Guild Wars 2

Ranger is propably the least played class in high level turney right now but it is not damage that thiefs/mesmers do better, neither is it survivability.

Those classes are played due to their ability to move between point in less than 5 seconds. In my opinions ranger should get a way to compete with that. Either make a shout like Guard similiar to Necros Fleshworm (order pet to guard area for 15 seconds during which you can reactivate the skill to teleport to the pet) OR give another swiftness access similiar to engis.

Also still so much totally outdated traits and skills on ranger. Most pet traits and Search and Rescue are a joke. Warhorn 5 giving 1 stack of might (this one is my favorite) etc. This stuff is still on alpha status from 2 years ago.

To do list:

• buff/rework shouts and pet traits to bring back beast mastery specs or make shouts more usable in general
• do some small buffs to key skills like Muddy Terrain which would be a lot better with lower casting time
• rework weapons like warhorn, torch (also needs something more unique), axe autoattack
• rework tons of pets
• take a second look at traps and think about making the trap runes PvP compatible (eventually with some changes)

Signets are fine, most Survival Skills are fine, Traps are actually good if they had slightly better placed traits, Spirits are fine.

Longbow is fine, Greatsword is fine, Sword is fine (just speaking about power level, not weither you like the mechanic or not), Shortbow is fine, Axe Offhand is somewhat fine it would have a build in which it works.

I agree with most of your points.

I don’t know if Rangers should bring quit the same in combat mobility as thief, or the same type of mechanics as shadow trap or portal, but they should, IMO, have more land speed mobility than a warrior. Right now getting access to swiftness, or even 25% movement speed on a Ranger gives up too much.

On the topic of weapon skills:

1. Warhorn 5 should give 3 stacks of might.
2. Warhorn 4 should proc retaliation one once.
3. Axe 5 should be slightly faster channel with the ability to move while performing it.
4. Torch 5 needs a larger untraited radius.

Finally, Sword auto is cool, but it should not lock you out of dodging. Dodging should immediately cancel the auto chain during any stage. Torch 5 needs a larger untraited radius. Axe autoattack is fine now.

In terms of pets, the two categories that should immediately be reworked are Bears and Devourers. Devourers do miserable DPS with bad F2 skills, overall the worst pet choice currently. Bears attacks need to cleave, and their F2 skills need shorter cooldowns.

In order to make traps viable, I suggest the following:

Fire Trap should apply blind.

Snake Trap should remove 1 boon per pulse.

Frost Trap should have its cooldown reduced and have damage added to the pulse.

Spike Trap should remove 1-2 boons from those affected by it.

Shouts are currently an odd mix of strange utilities. I would suggest changing Protect Me’s effect to something different entirely, considering Ranger now already has a good Invulnerability type skill with Signet of Stone. “Guard” needs a rework. Search and Rescue is really dreadful and needs to be changed. Sic Em would benefit very much from a greatly reduced cooldown, but also a reduced Reveal duration. It also needs to be bug fixed so that giving pets commands during it doesn’t cancel its effect.

Beastmastery in general is a very weak traitline which needs improved pet traits and overall more effective traits.

I also think that Entangle needs its cooldown increased to something like 75 seconds (traitable to 60). Right now it feels a bit gimmicky and overtuned.

I think traps would be greatly helped if their traits were moved to the Marksmanship line (so you at least get condi duration). Getting precision and ferocity aren’t really that helpful. You kill the build if you put trap traits in wilderness survival, and it doesn’t really benefit from being in nature magic or beastmastery.

Also, like with many other classes, some of the minor traits are just bad. I would try to rework some of the underwhelming traits before making every change.

Finally, even adding something like “superior rune of the trapper” to pvp would be very interesting, although its still probably not optimal for any build.

same could be said of necro.