Guild Wars 2

Bow is not a sniper rifle… its more like a “DMR”.
I would rage delete my account if the autoattack ROF gets even slower O.o

Terravos.4059:

Trapper’s aren’t bad..that’s the thing, They’re one of the few Builds we have that don’t need much help..And Skirmishing itself is fine with those traits there.

Skirmishing does need better Power Based Build traits though, Putting some of the Traits together (Like maybe combining the Trap Traits together and making it so people only have to go up to the Master Part of the tree together might make people happy. As they’d have an extra 10 points to work with. You could then do 20/20/30 or 10/20/30/10/0 or 0/20/30/20 Builds for Trappers.

Moving the Piercing Arrow Trait over to Skirmishing’s Bow Trait might be decent also, Because it makes that Trait in general better pick for Power Builds that use bow, and it free’s up a Trait in Marksman for Power builds.

The Rez Traits in general could go away, There is no reason to have most of them in the game as most people won’t use them. They’d be fine as Minor Traits, but actual Traits you choose is just silly.

In fact there is a lot of “filler” traits like that in general in this game that would be better as option Minor Traits you could pick in builds.

Trapper Builds

Agree not much help. Really wouldn’t want piercing arrows because it messes with stealth generation from LB and trap’s and barrage are enough aoe. In a PvP WvW context I simply need to know my stealth will work and piercing is a risk.

Run a very similar build to yours in the vid you posted using carrion armor rampager carrion stat accessories to up my crit. Similar numbers different power/cond ratio numbers swapping more vit(carrion impact) for toughness. And the stealth of LB can be a pretty important survival tool.

Sharpened edges getting an additional .5 duration would be helpful but damage envelope is ik really needs a bit more survivability.

Combining the traits at 20 would also open some interesting options. IMHO build really just needs a little extra defense.

If you combined both at 20 and at 30 added a new trait I’ld suggest a defensive trait. Something like 15% chance on crit daze 1 seconds ICD 5 seconds. An interupt generator but blocked from access to MoC. Could also grant a chance on crit to proc aegis (Probably preferred as overlapping rangers proccing daze could be real annoying come to think of it.) Or a chance on crit to transfer 2 conditions to my opponent 10 sec icd. Might counter those necro’s that hard counter me pretty badly. A chance to steal a boon on crit…. Something to up defense in skirmishing would be nice.

Fext.3614:

Specific Game Mode
All modes

Proposal Overview
Rework of bow skills

Goal of Proposal
Weapon specialization.

Proposal Functionality
As it is now, longbow seems to be designed more like a “sniper rifle” weapon type in mind, while shortbow reminds a SMG.
Please consider going further this way (as this makes a lot of sense). Make longbow a hard hitting, long range and single target weapon, while shortbow should me a close quarters defensive multiple target weapon.

Associated Risks
<What risks or problems can you foresee with this proposal which you would like to have assistance on from other members of the CDI>

Well, I wouldn’t go that far.
But what I would recommend is that the Longbow had 1500 range by default.

Because honestly, range is a joke in this game. Everyone is almost always in range of each other, and with the shear number of gap closers, you can’t even kite melee effectively. Makes you wonder what the bloody point is.
And that cripples this weapon, since you can’t maintain your distance.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so much of an issue if high ground advantage actually existed, where you had longer ranger the higher up you were, ala GW1.
But no, of course not, that would be interesting.

So if it had slightly longer range by default and some better distance making skills, I could see it become a very cat and mouse sort of weapon.
Say if Rapid fire also increase movement speed by 50% during it’s channel.

And say Hunter’s Shot crippled as well.
Barrage as many have asked for, should be able to be channeled while moving.
(actually turn it into a channel skill)

-
How about this for a trait as a replacement for Eagle Eye.
Channeling skills give you 50% movement speed for their duration.

Make Barrage and Whirling Defense mobile skills, and then I think you could get some pretty interesting results. Potentially overpowered results, but interesting.

Atherakhia.4086:

Arrys.7145:

runeblade.7514:

Atherakhia.4086:

Chokolata.1870:

The longbow is easy to fix:
-compress the Rapid fire into 2.5 seconds from 4.5 seconds, keep total damage the same
-hunter shot stealths on shot not on hit
-allow movement during barrage channel

There, I fixed it… tsk

You’ve made it better, but it’s still an incomplete weapon. There’s no synergy between the attacks like there are with melee weapons. No real flow. You’ve also left the problem where Barrage and Hunter’s Shot are counter intuitive because you can stealth then barrage but you can’t barrage and then stealth. This is why barrage needs to be removed from the weapon. It just doesn’t make any sense the way it’s set up currently.

I disagree with this.

I like Barrage because it is a anti-melee pressure skill. Rangers always complain that people always get out of barrage aoe. So, I like to capitalize on that mind set and make barrage a anti-melee field. I use it to surround myself and shoot people from afar.

I wish barrage cooldown is lowered.

Longbow synergizes quite well for mixed damage builds. And barrage and hunters shot being counter intuitive seems counter intuitive. Layered damage and advanced preparation to resist generate damage is designed into us. From preloaded traps and spirits to SoH….

By setting up our opponents so multiple damages all come to bear in a short order that took us a decent bit longer to set up.

The KB ensures your stealth hits if you choose to not combo your disengage with a stealth drop target to prevent a quick leap as your big fat pet runs behind you creating a click target issue….So be it. It works.

If one doesn’t get the value of being able to bury your vulnerability with opening strikes then refresh it with a traited longbow. So be it.

Barrage not only layers damage people blow cleanses. And use dodges and weaken themselves….Or they run slowly at me and a stack of traps that applies my conditions in precise order….

The stealth is a near must to drop you elite spirit and prevent interupt. Our stealth mass raise. Don’t forget stealth finish potential downed doesn’t dodge.

And my break away KB stealth are both finishers….Or an extra 1500ish damage un might climbed as I disengage, extra 2 seconds of chill….

The weapon has synergy. It’s quite good.

Skirmishers shouldn’t self cc. remove the self rooting.

Don’t break my longbow please…

The problem is the layered damage you mention comes in the form of utility skills, not 2 weapon skills on the same weapon being counter intuitive. Can you think of another weapon that has this issue? Where a single weapon has 2 skills that can never work together? I can’t off hand, but if there are please mention them.

The only internal synergy you mentioned in your post was that of using knock back + stealth? Chaining 2 utility skills like that makes no sense whatsoever.

And barrage itself is just so incredibly weak for what it does. I’d much rather see it moved to a utility skill and improved so it’s actually something worth using more often. Right now it’s only used on walls and on zergs. But in these situations it’s not used for the CC value, it’s used for the delayed damage (in the case of walls) and for AE loot spam. Cripple just isn’t the area denial you’re making it out to be.

The layered damage comes from a barrage pet and LB 1, preloaded damage is my traps whose CD’s are ticking to zero because they were placed in advance. And as I noted If they burn dodge and a cleanse before they reach me and my trap stack this is good news. And since pet and ranger are proccing conditions plus the cripple, I draw early cleanse waste all the time.

KB to stealth is simple survival – I don’t get high toughness. If the traps don’t panic them I’m not lasting toe to toe with a warrior. And they have lots of gap closers. Get range go stealth and use my pet trail to hopefully keep em off me if there isn’t a los point I set up by.

Just wanted to point out the weapon does synergize even if it’s not for your build. And I went through and still revert to lots of longbow builds of all varieties. Damage isn’t great but psycholgical impact to average players is high when skirmishing.

Specific Game Mode:
PvE

Proposal Overview:
Give us the possibility to have a real relationship with our pets.

Goal of Proposal:
Having a pet does feel as if you were an engineer who summons a tower: there is no personal relationship at all between you and your pets.
You cannot tame them, you cannot train them, you cannot feed them.
Also all the pets of a kind look the same, there is no individuality.
In Wow I had lots of fun with my ranger, taming a beast, training it up and searching for pets with a different look.
I miss that a lot in GW 2 which is why I started a ranger 3 times but always ended up with deleting my characters – I found playing a ranger did not really feel like being a ranger.

Proposal Functionality:
The designers and programmers would have quite some work to do….

Associated Risks:
I do not think that giving us the possibility to craft collars for pets with small boni or feed them would make the ranger overpowered.

Eosaujii.5713:

Specific Game Mode

WvW

Proposal Overview

Pets are part of the Ranger’s heart and soul. The idiom, ‘whats mine is yours, whats yours is mine’ could be the fundamental game mechanic for a Ranger and her Pet.

In this regard, no distinction should be made in the traits between Ranger or Pet – all traits/signets, etc., should effect both the Ranger and the Pet equally. The Ranger and Pet should have full synergy.

Goal of Proposal

Balance the Ranger with her natural role as a Champion of Nature let her be as one with the wild animals she calls friend. The Pets will impart their strengths upon the Ranger and in turn, she imparts all of hers upon them.

This synergistic relationship will make the Ranger greater than the sum of its parts.

Proposal Functionality

Remove the traits from the Ranger’s lineup that are only for the Pet, and rework them so that what effects the Ranger now also effects the Pet.

Bring a new level of synergy between the Ranger and Pet by allowing the pooling of health, the sharing of all boons, and the ability of each animal to impart a mode of defense and/or offense to the Ranger – this relationship exists in harmony, and is in effect all of the time.

Some examples of this:

Bear defense: imparts a bonus to health pool (scalable depending on level)
Bear offense: imparts a terrifying instant roar (stance) causing weakness and fear

Spider defense: imparts a sticky residue, causing an attacker to be immobilized momentarily
Spider offense: increases the potency of all the Ranger’s poisons, along with durations

Hawk defense: imparts a special sight to the Ranger, allowing her to block some missiles
Hawk offense: increases the range of all missiles, with a bonus to crit on the initial shot

Each animal in turn, would offer to the Ranger something unique. These functions could replace the current pet-bar, and be accessible as a normal class function.

Associated Risks

There are no risks associated with this, as it will simply balance the game play of the Ranger, forever removing the handicap of having a class with reliance on an AI driven game mechanic.

By allowing the Pet itself to become part of what the Ranger is, the Ranger no longer has to rely on the game server for the other half of her abilities.

This sounds like the sort of direction that pets should have taken in the first place, with only one, unfortunately rather large, issue; we’d be sharing our character health with the same awful AI pet that cannot dodge attacks, doesn’t evade AoE and can’t jump obstacles. In other words a shared healthpool with pets with the current combat mechanics, would result in an insta-dead ranger in many scenarios.
Drop the shared health pool idea and you’ve got the base of what pets, arguably, should already be.
If defensive mode ment merging the pet with the ranger, it would be perfect.

Chrispy.5641:

Heres a Signet idea from earlier in the thread that I posted. I tried to keep the burst potential there, while also adding group support capability, and expanding on our options for survival and condition removal. It quickly got buried in other posts, so it was never discussed after that post. Maybe you have an opinion on it?

Link:::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Collaborative-Development-Ranger-Profession/3699949

The problem I see here (pretty much the same as what you’ve already said) is that Wild Strikes and Attack of Opportunity used together with SotB would result in too much damage from yourself, your pet and allies combined. Apart from that, I don’t have too much trouble with them.

Aridia.3042:

Taushullu.6180:

Here’s what I would like to see done to signets.

Signet changes in 5 steps:

1. Signet passive effects affect both ranger and pet, active effects ranger only.
2. Signet of the Beastmaster merged with Signet Mastery. New effect:
   • Signet of the Beastmaster: Signets recharge 20% faster. Active effects of signets also affect your pets.
3. Beastmaster’s Might gets a more supporting role by granting might to nearby allies on signet activation (3 stacks for 15s / 600 radius).
4. New grandmaster trait to replace old SotB. New trait:
   • Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. (Signet actives are (PvE: 50%, PvP: 33%) as effective on allies / 360 radius)
5. Few signet active effects need to be reworked.
   1. Signet of the Wild (active): Enlargement effect is removed and activation time reduced to 1/4s. Grants stability (8s) and breaks stun. 60s cd.
   2. Signet of Renewal (active): Removes all conditions from yourself (not from nearby allies) instead of transferring them to your pet. 60s cd.
   3. Signet of the Hunt (PvP active): Damage bonus changed to +30%.

If anyone is wondering about those percentages, this is what I was aiming for .

Primal Echoes (PvE) + Signet of the Hunt (PvE) = 25% damage bonus to allies.
Primal Echoes (PvP) + Signet of the Hunt (PvP) = 10% damage bonus to allies.

No idea how these changes would affect the current balance, though.

I like this except SoTH. The active damage is worthless unless you’re going for a cheesy double signet maul build. While it’s amusing, it should never be encouraged.

SoTH should give stealth camo when you stand motionless on something natural, and not man made. It’s good risk vs reward. Once you stealth, you can’t run away with speed and it fits the theme of the utility/class.

I’ve seen quite a few suggestions of changing the SotH active effect (Attack of Opportunity) into something more sustained or some other effect entirely. Currently I find it to work well with:

• Maul
• Counterattack
• Tail Swipe (drake)
• Swoop

It’s pretty obvious there aren’t too many possibilities out there. Still, rather than changing Attack of Opportunity into something entirely else, I’d like to see more skills from other weapons changed to benefit from it. Here’s 2 suggestions:

• Monarch’s leap has potential to become a burst skill as the skill itself is well telegraphed and visually looks like something that would hurt you. Simply increasing the damage coefficient would make this skill work better with Attack of Opportunity.
• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

These changes would make the Attack of Opportunity from SotH more useful but Moment of Clarity doesn’t work with them as you need to interrupt your target first. Thus, I’d like to see MoC modified a bit. (I’ve suggested this before in my trait suggestions list but once more.)

• Moment of Clarity: Gain Precise Strikes (your next 3 attacks crit) for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Daze and stun durations you inflict last longer. (100%)

So one of the 2 sources of Attack of Opportunity would still get cut… oh well. The proposed Moment of Clarity would see it’s burst nerfed but sustain and number of skill combinations buffed. It would also have great synergy with “on crit” -effects. I think it’s a fair trade.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
Add “trigger” button for Ranger traps.

Goal of Proposal
Fix an issue for traps being useless for structures / structure-based bosses.

Proposal Functionality
Just like spirits, first icon to place trap, then changes to “effect trigger”.

Associated Risks
Trap cooldown mechanic, might get unballanced.

Taushullu.6180:

• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

Kinda like a ranged version of 100b…. not a bad idea…. 5 super fast shots, then one charge-up that does tremendous damage.

Perhaps, instead of vulnerability, the first five arrows apply cripple to “set up” the final deadly shot. This way, normal movement is less likely to work, and you have to dodge to avoid not just press ADADADADADAD

Prysin.8542:

Taushullu.6180:

• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

Kinda like a ranged version of 100b…. not a bad idea…. 5 super fast shots, then one charge-up that does tremendous damage.

Perhaps, instead of vulnerability, the first five arrows apply cripple to “set up” the final deadly shot. This way, normal movement is less likely to work, and you have to dodge to avoid not just press ADADADADADAD

I was thinking of vulnerability as it’s what we have currently. That’s also 5% more damage for the real punishment if all the arrows hit. But you’re right, cripple would work just as well.

And yes, the ADADADA sidestepping I’m facing in WvW is seriously annoying. They should just increase the longbow’s default arrow speed a bit or maybe add that to Eagle Eye or Piercing Arrows.

Specific Game Mode
PvX
Proposal Overview
Traited condition reduction
Goal of Proposal
Give rangers some survivability when facing more condition heavy classes
Proposal Functionality
Add a grandmaster trait to the Wilderness survival trait line (or change Empathic Bond) to reduce condition damage and/or duration by 50% for you and allies (up to 5) when pet is alive. This would allow the ranger to survive more and be more use in a group scenario. It also fits in with the line of wilderness survival, being able to survive natures conditions seems more of a necessity for a ranger, than a luxury.
Associated Risks
Can’t see too many, the elementalists have diamond skin which works similarly but can be even more annoying if you can only do condition damage and no raw power. Having it as a reduction instead of a flat block of conditions doesn’t seem too overpowered considering the effect can be removed by killing the pets.

Specific Game Mode

WvW/PVE

Proposal Overview

Make spirits a more reliable and meaningfull skill choice.

Goal of Proposal

Spirits are generally seen as unreliable, particularly in WvW & PvE encounters with big amounts of AoE. The 35% (70% when traited) chance on hit to actually have an effect is a very bad thing to have on a skill and the ICD makes it even worse. In fact…the only used Spirit in PvE is Frost Spirit and people use it because it’s bugged and ALWAYS provides the effect.

Proposal Functionality

Make Spirits work pretty much like banners. They can’t be targeted/damaged and have a passive that ALWAYS (no 35% or 70% chance) affects 5 allies around it. Spirits should work like this:

Water Spirit: Cures 1 condition from 5 nearby allies every X seconds.
Frost Spirit: 10% bonus damage to five nearby allies. (Just like it does now)
Stone Spirit: 10-15% passive damage reduction to five nearby allies.
Storm Spirit: 15-25% increased movement speed to five nearby allies.
Sun Spirit: Every 5 seconds grants a buff to 5 nearby allies that causes burning.
Spirit of Nature: Heals 5 nearby allies for X each second.

Activated skills of Spirits can remain as they are now.

With this changes the trait " Vigorous Spirits" becomes kinda useless so it could be changed to “Spirits affect 10 nearby allies instead of 5”. This would be AWESOME for WvW and Rangers could become a viable and wanted profession in Zergs.

Keep the other Traits that affect Spirits.

Associated Risks

Some of the Spirits could become quite good in WvW if they affect 10 allies.
In sPvP making Spirits unkillable could be way over the top. So these “passive” numbers could be tweaked a bit.

I was always wondering about the “Your pet gains X boons on crit hit”. Why do I want to trait for my pet getting boons (30% of my damage) if other classes getting those boons for themselfes (100% of their damage).

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I was always wondering about the “Your pet gains X boons on crit hit”. Why do I want to trait for my pet getting boons (30% of my damage) if other classes getting those boons for themselfes (100% of their damage).

Basicly just hit the nail on the head. Our pet doesnt give us anything extra or special, it just takes 30-40% of the stuff we should have and makes its harder to access.

Examples being… CC. Lots of people keep refering to GW1 and wanting to play the interupter style on a ranger. The truth is rangers have great CC, both hard and soft. The problem is its largely tied to canine pets which means its more awkward and unpredictable to use and isnt really possible to use to interupt something specifc (such as a heal) because the responce time/control is so bad.

Another example is boons.. ranger have a lot of access to boons and boon related traits, but they are almost all tied to pets (or worse only apply to pet). That would be fine if our boon potential was significantly better than other classes due to the extra effort we put in by having to go through an AI, but nope. We get the same, if no worse, as everyone else ontop of having to deal with the AI.

The biggest example of all being, of course, damage. Rangers should do full damage the same as every other class, with our class mechanic being a added extra. Elementalists dont only get 3 weapon skills to balance them have 4 weapon swaps, warriors dont have lame burst skills to make up for their class mechanic, engineers dont have reduced damage or weak utilities because they get 4 mini-utilties extra. Class mechanics are there to be small extras to ADD to the class, not something which has been removed from the class and then given back in a worse form, which is exactly what pet are.

Pets just are not an advantage because they dont offer benifits, they just offer things everyone else has in a more awkward way.

Specific Game Mode
PvX
Proposal Overview
Make spiders F2 affect player instead of pet
Goal of Proposal
Add more effective use of spider abilities.
Proposal Functionality
Spiders have abilities that state that upon pressing F2 your next few attacks apply a condition, this is not the case – it’s the pets next few attacks that deal the condition. I propose that this be changed to reflect the tooltip, making spider venoms apply similarly to that of the thiefs.
Associated Risks
I can’t see any risks other than it making the ranger slightly more similar to the thief (which some players may not like) and that may be difficult to implement if the F2 button is tied to the pets AI instead of being a separate function.

Specific Game Mode: WvW, specific areas of PvE (mainly dungeons)

Proposal Overview:

This is a continuation of Part 1 of a proposal to enhance the performance of pets in AOE situations, which can be found here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Collaborative-Development-Ranger-Profession/page/31#post3703773

Enhance the ability of Rangers to perform in situations calling for heavy AOE offense and defense, specifically by increasing the ability of pets to deal AOE damage and survive it. The proposal is divided into two parts, one dealing with AOE offense and one dealing with options for a new active mitigation mechanic to allow pets to participate in large-scale combat. Many suggestions have already been proposed to address these issues, but are either phrased in very broad terminologies or unrealistic in scope/timeframe. This proposal aims to use relatively small variations that don’t require huge changes to basic mechanics.

Goal of Proposal: Rangers currently suffer from not being able to participate effectively in large-scale combat (and sometimes even at the level of small groups) in WvW and in situations in PvE which require sustained AOE damage. This is partially because a large portion of Ranger damage and utility is reliant on pets, which currently have poor ability to give out and take AOE damage. This proposal aims to shore up this weakness by enabling Ranger pets to better survive in large groups of enemies, which is especially important in WvW. A mechanic like this should also improve the ability of pets to survive in dungeons, where their inability to dodge like the Ranger makes pets extremely vulnerable to one-shots and essentially leaves their participation in the fight down to luck.

Proposal Functionality:

Part 2- AOE Defense

There are two suggestions that are very commonly given in response to this problem, which I will discuss along with an idea based on a suggestion from earlier in the thread with more detail.

Option 1:
Pets take X% less AOE damage.

Pros – Possibly the simplest solution to the problem
-At a high enough percentage, pets could certainly survive WvW engagements and perform their function.

Cons- Doesn’t help pets when it comes to big, telegraphed attacks in dungeons which are designed to one-shot players
-Always turned on; doesn’t require any additional input from the Ranger despite GW2 having a heavy emphasis on active defense
-Potential for unintended class imbalance; will a BM Ranger hard-counter a staff elementalist or any other AOE-focused character 1v1?
-Not clear if abilities have an “AOE” tag; may require more work than you would initially think if ANet will have to search through every ability in the game and decide whether it should be affected

Option 2:
When the Ranger dodges, the Pet gains evasion for the duration of the dodge. Pet should receive an obvious visual queue like becoming partially transparent or gaining a small shield graphic.

Pros- Provides active mitigation, increasing the ability of Rangers to protect their pets in a skill-based manner; Ranger will sometimes have to choose between his own defense and his pet’s
-Pet can continue to perform while it is evading, allowing it to use abilities even in a large crowd with CC effects being thrown around

Cons- Rangers that use this effect for the pet and then come under heavy fire will likely feel penalized for trying to keep their pet alive; not a good feeling for those that don’t want heavy pet interaction
-Given Ranger’s high access to Vigor and the trait in Wilderness Survival, pets might be able to achieve a very high uptime of evasion followed by a pet swap; enemy players who try to kill the pet first may find that their time was entirely wasted (balance concerns for BM Rangers)

(cont’d with Option 3 and Associated Risks)

(cont’d)

Option 3:
Add a new mechanic, similar to the evasion effect in Option 2 but controlled by the F5 button rather than the Ranger dodging. This effect would be called Blur or something else thematically appropriate to the class (Nature’s Grace?). When the Ranger presses F5, the pet evades all attacks for a short period of time followed by a cooldown. Both the duration of the effect and the cooldown differ by pet family, allowing an additional balance knob that can be turned for individual families that are too strong or too weak.

Example numbers for pet families are given below:

Short Duration, Short Cooldown (2s, 10s)-
Bird, Feline, Spider

Medium Duration, Medium Cooldown (4s, 20s)
Canine, Drake, Moa

Long Duration, Long Cooldown (7s, 35s)
Bear, Devourer, Porcine

Short duration Blurs force players who want to maximize damage to pay the closest attention to when their pet is in danger, in keeping with the design philosophy of higher difficulty/risk being rewarded by higher damage. Spiders, being ranged and also providing powerful AOE CC effects (given Part 1 of the proposal), could also fall into the category of “rewarding, but requires more attention”. Long duration blurs ensure that tanky pets will have no problems participating in extended combat or weathering bursts when needed, but will require judicious use given the longer cooldown. Devourers fit into this mold as tanky ranged pets that can take care of themselves. Medium duration is more for the “everyman” pets with more balanced uses.

As a particular note on bears, Defy Pain obviously becomes a redundant skill with the addition of Blur. A new ability should be put into this slot; personally, I would like to see a short duration AOE knockdown on a 40s cooldown in order to reinforce bears as an AOE threat for the front line. This would make bears a potential force on the front lines of WvW engagements, where tankiness and CC are valued. Obviously, if this proves to be too powerful another ability could be substituted such as AOE buffs or debuffs.

Pros- Like Option 2, this mechanic is active and skill based, forcing the Ranger to keep an eye on his pet and make sure that Blur is used at the best possible time to maximize the pet’s effectiveness.
-Ranger does not have to spend Endurance to keep his pet alive, reducing the chance that players will be resentful of the resources required to keep the pet functioning
-Individual duration/CD for each family allows another “balance knob” that can be turned as needed to deal with families that are too strong or too weak
-Evasion allows the pet to function under fire, helping “feel” and ensuring that pets can get off their most powerful abilities.
-Doesn’t require pets to receive further buffs to their stats passively

Cons- Likely the most technically challenging option by far; could require some new tech, adds an entirely new element to the balance equation; will almost certainly require the most time to implement
-The numbers provided give 20% uptime to all pet families; this may prove to be too high or too low, and striking the right balance would be extremely important
-ANet may have concerns about the addition of another button/layer of complexity to the Ranger; Blur could be introduced at a later level to avoid confusing new players right off the bat

Associated Risks

The cons of each individual option are discussed above. Any of these changes would likely represent wasted effort if not accompanied by buffs to the ability of pets to deal AOE damage, since drakes are currently the only AOE-capable pets with any value. Enhancing the ability of pets to deal with and take AOE damage might warrant stat changes, especially in the case of the Blur mechanic, which would add another layer entirely to pet survivability.

Taushullu.6180:

Prysin.8542:

Taushullu.6180:

• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

Kinda like a ranged version of 100b…. not a bad idea…. 5 super fast shots, then one charge-up that does tremendous damage.

Perhaps, instead of vulnerability, the first five arrows apply cripple to “set up” the final deadly shot. This way, normal movement is less likely to work, and you have to dodge to avoid not just press ADADADADADAD

I was thinking of vulnerability as it’s what we have currently. That’s also 5% more damage for the real punishment if all the arrows hit. But you’re right, cripple would work just as well.

And yes, the ADADADA sidestepping I’m facing in WvW is seriously annoying. They should just increase the longbow’s default arrow speed a bit or maybe add that to Eagle Eye or Piercing Arrows.

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

Rapid Fire should certainly lose some of its channel time. Just 1 second off would be fine. I’m ‘ok’ with backloading the damage too, but it just makes the whole skill very telegraphed since we have no tool to lock them down other than our elite.

But the weapon really does need to get a second damaging skill. It doesn’t need to do 20k damage like kill shot for Warriors, but it should do reasonable damage. This way you could chain rapid + this other skill together for reasonable damage. A delayed burst skill also synergizes well with knockbacks and stealth.

That is if your goal is to make Longbow a real power weapon and not just a support weapon like we have right now. If the goal is for longbow to simply be a support weapon like greatsword is, then by all means go the number crunching route.

Arrys.7145:

The layered damage comes from a barrage pet and LB 1, preloaded damage is my traps whose CD’s are ticking to zero because they were placed in advance. And as I noted If they burn dodge and a cleanse before they reach me and my trap stack this is good news. And since pet and ranger are proccing conditions plus the cripple, I draw early cleanse waste all the time.

KB to stealth is simple survival – I don’t get high toughness. If the traps don’t panic them I’m not lasting toe to toe with a warrior. And they have lots of gap closers. Get range go stealth and use my pet trail to hopefully keep em off me if there isn’t a los point I set up by.

Just wanted to point out the weapon does synergize even if it’s not for your build. And I went through and still revert to lots of longbow builds of all varieties. Damage isn’t great but psycholgical impact to average players is high when skirmishing.

I’m not trying to push a specific build, I’m simply trying to elevate the Longbow into a real option for the class. Right now it fills more of a support role like the greatsword does. There is no real damage, it offers 3 forms of utility, and a mediocre attack that is designed to offset the range disadvantage of the weapon.

The class needs a ranged power weapon that can act as a primary weapon and not just a support weapon like the greatsword is. If the class had a weapon swap trait like Warriors it wouldn’t be such a big deal, and it would even support the skirmishing playstyle ANet appears to want to want us to use. But I highly doubt we’ll get it.

Barrage is just an incredibly weak skill. You mention there’s some kind of psychological effect behind it, but that’s only because people think it’s an arrow cart until they’re hit. Cripple isn’t strong enough in this game so most don’t care if they’re hit by it. The skill on its own ends up reflecting 50-75% of the damage it does back to us because of retaliation. And it has the channel time which negates any value the skill has as a defensive skill.

I just feel the skill is so far behind where it should be it’s unlikely it would ever be improved enough to be a real positive impact on the weapon. Rather see the Longbow moved toward the single target power option for the class and barrage made a utility skill. At least as a utility skill it could be dramatically improved.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/PvX-The-Ranger-Document/first#post3706539

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

Back to trap discussion what you guys think if trap traits get moved to marksmanship tree instead of wilderness survival and as balancing act skirmish tree get signet traits? Once again this is just one thing that popped in my mind when i was trying design new build. But anyway i think this will open up new build possibilities and is less harmfull than moving traps to wilderness.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

Game mode: all

Proposal overview: Increasing pet survivability with the tools that are already in the game

Proposal functionality:

1) Every ability, be it a weapon or utility skill, that gives evades now gives the exact duration of blur or a 5 second aegis to the pet.
This includes:
- Sword 2
- Sword 3
- Dagger 4
- Greatsword 1
- Lightning reflexes

2)Pet F command call back now teleports the pet to the ranger in a poof of leaves and smoke (like when summoning a spirit). This is to help rangers pull pets out of AOEs.

3)Pet PvE hitpoint buff is translated to WvW

Risks: Increased skill ceiling.

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

This may be too good, since you can swap your weapons every 9-10 seconds.
The reveal might be ok, but not combined with the effect Revealed.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

This may be too good, since you can swap your weapons every 9-10 seconds.
The reveal might be ok, but not combined with the effect Revealed.

Stealth is too good too ¬¬.

Game mode:
PvX

Proposal overview:
Move traps traits from skirmishing tree to marksmanship tree and signets from marksman to skirmishing.

Proposal functionality:
As some people have say traps don’t get much from precision/crit dmg so why not to move them to marksman tree (power/con duration) witch is much more beneficial to them and to keep things balance move signet traits to skirmishing. This will also add some nice traits on skirmishing, witch don’t have any special traits at the moment if player don’t want use traps or invest on pet. This switch most likely open up some nice new builds also.

Risks: None really.

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

This may be too good, since you can swap your weapons every 9-10 seconds.
The reveal might be ok, but not combined with the effect Revealed.

Stealth is too good too ¬¬.

you see, if you can swap weapons every 8 seconds (normal duration is 9, -1 sec from warrior runes) you will effectively with just a rune set, be able to destroy ALL stealth builds.

now, even if it was 4 seconds revealed on a 25 second timer, it would still be very strong.

Prysin.8542:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

This may be too good, since you can swap your weapons every 9-10 seconds.
The reveal might be ok, but not combined with the effect Revealed.

Stealth is too good too ¬¬.

you see, if you can swap weapons every 8 seconds (normal duration is 9, -1 sec from warrior runes) you will effectively with just a rune set, be able to destroy ALL stealth builds.

now, even if it was 4 seconds revealed on a 25 second timer, it would still be very strong.

That was my concern exactly.
And it’s 10 seconds standart. Source

Prysin.8542:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

urdriel.8496:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Atherakhia.4086:

My only complaint about making Rapid Fire the solution to burst on the weapon is the skill is more useful as a tool you reserve for when an opponent comes in close or is attempting to stealth. With rapid fire becoming the burst skill you’ll likely just use it every cooldown because there’s still nothing to really follow it up with that isn’t a utility skill.

What if LB #3 would apply Revealed on the enemy? And if an enemy comes too close, you should swap the weapon anyways.

And, a trait that reveal people around when you swap weapons?

This may be too good, since you can swap your weapons every 9-10 seconds.
The reveal might be ok, but not combined with the effect Revealed.

Stealth is too good too ¬¬.

you see, if you can swap weapons every 8 seconds (normal duration is 9, -1 sec from warrior runes) you will effectively with just a rune set, be able to destroy ALL stealth builds.

now, even if it was 4 seconds revealed on a 25 second timer, it would still be very strong.

To reveal around you would be a nice AntiBS Trait, now this game have ZERO counter against a stealthed enemy, tbh we dont need to apply revealed debuff, only revealing the player would be nice.

what about reduce CD of SickEm or buff the duration of the revealed debuff¿.

I’d be cool with the class having some anti stealth mechanic. Not necessarily for Thieves, but maybe for Veil and guild bombing. You have to be careful though because as insanely powerful Thieves may be, they’re chumps when forced out of stealth for extended periods of time (or forced into evade spam builds which many don’t want to play) and you don’t want to destroy another class just to give this one some utility.

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Change Speed Training to give you any speed boost that your pet receives.

Goal of Proposal
Speed Training has always seemed a bit bland. Now, we don’t NEED to be faster but I believe many new builds could be created by changing this trait to offer a unique, collaborative movement speed trait for the ranger. I generally feel required to slot one mobility skill… Signet of the Hunt (most of the time), Storm Spirit (when traited for spirits), or Guard (when traited for Nature’s Voice). Melee pets need speed to hit players, and I need speed to travel, kite, chase, escape, and land melee attacks. I rarely build without any speed, and the most reliable speed comes from utility skills. By potentially freeing up a utility skill, it allows more choice for other skills. Even with what I have, I still have difficulty catching warriors and thieves when they disengage and a little extra burst at the right time might just be enough to continue the fight.

Proposal Functionality
Speed Training: Movement speed buffs on your pet also affect you. Ends when your pet dies.

As far as ranger-pet collaboration goes, much of it is one-way… you buff the pet. This trait would be like Empathic Bond, in that the pet is helping you. People who have asked for passive buffing from the pet should appreciate this trait.

Associated Risks
Rangers would be able to passively run at 30% speed (Agility Training), and Rangers would be able to travel at 40% movement speed in short bursts (Sic ‘em.) Longbow rangers could maintain permanent swiftness with use of Hunter’s Shot. Bowbears could see a rise in popularity. The combination of Sic ’Ems revealed debuff and 40% movement speed could affect ranger/thief encounter outcomes. That thing that happens when the pet is far away and it speeds up really fast to catch up to you could be potential technical issue. May need to be a master trait.

Taushullu.6180:

I’ve seen quite a few suggestions of changing the SotH active effect (Attack of Opportunity) into something more sustained or some other effect entirely. Currently I find it to work well with:

• Maul
• Counterattack
• Tail Swipe (drake)
• Swoop

It’s pretty obvious there aren’t too many possibilities out there. Still, rather than changing Attack of Opportunity into something entirely else, I’d like to see more skills from other weapons changed to benefit from it. Here’s 2 suggestions:

• Monarch’s leap has potential to become a burst skill as the skill itself is well telegraphed and visually looks like something that would hurt you. Simply increasing the damage coefficient would make this skill work better with Attack of Opportunity.
• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

These changes would make the Attack of Opportunity from SotH more useful but Moment of Clarity doesn’t work with them as you need to interrupt your target first. Thus, I’d like to see MoC modified a bit. (I’ve suggested this before in my trait suggestions list but once more.)

• Moment of Clarity: Gain Precise Strikes (your next 3 attacks crit) for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Daze and stun durations you inflict last longer. (100%)

So one of the 2 sources of Attack of Opportunity would still get cut… oh well. The proposed Moment of Clarity would see it’s burst nerfed but sustain and number of skill combinations buffed. It would also have great synergy with “on crit” -effects. I think it’s a fair trade.

Attack of opportunity is a bad concept to begin with in a game with so much mitigation and so little skills for rotation. And counter attack and Drake tail swipe are situational and not on demand.

Unless your opponent is in a coma, maul requires a hilt bash setup which would involve swoop to begin that chain anyway. So you can’t even consider swoop as a potential move that benefits this.

Let’s not conflate the issue. I agree that weapon damage needs to be bumped up across the board because rangers are playing with a handicap, but wasting a skill for an unreliable move which involves 1/3 of your utility is not the way to do it. That’s par for the course currently for the design. The epitome of this class is : doing more for less. (e.g. Like not having piercing and cool down together, having to trait for signets to work, having to stay at max range only with no kiting mechanism to do range damage, inability to control your pet, etc.)

Unless AoO gives 5 attacks like Arcane Power, it’ll not be worth it. But there’s no way they’ll give you that, at 150% dmg.

Game mode:
PvX

Proposal overview:
Improve some of ranger traits to same lvl with other classes.

Proposal functionality:
Marksmanship:
Minor:
Opening Strike: This should give opening strike to ranger and (s)hes pet.
Alpha Training: Opening strike cant be blocked.
Precise Strike: this trait should be removed and replaced with Remorseless with out stealth part.
Major:
Malicious Training: Drop effect on 25% and make it effect on pet and ranger.
Keen Edge: Improve sharpening stone to cause torment or bleed and cripple and this trait is fine.
Signet Mastery: Move to Skirmishing.
Predator’s Instinct: Add weakness with cripple.
Piercing Arrows: Merge with Quick Draw in Skirmishing tree.
Beastmaster’s Might: Move to Skirmishing.
Signet of the Beastmaster: Signets should effect both ranger and pet by default so make this improve passive effects by 20% and move to Skirmishing.

Skirmishing:
Minor:
Tail Wind: Fix bug so boon duration can effect on this.
Furious Grip: Fix bug so boon duration can effect on this.
Hunter’s Tactics: Replace with something like Fast Hands.
Major:
Pet’s Prowess: Lower effect by 50% and make it effect on ranger as well.
Sharpened Edges: Double duration.
Trapper’s Defense: Move to Marksmanship.
Companion’s Might: Might to ranger+pet and 5 ally.
Agility Training: +25% movement speed to ranger and pet when pet is alive.
Carnivorous Appetite: Heals ranger by 150 if pet crit and pet by 150 if ranger crit.
Trapper’s Expertise: Increase range to 900.
Trapper’s Expertise: Move to Marksmanship.
Honed Axes: Make this also reduce main hand axe skills recharge 20%.
Quick Draw: Merge with Piercing Arrows.
Trap Potency: Move to Marksmanship.

Wilderness Survival:
Minor:
Peak Strength: Remove current effect and make it remove conditions on crit.
Major:
Expertise Training: Lower effect to 150 and make this party buff like spotter.

Nature Magic:
Minor:
Fortifying Bond: Ranger boons should be shared with pet by default so this skill should be removed and replaced by something like 5% less damage while you have a boon.
Major:
Concentration Training: Reduce effect by 50% and make it effect on ranger as well Or keep as it is and move to Beastmastery.
Vigorous Spirits: Remove spirit health bar and make this trait reduce they recharge time by 20%.
Evasive Purity: Replace blind with bleed.

Beastmastery:
Major:
Shout Mastery: Move to Nature Magic.
Compassion Training: Make this same kind of skill as Spotter.
Intimidation Training: Current effect doesn’t really work with thous pets so instead of adding condition to enemies why not buff to allies.
Zephyr’s Speed: It takes at least 2-3.sec from pet to start do any thing after swapping witch make this horrible skill so remove this or improve duration.

Risks: Sure some of these changes might fell to strong specially when combined with each other, but in other hand most of them have equivalent on some other class in some form, so no risk really if you want get this class on bar with others.

Chokolata.1870:

Game mode: all

Proposal overview: Increasing pet survivability with the tools that are already in the game

Proposal functionality:

1) Every ability, be it a weapon or utility skill, that gives evades now gives the exact duration of blur or a 5 second aegis to the pet.
This includes:
- Sword 2
- Sword 3
- Dagger 4
- Greatsword 1
- Lightning reflexes

2)Pet F command call back now teleports the pet to the ranger in a poof of leaves and smoke (like when summoning a spirit). This is to help rangers pull pets out of AOEs.

3)Pet PvE hitpoint buff is translated to WvW

Risks: Increased skill ceiling.

I’ve asked for this before. But it shouldn’t be tied to a skill. That kind of fast teleport is what should happen when you F3 and pull the pet back.

There’s zero downside to this because you’re expected to pull the pet back with F3 already. Secondly, pets don’t function like summons like in other games where you have to kill the pet before you can attack the master. Plus having to reset your pet partly through the chase lowers your DPS already so checks and balances are already built in.

Specific Game Mode:
PVE

Proposal Overview
Lock pet in “stowed” configuration

Goal of Proposal
1. Ranger is often locked in “combat mode” for longer periods than other classes, as the player must lose aggro on both the pet and themselves vs. just themselves.

2. Keep pet out of the way during jumping puzzles.

3. Avoid pet unstowing during falls.

Proposal Functionality
Add a third option to the stow/unstow button, LOCK, which stops the pet from unstowing when the player enters combat mode (though aggro or fall damage)

Associated Risks
1. Ranger players will ignore pets altogether.

2. Ranger players will expect buffs to character attack/defense when pet is lock stowed. (personally, I will take the damage effectiveness hit if it means I can lock stow my pet)

Specific Game Mode:
PVE

Proposal Overview
Consistent ability to target and fire while moving.

Goal of Proposal
The current system sometimes requires that the player release forward movement keys before commencing fire upon a target with the short bow.

The proposal is to eliminate this limitation.

Proposal Functionality
Player shall always be able to select (by nearest or next target) and activate an attack skill on an enemy, using the short bow, without the need to briefly stop moving forward.

Associated Risks
Key control changes if this is a technical limitation.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

Perhaps it would help the Ranger thread, if Allie were able to periodically make a post similar to yours: “I’ve just caught up on pages 7-13, now to discuss these pages with my team!”

I think most posters know she’s doing a great job, but a small post like that to show she’s still around would probably calm the masses, by reminding them that she really is there and paying attention.

(In a slightly related note, I will gladly beg you to run the future Elementalist CDI. =D)

Back to this thread:

Do you have any thoughts/opinions/suggestions on the Dredge or the re-rolling issues being discussed so much in this thread?

Hey Videoboy,

I will mention your suggestion to Allie. At the end of the day though it is up to the CDI Topic owners to connect with their CDI group in their own way.

Regarding your questions. As a player I think Dredge could do with some work and I agree with many of the proposals that have been put forward in this area (note this is a not a statement around development in this area).

Regarding the rolling discussion. I am less opinionated about this particular topic and am still reading through the groups proposal’s and discussion points.

Chris

Anyone else dissapointed in Allie for her general lack of participation?

I think she was doing a good job in the beginning, then she just up and disappeared and hasn’t reared her head since.
If your not going to participate in the CDI you started, then what’s the point of the CDI to begin with? We can have these discussions in the Ranger sub forum, for the fat lot of good they do.

Take a page from Chris, comment, often. Even if you have nothing more to add, just let us know your still alive and paying attention.
(Even thou I am sure your still reading and keeping up with it, but that’s not the point.)

Still interested to know what Devs roll a Ranger main and how many hours they have them.

Does Allie roll a Ranger? How many hours on it if so?

Atherakhia.4086:

I’d be cool with the class having some anti stealth mechanic. Not necessarily for Thieves, but maybe for Veil and guild bombing. You have to be careful though because as insanely powerful Thieves may be, they’re chumps when forced out of stealth for extended periods of time (or forced into evade spam builds which many don’t want to play) and you don’t want to destroy another class just to give this one some utility.

Destroy a class?? the stealth we have in this game is gamebreaking because not a single class of the whole game have a stealth detection skill.

urdriel.8496:

Atherakhia.4086:

I’d be cool with the class having some anti stealth mechanic. Not necessarily for Thieves, but maybe for Veil and guild bombing. You have to be careful though because as insanely powerful Thieves may be, they’re chumps when forced out of stealth for extended periods of time (or forced into evade spam builds which many don’t want to play) and you don’t want to destroy another class just to give this one some utility.

Destroy a class?? the stealth we have in this game is gamebreaking because not a single class of the whole game have a stealth detection skill.

The thief doesn’t have mitigation tools to help them tank, it’s all up to avoidance. But if you go dagger, your avoidance skills are pretty much left up to stealth and that’s it. All I’m trying to say is keep in mind that the Thief isn’t designed to take damage and too many ways to force a reveal on them will end up forcing them into more evade spamming builds which isn’t healthy for the game overall.

I agree with the other poster that a good solution would be to simply bring the target out of stealth without actually putting the revealed debuff on them. This way the Thief would be forced to blow a sizable chunk of their initiative to get back in stealth if they needed to.

The goal of this thread isn’t to make the Ranger overpowered. It’s to make sure the class is a contender and offers something in WvW so others take notice of it. We don’t want Warriors in trenchcoats.

Yes, thats what i meant. The F3 now ports the pet back to you instead of it running back. It should cancel any action to increase responsiveness. Now saving the pet in dungeons is almost fully in your hands which is how it should be.

Atherakhia.4086:

urdriel.8496:

Atherakhia.4086:

I’d be cool with the class having some anti stealth mechanic. Not necessarily for Thieves, but maybe for Veil and guild bombing. You have to be careful though because as insanely powerful Thieves may be, they’re chumps when forced out of stealth for extended periods of time (or forced into evade spam builds which many don’t want to play) and you don’t want to destroy another class just to give this one some utility.

Destroy a class?? the stealth we have in this game is gamebreaking because not a single class of the whole game have a stealth detection skill.

The thief doesn’t have mitigation tools to help them tank, it’s all up to avoidance. But if you go dagger, your avoidance skills are pretty much left up to stealth and that’s it. All I’m trying to say is keep in mind that the Thief isn’t designed to take damage and too many ways to force a reveal on them will end up forcing them into more evade spamming builds which isn’t healthy for the game overall.

I agree with the other poster that a good solution would be to simply bring the target out of stealth without actually putting the revealed debuff on them. This way the Thief would be forced to blow a sizable chunk of their initiative to get back in stealth if they needed to.

The goal of this thread isn’t to make the Ranger overpowered. It’s to make sure the class is a contender and offers something in WvW so others take notice of it. We don’t want Warriors in trenchcoats.

yes, would be something good, a skill/trait to reveal stealth but not applying stealth debuff.

AoE stealth reveal VS Zerg stealth stomp.

Atherakhia.4086:

I agree with the other poster that a good solution would be to simply bring the target out of stealth without actually putting the revealed debuff on them. This way the Thief would be forced to blow a sizable chunk of their initiative to get back in stealth if they needed to.

The goal of this thread isn’t to make the Ranger overpowered. It’s to make sure the class is a contender and offers something in WvW so others take notice of it. We don’t want Warriors in trenchcoats.

I like this. Pulls em out of stealth but doesn’t put the debuff on em.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
I’m not super concerned with putting out specific abilities, i just want pets to be FUN & UNIQUE. right now they are dps augments. & that is absolutely dull.

Goal of Proposal
I find Rangers pets to be boring, unresponsive, little/no functionality, impersonal & nothing new or interesting. I love the idea of a class based on a real pet, but they need to be more customizable (visually), they need to work WITH my ranger, they need to be reliable (in terms of how they follow, act & react)& they need to be different than other games. They should stand out. They currently are a lesser version of wow pets.

Proposal Functionality

• Pets should follow & stand right beside you. 3ft to your exact left/right. This makes their position reliable when you want to attack or avoid trouble, & you & your pet feel in-tune. This whole “they might, sorta be around this area & they stand 15ft away” needs to go away completely.

• If I use an F ability it needs to happen instantly, interrupting their current action. Making them wait for the next attack cycle automatically makes them unreliable & frustrating. its not fun. Also, the attack AI is totally broken. Using a skill that has no enemy target (like the warhorn) should not put me or my pet into attack mode… ever. We also need the option to have pets only attack when I press “Pet Attack” not when I accidentally press a skill because I need to spam attacks to hit the 90 enemies around me.

• They need to keep their names and be more visually customizable. Sorry but unless you make enough pets to have your choice be slightly unique like WoW (100s of pets), you have to have the ability to dye or put armor/gear on them to be unique. It would also be neat to have some kind of visual pet progression, where a pet gets “age” every time you gain AP. then have the pets visuals “mature” or “evolve” to show that this is the pet you spent the most time with. I know Anet wants us to like pets, but they’ve done precious little to make them feel like my unique pet.

• We need way more pet abilities, & pet abilities need to work with the ranger (but not in a boring “my pet & I stack bleeds” or “my pet puts on a debuff to increase my deeps” kinda way).
  It doesn’t even feel like Anet even wants us to use pets because nearly every skill is a trap,spirit,buff,sig etc.. Having my pet stack vuln so i can do more damage with my arrow is effective but man it’s boring. I want my pet to be able to do fun stuff with my like teleport in front of a moving mob & knock them back to me. Or throw on a debuff that last a few sec that allows my next crit to do kd. Or when I do a kd to have a “maul” move that makes them pounce on the guy and extend the the kd period. Something FUN. All this buff, passive, condi stack, dps, min/max stuff is effective but … talk about boring.

• There needs to be more pet control & functionality. Maybe 1 more F skill that only works when I open up some kind of “pet combo”. Maybe every Ranger weapon has 1-2 skills on it that are an “opener” or a “finisher” that I can combo with the pet. Something unique rather than just combo fields, but something that relies on the 2 of us working together.

Associated Risks
Obviously you can make them too powerful, but Pets need to be more unique,have more skills, be more responsive & combo with my ranger to do FUN things.

Atherakhia.4086:

We don’t want Warriors in trenchcoats.

Yes, since we’re wearing medium armor, we should deal more damage than warriors.

Specific Game Mode
PvX
Proposal Overview
Adaption to the class being made to increase mobility and positioning factors, making it a more mobility based class.
Goal of Proposal
Adjust rangers from current low dmg dealers standing in the same spot into a profession that benefits from movement and positioning
Proposal Functionality
Either severly alter current weapons or adapt them into a more positioning based system, ex add rifle and let Rifle and Longbow give substained damage from a stable positioning while changing Short bow and axe to have increased damage and give larger advantages depending on positioning.
Allow for movement with Axe 5th, give Axe 3 a bonus if hit from behind etc.
Associated Risks
The rifle portion brings the risks of adding a new weapon into a class
Changes on shortbow and axe might be imbalanced in PvP.

thefantasticg.3984:

Still interested to know what Devs roll a Ranger main and how many hours they have them.

Does Allie roll a Ranger? How many hours on it if so?

There is two devs that roll ranger, mostly in sPvP and they roll spirits.

Go visit SPVP forums, there was a thread there called “What builds does the Devs use?”

Prysin.8542:

thefantasticg.3984:

Still interested to know what Devs roll a Ranger main and how many hours they have them.

Does Allie roll a Ranger? How many hours on it if so?

There is two devs that roll ranger, mostly in sPvP and they roll spirits.

Go visit SPVP forums, there was a thread there called “What builds does the Devs use?”

Yeah, I did, but I don’t remember if they said they main them… And, I don’t much care for sPVP. Needs of sPVP are going to be different than my needs in PVE/Dungeons… That being said I want to know if the PR person we are dealing with for this CDI knows anything about playing Ranger in any game mode… and if not, can we get someone in here like a Dev that actually plays a Ranger more than a few hours.

Specific Game Mode

PvX

Proposal Overview

Changes to allow rangers chose between skills on pet and passive buffs for the ranger.

Goal of Proposal

Make it possible for rangers to be less reliable on pets while still be able to use them, while also allowing the ranger more control of the pet by allowing commands of all the pets active skills.

Proposal Functionality

Change the current way of controlling a pet into having the pets 4 skills go inte a “pet skillbar”, then allow the player to choose between having a skille for the pet there or a passive buff for the ranger.
examples of buffs:
Corrosive weapons: Attacks have a chance of inflicting posion on the target
Call target: Amplifies damage when attacking a new target for a couple of seconds, with a cd
Sharpened edges: Melee attacks have a chance to cause bleeding
Barbed Arrows: Chance to inflict bleeding on ranged attacks

Associated Risks

Might be hard to balance, also a risk of players leaving the pet without any active skills at all. Might also choose the best of both worlds, i.e. the strongest skills of a pet with the strongest buffs.

Another issue would be players going bear pets with 4 passive buffs and just use the bear for tanking in standard PvE, in other word people going pets with the most stats and ignoring the active skills they have.

Final Thoughts

I know it has been brought up over and over again with preperations instead of pets etc, but imo this would allow for pets to still be a part of the game, while also giving the ranger the possibility to just go hard dps for dungeons etc.