As a ranger from GW1 I’ve been highly disappointed at the lack of utility of the GW2 version. Instead of the wanderer of the wilds with many tricks in their pockets we have become novice boyscouts. It also saddens me that you seem to have given many of our GW1 tools (such as preparations) to the Thief (and iirc you also said somethign like that in the ‘Making Of’ book).
Pets
- Now I know that the ranger him/herself is somewhat nerfed due to having a pet doing damage but let’s face the truth. With a moving target the pet rarely hits and most of the pets die incredibly fast in AoE filled environment such as WvW. No other class has their special class mechanic just die in random AoE. What I suggest is to have the ranger get a buff while their pet is dead. The buff should provide some extra power and thoughness, the ranger lost their beloved pet after all and are now determined to kill the murderer of their best friend.
- Make the pet attacks work like 1h sword #1 chain. As in, the skills are excellent for chasing down a target as they move the pet with the target doing damage at the same time. Easy way to fix one of the biggest problems with pets
- If the ranger is stealthed, the pet should automatically be stealthed too (if you concider ‘pet backstab’ unbalanced make the pet lose stealth when it’s commanded to attack) OR make the pet stay hidden unless I push the ‘hide pet’ button again, not auto-appear in combat.
- Make pet swapping auto-castable. Warriors can auto-spam their ‘For Great Justice!’, why can’t we autocast our petswap. It may not be significant but it’s something I personally would greatly appreciate.
- Make me able to assign a key for ‘stow pet’, and make the pet stay stowed untill I press the button again.
Greatsword
- Slightly increase the base damage of #1 combo. But only slightly as it is quite fine as it is imo.
- Remove the self-rooting of Crippling Throw. Since the purpose of using that skill would most likely be to cripple the foe to catch him I find rooting youself highly counterproductive. Or alternatively make it knockdown the foe, would make sense as the foe gets a huge sword in his/her back
Longbow
- Skill #1: Remove the 0-500 range damage and make the 500-1000 damage work on 0-500 range too. Also buff the base damage.
Axe – Mainhand
- Slightly buff the base damage of all the skills.
Axe – Offhand
- Whirling Defence usable when moving. Getting self-rooted is annoying and as far as I know this is the ONLY whirling skill in the game that roots the user. Not to mention this is one of the few high damage skills a ranger has.
Shouts
- Remove them and instead give us some usefull skills. For example:
1. Smoke Trap: trap Blinds foes in pulses and creates a smoke field.
2. Throw Dirt: survival Blind and Daze foes around you.
3. Call of Protection: survival You and your pet receive stability and protection for x seconds.
(other cools skills that I’d love to see in GW2 version fo ranger in one way or another: Tranquility, Edge of Extinction, Pestilence)
Spirits
- Remove the internal CD and buff the health of spirits a little. Since the spirits are squishy as kitten, they should be pretty powerfull
OR
keep a short internal CD (2-3 s) but make the spirits work like Guardian’s Spirit Weapons. As in, they die if you use the active skill (unless traited) but cannot be attacked by enemies.
- I’m not completely sure how the internal cd works atm but it should only affect the person who got the buff. As in, if player A got the buff, he should now be unable to gain it for next x seconds but Player B, C, D and E should still be able to gain it untill their personal CD.
Signets
- Buff the passive effects and make the active ones work on the rangers automatically. Having to use trait for such thing is just weird.
Downed Skills
- Make #4 work. As it is it doesn’t do anything most of the time.
PS. Please give us a Hammer in future
(edited by Raege.1069)