Guild Wars 2

note:
this topic is placed in pvp forum instead of ranger forum to gather feedback from non ranger players as well.

ranger shouts recharge time are too long, well, besides “we heal as one” and “guard” that is, all the other shouts very way too long recharge time.

let’s change that shall we?

from here:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shout#Ranger

“We heal as one!” 1 20 Heal yourself and your pet.
“Guard!” 0 15 Command your pet to aggressively guard an area. Your pet gains stealth and protection for a short duration.
“Protect Me!” 60 Instead of attacking, your pet will protect you by absorbing all damage you would take.
“Search and Rescue!” 4 85 Your pet will seek out and revive a downed ally.
“Sic ’Em!” 2 40 Your pet runs faster and does more damage.
“Strength of the pack!” 1 60 Rampage with your pet, gaining stability, fury, and swiftness. You and your pet also grant might to each other when you attack.

the first 2 shouts recharge time is fine, the others are too long, lets take a look at them.

the “protect me” is a weaker version of endure pain, as it prevents capture point contribution and can be cancelled prematurely if another shout is used, the pet is given an order (f1 attack, f2 skill, f3 return, f4 swap), or the pet is defeated.

60 seconds is too long, maybe 40 would be fair.

next we have “search and rescue” which is a very weak revive skill and an absurdly long recharge time. 85 seconds is too long. not sure if cutting it in half becoming 40 seconds would make it any more useful.

anyway, 85 seconds is too long. 40 seconds maybe more okay.

well “sic em” is useful, but the 40 seconds recharge time is inconvenient, and the 10 seconds pet buffs is easily removed if another shout is used, pet given an order, pet dies or the target goes invisible or is defeated.

so make it 30 seconds instead.

lastly, we have the elite shout, “strength of the pack” which pulses boons for 3 times or 4 times within 10 seconds ( 0 . . 3 . . 6 . . 9 . ) well originally it has a 20 seconds duration but 120 seconds recharge and they just shaved both in half.

60 seconds seems fair for an elite, however, warrior’s signet of rage boons last 25 seconds though the boons are given one shot instead of per pulse.

lets shave the recharge time to 40 seconds anyway!

so, revised recharge time for ranger’s shouts, we have:

protect me 60 > 40
search and rescue 85 > 40
sic em 40 > 30
strength of the pack 60 > 40

so, discuss!

You can lower the cds with Resounding Timbre..
The problem with shouts aint the cd imo.
They dont effect the team and 2 ( sic em and gaurd ) effect only the pet untraited..

Imo this is bad design.. “Hey i shout but only my pet hear it, not even me”

Rangers shouts could use some buff work XD.

Dardamaniac.1295:

You can lower the cds with Resounding Timbre..
The problem with shouts aint the cd imo.
They dont effect the team and 2 ( sic em and gaurd ) effect only the pet untraited..

Imo this is bad design.. “Hey i shout but only my pet hear it, not even me”

no, i want the base recharge time to be lowered.

after the trait, all ranger shouts give regeneration and swiftness to nearby allies right?

Zelulose.8695:

Rangers shouts could use some buff work XD.

aye, lowering base recharge time would be a good start.
what do you think?

I insist the cd its not the problem..
I dont find a place for shouts without regen and swiftness even if it was on a 1sec cd..

Dardamaniac.1295:

I insist the cd its not the problem..
I dont find a place for shouts without regen and swiftness even if it was on a 1sec cd..

most of the recharge time of ranger shouts (except for 2) is long when compared against warrior and guardian shouts, that is a problem.

what do you mean in your second line?

Dardamaniac.1295:

You can lower the cds with Resounding Timbre..
The problem with shouts aint the cd imo.
They dont effect the team and 2 ( sic em and gaurd ) effect only the pet untraited..

Imo this is bad design.. “Hey i shout but only my pet hear it, not even me”

IMO, this is a unique design. I am shouting at my pet to command them to do this.

Dardamaniac.1295:

You can lower the cds with Resounding Timbre..
The problem with shouts aint the cd imo.
They dont effect the team and 2 ( sic em and gaurd ) effect only the pet untraited..

Imo this is bad design.. “Hey i shout but only my pet hear it, not even me”

Dardamaniac.1295:

I insist the cd its not the problem..

Quoted for biblical accuracy.

the recharge time for 4 of the ranger shouts undeniably longer than average, you all are wrong and inaccurate!

My biggest concern is that the shouts don’t affect allies so it limits a potentially great support build.

FrownyClown.8402:

My biggest concern is that the shouts don’t affect allies so it limits a potentially great support build.

Exactly. The recharge times are fine. This isn’t.

As people have stated, the problem with shouts isn’t their CD, the problem is what they do.
Guard is ONLY used due to its short CD. It’s used for regen/swiftness spam and If running soldier runes, condi cleanse. It has no other purpose in PvP besides that.
That is horrible design.

Protect me? Ha! The pet dies instantly unless you’re running a bear which you shouldn’t be doing anyway. Killing your pet kinda messes with all trait lines now due to so much of our utility coming from pet swaps or pet F2.
Signet of Stone does a much better job and protects your pet as well instead of killing it.

‘Search and Rescue’ is pointless besides for the trait in NM. I would never put it on my bar as it takes up too much space. ‘Quickening Zephyr’ does a better job for rezzing people anyway as I can get my wolf to taunt/fear enemies off the target. This would be impossible if Search and Rescue was being used.

“Sic’Em” is in a weird spot. I’ve seen some people use this and while it can be okay, usually it takes the spot of a better damage utility. e.g. Spike Trap, Quickening, Signet of the Wild etc etc.
The problem with “Sic’Em” is the fact it ONLY effects the pet. If it effected the Ranger as well then it might see some use on more bars.

SotP and WHAO are in pretty good spots.

Suggestions off the top of my head to fix the 3 other traits

Protect Me:
“The rangers pet becomes invulnerable and rooted in place, giving Protection and Resistance to 5 players in a radius of 300 pulsing.
CD: 60 secs Duration: 6 seconds, 3 second pulses. "
Placed using an AoE Cirlce like Guard.

This provides much needed group utility the ranger needs with the balancing drawback of the pet not doing any damage and not able to use their F2 ability.

Search and Rescue:
To be quite honest I’m not really sure where to go with this as they pigeon holed themselves into this skill with NA.

If I was to design something it’d be along the lines of
“The pet runs towards the player with the lowest HP (could be the Ranger) and blocks the next 2 attacks meant for that player.
CD: 30 secs.
Range: 1000 "

Guard:
The pet provides Aegis to Allies and Cripples enemies for 1 second.
CD: 20 seconds
Radius: 300.
Keeps the placement method.

Sorry if the formatting is a bit dodgey, it’s late and I’m sick.

TL;DR
Shouts suck because of what they do and how they only effect the pet.
Change the shouts to give more dynamic group support that could allow some cool group play.