their money and referring their friends to play.

Thank you!

P.S. Logging in to do my daily soon so I can earn my laurel for possible future use on Ascended weapons and armor. Be back soon to read more of this thread and provide more great ideas.

Game Mode: PvX

Pet mobile combat improvements.

Many call pet a lost cause because of it’s inability to hunt down moving targets. With this in mind few changes can be made to improve it or at least make the situation less tragic.

Firstly as someone pointed already, pets being able to jump up and down after their targets would be great help in pursuit of human targets. Not every pet has to have it, but felines, canines, spiders & moas should have it, while birds should be able to chase their prey no matter the vertical distance, as long as there’s a clear air route to it and it’s not underwater.

The less fortunate families of pets, such as drakes, bears, boars and so on, should have a passive ability reducing their and master’s damage taken from projectile attacks, so anyone wanting to shoot down the ranger from afar, will face reduced damage output, bringing him closer to petless ranger dps.

As for horizontal mobility there have been proposals of increasing pet attack reach, which i fully support. Be it build into every pet henceforth, or achievable by easy to get trait, make it happen.

Pet mechanic

new Little window on pet bar

When the pet will activate the F2 is not easy to say, except we are able to see permanent what the pet is doing. I think what could help is a Little window in the pet bar that Shows the next attack of the pet. In the pet menu we can see Icons for the 3 normal attacks and a 4th Icon for the F2. The Icons should Flash like our Autoattack chains. With that Little Feature we are able to say more precise when our Special attack Triggers. Not only the F2! We can see when our pet trys to trigger the knockdown or the AoE poison field and so on. Its not the full control of our pet that we want, but with that we are able to time our Actions better with our pet.
That would be a great buff IMO with just a Little UI window!

here i cant say what the risk could be, it would be interesting if its even possible to implement this

PvE, PvP, WvW

Proposal Overview:
Noticing how lots of people are talking about pets dying, being weak or being in the way (the marionette taught me no one wanted my pet to exist) and noting AI changes as being difficult, I hope to simplify some of the issues.

Goal of Proposal:
To keep the pet but add additional funtionality and potentially do the same to spirits.

Proposal Functionality:
Pets being on passive sucks. Pets need to provide buffs when on passive OR there needs to be passive pets. Interestingly enough, such a thing exists in game. It would be awesome to be able to have a spirit permanently out in place of a pet. Something without needing management that buffs the group that I can control. Even better, maybe certain pets could do the same thing as spirits all the time, or when put on passive. It is wonderful that passive mode exists for pets, Rangers would be useless if they couldn’t keep their pet still. However, a class mechanics should not have to be disabled a large portion of the time to keep the class competitive. AI changes are hard, I get that. Passive pets are an easy fix that lets Rangers get buff from a mechanic. Maybe targetted debuffs or something for F1 AoE buff F2. It keeps current systems.

I’ll make it brief as much as possible

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Goal of Proposal
band-aid solution for pet survivability against telegraphed attacks dealt by bosses

Proposal Functionality
make F3 [Return to Me] grant Aegis [5 secs] and Swiftness [5 secs] to pets but give it a cooldown of 10 secs

Associated Risks
cooldown prevents exploit

Game Mode All

Proposal Overview
There is a significant lack of condition synergy between the ranger and the pet. Almost every interaction kills the pet. There is also a notable lack of active condition removal for the ranger that is killing power builds.

Goal of proposal
Making the ranger-pet interaction a positive one to not make the pet feel like a ball and chains in some game mods.

Proposal functionality
Add some condition removal to existing abilities:

-Heal as one clears up to 3 conditions from the ranger and transfers them to pet as boons
-Lightning reflexes clears cripple, chilled and immobilized

-Protect me no longer kills the pet

-Instinctual bond (Beast master minor 5 trait) clears 1 condition on pet swap instead of giving the pet quickness on downed (useless effect atm)

-Carnivorous appetite changed in functionality: Pet attacks heal the ranger, rangers attacks heal the pet (numbers adjusted)

-Buff pet HP for WvW

-Sweep over weapon skills that give secondary effects to pet attacks; Winters bite is a good example with a noticable effect. We need more interactions like this on weapon sets

Risks
Time needed to find a sweet spot for some numbers, but generally you would be buffing/touching/tweaking stuff that is not used at the moment.

one of none balancing concerning suggestion.
rangers should have some interaction animations with certain pets for idle time. I know it is too much but, it would be lovely to see some of these happen.

Oh, it has been said before. Rangers will buy pets/pet skins. It is not class favoritism any more than having special pets in HoM. It has been done there meaning it can be done again. Did I mention people will buy them?

PvX – I play all aspects of the game and none of these are not a problem in all areas of the game.

• Remove spirits unbound or change it’s functionality. As it is now it’s too strong of a trait which is causing the balance of spirit skills to be too varied. I suggest removing the ability to have spirits move at all. Then balance spirit skills around a stationary form. Having some mindful play involved with spirits would be nice for a change.

• Weapons are too weeks and too dependent on AA.

• Utility skills are horrible. I’m often opting to take signets and EVEN then, never using the actives because they’re also horrible.

• Pets. It’s not just the responsiveness but also the cast time of the skills. I don’t like being held back by my pet in a fast paced game like this because my pet is too busy standing still for 2 seconds. This is what makes rangers so unattractive. We’re not fighting with a pet, we’re babysitting.

Ohoni.6057:

Nuzt.7894:

And what about those people who like the Class but not the pet aspect of it ? Should your opinion trump theirs ? What I was suggesting was basically having the option to stow the pet permenantly if YOU choose to do so. The pet would be more powerful if you traited for the pet to be powerful, just as the Guardians Virtues are more powerfull if you choose to trait them that way, same can be said for every other class in the game..

Being able to stow the pet permanently is fine by me, but it should always be a self-nerf, there should be no counterbalancing buffs associated with it that would make a petless ranger as strong as an untraited pet-using Ranger. It should not be balanced as an equal way to play the class, it should just be an option for people that really insist on going that route, just like a Thief that insists on never Stealing, or a Necro that insists on never using DS.

I would be fine with this, I just personally believe there is to much emphasis on the pet even when its not traited. The class really needs more group utility in WvW, placing the focus on the pet is hurting the class more then helping (my opinion of course). Currently the pet soaks up boons intended for players, dies if an enemy zerg looks at it, and brings zero utility to the players around you.

That is why I was suggesting that maybe being traited for pets would be better, Rangers Damage and utility is to reliant on the pet that does nothing for anyone but the ranger. This way you could choose how much your affected by having said pet. It was a suggestion I feel might help stop the bias against having Rangers as an equal part of a larger team. Gotta give a little to get a little, but hey as I said its just a suggestion, everyone has different ideas and thats a good thing.

All in all, just buff us.

runeblade.7514:

dietzero.3514:

Allie Murdock.8152:

barabajaga.7652:

I know that im out of topic here and not using the format proposal and i apologize for it ,but before posting any ideas about the ranger and having into consideration that this will be read by some dev ,i will like to ask something :

Would you ever (or have you) considered the removal of the pet ,knowing how borked the ai is ,and as anet says ,it can not be reworked because its tied to mob ai?

Or would you consider split the class in to two, ranger/beastmaster ,and rework the pet ai from the ground.

Again sorry for the offtopic and thx for any possible answer.

Removing the pet was something that was discussed in initial design of the class, but it is such an integral part of the Ranger’s design and philosophy.

There might be some ways that we can redesign the pet and it’s AI, but those are big projects. For the time being, we are happy to take any suggestions regarding the pet.

Its AI, not it’s. It’s means it is.

Isn’t english stupid?

English with a capital E, is incredibly stupid :P

Nothing makes sense.

Specific Game Mode
PVE

Proposal Overview
If you gear a ranger with a zerker build then the damage output should be noteworthy. It goes without saying the AI of the pets needs to be fixed. Also, Pet and Spirit trait line tweaks.

Goal of Proposal
1. Balance the ranger with the damage output of other professions so that you are free to choose whether or not you want a tanky ranger that doesn’t do much damage or a truly zerker ranger that is significant with damage at a cost of fragility.
2. Fix the AI of the pet for combat situations that should be an obvious inclusion to the pet’s AI.
3. Clean up the trait lines for pets and spirits to remove or adjust traits that are under used.

Proposal Functionality
1. DAMAGE OUTPUT- the only difference in base stats amongst all the professions is base health and this was done so that any profession is viable in a party. Yet the skills of the ranger are too defensive (such as the evade integrated in the chain of GS #1) and the damage modifiers not consistent with other professions, that when you gear full zerker you are still not doing the same damage as other professions. A ranger should be able to fulfill any role you gear it for, as well as every other profession.

2. PET AI- an obvious fix is in the moments when pets don’t evade aoe fields. Also, the F2 skill should instant cast (otherwise thats an insubordinate pet :/). Another, if the pet is on guard and the F2 skill is triggered the pet shouldn’t break guard to attack (think of mighty roar in the jungle stalker, stay next to me to continue roaring!).

3. PET & SPIRIT TRAIT LINES- trait lines that involve these two should be examined closely for underused traits. For one, it would be much appreciated if the animal specific traits give to the pets significant bonuses or just forget about animal specific traits and have traits that affect all pets (reducing micro-management). Another is the grandmaster trait Signet of the Beastmaster in Marksmanship; you are forced to get the whole line to have signets affect you. Why? Player first, pets second is fair. Also a whole major master trait for a spirit to move? Perhaps that would be more viable as a minor trait instead.

…minor issue —-> why can’t pet names stick?! If I went through the trouble to type Kurt Russell on my devourer then every time I choose him he should be named Kurt Russell!

Associated Risks
ranger love and people won’t know how to cope with it.

Specific Game Mode
I want to say PvX because it deals more with the mechanics of the ranger and their pet more as a whole. Sorry if i can’t be specific, not really easy to pinpoint, if anything i’ll say PvE.

Proposal Overview
Looking at skills and trait that allow the player to harm their pet instead of working with them.

Goal of Proposal
For a class that needs to rely on their pets for damage, utility and support. why are there abilities that allows the ranger to harm their pet. Why aren’t there more skills and traits that allow the 2 to work with each other, to buff and heal instead on dumping all of the players problem on the pet.

“Protect me”, Signet of Renewal, Empathic Bond; These skills don’t promote working with the pet, they turn the pet to more like a buffer, something to absorb damage from the ranger. If you were going to do that, you could’ve just gotten rid of the pet, give the ranger more health and armour, and call it a warrior.

We need more abilities like Rampage As One, Like you gain/lose X when your pet does/gets Y and vise verse. Why couldn’t traits like Companion’s Might (critical strike grants might to your pet) effect the player the same way it effects pet. (gain might when your pet crits).
Proposal Functionality
Not having your pet die I would think be pretty important thing for the ranger, and there is enough in this game that can kill the pet just fine with out the rangers help. Mostly with large scale events or WvW groups, as well as bosses.

Associated Risks
This would add a degree of complexity to the ranger. The player would need to be aware what actions he or the pet needs to take in order for the other to benefit. but could be rewarding as well when player are able to pull off certain combos.

332, I tired, i really did

Game Mode All

Proposal Overview
There is a large following of people who argue that forcing players onto the pet ruins their experience, but as it has been stated the ranger is THE pet class of the game. However, their argument is their inability to roleplay a medium armor archer class and it has merrit

Goal of Proposal
Enabling this play style by introducing an elite that is in line with the Nature magic theme.

Proposal functionality

-Introduce an elite called spirit form. This is a toggle ability with a small cooldown
-The pet is turned into a spirit aura around yourself
-You are allowed to swap pets and you keep all on swap effects
-You can use F2 abilities but they are centered on you, the pet is your cloak.
-All weapon effects that would buff the pet would buff the ranger instead, same for the traits albeit in a reduced effect, shouts are disabled

This might be a way to introduce a valid playstyle while keeping the core nature feel of the class. The player would use an elite slot for compressing his total utility into one entity but the draw back would be the loss of pet based dps. This would however allow pet survivability in clutch situations and WvW

Risks
Lots of number crunching.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nuzt.7894:

Allie Murdock.8152:

barabajaga.7652:

I know that im out of topic here and not using the format proposal and i apologize for it ,but before posting any ideas about the ranger and having into consideration that this will be read by some dev ,i will like to ask something :

Would you ever (or have you) considered the removal of the pet ,knowing how borked the ai is ,and as anet says ,it can not be reworked because its tied to mob ai?

Or would you consider split the class in to two, ranger/beastmaster ,and rework the pet ai from the ground.

Again sorry for the offtopic and thx for any possible answer.

Removing the pet was something that was discussed in initial design of the class, but it is such an integral part of the Ranger’s design and philosophy.

There might be some ways that we can redesign the pet and it’s AI, but those are big projects. For the time being, we are happy to take any suggestions regarding the pet.

I can see your concern here but, the option to have the pet as such an integral part of the class is one of the largest faults of the class. Could it not be optional to have the pet as an option, basically if you spec wilderness survival your pet becomes a larger part of the class, if you choose to spec in something different to be more valuable to your group then either you don’t have the pet or it has minimal impact on the class.

That is completely valid feedback that I will relay to the designers. Thanks for taking the time to share it!

that’s what exactly wow does, the biggest difference between beastmaster and marksmanship and survival talent tree is beastmaster does more pet damage.

but please bear one in mind, only difference is how much damage and usefulness pet is between these 3 talent trees, but the pet survival ability are always same.

Specific Game Mode
PvX, WvW

Proposal Overview
Give players a way around the pet, by using the ‘pet’ mechanics. With this I mean, selecting some sort of ‘aura’ through the pet selection window that removes the pet for the ranger and replaces it with some suitable other bonuses.

This can be done by using “animal auras” or “spirit auras”, see details below.

Goal of Proposal
Giving players a way around the pet mechanic that seems to hinder them in a lot of locations of the game. But not by doing away with the pet entirely, but by giving the ranger a way around the pet through the same mechanics. So that pet lovers and role players can still continue to use them. (also, pets aren’t halve bad in certain other parts of the gameplay)

Proposal Functionality
A ranger can ‘capture’ or ‘attain’ access to ‘auras’ that this player can select through the pet selection window.

These can be ‘animal auras’, one for every current pet family, and give F2 skill effects and added bonuses (f/e stats or random effects on hit, crit or w/e effect) that correspond with the pet family theme.

These can be ‘spirit auras’ one for every current spirit, and give F2 skill effects and added bonuses (f/e stats, or random effects on hit, crit or w/e effect) that correspond with the spirit theme.

Associated Risks
People not using pets at all, and constantly being asked to run auras instead of pets. Mainly in dungeons and WvW. But then again, this option is meant specifically to combat the hindrance the pets give in these areas.

added bonus if the pet auras are chosen as a way to solve this, the Norn rangers would have an added theme feature to add to their builds, mainly by letting the pet family correspond with their animal spirit. …

Due to this I am more in favour of ‘spirit auras’ as these would give all the rangers (interested) an option to build a theme around a certain spirit. You could have mountain rangers with the Mountain spirit aura, the mountain (frost) spirit itself, a frost trap and a main hand axe with a polar bear on the swap. A desert ranger with a desert aura, sword/torch, with desert (sun) spirit, flame trap and hyena’s on the swap. Or a Swamp ranger, or Forest ranger, etc. and so on…

Now that the suggestions people have been storing up for a few days have died down some lets start actually debating some of the points people are raising….

Snicky.5427:

I know you’re sifting through a ton of opinions on this, so I’ll keep mine brief and mention a problem that I don’t think is brought up very often: The difficulty for rangers to get big results consistently.

The best example I can think of is how difficult it is to play ranger effectively in large-scale WvW. Most of the ranger’s attacks that hit multiple targets are very hard to use compared to other classes – With a ranger I have to constantly be lining up perfect shots with a longbow to hit multiple targets or get in close enough to chuck a trap at my enemies in order to hit multiple targets, where with something like an ele or engi I can just chuck an explosive into the enemy zerg and get the same thing without the risk / effort.

I think this is why so many new rangers default to the ‘bearbow’ strategy – it’s so much easier to get consistent results compared to other ranger builds, even if the results are mediocre.

This caught my eye because I’m honestly confused how the class was released with such a glaring lack of burst and AE to begin with. There’s so little of it you’re almost left wondering if it was by design.

Piercing Arrows I’m convinced was never designed to even act as a ‘semi-AE’ but rather is just there to ensure the Ranger’s shots actually hit the target they’ve selected instead of being body blocked.

I feel like for a year we’ve been asking what this class’s role is in this game and the closes we’ve ever come to a real answer to this is ’we’re the official pet class of GW2’ which is painful to hear considering the sorry state the pet has been in since the game was released.

I’d love to hear ANEt’s opinion on what this class was supposed to be and where they feel it is right now because it’s no where near the pet class it’s supposed to be, it doesn’t live up to the class description on the main page, and it doesn’t seem to have the very basic things most every other class takes for granted.

Game Mode All
Proposal Overview
More controlled pet stances

Goal of proposal
Keep the ranger-pet interaction, but give rangers more control over the flow of pet in a fight.

Proposal functionality
Give pets a couple an offensive and defensive stance when attacking, that can be swapped instantly. When offensive, the pet’s damage is higher, but defense is lower (when you want pet to dps). When defensive, the pet is still chasing and offense is much less, but the incoming damage on the pet is much lower. This enables pets to survive in large-fights to use their activated ability and do some good.

This could also be expanded by giving an additional activated ability depending on whether the pet is in attack (an offensive-type ability) or guard (a support-type ability).

Risks
Could make pet management too micro-oriented to achieve optimal performance. Also, could make PvE open-world even easier as pets would tank even better.

Another thing that needs to be discussed with this class is what’s wrong with it in WvW? If you ask people to rank the classes from most to least useful the Ranger is always ranked 8th out of 8th. If you listen on a team speak the commander has a role for every class to fill but the Ranger. Why is this?

Every time this question is asked it’s a mix of ‘well the class simply doesn’t DO anything’ to ‘the class soaked up all the terribads from every other class’.

So what’s ANet’s opinion of this? Why do they feel the Ranger is consistently ranked 8th of 8th place in WvW?

Specific Game Mode
PVE Dungeon

Propsoal Overview
Allow pets to be stowed and boost the ranger’s DPS by 30%

Goal of Proposal
To allow rangers to partake in the glory of zerker gear boss stacking! Our pets die even when fully micro managed, so give us the choice of not using them as a DPS source, and fold their DPS into the player.

Proposed Functionality

Make stow pet permanent until recalled and not upon entering combat. Add a buff to the ranger while pet is stowed:
SOLO ARTIST “30% boost to damage”

Associated Risks

Warriors will now beg to be buffed as rangers are now part of the Dungeon meta.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Specific Game Mode
PVE Dungeon

Propsoal Overview
Allow pets to be stowed and boost the ranger’s DPS by 30%

Goal of Proposal
To allow rangers to partake in the glory of zerker gear boss stacking! Our pets die even when fully micro mangaed, so give us the choice of not using them as a DPS source, and fold their DPS into the player.

Proposed Functionality

Make stow pet permanent until recalled and not upon entering combat. Add a buff to the ranger while pet is stowed:
SOLO ARTIST “30% boost to damage”

Associated Risks

Warriors will now beg to be buffed and rangers now are part of the meta.

not really my friend, apart from damage contribution, warriors also does better team support (banners) and higher resilient than rangers, even with 30% boost to damage. rangers are not first choice to many players.

I would like if shortbow was a more viable condi weapons and since an NPC just hit me with an arrow that applied torment, I think it would be cool if shortbow could apply torment in someway.

I know it’s tempting.
But I don’t think we shouldn’t step on other class’s toes trying to fit into a Dungeon Meta that’s quite frankly problematic. We should try to focus on forging a clear consistent identity all our own and hope the format will be balanced to be more healthy and inclusive.

Specific Game Mode
WvW/PvE

Proposal Overview
An adjustment/reworking of popular trait lines.

Goal of Proposal
To condense unutilized, or less effective traits, to provide more practical access to much needed condition removal that we lack (I mean, rangers should be masters of condition removal being the wilderness experts we are), and to re-allocate certain utility traits to more sensible trait lines.

Proposal Functionality
They are simple buffs to bring ranger up to par, they don’t go against the core design or alter the ranger in a harsh way.

Associated Risks
Ummmm, IDK, maybe a little toooo much condition removal?

MARKSMANSHIP CHANGES:

(5) Opening Strike: Now affects both pet and player.
(15) Alpha Training: Removed and replaced by minor grandmaster trait Precise Strike (Opening Strike always crits)
(25) Remorseless: New Minor Grandmaster trait (no longer a major Grandmaster trait).Effect stays the same but remove the renewal on Stealth part (that was way too gimmicky anyway).
Eagle Eye: Moved to Major Grandmaster trait. Now affects Short Bow and Longbow.

Signets…

NOTE: untraited Signet active should affect player, not pet. This may have to result in a nerf to Signet of Stone’s 6 sec immunity active (but could be buffed back through signet trait). With that in mind…

Signet of the Beast Master: New Master Major Trait (no longer Major Grandmaster Trait): Active effects of signets also affect your pet. Improves the effects of signets (by like 20% or something).

SKIRMISHING CHANGES:

(5) Tail Wind: Gain 5 sec Swiftness and Fury on Weapon Swap
(15) Cleansing Grip: New Master Minor trait. Cure one condition on weapon swap
Agility Training: Removed (this doesn’t help the already broken pet mechanic anyway), replaced by Martial Mastery from Wilderness Survival.
Healer’s Celerity: Moved from Wilderness Survival.

Moved to Wilderness Survival: Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency.

WILNERNESS SURVIVAL CHANGES:

Empathic Bond: Moved down to Master Trait.
Trap Potency: New Grandmaster Trait. Moved from Skirmishing.
Trapper’s Expertise: New Adept Major Trait. Moved from Skirmishing.

Moved to Skirmishing: Healer’s Celerity, Martial Mastery.

NATURE MAGIC CHANGES:

Spirit traits need to be condensed to 2 traits. Evasive Purity could maybe be changed to just remove 1 condition. Not sure though. Eould have to have a ICD.

Beast Mastery:

Pet attribute bonus needs better scaling. Pet damage nerf was needed but ended up being too much.
Intimidation Training and Stability Training should affect all pets.

Vigorous Training: Pets now remove a condition and grant Vigor to nearby allies when activated

LaDiDiKong.5478:

Specific Game Mode
PVE

Proposal Overview
If you gear a ranger with a zerker build then the damage output should be noteworthy. It goes without saying the AI of the pets needs to be fixed. Also, Pet and Spirit trait line tweaks.

Goal of Proposal
1. Balance the ranger with the damage output of other professions so that you are free to choose whether or not you want a tanky ranger that doesn’t do much damage or a truly zerker ranger that is significant with damage at a cost of fragility.
2. Fix the AI of the pet for combat situations that should be an obvious inclusion to the pet’s AI.
3. Clean up the trait lines for pets and spirits to remove or adjust traits that are under used.

Proposal Functionality
1. DAMAGE OUTPUT- the only difference in base stats amongst all the professions is base health and this was done so that any profession is viable in a party. Yet the skills of the ranger are too defensive (such as the evade integrated in the chain of GS #1) and the damage modifiers not consistent with other professions, that when you gear full zerker you are still not doing the same damage as other professions. A ranger should be able to fulfill any role you gear it for, as well as every other profession.

2. PET AI- an obvious fix is in the moments when pets don’t evade aoe fields. Also, the F2 skill should instant cast (otherwise thats an insubordinate pet :/). Another, if the pet is on guard and the F2 skill is triggered the pet shouldn’t break guard to attack (think of mighty roar in the jungle stalker, stay next to me to continue roaring!).

3. PET & SPIRIT TRAIT LINES- trait lines that involve these two should be examined closely for underused traits. For one, it would be much appreciated if the animal specific traits give to the pets significant bonuses or just forget about animal specific traits and have traits that affect all pets (reducing micro-management). Another is the grandmaster trait Signet of the Beastmaster in Marksmanship; you are forced to get the whole line to have signets affect you. Why? Player first, pets second is fair. Also a whole major master trait for a spirit to move? Perhaps that would be more viable as a minor trait instead.

…minor issue —-> why can’t pet names stick?! If I went through the trouble to type Kurt Russell on my devourer then every time I choose him he should be named Kurt Russell!

Associated Risks
ranger love and people won’t know how to cope with it.

THIS THIS THIS. This player gets it. Buffing for the sake of buffing is not the answer, unrestricted potential of the class is the answer. I understand some traits are flavorful but they do not work at the same rate of efficiency of other classes. For example,a guardian doesn’t trait for either defensive or offensive spirit weapons, they trait for spirit weapons. So then why do i have to trait for a pet type? Am i not suppose to choose the right pet for the job without worrying which i trait for? Those specific traits are silly and wasteful. Please fix them so those traits affect ALL of my pets.

Dos.7052:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Specific Game Mode
PVE Dungeon

Propsoal Overview
Allow pets to be stowed and boost the ranger’s DPS by 30%

Goal of Proposal
To allow rangers to partake in the glory of zerker gear boss stacking! Our pets die even when fully micro mangaed, so give us the choice of not using them as a DPS source, and fold their DPS into the player.

Proposed Functionality

Make stow pet permanent until recalled and not upon entering combat. Add a buff to the ranger while pet is stowed:
SOLO ARTIST “30% boost to damage”

Associated Risks

Warriors will now beg to be buffed and rangers now are part of the meta.

not really my friend, apart from damage contribution, warriors also does better team support (banners) and higher resilient than rangers, even with 30% boost to damage. rangers are not first choice to many players.

I’m not trying to supplant warriors or make rangers OP I’m simply trying to make it easy for Anet in terms of coding and balance to allow rangers a seat at the table in dungeons. Rangers still provide spotter and frost spirit which warriors do not, but this would halt the auto kick a ranger mentality, as pet AI is wonky and creates problems in dungeons.

this thread is already something of a train wreck. i think itd be good to pose a question just like how this cdi topic was chosen:

what are your top 3 gameplay flaws with ranger?

heres mine:
1. pet = lots of dps. and pet has an “off” mode (dead), and cant hit players even in “on” mode, severely gimping rangers practical dps.
2. trait diversity (empathic bond)
3. group utility

mostly coming from a wvw perspective.

Game Mode:
PvP, but really PvX. I will attempt to use the proposed format.

Proposal Overview:
Give stealth to Quick Shot (Ranger Shortbow #3) so that it benefits from Remorseless (Marksmanship-GrandmasterTrait) and to make Remorseless more appealing.

Goal:
To make “Remorseless” more appealing to non-longbow rangers.
To add some escape-ability and tactical maneuvering options to the shortbow.
Slightly reduce evasion spam.

Currently, Hunter’s Shot is the only controllable source of stealth that rangers have. This means that outside of kills, which can come infrequently in sPvP and small groups in WvW, this trait that affects only a single target for a short duration rarely activates. This is especially true if the user doesn’t use the longbow. Investing 30 points in a trait that may rarely trigger discourages its use, especially to non-longbow users. Giving stealth to the shortbow would allow non-longbow users to take advantage of this trait as well. Since it is in the Marksmanship line, shortbow users will also benefit from the other Marksmanship traits that have likely been selected.

The stealth would also give the user an opportunity to better position himself for the shortbow’s auto-attack (bleed when hit from the side or behind), instead of being countered easily by the opponent rotating with them as the ranger tries to reposition himself.

Proposed Functionality:
In addition to the current functionality, gain stealth for 3 seconds if the shot hits. Increase recharge to 12 seconds.

Increasing the recharge to 12 seconds reduces the profession’s evasion spammability while balancing out its stealth component. It also allows this stealthing skill to have the same location and recharge on the skillbar as the Longbow’s Hunter’s Shot (which also grants stealth) for consistency.

Associated Risks: Changes primary functionality from spammable evade to tactical stealth.

Specific Game Mode

Mainly PvE but applies to everything.

Proposal Overview

More damage at low range for longbow rangers, less survivability

Goal of Proposal

Make longbow feel rewarding at high range rather than punishing at low range.
Also it should be a slightly more “high range,high damage,dead when something comes close” playstyle.

Proposal Functionality
1-Remove damage scaling with distance, add vulnerability when used at more than 500 range and some additional bonus(one more vulnerability stack,low duration might) when used at 1000+ range. Maybe add another bonus for 1400+ when using the trait.
2-Remove vulnerability, make it deal more damage to compensate.
3-Slightly lower the stealh duration to make the longbow ranger more vulnerable
4-Slightly lower the knockback distance to make the longbow ranger more vulnerable.
5-Fine as it is.

Overall just some more damage that doesnt fall off that much at low range, while having a harder time once enemies come close.
Makes a longbow ranger rely on good positioning and utility skills to survive.

Associated Risks
Longbow possibly becoming too strong low range or dieng too fast if enemies are near.

Roy.7405:

Game Mode:
PvP, but really PvX. I will attempt to use the proposed format.

Proposal Overview:
Give stealth to Quick Shot (Ranger Shortbow #3) so that it benefits from Remorseless (Marksmanship-GrandmasterTrait) and to make Remorseless more appealing.

Goal:
To make “Remorseless” more appealing to non-longbow rangers.
To add some escape-ability and tactical maneuvering options to the shortbow.
Slightly reduce evasion spam.

Remorseless isn’t even good with longbow.

Actually, remorseless isn’t grandmaster worthy trait

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview
In the progression CDI’s I suggested a feature where ‘choice’ skills are added to the profession weapons, on skills #2 and #4 (seeing #1 skills tend to be very specific and often consist of follow-ups, seeing #3 is profession related for thieves, and seeing #5 is often a strong sort of ‘weapon minor-elite’.) Also by limiting choice skills to #2 & #4 means less balance hassle.

In this suggestion I would like to propose certain changes to weapons (in some cases) to accommodate for this optional suggested feature, and some suggestions for choice skills on these weapons. (see details below)

Goal of Proposal
To give the ranger team some suggestions as to how to implement choice skills on weapons if these were to become implemented due to them being suggested in the ‘progression CDI’.

Proposal Functionality

Great Sword:
- Move skill #4 to location #3, weapon defining skill
- Options for #2:

• Devourer stab, lean back and stab your sword with two hands forward like a devourer tail. (aka. attack your foe with the force of a devourer) and poison them
• Drake Swipe, Swing your GS in a wide arc hitting multiple foes around you.

- Options for #4:

• Kick Sword. Stab your sword in the ground and kick it, blasting up sand in an arc in front of you, blinding foes. Hit’s a single foe if in range.
• Wolfs run, Run in and stab your foe, knocks down and gives a stack of might.

sigh I realize now that I wont have enough words to do this … i’ll stick to the changes then

Long bow- move #2 to location #3. weapon defining skill
Shortbow – no changes. (add bleeding volley, entangling shot)
Sword – move #2 to location #3 (add spider strike f/e)
Axe – move #3 to location #2 (add fire axe f/e on #4 axe ‘thumb’, knockback)
dagger – switch #4 & #5 throw at various ‘parts’
torch – ‘blow at torch’ for an arc burn
warhorn – switch #4 & #5 (add blindness to 5 and possible multiple targets) #4 add ‘warning call’ (give protection and stability to allies)

Associated Risks
A lot of work to create these skills, it adds a minor burden on balancing, but it could increase the amount of themes on rangers, as well as viable builds.

Specific Game Mode
PVP, WVW

Proposal Overview
Give pets more Utility and not just be a roaming killable dot. The ranger pets are all animals that have senses that should be able to help the ranger who pays attention to their ques. Have them be able to react to stealthed enemies and hidden traps.

Goal of Proposal

Adds a foil to the much maligned thief stealth all the time meta. Makes pets a lot more useful. Makes rangers pay more attention to what their pets are doing.

Proposal Functionality

Pets would have an emote like a howl or in the case of birds maby circle the source of danger. This would be a passive function that all pets would do.

Associated Risks
Detecting stealth all the time might make rangers a little unbalanced against thieves but I feel that if you make it so you have to be watching the pet to be warned of impending danger the ranger could miss the warning.

1. Ranger condition removal is terrible. It hasn’t kept up with the meta. Immobilze is a hard counter to ranger.

2. Ranger needs at least one pet to cleave to keep up in PvE. All of the pets don’t have to cleave but one should.

3. Ranger bows should pierce even without the trait. Warrior longbows do, thief arrows bounce… Why are ranger bows worse.

GLOBAL PROPOSAL

No skill in the game should require more than 2 traits to “max”.

None.

This should apply to all classes for all skills. The varied traits that a ranger has to take just to get its skills to fully work greatly limits build to, eg full traps builds, or full spirits builds, or bow builds. Ranger build variety would be greatly helped if traits were simplified and combined and condensed into just a couple options.

runeblade.7514:

Roy.7405:

Game Mode:
PvP, but really PvX. I will attempt to use the proposed format.

Proposal Overview:
Give stealth to Quick Shot (Ranger Shortbow #3) so that it benefits from Remorseless (Marksmanship-GrandmasterTrait) and to make Remorseless more appealing.

Goal:
To make “Remorseless” more appealing to non-longbow rangers.
To add some escape-ability and tactical maneuvering options to the shortbow.
Slightly reduce evasion spam.

Remorseless isn’t even good with longbow.

Actually, remorseless isn’t grandmaster worthy trait

I agree that in its current form it’s not grandmaster worthy, and eventually may be moved down to MasterTier. But if it is to remain in the game, giving it some synergies with other skills is necessary, regardless of what tier it’s in.

I also forgot to mention a slight buff to Remorseless.

Proposed Functionality:
In addition to its current effect, your pet gains Opening Strike when it is stealthed.
Purpose: If it is decided that Guard shall keep its same functionality (it still needs improvements to be worthwhile when not traited Nature’s Voice), it will have some synergy.

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Make ranger pets and ranger spirits behave exactly like the Guardian’s invulnerable spirit weapons

Goal of Proposal
Assist with complaints about pets and spirits dying too easily and having poor AI

Proposal Functionality
- Lower pet and spirit damage to account for this new invulnerability
- Add a Duration and a Cooldown when activating a spirit pet – pets and spirits die after Duration expires (exactly like spirit weapons do)
- Buff the Ranger’s other damage to account for DPS loss from the pet
- Make pets / spirits semi-transparent like the guardian spirit weapons so there is a visual cue
- Make them invulnerable like spirit weapons
- Keep the “Charm” feature so Ranger still have to collect pets
- Update F1-F4 skills to offer different skills now that pets are invulnerable – something like:
F1 – Summon pet (requires target, range 600, pet spawns on the target, F2 goes on 1 second cooldown)
F2 – Pet special (fast cast time)
F3 – Free pet (destroys pet, grants ranger boons and/or enemy conditions)
F4 – Swap pet (switches between two spirit pets)
- Give spirit pets (a) fast cast times and (b) perma swiftness to enable them to attack moving targets

Associated Risks
All the usual risks that come from significant rework and testing.

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Lightning Reflexes removes immobilized and two conditions.

Goal of Proposal
To give Rangers an active condition clear, and a condition clear method that does not kill our pets. Also to add a way to clear immobilize, which is all too prevalent in WvW.

Proposal Functionality
Current LR functionality with added features above.

Associated Risks
Could potentially make Entangle even more useless, as it is only useful against other Rangers to begin with, and if one is running LR with the proposed changes they would never stay in the AOE.