Guild Wars 2

So my current Ranger build centers around Spirits; and I must say, I’m pretty disappointed to hear that you’re removing Spirits Unbound, as it’s a pivotal skill to the viability of my Spirit Ranger, which in my opinion already has a lot of synergy.

Here’s a link to the build
(with weapons that give critical strikes on swap)

Using the short bow and sword/ax combination means I’m never staying still during a fight, and “Spirits Unbound” is really the rug that ties it all together, man… both allowing me to stay buffed and where I want to be on the battlefield, and keeping the spirits near so that their slow-to-start-up active abilities actually hit something— not to mention it makes applying their buffs to teammates during a team fight something way less frustrating — so I can focus more on fighting and managing my pet/weapon skills.

The build actually has a ton of utility to it, being able give the passive bonuses to an large group number of people (no maximum targets?), or the to swap out Stone Spirit if the party needs a little more defense, swapping out a weapon for the longbow to have a 70% chance to apply AoE conditions, or quickly stack burning on something using Rapid Fire, etc.

It also makes Spirit of Nature actually feel like an Elite skill, for as many reasons as you might imagine; having the ability to jam the ‘0’ button right before you go down since the Spirit follows you makes self-rallying and option. (And timing it right makes you feel like a boss)—- Otherwise, it’s simply not effective if the Spirit is bound.

Finally, since you can summon spirits on the move, it makes summoning them while moving, or in between attack chains, actually effective.

Lastly, … aesthetically speaking, the spirits have legs. They aren’t banners to be stuck in the ground (and even banners can be moved AND give you a whole set of unique weapon skills!!). Either way, these legs were made for walkin’.
I know spirit rangers are a known, and maybe an obvious build, but I wanted to make my voice heard on the subject since I recently returned to Guild Wars 2 with a bunch of friends for the expansion, and really have been enjoying this as my main build— I would be really disappointed if my Spirit Squad got essentially nerfed immediately after coming back.

Could you keep Spirits Unbound, and tweak the gameplay in other ways to make it “feel right”? Because it already “feels right” on my end.

Thanks for listening,
Possibly-soon-to-be-retired Spirit Ranger Zurren

It’d be cool if you specified which gamemode(s) you play Spirit Ranger, but I think immobile spirits is a good idea. They need to buff the range substantially, though. Running around with squishy allies makes cleaving and aoe much more effective. Smart placement would require an enemy to focus their attacks on another location if they really needed to kill those spirits.

What if their summon method became ground targeted? So you could plop them down in out of reach places yet still have their effect working? Sure maybe leave them immobile but buff their range and also have their cooldown start as soon as the spirit is live. If I recall correctly the spirits in guild wars 1 had that kind of cooldown mechanic where their duration lasted the same as their cooldown so you could in essence keep them up indefinitely.

Some things…

Spirits don’t operate like Turrets/Minions/Other Summons.
01) They don’t attack.
02) They don’t go on cool down until the spirit dies.
03) You can only use their active skill 2-3 times
04) You can’t pick them up and move them.
05) They will die too easily if left in place.
06) Their passive AoE is rather small.
07) Their passives are based on RNG.
08) Their passives only affect 5 things and go on cool down after 1 use.
09) Their passives are weak: Burning, Protection, Swiftness, +10% damage, Healing.
10) Their actives are weak: Blind, Cripple and Immob, Damage, Chill, Healing, Delayed Non-Targetable Res and Removes 3 Conditions.

These will become entirely useless in dungeons or anywhere if they don’t move.
1) WvW: Too small of passive AoE – won’t keep up with Zergs
2) WvW: Will die if used in Zergs since they will get hit by AoE.
3) PvP: 1-zerk-bow shot and they are gone.
4) PvE: Won’t make sense in dungeons for the same reasons as WvW.

Being able to move these is crucial to their survival!

I, like the OP, have already dedicated hundreds of gold+laurels to creating a build to make this work on my Ranger. Everything is fully ascended and infused with WvW Infusions. I made it because Spirit Rangers weren’t common and I enjoyed the play style.

Please Keep Spirits Mobile!

Maybe spirits unbound will become a druid feature.

Deim Hunir.8503:

Maybe spirits unbound will become a druid feature.

That would make an elite specialization pretty much mendatory to use core skills, that would be weird and I would not be a fan of that.

Crazy that they getting rid of it. Should have been baseline imo for how weak stock ranger spirits are without traits…

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

4) PvE: Won’t make sense in dungeons for the same reasons as WvW.

I disagree with this. If they dont move they are quite good in Dungeons, because you can place them out of enemy range and still get the buff(s) (there is only one spirit with a useful buff for dungeons, the protection buff might be usefull in special situation, but most times the dps-buff of frost spirit is the only usefull buff in dungeons). If you unbound spirits in Dungeons they will die in nearly every AoE. Frost spirit only has a Couldown of 20 sec, if you place one it is most times ready until you need it again. (Swap the spirit out of Skillbar to kill it, e.g. replace the spirit with a trap or something else and swap this with the spirit again.)

I don’t use spirits unbound, mainly because I feel spirits are a bit weak. I do think they need a buff (in range, effectiveness, and base hp). If that were done, I think making them stationary would be fine, especially since it would encourage smart placement. In GW1 spirits didn’t move, but could be placed at range and remain very effective. They were even handy in certain pvp modes.

Devs said that spirits will be stationary, yes, but they also said that they would change them to compensate it, and we don’t know what it will be, so try to complain after we find out what that change will be.

Belzebu.3912:

Devs said that spirits will be stationary, yes, but they also said that they would change them to compensate it, and we don’t know what it will be, so try to complain after we find out what that change will be.

In a mobile game like this, stationary spirits that are atackable wil be a huge nerf. They not Engi turret. We can’t just destroy them like toolbelt can. We have only 1 activation skill. Replace that with a destroy skill would also be a huge nerf. They need spirits like Ritualist with large range and powerful effects to be slightly useful in a game like this.

imagine spirits that cant move, being used in WvW. Kiss most of our support goodbye. Smh

Knighthonor.4061:

In a mobile game like this, stationary spirits that are atackable wil be a huge nerf. They not Engi turret. We can’t just destroy them like toolbelt can. We have only 1 activation skill. Replace that with a destroy skill would also be a huge nerf. They need spirits like Ritualist with large range and powerful effects to be slightly useful in a game like this.

imagine spirits that cant move, being used in WvW. Kiss most of our support goodbye. Smh

Ritualist spirits were also static, you had to use another skill to teleport spirits to your location.
We really don’t know what devs can do, the area of effect of spirits can be increased to a huge area like ranger spirits in GW1, the HP can be vastly increased, the summon can be ground targeted, there are many possibilities that can make it useful even being static.
BTW, in WvW spirits are used only in roaming and even there it is a sub par build, in zerg the last thing you want is the spirits following you.

I think the goal of removing Spirits Unbound was similar to that nerfing engi turrets. Spirits were something that could just be dropped and forgotten about (except for occasionally activating their secondary effects). That doesn’t promote active play, and it’ll be interesting to see what changes they make to compensate for the lack of mobility.

MattyP.6954:

I think the goal of removing Spirits Unbound was similar to that nerfing engi turrets. Spirits were something that could just be dropped and forgotten about (except for occasionally activating their secondary effects). That doesn’t promote active play, and it’ll be interesting to see what changes they make to compensate for the lack of mobility.

Like the turret engineer, running a turret build (especially now) is incredibly laughable.

Anet needs to adjust these skills to promote active play while at the same time not nerfing the things into oblivion. Right now it’s on track to just become yet another set of utilities on top of the “DO NOT TOUCH” pile.

How Spirits work:

• Every 3 seconds the spirit pulses a 1000 radius effect.
• That grants the 5 nearest allies (players prioritized) a 6 second duration passive buff.
• That buff allows the player a 35% (70% traited) chance to trigger an effect when they hit.
• Once triggered, THAT PLAYER has a 10s cooldown before they can trigger that effect again.
• Cooldown is only an issue if the same players get the buff again and again.
• If 5 different players are in proximity every 3 seconds, the passive buff can trigger for all of them once.
• If the same 5 players are in proximity every 3 seconds, they can each only trigger it once every 10s.

How Dead Spirits Work:

• Spirit corpses continue to pulse the passive buff for another 9 seconds after death.
• For up to 15 seconds into the spirits cooldown, players in the area will still have the passive buff.
• Activated abilities can be triggered more often if the spirit dies really quickly (trigger on death) than if the spirit stays alive to use the 40-45 second active skill.

Spirits buff an area even when dead… stay in the area and you’re good… leave the spirit behind, and you’re not. Most people see a smushed spirit and call it worthless. I see an area that still has buffs for 12-15 more seconds (with a 20s cooldown). It is hard to get other people to learn how to use this area when most rangers don’t know what’s going on.

I like the downsell on the spirit of nature active ability.

It’s not the best skll in the world, but a mass rez is still pretty handy.

You can’t target warbanner either and nobody counts that as a disadvantage :p

MiniEquine.6014:

MattyP.6954:

I think the goal of removing Spirits Unbound was similar to that nerfing engi turrets. Spirits were something that could just be dropped and forgotten about (except for occasionally activating their secondary effects). That doesn’t promote active play, and it’ll be interesting to see what changes they make to compensate for the lack of mobility.

Like the turret engineer, running a turret build (especially now) is incredibly laughable.

Anet needs to adjust these skills to promote active play while at the same time not nerfing the things into oblivion. Right now it’s on track to just become yet another set of utilities on top of the “DO NOT TOUCH” pile.

Oddly enough, I still run a turret engineer build in SPvP, and people laugh until I CC them to death :-). You just have to learn to play with the tools you’re given. That being said, I do think that ANet will probably rework turrets to promote active gameplay and make them more viable.

As the game stands (or stood before the turret nerf), various classes got “drop and forget” persistent skills of varying utility that didn’t really promote any sort of active play. Warriors have banners, Rangers have Spirits, Necromancers have Minions, etc, etc. It seems to me that ANet is trying to make each of these work in such a way that discourages “drop and forget” gameplay while still making them viable. It’ll be a difficult needle to thread, but I think that it’ll work out for the better.

I’d really rather see Spirits be immobile but have rather large ranges. Then, once the Spirit is active have the second trigger able effect be “Summon your Spirit to you and do an effect”.

Soo basically, Anet has decided to turn Spirit Rangers into Ritualists.

I don’t play a Spirit Ranger but if I did my pets better follow me around. Can we make the Ranger pets all stationary to pls ? I mean you won’t have to fix the pathing this way. While were at it, minions don’t need movement either.

Nuzt.7894:

Soo basically, Anet has decided to turn Spirit Rangers into Ritualists.

I don’t play a Spirit Ranger but if I did my pets better follow me around. Can we make the Ranger pets all stationary to pls ? I mean you won’t have to fix the pathing this way. While were at it, minions don’t need movement either.

Would you prefer it was like Gw1 Ranger Nature Rituals? And all enemies gain the benefits of your spirits as well? Those spirits also didn’t move.

Windsagio.1340:

I like the downsell on the spirit of nature active ability.

It’s not the best skll in the world, but a mass rez is still pretty handy.

You can’t target warbanner either and nobody counts that as a disadvantage :p

Cant compare warbanners to spirits.

For starters, Spirits have only one active. Banners have 5. One of them are for placing it in new location. We dont have any way to relocate spirits.
if we are forced to bring an additional skill for that single task, then that’s a huge nerf because we would no longer be able to run full 5 spirit build.

Spirits are more like Signets than anything. They have a passive and a active. Their main problem been the delay in the spirit movement and the fact they can be killed.

making them immobile is a huge nerf. Spirits arent Turrets or Banners people!!!

Knighthonor.4061:

Windsagio.1340:

I like the downsell on the spirit of nature active ability.

It’s not the best skll in the world, but a mass rez is still pretty handy.

You can’t target warbanner either and nobody counts that as a disadvantage :p

Cant compare warbanners to spirits.

For starters, Spirits have only one active. Banners have 5. One of them are for placing it in new location. We dont have any way to relocate spirits.
if we are forced to bring an additional skill for that single task, then that’s a huge nerf because we would no longer be able to run full 5 spirit build.

Spirits are more like Signets than anything. They have a passive and a active. Their main problem been the delay in the spirit movement and the fact they can be killed.

making them immobile is a huge nerf. Spirits arent Turrets or Banners people!!!

The point is less to compare the two than to point out the aggressive framing of an actually quite powerful ability as terrible.

Spirits aren’t great, but lets not get crazy.

Arricson Krei.9560:

It’d be cool if you specified which gamemode(s) you play Spirit Ranger, but I think immobile spirits is a good idea. They need to buff the range substantially, though. Running around with squishy allies makes cleaving and aoe much more effective. Smart placement would require an enemy to focus their attacks on another location if they really needed to kill those spirits.

Why does it sound like turret engi deja vu to me?

if they increase the range and improve the effects, id prefer they remain in one place…….but it would be great if they made spirits a movable object, much like the ventari tablet

Tornupto.2304:

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

4) PvE: Won’t make sense in dungeons for the same reasons as WvW.

I disagree with this. If they dont move they are quite good in Dungeons, because you can place them out of enemy range and still get the buff(s) (there is only one spirit with a useful buff for dungeons, the protection buff might be usefull in special situation, but most times the dps-buff of frost spirit is the only usefull buff in dungeons). If you unbound spirits in Dungeons they will die in nearly every AoE. Frost spirit only has a Couldown of 20 sec, if you place one it is most times ready until you need it again. (Swap the spirit out of Skillbar to kill it, e.g. replace the spirit with a trap or something else and swap this with the spirit again.)

I feel you may be less experienced with spirit ranger builds than I am (which is fine). In a good spirit ranger build you’ll be able to change from close combat to ranged combat fluidly. Doing this keeps the spirits alive during the fight since you’ll likely be avoiding the AoE – and therefore they will too. In addition (so long as you have Nature’s Vengeance) if a spirit dies in close combat you can utilize the effects of the active skill against the foe. If the spirits were placed too far away and killed then there is no extra effects placed on the monster. Spirits like Storm Spirit can work very well this way as most Storm Spirit strikes hit for 2-3k damage alone.

Windsagio.1340:

I like the downsell on the spirit of nature active ability.

It’s not the best skll in the world, but a mass rez is still pretty handy.

You can’t target warbanner either and nobody counts that as a disadvantage :p

You can target warbanner >.>
Warbanner (Battle Standard): http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Battle_Standard

Also – the “downsell” was deliberate since it can only be activated twice (3 times if you do it right when you spawn it – these are including the dying activation). The spirit has to be near the target (which means you have to be near the target) and can only revive up to 3 downed players in that area (which if your party is not stacking – isn’t very effective). It’s a great skill, but very hard to utilize compared to other skills. Other classes have this revive ability on non-elite skills that work similarly, and in most cases those recharge times can be reduced.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Nuzt.7894:

Soo basically, Anet has decided to turn Spirit Rangers into Ritualists.

I don’t play a Spirit Ranger but if I did my pets better follow me around. Can we make the Ranger pets all stationary to pls ? I mean you won’t have to fix the pathing this way. While were at it, minions don’t need movement either.

Would you prefer it was like Gw1 Ranger Nature Rituals? And all enemies gain the benefits of your spirits as well? Those spirits also didn’t move.

To both of your statements: “Summon Spirits” worked on both Nature Rituals and regular spirits. However, this skill did place them all in close proximity to each other so AoE could instantly kill them if you weren’t careful. Also – in Gw1 – if you used Nature Rituals – you were likely abusing EoE, FS, or QZ in a ST build meant for DoA or Dungeons – which honestly worked really well if played and supported correctly.

Dastion.3106:

I’d really rather see Spirits be immobile but have rather large ranges. Then, once the Spirit is active have the second trigger able effect be “Summon your Spirit to you and do an effect”.

I’d not mind that, but considering that the largest range skill in the game Shadow Trap is 10,000 range units (not counting the Sniper Shot in HoT Beta) – we’d probably not be able to expect much more than that. This is certainly an effective radius, but it is a radius. From a dungeoning perspective you’d have to note that (in most cases) you will be progressing forward – which means the backwards range of the radius is useless. From a WvW perspective you’d be able to cover the map with hidden spirits in Camps/Towers/Keeps with just a few Spirit Rangers with that kind of range. From a PvP perspective you’d also be able to give the advantage to your allies in Home/Mid by placing the Spirits in the starting areas where the spirits would gain Invuln. Go too big with the range and the spirits become too powerful. Go too small and they become worthless. Keep them mobile and they do their job as they are supposed to.

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

Tornupto.2304:

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

4) PvE: Won’t make sense in dungeons for the same reasons as WvW.

I disagree with this. If they dont move they are quite good in Dungeons, because you can place them out of enemy range and still get the buff(s) (there is only one spirit with a useful buff for dungeons, the protection buff might be usefull in special situation, but most times the dps-buff of frost spirit is the only usefull buff in dungeons). If you unbound spirits in Dungeons they will die in nearly every AoE. Frost spirit only has a Couldown of 20 sec, if you place one it is most times ready until you need it again. (Swap the spirit out of Skillbar to kill it, e.g. replace the spirit with a trap or something else and swap this with the spirit again.)

I feel you may be less experienced with spirit ranger builds than I am (which is fine). In a good spirit ranger build you’ll be able to change from close combat to ranged combat fluidly. Doing this keeps the spirits alive during the fight since you’ll likely be avoiding the AoE – and therefore they will too. In addition (so long as you have Nature’s Vengeance) if a spirit dies in close combat you can utilize the effects of the active skill against the foe. If the spirits were placed too far away and killed then there is no extra effects placed on the monster. Spirits like Storm Spirit can work very well this way as most Storm Spirit strikes hit for 2-3k damage alone.

Spirit ranger in Dungeons? No comment… Pls dont annoy groups who want to be fast.

The aktive Skill of a spirit is not strong enough to be an alternative to signet of the wild+quickening zephir in dungeons. The only spirit that is usefull in a dungeon is the frost spirit with his passive effect. Its aktive skill is a 10% damageboost for you (with the right traits!) if you reach the boss with it, but it only lasts a few secs.
The aktive skill of storm spirit may be able to cause some dmg, but this dmg is far too low to be a reason to use this spirit. Its passive is crap. There are better ways to get runspeed than using this spirit.
Sun spirit is also a bit crap in dungeons. Yeah a bit burning but…
The protection a stone spirit can apply to your group may be a little bit useful in some situations, but not realy a good reason to use it either.

Btw: A good placed frost spirit is most times still alive, when the dungeonbosses die.

Remember: I’m talking about DUNGEONS

I tried to run a spirit range once or twice. The issue I found was that 1) spirits do not last long enough and 2) some of them have very crappy passives.

Water Spirit: its ok

Frost Spirit: 10% dmg buff is not worth it — chill w/ dmg would be better

Stone Spirit: Protection is kinda meh by itself…add a chance to bleed or cripple

Storm Spirit: Swiftness = useless in combat imo … add blind, vulnerability, or even stun

Sun Spirit: Burning is good, will be better once it stacks

Spirit of Nature: Again life span vs recharge is horrible atm, that’s about all that’s wrong with this one.

I agree that Spirits Unbound is a great trait, instead of getting rid of it, tie it to the other spirit traits. I think that if the spirits get a rework for their passives and a little boost to their activation we could see them become very viable to a ranger build.

The only thing any MMO player should consider a constant is the inevitable change….never get to attached to any specific build as it will eventually be altered.

Rather than look at this as some devastating disappointment, you could view it as a challenge.

Tornupto.2304:

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

Tornupto.2304:

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

4) PvE: Won’t make sense in dungeons for the same reasons as WvW.

I disagree with this. If they dont move they are quite good in Dungeons, because you can place them out of enemy range and still get the buff(s) (there is only one spirit with a useful buff for dungeons, the protection buff might be usefull in special situation, but most times the dps-buff of frost spirit is the only usefull buff in dungeons). If you unbound spirits in Dungeons they will die in nearly every AoE. Frost spirit only has a Couldown of 20 sec, if you place one it is most times ready until you need it again. (Swap the spirit out of Skillbar to kill it, e.g. replace the spirit with a trap or something else and swap this with the spirit again.)

I feel you may be less experienced with spirit ranger builds than I am (which is fine). In a good spirit ranger build you’ll be able to change from close combat to ranged combat fluidly. Doing this keeps the spirits alive during the fight since you’ll likely be avoiding the AoE – and therefore they will too. In addition (so long as you have Nature’s Vengeance) if a spirit dies in close combat you can utilize the effects of the active skill against the foe. If the spirits were placed too far away and killed then there is no extra effects placed on the monster. Spirits like Storm Spirit can work very well this way as most Storm Spirit strikes hit for 2-3k damage alone.

Spirit ranger in Dungeons? No comment… Pls dont annoy groups who want to be fast.

The aktive Skill of a spirit is not strong enough to be an alternative to signet of the wild+quickening zephir in dungeons. The only spirit that is usefull in a dungeon is the frost spirit with his passive effect. Its aktive skill is a 10% damageboost for you (with the right traits!) if you reach the boss with it, but it only lasts a few secs.
The aktive skill of storm spirit may be able to cause some dmg, but this dmg is far too low to be a reason to use this spirit. Its passive is crap. There are better ways to get runspeed than using this spirit.
Sun spirit is also a bit crap in dungeons. Yeah a bit burning but…
The protection a stone spirit can apply to your group may be a little bit useful in some situations, but not realy a good reason to use it either.

Btw: A good placed frost spirit is most times still alive, when the dungeonbosses die.

Remember: I’m talking about DUNGEONS

No one here who is actually trying to debate on facts thinks about your speed run perspective – this is a debate on whether or not a trait that gives any sort of viability to spirits in the ranger class should be changed or not. The fact remains that while spirits are “weaker” than other ranger builds – that by changing this single trait they become almost useless.

By removing this trait from the ranger spirit line up they are crippling a style of play beyond any possible compensation I can realistically think of. This is a hindrance to the class itself and unfair to players who want to experiment with every aspect of the class.

In most cases all classes have some sort of utility line that is “less useful” than others, but typically you’ll have at least 1 useful utility per utility type. Frost Spirit is not good enough to be the only utility worth taking since it will be left behind and requires trait points to set to 70% passive trigger rates. Therefore, none of the skills will be truly viable anywhere.

Brother Grimm.5176:

The only thing any MMO player should consider a constant is the inevitable change….never get to attached to any specific build as it will eventually be altered.

Rather than look at this as some devastating disappointment, you could view it as a challenge.

Your optimism is nice, but the issue is that players already hate anything that isn’t high DPS. This change will lower the DPS capabilities significantly since spirits will be forced to be left behind now. Even if they increase the power of these spirits in some way – it likely won’t suffice for practical use.

There are 2 main perspectives when it comes to this game:

Combat and Progression.

You have fights – and then you progress from those fights to the next fights.

To do this you have to fight using your skills that you take with you. If they are all taken up by spirits you’d probably not want to use them on mobs that aren’t bosses or threats to the party – meaning you’ll have to willingly sacrifice possibly up to half of your available skills just to have these with you. Assuming you used these spirits for little fights – then you have to wait for them to recharge if you want to use them again – and since their range is so limited – you’ll likely just have to end up leaving them behind since they won’t move now. It just becomes a waste to have them.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I don’t use spirits unbound, mainly because I feel spirits are a bit weak. I do think they need a buff (in range, effectiveness, and base hp). If that were done, I think making them stationary would be fine, especially since it would encourage smart placement. In GW1 spirits didn’t move, but could be placed at range and remain very effective. They were even handy in certain pvp modes.

I want my EoE Bomb for WvW

only reason I use a spirit is with unbound, can’t see the point without it moving with me in combat.

NapTooN.6283:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I don’t use spirits unbound, mainly because I feel spirits are a bit weak. I do think they need a buff (in range, effectiveness, and base hp). If that were done, I think making them stationary would be fine, especially since it would encourage smart placement. In GW1 spirits didn’t move, but could be placed at range and remain very effective. They were even handy in certain pvp modes.

I want my EoE Bomb for WvW

rofl!

Fun times in FA….fun times…

But could you imagine how game changing something like that could be in WvW? Or Fertile Season (plus HP and armor) and Frozen Soil (not allowed to rez), depending on how they reworked them of course. Would make you think a bit more about what you used where, and why.

Would a Commune action when standing near the spirit be a bad idea?

As in you summon the spirit, stand next to it, channel for 2/3 sec to make it follow you, then you can “uncommune” to make it stationary again.

Can’t see it being hard to code, basically you retain the current function to trigger when the function key is used near them, close to how a banner works but maybe limit to only a ranger being able to commune with spirits.

What do you guys think?

I just logged in after learning about this traits removal and I was really sad to see this for another reason.

I have been playing since launch and my first ever character is still my main, a ranger.I have been playing ranger because I always liked the idea of having a pet. From role-playing side, Guild Wars 2 failed this since it was really hard to feel that especially in dungeons with how ranger pet tends to fail.

So I play a full spirit build on pve ,pvp and wvw for the sole reason of having a some kind of pet-master ranger.^^ even though its inferior to other skills i use water spirit for example =)

So I wanted to tell this in case devs see, most spirit master rangers play it because It’s a way that people can have their pets moving them around and helping them since we can’t really go beastmaster in most situations in the game.

I dont mind any nerf since i dont use this build to be powerful, its just how i like to play, but not letting them to follow us ruins this aspect. And leaves ranger without any good “pet” build. I dont care if they are better or worse after changes, I just want teammates following me which are useful and viable ! ^^

I actually use it quite a bit, specially when i’m touring world bosses. I tend do always bring a 3 spirit build: Frost, Stone and Nature while being unbound. Giving the nature of these encounter, only a few can be afforded to remain immobile, spirits unbound are invaluable.

Getting a handfull of people rezzed in one skill never gets old, plus i can do it again in 30 sec, plus the constant stream of protection going around while having the damage modifier as a minor fluff. All of this with spotter, really gives a sense that i’m contributing in downing the boss.

Hence why giving the Action Key an interaction with summoned spirits would be the perfect compromise, because there are times when you want to go close and personal, and in such cases i want my spirits staying put out of harms way.

edit: it can be a pain to order 3 spirits around, just make them behave like a single entity in terms of the “F” key function to make us follow/unfollow.
edit: lol i just noticed birandozalp has like no other messages, i’m sure it will look like i’m bumping my own previous post… but hey welcome to the forums birandozalp, let your voice be “read”.

I think it’s a boring decision, to remove Ranger spirit movement.

I think they are changing necros as well. They don’t want passive playstyles encouraged.. I think Rangers will still be fun – I am not worried.

Does no one else think having something with fully functional legs/fins stay still is awkward?

Yargesh.4965:

only reason I use a spirit is with unbound, can’t see the point without it moving with me in combat.

In dungeons there’s not much reason to have them follow either, compared to what you give up.

Unbound is super deep in a mostly dead tree.

I wish we had a specific forum for rangers for all these ranger focused threads.

I think spirits being immobile is a good thing. Having them follow you lets them die to cleave, and makes melee a clusterfrack in pvp. However in their current form, leaving them immobile makes them frustrating to use in wvw and pve.

My suggestion is make them work like this:

• 5-10 second cooldown
• No activate ability, make it fully passive
• 2-3 second cast time with obvious animation (interrupt counterplay)
• Effective range 1200 radius
• Make them a bit larger so easier to see (for enemy players to find and kill, for counterplay)

This version would allow the ranger to provide a powerful buff to allies in a large area. They would be able to reapply it as the party moves around in pve and wvw due to the low cooldown. The long cast time and animation would make it easier to interrupt in combat, which is fair counterplay imo. The increased size would also make fair counterplay by letting enemy players find it and get rid of it if they want. The only reason I’m suggesting these counterplay measures is because combining both passive and active abilities into passive and lowering the cooldown makes them extremely powerful. Also the fact that they are taking up skill slots is an important decision the ranger must make.

Pure Heart.1456:

I think it’s a boring decision, to remove Ranger spirit movement.

Spirits are spirits, minions are minions. Personally I think solidifying how Spirits work, particularly in the context of expansions adding Spirits to other classes, is a good thing.

Imagine if they made necro minions static. Necros would be upset too.

All of their uses are aoe. Just have all of their uses ground target and they teleport to the spot then release their special after 1-1.5 seconds with an animation. Easy upkeep more control, more thought needed beyond spawn using them while avoiding their deaths and then despawn if you leave 1500 range. Easy fix imo.

nexxe.7081:

Imagine if they made necro minions static. Necros would be upset too.

Considering half of them are melee attackers and one of them already is immobile, I think your comparison might be a wee bit disingenuous.

Spirits are not minions.

We still don’t know what the changes will be to spirits. All we do know is that spirits will be good at not moving.