The Ranger
The Ranger is a class that, when played well, requires the most amount of micro of all classes. It’s a class that is constantly looking for synergistic relationships with its pet and its weapon skills.
- A Ranger using the CC of Point Blank Shot to set up a cat’s Maul is an example of a synergistic relationship between the Ranger and her pet.
Moreover, the important pet skills are usually the third skill of their species attacks.
The best thing about these skills is they are controllable with a bit of micro.
The pet will ALWAYS favor using their third skill over all other skills. This allows the Ranger to manipulate and control her pet through smart use of cancel-casting and timing. Also, when pet swapping, the pet will ALWAYS appear right next to the Ranger. This allows the Ranger, in some instances, to control where she might want to use a specific F2 attack or again, the third skill of a species.
The class needs to have smooth, workable micro tools to make the class itself (and its pet) feel responsive and valuable.
I argue the biggest quality of life change for the Ranger class will be:
Create a small UI element which shows the three cooldowns on pet skills above the command keys for the pet.
- As a Ranger, I (like the person who I am fighting) have no idea when my bear uses Defy Pain or Bite. Currently Rangers have to do the same guessing game as their enemy. This hurts the micro capability of the class.
This makes the Ranger pet feel random and unrewarding. To many, the pet feels like a tag-along that drags down the Ranger instead of an actual class mechanic. In some people’s eyes, it’s so unrewarding, they would rather not have a pet AT ALL. You need to change this perspective.
Adding a UI element for the ranger pet will help because it provides the necessary feedback to the player so they can learn and improve.