Guild Wars 2

Since it has been discussed into the latest SotG about giving Rangers more control over their pets to raise the skill cap, but JSharp said that this would disorientate new players, I’ve came up with something which solves both the problems without being hard to implement, ruthlessly stolen from GW1.

The idea is to let the player choose which skill of the pet they want to have control over.

By default, every skill is controlled by the AI, but in the pet interface you can choose which skill you want to be controlled by the AI and which skill you want to control manually. The skill you choose to control manually cannot be casted by the AI, while the other ones can be casted both from the AI and the player.

I’ve made a fast draft showing what I intended UI-wise (obviously ANet UI designer can do better than me).

Adopting this solution, you archieve:

• Lower entry barrier: new players can completely forgot about their pets since it is controlled by the AI entirely, until they get used to the game and, step by step, start to manage one pet skill at time.
• Higher skill cap: controlling the pet skills properly need practice, since the player is forced to manage two entities with two different skill set and two different positions in the field, the ranger and the pet.
• Better build diversity: having access to skills that before were randomly casted by the AI means a lot. It increases the skill pool available to the ranger by an huge chunk.

Hope devs take the time to read this and add it into the game.
I think this solution will make every ranger player happy.

Or you could have something similar to engineer kits.

Requiem.8769:

Or you could have something similar to engineer kits.

This wouldn’t be clunky at all…

Requiem.8769:

Or you could have something similar to engineer kits.

Well, no.
Pet and the ranger are two different entities. I see no reason of not being able to use my skills just because I want to control the pet.

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

showatt.9413:

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

The buff is solely coming from the fact that the pet is controlled by player’s brain intead of AI, the effect is still the same.
Huge buff, uh?

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

You honestly think this is going to create balance issues for rangers? Oh please lol.

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

First of all, F2 isn’t working properly. It was supposed to make pet use this particular skill instantly when ranger pressed it, I agree there are moments it works like that.
Secondly, how good is having two equally dumb and useless pets?

dont hold your breath,Dev were clear,either you want it or not you gonna play the pet autopilot cause it gonna mess the Pve guys..

It would also be a balance Nightmare.

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

You honestly think this is going to create balance issues for rangers? Oh please lol.

Yes, it WOULD be a huge balance issue, we could then get off triple blast finishers, have very on demand CC (all of which is hard CC) be able to bring 2 on demand AoE 3.5k heals, AoE 3s KD, etc etc. it’d be absolutely broken and the pet skills would have to be nerfed TO THE GROUND, and I’d MUCH rather have little control over it rather than have it nerfed…

Daecollo.9578:

It would also be a balance Nightmare.

The philosophy into making something very strong because it will miss most of the times is so lame…“Y give em a random number,they will never hit eitherway”.
I dont understand why they should balance this?How do you balance a game while you keep in mind that skills will miss??This is crazy..

Dardamaniac.1295:

Daecollo.9578:

It would also be a balance Nightmare.

The philosophy into making something very strong because it will miss most of the times is so lame…“Y give em a random number,they will never hit eitherway”.
I dont understand why they should balance this?How do you balance a game while you keep in mind that skills will miss??This is crazy..

Skull Crack can miss too.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Mace-shield-GS-build-Overpowered/page/16#post2701414

Daecollo.9578:

Dardamaniac.1295:

Daecollo.9578:

It would also be a balance Nightmare.

The philosophy into making something very strong because it will miss most of the times is so lame…“Y give em a random number,they will never hit eitherway”.
I dont understand why they should balance this?How do you balance a game while you keep in mind that skills will miss??This is crazy..

Skull Crack can miss too.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Mace-shield-GS-build-Overpowered/page/16#post2701414

Everything can miss,every single skill,you didnt get my point..Miss cause the caster is a stupid AI that cant find the apropriate moment to cast it.Its like RNG skill

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

I only assume you don’t play a Ranger.

Setting the secondary skill to auto attack is exactly how the skills work now. When they’re off cooldown, they’re used.

Allowing a Ranger to control their use also isn’t much of a buff if you are actually familiar with how the pet skills work.

The first attack of a pet, assuming the skill isn’t on cooldown, will always use the pet’s secondary attack. This is why Rangers run with their pets on passive. Have you never been hit by a Ranger’s wolves where they knock you down, then fear you, then the second dog knocks you down, and then immobilizes you? This is a very easy mechanic to pull off when starting from scratch. All allowing Rangers to control their secondary abilities would do is allow the Ranger to effectively do this combo once the pet is already engaged in combat.

I honestly see no harm in it.

Durzlla.6295:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

You honestly think this is going to create balance issues for rangers? Oh please lol.

Yes, it WOULD be a huge balance issue, we could then get off triple blast finishers, have very on demand CC (all of which is hard CC) be able to bring 2 on demand AoE 3.5k heals, AoE 3s KD, etc etc. it’d be absolutely broken and the pet skills would have to be nerfed TO THE GROUND, and I’d MUCH rather have little control over it rather than have it nerfed…

Oh, so too many blast finishers at once is a bad thing? tell that to elementalist.
staff:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Eruption
scepter:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Tooth
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phoenix
dagger offhand:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Earthquake
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Churning_Earth
focus:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Comet
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magnetic_Wave
utility:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Wave
trait (while in earth)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Abatement
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Evasive_Arcana

So let’s say you take Arcane Wave, Evasive Arcana trait and scepter/dagger. How many blast finishers can you make?

Durzlla.6295:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

You honestly think this is going to create balance issues for rangers? Oh please lol.

Yes, it WOULD be a huge balance issue, we could then get off triple blast finishers, have very on demand CC (all of which is hard CC) be able to bring 2 on demand AoE 3.5k heals, AoE 3s KD, etc etc. it’d be absolutely broken and the pet skills would have to be nerfed TO THE GROUND, and I’d MUCH rather have little control over it rather than have it nerfed…

First off, your 3sec knockdown has a 3 second castime (if not 2) and is easily avoided by strafing, your 3.5K heals those will definitely be nerfed for sure but everything else? Everything else seems fine. Triple blast finishers isn’t anything really. Engineers can do 6 or more in a row.

I could already do a 4 second KD (sometimes I make it 5 with my pig or 7s CC with a KD into a fear with the wolf then swap to pig) without direct control of the pet, having to not play Ai tricks and actually get a use out of MOMENT OF CLARITY would actually be a nice change of pace.

Dirame.8521:

Durzlla.6295:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

waka.9826:

showatt.9413:

Atherakhia.4086:

Just change F1 to allow the pet to attack and recall.
Make it so F2 skills actually worked when requested.
Make F3 the secondary skill for each pet and allow players to set it to auto-cast so if ANet is serious about this somehow being too complicated, players can leave it on auto cast and nothing would change.

i agree f2 skill needs to work when requested.
Allowing players to determine when to cast the 2ndary skill of pets is just asking for ranger buff. And the ability to autocast it sounds pretty OP if you wanna know the truth.

Asking to be able to use our own skills is asking for a buff? Okay then engineer kits should be RNG as well, from now on you cannot choose which 1-5 skill you can use in kits, the game will choose for you. Fair play right.

Engineer isn’t using an AI pet. You’re asking the ability to decide when your pet should deal a secondary damage (with effect), in addition to the f2 skill, while essentially keeping the pet’s ability to deal damage on their own. Not to mention you have two pets to switch between.

Surely you can see this is very different to weapon kit?

You honestly think this is going to create balance issues for rangers? Oh please lol.

Yes, it WOULD be a huge balance issue, we could then get off triple blast finishers, have very on demand CC (all of which is hard CC) be able to bring 2 on demand AoE 3.5k heals, AoE 3s KD, etc etc. it’d be absolutely broken and the pet skills would have to be nerfed TO THE GROUND, and I’d MUCH rather have little control over it rather than have it nerfed…

First off, your 3sec knockdown has a 3 second castime (if not 2) and is easily avoided by strafing, your 3.5K heals those will definitely be nerfed for sure but everything else? Everything else seems fine. Triple blast finishers isn’t anything really. Engineers can do 6 or more in a row.

I could already do a 4 second KD (sometimes I make it 5 with my pig or 7s CC with a KD into a fear with the wolf then swap to pig) without direct control of the pet, having to not play Ai tricks and actually get a use out of MOMENT OF CLARITY would actually be a nice change of pace.

The KD was buffed… It’s range was lowered to 300 making it nearly impossible to dodge without using an evade or block… And keep in mind different profs are balanced different, EX: an engi or ele have a lot of blasts but like no fields, a ranger could have BOTH a ton of fields AND a ton of blasts.

Rangers need monkeys throwing some bananas as pets. Imo.

Durzlla.6295:

The KD was buffed… It’s range was lowered to 300 making it nearly impossible to dodge without using an evade or block… And keep in mind different profs are balanced different, EX: an engi or ele have a lot of blasts but like no fields, a ranger could have BOTH a ton of fields AND a ton of blasts.

What?
Engineers and Elementalists have no fields?
What am I reading?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_engineer_combo_skills
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_elementalist_combo_skills
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_ranger_combo_skills

Don’t consider the underwater combo fields.